ESGS Webinar: Circular economy: Opportunities and Benefits

ABSTRACT

Circular economy: Opportunities and Benefits

Many of the products that the mining industry provides are essential for the future of society, particularly as we strive to build a more sustainable and decarbonized world. Global demand for metals and minerals is expected to increase substantially in the coming decades to meet this challenge. This reinforces the importance of being able to provide the goods and services society needs to grow, while managing impacts and delivering positive social and environmental outcomes.

This challenge is at the heart of the circular economy, which is about minimising waste in all its forms and making the most of what we have, natural resources included. It advocates re-using, redesigning and, sharing, repairing, refurbishing, re-manufacturing and recycling – consuming fewer resources in the first place and using them for longer. At a more fundamental level, it is about creating new models for businesses to promote and incentivise efficiency, and herein lies many opportunities.

During the webinar it will be shared that we at Anglo American Platinum are applying circular economy principles to transform thinking from that of a traditional extractive ‘take-make-dispose’ model into a more circular one that seeks to provide materials in an efficient and ethical manner, while eliminating waste in all forms across the value chain. Doing this is, over time, likely to require both an evolution and revolution in how we work.

It will be shared that Anglo American Platinum’s approach to circularity can be seen in three distinct areas of our business practices as follows;

• In our operations, we seek to optimise the use of resources, eliminating physical waste and maximising process efficiency. The Company has already achieved zero waste to landfill.
• Throughout our value chains and across our marketing business, we work to maximise the value of our products during their full lifecycle. We also support the development of technological innovation that can serve to advance this goal
• Through holistic business transformation, we provide a lens to re‑imagine mining by growing our business in ways that adapt to and shape the change around us. Circularity is one of the lenses that we use to support our journey from a mining company towards a materials solutions provider.

As we gain a deeper understanding of circularity and how it intersects with our business, we are working to embed circular principles into our processes and build a culture that both thinks and acts circularly.

SPEAKER

STEPHEN BULLOCK
Stephen Bullock is employed as Anglo American Platinum’s head of sustainable impact, a position he has held since August 2021. Prior to this Stephen has held the positions of technical assistant in the CEO’s office, acting executive head corporate affairs, head of sustainability and before that was the Regional Environmental Manager at Anglo American Platinum’s Rustenburg operations.
After graduating with a BSc Honours degree in environmental geochemistry from the University of Natal, Stephen joined the mining industry where he has worked for the past 28 years in the sustainable development, environmental management and geological fields. During these years he has worked on tin, gold, coal and most recently platinum mines and is a registered professional natural scientist. He has also completed a Masters degree in sustainable development at Stellenbosch University.