Last year we released a report Gold Mining’s Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals which looked at what our members are doing to contribute to the SDGs.
We’ve had an opportunity to speak to Philipa Varris, Executive Vice President, Head of Sustainability at Golden Star to dig deep into the company’s achievements when it comes to contributing to SDG 3 ( Good Health) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).
Philipa told us that the company’s malaria prevention programme has had fantastic results in decreasing malaria cases. Did you know that malaria tests have tiny gold nanoparticles that help show the test results?
Other initiatives that Philipa works on to improve the healthcare of the communities surrounding the mine site includes an initiative with Project C.U.R.E and Ghana Health Services, where Golden Star helped train doctors and nurses on neonatal resuscitation techniques which in turn saved many lives.
We’ve also had a chance to speak to Philipa about their flagship programme which directly impacts SDG8 – the company’s oil palm plantation. This programme saw Golden Star develop over 1,500 hectares of deforestation-free oil palm.
It’s sometimes not easy to envisage the positive benefit that gold miners can have on the countries and communities they operate in, but I encourage you to listen to Philipa to hear first-hand the incredible improvements the company has made to people living around their mine site in Ghana.
You can have a look at our new interactive map From mine to market gold’s untold story to discover how gold is used in malaria tests.
