Responses to Water Risks and Biodiversity-Related Risks
Water Use Management (Risk Management)
Water is a shared resource of local regions and is closely connected to the lives of local residents
and communities, as well as to the surrounding ecosystem. In addition to identifying water risks
using WWF Water Risk Filter and then reducing those risks, our Group gives consideration to local
communities and the environment in areas where we use water and are working with a sense of
responsibility to make good use of the limited water resources.
At Coral Bay Nickel Corporation (CBNC) in Palawan Island, the Philippines makes effective use of water resources because the area is prone to water shortages during the dry season. For example,
they treat supernatant water that accumulates in tailings facilities at recycling facilities and then
reuse the water in their smelting and refining processes. The company also supplies this water as
industrial water to lime slurry producers, who are suppliers for the company. Furthermore, CBNC
provides, maintains, and manages water supply equipment and delivers drinking water using tanker
trucks as necessary as part of its water-related contributions to local communities. In addition,
a team that consists of members from the Environmental Management Office (EMO), the department
that conducts environmental management activities for the company, local governments,
NGOs, and other entities, strives to reduce the environmental effects of discharge by conducting
regular water quality tests to determine if plant operation is having a major impact on water in the
surrounding area.
The SMM Group also completes an annual CDP water security questionnaire regarding its
water management. In FY2023, we established the Sumitomo Metal Mining Group Water Policy,
announced it internally and externally, and informed employees about the policy.
Example Initiatives
- Prevention of excessive water withdrawal by understanding the amounts of withdrawal by source
- Reduction of water withdrawal and discharge amounts by promoting the use of recycled and reused water
- Promotion of effective use of water by understanding water balance and optimizing our amounts used
- Reduction of environmental impact by reducing amounts of hazardous chemical substances in effluent discharged into water
- Promotion of preservation of biodiversity through aquatic life monitoring surveys near our business sites
- Promotion of infrastructure development in areas where access to water is difficult
Identification of Risks Relating to Water and Biodiversity
The ICMM announced its Nature Position Statement on January 17, 2024. As a member company of
the ICMM, SMM made a commitment to diagnose the dependencies and impacts on nature of our
business operations and evaluate risks and opportunities in priority regions by 2026 and to identify
key value chain categories and issues and formulate performance targets and objectives for key elements by 2030.
In FY2023, we established a working group under the Environmental Preservation Subcommittee
to investigate initiatives addressing nature and responses to related information disclosures
including the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
while continuing the reforestation and biodiversity preservation activities that we have been conducting
at business sites.
Also in FY2023, we used ENCORE, which is recommended by the TNFD, to conduct analyses of
the dependency and impact on nature of our Group’s businesses as a whole, and based on the evaluation
results, we analyzed the degree of impact of each business site on natural capital using the
Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT), Global Forest Watch, and the WRI Aqueduct - Water
Risk Atlas, which are similarly recommended.
Responses to Risks (Reducing the Environmental Impact of Constructing New Plants)
When constructing the CBNC and THPAL refineries in the Philippines, we sought adequate dialogue
with the Philippine government, local authorities and local citizens right from the planning
stage and made efforts to construct plants that would have a minimal impact on the environment.
For example, the pier used to deliver sulfuric acid and methanol to the plant was made to circle
around the coral reef, and wastewater outlets were also positioned to ensure the reef’s protection.
The refineries have set up Environmental Management Offices (EMO) that are primarily responsible
in promoting environmental initiatives of the operations. Besides environmental surveys by
the EMO, the environment is monitored by a team of representatives from organizations such as
the DENR, local authorities and NGOs which carry out regular sampling of the air, water, flora and
fauna. With this sort of environmental monitoring, we check that the construction and operation of
plants do not have serious impacts on the ecosystem, while keeping environmental impacts from
wastewater and other factors to a minimum.
Through our efforts in this area, CBNC and THPAL have been awarded the Philippines DENREMB’s
Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award (PMIEA) nine times and three times,
respectively between 2014 and 2023.
