South32 : Financial Results and Outlook Year Ended 30 June 2022

APPENDIX 4E

SOUTH32 LIMITED

(ABN 84 093 732 597)

RESULTS FOR ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE MARKET

This page and the accompanying 53 pages comprise the year end financial information given to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under Listing Rule 4.3A. This statement includes the unaudited consolidated results of the South32 Group for the year ended 30 June 2022 (FY22) compared with the year ended 30 June 2021 (FY21).

Figures in italics indicate that an adjustment has been made since the financial information was previously reported.

1. The basis of the Group's underlying financial results has been updated from FY22, with these changes also reflected in the FY21 comparative information. There is no change to the Group's statutory reporting. Our material Equity Accounted Investments (EAIs) are now included in our underlying financial results on a proportional consolidation basis, consistent with how their performance is assessed by the Group's Board and management, and reflecting their increased contribution to the Group's financial results with our acquisition of a 45% interest in Sierra Gorda(1). In addition, South Africa Manganese ore has been reported as a 54.6% interest (previously 60%) aligning with our interest in Hotazel Manganese Mines(2) and reflecting our Metalloys manganese alloy smelter (60% interest) having been placed on care and maintenance.
2. FY21 includes TEMCO and discontinued operation South Africa Energy Coal.

NET TANGIBLE ASSETS PER SHARE

Net tangible assets per ordinary share were US$2.29 as at 30 June 2022 (US$1.88 as at 30 June 2021)(3).

DIVIDENDS

The Board has resolved to pay a final dividend of US 14.0 cents per share (fully-franked) for the year ended 30 June 2022, and a special dividend of US 3.0 cents per share (fully-franked).

The record date for determining entitlements to dividends is 16 September 2022; payment date is 13 October 2022.

Registered Office Level 35 108 St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6000 Australia

ABN 84 093 732 597 Registered in Australia

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SAFETY

We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our colleagues, Mr Desmin Mienies, a contractor who was fatally injured while undertaking electrical work at our Wessels Mine at South Africa Manganese on 30 November 2021. Our deepest sympathies are with Mr Mienies' family, friends and colleagues. We provided them with our support following the tragic incident and undertook a detailed investigation to understand what happened. Learnings from the investigation were shared across our organisation.

We recognise that we must continue to improve our safety performance. During the first half of FY22, we partnered with a leading safety consultant to undertake a review of our safety performance and identify areas for improvement. This formed the foundation for our Safety Improvement Program, a three-year global program of work designed to achieve a step-change in our safety performance. Consistent with the review findings, in March 2022 we published our revised internal safety standard - an important element in the implementation of our Safety Improvement Program.

Contractors make up a significant proportion of our workforce and over the last two years we have undertaken a substantial work program to improve contractor safety. In FY22 we developed our internal contractor management standard, which describes the end-to-end process, core components and related performance requirements of our Contractor Management System of Work. It defines the key phases of the contractor management value chain and outlines the performance requirements for each phase, including how we support our contractors to undertake work safely.

Our Total Recordable Injury Frequency (TRIF)(15)(16) decreased by 12% to 5.3 per million hours worked in FY22 compared to the FY21 baseline(17) of 6.0, however we did not meet our target of a 20% reduction. Performance highlights in FY22 included a 51% reduction in TRIF at Cerro Matoso and a 16% reduction at Illawarra Metallurgical Coal.

OUR RESPONSE TO COVID-19

COVID-19 continued to affect our people, operations, projects and offices, and we experienced periods of elevated case numbers and restrictions across all our locations. We support the use of regulatory approved vaccines and actively encourage vaccination for all our employees and contractors. Where possible we have worked with local authorities for our employees and contractors, their families and our communities to access vaccines.

BASIS OF UNDERLYING FINANCIAL RESULTS

The basis of the Group's underlying financial results has been updated from FY22, with these changes also reflected in the FY21 comparative information. There is no change to the Group's statutory reporting. Our material Equity Accounted Investments (EAIs) are now included in our underlying financial results on a proportional consolidation basis, consistent with how their performance is assessed by the Group's Board and management, and reflecting their increased contribution to the Group's financial results with the acquisition of a 45% interest in Sierra Gorda(1). In addition, South Africa Manganese ore has been reported as a 54.6% interest (previously 60%) aligning with our interest in Hotazel Manganese Mines(2) and reflecting our Metalloys manganese alloy smelter (60% interest) having been placed on care and maintenance.

