Mineral Resources (MinRes) is assessing its climate-related risks and opportunities due to the growing expectations of its investors.
The company replaced diesel with gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and solar at its operations, which delivered a 19 per cent reduction in the company’s carbon intensity per tonne of material moved between the 2019 and 2020 fiscal years, according to MinRes chairman Peter Wade.
Wade said that with the events the world had seen this year, MinRes’ social licence to operate was more important than ever.
MinRes has been relying on diesel as an energy source for its mining equipment, transportation and materials haulage and electricity generation.
“In response to a growing expectation from our investors and stakeholders to understand and manage the climate-related risks and opportunities that affect our business, (MinRes) elected to align our climate-related disclosures with the recommendations of the Taskforce on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) and made significant progress in implementing those recommendations,” Wade said in MinRes’ 2020 sustainability report.
Personal dust exposure monitoring as well as static dust monitoring had taken place at parts of MinRes’ Koolyanobbing iron ore operations.
The company has also launched haul truck safety programs at its Iron Valley operations to reduce dust-related visibility hazards.
“Safety remains a core focus for the company. During (the 2020 fiscal year), we retained our excellent record for our lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) and reduced our total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR),” Wade said.
MinRes appointed a psychologist to develop its mental health strategy to manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers.
The company’s COVID-19 screening operation is made available to all West Australian resource companies and has screened more than 50,000 resource sector workers.