Codelco established, as of June 2003, its Policy on Sustainable Development. It established a vast conceptual context, it grants strategic directions and strengthens a series of specific policies, guidelines and standards in force at the Corporation.

The Policy on Sustainable Development has guidelines to protect the environment, the employees and the communities related to the Corporation; and it introduces in management the preventive principle, which aims to the control of environmental aspects and risks related to all its activities, the copper mining and its byproducts.

This policy also established that the commitments assumed need to be promoted among all persons related with the operations of the company; this means its collaborators (suppliers and contractors), employees, customers and members of the surrounding communities.

This regulation strengthens the Policy on Environmental, Security and Occupational Health Administration, established in September 2001.

Corporative Policy on Sustainable Development

The mission of Codelco is to develop in a responsible and agile way, all of its capacity for the mining and related businesses, in order to maximize its economic value and its contribution to the Chilean State in the long-term.


In its management, Codelco gives high priority to sustainable development, particularly regarding ethics, transparency and the support of regulatory processes based on sound scientific evidence. It also considers highly relevant the dialogue with the internal and external stakeholders, aiming at building mutual trust and cooperating in achieving common welfare on the basis of equity.

The commitment of Codelco with sustainable development and social responsibility is an integral part of its business project, since it fosters increased competitiveness and facilitates achieving the benefits that the Corporation seeks in the medium and long-term. This project takes form in a management aimed at simultaneously accomplishing an adequate profit on the invested capital, the protection of its workers and of the environment, the access to markets and the acceptance and respect of the community.
In order to achieve this, Codelco makes a commitment to:

• Develop and maintain ethical and responsible business practices.
• Respect and protect the fundamental human rights, as stated in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of the UN, as well as the dignity of the individuals working in its operations.
• Incorporate sustainable development criteria to the decision making process of the company, including aspects such as the protection of its workers, and responsibility for the environmental and social impacts in the areas where it operates.
• Contribute to generate favorable conditions to encourage and reinforce the sustainable development of the communities in the surroundings of its operations.
• Implement and maintain efficient and efficacious management systems in the areas of environment, safety, occupational health, quality and community relationships, within a framework of prevention and continuous improvement.
• Envision the long-term sustainability of the business, ensuring profitability on the invested capital on the basis of continuous development of the demand and the mining, human and technological resources.
• Foster, jointly with the industry, the development and environmentally responsible use of its products throughout their life cycle, from extraction, processing, use and recycling to their final disposal.
• Contribute to the development of scientifically sound information to influence regulations on copper uses and its effects on the environment and human health, in order to prevent these from unnecessarily restricting its access to markets.
• Implement and maintain timely and transparent information mechanisms regarding its effects on sustainability aspects, and to issue verifiable reports on this matter.
• Promote the commitments of this Policy on Sustainable Development among all those related to its operations; that is, collaborators (suppliers and contractors), workers, clients and members of the local communities.

Juan Villarzú Rohde
President & Chief Executive Officer
June 2003

Corporative Policy on Environmental, Security and Occupational Health

The Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile, Codelco, is a state-owned mining company, industrial and commercial, oriented towards the exploration and exploitation of mining deposits, mainly of copper, whose production is traded abroad. Its mission is to deploy, in a responsible and quick manner, all its capacity related to the mining business and other related fields, with the purpose of maximizing in the long term its economic value and its contribution to the Chilean State.

Codelco Chile is committed to a business administration that protects the physical integrity, the health and quality of life of its employees, of its direct collaborators and that of other persons that could be affected by its operations. Likewise, it is committed to respect the environment and to promote the strengthening of its relationships with the community.

The Corporation will try to maintain copper as a material of future use in an environmentally sustainable manner, contributing to the reduction of possible negative impacts of its production and use in all its life cycle.

For this reason, each of its work and business centers, current or future, in Chile or abroad, will develop an administration based on the following commitments:

• Maintain auditable systems of environmental, security and occupation health administration, in accordance with the nature and conditions of its operations, in a framework of preventive action and continuous improvement.
• Identify, evaluate and control the environmental aspects and the risks of its activities, products and services that affect the security and health of persons, the environment, the physical assets or the normal operations of its processes, implementing preventive and corrective action programs.
• Reduce or eliminate the generation of waste products, acting preferably at its origin, trying its reutilization or recycling and environmentally safe disposal of its final waste products.
• Use efficiently the resources, especially the natural ones, as for example water and energy.
• Comply with the applicable legislation and with the voluntarily subscribed commitments on this issue, collaborating, in addition, with the authorities in the development of the applicable legislation.
• Induce its employees, suppliers and collaborating companies towards a responsible attitude in issues related to environment, security and occupational health, through an adequate sensitizing and training about the requirements related to these issues.
• Maintain a reliable, clear and timely communication and information with its employees, customers, suppliers, collaborators, authorities, community and other stakeholders.
• Establish effective control mechanisms on its operations, on performance and preparation assessment, and responses in case of possible accidents, emergency situations or detected disconformities.
• Consider the use of clean technologies and protection criteria related to environment, security and occupation health in its processes, starting from the design stage in every new business or project.
• Spread the principles of this Policy among its suppliers, contractors and customers.
  

On the other hand, it will establish corporative initiatives destined to:

• Support actions that contribute to a responsible environmental administration in the copper industry in all its life cycle.
• Support investigations for the generation of scientific knowledge in relation to the influence of copper in human health and in the environment, and use this knowledge to support its position in case of regulations that affect the production, trade, use and final disposal of the copper.
  

The responsibility of the application of these principles and commitments corresponds to the whole management chain of the Corporation, as well as its business and supporting units. Its compliance is the responsibility of all its executives, employees and direct collaborators."

Juan Villarzú Rohde
President & Chief Executive Officer
September 2001