Glencore plc (GLEN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Kalidas Madhavpeddi, and I'm the Chairman of your Board, it's almost 11:30 now, so I'm very pleased to open the Annual Meeting. Let me first start with the safety issue. In case of emergency, please exit through the main doors behind you and follow the exits to leave the building the same way you came. We have provided headsets for everyone, and the instructions are on the package. Please set it to 1 for German and 2 for English. Please turn your mobile devices off and no photography is allowed. I'll provide the exact details and procedure for the conduct and order of this meeting at the appropriate stages. First, my great pleasure to introduce my distinguished colleagues on the Board starting with Liz Hewitt; Martin Gilbert, Cynthia Carroll; next to me, John Burton, the Company Secretary. At the end, my far right and your left, David Wormsley, Patrice Merrin; Peter Coates, Gill Marcus, who is our Senior Independent Director, and Gary Nagle, our CEO. Patrice Merrin will retire today. On behalf of the Board, I'd like to express our gratitude to Patrice for 9 years of committed service and she's been working all day, even today. So thank you, Patrice. Our CEO will give a short presentation, but before that, I wanted to make a few comments. First of all, 2022 was a significant year for Glencore both in terms of governance and results. First, on financial performance. I'm pleased to report this is the best financial year for the company, since its IPO. As a result, we've strengthened our balance sheet. We'll be paying out dividends of $0.44 per share and buying back a further $1.5 billion of shares. Secondly, the Board remains committed to our climate strategy. Alongside the annual report, we published our climate report, which provides an update on our progress and our transition plan, which we published in 2020. Our targets for reductions, as you all know, for Scope 1, 2 and 3, our 15% reduction by 2026 and 50% reduction by 2035. And our aspiration is to achieve 0 emissions by 2050. Health and safety remains one of our top priorities. Last year, we carried out extensive work in this area including overseeing the implementation and performance of our SafeWork 2.0 program. We've seen improvements in many of the metrics, but sadly, we are humbled in having to report that we had 4 fatalities across our businesses last year. As our training and our processes continue to improve and become embedded across all our businesses and operations, we believe we will move closer to our ambition to prevent all fatalities, occupational diseases and injuries at work. Tailings storage facilities remain an important area of focus, as you all know, we've already spent $130 million on upgrade programs around the world with a further spend of about $500 million for the next 3 years. On compliance, last year, we reached the resolutions with the U.S., the U.K. and Brazilian authorities concerning our investigations, but the investigations with the Swiss and Dutch continue. Over the last number of years, we have invested heavily to improve our ethics and compliance programs and we are committed to learning from our past failures. As Chairman, I'm proud that your company is a significant investor and partner in the developing world. Wherever we operate, we make a commitment to create value in ethical in a sustainable manner. We employ tens of thousands of people, support local businesses and service providers and invest in local education, health care and infrastructure. Around 2.5 million people living near our industrial assets have benefited from our community investment activities, including environmental initiatives, health care facilities, education programs and enterprise development. Last year, we paid approximately $12 billion in taxes and royalties to our host governments. We welcome fiscal transparency through our support of the extractive industries transparency initiative and through the annual publication of our payments to governments report. Our community development programs are also an integral part of our community and stakeholder engagement strategies. The Board would also like to thank all our employees at Glencore for their hard work, efforts to drive the success of our business, which in turn delivers meaningful benefits to all our stakeholders. With that slightly long introduction, I'll now hand over to our CEO, Gary Nagle, to say a few words about our outlook.

