We seek to do this through the taxes and royalties we pay, employment opportunities we create, suppliers we work with, and social investments we make.
Local hiring
We aim to create a workforce that reflects the diverse communities where we operate.
Local procurement
We seek to source goods and services from local businesses that meet our health, safety, environmental and social performance requirements.
Social investment and economic development
We are proud to invest in local communities and contribute to the social, economic, and institutional development of host countries and communities.
We assess the impact of our social investments using an impact measurement framework, which supports data collection and analysis.
You can find out more about this in our Sustainability Databook 2025 and our Annual Report 2025.
1 Includes payment to suppliers, employee wages and benefits, payment to governments, social investments and payments to shareholders.
Contributing socio-economic value at Hermosa
Hermosa is helping grow and diversify the local economy by creating the highly s...
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Supporting local industrial growth through aluminium beneficiation in South Africa
South Africa’s aluminium industry has a long-standing history, with over 70 year...
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We aim to contribute meaningfully to the social and economic development of the countries and communities where we operate. Key aspects of our approach are outlined below.
Our economic development plans aim to promote or support local employment, procurement and business development opportunities and, where appropriate, regional economic development.
We aim to provide employment opportunities to local communities and create a workforce that represents the diverse communities where we operate.
At our operations we understand that local procurement is a key interest for local communities. Where appropriate:
In Australia, we engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses across our supply chain. In South Africa, we focus our Enterprise and Supplier Development activities on strengthening local procurement from small, medium and micro enterprises, and supporting supplier development.
Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) in South Africa is aimed at addressing historical socioeconomic inequalities and promoting economic transformation.
ESD consists of two components:
Our ESD program provides eligible entrepreneurs with infrastructure, skills development and support, enabling them to participate more effectively in our supply chain and contribute to the broader local economy.
South32 is a supporting company of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) association and its objectives to make the EITI Principles and the EITI Standard the internationally accepted standard for transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors.
We disclose all relevant tax payments made to governments and all mineral development contracts. Our compliance with the EITI expectations is outlined in our Tax Transparency and Payments to Governments Report 2025.
We invest in communities where we operate with the aim of creating shared value and supporting stakeholder and community interests.
We seek to collaborate with communities and other relevant stakeholders at our operations to develop and implement social investment plans. These are focused on responding to stakeholder and community aspirations, interests, expectations and concerns (including those of vulnerable, marginalised and at-risk groups), building community resilience and creating shared value.
We measure the social impact of our activities and social investments to understand the value created in local communities, and to inform future community engagement, identify economic development opportunities and guide investment decisions.
Our contributions to community programs comprise direct investment (including Enterprise Development), in-kind support and administrative costs. In FY25 this totalled $US23.3 million.
Learn more at partnering with communities or see our Annual Report 2025.
