Governance and certifications

In July and August 2009, Anglo American promoted the unification of its contract and its certification process for all units, making certification one of the Company’s main tools.

This single system seeks to reflect the Anglo American standards (Anglo Ways) which are typically applied to all the organization’s operations. Yet the Ways are stricter and more detailed than the generic certification rules adopted internationally. The Anglo Environmental Way, for example, is more specific than ISO 14001 and contemplates guidelines on biodiversity, water and energy, in an organized, seamless manner.

The same is true for the Anglo Safety Way and the Anglo Occupational Health Way, which are tailored to mining activities and Anglo American operations and thus more specific than OHSAS 18001. All of these systems, however, are basically structured pursuant to the ISO 9001 model of Quality Management, the first to be implemented within the Company, and which currently offers integrated certification for all these standards.

The challenge is to make a growing number of the performance indicators of this integrated system become part of the performance goals of the Company’s employees at all levels. This will allow them to align their personal goals with the financial, production and safety metrics of the organization, as well as those related to health, environment and social issues.

Anglo American’s new organizational structure, which separated the phosphate and niobium assets from the nickel assets in order to prepare for a potential sale of the former, allows all the management systems to become independent again, yet without losing conformity with international standards and the Group’s policies and guidelines.