Good morning. Great to [ meet to ] announce. Thank you for joining us here today. I won't take a lot of your time. I know there's a long order of business to get to. So I'll just spend a few minutes. Last year, I talked a lot about our financial performance. And Kalidas has mentioned the record year that we had during 2022 for your company and we achieved so much during the year of 2022 -- and it set us up for a terrific future. And I thought today, I would spend just a few minutes talking about what our company looks like and what the future looks like for our company and the great future we have for all our stakeholders in Glencore. Up on the screen, you'll see a slide, which effectively puts it all together in 1 page. What is our business made up of? It is made up of a world-class industrial business. This is a business that supplies the energy needs of today through the coal reserves and resources that we have, but it provides the metals for a decarbonized future to provide for the energy of tomorrow. So we're a very well-established company with world-class assets across the entire world, providing what the world needs as we decarbonize to the net zero 2050 that Kalidas mentioned. Associated with that, we have the best-in-class marketing business. This is a marketing business that once again covers the key commodities that we need, providing the materials that the world and our customers need to decarbonize and to grow the world and provide the services that they do. That's the complementary nature of having the industrial asset business with a marketing business is what really provides the returns both to you, our shareholders and to our customers the service that they need to ensure the quality and reliability of the commodities that we provide. But we don't stop just there. There's a lot more to our business. Over the last couple of years, we've invested heavily in a recycling business because circularity is a key part of the future. It's a key part of decarbonization. And most importantly, it's a key part of our responsibility to the world. And over the years, as we continue to grow that recycling business and provide those recycled materials and minerals into the world, our customers will look more and more to us for those minerals knowing that these are responsibly sourced, responsibly recycled in a circular economy. And that is a growing business for us, something that we are paying a lot of attention to, spending a lot of capital on and we're seeing the dividends already in this early stage. And associated with that, we've also set up a carbon business. And a carbon business is something that our customers need too. Customers are asking for carbon-free freight. They're asking for green aluminum and we can provide that service through our industrial business, through our marketing business, through our recycling business, and we overlay it with a carbon solution for our customers with a one-stop go-to shop to provide those decarbonization metals and minerals needed for the future and at the same time, providing the energy needs of today. Now if you look where the world sits, the world is under-invested in those key commodities. So as the commodities that we have in Glencore, we are uniquely positioned to be able to maximize value for our shareholders, while providing those services to our -- and those products to our customers. These are products that are absolutely vital. The world cannot decarbonize without the materials that Glencore provides today. The supply-demand balance looks very challenged and we are here to invest, invest our capital to help meet those demand challenges. We have a long program of capital development around our copper projects, around our nickel projects, around our cobalt projects that will allow the world to decarbonize through us spending that capital and allowing the world to get hold of those materials and build the energy needs of tomorrow. Our business is absolutely unique. No other business has those 4 elements that I mentioned, and a world-class industrial business with the right commodities, a world-class marketing business, a recycling business and a carbon solutions business that provides the world what they need. We have a leading carbon emissions and climate strategy a reduction in our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, 15% down by 2026, 50% down by 2025 and a net zero ambition by 2050. This is sector-leading, and no other mining company in the world can match our climate strategy. So in front of you, you have a very flexible business, a very robust business, an incredibly strong management team ready and -- to deliver on a terrific strategy for you, our shareholders. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Gary. I will now proceed to the formal part of today's meeting. Copies of the notice of this meeting, English, German, French and Italian are available in the auditorium. If anyone does not have a copy, please raise your hand and the attendant will get you a copy. Does anyone not have a copy? Okay. Before proceeding to take a vote on the resolutions, I would like to invite questions from shareholders. Questions should be asked in English or German unless you have provided your question in advance, we do not have translation facilities for any other languages. When seeking to ask a question, please raise your hand and a poll card to show that you are a shareholder. Before you begin asking a question, please may ask you to get a microphone and somebody will hand you one. Please give your name. And if you're not a shareholder, who you're representing. Also, if you're a German speaker and wish to ask a question German, please do so, and we'll -- at least I'll put on a headphone and we'll have translation on the headsets. I would also like to remind everyone this is a shareholders meeting, and therefore, that I ask -- I would ask that any question, which does not relate to today's agenda is kept short. Otherwise, I will cut off the questions, especially they're repetitive and go over same points as before. So I would start with who has the first question?

