Protecting Our Natural Environment

Centerra is committed to environmental stewardship to protect the natural environment and prevent, minimize and mitigate the effects of our activities on the natural environment. Environmentally responsible mining is central to our Company’s core values and overall ESG performance. Proactively minimizing Centerra’s environmental impact through project design and proper management and mitigations increases operational efficiencies, strengthens community relationships, and can assist in minimizing permitting and operational costs.

Three workers walking towards a wooded area, with vibrant autumn foliage filling the foreground

Climate Change

Centerra’s approach to climate change is based on a simple idea: reducing energy use and lowering GHG emissions are beneficial to the environment and good for our business. We recognize that climate change is one of the most pressing concerns for communities, regulators, and investors and that both physical and transitional climate risks have the potential to impact our operations. Our Climate and Nature Strategy is organized into five main pillars with the following components: Governance, Climate Mitigation, Climate Adaptation, Nature, and Disclosure & Engagement.

Over the life of a mine, Centerra implements a number of initiatives and allocates capital to reduce its energy consumption, carbon footprint and exposure to the physical impacts of climate change (including those regarding water availability). Our approach has been to build out our climate change strategy in stages, incorporating the appropriate level of engagement with our internal and external stakeholders and make measurable progress each year to meet evolving expectations.

Waste, Hazardous Materials and Air Pollution

Centerra is committed to managing the different streams of waste that our operations produce. We incorporate reduce, reuse and recycling concepts into our plans and practices related to waste. We are also committed to managing air pollutants released through our operations.

Close-up of a man wearing bright blue gloves, holding a dropper and flask containing brown liquid at eye level.
Closeup of water pouring from a sampling bottle during fieldwork.

Water Stewardship

Centerra believes that access to water is a universal human right and that good quality water is critical both to human life and to sustain ecosystems. Good quality water is defined as water used for potable, agricultural, sanitation and recreational use that should require only minimal to moderate levels of treatment to meet appropriate drinking water standards. Water conservation throughout Centerra’s operations is an important priority. Across all Centerra sites, integrated water management continues to represent a significant annual operational cost.

Biodiversity

Centerra seeks to avoid or minimize impacts to nature and biodiversity by reducing project footprints to the extent possible. Environmental management is integrated into our operations to ensure use of water and other resources is minimized and that emissions meet or exceed regulatory requirements. Through our Climate and Nature Strategy, the Company champions ecological stewardship with local communities.

Key focus areas vary by site and are determined during the environmental permitting process. Our environmental teams work with regulators and local experts, including botanists and ornithologists, to develop site-specific Biodiversity Management Plans (BMPs) that address identified impacts. In British Columbia, we also integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge from Indigenous groups into our planning.

A beekeeper in protective gear inspecting a honeycomb frame, with a mountain landscape in the background.
Two workers in safety gear conversing while leaning over a railing, overlooking a large industrial facility.

Mine Closure and Reclamation

Although mining activities may occur over an extended period of time, in the long term, ours is a temporary land use. As part of the closure planning process, our objective is to restore chemical and physical stability to reclaimed areas to ensure the site is set on a trajectory for the restoration of biodiversity and traditional land use activities. Therefore, it is a priority for Centerra to plan for the closure of all its operations through a fully integrated, dynamic and iterative process that takes into account social and economic considerations at an early stage of mine development; this includes ensuring that appropriate financial assurances are in place to sufficiently cover closure and rehabilitation.