Anglo American announces its donation of $100 million to create a special endowment to support the sustainability work of the Anglo American Foundation.

The Anglo American Foundation is focused on accelerating progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (“UNSDGs”), placing a particular importance on programmes that empower women, youth and vulnerable groups in Anglo American’s host communities and countries of operation. By partnering with non-profit, public and private organisations, the Anglo American Foundation supports health, education, economic, good governance and environmental projects aligned with the goals of Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan – itself designed to align with the UNSDGs.

Duncan Wanblad, Chair of the Anglo American Foundation, said:

“The Anglo American Foundation does incredible work that makes a real and lasting difference in communities around the world. This special $100 million contribution from Anglo American will help us take the scale of what we can deliver to an entirely new level, funding more ambitious and longer term projects. Our Foundation is aligned with the spirit of Anglo American’s purpose – to re-imagine mining to improve people’s lives. It also reflects our ethos of partnership, charitable giving and volunteering, which are deeply embedded into our company’s DNA and which have mattered like never before as we responded to the pandemic and look ahead to the recovery phase.”

Anik Michaud, Group Director of Corporate Relations and Sustainable Impact for Anglo American, and also a trustee of the Foundation said:

“As a leader in the global mining industry, and given our ever more essential role to deliver the future-enabling metals and minerals for a decarbonised and consumer-centric world, it is also our duty to be responsible and responsive to society’s wider needs. Building on the exemplary work in 2020 to help safeguard the lives and livelihoods of our colleagues and those in our local communities through our global WeCare programme, we see this donation as an opportunity to accelerate the Anglo American Foundation’s work at a critical time for so many of our stakeholders, including our planet. Creating a healthy environment and thriving communities have never been more urgent.”

Projects that could receive funding from the Anglo American Foundation include:

• Environment: conservation / biodiversity and water and climate change initiatives benefiting communities and society more broadly.
• Community health: health education, health surveillance and data systems, health infrastructure, medicines and vaccines, through to childhood nutrition and ensuring clean water and sanitation.
• Education and skills: early childhood development through to primary, secondary, university and vocational training, as well as broader youth development.
• Livelihoods: support for our Collaborative Regional Development initiatives and associated activities such as local supplier development, agriculture, agro-processing, circular economy, 3D printing and clean energy.
• Institutional capacity development: in host regions, including government, academic and research institutions, and civil society organisations.

The Anglo American Foundation

The Anglo American Foundation supports projects in all countries where Anglo American has operations, projects, exploration activities and joint ventures. In 2020, the Foundation approved £14.5 million in grants and an estimated 620,000 people will benefit from the Foundation’s work globally.

A major focus for 2020 was supporting Anglo American’s WeCare programme in providing Covid-relief efforts across our operational footprint and with a particular focus in Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Namibia, Peru, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This support included funding medical equipment, PPE, health information campaigns, widening access to clean water and support for livelihoods and vulnerable people, for example through more than 50,000 food parcels and help for the victims of domestic violence. The Foundation also provides funding to Sentebale’s expansion into Botswana and supports a programme that works to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people affected by HIV.

The Foundation also provided a range of data connectivity and physical infrastructure support services, including in Australia, Canada, Chile, and South Africa, so that young people in our host communities could continue their education throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, also as part of the WeCare programme. The grants also funded a variety of longer-term projects including innovative enterprise development programmes in Brazil, Chile and Peru and the expansion of the award-winning Engineering for People Design Challenge in the UK and South Africa. The Challenge encourages engineers of the future to learn the importance of considering social and sustainability issues when developing engineering solutions.

In addition, the Foundation funds Anglo American’s popular skills-based employee volunteering programme, Ambassadors for Good, through which teams of employees partner with outside organisations to deliver high impact projects, each with up to £5,000 (or local equivalent) of Foundation funding.