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, my name is [indiscernible]. I feel very uncomfortable when they come into this building and I see this people demonstrating. Could you please explain to me -- what is this all about? What are you doing that makes this people protesting against the company? Why are the news -- as the medias talking very badly about Glencore? And what do you do about it? Thank you.

I think your question is what are people doing outside? And why are they there? First of all, anybody is welcome to come and say what they may or may not say. As I've mentioned in my introductory comments, Glencore is a company that's very focused on its global assets, its people, helping communities and the countries that it operates in and we don't always perhaps see to -- eye-to-eye with certain people, but I'm not aware of who they are and what they're doing outside. Gentleman in blue shirt.

[Foreign Language]

I think you're asking about the Horne smelter, is that correct?

Horne smelter. Yes, and I'm speaking in French because all people over there are French speaking.

Why don't you ask your question in English then, if you don't mind? You did the French part. If you could help us out and speak in English, please.

Do we see the questions beforehand. We were told in the introduction, we could speak some other language. If you receive the question beforehand. You received it beforehand.

In that case, please sit down, and I will be happy to answer the question.

I didn't ask them already.

Okay. You said you sent the questions ahead of time. So I'm just trying to make it easy.

Are you going to say the question?

I will I answer the questions that you sent ahead of time.

So I don't have to ask them.

Hopefully not.

Okay. I'm going to try to say it in English. And -- that's not because I don't speak English. I did -- that -- I did not want to speak it. Okay. Yes. When are you going respect the -- there are -- there are 2 norms in Quebec, 15 nanograms and 3 nanograms. Quebec told you -- could use the -- later on, the first one, the 15 nanograms, and you should submit a plan to attain the 3 nanograms by 2027. Why don't you do it now? Will you give money to people impacted by the activities of the plan? And when will Glencore stop telling it's going to close the plan if it doesn't get what it was.

We will go ahead and answer your question, and then we'll go from there. Thank you very much. So regarding the Horne smelter, as you know and for the benefit of everyone else, who's listening in question. The Horne smelter is over 100 years old. It's a facility that's been operated by many companies, including [ Noranda of Canada ] and the first priority for us as the owners and operators is the health and safety of our people and the community around. In the last 20 years, we have decreased the emissions by over 90%. And we are working on a very aggressive program to spend quite a lot of money, roughly CAD 500 million to bring the emissions down further. We think that's the right step to do. We've asked the Canadian government to work together with us to create a baseline study from the people around the community, and we're waiting for their response. In addition, we're trying to create a buffer zone around the horne smelter so that if there is any such issues, it doesn't translate into health issues for our employees and the people that live around the smelter. So hopefully, that answers your question. And can I go to the next question, please.

[Interpreted] We'll be asking our questions in German. Speaking on behalf of Hilda, she is representative of the Women's of El Paso in Colombia, representative of the Afro-columbian community there, and she is also a human rights activist to us -- was concerned. There are 3 questions she has, how will you be repairing the damages that you have inflicted on women, mothers, their children and young people without any future prospects, where mining activities on our Afro-columbian territories having printed on our lives, the ways of life and our rights. Secondly, have you abided by environmental restrictions imposed on you by the Colombian state? Third question, how will you compensate the community for the health damage that they suffer from the coal mining?

I think this was a question from Prodeco. Is that correct? Perfect. So as you know, Prodeco currently employs about 1,000 people in terms of indirect employees, contractors. When we retrenched people, we paid them a much higher rate than the government required for the retrenchment. And we continue to work with the government with regard to the facility and how we move forward at Prodeco. Gary, did you want to comment any more on that -- thank you.

Hello, Mr. President. I'm Richard Murphy, I'm a shareholder and co-filer of Resolution 19. I'm here today now to ask a specific short question on behalf of the First Nations Representatives from Australia. So that reads our names are Jack Green, Garrwa Elder and longtime activist against damage caused by Glencore's McArthur River mine and Josie Davey, Green or traditional owner for McArthur River mine. The River mine is a lead and zinc mine, as you know, it is the most toxic mine in Australia. We've seen our Sacred River, the river diverted to make way for the mine and acid mine drainage seep into the groundwater of our country and as sacred sites and cultural heritage destroyed. So the question Glencore has acknowledged that the mine will need monitoring until at least 3037, so over 1,000 years, can Glencore commit publicly to the people of Borroloola. Where the mine is located to disclose how the mine will be closed, rehabilitated and monitored for 1,000 years and how will this be funded by Glencore?

