Environment

In Canada, just as we do across our global operations, we seek to minimize our impact on the environment.

While the commodities we source – copper, nickel, zinc and cobalt, to name a few – are critical materials in green technologies, such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, we know we must uphold our Purpose to responsibly source these commodities that advance everyday life.

An obvious manner we can do that is through recycling. We recycle a wide variety of complex end-of-life electronics in order to extract sustainable metals, helping support a circular supply chain that gives a second life to products that might otherwise be sent to landfill.

Moreover, a responsible approach to sourcing these commodities includes the robust management systems we have developed for key environmental aspects, such as land and biodiversity, air emissions, energy, water and waste, right across our various industrial assets. As an example, CCR Refinery, which makes the area of Montreal East home, has invested more than C$30M to reduce their atmospheric emissions in recent years.

Raglan Mine, as an operator in the Canadian Arctic, recognizes the importance of acting responsibly within this unique environment. Moreover, as the first Canadian mining company to have signed an Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBA) with an Aboriginal group, Raglan Mine has a deep history of being responsive to the environmental concerns of the local Indigenous communities nearby its operations.

Following the announcement of the closure of an industrial asset, we uphold our environmental and community commitments by undertaking the closure process in accordance with all regulatory and corporate requirements and support the community during the transition, as is the case with the Brunswick Smelter in New Brunswick (closed in 2019). Similarly, given the history we have inherited in Canada through acquisitions, we oversee various closed sites across the country, including Brenda Mine in British Columbia (closed in 1990).

We invite you to visit the websites for these two closed sites to read more about their respective histories, ongoing activities and community outreach.

Our employees and contractors bring to life our environmental commitments and policies and, in many cases, live up to the same environmental ideals in their personal lives. For instance, by day, Gloria works as a senior chemist in the Analytical Chemistry group at the Sudbury Smelter, part of our Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (INO). By night, she is an authorized wildlife custodian at the organization she founded in 2015, Turtle Pond Wildlife Centre.

Our ambition is to minimize potential impacts of our activities on the environment through environmental stewardship and responsible resource management. We know people like Gloria will ensure we realize that ambition.