Environmental Responsibility

ZERO reportable environmental incidents

GISTM roadmap in place for conformance to the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management

38% Water reuse

Centamin is committed to safeguarding the environment from impacts to water, land, climate, air quality and biodiversity, and engaging stakeholders on effective solutions. This includes a commitment to avoid, minimise, mitigate and/or remediate our impacts on the environment, and to maintain overall ecosystem health and resilience in the areas in which we operate.

Our approach to responsible environmental stewardship is formally set out in our Environmental Policy, which outlines our commitments to:

Comply with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements of the countries in which we operate, and where such legislation or requirements are lacking or absent, apply an internationally recognised standard
Ensure environmental risks and opportunities are captured in the Company’s risk management framework
Assess environmental and social impacts to inform planning decisions, processes, and implement risk-based management plans
Set measurable performance targets to drive accountability and improve environmental performance
Safe management of tailings storage facilities and hazardous materials and alignment to good industry practice
Support global efforts under the Paris Agreement to reduce our contribution to climate change and measure and report our GHG emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol
Monitor our impacts and conduct periodic reviews of environmental performance
Be transparent in communicating our environmental performance to stakeholders

Our Environment Policy is supported at operational level by an HSES Management Systems Standard and a tailored environmental management plan that considers the regulatory context of the country and unique environmental risks specific to each site.

Water is a shared, vital and increasingly scarce resource – and also a critical input for mining activities.

Poor management of mining activities and water use can impact the quality and quantity of water available to other users, damage social licence and risk potential fines for legal non-compliance. We recognise that access to clean water is a human right and strive to be responsible water users.

Our water management strategy ensures that water is used within the parameters of our permitting requirements and as efficiently as possible by minimising the volume of imported water, maximising the amount of reused water, and managing the potential impact on other water users in our host countries and communities.

Our operations and projects have been plotted on the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct water risk atlas to understand how current and long-term water-related risks may impact the business and ensure that effective water management plans can F33be developed and put in place. At Sukari, the baseline water measure is considered ‘arid with low water use’ and as such our water management strategy has prioritised water reuse. Our exploration projects in Côte d’Ivoire are considered to be in areas of ‘low water stress’. As the exploration activities have limited water needs, there are currently no water management plans for these projects.

Access to fresh water at Sukari is highly constrained by extremely low rainfall, high evaporation rates and minimal surface and groundwater supplies. The bulk of water for Sukari (88%) is drawn from the Red Sea and is pumped to site via a 25km pipeline. To minimise the need for desalination, which is both energy intensive and costly, the process plant was purposely designed and is operated to use saltwater.

Sukari operates a closed-circuit system and does not discharge water to the environment. Wastewater is re-used through the plant and for dust suppression. There are strong environmental and commercial drivers to maximise water reuse within the process circuit due to the high energy demand and cost of drawing raw water from the Red Sea.

Materials stewardship encompasses the responsible management of both processes and product.

Exploration, extracting and refining minerals and metals must be done in a way that minimises environmental impacts and health and safety risks – this includes the optimisation of raw materials, energy efficiency, waste minimisation and reuse. Safeguarding the health and safety of our workforce and reducing our environmental footprint is our responsibility and makes good economic sense.

Gold mining generates a large amount of mineralised waste, the majority in the form of waste rock and tailings. Mine operation also produces a variety of non-mineralised hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials.

There is significant opportunity across our business to be more efficient with the resources we use, to draw the maximum value from materials and optimise processing methods in each business area.

At Sukari we have detailed waste management plan in place to ensure all hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated is managed in a manner that minimises environmental risks, and promotes and reduces closure and reclamation liabilities.

Gold mining creates a significant amount of tailings waste as mined ore is crushed, milled and processed to separate the gold from the ore.

This process involves hazardous chemicals and reagents such as cyanide and flotation chemicals, of which residual quantities remain in the tailings after processing. These tailings form the bulk of Centamin’s hazardous waste and are pumped into a specially designed and engineered earth-filled lined impoundment known as a tailings storage facility (“TSF”). TSFs need to be carefully managed and monitored to ensure the stability of the embankment walls and to prevent seepage of possible contaminants into the local environment.

