PART 2: GEARING UP FOR THE REAL IMPACT OF ESG

PART 2: GEARING UP FOR THE REAL IMPACT OF ESG

Anna Cranney, Social Performance Lead of Blackstone Minerals Ltd on the impact of ESG

With ESG being one of the most important criteria from investors and companies in the mineral resource sector, businesses can no longer sit on ESG and expect it to be a fad.

It may well surprise people to know that even commodity pricing and investment decisions are heavily influenced by ESG compliance and the state of the ESG component of the product.

Ms. Cranney explains that Blackstone Minerals is managing the process by instilling the passion of ESG into the DNA of the company. In fact, it is the very core of the Blackstone business.

Noel Ong of Samso finds out from Ms. Cranney the ins and outs about how a company can start the ESG process and where ESG could go in the future.

Ms. Cranney and her Blackstone team are working on having best practice to make sure all aspects of the business are fully compliant with ESG requirements. She breaks down the whole ESG concept into highly digestible pieces that allow businesses to have a clearer idea of what it really is, and how to start implementing it.

About Anna Cranney

• Social Performance lead

• Blackstone Minerals Limited

• Bachelor of Education/Arts from the University of QLD;

• Graduate Certificate in International Education from the University of Sydney;

• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment;

• Diploma of Training Design and Development, RMIT;

• Graduate Certificate in Social Impact from UWA and the Centre for Social Impact.

Anna Cranney hails from Goondiwindi in Queensland but moved to Perth a number of years ago to work within the extractives sector. She has over 13 years of experience working social performance, capacity building and community development programs. A decade of this has been time spent working regularly in Timor-Leste.

Ms Cranney has worked across industries and sectors including oil and gas, construction, education, not-for-profits, and in the aid and development sector. Her passion is in embedding impact-focused ESG programs across technical teams and operations on major projects, and helping the extractives sector use a partnership approach with communities and not-for-profits to deliver long-term outcomes.

Anna has recently joined the Blackstone Minerals team to continue to develop their ‘green nickel’ strategy and embed ESG across the business, with a particular focus on their Ta- Khoa project in Northern Vietnam.

My role is to embed ESG and flesh out Blackstone's ESG credentials early. I anticipate ESG challenges, address them and engage with stakeholders on ESG compliance.