TIDMANTO
RNS Number : 8284Z
Antofagasta PLC
22 May 2019
NEWS RELEASE, 22 MAY 2019
CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS AT THE 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Antofagasta plc (the "Company") today released the script to be
used by the Chairman, Jean-Paul Luksic at the Company's Annual
General Meeting that commences at 10:00am today.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to Antofagasta plc's 2019 Annual General Meeting.
It is a pleasure to be here in London to meet with our
shareholders. Thank you for joining us today and I confirm that we
have a quorum present.
As you can see, except for Andrónico Luksic and Vivianne Blanlot
who are unable to join us for separate personal and medical reasons
all of your directors are in attendance. This includes Michael
Anglin who will be standing for election for the first time today.
Also Ivan Arriagada, our CEO is here sitting next to me and several
senior members of his executive team are here as well. Photos and
short biographies of each of our Directors, including their Board
and Committee roles, are set out on pages 15 to 19 of the Notice of
Meeting.
I would like to give you a brief overview of the strategy and
performance of your company and make some comments on the macro
environment in which we operate. Ivan Arriagada will then make a
presentation about our performance in 2018 and then we will move
onto the formal part of the meeting when we propose and vote on the
resolutions set out in the notice of meeting, and after that I will
open the floor for questions.
I will start my overview by talking about safety.
The safety of our employees and the communities in which we work
is our number one priority. After more than two years without a
fatality at our operations, it is with great sadness that I have to
report that a contractor suffered a fatal accident at Los Pelambres
in October last year. My condolences go to the family of Mr. Jorge
Pérez Barraza. We have undertaken a full investigation of the
incident which is a reminder that we must all guard against
complacency and follow all established operating and safety
procedures. Safety remains our top priority.
We are convinced that the Safety Model we have implemented,
together with the emphasis we place on the importance of having a
strong safety culture embedded in every employee and contractor in
the Group, is key to our success in this area. The Board is fully
committed to supporting the management team in their efforts to
achieve zero fatalities.
Now, turning to our performance in 2018; I am proud to be able
to report that this year we have had record production which is due
to the hard work of the operations teams.
During the year, we were able to increase significantly our ore
processing through improved operating efficiency.
Optimising our current assets and improving operating efficiency
is part of our strategy. We strive to operate our business with a
sharp focus on safety, producing profitable tonnes and pursuing
sustainable cost improvements. To this end the Company has been
through a period of change which included the implementation of a
new operating model to strengthen our internal capabilities.
We also seek to create further value by developing the
opportunities embedded in our existing operations which present the
most attractive options for growth.
I am pleased to share with you that at the beginning of this
year we started the construction of the Los Pelambres expansion
project and I will speak about this and our other growth
opportunities in more detail later.
We are always looking beyond our current operations for
sustainable growth opportunities. Our focus is the Americas and
with our strong balance sheet this allows us to consider a range of
opportunities.
Regarding capital allocation we consider the appropriate balance
between investment, growth and dividends that allows the Company to
retain a strong financial position after paying the dividend.
In addition we have always believed that working in partnership
-with communities, local and national government, and our equity
partners - is the best way to work. Working together to ensure the
safety, sustainability and reliability of our operations enables
all of our stakeholders to prosper.
Let me now speak about the future and our plans for growth.
At Antofagasta, we are fortunate to have substantial mineral
resources in Chile, a historical mining centre and an OECD member
with a well-functioning democracy and robust public
institutions.
We know that these resources will be developed one day. The
judgement we have to make is, when. We think of this as 'considered
growth'. Evidence of our conviction to growing and developing our
resource base over time has been our commitment to investing
through the cycle. We carefully review and assess our portfolio of
opportunities and expansion plans to ensure that projects only
proceed once they have been fully evaluated and have satisfied our
rigorous internal evaluation criteria. Following this process the
Board recently approved the expansion of Los Pelambres after the
project had been fully reviewed. Construction is now underway and
the first phase of the expansion is expected to add an average of
60,000 tonnes of copper production per year. The project includes a
desalination plant to supply water for the expansion and as a
back-up in case of severe drought. We also advanced the studies on
the expansion of Centinela and having assessed two development
alternatives, we have decided to focus on the evaluation of a
second concentrator.
