1621 proved to be a gamechanger for states/provinces where mining companies have teamed with other businesses and the government to plan infrastructure developments that support both mining developments and community infrastructure for broader economic and social developments. • In 2012, Peter Bryant and I created the Development Partner Institute (DPI), following our collaboration and work with Northwestern University in Chicago and the Kellogg Innovation Network. Our focus on broad-based community and stakeholder partnerships was about developing the science and practical applications for progressive and community sensitivity mining developments. The DPI continues to evolve and break new ground under the leadership of Florence Drummond and through new initiatives such as the Community Catalyst Workshops and community-based programs. Third, in telling the story of mining we must keep it simple: • All things come from the earth, either direct or indirect. That is, if it isn’t grown it is mined. • The focus of mining around areas of higher concentrations of targeted minerals and metals minimizes the use and cost of key inputs (water, energy, land and labor) and cost of raw materials, while reducing our physical mining footprints. • The more we constrain mining the more we increase the costs of food, materials and the cost of doing all business to all citizens of the world. • In talking to Sustainability, I distill the conversation into those 3 key elements: Ø To be economically sustainable, in mining we targeted +10% sustainable free cash flow (after investing in resource replacement, mine development and sustaining capital) on our Capital Employed. The efficiency measure that went with that primary business target, we needed to deliver better than 15% Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), demonstrating to shareholders we were using their capital efficiently in generating free cash flow. Ø To be environmentally sustainable, we needed to be a net positive contributor to reducing our share of our human footprint on planet earth. Ø To be socially sustainable, we need to eliminate serious accidents and health risks to employees and be true partners in development with our broader social constituents. I remind everyone, in the last 20 years, across the globe, we have collectively lifted 1 billion people out of poverty. In terms of mining’s direct and indirect contributions, I believe we can demonstrate mining has driven at least 45% of that remarkable outcome. In 2011, in my role as President of the ICMM and Chief Executive of AngloGold Ashanti, I sat with Geoff Immelt (CEO General Electric) as he asked me to help him understand what he should be thinking about in relation to mining and how it might impact his company in the future. In those conversations I explained how the convergence of physical constraints, ignorance of mining’s critical development and environmental protection role in society and the weaknesses in our leadership in understanding how to develop workable responses to come to grips with these existential threats – he would not have the materials he needed to make products for our modern world. I said it wouldn’t be a cost issue in the first instance, it would literally be a lack of supply issue, which would then manifest in costs and less efficient workarounds. In that conversation I said I expected major industry sectors and governments will need to intervene to drive us towards building more progressive material supply solutions. In my view, the emergence of the Critical Minerals Debate is both a response to society’s existential
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