The Zijin Mining 2024 Sustainability Report, themed “Providing Low-Carbon Mineral Resources for a Better Life,” presents a comprehensive overview of the company’s latest progress in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. The report was prepared in accordance with the HKEX ESG Reporting Guide, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Self-Regulatory Guidelines, and the GRI Standards, with reference to SASB, TNFD, and IFRS S1/S2, and has been independently assured by a third-party institution.

The report continues Zijin Mining’s consistent disclosure style, covering all entities under its operational control. It discloses detailed performance data and includes a comprehensive data index to enhance the systematization and accessibility of information. Compared with previous years, the company has further improved in terms of disclosure scope, standardization, and international alignment.

As a leading multinational mining group, Zijin Mining engages in the exploration, mining, smelting, and trading of various metal resources — including copper, gold, zinc, silver, lithium, and molybdenum — forming a fully integrated industrial chain with a global footprint. Given the industry’s inherently high energy consumption, emissions, and operational risks, ESG management is not only a compliance requirement but also a key element of corporate competitiveness.

During the reporting period, Zijin conducted a systematic materiality assessment to address stakeholder expectations and concerns, identifying 12 highly material topics, including workplace safety, tailings management, human rights protection, and security practices. These topics are closely aligned with the mining industry’s characteristics, reflecting the company’s sustained attention to environmental protection and social responsibility.

Environmental Dimension

In 2024, Zijin invested RMB 1.434 billion in environmental protection, with no major pollution incidents recorded during the year. The tailings recovery rate rose to 24.45%, up 0.59% year-on-year. The hazardous waste generation intensity reached 0.94 tons per RMB million in revenue, up 70.9%, yet the comprehensive utilization rate of hazardous waste also increased significantly to 74.57%, indicating that balancing resource efficiency and pollution control remains a key management focus.

In water resource management, total water withdrawal reached 72.52 million tons, up 9.7% year-on-year; freshwater intensity was 238.84 tons per RMB million in revenue, up 6%, though still 19.32% lower than in 2020. The water recycling rate slightly declined to 93.46%, while key pollutant discharge intensities increased marginally from the previous year.

Energy intensity rose to 4.59 MWh per RMB 10,000 of industrial added value, a 32.7% increase, marking the highest level in five years. Meanwhile, the share of renewable energy consumption increased to 27.09%, demonstrating gradual progress toward a greener energy structure.

In terms of carbon management, the company reaffirmed its targets of achieving carbon peaking by 2029 and carbon neutrality by 2050. In 2024, Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions totaled 6.99 million tCO₂e, a 17.96% decrease year-on-year, marking the first annual decline. GHG emissions per RMB 10,000 of industrial added value fell to 1.64 tCO₂e, down 34.9% from the 2020 baseline, achieving the company’s 2025 climate target ahead of schedule. However, disclosure of Scope 3 emissions remains limited — covering only five categories totaling 441.84 tCO₂e — indicating that supply chain emission accounting and collaborative decarbonization efforts still require enhancement.

Social Dimension

By the end of 2024, Zijin Mining employed 55,700 people worldwide, with women representing 14.37% of the workforce, and local employment at subsidiary projects increasing to 95.98%. The company continued to strengthen professional development, with average training hours of 40.50 for male employees and 42.38 for female employees, up 10.52 and 12.09 hours, respectively, compared with the previous year.

In workplace safety, total investment reached RMB 3.201 billion, up 14.16% year-on-year. Under the three-year Safety System Enhancement Program, the company identified 2,070 safety hazards, achieving a 94% rectification rate, and provided 100% safety training coverage for employees and contractors. However, seven fatal mine accidents (including six contractor fatalities) occurred during the year, resulting in a lost-time injury rate (LTIR) of 0.34, still far from the company’s “zero fatality” goal.

Accidents caused direct economic losses of RMB 16.83 million and indirect losses of RMB 89.07 million. Modeling estimates suggest potential overall negative impacts of approximately RMB 900 million, considering reputational risks, financing costs, employee morale, and share price fluctuations.

In supply chain management, Zijin strengthened supplier screening and dynamic evaluation processes, achieving a local procurement rate of 82.31%. A total of 215 suppliers were identified as having major ESG risks; 4 agreed to rectifications, while 211 were terminated, including 127 permanently blacklisted for business ethics violations. This demonstrates the company’s strong accountability and enforcement capacity in supply chain governance.

Governance Dimension

The Board of Directors has established an ESG Management Committee, embedding ESG principles into the corporate strategy and performance appraisal system. In 2024, women accounted for 15.4% of board members. The board reviewed 270 matters, including 70 ESG-related topics, representing 25.93% of total deliberations.

Over the past two years, the company has received a relatively high number of internal complaints and reports, mainly concerning business ethics, compensation, and workplace conditions. In 2024, 104 employees were disciplined for ethical misconduct, and 195 were subject to warnings or internal reviews. Meanwhile, 152 business partners had their contracts terminated for integrity violations, and two criminal cases related to job misconduct were transferred to judicial authorities.

Externally, Zijin received an A– rating from the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index and an A rating from SynTao Green Finance, ranking among the top domestic mining companies. However, its MSCI ESG rating remains at B, notably lower than that of industry peer CMOC Group (AA), suggesting room for improvement in governance transparency and international recognition.

Overall Assessment and Recommendations

Overall, the Zijin Mining 2024 Sustainability Report demonstrates high completeness, disclosure quality, and data transparency. The company:

- Effectively identifies both internal and external stakeholders and maintains regular communication channels to gather feedback;

- Prioritizes industry-relevant sustainability topics through materiality differentiation;

- Responds substantively to stakeholder expectations with a logical, well-structured, and data-driven report, independently assured to ensure credibility.

In 2024, Zijin made tangible progress in energy transition and carbon reduction, and showed strong execution in supply chain and business ethics management. However, challenges remain: energy intensity increased sharply, hazardous waste and water pollutant intensities rose year-on-year, indicating that the green production system is still in an early stage of optimization. The limited Scope 3 coverage underscores the need for a more comprehensive value-chain emission monitoring system. Meanwhile, board diversity remains low, and workplace fatalities reveal gaps in safety culture and contractor oversight.

It is recommended that the company strengthen dynamic environmental performance monitoring and data management, further decompose its medium- and long-term carbon neutrality targets into actionable stages, enhance occupational health and labor safety management, and benchmark against international frameworks such as ISSB and SBTi to further improve its global ESG ratings and investor confidence.

Author：Qinger