A $125-million loan will be pro- vided to the Ahafo gold mine in
Ghana by the Inter- national Finance Corporation (IFC), the
private-sector investment arm of the World Bank.
The loan will help to support the country’s mining sector,
help raise environmental standards, employ international best
practices on resettlement and ensure that local communities benefit
from the project.
The loan consists of $75-million for the IFC’s own account
and an additional $50-million in syndi- cated loans from commercial
lenders to Newmont Ghana Gold, a sub- sidiary of Newmont Mining
Corpo-ration, for the construction and operation of the Ahafo mine.
As a development lender, the IFC’s primary role in2 forms of table of specification the
project is to advise on environmental and social issues.
“The IFC’s involvement brings expertise and guidance to
help ensure that the mine’s social and environmental
performance meets international standards, particularly with
respect to the resettlement process and community engagement, and
that the project provides increased benefits for Ghana and
particularly for the people living sand washer gator companynear the mine,” said the
IFC’s director for oil, gas, mining and chemicals Rashad
Kaldany. “That is why Newmont sought our engagement and we
are pleased to work with them on our common goal of bringing
benefits to local communities.” To increase local development
benefits, the IFC and Newmont will provide information and
expertise on business practices to local small and medium-sized
firms.
This will emobile coal washing plant south africanable them to become potential suppliers and providers
of services, such as food, laundry, equipment maintenance and
cleaning to Ahafo and other ventures outside the mine. A special
emphasis will be placed on empowering women entrepreneurs.
The programme will also help local enterprises to develop the
business skills needed to obtain loans from local banks. In
addition, the IFC is working with the company onsteel slag process production line the development
and implementation of an effective HIV/Aids programme.
The mine has created over 1 200 permanent jobs and will be an
important source of income for one of Africa’s most mature
demo- cracies. It will pay over $300-mil- lion in taxes and
royalties to Ghana, increase the country’s gold production by
30% and raise its foreign-exchange earnings by eight to ten per
cent.
“This is an important project for Ghana, which is one of the
few countries in the region that stands a chance of meeting the
UN’s millennium development goals,” says the
IFC’s director for sub-Saharan Africa, Thierry Tanoh.
“Mining is the biggest source of foreign direct investment in
the country and the IFC has dedi- cated a significant amount of its
own resources to help ensure that Ghana benefits from the
project.” The IFC, together with the company, developed an
environmental and social monitoring system and Newmont is
implementing a bio- diversity management plan in collaboration with
environmental group Conservation International. The IFC has also
instituted an ongoing, independent review of the programmes
established by Newmont to restore the livelihoods of the more than
9 000 people either resettled or otherwise affected by the
mine.
“We have engaged with the IFC to benefit from its expertise
on environmental and social matters,” comments Newmont Mining
Corpo-ration CE Wayne Murdy. “Their help and advice on
resettle- ment and restoration of livelihood has been particularly
valuable to us. We are committed to operating the Ahafo mine to the
highest inter- national standards,” he adds.
The IFC coordinates its activities with the other institutions
of the World Bank group but is legally and financially independent.
Its 178 member countries provide its share capital and
collectively determine its policies.
The commercial banks participating in the $50-million syndicated
loan are Calyon, NM Rothschild & Sons Limited, Bank of Nova
Scotia, Soci