We respect the rights, interest and aspirations of indigenous people and acknowledge their right to maintain their culture, identity and traditions. Some of our industrial assets that you pointed out are located on traditional territories. Our approach, when dealing with them aligns with the ICMM position statement on indigenous people and mining, which requires mining projects located in land traditionally owned by -- or under customer use of indigenous people with respect to rights and special connection to the land and water. We also, as ICMM member, must adopt and apply engagement consultation processes, which we're doing. We seek through good faith negotiation to reach agreements with indigenous people, who maintain an interest or connection to land, which we operate. And we continue to do that at all our locations.

Yes. I just want to add something to that answer. We are currently negotiating the EULA agreement and the latest independent monitor report shows excellent environmental management. The 1,000 years was, in fact, a government request assessment, and we have a number of working groups engaging on the ground with First Nations, with the government, with interested parties and stakeholders to work out a comprehensive environmental management plan to deal with all environmental impacts and with the utmost respect to the First Nations and native title.

[Interpreted]. My name is Maurice [indiscernible] from CEV International. I will speak the words in English. And afterwards, and I will translate -- or speak the words in english for both gentleman. [ Glencore is the current owner of Grupo Prodeco in Cesar Colombia. It became as well the sole owner of the Empresa Carbones Del Cerrejon in La Guajira, also in Colombia. This happens after acquiring 100% of Cerrejon's shares only a few months after Grupo Prodeco reannounced its mining titles. The latter happens in an abrupt manner and without consulting with the unions and communities. In the meantime, Grupo Prodeco continues to operate in Colombian territory, selling coal to Europe and making millions in profits, whilst using the figure relinquishment of mineral titles to exterminate the unions through a juridical request to lift the union protection and [ addressing ] sick workers seeking to automatically dismiss them. The Colombian Justice hasn't allowed the union's protections to be lifted. Arguing that Prodeco Group is still active in Colombia, which means that both unions and sick workers should receive training and we reintegrated to other activities developed by the company in the territory, which would be entirely possible considering how fast Glencore's operation is. In light of convention 87 of the ILO and principal 4 of better coal code, Prodeco is still in depth with the unions and communities in the area as it has failed to establish an honest horizontal dialogue in good faith, to reach agreements for labor reconversion, social protection and economic diversification for the more than 7,000 direct and indirect workers that have been affected by Grupo Prodeco's decision. Nevertheless, Glencore has filed in demand against Colombia through the CSID mechanism. Based on the issues above mentioned, I have some questions for the board. Can you tell us what are the numbers of commercialization of coal in the last year until now? How do you guarantee that our low conventions such as 87 and 98 relevance to take in account in the case of a relinquishment of mining titles, are taking accounts? And the same is true for the better coal codes #4. And in the case of -- how do you think to include social protection for ex-workers besides all the intended social productive projects that you have planned?

So as you well know, Prodeco, we relinquished the mining contracts. Prior to that, I think in the last 30 years, Prodeco has invested about $3 billion and paid almost $3 billion in royalties and taxes to the government. We have -- when the asset was relinquished and the workforce was reduced to the care and maintenance. We paid wages to the people that are terminated, which was over and above what the government requirements were. So from the company perspective, we did more than what the government was asking. We continue -- our Prodeco continues to employ about 1,000 employees as far as we know. And those employees are paid at the wage rate they were before. Where Prodeco remains committed to complying with its obligations. And in fact, in terms of the unions, as you point out, they continue to engage with assembly, et cetera. So some of the points you made are incorrect and I just want to make that clear. Yeah, please. But can you keep it short, just so that -- I want to give a chance to other shareholders who may have business and other questions with items on the agenda.