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY

The Group's statutory profit after tax increased by US$2,864M to a record US$2,669M in FY22 as our stable operating performance and portfolio changes that increased our exposure to higher margin businesses enabled us to capitalise on the significant tailwind of commodity prices. Underlying earnings increased by US$2,113M to a record US$2,602M in FY22. A reconciliation of statutory to Underlying earnings is set out on page 6.

Underlying revenue increased by 45% to US$10,630M as we implemented innovative logistics solutions to mitigate challenging freight and third-party port performance to deliver volumes into favourable markets, capturing the benefit of higher prices. This translated to a record operating margin of 47% (FY21: 26%), as we held increases in controllable costs to less than 2% of the Group's total cost base for the year(18). Underlying EBITDA increased by US$2,899M to a record US$4,755M and Underlying EBIT increased by US$2,928M to a record US$3,967M as the Group delivered a 30.1% Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)(14).

We generated record free cash flow from operations of US$2,561M, including distributions from our manganese and Sierra Gorda EAIs. Our strong financial performance supported our continued investment in our business and portfolio changes, that have increased our exposure to metals critical for a low-carbon future, while delivering record returns to shareholders. We finished the period with net cash of US$538M having executed our inaugural US dollar bond during the period, issuing US$700M in Senior Unsecured Notes (Notes) to support the funding of our Sierra Gorda acquisition.

Specific highlights for FY22 included:

• Group copper equivalent production(5) was 99% of guidance, as the majority of operations delivered to revised plans, despite adverse impacts from weather and labour availability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Worsley Alumina continued to operate above nameplate capacity, achieving record annual production;
• Hillside Aluminium and Mozal Aluminium continued to test their maximum technical capacity, despite the impact of higher load-shedding, capitalising on strong aluminium prices to deliver record operating margins;
• Cannington transitioned to 100% truck haulage, while also beating our already increased production guidance; and
• Cerro Matoso achieved a 22% increase in payable nickel production, benefitting from improved plant availability following the prior period's furnace refurbishment and higher-grades from our investment in the Q&P project.

We will return a record US$1,320M to our shareholders in respect of FY22 comprising:

• US$1,053M fully-franked ordinary dividends, including today's announced US$648M fully-franked ordinary dividend in respect of H2 FY22; and
• US$267M as part of our ongoing capital management program, including today's announced US$139M fully-franked special dividend in respect of H2 FY22 and US$128M allocated to our on-market share buy-back across the financial year (46M shares purchased at an average price of A$3.89 per share).

From day one we have established a successful track record for disciplined capital allocation and returning excess cash to shareholders in both a timely and efficient manner, buying back 13% of our shares on issue since commencing our capital management program at an average price of A$2.93 per share. Reflecting our strong financial position and disciplined approach to capital management, the Board has today further expanded our capital management program by US$156M to US$2,266M, leaving US$250M to be returned by 1 September 2023.

In FY22, we made substantial progress reshaping our portfolio toward metals critical for a low-carbon future by:

• Adding copper exposure through the acquisition of a 45% interest in the Sierra Gorda copper mine(1);
• Increasing our low-carbon aluminium production capacity by more than 100%, acquiring an additional 16.6% shareholding in Mozal Aluminium(19) and participating in the restart of the Brazil Aluminium smelter(20);
• Acquiring an additional 18.2% interest in the Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN) bauxite mine, taking our ownership to 33%(21), and further aligning our bauxite supply requirements within our Brazilian aluminium value chain;
• Completing a pre-feasibility study for the zinc-lead-silver Taylor Deposit, confirming its potential to be the first development at our Hermosa project(22);
• Advancing study work on our battery-grade manganese Clark Deposit at our Hermosa project(22); and
• Continuing our investment in greenfield exploration to discover our next generation of base metals mines, spending US$26M across the Americas, Australia and Europe, with plans to increase our investment to US$44M in FY23.

Subsequent to the end of the year we:

• Completed the sale of four non-core base metals royalties to Anglo Pacific Group Plc for up to US$200M(23), unlocking latent value in our portfolio;
• Acquired a 9.9% interest in Aldebaran Resources Inc., owner of the Altar copper project in Suan Juan, Argentina, consistent with our focus on adding options prospective for future base metal developments; and
• Announced that we would not proceed with an investment in the Dendrobium Next Domain (DND) project(24) at Illawarra Metallurgical Coal following our consideration of recently completed study work and extensive analysis of alternatives considered for the complex.