Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. 2020 Annual Report Drill and Blasting Area of the Open Pit Mine, Oyu Tolgoi
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2020 Annual Report Turquoise Hill is an international mining company focused on the operation and further development of the world class Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Southern Mongolia. Underground Mine Shaft Facilities and Chandmani Operations and Service Centre Table of contents 4 Letter from the Chairman 6 Company Profile 8 Operational Performance 10 2020 in Review 12 Mine Design 14 ESG Commitments 16 Copper Mark Award 18 Strong Sustainability 20 Safety 22 Water 24 Biodiversity 26 Land Management 27 Greenhouse Gas Emission 28 Sustainability Commitments 32 Environmental and Social impact Assessment Management 33 Board of Directors / Senior Leadership Team 35 MD&A & Financial Statements Table of contents Table 2 Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. 2020 Annual Report Drill and blasting area of the open pit mine, Oyu Tolgoi. The Oyut open pit is mined using conventional drill, blast load and haul methods. Camel herd belonging to a nomadic family in Khanbogd soum in which the Oyu Tolgoi Mine site is located, within the Umnogovi aimag Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. 2020 Annual Report 3 Letter from the Chairman 2020 was a year in which, despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we delivered on many milestones and continued to operate the open pit uninterrupted, while keeping the underground development on the critical path to sustainable production. Of note, our achievements in 2020 were accomplished during a year in which the All Injury Frequency Rate, the global measurement of safety performance, registered a record low. The key milestone of 2020 was the completion of the updated mine design for the underground development. That was followed in August by the Oyu Tolgoi Technical Report, which updated and reconfirmed the value proposition from the original mine design of 2016. The definitive estimate released in December further optimised the new mine design and solidified an updated schedule highlighting first sustainable production in October 2022. Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic Safety 2020 was shaped, both locally and globally, by the The Oyu Tolgoi open pit and underground development COVID-19 pandemic. Safety has always been a top delivered another consistent safety performance during priority for Turquoise Hill, and this solid foundation of a 2020, reflecting the ‘safety first’ culture that is part of strong safety culture was instrumental in dealing with the every aspect of the operations at Oyu Tolgoi. The All challenges of the pandemic and has allowed Oyu Tolgoi Injury Frequency Rate of 0.15 per 200,000 hours worked to keep our employees and communities safe and healthy. is among the lowest of our peers and a remarkable achievement considering the increased pressures from From the outset of the pandemic, the Oyu Tolgoi team the pandemic. worked closely with the Mongolian authorities to prioritise the health and safety of all its employees and the wider Production and Revenue community, establishing a business resiliency team to Our production performance during 2020 delivered closely monitor the impact of the pandemic on our people copper production of 149,631 tonnes, in-line with the and our operations. We took a considered and risk- original guidance range of 140,000 – 170,000 tonnes, based approach to managing our response and actions and gold production of 181,858 ounces, above the original to address and mitigate the effects of the pandemic, and guidance range of 120,000 – 150,000 ounces. Gold also partnered with the Government of Mongolia to assist production in 2020 was lower than in 2019 due to the with the battle against COVID-19 through donations to need to mine through lower gold grade material on the emergency funds. periphery of the South West pit as Phase 4B sinks towards the highest gold and copper grades lower in the pit. Access We are proud that throughout 2020 we were able to higher copper and gold grades toward the end of 2020 to maintain our open pit operations and underground is expected to continue throughout 2021. development, and remain vigilant in prioritising the health and safety of our workforce and the surrounding communities. 4 Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. 