We recognize that it bonus that we are here, but as union leaders, we have the right and obligation to defend the right to freedom of association and the right to help underwrite the quality of the workers in the territories from which the value of your shares are coming from. To begin the intervention, we want to let you know that the leader from Peru, he has been fired twice for defending his rights of outsourced workers in the Andaychagua mine in Peru and twice he has been reintegrated -- reinstated thanks to court decisions against Glencore. I want to call your attention and...

It's not Glencore. You're talking about Prodeco, just to make it clear. Peru, right? No. Okay.

I want to call your attention as Glencore's shareholders to ask you for your support to Glencore to guarantee the right for collective bargaining for the union he represents. This to guarantee decent work for our workers in the Volcan Mine, including outsourced workers. For every direct worker, there is our 7 outsource workers. It is important for you to understand that Glencore does not comply with the law in Peru. That is why it was necessary. We had to go to file and demand to ensure compliance with national standards. Nevertheless, even today, the court rulings, which indicated that the Glencore should sit down and negotiate that are neglected by the company. And this only because the union that you represents affiliates direct and outsourced workers. Volcan is implementing a strategy of union busting. For this reason we have filed today a case with a national contact point in Switzerland and in Peru together with CMV International solid funds, the Swiss trade union federation SGB and the Union of Metallurgical and Mining workers at Andaychagua, Volcan, mining company and specialized companies, contractors into many areas. With the principal goal we file this complaint to achieve that Glencore takes action together with the subsidiary Volcan, and that it sits down with us as soon as possible and start negotiations in good faith with the trade union that you represent.

So let me respond to some of your points just to make it clear. First, Volcan does not restrict the right to collective bargaining, as you know, or freedom of association for Andaychagua Union. So we kind of -- right off the bat, I think the allegation is untrue. It is important to note that those workers that were dismissed for participating in the strike had resigned from the union months prior. They left the workplace without any justification, which according to Peruvian law qualifies for dismissal. Volcan has already called on the union to enter negotiations, but the union has requested additional demand as we understand it. And therefore, I think further questions should be directed to Volcan, as you know, rather than to Glencore. Thank you.

We come together from [ La Sirena and Feriha ] in Colombia. We are from the Yukpa indigenous people, and we left our lands to come and meet you to talk about the serious situation we are facing locally in our lands due to coal mining. We are here to talk to you about what those numbers mean in reality. The ones you are discussing here in our social reality as indigenous peoples in Colombia. Today, we are here to inform you, you all that according to the Colombian Constitutional Court, we are at imminent risk of extinction due to the loss of our ancestral lands and all the consequences it has caused because of the open coal mining. It's not an invention of us. It's a reality. The paradise, where we lived became a real hell with those coal mines. Today, we are here to bring you this information, because perhaps the most of you were unaware of this horrible situation. But from now, with the information we are bringing to you, you will start being complicit of the genocide, we are facing, if you decide to not doing anything in the name of this progress. In reality, to stop Glencore damages is a matter of life or death for indigenous peoples in Colombia. And moreover, in this context of the climate crisis we are living is a matter of life or death for all the human family. Our questions are, are you going to stop this process of extinction of indigenous peoples? Are you going -- the last one, are you going to stop the process of extinction of the entire humanity or are you going to keep extracting coal in the context of climate crisis?

First of all, I made an earlier statement about how the company treats and is aligned with indigenous people. I understand and appreciate that you come a long way, and thank you for that. I understand that you have already appealed to the courts, and it was rejected at the fourth level of the court and is now being reviewed by commission. So we await that decision to see what happens next. Thank you. Anyone have a business or strategy question, just to warm up the place a little bit. I think the gentleman with the yellow lapel.

