JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – As one of the world’s largest natural resource companies, with operations across five continents, Glencore is committed to delivering long-lasting socioeconomic benefits, CFO Steven Kalmin said on Wednesday.

Speaking on video with the release of Glencore's '2020 Payment to Governments Report', Kalmin said implementing high standards of corporate governance and transparency formed part of this commitment.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed mining and marketing company paid $5.8-billion in taxes, royalties and other government payments in 2020.

The 145 000 people working for the company on more than 150 mining, metallurgical and production sites received $4.6-billion in wages and benefits in 2020, a year in which $95-million was spent on initiatives benefiting communities living around its operations, including $15-million on Covid-related activities.

Through its marketing and industrial businesses, it is present at multiple stages of the commodity supply chain “and wherever we operate, we contribute to our host countries through the payments we make to their governments", said Kalmin in the release to Mining Weekly, which included the manner in which tax and royalties enable host governments to realise value from their natural resources and to fund public services and infrastructure.

The effective income tax rate of 29.7% in 2020, compared with 30.5% in 2019.

Eighty per cent of the company's procurement spend was with suppliers located in the countries of operation, and across all operations, teams were said to be working hard to support local skills development and local businesses.

"Our corporate purpose to responsibly source the commodities that advance every-day life, guides our commitment to being a good corporate citizen and to contributing to the social development of each of our host countries,” said Kalmin.

“We believe that increased transparency is important to building trust and delivering accountability. As part of our ongoing commitment towards increased transparency in the industry, we continue to support and encourage the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and disclose payments to state-owned entities in EITI countries.

“We are supportive of the disclosure of mining and exploration contracts with governments, to the extent that these are not subject to confidentiality restrictions, and since December 2020, we publish on our website the beneficial ownership information of our operating joint ventures,” Kalmin said.

Glencore is committed to preventing the occurrence of modern slavery and human trafficking in its operations and supply chains and publishes an annual modern slavery statement and is also committed to taking into account social, ethical and environmental considerations when managing relationships with suppliers and conducting supply chain due diligence to ensure that suppliers have approaches in place to address human rights risks in their own supply chains.

Glencore is also a signatory to the United Nations’ Global Compact, a set of principles covering human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and operates in accordance with the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organisation.