Glencore reveals record of fatalities and environmental fines

Campaigners say corporate responsibility report makes mining and commodities giant one of the most dangerous listed companies • Leo Hickman’s interview with Glencore Mining and commodities giant Glencore has suffered dozens of fatalities and been subject to six-figure fines for environmental breaches, the company revealed on Wednesday. Glencore and its majority-owned operations suffered 56 fatalities in the 2008-10 period covered by its corporate responsibility report. It is the first such report produced by the company, even though they are standard in the sector. The company pledged to start publishing such information as part of its plans to list in April earlier this year , in what was the biggest listing for some time on the London Stock Exchange. Although the company is one of the biggest in its sector, and the world – with a market capitalisation on flotation of $60bn – Glencore paid only $2m in tax last year on European revenues of more than $1bn. However, shares in the company, whose interests run from mining and energy to farming, have performed poorly since their debut, amid turmoil in the markets in the last few months and a flight to safe havens by investors. Glencore’s health and safety record takes up six pages in its 106-page report. But mining expert Roger Moody, of the London Mining Network , a group of non-governmental organisations concerned with the impacts of mining companies, said the company’s record put it well below the sector leaders in safety terms. “These numbers of fatalities are not the most egregious we’ve seen – in recent years, that has been from Vedanta, and that is a significantly smaller company. But that is in no way to minimise these fatalities – what they show is that Glencore is one of the most dangerous mining companies listed in London, when you compare it with others in the sector.” Moody pointed to Vedanta, the London-listed mining company with large Indian interests, whose operations have come under heavy fire from protesters, as among the worst, with 41 workers dying in a single incident in September 2009. Glencore’s report does not contain detailed targets on future performance, but the company said these would be included next year. Michael Fahrbach, head of sustainability at Glencore, said: “We are concerned about the figures because there’s nothing more important than achieving no fatalities in your operations. It is the situation with the mining industry that it has more fatalities than other industries because it is more dangerous and the challenges are higher.” The company said it also collected statistics on “permanent damage injuries”, and had other figures for health and safety, but that it only publicly disclosed what was required by the Global Reporting Initiative standards. Peter Coates, Glencore non-executive director, said: “Obviously, the high fatalities rate is totally unacceptable. As well as environmental issues, I think the major issue we must address is the high incidence of fatalities. I know a lot of those fatalities were caused by ground falls in one of our African operations and I have a very superficial understanding of what’s being done to try and improve that situation. But, from a board point of view, that will be one of the first things we try to address. Management is responding and the board has to make a decision if they are responding fast enough. If not, we have to do something about that, either by providing enough resources for them, or encouragement.” Glencore also said that some of its problems were owing to recent acquisitions, or cases where the company took over full running of an operation. At its Katanga mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it took over management control in 2009, it said, “more than $11m has been spent on reinforcing more than 1,900m of mine shaft roof and on completing mined-out production chamber support, following a thorough review of rock mechanics to improve safety”. An investigation by the Observer last year into the then 12 major London-listed mining companies found 154 work-related deaths revealed in annual reports and other shareholder filings. Vedanta had the highest toll, with 67, followed by Anglo American with 20 in one year, Kazakhmys with 17 and ENRC with 12. Although not all companies said where the deaths took place, estimates suggest they were concentrated in India, Kazakhstan and South Africa. Eight Chilean miners were killed over the period studied, at mines operated by Xstrata and Antofagasta. However, the deaths showed a clear divide – although the FTSE100 companies studied had considerable mining interests in developed countries, they listed no deaths in North America and only seven in their large mining operations in Australia. Environmental breaches at Glencore also became a focus of attention in advance of the company’s flotation, and the company’s report contains 25 pages on the subject, including details of four “significant” environmental fines totalling about $780,000 in 2010. Glencore said: “We consider any environmental fine over $10,000 to be ‘significant’, which is an indicator of how seriously we take our environmental responsibility. As we detail in the report, these fines related to encroachment (infringement on protected land) and a three-day interruption in the licence to operate at one of our production sites in Kazakhstan. We’ve reached agreements with the relevant authorities on these matters. We are not complacent about this at all, but clearly these fines are minor within the context of our global business.” Glencore’s tax records are also likely to be pored over. Its tax liabilities show the company paid only $2m last year in tax and royalties on European revenues of more than $1bn. Glencore told the Guardian: “We see our payment of taxes and royalties as a core part of our contribution to our host countries, alongside providing employment and our broader voluntary contributions to local communities. “In Europe the majority of revenues are earned by processing units – they are not subject to production royalties and have much higher cost bases and therefore lower taxable net margins than our mining interests elsewhere. Glencore is a involved in commodities production and marketing. Although our profits come roughly half from production and half from marketing, most of our revenues come from the marketing side. When we were a private company, taxation on our Swiss marketing business was paid by individual shareholders when they received their proceeds and therefore did not appear in our corporate accounts.” Renowned for disclosing as little as possible about its operations while a private company, Swiss-based Glencore has been forced to take a more open stance as its financial operations have come under unprecedented scrutiny in the wake of the listing. Glencore is expected to produce its first annual full-year financial results next May, and is likely to hold an annual general meeting next June. The meeting is likely to be a focus of attention for environmental campaigners and other non-governmental organisations, according to Moody. Mining Corporate social responsibility Glencore Mining London Stock Exchange Leo Hickman Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 7, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.