Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Sustainable Fitch has assigned JSC Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company (NGMK) an ESG Entity Rating of ‘3’ and an entity score of 51. This reflects NGMK’s efforts to implement its strategy for sustainable development, balanced against the environmental and social impacts of its operations.

NGMK is a state-owned gold mining company based in Navoi, Uzbekistan. Its gold production was 2.94 million troy ounces in 2023, representing revenue of USD5.71 billion, and it had 47,600 permanent employees.

NGMK’s gold production is a vertically integrated process covering geological exploration and mining to ore processing and finished product creation. Gold is a crucial element in various industries, including electronics and jewellery, and as a financial asset; however, its production has an overall negative environmental impact due to high energy consumption, water use and potential chemical contamination.

NGMK’s use of renewable energy sources; targets for water consumption reduction and water recycling; and cyanide management in line with the International Cyanide Management Code all align with reducing its environmental impact, which we view positively.

NGMK’s environmental profile includes established policies, disclosure of key metrics and a lack of environment-related incidents. However, its GHG emissions increased in the last three years, which it attributes to production increases during the period; and its disclosure does not include Scope 3 emissions.

NGMK’s social profile reflects comprehensive policies, good disclosure and a lack of social incidents. It presents a high number of fatalities and serious injuries in the last three years, and has low gender diversity among its workforce and senior management, though this reflects the low representation of women in the sector.

NGMK’s governance framework adheres to Uzbek regulations and international standards. Twenty-two percent of board members are independent, falling below market best practice. Positively, the roles of CEO and chair of the supervisory board are split, which avoids excessive concentration of power within the governance system.

Sustainable Fitch’s ESG Ratings offer a global solution to assess Environmental, Social and Governance performance of all asset classes at an entity, framework and instrument level, helping the ESG financial community make better, informed decisions. It has developed a modular analysis framework, enabling it to provide a Second-Party Opinion (SPO) and a monitored suite of ESG Ratings including Entity Rating, Framework Rating and Instrument Rating.

ESG Ratings indicate an entity’s performance, commitment, and integration of environmental and social considerations into its business, strategy and management, and the effectiveness of governance. The ratings are provided on a scale of ‘1’ to ‘5’, with ‘1’ being best and ‘5’ the worst.