Our activities are guided by our Social Performance Management framework, which includes our Community Relations Policy and its supplementary management standards and Guidelines, all of which are found in our Code of Business Principles and Ethics.

Our community relations approach – aimed at securing and maintaining our SLO is based on inclusive stakeholder engagement, proactive and timeous impact management, and benefit management.

Respecting the rights and customs of all stakeholders is key to respecting human rights in and around our concessions. We engage with a broad cross section of community members and leadership, including traditional leaders, local and national government, women’s groups, youth and people with disabilities, civil society, and indigenous communities in and around our operational areas.

All sites have Stakeholder Engagement Plans. These are based on detailed annual stakeholder mapping processes and are guided by our Stakeholder Engagement Management Standard, which is aligned with IFC Performance Standard 2.

We monitor our SLOs by tracking our level of acceptability, legitimacy and trust within our local and host communities. In 2021, we introduced an SLO assessment matrix to assess each operation and identify shortcomings and areas for improvement. The results showed an encouraging trend in partnerships and improving trust levels across the Group.

Despite disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we made progress on several initiatives:

• Using NGO Search for Common Ground to enhance engagement processes at Siguiri
• Maintaining strong relationships with indigenous communities around our Australian operations
• Perception surveys in seven municipalities in Brazil showed improvements in social, economic and environmental contributions
• Key engagements were held with external and institutional stakeholders as we built relationships during a delayed permitting process at Quebradona
• Meetings were held at Iduapriem with stakeholders, including traditional and other leaders of the Teberebie community, as we sought to strengthen partnerships and communication around economic development projects
• Intensive stakeholder engagement with regional, municipal and traditional leadership at Siguiri resulted in the signing of the Block 2 Memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the Foulata Communities
• Siguiri’s management met with the local Djelitomba or “Association of Griots”, who play an essential role as traditional communicators, having conveyed messages and resolved community conflicts for centuries
• At Geita, we signed the MOU detailing corporate social responsibility projects for implementation in 2021/22 with the Geita district and town councils
• At Corporate Office, we explored measures on addressing mental health challenges in the health profession. This resulted in a partnership with Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) to provide mental health resilience training for 500 health professionals in South Africa

MITIGATING CURRENT AND LEGACY IMPACTS

We understand that our activities can have negative impacts on communities and that these must be addressed fairly and openly. Our approach to social impact management dictates that operational management processes and systems are relied upon to identify and mitigate past, current and future impacts. These consider external factors such as changing socio-political and economic contexts, societal expectations and community concerns. All AngloGold Ashanti sites are also expected to avoid or, where not possible, minimise and mitigate their impacts on local communities through project designs and management plans.

Grievance mechanisms available in all our sites and accessible to local communities are critical to implementing and managing this process. These mechanisms are guided by our Management Standards on Complaints and Grievances, and Community Incident Management, both of which are aligned with the International Finance Corporation and the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

All complaints and grievances lodged with the Company are managed on iSIMS, a platform that provides transparency when recording, investigating and mitigating impacts, and reporting and resolving complaints. Most of the complaints lodged with our operations are related to mining impacts on communities. We have initiated joint monitoring forums like the Blasting Monitoring Committees to inclusively manage these impacts. We aim for a 100% closeout rate on grievances within 30 days.

Complaints and grievances in 2021 LA

Country	Operation	Complaints and grievances received	Number of complaints and grievances as at 31 December 2021
Brazil	Cuiaba	81	3
	CDS	149	5
	MSG	26	0
	Country Manager	49	2
Colombia	Quebradona	3	1
Tanzania	Geita	4	3
Guinea	Siguiri	49	12
Ghana	Obuasi	20	10
Iduapriem		66	12
Total		447	48 1

Management of community incidents have a direct impact on our SLO and require careful management and timeous closure. Community incidents can be self-reported through iSIMS or reported by third parties through each site’s complaints and grievance mechanisms. All community incidents are managed in line with AngloGold Ashanti’s Incident Management Standard, which classifies incidents according to severity. In 2021, 12 community incidents were reported. These were predominantly “community opposition events” related to the intrusion of illegal miners on active mining areas in Siguiri and the impact of the mine’s activities on the communities in Siguiri and Obuasi. One of these was classified as a major community incident, where community members at Siguiri disrupted mining operations for several days due to a disagreement with the implementation of the mine’s localisation programmes. Refer to the 2021 ESG and sustainability databook for more detail on community incidents.

SA LEGACY PROJECTS UPDATE

In 2021, AngloGold Ashanti’s legacy projects implementation timeline was delayed, pending the implementation of the new Operating Model and a review of the project scope. We remain committed to the implementation of legacy projects in South Africa to ensure a lasting benefit to our former host and labour-sending communities.

RESPONSIBLE LAND ACCESS AND RESETTLEMENT

Land is a critical resource for both our operational requirements and our communities, for whom it provides livelihoods and links of cultural significance, among other things. Mine expansion may require resettlement of households and livelihood restoration. Displacement and relocation in connection with our mining activities is a sensitive and complex challenge we address consistent with international best practice. Our Land Access and Resettlement Standard, in line with the IFC Performance Standard 5, guides our approach for responsible land access and resettlements. AngloGold Ashanti remains committed to avoid resettlements wherever possible.

Land-related actions and developments in 2021

Brazil Mineração

92 land invasions at Nova Lima and Raposos, down from 112 in 2020 due to establishment of a multi-stakeholder partnership (including government); voluntary resettlement project at Santos Reis community made steady progress with 45 of 51 families now occupying their new homes.

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Geita

Assessment and evaluation of life-of-mine land requirements; sustainable land-use plan developed, engagements with authorities ongoing.

