Sustainable procurement

Contractors and suppliers form an integral part of our business. In 2019, for our Australian operations, we engaged more than 1,800 suppliers, of which 94% are located in Australia and 6% internationally. Our Sierra Rutile operations engaged 245 suppliers during 2019 of which 52% were Sierra Leonean based suppliers and 48% international suppliers.

Through our Procurement Policy and processes we support economic development in the communities in which we operate. Iluka identifies and includes local businesses in tender and sourcing activities, which are evaluated on a range of criteria including, health, safety, environment, technical, service, innovation and value. This approach provides businesses the opportunity to be competitive on total value, rather than just the cheapest price.

Iluka’s Human Rights Policy, which is applicable to Iluka’s stakeholders including its Directors, employees, suppliers and contractors, conveys our commitment to rejecting any form of slavery or forced or child labour, and working to ensure that such practices are not present in our business or our supply chain. Iluka has adopted a formalised process to identify potential modern slavery risks in our supply chain. We are creating a supplier self-assessment questionnaire, with cross industry collaboration, which will be embedded as a standard requirement of suppliers in Iluka procurement processes. The supplier questionnaire will be further supported internally by updates to our procurement contracting documents and new supplier selection and screening processes.

Further details on Iluka’s approach to human rights and modern slavery is presented in the Social Performance section of this report.