Diversified mining company Anglo American is going to remarkable lengths to support South Africa through the devastating Covid-19 crisis.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed company, headed by Australian Mark Cutifani, is showing far-reaching corporate humanitarianism by taking firm steps to support employees, host communities, contractors, suppliers, hospitals and water authorities – and even producing educational videos on Covid-19 for 70 local clinics.

Despite operating at reduced levels in South Africa, the company is still spending $125-million a week on the procurement of goods and services from suppliers and on wages, while also generating vital export earnings, and is continuing to pay the salaries of all of its 47 000 employees during the 21-day lockdown period, ensuring that they are able to focus on the health and safety of their families and their local communities.

Its support of small and medium-sized businesses includes:

• a payment holiday until the end of June on any loans;
• communication around any government support available to them; and
• working closely with its supply chain to ensure that there is adequate contractual support and inclusive procurement.

“We have a duty to help keep South Africa’s economic wheels turning so that people get paid, so that essential services can continue, so that government earns some taxes, but we must do so in a way that keeps people healthy,” Cutifani stated in a release to Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

Last week, it provided an update on its response to the fast-evolving Covid-19 pandemic, which also extends Covid-19 safeguards and assistance to its people in Botswana, Namibia, Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru and the UK.

Countries and territories where it has a presence beyond its mining operations, for example, where it is conducting exploration work, are also being assisted. These include Ecuador, where it has sourced and is distributing thousands of essential support kits to medical facilities in the many small communities around its exploration project, including gloves, masks and sanitising gel. In Zambia, it is providing hygiene essentials, as well as fuel, to help local government distribute information leaflets to communities.

Being implemented are health, hygiene and distancing measures, asset integrity, essential raw materials supply and preservation of the ability to return operations to normal levels as swiftly as possible when appropriate.

“We want to ensure we are ready to support what will be a crucial economic recovery phase for the countries in which we operate and the global economy,” Cutifani stated.

The global mining company has a long-standing commitment to responsible mining and sees itself as having a vital role to play in delivering support to its host communities throughout this difficult time.

In addition to the broad-based economic and social contribution that mining makes and the essential services that the company provides in many communities, it is responding with additional support targeted directly at the health and economic impacts of Covid-19.

It has committed to continuing to provide all the appropriate support that it possibly can – focused not only on this current phase of prevention and response to the pandemic itself but also into the all-important recovery phase when the swift resumption of economic activity will be so important.

‘Utmost Consideration and Care’

As South Africa’s largest mining company, operating in many underdeveloped areas of the country, it has assumed the mantle of acting with “the utmost consideration and care” towards the host communities that depend on it – “particularly during a time such as this”.

In many instances, the company drives the development and maintenance of essential infrastructure and services, including roads, health facilities, medication, clean water, and energy, which are needed now more than ever.

“Our overwhelming priority is the safety and health of our people and their families. We are continuing to operate only where we can do [so] safely and by having all appropriate health measures in place. If we believe we cannot operate in a way that adequately protects our people or our communities, we will adjust our plans on a site-by-site basis,” Cutifani stated.

Even with certain operations at a reduced level of activity, this means it can most effectively support government’s proactive efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.

This approach enables the company to have the people and resources in place to continue making available chronic medication to those who need it, making health infrastructure available to support the national effort, and providing access to basic provisioning such as food and water during this crisis.

As a result of keeping its coal mines operating, for example, it is able to keep its water treatment plant in Mpumalanga open and ensure that community members have access to clean water at this critical time.

“We are also able to continue generating economic value for South Africa at a time when it needs it most,” Cutifani added.

In addition to the continued provision of a wide variety of essential community services across the country that are ‘business as usual’ for the company, it is providing other services in host communities to aid the country’s response to the pandemic, including:

• supplying water tanks to 69 villages in host communities;
• supporting 70 local clinics by producing educational videos on Covid-19 and how to keep one’s family safe;
• training clinic staff and community healthcare workers;
• supplying clinical personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning materials;
• providing 6 000 food parcels a month to vulnerable households in quarantine for three months;
• communicating with its people through its community engagement app on social connection, isolation instructions and mental health support;
• partnering with the Department of Health to identify suitable isolation and quarantine facilities and equipping them to the required specifications;
• providing healthcare services and testing through its Ulysses Gogi Modise Primary Healthcare Centre, which is open to the public;
• assisting government with its emergency medical response through the provision of six ambulances in the Northern Cape;
• providing masks, thermometers, surgical gloves, additional beds and tent structures at Postmasburg Hospital, in the Northern Cape;
• making its Highveld Hospital available for use to treat Covid-19 patients by installing 85 additional bed units;
• moving regular patients to other private hospitals in the area, freeing up an additional 107 beds that can be used as isolation beds;
• recommissioning the tuberculosis ward to be able to treat Covid-19 patients in isolation; and
• sanitising pay points and distributing language-friendly pamphlets to the elderly.