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Washington DC, March 14th, 2007
— IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, and Newmont Mining’s corporate foundation, the Asociación Los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC), have signed a cooperation agreement to cofinance a program to strengthen small businesses near Newmont’s Minera Yanacocha investment in the Cajamarca region of Peru.
The program will support local small businesses with training and advisory services to link them to new contract opportunities. It includes agribusiness development to help local small producers increase their productivity and sales. It will also help ALAC build capacity to manage these and other development activities in the region.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with ALAC in supporting the development of small businesses in Cajamarca. We believe that businesses like these are critical to job creation and economic growth for local communities,” said Lars Thunell, head of IFC.
This program builds on previous activities financed by IFC and ALAC to support development of Cajamarca’s private sector. Over 250 small businesses have received direct support from earlier linkage activities, which helped these businesses generate sales of over $10 million.
“ALAC will continue contributing to local development in Cajamarca long after Minera Yanacocha ceases mining operations. ALAC is supporting 17 projects together with the local government, civil society, and private businesses. These are strengthening local capacity to ensure long-term sustainability. It is very important for us to have partners like IFC participating in the development of these activities,” said Carlos Santa Cruz, President of the Board of Directors of ALAC.
The new program is underway and has received financing from other local stakeholders in addition to the IFC and ALAC contributions. It will build upon the lessons learned from the previous work and expand the impact to new businesses in Cajamarca. IFC has a 5 percent equity holding in Minera Yanacocha, the leading gold producer in South America. Newmont Mining holds 51.35 percent and is the operator, while Compañía de Minas Buenaventura holds 43.65 percent.
About ALAC
Asociación los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC) is a corporate entity founded by the Peruvian mining firm Minera Yanacocha. ALAC supports Minera Yanacocha’s responsible business practices through activities in the province of Cajamarca that generate social and human capital. ALAC is
c
o
mmitted to building business and institutional capacities to improve the welfare of local people. Its Board of Directors includes representatives of Minera Yanacocha’s shareholders as well as community leaders. For more information, please visit
www.losandes.org.pe
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About Newmont Mining
Founded in 1921 and publicly traded on the NYSE since 1925, Newmont is the largest gold company in the world. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company employs approximately 14,000 people, the majority of whom work at Newmont's mines sites in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia, Canada, Uzbekistan, Bolivia, New Zealand and Mexico. For more information, please visit
www.newmont.com
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About IFC Linkages Programs
IFC’s linkages programs increase value-added services to IFC clients in improving their businesses, while increasing the development impact of IFC investments. Linkages programs are typically two- to three-year advisory programs to strengthen small and medium enterprises that are linked to IFC’s investment projects as suppliers of goods and services. The focus is either on the client’s supply and value chain development or on income- and employment-generating activities for local communities around the investment project.
About IFC
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, promotes open and competitive markets in developing countries. IFC supports sustainable private sector companies and other partners in generating productive jobs and delivering basic services, so that people have opportunities to escape poverty and improve their lives. Through FY06, IFC Financial Products have committed more than $56 billion in funding for private sector investments and mobilized an additional $25 billion in syndications for 3,531 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC Advisory Services and donor partners have provided more than $1 billion in program support to build small enterprises, to accelerate private participation in infrastructure, to improve the business enabling environment, to increase access to finance, and to strengthen environmental and social sustainability. For more information, please visit
www.ifc.org
.
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