Risk Management
Ensuring we have robust and appropriate risk controls in place is essential to the achievement of our Sustainability vision and strategy.
We can’t create and deliver sustainable value throughout the business if we do not identify, manage and effectively deal with the risks our business faces.
Our risk management processes are designed to identify, evaluate, plan and manage or mitigate risks, including new and emerging risks that could impact the business. It also prioritizes and enables an agile response to new or changing risks. Consistent with our approach to sustainability governance we work to connect and balance site-level ownership with group level oversight and Board responsibility.
Each quarter all site-level risk registers are submitted by region to the risk team for review. The risk team aggregates the results of each region’s risk registers and updates the group risk register on an annual basis.
Review and aggregation is overseen by our Senior Vice-President, Business Assurance, Risk and Business Integrity, and the group register is reviewed by the Executive Committee prior to presentation for the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee.
For every risk identified on the register the inherent risk to the business is identified, followed by detailed description of controls and monitoring activities to be undertaken to mitigate the risk. Finally a residual risk rating which considers the impact of mitigating actions and controls is provided. During 2022 the following sustainability risks were considered for the group:
- Health and safety;
- Climate change;
- Access to energy and water;
- Mine closure and rehabilitation;
- Human Rights risks; and
- Regulatory compliance (including anti-corruption measures and ESG disclosure requirements)
The quarterly updates from each region inform a risk report that is presented to the Board’s Audit & Risk Committee by the Senior Vice-President, Business Assurance, Risk and Business Integrity. This report identifies the critical risks for the group and each region and sets out a global view of strategic priorities, including any risks that could materially affect these priorities. The report includes a ‘Sustainable Profitability’ section which is linked to our sustainability priorities and examines our performance during the quarter against these priorities.
Throughout the year, the risk team actively monitors the implementation and performance of key controls such as energy, water and safety systems. For example, when our Group Sustainability Executive reports safety data to the President and CEO, this is shared with the risk team to review and provide analysis, to identify any progress achieved or significant changes against previous performance before it is discussed with the Audit & Risk Committee. As part of our ongoing risk management processes, we also conduct sensitivity analysis and stress tests to assess the potential impacts of, and any changes to, our key business risks.