In 2015, the United Nations launched the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 17 goals aimed at focusing and accelerating efforts to address global challenges and achieve an inclusive, sustainable future.

We believe the mining industry has great potential to drive future progress on the SDGs, as mines are often situated in remote and developing regions, where implementing the SDGs can be challenging but where achieving them can have large and lasting impacts. Pan American Silver is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to the values essential to advancing all 17 of the SDGs.

During 2020, we conducted an exercise to identify the SDGs on which our Company can have the greatest impact and to map our initiatives to those SDGs.

The analysis considered four key criteria:

  1. contribution of the mining industry to the SDG
  2. the SDG independent country assessments(1) for the countries where Pan American Silver has activities
  3. Pan American Silver’s current efforts and initiatives to support the SDG, and
  4. the linkage between the SDGs and Pan American Silver’s material topics.

In 2022, we have aligned the objectives of these prioritized SDGs with our 2023 Sustainability Goals, which will drive our performance and maximize positive impact in these areas.

Following this exercise and analysis, we prioritized the eight SDGs outlined in the following:

Our Commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Goal:

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Mining can contribute to SDG3 by championing occupational health and safety, offering and encouraging preventative care, mitigating the spread of disease, and increasing mental health awareness in our COI communities.

Our material topics “Socio-economic Contributions” and “Health and Safety” are directly linked to SDG3.

Of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, the independent SDG country assessments find that Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru face major challenges and Argentina, Canada, and Mexico face significant challenges to meeting this SDG.

Goal:

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Mining can contribute to SDG4 through initiatives that support educational outcomes in communities, upgrade the local skills base, and train and educate the workforce.

We have identified two of our material topics to be linked to SDG4: “Socio-economic Contributions” and “Human Capital Development”.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Guatemala and Mexico face significant challenges to meeting SDG4.

Goal:

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

As a historically male-dominated industry, mining can contribute to this SDG by offering equal opportunities for women and practising gender inclusion across the business and project life cycle.

Our material topic “Inclusion and Diversity” is directly linked to SDG5.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Guatemala faces major challenges and Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia face significant challenges to meeting this SDG.

Goal:

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Our activities such as developing comprehensive baseline regional water resource information, infrastructure investments, conserving and recycling water, monitoring water quality, and managing water holistically can contribute significantly to this goal.

Our material topic “Water” is directly linked to SDG6.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Mexico face major challenges and Argentina and Peru face significant challenges to meeting this SDG.

Goal:

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Through improving energy efficiency and incorporating renewable energy, the mining industry can make a significant contribution to SDG7.

Our material topic “Climate, Energy and GHG Emissions” is directly linked to SDG7.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Guatemala and Mexico face significant challenges to meeting this SDG.

Goal:

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

The mining industry can contribute to SDG8 by providing well-paid direct and indirect jobs. In particular, mining can contribute to the economic outcomes of local communities by supporting and procuring from local suppliers.

We have identified three of our material topics to be linked to SDG8: “Socio-economic Contributions”, “Inclusion and Diversity” and “Relationships with Communities and Indigenous Peoples”.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, out of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Argentina, Guatemala, and Mexico face major challenges and Peru faces significant challenges to meeting the SDG.

Goal:

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Mining companies can promote responsible consumption and production by minimizing resource use and waste and incorporating lifecycle thinking into all phases of the project, from planning to closure.

Our material topic “Tailings Facility and Waste Management” is directly linked to SDG12.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Canada faces major challenges and Argentina and Mexico face significant challenges to meeting this SDG.

Goal:

Target urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Mining companies can contribute to SDG13 by reducing emissions, building climate change resilience, and recognizing climate change in planning and investment.

Our material topic “Climate Change, Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” is directly linked to SDG13.

The SDG independent country assessment finds that, of the countries where Pan American Silver has activities, Canada and Mexico face major challenges and Argentina faces significant challenges to meeting this SDG.

(1) The Sustainable Development Report (formerly the SDG Index & Dashboards) conducts an independent assessment of all 193 UN Member States, as a measurement of the country’s total progress to achieving each SDG. Sustainable Development Report 2020. You are about to leave Pan American Silver’s website. Your linking to this website or pages is at your own risk. Pan American Silver Corp. is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or reliability of any information, data, opinions, advice, statements or other content on linked sites and link are provided merely as a convenience. The inclusion of this link does not imply that Pan American Silver Corp. endorses or monitors this linked website. In addition, Pan American Silver Corp. does not warrant or otherwise guarantee that electronic materials on these websites are free of viruses or other harmful components. Pan American Silver Corp. does not accept any responsibility or liability in respect of linked websites, nor for their content or uses.

2022 Sustainability Report

Our 2022 Sustainability Report is pre­­pared in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standard. It also contains information in consideration of the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting framework.