Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp
Photo by: Creamer Media
JOHANESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp is rising to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ten-point mining challenge by striving to pay meaningful social dividends across a broad front and answering the call to beneficiate, which is no mean feat when it comes to gold.
The executive head of the million-ounce-plus a year gold mining and exploration company on Tuesday spelt out his Thuma Mina scorecard to Mining Weekly Online – and it puts the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company on the way to responding to what the President ordered when he drew thunderous applause at last week’s Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video).
President Ramaphosa challenged mining companies to foster inclusive growth, partner local governments, invest in worker living conditions, beneficiate, link with training colleges, shield workers from occupational harm, provide internships, create opportunities for young women, develop worker shareholder schemes and have worker representation at board level.
Harmony projected its scorecard on to a large screen at its presentation of half-year results, which recorded the generation of R1.1-billion in free operational cash flow in the six months to December 31, to show that the company:
- advanced local businesses in its host community areas;
- created a jewellery school whose goldsmiths have succeeded in commercialising their manufactured jewellery products;
- opened a bridging school, provided 100 bursaries a year, offers 300 internships a year in mining and engineering, develops leaders down to team leader level and trains 500 in adult training programmes a year;
- launched its new employee share ownership plan (Esop) this year;
- built single-room occupancy hostels;
- provided 450 family housing units in the last two years; and
- ensured equal opportunity for women, which features on the Bloomberg gender equality index.
The company’s community trust develops enterprises and entrepreneurship as part of its Esop.
“The most important thing that we can do is really to create more jobs, create more places to mine, pay people salaries, generate taxes and those taxes go into the communities,” Steenkamp emphasised to Mining Weekly Online.