Environment

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 infrastructure away from natural and critical habitats
2. Minimize impacts through the use of appropriate management systems, mine designs and operating plans 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 mitigating the impact over time through preservation or maintenance
4. Offset residual impacts through programs to compensate for biodiversity losses by enhancing ecosystems in nearby areas.

Our standard aligns to and supports our implementation of the TSM Biodiversity Conservation Management framework and protocol and the IFC Ecosystem Service Performance Standard.

In alignment with the TSM Energy and GHG Emission Management protocol, we have processes and systems in place to manage our energy use and GHG emissions.

Hudbay's GHG reduction efforts have been focused on improving operating efficiencies to reduce the emissions intensity at our mines through initiatives such as ore sorting and recovery improvement programs. We have identified multiple opportunities to achieve further reductions in emissions, including grid decarbonization in Peru, fleet and heating electrification and fuel switching in mobile equipment. We will continue to monitor and evaluate existing and new technologies as they become financially viable to implement at our operations.

As we design future brownfield and greenfield projects, we will apply achievable emissions reductions right from the planning stage. All initiatives will balance emissions and economic targets as part of our disciplined capital allocation strategy.

We annually document our performance in the TSM Progress Report and also disclose our global GHG emissions data and performance to CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project).

None of Hudbay’s operations have major point source emissions. Our primary air emissions are the result of dust and fuel emissions generated by activities that include blasting, excavating ore and vehicles travelling on unpaved roads.

To ensure the air quality on and near our sites is safe, 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.

Mining and ore processing activities produce waste by-products 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. (A more detailed discussion on tailings management is included in our Integrated Annual Sustainability Report.)

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, which is caused by a chemical reaction when certain minerals in some types of rock are exposed to air and water. Some waste rock and tailings may be classified as potentially acid generating (PAG). To minimize and mitigate the impact of PAG-classified material, wherever possible we use PAG-classified waste rock to fill voids in underground operations or dispose of its facilities engineered to prevent acidic runoff. We use non-PAG waste rock for a variety of purposes, including building tailings containment structures, as backfill for open pits, site rehabilitation and also to fill underground voids.

Details on our tailings facilities are available in our Mine Tailings Disclosure Table.

Towards Sustainable Mining Protocol

As a member of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), Hudbay follows the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) program and is implementing an updated tailings management protocol consistent with TSM’s updated protocol at all of our operations. Our protocol builds on a continual improvement process for tailings management to achieve the goal of zero catastrophic failures of tailings facilities and no significant adverse effects on human health or the environment. The protocol emphasizes management processes, senior executive oversight, and expert third-party reviews that ensure appropriate technical standards of construction, maintenance, and operation.

Tailings Governance Charter

In 2018, we developed a Tailings Governance Charter to further strengthen our internal governance processes related to tailings management, to ensure the appropriate processes are in place and that all of our tailings facilities are constructed and operated in a manner that protects public health and safety. At present Hudbay has seven tailings and water retainment structures/facilities — four in Manitoba and three in Peru. These are managed in accordance with the requirements of the Charter. The reviews and inspections have found all facilities and structures were in compliance with our standards and best practices.