From exploration through closure and reclamation, we apply environmental management best practices to reduce our environmental footprint and contribute to sustainability and biodiversity.

Our Environmental Health and Safety Policy states our commitment to explore for, mine and produce metals in an environmentally responsible manner, and to continually measure and improve our systems and performance.

All our operations are required to comply with federal, state, provincial and local laws and regulations, and they must have in place an environmental management system that is certified to the ISO 14001 international standard.

As a member of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), we require every operation to apply the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) environmental protocols and frameworks and annually assess its facilities’ performance against the protocols. New or recently acquired operations are required to achieve a level A or higher (on a five-point scale, from level C to AAA) for all protocols within two years of reaching commercial production or beginning operations under Hudbay’s control.

Land and Biodiversity

Biological diversity is essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems and sustaining life. Effectively balancing how our operations can impact biodiversity, ecosystems and other land uses plays a part in our ability to grow our business and strengthen relationships.

Our Biodiversity Conservation Standard requires each site to identify environmental conditions – such as threatened and endangered species, protected areas and critical habitat – and the potential impacts Hudbay’s activities may have on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Site-specific biodiversity and ecosystem services management plans must apply the following four sequential key steps of the mitigation hierarchy:

1. Avoid impacts by locating facilities and access routes away from natural and critical habitats.
2. Minimize impacts through the use of appropriate management systems and mine plan designs that limit land disturbance throughout the mine life.
3. Restore ecosystems by progressively rehabilitating affected areas during operations and at closure with a goal of eliminating the impact over time through preservation or maintenance.
4. Offset residual impacts through programs to compensate for biodiversity losses when long-term residual impacts cannot be avoided.

Our standard aligns to, and supports our implementation of, the TSM Biodiversity Conservation Management Framework and Protocol. Included in the framework are commitments to contribute positively to biodiversity conservation throughout the mine lifecycle, to engage with communities of interest about biodiversity policies and practices, and to not explore or mine in World Heritage sites.

Through monitoring programs, we track the effectiveness of our management plans and adjust our activities accordingly to continuously improve our performance.

Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas

To improve our energy efficiency and reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, our Manitoba and Peru business units establish annual GHG intensity reduction targets to demonstrate our commitment to continually improve our performance.

Our operations are energy intensive, from the diesel fuel that powers our fleet to the electricity sourced from power grids in the jurisdictions where we operate. In alignment with the TSM Energy and GHG Emission Management protocol, we have processes and management systems in place and clear accountabilities. In addition to the disclosures in this report and the assessments available on the MAC website, we report our global GHG emissions data and performance to CDP.

Compared to the prior year, our direct and indirect energy consumption increased 5.2% and 7.4%, respectively, and our energy intensity increased 3.7%. Our total GHG emissions increased 9.6%, and GHG intensity increased 6.4%. The higher use of propane during the winter months in Manitoba and transporting ore from deeper depths contributed to the increase.

Air

Our air emissions are primarily forms of dust (formally, particulate matter), generated by activities including blasting and excavating ore and vehicles travelling on unpaved roads.

To ensure the air quality on and near our sites is safe for people and the environment, we implement dust management plans, conduct monitoring, and report our air emissions to ensure full compliance with air quality laws and regulations in the countries where we operate.

Our total particulate emissions increased 33.9% compared to 2016 due to our Manitoba Business Unit experiencing an increase in road dust during a very dry summer and more trucks travelling on unpaved haul roads.

Water

Water is essential to our operations, and our ability to operate water-efficient mines and protect local sources is a growing area of interest for our stakeholders. Our Manitoba and Peru operations set annual fresh water consumption intensity reduction targets to drive improvements in our water efficiency efforts.

Our sites have different water needs and challenges. Developed during the feasibility stage as part of a site’s environmental impact studies, our comprehensive site-specific water management plans assess quality, quantity and availability and consider the needs of local communities. This approach ensures that water risks and considerations are assessed throughout the mine lifecycle.

As a member of MAC, we endorse the TSM framework on water, which includes 13 commitments to water stewardship. These commitments go beyond legal compliance and include identifying and managing water-related risks, collaborating with communities of interest, ensuring water use decisions consider other users and ecosystem needs, and publicly reporting on our performance.

Since 2010, we have disclosed our water management performance in CDP’s annual Global Water Report.

Total water withdrawn increased 12.9% and water discharged increased 1.1% compared to 2016. Total water recycled or reused was approximately 220% of our total water use. Above-average temperatures in the summer, resulting in a higher rate of evaporation, contributed to the increase in water use.

Waste and Tailings

Mining and ore processing activities produce waste byproducts including waste rock (overburden that has no economic value) and tailings (the material that remains after the minerals have been extracted from the crushed ore).

All Hudbay operations have plans in place to reduce, reuse, recycle and responsibly dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, with a particular focus on managing waste rock and tailings.

Sites must manage waste rock in accordance with environmental regulations and industry standards and in a manner that minimizes the potential for acid rock drainage (ARD), which is caused by a chemical reaction when certain minerals in some rock are exposed to air and water. To minimize environmental impacts and prevent ARD from occurring, wherever possible, we reuse waste rock to fill voids in underground operations, construct tailings containment structures, backfill open pits and rehabilitate sites.

Responsibly managing tailings and the associated storage facilities is crucial for preventing impacts to human health and the environment. To manage these risks effectively, we adhere to TSM’s Tailings Management Protocol, which builds on technical standards to ensure that a responsible tailings management system is in place and is applied consistently and effectively. Under the protocol, accountability for tailings management is assigned to the highest governance body, which is our Board of Directors. We conduct annual reviews of our tailings management systems, and more in-depth independent reviews of processes, such as dam safety reviews every five years and independent peer review board assessments annually. We have begun implementing the requirements in the updated protocol and will report against it beginning with our 2019 assessment.

Our proposed Rosemont project in Arizona gives us the opportunity to construct a state-of-the-art dry-stack (or filtered) tailings facility. Among the advantages of a dry-stack tailings facility are minimized water consumption, reduced land requirements and greater stability.

During the year, we generated 36.6% less overburden waste, 36.9% less waste rock and 5.4% more tailings compared to the previous year. Reduced stripping and increased production at the Lalor operation contributed to the lower amount of overburden and waste rock and the generation of a higher amount of tailings.

Closure and Reclamation

In alignment with TSM’s Mine Closure Framework and the laws and regulations in each jurisdiction where we operate, planning for mine closure begins during the design phase of a project’s development and continues throughout the mine’s lifecycle.

A key element of our closure planning is consultation and engagement with stakeholders – in particular, the communities closest to our mines – to develop closure and reclamation objectives that address their needs and values. This includes working together on long-term economic development strategies and plans that mitigate the socio-economic impacts of closure. To the extent practicable, we rehabilitate the former mine site to an agreed-upon beneficial post-mining use.

Our closure plans include identifying opportunities to conduct progressive rehabilitation once the areas are no longer needed for mining. Post-closure activities include maintenance and monitoring to meet closure objectives.