Hello, Mr. Kalidas. My name is [indiscernible] and And I work at [indiscernible], a wholly owned company of Glencore in Spain, a member of the European Union. [indiscernible], the local manager participates in union's activity through a union that only sits in the company, his name is [ Sidarth ]. There are serious problems with [indiscernible] safety with a highly elevated [ assertions ] and with dangerous work areas. For example, where the roasting process takes place. There are [indiscernible] related to health and environment that very poor management of carcinogenic products. When -- with input impact on workers, who are exposed in the environment. The sustainability of the operation is compromised due to injustification, the extractions of jobs and the lack of investment in maintenance. My question to you is, what will management and the Board do to end these practice as possible imminently that [indiscernible], in my opinion, the company's code of conduct and when? Thank you.

First of all, the health and safety of our workers, as I said before, is our first priority. As to [indiscernible], as you know, complies with all legal requirements governing the operations, both Spanish and EU legislation as well as Glencore policy. So let me make that clear right off the top. The operation continues to focus on improving the roasting facilities, which I think is one of the things you expressed concern about. This includes investment in a new maintenance facility and we've recently started installing it in a test phase. So that should continue the improvements that we promised at [indiscernible]. Thank you. Somebody tell me they have a business question.

Thank you. Dear Board of Directors. My name is Robin Williams, as representative of the Northern Mining in New South Wales Energy Union in Australia, we are inquiring about Glencore stance on the Australian government same job, same pay legislation. Specifically, we would like to know if the Board of Directors supports align the pay and condition of contractor workers with those of permanence.

Thanks, Robin. So I think, first of all, your union agreement has already been negotiated, correct?

I haven't quite finished -- specifically, also alternatively, will the company oppose the proposed legislation and continue the practice of paying contractors significantly less than permanent employees. Over the past decade, Glencore has utilized contractor workers from labor-hire providers at your mining operations, which has undermined collective bargaining efforts, despite performing the same work and adhering to the same shift structures as permanent employees, these contractors receive $30,000 to $40,000 per year less, we see clarification on Glencore's position regarding this issue. Thank you.

As I understand it, your union contract at that location was negotiated and is already in practice. So that's an agreement reach between the parties and is there any further issues that you have, that should be brought up at the local level. As you know, we're a diversified company with assets around the world, and these are delegated to each of the business units that run it. But since you have an existing contract, if you have further questions, comments on your contracts, you should bring it up at that level.

I mean -- maybe if I can add -- one extra comment to that. As you know, Robin, our coal business in Australia, and particularly in New South Wales has a -- well, let's say, much less contractors than some of our competitors, particularly those in Queensland. But of course, we're very aware of the legislation that's coming. That -- the bill has not been fully released by government, and we're waiting for the details of that. And once we see the details of it, we'll be able to engage constructively.

It's very exciting for us that there are so many questions. So thank you.

[Interpreted] I will be speaking German, [ Stefan Suner ] from the -- Group Swiss Colombia [indiscernible] has the following message that I would like to pass on to you. A year ago, communities started, when it came to giving back mining titles to demand transparency and to have a say, since December 2022, there's been a court a decision that asked Prodeco to open up a table to work with the communities Hilda to discuss with them the plans on the closure. Those communities see great dangers. There are 5 specific death threats. There were attacks on indigenous leaders. Our questions are the following. What does Prodeco do to save the lives of those activists, the 5 people that stand up for the rights of their communities, and they're standing up for a fair transition in the energy business. Secondly, when will Prodeco start the dialogue, the process of dialogue with local communities and third does Prodeco and Glencore in agreement with us that the transition from coal to a coal-free society would also have to include damages paid to these local communities that were impacted by the mining?

Thank you, Mr. Suner. Many thanks for your questions. And of course, your ongoing interest in Colombia. Prodeco's engaged with local communities in a number of occasions to present the details of the environmental transition plan. At this point, we're awaiting decision on the plan, as you know, from the relevant authorities. And at this time, we don't have any updates from them. Once the authorities issue the decision will resume engagement. Prodeco, as you know, maintains engagement with civil society, and we actually received support from the Swiss government to do so. Prodeco is also separately undertaking a third human rights impact assessment and we will share those findings with you once sufficient progress has been made. Finally, I think you asked last time perhaps about [indiscernible], and we'd be open to joining a meeting between Prodeco and [indiscernible] virtually, recognizing that the Prodeco team is the one that makes the decisions and is coordinating all the relevant activities on the ground.

