Anglo American respects internationally recognised indigenous rights and complies with national laws and international standards as they relate to Indigenous Peoples.

This section provides guidance on identifying and engaging with Indigenous Peoples throughout the life of asset. It supports sites in managing issues related to Indigenous Peoples with a view to achieving mutually beneficial, sustainable, and equitable outcomes.

This section is aligned with relevant international standards and good practice, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standard 7 (PS 7), and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples (see Box 4I.1).

Box 4I.1 ICMM Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples – six commitments (abbreviated)

1. Engage with potentially impacted Indigenous Peoples with the objectives of ensuring that the development of mining and metals projects fosters respect for the rights, interests, aspirations, culture and natural resource-based livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples; designing projects to avoid adverse impacts and minimising, managing or compensating for unavoidable residual impacts; and ensuring sustainable benefits and opportunities for Indigenous Peoples through the development of mining and metals projects.
2. Understand and respect the rights, interests and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples regarding a site and its potential impacts.
3. Agree on appropriate engagement and consultation processes with potentially impacted Indigenous Peoples and relevant government authorities as early as possible during site planning, to ensure the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples in decision making.
4. Work to obtain the consent of indigenous communities for new sites (and changes to existing sites) that are located on lands traditionally owned by or under customary use of Indigenous Peoples and are likely to have significant adverse impacts on Indigenous Peoples.
5. Collaborate with the responsible authorities to achieve outcomes consistent with the commitments in this position statement, in situations where government is responsible for managing Indigenous Peoples’ interests in a way that limits company involvement.
6. Address the likelihood that differences of opinion will arise, which in some cases may lead to setbacks or delays in reaching a negotiated agreement in good faith.

Specifically, this section:

• helps sites to identify Indigenous Peoples
• helps to clarify the relative responsibilities of government and business regarding indigenous rights
• provides guidance on the requirements for engagement with Indigenous Peoples
• details the baseline data and contextual analysis required to underpin engagement
• provides guidance on working to obtain the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of indigenous communities
• outlines the requirement for the development of an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP)
• lists the cross-departmental roles and responsibilities involved in working with Indigenous Peoples.

Intended users

The intended users of this section are primarily social performance teams. Other functions, notably the government relations, operations, security, human resources, supply chain and safety, health and environment teams will also need to be aware of the issues, sensitivities and legal obligations that relate to engagement with Indigenous Peoples.

Relevance to other sections

This section provides an overview of Anglo American’s approach to Indigenous Peoples and is supported by other guidance in the Social Way toolkit.

• Governance (Section 1):
  • Engagement with Indigenous Peoples requires specific resources and skills. Section 1 details both the general capacity and expertise that social performance teams should build over time. Where Indigenous Peoples are identified, resources and skills should be available to appropriately engage with them and manage impacts.
  • The SPMC should review the IPP.
• Review and Planning (Section 2) the external context review and baseline data collection should include information with regards to Indigenous Peoples. Sites may choose to integrate the IPP into the Social Management Plan (SMP), or if not, then the SMP should refer to the IPP.
• Engagement and assessment (Section 3)
  1. Stakeholder engagement (3A) – this section describes tools and processes for meaningful stakeholder engagement. Additional requirements for engagement with Indigenous Peoples apply, including in relation to obtaining FPIC, which are outlined in this section.
  2. Incident and grievance management (3B) – Indigenous Peoples may have specific customs for raising and resolving grievances within their community, which should be identified and considered in the site’s grievance process so that it is culturally appropriate and trusted.
  3. Social and Human Rights Impact and Risk Analysis (SHIRA) (3C) – actual and potential adverse social and human rights impacts on indigenous people should be captured as part of the annual SHIRA process.
• Risk and impact prevention and management (Section 4)
  1. A. Socio-economic development (SED) (4A) ‒ Generating socio-economic development opportunities for indigenous people through partnership and collaboration is key and should be captured in socio-economic development planning, prioritisation and project design and summarised in the IPP and SMP.
  2. H. Cultural heritage (4H) ‒ Tangible and intangible cultural heritage, as well as natural features or objects that embody cultural values are typically very important to Indigenous Peoples. Impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ cultural heritage should be avoided where possible. If unavoidable, FPIC must be obtained prior to any activity that may impact on the cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples, as described in this section. Where the Cultural Heritage Management Plan relates to the cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples, that plan forms part of the IPP.