Community

Crew Gold is known in the locations it operates for exceeding even the most stringent of host government rules on support for local people and for leaving a legacy of excellent infrastructure after mine closure.

In each place we work conditions are different – both people-related and environment-related conditions. We have invested our money, our skills and our philosophy of sharing in each of these places in a way that makes the difference that is needed most.

LEFA (Guinea)

Guinea is an economically disadvantaged country and Crew’s community programs are geared to improving the living and education standards in each of the villages surrounding the mine site. A community liaison assistant has been appointed in each village and Lefa management plans to build a community liaison office in the villages of Siguirini, Lero, Carrefour, Amina, Fontou and Banora.

Community support in emergency situations is top of LEFA’s CSR agenda. In February 2008 over 800 homes in Lero Village were destroyed by fire and more than 2,000 people were displaced. LEFA management and contractors provided assistance to reduce the damage caused by the fire and helped the homeless with first aid and temporary accommodation.

The recent US$ 250 million CIP expansion project carried out at LEFA necessitated revamping of the administration buildings and accommodation camp at Fayalala. Management envisions that these facilities will remain after mine closure and site rehabilitation. As a result of the expansion project employment has increased dramatically from the original 300 employees.

Current and Planned Projects at LEFA

• Clean drinking water has been brought to Carrefour, Amina, Fontou, Banko and Lero Villages. Amina will soon become the recipient of a solar and wind powered pump – the first of its kind in the area.
• A school has been built at Carrefour Village and Crew has assisted pupils with attending their school-leaving examinations.
• A new medical clinic and health education center has recently been built in Lero Village.
• Mine management has agreed to build a new village for its senior national staff, the location of which is being finalized.
• Training has been provided for 31 HIV/Aids peer educators.

Maco Mine (Philippines)

Crew Gold Philippines has set up and staffed a community relations office as a center for managing the important human-relations and community-support aspects of its work at Maco.

Preferential employment opportunities are given to the residents of the local villages (barangays) and the surrounding municipalities, and further financial support takes the form of ongoing patronage of the commercial establishments found in the nearby City of Tagum. Crew’s long-term maintenance work of the 26-km Masara-Mawab provincial road that connects the Maco site to the national highway has boosted commerce and reduced travel time for the communities and barangays through which the road passes.

Where barangay residents have been affected by mine development they have been relocated to new residences in town. The company provided the transportation for personal belongings, the hauling of construction materials, and assistance with the carpentry work for the new houses.

The company’s medical staff and facilities for common medical needs are freely available to local residents and the dependants of employees. Its ambulances and other vehicles are even used by non-employees who require emergency medical treatment at hospitals in Tagum.

Nalunaq Gold Mine (Greenland)

Forty percent of the Nalunaq Gold mine workforce comes from the nearby towns and are employed as miners, equipment operators, tradesmen and caterers. The local miners are trained on site for their jobs as the relevant skills are not available locally. Jobs at the mine are in demand as the pay scale is higher than elsewhere.

Because the southern Greenland economy is seasonally based and local people are not used to working a full-time schedule that takes them away from their families, retaining trained personnel is a challenge. To offset this, Nalunaq management has modified the work schedule to reduce the length of time away from home. As a site policy, permission has been given for overnight visits by family members. The visits are established by length of employment at Nalunaq and are granted once every six months. Day visits to site via boat are also permitted.

As the mine site is particularly isolated, no infrastructure will remain after mine closure. The closure plan stipulates that all materials, equipment and installations will be cleared and dams and bridges over rivers will be dismantled and removed. The landscape contour of the road trace, material feeding points and storage areas must be leveled out to match the surrounding terrain to the widest extent possible

In an effort to assess environmental compliance and/or impact, a decision was made on site to undertake an audit in the second half of July 2006. The audit considered the Nalunaq site, the access road and the port facility (located 12 kilometers away). The Bureau of Mines and Petroleum also undertakes regular site inspections of different aspects of the project.

To remove some of the mystery from the mine site, in November 2006 Nalunaq granted permission for Greenlandic television to film a short documentary on one local Greenlandic miner and how he spends a typical day. The documentary was very well received and has been broadcast country wide several times.

Nugget Pond (Newfoundland, Canada)

Nugget Pond is the Crew-owned facility for processing ore from Nalunaq, was built by a Canadian company ten years ago, and has been upgraded by Crew. The social systems are well developed, as would be expected of an inhabited area in Canada. Just the same, the plant is a major source of taxation revenue to the local municipalities.

Crew has helped fund the purchase of a fully equipped fire truck for the local community of La Scie.