FERREXPO
MAINTAINING A LICENSE TO OPERATE
“ We ’ re proud of the charitable activities in our CSR program ,” asserts Ferrexpo ’ s Interim CEO & Executive Director , Jim North . “ Maintaining a social license to operate is important for Ferrexpo . Our foundation , the Poltava Charity Fund , typically receives investment of around 1 % of EBITDA from the previous year into its community projects . We invested $ 6mn last year , of which $ 2.5mn was related to the Covid-19 response effort . It ' s targeted expenditure , we ’ re not just investing into the community . We ' re thinking about the next generation of miners , so we want the community to have the facilities that they have . We ' re a rural community , far from any large city , so we want the children to have good sporting and education facilities . We invest in health programs , and improve the local environment so we have a more engaged workforce .” “ Education is very important to us ,” he adds . “ I don ' t think that the Ukraine is any different to what you ' re seeing globally ; urbanisation across the globe presents challenges . We actually want to help people understand the important role of mining in actually developing the modern world . For the renewables industry to expand , it actually needs mining to provide the raw materials . We want to be a good corporate citizen , so part of our CSR program is supporting our communities , but also , the focus is on the younger generation . We want people to understand that mining is important and interesting . The technology driving it is a window into the future : autonomy , AI , drones , robotics … We want to help inspire the next generation of miners to join our industry .”
52 November 2021