Corporate Governance

Agility and efficiency

Up to December 2009, no major changes occurred in the Anglo American Brasil governance, except for the fact that two executive officers left the Company, one responsible for the areas of Marketing and New Business, and the other for Asset Optimization. The decision was made to appoint a new Marketing Director and assign the Asset Optimization functions to the Technical and Operations Management, bringing it closer to the command of the units.

At the end of October 2009, the global restructuring of the Group was announced, resulting in the immediate extinction of the decision-making tier between the headquarters and the business units (divisional level). Another announcement referred to the intention of selling non-core businesses, such as the niobium and phosphate units. Although the unification of the assets to be sold was undertaken immediately, forming the niobium and phosphate unit, named Other Mining Business, the definition regarding its command in each region was made only in December.

Until the actual sale is made, the niobium and phosphate unit (Mineração Catalão and Copebrás) will remain part of the Anglo American portfolio, but it is no longer part of the Company’s business strategy in Brazil, which is now entirely focused on nickel and iron ore. Paulo Castellari-Porchia was appointed as the main executive officer of the new niobium and phosphate unit, with corporate offices in Cubatão (SP). The employees from the São Paulo office who work for this new business unit will be transferred to Cubatão in the first quarter of 2010.

The new nickel business unit now has a more agile and efficient structure, and will concentrate exclusively on the nickel operations in Brazil – namely, Codemin and the Barro Alto Project, still in construction – and in Venezuela, represented by the Minera Loma de Niquel. In addition, the new unit is conducting the feasibility studies for the Jacaré reserve in Pará, and Morro Sem Boné in Mato Grosso, while maintaining its focus on the prospects of finding new nickel businesses around the world.

Suspended office integration

With the consolidation of the Minas-Rio project in 2009, Anglo American pondered that, since it had two separate business units in Brazil (one for nickel and the other for iron ore), it should contemplate the unification of its corporate offices, split among São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. But the delay in carrying out this change – the process was conducted over a period of about five months – and the release of unauthorized news in the Minas Gerais press led to unrest among the employees of the bigger offices (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), and consequently a period of great uncertainty.

At the end of 2009, during a visit to Brazil, the Global CEO of the Anglo American Group, Cynthia Carroll, announced the suspension of the unification for another year. But it was defined that the corporate offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte would start working with greater affinity and synergy among their various departments.

With the elimination of the decision-making tier between the headquarters and the business units (divisional level), several regional departments were strengthened, reporting directly to London and accorded a geographical scope of all Brazil or even Latin America. Examples of these regional departments are the tax area, the supply chain department and the treasury.

As for the communications area, it has been gradually structured over the past years and in 2009 attained the status of strategic area for project consolidation, with goals and metrics for its activities and results. The strategic communication plan defined the consolidation of the six values of Anglo American in campaigns, events and in-house publications.

Part of this structuring work also involved the launching of the Integrated Internal Communication System, which resulted in changes and innovation, such as a review of the themes presented in the Bulletin Board News (Jornal Mural) and the Anglo Newsletter and the creation of the Agora Corporativo newsletter, among others. In 2009, the System underwent review and monitoring, with the participation of the leaderships and some of the employees through consultations using feedback forms and interviews carried out by the communication area.