If I can add one more comment. Sorry, Mr. Chairman. On the first point, Mr. Suner that you raised, the company condemns in the strongest terms any threats against any community leaders whatsoever, and we encourage anyone, who is threatened their life or the physical harm to report that to the relevant authorities. And as a company, of course, we would assist to extent that is required, but we absolutely condemn any threats against any community leaders or other stakeholders.

Mr. Chairman, members of the Board. In your opening remarks, you talked [indiscernible] just forgot -- in your opening remarks, you talked about the outstanding financial performance over the last year. How does that go together with the decline in the stock price of 13% over a year? And what is your assessment of the financial performance year-to-date for 2023.

As you know, since last year, many of the commodity market prices have come down partly because of Chinese economy and the growth there. Potentially, there is a U.S. recession perhaps in the second half of this year and Europe looks quite a bit slower mainly because everybody is in the process of raising interest rates to bring down inflation globally, which is also slowing down the world economies. So it's a natural reflection of lower commodity prices that's reflected in the stock price. Our longer-term assessment of our business remains unchanged. We think that decarbonization metals are the critical path for decarbonization for the entire globe and Glencore will be providing all the key metals that go into the decarbonization. Gary, do you want to add something?

No. I think you've covered that. I mean just generally, one thing to add. Of course, it was a record year last year. You're quite right and our share price reached a record high of GBP 5.80 on the London Stock Exchange, but associated with that will return significant cash to shareholders by way of dividend and buyback. And that is the part of the return. It's not only reflected in the share price of the day, but it was reflected in the fact that we returned significant cash to shareholders by way of buybacks and dividends. And the share price is also reflective, of course, of future outlook, which our Chairman has outlined in his response.

Who else has any business or economics question. No I was just joking. Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the Board. I have 4 specific questions. First of all, due to the existing geopolitical situation, what are the existing opportunities in LNG trading existing and future. My second question is I understand there's an electricity trading desk with the world moving towards renewables. Of course, electricity will have to be stored. What opportunities are there existing where possibly in the future in terms of trading. My third question is, can you make any comments about the tech resources situation? And the fourth question is there's a significant discussion about the world approaching a time where we will not have enough copper. Now can you make any comments about the existing copper price? And what the general position is of Glencore.

Maybe I'll take number #4 first and then you can do the rest. What do you think?

Yes, sure. Go first.

Well, I spent 30 years in the copper industry and you're right about the question. If you look at the worldwide production of copper, the grades of all the major mines in the last 30 years have come down. So 25 years ago, a mine like Escondida in Chile was producing 1.5% copper, today is about 0.7%. In fact, the world average copper grade is about 0.55% and the rate at which new mines are being discovered and produced is getting longer and longer because, one discovery is a much harder, large ore bodies are very hard to find. And if you find one process of trying to permit and get into production is significantly longer. So there will be quite a bit of stress on decarbonization metals. We're obviously well positioned for that because internally, we have a lot of growth and we think that Glencore play a pretty major part in it. So Gary, over to you.