2020 Annual Report Funding Oyu Tolgoi Delivering on our promise to be a good corporate citizen Turquoise Hill continues to pursue multiple funding options At Turquoise Hill, we are fully committed to responsible to reduce the Company’s outstanding funding requirement production and transparency at Oyu Tolgoi, and we remain for the underground development. We signed a non- dedicated to protecting the environment and safeguarding binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Rio the health, safety and welfare of all workers and the local Tinto reflecting the parties understanding to reprofile the community. We are proud to be part of an operation existing debt to better align with the updated cash flow that is leading the industry in environmental, social and projections from the new mine design, and to seek to governance (ESG) standards and contributing to the secure supplemental senior debt of up to $500 million. sustainable, long-term socio-economic development of Mongolia. In addition to the MOU, Turquoise Hill completed the first phase of its comprehensive funding review process, which Oyu Tolgoi LLC is Mongolia’s largest copper and gold involved the identification, market testing and evaluation mining company and has spent over US $ 11.6 billion of a range of funding options available to Oyu Tolgoi in-country since 2010, marking the largest foreign LLC. Turquoise Hill believes there are multiple sources investment made in Mongolia. This in-country spend of available capital to fund the completion of Oyu Tolgoi’s has made a substantial contribution to the country’s world-class underground development. We have sufficient economic development through taxes, salaries and local liquidity to fund Oyu Tolgoi operations and underground procurement. development into Q3 2022, and we remain focused on continuing positive engagement with the Government of During 2020, we were particularly proud to be awarded Mongolia and Rio Tinto on funding options. the Copper Mark, the copper industry’s new independently assessed responsible production program. The Copper Government of Mongolia Mark is the first and only program for responsible Turquoise Hill remains committed to working alongside production in the copper industry. Originally developed by the Government of Mongolia, as well as our local the International Copper Association (ICA) with inputs from communities, to ensure Oyu Tolgoi delivers value to all a broad range of stakeholders including customers, NGOs stakeholders. To that end, we supported the formation of and producers, the Copper Mark is now an independent a special committee, comprising Turquoise Hill-nominated entity with a multi-stakeholder council. In order to qualify, and Government of Mongolia-nominated representatives, Oyu Tolgoi had to meet over 30 criteria for responsible to conduct an independent review of the cost overruns ESG operating practices. and delays to the Oyu Tolgoi underground development announced in 2019. This review is ongoing, and we Planning for 2021 continue to believe this action is consistent with corporate 2020 was a year in which many key milestones were governance best practices, ensures accountability and achieved and our shareholders saw a marked recovery in transparency, and will ultimately serve the best interests of our share price. Looking forward into 2021, the COVID-19 both Turquoise Hill and the Government of Mongolia. pandemic continues to impact our day to day lives, and could still have unanticipated effects on operations and Power the underground development. However, the discipline In June, we announced that the Government of Mongolia and ‘safety first’ culture at Oyu Tologi have served us well and Oyu Tolgoi reached an agreement to amend the through 2020 and will continue to drive our operations Power Source Framework Agreement (PSFA) to progress and underground development forward through 2021. Oyu Tolgoi’s long-term domestic power requirements I would like to express my sincere gratitude and respect and prioritise a State-Owned Power Plant (SOPP). The to the employees, contractors, partners and the people amended agreement envisages that the Government of Mongolia who have kept Oyu Tolgoi on the path to of Mongolia would fund and construct a SOPP at Tavan rewarding all stakeholders while ensuring the health and Tolgoi, which would provide long-term and reliable safety of our team and the broader community. power supply for Oyu Tolgoi’s open pit operations and underground project development. The parties are now Sincerely, working on signing a Power Purchase Agreement and negotiating an extension to the existing power import agreement to ensure that there is no disruption to the power supply required to safeguard Oyu Tolgoi’s ongoing R. Peter Gillin operations and development. Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. 2020 Annual Report 5 Company Profile Turquoise Hill is an international mining company focused on the operation and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper- gold mine in Mongolia, which is the Company’s principal and only material mineral resource property. The Company’s ownership of the Oyu Tolgoi mine is held through a 66% interest in Oyu Tolgoi LLC; the remaining 34% interest is held by Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC (Erdenes), a Mongolian state-owned entity. Oyu Tolgoi is one of the world’s largest new copper-gold mines and is located in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, approximately 550 kilometres south of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and 80 kilometres north of the Mongolia-China border. Consisting of five known mineralized deposits, the first of those (the Oyut deposit) was put into production as an open-pit operation in 2013. A second deposit, Hugo North (Lift One), is under development as an underground operation while the other three deposits, Hugo North (Lift Two), Hugo South and Heruga, are not yet scheduled for development.