Julia Shabala, Deputy General Director of Udokan Copper for Sustainable Development, has made this statement in her speech at «ESG – Business Transformation: Trends, Investment, Development” on 9th of February in Saint-Petersburg.
According to Julia Shabala, Udokan Copper (which is a part of USМ diversified holding company founded by Alisher Usmanov who is the principal shareholder of the company) even at the stage of construction of Udokan mining and metallurgical plant annually publishes the non-financial reporting in compliance with GRI standards; it has joined UN Global Compact, and now is being prepared to get a confirmation of compliance with Copper Mark industry-specific standard (created by International Association of Copper Producers in 2019 for demonstration of sustainable approach towards copper production).
The сompany has completed the development of the Climate Program. For decarbonization of the used power the Company plans to conclude direct contracts with low-carbon generating sources (hydraulic and alternative power) and to obtain I-REC certificates (power origin tracking system developed by international non-commercial organization named International REC Standard Foundation). Besides, Udokan Copper plans to research the potential of its own power generation development using the renewable sources.
The company will seek the possibilities to switch from coal to less carbon-intense fuel types for heat generation, for example, to climatically neutral timber pellets, and review the perspectives for electrification of the used mine fleet. Emissions of greenhouse gases estimated within the Climate Program have been confirmed by an independent expert review (validation) performed by BSI (British Standards Institution). This was the first Russian experience of estimation of forecasted emissions aimed at confirmation of their compliance with the requirements of ISO 14064-1:2018 international standard.
As it was highlighted by Julia Shabala: “We have reviewed different estimation options for indirect emissions caused by the consumed electric power, as well as the possible scenarios of emissions reduction in relative and absolute measures, including reduction of carbon intensity of the produced copper by 75% by 2035”.
According to Ms. Shabala, Udokan Mining and Metallurgical Plant will be able to become one of the first Russian companies producing climatically neutral copper.
