Resettlement
To develop or expand our mines, we sometimes have to move local people and communities from their homes, farms and land.
As we apply the mitigation hierarchy, resettling households is the last step we take after assessing project alternatives as we appreciate how stressful a process it can be for our local communities. If not well planned and carefully managed, resettlement can seriously damage relationships with the local community, harm our social license to operate and even result in regulatory action from the government.
Our approach to land acquisition and resettlement processes is guided by our Social Performance Policy and conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and international best practice, such as that set out by the IFC’s performance standard 5, and includes strict eligibility criteria and cut-off dates. Our overarching objective, wherever resettlement is unavoidable, is to make sure resettled people are better off at the end of the process, an outcome that has life-changing positive impacts for vast majority of the resettled households, notwithstanding the challenging process and change in community. Further details on our approach are available on our website.
We have on-going resettlement projects at North Mara in Tanzania, Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic and at the Lumwana mine in Zambia.
During 2023, we concluded the Kalimva resettlement process at Kibali in the DRC, which includes the completion and handover of the Avokala host site to the authorities. We have on-going resettlement projects at North Mara in Tanzania, Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic and at the Lumwana mine in Zambia. During 2024, we anticipate starting a resettlement project at the Loulo-Gounkoto Complex in Mali.