IGO SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022— 63 62 —IGO SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022 Our Response to Climate Change Supplying Products Critical to Clean Energy Climate change considerations are fully integrated into IGO’s strategic and operational decision making. Our strategy is centred on being a globally relevant supplier of products that are critical to clean energy, which includes renewable energy generation, energy storage and the electrification of transport. The critical products IGO explore, mine and/or process include nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium. At COP26, over 40 countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, United States, China, India and Japan, launched the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda – a commitment to work together to accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies and sustainable solutions by 2030. The Glasgow Breakthroughs focus on four key sectors considered vital in meeting the Paris Agreement goals: clean power, zero emissions vehicles, lowemission steel and green hydrogen. IGO’s portfolio is intrinsically linked to clean power and zero emissions vehicle technologies. Each commodity we produce has a vital role to play in the low-carbon transition. Case Study: Electric Mine Consortium The way we generate, store and harness energy around the globe is undergoing a period of major change. Mine electrification is a foundation enabler for the clean energy transformation of mine sites. IGO is one of 22 industry leaders and mining companies to initiate the Electric Mine Consortium (EMC), with the aim of reducing Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions through the use of clean energy, large-scale storage and EVs. Electrification creates enormous opportunities for operational cost savings, innovative mine designs and resilience against uncertainty. It will reduce the exposure to carcinogenic diesel particulates and reduce Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions. The value upside of this not only increases productivity in existing assets, but also improves a company’s ability to unlock deeper and more remote ore bodies. Since the establishment of the EMC, the drive for change in the broader resources sector has accelerated. The EMC is emerging as a key vehicle for the decarbonisation of the mining industry, particularly for underground operations, and will remain responsive to the rapidly changing external environment. The four goals of the consortium include: 1. resolving technology choices 2. shaping the supplier ecosystem 3. influencing policy; and 4. communicating the business case. Whilst the need for mine sites to shift to electrification is approaching consensus, technology uncertainty remains a significant challenge. The mass adoption of electrification technology and storage systems to power mine sites has so far been slow. As such, there are six focus challenges and working groups established through the ECM. The ECM’s work is critical for industry suppliers to be ready to meet mining comparing requirement in order to achieve emission reduction targets. The EMC have developed six high impact, fastmoving working groups focused on key mine electrification challenges, which if solved, will provide the technology solution set to achieve zero emission mining within a typical mine-to-mill value chain. These are: Mine design Energy storage Electrical infrastructure Heavy underground equipment Light and auxiliary equipment Surface and long haulage IGO has taken up the challenge as the Workstream Lead for the energy storage stream, which is seeking to demonstrate the ability to time shift renewable energy through storage media and to test the breadth and maturity of technologies and services for this purpose. IGO is also demonstrating the use of vanadium redox flow batteries in our field and exploration camp applications. To solve mining’s energy challenge, the industry will have to undertake an enormous transition. The shift will have profound second-order effects (e.g., infrastructure and operating models), however if achieved, it will radically reshape the environmental impact of the industry. We are proud to support and be part of the ECM and look forward to working collaboratively with our peers toward the decarbonisation and electrification of our industry. Reducing our Total Carbon Footprint We aspire to be carbon neutral across our direct operations and activities by 2035, if not sooner. However, our pathway to carbon neutrality needs to incorporate all aspects of our business and value chain, essentially targeting our total carbon footprint. Our total carbon footprint includes Scope 1, Scope 2 and elements of Scope 3 emissions on which we have the capacity to influence or an element of financial control. Also included are emissions that are not currently captured in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER), such as the emissions associated with land clearing. The elements of our total carbon footprint are summarised below: • Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions from facilities owned and controlled by IGO, including fuel use, on-site electricity generation, anode and reductant use, process emissions and land management • Scope 2: GHG emissions from the generation of electricity, heat or steam brought in from third parties. This makes up a very small component of IGO’s overall emissions, and currently includes IGO corporate office and exploration sheds; and • Scope 3 influence: All other indirect GHG emissions (not included in Scope 2) that occur in IGO’s value chain. We recognise that we do not have comprehensive oversight or understanding of our total Scope 3 emissions and value chain. We therefore identify and differentiate those Scope 3 emissions of which we have influence. These include selected upstream emissions (employee commuting and transport of inputs), downstream emissions (concentrate transportation and shipment) and operational emissions (on an equity basis) from our non-operated joint ventures. As we are accelerating our Scope 1 and 2 decarbonisation efforts, we are also sharpening our focus on our Scope 3 influence emissions and total carbon footprint. IGO’s total carbon footprint for FY22 is summarised in the table on page 64. Electricity generation at our Nova Operation contributes 80% of our total Scope 1 emissions profile, with the remaining Scope 1 emissions largely associated with diesel combustion engines used in mine mobile plant such as trucks and earthmoving machinery. Scope 2 emissions are associated with the purchase of electricity for our exploration sheds and corporate office. In FY22, IGO has committed to expanding our solar farm at the Nova Operation to reduce our Scope 1 emissions associated with power generation, with the addition of 10MW solar and 10MWh battery storage system. Cu Renewable Energy Generation Renewable energy generation is requiring the build-out of the renewable energy grid which is seeing the demand for copper grow. Cu Co Ni Li Renewable Energy Storage Capture of the energy from renewable energy generation requires energy storage from new battery technologies. This shift is lifting demand for copper, nickel, lithium and cobalt. Cu Co Ni Li Electrification of Transport EV penetration rates continue to grow. EVs are forecast to contribute 39% of all new car sales by 2030. These EVs will be powered by lithium-ion nickel dominant cathode chemical batteries. The project will demonstrate a number of key points: • ‘engines off’ operations are achievable: While there are currently non-industrial micro-grids operating on 100% renewables, Nova will prove its possible to use 100% renewables to meet the demands of an operational mine site. It will also demonstrate the ability for sites to go ‘engines off’ for consecutive hours, without an interruption to supply • battery technology: The integrated battery energy storage system is a key component of achieving ‘engines off,’ allowing Nova to pilot battery technologies and store sufficient power to ensure supply and reliability of the system is not compromised; and • reducing emissions is realistic and achievable on existing sites: we do not need to wait for the ‘mine of the future’ to make real and positive contributions to the climate crisis now. More detailed Scope 3 reporting, capturing a greater portion of the IGO supply chain, has been completed in FY22, which explains the significant increase in these emissions. A detailed breakdown of Scope 3 emissions by source is provided in the performance data on page 102. As the Western Areas acquisition was finalised on 20 June 2022, Scope 1 and 2 emissions associated with these operations and activities are not captured in IGO’s total carbon footprint for FY22. However, for transparency they have been included in the Western Areas performance data table on page 105.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2NDg3