Regarding our transport division, it celebrated its 130th
anniversary last year and it is now moving into a period of growth
having won some major new contracts and acquiring new locomotives
which should allow the division to grow to record levels of tonnes
transported over the coming years.
Turning to corporate governance, in 2018 we complied with all of
the detailed provisions of the UK Corporate Governance Code. In
addition to this, the Board and its Committees oversaw and provided
significant input into a number of important developments including
those relating to our culture and purpose, diversity and inclusion,
risk appetite and risk management, and executive remuneration. On
Diversity and Inclusion we are working to double the number of
women in our workforce by 2022.
As a Board, we are aware that much of the recent focus on
corporate governance in the UK has been around stakeholder
engagement. As a mining company, our investment horizon is
extremely long, and the location and factors surrounding our
projects and operations are of the utmost importance. This makes us
naturally very sensitive to the views and interests of our
stakeholders. We believe that our current governance structures
support the representation of stakeholder views and interests in
our decision making and, as a Board, we will ensure that this
continues to be the case.
This year, William Hayes will not put himself forward for
re-election as a director. Bill has been a Non-Executive Director
for 12 years, of which five were as the Senior Independent
Director.
Bill, I would like to thank you, on behalf of the Board and
myself, for your considerable contribution over the years during
which the Company has grown production by over 50%, opened the
Esperanza and Antucoya mines and acquired an interest in Zaldivar
while also exiting the water business and Michilla.
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Michael
Anglin, who joined the Board as an independent non-executive
director at the beginning of this month and is standing for
election at this meeting. Mike has a long and distinguished career
in the mining industry, working in South America and the United
States for over 30 years in base metals. Most recently, Mike was
the Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer of
BHP's Base Metals Group, based in Santiago, and in this role he was
responsible for most of BHP's large-scale mines in South America.
He is currently Chairman of SSR Mining and has served on its
Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee, the Safety and
Sustainability Committee and the Compensation Committee.
Mike, I look forward to working with you over the coming
years.
We announced in November that Francisca Castro, who has served
as an independent Non-Executive Director since 2016, has been
appointed as Chair of the Remuneration and Talent Management
Committee, having served on this committee for almost
two-and-a-half years. Francisca has replaced Tim Baker in this role
and I would like to thank them both, and indeed all of our
committee members, for their hard work over the course of the
year.
The role of the Remuneration and Talent Management Committee is
vital in ensuring that we maintain strong and transparent relations
and a dialogue with our employees and contractors and I am proud
that we maintain strong employee relations. We engage constantly
with our workforce as this open dialogue is key to maintaining good
relations and helps develops the trust that has built up between
the Company and its employees.
Now looking forward, it is our view that the copper market
continues to look tight, with the outlook for 2019 and beyond
positive for copper prices. The picture is clouded by the short
term volatility arising from current trade tensions. However, we
are firm believers that a low carbon economy needs metals,
particularly copper which allows the efficient use of electricity
and is a critical element in renewable energy and electromobility.
With our growing production, new developments underway and an
attractive portfolio of future projects, we are well positioned to
meet this demand with our next phase of considered growth.
I have no doubt that the future will bring many new
opportunities and challenges. What I have learnt though is that by
focusing on running safe and efficient operations, maintaining our
costs and managing our development programmes, we will continue to
succeed.
To summarise, 2018 was a year of good progress for our company
and we are well positioned to continue executing our strategy over
the coming years.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our
employees and contractors that work across the Group whose
contributions have helped to make Antofagasta what it is today.
Investors - Media - London
London
Andrew Lindsay alindsay@antofagasta.co.uk Carole Cable antofagasta@brunswickgroup.com
Telephone +44 20 7808 0983 Telephone +44 20 7404 5959
Andres Vergara avergara@antofagasta.co.uk Will Medvei antofagasta@brunswickgroup.com
Telephone +44 20 7808 0988 Telephone +44 20 7404 5959
Investors - Media - Santiago
Santiago
Rene Aguilar raguilar@aminerals.cl Pablo Orozco porozco@aminerals.cl
Telephone +56 2 2798 7000 Carolina Pica cpica@aminerals.cl
Telephone +56 2 2798 7000
---------------- --------------------------- ----------------- -------------------------------
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
MSCATMRTMBITMFL
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 22, 2019 05:00 ET (09:00 GMT)
Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024