World Gold Council Sustainable Development Goals
The World Gold Council has released a report that outlines Gold Mining’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the report, the World Gold Council (WGC) highlights, on behalf of its member companies, the value that Gold mining can bring to communities, economies, nations and the environment.
The WGC report states “It can sometimes be easy to forget quite how important gold is in our daily lives. We carry it with us in our mobile phones and computers and we wear it as jewelry and in rings.
Critically, gold also provides financial resilience – for individuals, communities and countries. Gold provides financial security in time of financial stress, a proven form of investment that is ageless, liquid and dependable.
Gold does not corrode or tarnish over time, which is part of the reason it features so strongly in our thinking about legacy and inheritance, and why in different cultures around the world women and men are so often given gold as a wedding gift.
It is precisely because gold has such an indispensable role to play in society and in the global economy, that it is incumbent on the gold mining industry to demonstrate how it employs business practices based on the clear principles of long-term sustainable development, supporting social and economic development wherever gold is mined.”
The report groups the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into four broad themes: • Global partnerships • Social inclusion • Economic development • Responsible operations, energy and the environment.
It highlights projects around the world that are contributing strongly to SDG, including projects delivering improvements in health and health services, decent work for more people, water supplies and water quality, gender equity and partnerships between companies, governments and communities to deliver better opportunity.
Aquilo Gold supports these actions by the WGC and its member companies and intends to follow these examples. We have already developed a strong partnership with the local landowners and have agreed to provide training and jobs, clinic and medical support to our local workforce and their families, support for development of sustainable agriculture and industry for the local landowners and opportunity for all genders in employment and partner projects. Safe operations and sound environmental management are key principles of our approach.
Aquilo Gold, supported by its major shareholder Mincore Pty Ltd, is ready to commence work at Mt Kasi in Vanua Levu should we be successful in our tender for the Mt Kasi Gold Project. We offer the local landowners and the Fijian government the best prospect of a project that can stand side-by-side with the WGC member projects. We look forward to the opportunity.