The company said its 2MW pilot truck was being assembled in South Africa, describing it as "a world first" - a zero-emission truck capable of carrying a 290 tonne payload and able to generate more power than its diesel predecessor.

"Once fully tested, we intend to begin rolling out this technology across our global truck fleet starting in 2024 and this will follow our typical truck refurbishment and replacement cycles," the company said last week as it released its Climate Change Report 2021.

It said diesel usage in its truck fleet accounted for 10-15% of Anglo's Scope 1 emissions and its haul trucks contributed up to 80% of the diesel emissions at its sites, saying switching to hydrogen was expected to take the equivalent of more than half a million internal combustion cars off the road.

New Scope 3 target

Anglo American also outlined a new target to reduce Scope 3 emissions.

"Building upon our commitment to carbon neutrality across our operations by 2040, we have today set our ambition to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by 50%, also by 2040," CEO Mark Cutifani said.

"We believe that we are doing all the right things to decarbonise our business and to work with partners to help decarbonise our value chains."

Anglo is aiming to increase its renewable energy usage, saying a little more than a third of the electricity it used globally in 2020 was from renewable sources.

"Having now secured 100% renewable electricity supply across our operations in Brazil, Chile and Peru, by 2023 we expect to be drawing 56% of our grid supply from renewables," the company said.

Anglo shares have risen 45% in 12 months to last trade at 2,722.5p in London, capitalising it at GBP37 billion (US$50 billion).