A collaboration between EY and Africa Business has produced an inaugural ranking that evaluates mining companies in Africa, emphasizing their local economic impact and the rising importance ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors in the mining sector.
The ranking identified the top 30 companies, and aims to analyse developments and identify trends and significant changes in the sector. The ranking provides a transparent view of how these companies impact the regions they operate in, setting a new standard for assessing the mining sector’s role in African economies, the companies said.
Without the consent of local communities, there can be no “social licence to operate” – the key to maintaining a long-term business, the report notes.
The methodology involved analysing the latest available Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reports for member African countries, supplemented by information obtained from company reports for non-member states, including South Africa, Morocco and Botswana.
The economic impact has been divided into three categories. The ranking was established based on budgetary contributions (taxes and royalties paid into the state budget), social contributions (funding for equipment or projects for communities living near mining operations), and the employment of nationals.
The ranking reveals that the top 30 companies contributed $15 billion in fiscal and social contributions and created 250,000 direct jobs.
The continent’s mining giants occupy the top spots by the scale of their financial contributions and the number of employees needed to operate their assets. Anglo American, Glencore, Barrick Gold Corp, OCP, First Quantum Minerals, Sibanye Stillwater and Anglogold Ashanti all feature in the Top 30.
South African groups account for 45% of the contributions to the Top 30, while the ratio of Chinese companies is much lower. None of the la]er made it into the Top 10. Few Chinese groups in the Copperbelt in clude: CMOC, CNMC and MMG (majority-owned by China Minmetals).
“This first-ever ranking of mining companies according to their economic impact will make it easier to understand the orders of magnitude of the local contribution made by mining investors and to compare them with each other”, said Moez Ajmi, partner at EY.
Read the full report here.
