On June 25th, Mauritania’s Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Mines, Mr. Abdessalem Ould Mohamed Saleh, and his delegation, visited Tasiast to show his support for the Company.
The delegation met with representatives from the mine, Kinross’ Toronto headquarters and the Africa regional office and toured the operation, assessing the impact of the June 15th mill fire. The Minister expressed solidarity with Kinross and support for efforts to restart the mill.
During the two-day visit, Kinross shared with the delegation their world-class health and safety practices and ongoing community and environmental initiatives, which meet or exceed national and international standards.
The Minister concluded his visit with a positive note:
“I came here to visit Tasiast, after the fire that broke out in the main plant, to express the solidarity of the Mauritanian Government towards Kinross and Tasiast, and also to express our support for all the efforts that the company will have to make, so that work resumes under normal conditions.
It was an opportunity for me to visit Tasiast: I visited the mine, the different facilities, the company’s departments, and discussed with those who work there. It is extremely rewarding and I took great pride in seeing what is being done at Tasiast: the company clearly operates to international standards and it is a world-class mine.
I was also very satisfied, in particular, with the effort made in terms of Mauritanization: 97% of the 1284 employees of Tasiast are Mauritanians. The majority of the 2,595 subcontractors are also Mauritanians. I was proud to see that the mine is managed entirely by Mauritanians: from the mine manager to other smaller roles, all of them are Mauritanians. This is a huge source of pride for me.”
