Occupational Health and Safety

At Antofagasta, we strive to be a leader in occupational health and safety, where our employees and collaborators promote and maintain a safe and healthy working environment. Robust health and safety management provides the foundations for our activities, and we are committed to continuous improvement through risk control and performance monitoring.

In 2023, we advanced in the consolidation of our management system by incorporating occupational health and safety planning into our operational model, with the aim of ensuring the implementation of controls to prevent unwanted events. This framework is applicable to 100% of operations and to both our internal workforce and contractors.

For this purpose, we have our Occupational Health and Safety Strategy, which is based on four pillars:

• Occupational health and safety risk management
• Reporting, investigating and learning from our accidents
• Leadership
• Contractor management

Management of potential risks is done through constant dialogue between the areas in which such risks are most likely to occur and the people in charge of controlling them. Our goal is to avoid fatalities, high potential incidents, and people’s exposure to occupational health risks. In this context, we are engaged in a discursive shift from a culture of safety to a vision of safe production.

During 2023, we worked on assembling a digital library of 500 PTRA or standardised high-risk task working practices for the whole Mining Group. Technology plays a key role here, offering safer and more sustainable features and replacing paper. In addition, we developed a leadership programme for supervisors, as they are the most important link in the operational process.

Level 1

The general manager and specific area managers are responsible for mapping and monitoring operational processes and activities. In parallel, we describe the controls to ensure that each activity is executed in a safe and sustainable manner.

Level 2

Here, we address those activities involving potentially fatal energies or occupational risks that might lead to occupational illness. Specific area managers or risk owners and superintendents are responsible for control, identifying and implementing a strategy for sustainable application.

Level 3

Supervisors and operators apply safe, standardised daily practices to a group of similar tasks, according to planning.

Level 4

Yo digo no” (I say no) practice. An operator responsible for executing a high-risk task is the one who must refrain from doing so in the absence of adequate operational elements, resources or conditions, according to level 3. This refusal is free of reprisal.

In 2023, we continued with our five-year working plan, which was launched in 2022 and focused on boosting a health and safety supervisory leadership programme. We prioritised planning and effective supervision by standardising high-risk task working practices using our Planned Task Risk Assessment tool (level 3 and 4), integrating them into our Operating Model and ultimately making them part of our operational excellence management system.

Effective planning is crucial as we seek to integrate our health and safety framework into every area of our business. To aid this, our corporate team is responsible for setting strategy, advising on processes, and verifying the overall effectiveness of our efforts. In 2023, more than 6,000 workers participated in the three mass health and safety meetings held in person and online. This initiative was led by Antofagasta Minerals’ Chief Operating Officer and focused on raising alert levels at operations.

The objective is to standardise working practices at all our mining sites, with a monthly in-person visit to each company to double check progress and adherence to the selected programme, and once a semester we conduct a formal evaluation process (corporate verification) as part of the annual company performance review. In 2023, we worked on reducing the frequency of High Potential incidents and exposure of workers in terms of occupational health.

In addition, we designed a four-tool culture transformation programme to enhance supervisor skills:

• planned task risk assessment incorporated into the operating model.
• working shift change to ensure effective transfer of information.
• role confirmation to shape expected practices or behaviours.
• process confirmation to identify opportunities for improvement in key areas of occupational health and safety, and to ensure the closure of the task execution process.

In 2023 significant progress was made with occupational health risk management processes, isolating or eliminating exposure of our personnel to occupational health risks. Each operation presented and implemented a project that contributed to a reduction in the exposure of personnel to health risks.

We have developed training courses on occupational health and safety for our employees, contractors and subcontractors, covering potential risks associated with particular working environments and during the execution of certain tasks, along with other issues. As part of the training cycle, we identify needs on the part of both supervisors and executives through the DNA process (Learning Needs Detection).

In 2023, a group of interactive and dynamic courses started allowing personnel in all roles to learn about control strategies, critical and preventive controls, and occupational health and safety management tools that are used across our four companies.

