While absolute results remain low overall, CODELCO shows the strongest result in Working Conditions, in part as the company has a corporate system designed to address the health and safety needs of women workers, as well as guidelines on preventing sexual harassment of women workers. The company also shows evidence of systematic engagement with worker representatives in tracking the company’s performance on health and safety and designing and monitoring actions to improve health and safety.

In the company-wide assessment, CODELCO shows one of the three stronger results in Lifecycle Management, in part due to evidence on the issue of emergency response planning. The company has a corporate standard designed to ensure its operations develop such plans and engage with local communities in the design and testing of these plans. It also has one of the stronger results on the issue of integrating ESG criteria into the stage-gating process in investment decision-making.

In a sign of its continuous improvement efforts since the RMI Report 2020, CODELCO increased its disclosure of data on tailings related incidents and recently conducted a review of the company’s compliance with the Global Tailings Review standard.

CODELCO is associated with a leading practice on disclosing mine-site-level data on the functioning of its worker grievance mechanism, including the outcomes of the investigations of reported grievances.

On the other hand, CODELCO’s results are below the average in two thematic areas: Economic Development and Community Wellbeing. And CODELCO’s overall results are limited by a lack of evidence of action on, for example, collaborating with sub-national governments on socio-economic development planning, supporting procurement from national suppliers, and tracking and reviewing its performance on progressive rehabilitation. In addition, the company shows no evidence of identifying and addressing how climate change can exacerbate the environmental impacts of its operations.

In the mine-site assessment, CODELCO ranks 4th among the 40 companies on its mine-site-level results, though with an average score of only 16%. CODELCO demonstrates an unusually high level of consistency in the results achieved by its seven assessed mine sites (with scores all within the range 14-18%). However, none of the seven mine sites show any relevant evidence on three issues: local employment, safety of community, and living wage.