Sustainability, customers and employees

Sustainability shift

Our portfolio helps customers to increase their productivity and safety and reduce their environmental impact.

By electrifying the fleet, a mining operation can significantly reduce its energy consumption. No underground exhaust emissions are produced and much less heat is generated compared to traditional engines. Electrification supports mine operators reach their sustainability targets, such as reduced CO₂ emissions, and reduces ventilation requirements, therefore reducing costs. Battery-powered equipment is also more productive due to higher speeds and requires less maintenance compared to traditional engines.

Our new warehouse at Roe Highway Logistics Park in Western Australia has been recognized for ‘World Leader­ship’ thanks to its environmentally sustainable building practices. The facility’s innovations include the use of low-carbon concrete, solar generation with battery storage, a dual electric vehicle charging station, energy-efficient lighting and a dedicated rainwater harvesting system.

A new technology to recycle the tungsten inserts on drill bits at customer sites, designed by colleagues from Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions and Sandvik Manufacturing and Machining Solutions’ Wolfram division, in collaboration with customers, received the 2022 Sandvik Sustainability Award in Memory of Sigrid Göransson. The new technology will lead to CO₂ reductions of approximately 64 percent compared to mining virgin raw material and increases employment in the communities close to the mines.

Customer’s first choice

Through the acquisition of Deswik and the integration of DSI Underground, we have expanded our value chain to include mine planning and ground support, creating a unique holistic customer offering. Our electrification, digitalization and automation journey is also highly valued by our customers, who are increasingly wanting to partner with us in these areas. For example, a partnership dating back several years with mining company BHP to develop the underground mining equipment and automation solution for its Jansen Potash project (Canada) resulted this year in a SEK 2 billion order. We also received a large mining equipment order from the Chinese global mining services provider JCHX Mining Management Co Ltd, to be used in the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine and the Kamoya copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The order was for a fleet of intelligent load and haul equipment and it is valued at SEK 210 million.

We also stay close to the customer through events like Innovation in Mining. With its focus on the mine of the future, the event, hosted at our sites in Sweden and Finland, welcomed over 700 visitors.

Agile through cycle

We are well prepared for unstable market conditions. Flexible production systems are one of the many levers we have built into our contingency planning, providing us with a production structure that can mitigate upturns and downturns.

We are continuously evaluating our supply base, to be more resilient and less dependent on global supply chain constraints. We are taking mitigating actions, such as setting up additional units which provide spare parts closer to the customers.

When the war broke out, our main focus in Russia and Ukraine was on the safety and well-being of the 700 Sandvik employees working at mine sites and offices. We moved swiftly to conduct a controlled wind down in Russia, minimizing the impact on our people.

During the year, we inaugurated a new facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, consolidating five separate sites.

Employer of choice

We have approximately 280 diversity and inclusion activities underway across the business area. This year we entered a strategic partnership with the International Women in Mining organization to help drive progress in gender equality in the industry.

The partnership with the Federation of European Mineral Programs provides us with opportunities to attract new talent at the universities with which they work. To recruit new digital competences, we have established an incubator office at Tampere University in Finland, to help make us more attractive within the digital space. With many of our employees being millennials, we have initiated a reverse mentorship program, to help senior leaders understand what makes a workplace attractive to younger generations.

We have over 300 health and well-being programs underway, 50 percent of which are related to the physical environment.