Thanks very much for your questions. LNG is a very exciting commodity for Glencore. It's something that we are -- have started trading in and marketing. We have long-term offtake arrangements. We have regasification facilities in Gate in Europe. And certainly, when you look at the outlook for decarbonization, certainly, everybody is trying for a zero carbon solution as quickly as possible, but that practically is not possible and the use of fossil fuels is required. We provide that through our coal business, but we also provide that through LNG, which is seen very traditionally as a transition fuel. We continue to grow that business. We believe there are opportunities given the structural changes in the market and the elimination of Russian pipe gas out of the market. And a large portion of the value that we provided to our shareholders and to our customers, in fact, during 2022 was to be able to provide them LNG in times of need when they were unable to access those -- that gas coming from Russia. So in a very turbulent geopolitical world, but a world that must decarbonize but requires short-term transition fuels like coal and LNG. LNG does continue to play an integral part of our marketing business in our energy departments. With respect to Power, Power again is a key part. We are very active in the coal marketing business, in the LNG marketing business, as we discussed. As I presented in our presentation, we are active in the carbon business. So effectively, we're in -- we are active in all sides of the energy mix but the one area we haven't been fully active in to date has been the power -- the power industry. So recently, we've now started to trade power. It is something that it would be -- it's a natural derivative that comes from trading all the feedstock into the power or into the energy mix. So it is something we trade. We traded generally out of Europe, a little bit around the rest of the world, but generally out of Europe. And it does -- it's very complementary to our existing business. Your question around energy storage, that is something for the future. Industrial energy storage, that technology hasn't been unlocked. It's a key part of what the world needs to unlock technology wise. We're a key contributor towards that within the critical minerals that we supply. And as we do that and as that technology gets unlocked, I would imagine that our power trading desk would be involved in any developments in that industry around power storage. And then lastly to address your question around Teck. It's an ongoing discussion we are having with Teck. We believe that this is a transaction that is value accretive for our shareholders and for Teck shareholders. The idea is to create 2 bigger, better companies by merging Teck with Glencore and then demerging a bigger, better coal business into its own stand-alone business. And keeping the metals business of Glencore together with the Teck metals business, which have a number of synergies with Glencore's existing assets we believe will create 2 bigger, better businesses with significant synergies and significant re-rate potential that will benefit all shareholders and other stakeholders.

Hi, Mr. President. My name is Dominic Demir. I'm from Canada. I'm also the industrial coacher for the mining industries. We represent more than 50 million workers all around the world and exactly 141 countries. We are also shareholders of the company. So my question will be, from my opinion, really important for the business and it's an economic question. And in my opinion, all the questions that were asked before me were important for the business. So I'm here to announce the behavior of Glencore with their employee and trade union around the world and also in Canada. I have 3 different questions. The first one, one year ago, Glencore have been condemned by independent tribunal in Canada for violating the labor code in Canada. And this judgment say that you illegally fire employee because they vote against the Glencore agreement proposal. The second thing, they roll out Glencore to try to dominate hampered union activity in Canada. And finally, they condemn the company because you refuse to negotiate in good faith. Second thing, I would like to raise the point of how Glencore is using subcontractor all around the world. We are really happy that you create a lot of profit and it's good for the company, it's good for the shareholders, and it's also good for the employee but you create a lot of precarious jobs with using subcontractor. With industrial, we deal with a lot of big multinational companies, mining company, and I think that we will need to create a dialogue with the high management of the company. So my 3 questions were you aware about this decision in Canada. The second one how many employees you have in the world and how many subcontractors and then would be willing to create like a steering committee that we can talk together with a higher level of management around the world.

So first of all, I don't completely agree with any of your premises, but over 70% of the company's employees are unionized and we completely support the right of any employee to join a union wherever they may be. We negotiate at the local level between the company and unions, and we follow best practices both in the country and globally as we negotiate these agreements. So I think fundamentally, from the premises that you've tried to raise, we think because of the importance of local negotiations and the fact that each business is so different, we don't think there is much that cannot be resolved at the local level. Periodically, we have taken the view and virtually attended discussions within some region just to see how things are going but other than that, we believe that a centralized is unproductive and it's best dealt with the businesses and in the countries they operate in.

[Foreign Language] 1 month from the Duke people, I'm coming from the place where the open mining pits are working. The contamination and the pollution has caused that 40 children died annually because of the pollution. What are your plans for reparation and for compensation of the environment and of the people that it is closed by the mine and that it is hugely affected by the pollution to the point that 40 kids die annually.