Community Support
Excerpt from Ivanhoe's Statement of Values and Responsibilities
SUSTAINING COMMUNITIES AND RESPECTING DIVERSITY
We are committed to supporting and strengthening existing communities where we live and work. We encourage supportive, cooperative partnerships to enhance social and economic resources. We respect the diversity of multicultural states and local communities. We involve the public and community leaders in the planning, implementation and operation of our projects.
- We consult with and engage stakeholders and communities that have interests in, and are likely to be impacted by, our exploration and development activities. We consult prior to the commencement of work and maintain ongoing, open communications; we continue to consider community and individual concerns in ensuing relationships. We work to understand and respect special interests in obtaining consents, cooperation on participation through suitable partnerships and access to land.
- We are committed to supporting, building and maintaining lasting relationships based on trust and common interests with local communities directly and indirectly impacted by our business. Through these relationships, we forge partnerships committed to mutual understanding, solidarity on common aims and interests and the equitable and long-term distribution of benefits for all.
- We encourage the growth of local businesses and source goods and services from local suppliers whenever possible. We support strategic initiatives designed to strengthen local supply chains, increase entrepreneurial opportunities and expand the operational capacities of local firms.
- We support and encourage programs developed in partnerships with local communities to share the economic benefits of our projects. We work with community representatives to establish priorities and implement the agreed upon measures.
SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES WHERE WE WORK AND LIVE
from Ivanhoe Mines' 2007 Annual Report
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As part of its Corporate Citizenship values and commitments, Ivanhoe Mines and its employees support development initiatives as a way to strengthen and sustain communities in countries where the company has active business interests.
- Ivanhoe Mines is helping to rebuild the Demchig Monastery, located among windswept ancient boulders of the Khanbogd Massif, between the Oyu Tolgoi mine development site and the town of Khanbogd. About 600 people from across Mongolia gathered in February 2008to celebrate the triumphant opening of the new, 22-metre-high main stupa --- a major feature of the Demchig complex. The 100-year-old monastery was destroyed in the 1930s, during the Stalinist era.
- Khanbogd Governor G. Buyantogtokh (right), who accepted ownership of Mongolia's tallest stupa on behalf of the people of the South Gobi, greets revered regional Buddhist leader Chinbat Jamiyan at the Demchig ceremony.
- Staff from the Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia head office in Ulaanbaatar collected truckloads of urban litter in a daylong sweep along one of the city's highways in June 2007.
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IVANHOE's various community support initiatives are directed by our staff, who work side-by-side, and consult closely, with nationals in local communities.
Investment in the development of natural resources creates jobs, which help to provide people with the means to nourish families, to advance aspirations and to strengthen the social and economic underpinnings of community life.
The provision of support for local communities in the vicinity of Ivanhoe projects is an integral part of Ivanhoe's commitment to people and established social structures.
MONGOLIA
In Mongolia, Ivanhoe has established the Oyu Tolgoi National Development Foundation, with a start-up target of US$10 million. More than US$1.5 million was spent between 2000-2005 to support Mongolian orphanages, schools, hospitals, a Buddhist monastery restoration and other social development initiatives.
Ivanhoe also has launched a US$750,000 South Gobi education and health program, which is providing training and sponsorship for medical doctors who deliver health-care services to people in the region. The company has helped renovate and equip the community hospital in the town of Khanbogd, near the Oyu Tolgoi mine development site. Work included the provision of 24-hour daily electricity to the hospital for the first time.
A consultative, long-term Herder Support Program has been established for rural families in the immediate vicinity of the Oyu Tolgoi site, providing water and winter shelters for livestock and schooling assistance for children.
KAZAKHSTAN
At the Bakyrchik Gold Project in Kazakhstan, Ivanhoe has implemented initiatives focused on education and health services in the nearby mine community of Auezov. The company has provided scholarships for 30 students attending universities and colleges and funded a program of vaccinations against hepatitis for the children of Auezov. We also have upgraded mine employees' skills, operated a kindergarten for employees' children and sponsored English-language and music schools in Auezov. We have donated road-building machinery to the regional government, in addition to making annual payments to the region for infrastructure works and social development.
Oyu Tolgoi Project -- Awakened Gobi - Responsible Mining Magazine, Autumn, 2008
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