Broad-based community support is essential for the long term sustainability of our business. We believe in involving community members in decisions that affect them, which in turn helps us develop an honest, two-way and mutually beneficial relationship with our host community.
Prior to start of our operation and before undertaking any new project, we have been conducting socio-economic baseline studies, impact and risk assessments to determine both positive and negative impacts of our operations on the community. Based on these, we devise individual plans to mitigate any adverse impacts associated with our activities and at the same time support any positive impacts to contribute to the development of the region. Specifically, our community directed management plans include: Public consultation and disclosure plan, Resettlement action plan, Grievance management plan, Cultural heritage management plan, Economic and physical displacement management plan and Community health and safety management plan.
In addition, through our community investments we seek to deliver long term sustainable outcomes for the community by empowering local people to develop independently of the Company’s continued support when our mining activity ceases.
Community development programs
Our community development programs are designed to support the broader development opportunities and overall sustainability of the local communities. We implement various programs focusing on local employment creation, increasing access to health and education, promoting local business development, and cultural heritage preservation. These areas of focus were determined based on priorities and needs of our stakeholders and is in line with our long-term corporate strategy that seeks to balance profit with development considerations to ensure sustainable profitable growth.
Our Local education support program aims to enhance the quality of educational system at various levels across the soum as well as the Umnugobi aimag. It seeks to support educational activities at different levels from pre-school to vocational education both nationally and locally. Therefore, this program benefits wide range of stakeholders and has the potential to make a lasting sustainable impact through capacity building. The program has been ongoing since 2013 in which we established a “Dream” secondary school, kindergarten and dormitory complex in Tsogttsetsii and currently involves over 2,000 pupils and teachers of the soum. As part of this program, experienced consultants from Ulaanbaatar provide professional guidance to the local teachers and specific programs are carried out such as online math program. These serve as valuable contributions in raising and sustaining the quality of education in rural Gobi region.
Through our Community health support program, the Company seeks to eliminate negative impacts on community health and safety and, where possible, make a positive contribution. We organize complimentary health check-ups and health awareness building trainings among the community members on a regular basis.
MMC is firmly committed in protecting and preserving both tangible and intangible cultural heritage of this region through its Cultural heritage preservation program. We conducted pre-construction archaeological surveys in and around the areas where we operate and have in place programs to protect intangible cultural heritage of the local community. These include organizing Mongolian traditional long song training and contest and supporting the use of our traditional ‘Uigarjin’ script among the younger generation. The company also organizes “Ukhaa Khudag” traditional Naadam festival in Tsogttsetsii on an annual basis.
Our Sustainable livelihood support program seeks to support start-ups and micro businesses in Umnugobi aimag with the aim of increasing the positive impacts associated with our mining operation in order to promote the sustainable economic development of the region. In 2018, we expanded the outreach of the program to involve family members of our employees who permanently resettled in Umnugobi. Over the past 3-4 years, over 60 applicants have received an interest-free loan to support or expand their small businesses and all are showcasing visible improvement in their business activities.
