Under the new agreement with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it will explore how these solutions could "help deliver positive biodiversity outcomes and support carbon neutral goals, while delivering additional benefits for conservation and wider stakeholders".

The collaboration comes as ESG, climate commitments and social sustainability advances are expected to be top of mind in 2021.

Reducing and preventing carbon emissions in the mining industry was "absolutely critical" for companies to achieve their climate change targets, particularly as the demand for these natural resources would continue to increase in the transition to a low-carbon future, IUCN senior programme manager Steve Edwards said.

"IUCN welcomes the opportunity to work with Anglo American to explore how the company can enhance climate mitigation through Nature-based Solutions and identify best practices that can be shared with the industry to accelerate uptake," he said.

IUCN and Anglo American planned to work together to identify how the company could discover and apply the solutions, and new technology, across its full mining lifecycle.

"By adopting an ecosystem approach, we can better understand how biodiversity, people, climate, water, finance and the economy are all interconnected and bound by nature," Anglo's head of environment Dr Ian Hudson said.

"This approach supports the delivery of our Sustainable Mining Plan and FutureSmart Mining programme - our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining."

RBC Capital Markets analyst Tyler Broda recently said Anglo's technology advantage and leading climate goal of carbon neutrality by 2040 were likely to drive more investor interest as ESG themes continued to grow.

Anglo shares closed up 4.88% in London yesterday to £27.93, near a one-year high reached in January, valuing it about £38 billion (US$53 billion).