Reporting in accordance with GRI, the ICMM and the UN Global Compact

GRI

AngloGold Ashanti is an organisational stakeholder of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and has prepared this Report to Society 2008 in accordance with the GRI 2006 G3 Sustainability Guidelines.

As a founding member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) we are committed to good business practices in sustainable development and to implementing the ICMM Sustainable Development Framework and complying with policy statements of the ICMM Council. Further, AngloGold Ashanti is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and, as such, is committed to providing an assessment of how the principles of the Global Compact have been progressed through policies and actions during the year. We report on our progress in complying with the principles to the Global Compact on a quarterly basis.

In the schedule below we have reported in accordance with the GRI indicators (including the Mining and Metals Supplement), showing where this information may be found, as well as the corresponding ICMM and Global Compact principles.

GRI principles

The GRI is a large multi-stakeholder network of experts worldwide, who participate in GRI’s working groups and governance bodies, use the GRI Guidelines to report, access information in GRI-based reports, or contribute to developing the Reporting Framework in other ways, both formally and informally.

The GRI’s vision is that reporting on economic, environmental and social performance by all organisations is as routine as financial reporting and enabbling the performance of organisations to be compared. The GRI network accomplishes this vision by developing, continuously improving, and building capacity around the use of a Sustainability Reporting Framework, the core of which is the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. Other components in the Reporting Framework are Sector Supplements and Protocols.

AngloGold Ashanti is an Organisational Stakeholder of GRI and is thus committed to reporting in accordance with GRI. The GRI principles have been developed to define a compact between the reporting organisation and the report user, ensuring that both parties share a common understanding of a GRI-based report.

By adhering to the 11 principles, users can ensure that reports:

• present a balanced and reasonable account of economic, environmental and social performance, and the resulting contribution of the organisation to sustainable development over time;
  
• facilitate comparisons over time;
  
• facilitate comparisons across organisations; and
  
• credibly address issues of concern to stakeholders in a credible manner.
  

The principles are as follows:

• Transparency: Full disclosure of the processes, procedures and assumptions in report preparation are essential to its credibility.
  
• Inclusiveness: The reporting organisation should systematically engage its stakeholders to help focus and continually advance the quality of its reports.
  
• Auditability: Reported data and information should be recorded, compiled, analysed and disclosed in a way that would enable internal auditors or external assurance providers to attest to its reliability.
  
• Completeness: All information that is material to users for assessing the reporting organisation’s economic, environmental and social performance should appear in the report in a manner that is consistent with the declared boundaries, scope and time period.
  
• Relevance: Relevance is the degree of importance assigned to a particular aspect, indicator or piece of information, and represents the threshold at which information becomes significant enough to be reported.
  
• Sustainability context: The reporting organisation should seek to place its performance in the larger context of ecological, social or other limits or constraints, where such context adds significant meaning to the reported information.
  
• Accuracy: The accuracy principle refers to achieving the degree of exactness and low margin of error in reporting information necessary for users to make decisions with a high degree of confidence.
  
• Neutrality: Reports should avoid bias in selection and presentation of information and should strive to provide a balanced account of the reporting organisation’s performance.
  
• Comparability: The reporting organisation should maintain consistency in the boundary and scope of its reports, disclose any changes, and restate previously reported information.
  
• Clarity: The reporting organisation should remain cognisant of the diverse needs and backgrounds of its stakeholder groups and should make information available in a manner that is responsive to the maximum number of users while still maintaining a suitable level of detail.
  
• Timeliness: Reports should provide information on a regular schedule that meets user needs and comports with the nature of the information itself.
  

For further information see www.globalreporting.org

ICMM

The (ICMM) was formed in October 2001 to represent leading international mining and metals companies. Its vision is a ‘viable mining, minerals and metals industry that is widely recognised as essential for modern living and a key contributor to sustainable development’. ICMM members believe that by demonstrating superior business practices they will gain preferential access to land, capital and markets.

Members are required to practise their commitment to environmental, economic and social responsibility. Significant progress has been made in helping the members raise their contribution towards achieving sustainable development by creating tools to improve performance, including sharing examples of good practice.

Member companies are committed to the ICMM Sustainable Development Framework, including a set of 10 principles, supported by public reporting and independent assurance. AngloGold Ashanti is a founding member of ICMM.

ICMM principles

1. Implement and maintain ethical business practices and sound systems of corporate governance.
2. Integrate sustainable development considerations within the corporate decision-making process.
3. Uphold fundamental human rights and respect cultures, customs and values in dealings with employees and others who are affected by our activities.
4. Implement risk management strategies based on valid data and sound science.
5. Seek continual improvement of our health and safety performance.
6. Seek continual improvement of our environmental performance.
7. Contribute to conservation of biodiversity and integrated approaches to land use planning.
8. Facilitate and encourage responsible product design, use, re-use, recycling and disposal of our products.
9. Contribute to the social, economic and institutional development of the communities in which we operate.
10. Implement effective and transparent engagement, communication and independently verified reporting arrangements with our stakeholders.

For further information see www.icmm.com

UN GLOBAL COMPACT

In an address to the World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, challenged business leaders to join an international initiative – the Global Compact – that would bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to support universal environmental and social principles. The Global Compact’s operational phase was launched at UN Headquarters in New York on 26 July 2000. Today, thousands of companies from all regions of the world, international labour and civil society organisations are engaged in the Global Compact, working to advance 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to promote responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalisation. In this way, the private sector – in partnership with other social actors – can help realise the Secretary-General’s vision: a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.

The Global Compact is a purely voluntary initiative with two objectives:

• to bring the 10 principles in business activities around the world into mainstream; and
  
• Catalyse actions in support of UN goals.
  

To achieve these objectives, the Global Compact offers facilitation and engagement through several mechanisms: policy dialogues, learning, country/regional networks, and partnership projects. The Global Compact is not a regulatory instrument – it does not ‘police’, enforce or measure the behaviour or actions of companies. Rather, the Global Compact relies on public accountability, transparency and the enlightened self-interest of companies, labour and civil society to initiate and share substantive action in pursuing the principles upon which the Global Compact is based. AngloGold Ashanti is a signatory to the Global Compact.

The 10 principles

The Global Compact’s 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption enjoy universal consensus and are derived from:

• the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
  
• the International Labour Organisation’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work;
  
• the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; and
  
• the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
  

The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption.

Human Rights

• Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
• Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour Standards

• Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
• Principle 4: The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour.
• Principle 5: The effective abolition of child labour.
• Principle 6: The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

• Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
• Principle 8: Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
• Principle 9: Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-corruption

• Principle 10: Businesses should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.

For more information see www.unglobalcompact.org.