Down 38%, with twelve points to go and three things that have to work.

Where our emissions actually come from

Quintel emitted 612 kt CO₂e of Scope 1 and 2 in FY2025, down 38% from the 2019 baseline of 987 kt. Two thirds of the reduction came from two projects: the Lubumba grid connection, which removed 28 million litres of annual diesel consumption, and the solar plants at Asankran and Mbengwe.

The remaining emissions are concentrated in places that are harder to reach. Diesel in mobile equipment — haul trucks, excavators, dozers — accounts for 44% of Scope 1. Grid electricity where the grid is fossil-fuelled accounts for most of Scope 2. Process emissions, principally from lime and reagent use, account for the balance.

Scope 3 is substantially larger than Scope 1 and 2 combined, dominated by ocean freight, the smelting and refining of our concentrate and doré by others, and purchased goods. The group reports Scope 3 in the categories where the data is reliable and states plainly which categories are estimated.

Emissions profile

Scope 3 categories marked as estimated are calculated using spend-based and industry-average emission factors and are not within the limited assurance scope. Scope 3 rises with production; the group reports it in absolute terms rather than per tonne in order not to disguise that.

The decarbonisation pathway, and its honest limits

The target is a 50% absolute reduction in Scope 1 and 2 by 2030 against 2019. Thirty-eight points are done. The remaining twelve depend on three things: a 20 MW solar and storage installation at Fatala, approved in 2025 and due in 2027; the electrification of the underground fleet at Mbengwe, enabled by the conveyor decline that removes 41 diesel trucks from the ramp; and a power purchase agreement for renewable supply at Gamagara that is under negotiation.

If all three deliver on schedule the group reaches 51%. If the Gamagara agreement fails the group reaches approximately 46% and will say so rather than restating the baseline.

Beyond 2030 the pathway becomes genuinely difficult. Surface haul truck electrification at the scale of a 220-tonne fleet is not yet a commercially proven technology at the duty cycles and ambient temperatures our operations run at. The group has committed not to purchase a new diesel surface haul truck after 2032 and has joined two OEM development programmes, but it will not publish a 2040 net zero commitment whose delivery depends on equipment nobody currently sells.

Energy

Renewable and hydroelectric sources supplied 61% of group electricity in FY2025, against an 80% target for 2030. Three solar plants are operating — 28 MW at Asankran, 45 MW at Mbengwe and 12 MW at Gamagara — with 22 MWh of battery storage at Mbengwe smoothing the solar profile and carrying critical loads through grid dips.

Energy efficiency is less visible and, in aggregate, comparable in effect. Comminution — crushing and grinding rock — consumes roughly 40% of the electricity at a concentrator, and a two-point improvement in mill efficiency saves more energy than a small solar plant generates. The group runs a comminution optimisation programme at both concentrators and has reduced specific energy consumption by 11% since 2021.

Biodiversity and land

No Quintel operation is located inside a UNESCO World Heritage site or an IUCN Category I to IV protected area, and the group has a standing commitment not to develop one. Two operations — Asankran and Nyanga — are adjacent to protected forest, and both operate under management plans agreed with the relevant national authority.

At Nyanga, in a country that is 88% forested and has made forest protection a defining element of national policy, clearing is limited to the advancing mining strip and 1.9 hectares are rehabilitated for every 2.0 cleared, with a net gain target by 2032. All rehabilitation uses seedlings of 34 native species grown in an on-site nursery from locally collected seed. A camera-trap programme run jointly with a Gabonese research institute has recorded forest elephant, mandrill and golden cat movement across the concession since 2019, and haul road crossings have been relocated twice on the basis of that data.

At Asankran a 340-hectare biodiversity offset area is managed jointly with the Forestry Commission and two community land committees, and has recorded net gains in canopy cover in each of the last six annual surveys.

Closure

Every pit, plant and tailings facility in the group is designed backwards from the day it stops producing. Closure plans are prepared before construction, updated every three years and costed on a third-party basis — that is, on what it would cost a contractor to do the work, not what it would cost Quintel with its own equipment on site.

The group closure provision was US$412 million at 31 December 2025. It is funded progressively from first production into ring-fenced instruments in each host country: a reclamation bond in Ghana, a rehabilitation trust in Zambia, a financial provision under South African law at Gamagara, and cash-backed guarantees elsewhere.

Progressive rehabilitation — returning land to a stable, useful state while the mine is still running — is preferred over deferring everything to closure. It is cheaper, the equipment and people are already there, and it produces evidence rather than promises. The group has rehabilitated 1,470 hectares to date against a 2030 target of 2,000.

Environmental incidents

The group classifies environmental incidents on a five-point severity scale. Category 3 and above are reported to the board committee individually and disclosed in the annual sustainability report.

In FY2025 there were no Category 4 or 5 incidents. There were two Category 3 incidents: a hydrocarbon spill of approximately 4,200 litres from a ruptured line at Mbengwe, fully contained within bunding and remediated within nine days; and an exceedance of the turbidity limit in a sediment control discharge at Fatala following an extreme rainfall event, which persisted for eleven hours and was reported to the Guinean authorities within the statutory period.

Both are described in full, with root cause and corrective action, in the sustainability report. Neither resulted in a regulatory penalty. The group publishes incidents that did not result in penalties for the same reason it publishes near misses.