Wayne W. Murdy: Gold-Standard Stewardship

June 14, 2006

Newmont Mining Corp. commits to the environment and community health.

Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. has mine sites on five continents and bills itself as the world's largest gold producer. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Wayne W. Murdy, the $4.4 billion company has made much of the principle of stewardship, including commitments to the environment and community health.

IW: What is Newmont's concept of corporate stewardship, particularly as it relates to environmental protection and community health?

Murdy: Newmont's future is dependent on its ability to develop, operate and close mines consistent with our commitment to sustainable development, protection of human life, health, the environment, and adding value to the communities in which we operate. Our social responsibility commitments form an integral part of our operations.

Our commitment to sustainability has been enhanced through our membership in the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), an organization comprised of the world's leading natural-resource companies. Newmont is a founding member of the ICMM, and I am privileged to chair this group. ICMM members are committed to sustainable development principles, including public reporting on performance in accordance with the United Nations Global Reporting Initiative.

As part of our business strategy, we actively participate in a number of global sustainability initiatives to help guide our performance. For example, in 2005, we became one of the first gold-mining companies to commit to the International Cyanide Management Code, which was developed by the United Nations Environmental Programme. The code contains standards for the management of all aspects of cyanide use and addresses the safety of employees, local communities and the environment.

Our Five Star program, with standards based on globally recognized programs from the International Organization for Standardization, drives continuous improvement in the management of health and safety, environment, and community relations performance. Each operating site is assessed annually by external assessors to monitor progress in implementing these global standards.

In 2005, we established a community health initiative to take a collaborative approach to community health with other organizations such as universities, government agencies, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and the local communities where we operate. This important initiative will help us understand general health conditions and public health systems in local communities, assess potential health impacts from mining activities, promote collaborations to enhance community health and well-being, and identify opportunities for sustainable health care improvements in the communities where Newmont operates.

IW: What is the nature of the partnership between Newmont and the University of Colorado School of Medicine to assess local health conditions before mines are opened?

Murdy: As part of our community health initiative, Newmont established a collaboration with the University of Colorado (CU) Health Sciences Center. In 2005, CU conducted health assessments of communities around our Conga site in Peru and our Ahafo site in Ghana. The assessments highlighted pressing health issues, including access to water, sanitation and health education, and identified a series of initiatives which could significantly improve community health and health services capacity in each region. Newmont and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center will continue to work with local communities, NGOs and relevant governmental authorities to develop and implement these recommendations. This year, we will also begin to broaden the scope of this health initiative to include other operating sites.

IW: Why do you build health care clinics around your mines?

Murdy: One of the ways Newmont can add value to communities in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development is through the support of health infrastructure improvements. Working in collaboration with local government and organizations, we provide community investment through cash and in-kind donations to support and enhance existing programs to improve the health of communities around our operations and projects. Through the upgrading of existing or development of new health care clinics and programs, we can increase community access to immunizations, HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling, testing and treatment, malaria prevention and general health care.

Our mines are often some of the first industrialization in the countries where we operate, and we are committed to helping our communities benefit from the success of our business.

About the Author

John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.

      McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).

      His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.

      John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”

      John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

      John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.