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Siguiri

Land was acquired for the Block 2 mine expansion project and project affected persons (PAPs) were compensated for construction of 53km haul road in Block 2; no resettlement of households was required for the project.

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Siguiri

As part of IFC’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman conciliation process for Area 1 resettlement, an independent resettlement specialist study was undertaken in late 2021. Identified gaps are being verified and remedial actions will be developed and implemented.

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Iduapriem

The implementation of the Beposo TSF and RWD resettlement action plan progressed. Compensation payments were distributed to project-affected persons and 121 out of 218 replacement houses were constructed.

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Quebradona Project

Livelihood monitoring and restoration programmes are being implemented with support of INSUCO for 13 social units of properties required by the project.

CULTURAL HERITAGE AND SACRED SITES PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION

Our values enjoin us to respect the culture, heritage and customs of our host and local communities. In culture and heritage management processes, our adherence to legal commitments, international standards of good practice, and our management standard, are priorities.

Our Cultural Heritage and Sacred Sites Standard, Indigenous Peoples Standard, and Human Rights Standard were designed to enable us to partner with our communities, including indigenous communities. These standards guide us in identifying, respecting, protecting, and preventing the unauthorised or undesired disturbance of cultural heritage assets by our business activities.

All AngloGold Ashanti operations have dedicated culture and heritage management processes in line with legal requirements. In 2021, we initiated the development of a culture and heritage module on the iSIMS platform to enhance our cultural heritage databases and information systems and better integrate cultural heritage considerations into our mine planning processes.

Culture and heritage actions during 2021

Siguiri

Dedicated cultural heritage management plan developed and being implemented for Block 2 road project using external cultural and heritage specialists. Principles of FPIC and ICMM’s Position Statement is the basis for the plan and the relocation of sacred sites.

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Iduapriem

A new site for the Teberebie cemetery was established with the involvement of local stakeholders and a management plan was developed to improve access to the old site.

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Quebradona

Archaeological artefact discovered at exploration site in Jericó and reported to the mayor and director of the Maja Museum. Legal process to protect and place the items in local museum initiated.

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Australian

In Queensland, negotiations for a Heritage Agreement have commenced, with ongoing consultation and discussions with the Cape York Land Council (CYLC) and the Native Title Party, the Olkola claimant Group.

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SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS

A key focus of our SLOs are our contributions to the development of local and host communities. We continued to engage with stakeholders in the implementation of our Socio-economic development plans, guided by the Socio-Economic Contribution Standard, and invested $18m in community investment projects in the areas of education, social infrastructure, income generation initiatives and health.

Some highlights of our contributions included:

• Tanzania: At Geita, the Corporate Social Responsibility Plan MOU 2020/21 was signed between the mine, the Geita Town Council and the Geita District Council as required by the Tanzanian Mining Act
• Ghana: At Obuasi, we started to develop a 10-year socio-economic development plan that includes input from local government, traditional authorities and communities
• Australia: Supported new and ongoing youth/education programmes and initiatives aimed at encouraging indigenous youth to participate in primary and secondary schools programmes
• South Africa: The corporate office partnered with PROTEC to deliver mathematics and science programmes at three schools in the Diepsloot informal settlement in Gauteng province. Two scholarships were awarded to the top performing female and male students

Employee volunteer activities continued across the Group. In Brazil, employees volunteered in seven host communities and there were 90 voluntary participants in more than 18 initiatives. This amounted to more than 167 hours and more than 1,604 people benefited.

We continued to support our communities in addressing COVID-19 by enhancing their capacity to respond to the pandemic. Some of the COVID-19 interventions implemented in 2021 include:

• Brazil: Oxygen cylinders supplied to hospitals in Nova Lima, Sabará and Santa Bárbara
• South Africa: 1,000 OxEra respiratory devices were donated to various hospitals in Gauteng province
• Colombia: 10,000 Sinovac vaccines were procured to inoculate employees, contractors and family members. Quebradona donated oxygen cylinders to the Fredonia Hospital
• Ghana: At Iduapriem, a fully-equipped 20-bed Communicable Diseases Unit was handed over to the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality for the Apinto Government Hospital. The facility will serve as an isolation centre for the management of COVID-19 cases in the municipality. Medical supplies were also donated to the hospital
• Tanzania: At Geita, we supported an awareness seminar on COVID-19 for health specialists and journalists from various local media houses, aimed at encouraging vaccination against COVID-19

INCLUSIVE EMPLOYMENT AND PROCUREMENT

AngloGold Ashanti makes every effort to procure goods and services from local business and has held various briefing sessions to guide potential suppliers on how to participate in our supply chain. We provide guidance in the areas of governance, compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, recording and transparent reporting of our payments and funding activities, and honest and open engagements with our stakeholders. In 2021, $2.4bn was spent on local procurement, or 91% of the total procurement budget.

Wherever possible, the employment of local people is aligned to our localisation strategy and is vital to ensuring tangible value from our operations is shared with our host countries and communities. We have a number of local content and skills development programmes and have introduced community employment procedures at some sites to further increase local participation in our workforce.

INCREASING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SYSTEMS AND GOVERNANCE PROCESSES

The introduction of the new Operating Model will require we update our Community Management Policy and Management Standards. A review process will be initiated during 2022 to align our standards to the new Operating Model. In 2021, we continued to rely on the Combined Assurance Review programme to track our social performance and assess compliance to our community management standards.

The Community Information Management System (CIMS) was merged into the new iSIMS during the year. This platform serves all of our sustainability disciplines and enables integrated operational risk management and key performance indicators at Group, business unit and operational-level reporting.

Prioritised SDGs

Related case studies