As a responsible mining company, Centamin is committed to the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (“GISTM”) with the objective to cause no harm to people or the environment through tailings facility design, operation and closure. In August 2023, we completed a gap analysis against the standard and have drafted a clear roadmap for full conformance by 2025.

TAILINGS GOVERNANCE

We employ a robust tailings governance approach based on good industry practice, risk management review and assurance. Operating manuals are in place for our tailings storage facilities which detail the operation, monitoring, maintenance, construction, closure and rehabilitation guidelines for the facility. The manuals define responsibility of key personnel and a Trigger Action Response Plan to effectively assess deviations from standard operating practice and required actions, including what to do in the event of an incident or emergency.

TSFs are monitored through a layered assurance system comprising internal operational specialists, a formally appointed external Engineer of Record (“EoR”), our Accountable Executive and an Independent Technical Reviewer; and with mechanisms in place for reporting risk and tracking mitigation measures. Through quarterly site visits, the EoR is empowered to conduct routine performance and safety reviews of Sukari’s Tailings Management System.

The Accountable Executive has ultimate accountability for the safe management of our tailings facilities and oversees the development and implementation of the tailings management system including emergency preparedness and response and recovery in the event of failure. The Accountable Executive is supported in his role by an Independent Technical Reviewer and the Board of Directors.

At Sukari, tailings management is defined as a critical risk and, as such, standards are in place that define the minimum requirements for the management of tailings to protect human health and the environment through facility design, construction, operation and closure. The Critical Risk Standard also covers incident and emergency response, management of change processes, performance reviews and independent audits.

We publish an annual tailings report to the Centamin website, the content of which is aligned to the guidance of the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative. In 2024 our tailings report will be updated to align with the disclosure requirements of the GISTM.

Tailings Management Disclosure

REVIEW AND ASSURANCE

To ensure facilities are performing as designed, we have several programmes for inspecting, auditing and reporting on the safety of our tailings facilities.

Operation of the TSFs is managed by a dedicated team of people who conduct daily performance monitoring including visual inspections to confirm operational and structural integrity. The EoR participates in weekly operational performance reviews and performs quarterly dam safety inspections. Quarterly meetings are held by the Accountable Executive with the involvement of the EoR and all safety critical roles to discuss operational performance. Tailings management is also a standing agenda item for the Sustainability Committee of the Board.

In 2023, we engaged a third party to complete a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (“FMEA”) and to update the risk assessment for the tailings facilities. Probable failure modes were evaluated for a combination of normal operating conditions and flood conditions; and risk mitigation measures identified.

The most recent independent Dam Safety Review of our TSFs was performed in 2021, against the applicable design standards and the GISTM.

Centamin is committed to biodiversity, conservation and integrated approaches to land-use planning.

We are responsible for the bio-physical landscape in which we operate and believe we can be an effective partner for biodiversity conservation.

We take a proactive approach to managing our biodiversity risks with a target of achieving no net loss of key biodiversity values in areas affected by our activity. We agree to respect legally designated protected areas and to not explore or mine in World Heritage Sites.

We address risks and impacts to biodiversity and ecosystem services by implementing the mitigation hierarchy – to limit as far as possible the adverse impacts of our activities through measures that avoid, minimise, restore and offset residual losses.

Governments around the world are increasingly recognising the importance of halting and reversing nature loss, which has been identified as a source of systemic risk for humanity alongside climate change. To address this challenge, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (“TNFD”) has developed a risk management and disclosure framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, with the ultimate aim of supporting a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes.

Centamin supports the mission of the TNFD and in 2023 we improved our knowledge base in preparation to report against the TNFD recommendations. This included the engagement of a specialist biodiversity consultant to conduct critical habitat screening over the Sukari and EDX lease areas, and assess nature-related risks and opportunities.