Company earns IRMA 50 Rating for Salar de
Atacama Lithium Site in Chile
CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 20,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle
Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a global leader in providing essential
elements for mobility, energy, connectivity and health, today
announced that it achieved an IRMA 50 level of performance in an
independent third-party assessment of its lithium brine extraction
and concentration site in the Salar de Atacama, using the
Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance's (IRMA) comprehensive
mining standard.
![Albemarle Corp. Logo. (PRNewsFoto/Albemarle Corporation) Albemarle Corp. Logo. (PRNewsFoto/Albemarle Corporation)](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/75024/albemarle_corporation_logo.jpg)
This marks a new milestone for Albemarle, as it is the first lithium producer
and only the third mine site globally to complete an independent
audit and have its audit report published by IRMA, continuing the
company's commitment to transparent and responsible management of
its resources. The assessment process covers 26 areas, including
water management, human rights, greenhouse gas emissions, fair
labor, terms of work, among others. Forty percent of these
standards require active engagement with nearby communities to
ensure dialogue, transparency, and collaboration on key issues such
as emergency response, grievance mechanisms, and mine closure
planning. A third-party auditor corroborated that the company met
70% of over 400 rigorous IRMA requirements at the Salar de Atacama
site.
"We are proud to be the first lithium producer to complete an
IRMA audit and publish our report. This third-party audit shares
with our communities, stakeholders, customers, employees and
investors that we are committed to doing the right things, the
right way," said Ellen
Lenny-Pessagno, Global VP of External Affairs and
Sustainability for Albemarle Energy Storage. "We have made many
positive changes in how we operate, engage with the community and
transparently share information, and we are committed to continuous
improvement against this standard. This new era of lithium requires
responsible mining to achieve a just transition to electrification
and digitalization globally."
"We congratulate the entire Albemarle team who undertook this IRMA audit,"
said Aimee Boulanger, Executive
Director of IRMA. "It demonstrates Albemarle's commitment to transparency and
community engagement, and their intention to continue to improve
social and environmental performance at their Salar de Atacama
operation."
The IRMA scoring system recognizes four levels of performance:
IRMA Transparency, in which a mine is third-party-assessed and
publicly shares its scores; IRMA 50 or 75, signifying that a mine
shares its scores and furthermore meets a core set of critical
requirements together with at least 50 percent or 75 percent
achievement of the possible score in each of the four principles of
the Standard for Responsible Mining (business integrity, planning
for positive legacies, social and environmental responsibility);
and IRMA 100, which means the mine meets all of the Standard's
requirements.
Albemarle shareholders,
customers, employees, and the public can visit the Mines Under
Assessment page of IRMA's website for updated information on the
site's third-party audit. On-site auditors interviewed mine
management, functional leaders, mine workers, and external
community stakeholders. The report of the assessment conducted by
ERM Certification and Verification Services (ERM CVS), is publicly
available on the IRMA website.
The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) oversees
the only independent, comprehensive and transparent process for
assessing individual mines' performance against an equally
governed, best-practice standard — and for measuring their
subsequent progress in reducing social and environmental impacts.
The rigorous IRMA process invites all those currently or
potentially affected by a mine to share their experiences and
perspectives with the third-party auditing team. For more
information, please visit www.responsiblemining.net.
Albemarle's Sustainable
Commitments
Albemarle's
IRMA 50 rating at the Salar de Atacama site is just one of the
company's many sustainable commitments and efforts in Chile and at its sites around the globe,
including:
- Albemarle is committed to the
development of a new lithium era by collaborating with others to
explore bringing desalinated seawater to the Salar de Atacama basin
and researching new lithium production technologies.
- Albemarle's freshwater rights
at the Salar de Atacama site make up 0.5% of all freshwater rights
in the basin. Of those rights, the company uses only nine L/s for
its camp, to produce potassium chloride, and to rinse
equipment.
- The company has committed to reducing the intensity of
freshwater use by 25% by 2030 in areas of high-water risk including
the Antofagasta region.
- Albemarle shares 3.5% of
revenues from its Chilean operations with local indigenous
communities through an agreement with the Council of Atacameño
Peoples, signed in 2016.
- Albemarle monitors brine and
freshwater levels jointly with the indigenous community to verify
whether brine pumping has adverse effects on the water systems. The
results of the hydrogeological data are shared with regulatory
authorities and local communities and confirm that brine pumping
does not affect the upstream groundwater levels.
- Albemarle remains committed to
carrying out an IRMA third-party audit at additional mine sites in
Western Australia and the United States.
About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) leads the world in transforming
essential resources into critical ingredients for mobility, energy,
connectivity, and health. We partner to pioneer new ways to move,
power, connect and protect with people and planet in mind. A
reliable and high-quality global supply of lithium and bromine
allow us to deliver advanced solutions for our customers. Learn
more about how the people of Albemarle are enabling a more
resilient world at albemarle.com and on Twitter @AlbemarleCorp.
Albemarle regularly posts
information to its website, including notification of events, news,
financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts,
non-GAAP reconciliations, Securities and Exchange Commission
("SEC") filings and other information regarding the company,
its businesses and the markets it serves.
About IRMA
Developed through a decade of public
consultations, with input from more than 100 companies and
organizations, the IRMA Standard and assessment process recognize
the concerns of Indigenous rights holders, communities and mine
workers, as well as environmental and human rights advocates and
other representatives of civil society — giving them an equal voice
alongside mining companies, purchasers of mined materials and
investors. Independent audits conducted against the IRMA standard,
by reviewing mines' performance with transparent notice and
opportunities for public engagement, help foster dialogue on
further improvements companies can make to support those affected
by their operations. For more information:
www.responsiblemining.net.
Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the information
presented in this press release, including, without limitation,
information regarding the publishing of the IRMA audit report,
sustainability goals and commitments, targets and timelines for
achievement, environmental impact reduction goals, sustainability
priorities, and all other information relating to matters that are
not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from the views
expressed. Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from the outlook expressed or implied in any
forward-looking statement include, without limitation: changes in
economic and business conditions; adverse changes in liquidity or
financial or operating performance; changes in the demand for our
products or the end-user markets in which our products are sold and
the other factors detailed from time to time in the reports we file
with the SEC, including those described under "Risk Factors"
in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of
this press release. We assume no obligation to provide any
revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances
change, except as otherwise required by securities and other
applicable laws.
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SOURCE Albemarle Corporation