Richard Fifer

In many nations with mineral resources, there is a correlation between efforts towards poverty reduction and the performance and framework for the mining sector.  Mining can contribute to poverty reduction in a series of ways, mostly through producing income and creating opportunities of growth for businesses that indirectly benefit.

Commercial-scale mining such as the one carried out by Petaquilla Minerals provides employment and skills transfer to employees and is an important source of social services to remote communities. In this specific example, mining is accompanied by the growth of small and microenterprise activity which provides supplies and related services to the project. Through this system, miners and their families have the possibility of generating substantial further incomes. This is once again, another example of corporate social responsibility where Petaquilla continues to invest substantially in local economic development, through providing training tools, public services such as education and health, and public goods, such as clean water, transport, energy, and infrastructure to its project neighbors.