Our employees are provided with control strategies training, drawing on knowledge available to all companies, including our collaborating entities. Other topics that we have taught in-person and remotely are the ODI (Obligation to Inform) specific to each area, and the New Person Induction, available for all internal staff and collaborators.

Within the framework of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Leadership Programme for Supervision, we imparted training on the PTRA tool. This deployment was carried out in all companies during 2023 through in-person training conducted on site and in virtual classrooms. We then worked on digitising the content on our platforms to make it available to the entire organisation. This digital training material is part of the Training Plan on mandatory transversal topics, which were defined as a Mining Group.

In line with our continuous improvement process, at Antofagasta we have implemented Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS) in all mobile equipment at our mines. The system is capable of detecting objects in a defined collision risk zone and warns equipment operators to take preventive measures to avoid unwanted interactions.

In 2023, Antofagasta became the first mining company in Chile to implement a unique strategy to manage and supervise work-related psychosocial risks. Beyond simply identifying the type and number of potential mental illnesses, we define the causes and effects of work stress and apply controls to prevent them.

At Antofagasta Minerals, we are committed to providing a healthy workplace and contributing to the physical and mental well-being of our employees. Our psychosocial risk management strategy involves measurable and verifiable controls, assigning clear roles and responsibilities to prevent and mitigate work-related mental health issues. We have trained everyone in the organisation to report and manage mental health using the available safety processes, in order to address any emerging work-related health issues.

In 2023, we worked to ensure compliance with all components of occupational health risk management programmes: hygiene, medical surveillance and preventive health. We established a baseline for similar groups of employees exposed to noise, acid fog, welding fumes and silica agents; strengthened our medical surveillance programme; and conducted a review of altered cases from this programme.

Access to regular occupational examinations and operate various monitoring programmes are available for workers according to associated risks (e.g., exposure to silicosis, hypobaria, sleep hygiene), in addition to the annual immunisation campaign against influenza. We also offer a remote support channel focused on the comprehensive well-being of workers, providing a 24/7 telemedicine programme, health guidance, emotional support, nutritional guidance, sports advice, a sleep clinic and a veterinary programme.

Each company in our Mining Group has its own joint work committee that meets once a month, involving representatives from each of the collaborating companies, tasked with the objective of advising and instructing personnel on the correct use of protection instruments. In addition, the committees monitor compliance by the Company and its staff with prevention, hygiene and safety measures.

In 2023, we carried out a psychosocial risk survey in a joint effort alongside the Superintendency of Social Security (Superintendencia de Seguridad Social) to identify the main environmental, work and mental health risks on sites. This technique allows the design of initiatives focused on closing existing gaps in these areas.

Over the past year we have engaged in coordinated and effective work with the authorities to improve our security indicators. Goods – particularly copper – produced by our companies have been stolen for illegal commercialisation, especially during transportation. We achieved a 72% reduction in such incidents during 2023.

Following stringent diagnosis of risks at each mining site, we have begun to apply a range of measures focused on protecting our personnel and infrastructure. The real and potential negative impacts of external criminality perpetrated against our facilities can affect the physical and psychological integrity of personnel due to the threat of unpredictable violence. Strengthening the protection capacity of our personnel will help to mitigate or prevent any serious impact.

Industrial Protection Strategy priorities

• Internal human resources in management areas
• Human resources of contractor companies with a high standard of service
• Development of ad hoc technology for prevention and detection
• Special protection of critical areas within companies

Preventive measures are supported by technology and coordination with the authorities involved in the criminal and legal process. Our system covers timely detections (sightings) of potential intrusions, frustrated intrusions, frustrated thefts, and robberies. Reportability allows the evaluation of patterns of criminal instances and behaviours in the area.

We began working in collaboration with our suppliers to hire better prepared and equipped security staff, particularly in the matter of personal protection. Safety issues are an important factor in the mining industry as a whole, and we have been working jointly on prevention as part of a working group within the Mining Council and alongside prosecutors.

Both our own security guards (part of our personnel) and those supplied by external service companies receive regular training, including content on human rights issues.