According to the World Gold Council, 70% of total expenditure by gold mining companies remains in the country where the mine is located. Of this in-country spending, typically 50-60% goes towards the purchase of goods and services to build and support mine operations.
In Greece, where we at Eldorado are developing the Olympias and Skouries gold mines, we have paid approximately $570 million to local suppliers over the past three years. That works out to be 70% of our total in-country spend! Here’s the breakdown of our 2016 expenditure in Greece:
Our local procurement practices are having a significant positive impact for domestic suppliers in Greece. Here’s why:
1. Local Procurement Supports Jobs
“The Skouries project made it possible for our company, during the roughest part of the economic crisis, to retain a minimum number of 25 employees. Now we could rehire employees and reach the employee number of 40, that we had in the past,” explains Simeon Niotakis of Design and Application Engineers in Athens.
Olga Katsa of Omikron Kappa Consulting also cites job creation as a benefit of providing services to Hellas Gold, Eldorado’s Greek subsidiary. “Our company has managed to create 7 new jobs… which mostly require highly-skilled employees, such as civil and mining engineers and geologists.”
2. Local Procurement Promotes Skill Development
In addition to job creation, the skills and expertise gained from working on Eldorado’s projects has also helped local suppliers be more competitive in bidding for future contracts.
“For our company, to undertake this project in Skouries, it is of utmost importance to us” says George Sougaras of VIO.DO.MI. Metal Construction, in Thessaloniki. “This will help us promote our sales from now onwards, having this project on our resume in order to win new work.”
Vassilis Lykomiros of Lykomitros Steel echoes this sentiment. “This assignment was very important as it happened during a time when we had almost no business at all, apart from some projects abroad. We created about 35 staff positions for the Skouries project. It is a great opportunity for us to gain expertise.”
Dimitris Dimitriadis, Managing Director at Hellas Gold, says,
“This investment is a leverage for growth and dissemination of expertise in Greece. Through this unique project, new jobs are created for the local community, local contractors and local suppliers. Expertise is transferred to the country and is optimized by local construction companies, which will have better opportunities in the future to claim similar projects in Greece and abroad.”
Hear directly from the local engineering and design firms who are helping us build Skouries in Greece in our video: