COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
FINDING GOLDEN VALUES IN PEOPLE
CREDIT: KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD.
GOLD INDUSTRY GROUP MEMBER KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD HAS SHOWN THE INDUSTRY HOW A COMPANY CAN NOT ONLY LEAVE A LEGACY BY MINING THE PRECIOUS METAL, BUT ALSO THROUGH ITS IMPACT ON PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES.
Kirkland Lake Gold itself has been constant in its efforts to lift social, education, and health and wellbeing standards in the local community. Its commitment to community projects over the next three years will reach an eight-figure sum and is designed to involve a number of disadvantaged communities. Hann says the impetus comes from Kirkland Lake Gold president and chief executive Tony Makuch, who Hann describes as “one of the most generous men I’ve ever met in my life.” “Right after he approved $1.4 million to help Australian regions recover from bushfires, the pandemic was raging. We were doing a bit better in Australia than in Canada, but he was thinking about how we could help communities recover from AUSTRALIANMINING
CREDIT: KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD.
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f there has been one thing that mining companies traditionally have not been good at, it is telling the positive stories of their actions to the general public. Mining companies have responded to many facets of social needs in the regions in which they operate, yet these stories still often fail to reach an audience. Kirkland Lake Gold vice president operations and co-lead Australia, Ion Hann, says this is definitely changing. “The mining industry is uniquely placed globally to assist regional communities. There are numerous examples of where the industry is giving back to the communities where it operates. But it needs to get better at telling that story,” Hann tells Australian Mining.
THE FOSTERVILLE GOLD MINE NEAR BENDIGO, VICTORIA.
KIRKLAND LAKE VICE PRESIDENT CO-LEAD AUSTRALIA, ION HANN.
the pandemic,” Hann says. “So, he initiated a $US20 million ($26 million) fund for Canada and Australia with half of that coming to Australia,” Hann says. The funds motivated the Kirkland
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Lake Gold team to identify areas that had been most affected by the pandemic, including homelessness, food shortages, mental health, poor education and domestic violence. Services in these areas saw