Some local suppliers of Gold Fields at the summit
GOLD FIELDS Ghana Limited – a gold mining company in the Western Region – has pledged a significant amount of its procurement expenditure to local contractors and suppliers as part of its local content strategy.
The gold mining company has therefore implored contractors of the company to abide by the local content rule of employing people from the catchment areas of the mine or risk not being engaged at all.
That, according to the company, was to ensure that the local citizens got the maximum benefit from its production.
In March 2018, Gold Fields moved from ownership mining where it takes responsibility of all workers of the mines to contract mining where it outsourced the workers.
It was also part of the local content and local enterprise development initiative which aimed at increasing the participation of Ghanaian businesses in the value chain of the mine.
Theophilus Otchere, Head of Supply Chain of Gold Fields, West Africa, indicated this in an interview with journalists at the maiden edition of Suppliers Conference organized by the mining company in Tarkwa.
More than 300 suppliers and contractors of Goldfields in the country and beyond attended the conference which was under the theme: “Sustainable supply chain through partnership”.
The platform was to share best practices and new innovations and inform the suppliers about the company’s operations and to give them the opportunity to bring out their challenges and to discuss how they could be addressed.
Mr Otchere indicated that the company had made a conscious effort in developing local suppliers where about 90 per cent of its spending was dedicated to local manufacturers and materials in Ghana.
“We have suppliers called local content suppliers which are located within our catchment area and we have social contracts with them to grow and sustain their operations and the local economy”, he added.
He pointed out that Gold Fields had also ensured that as a requirement for a contract, local employment on the company’s concession was a key requirement.
“As part of the change over from owner to contract mining, one of the key requirements for anybody or firm that want to partner Goldfields was to ensure that up to 85 per cent of our legacy employees were engaged in the contract model which we enforced as part of the process”, he revealed.
“Looking at the 2018 production figures, we produced 750,000 ounces which is very significant innovation and thanks to the support of the contract miners”.
He said the company also produced the highest gold for last year as a result of the business model.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Tarkwa