Barrick infrastructure investments boost quality of life in Chile, Argentina
Children’s soccer team poses at the new El Indio Sports Complex in Chile.
Residents of Tudcum in Argentina will soon have a new venue in which to hold community events, while the town of Coquimbo in Chile now has a refurbished, all-purpose sports facility where they can play soccer, run track and shoot baskets.
The projects are just two examples of how Barrick supports infrastructure development in the communities near its operations. Another is the recently completed children’s rehabilitation center in the Chilean city of Copiapó. The center will provide much-needed services to 1,800 children with physical disabilities in Chile’s Atacama region near Barrick’s Pascua-Lama project. Barrick Corporate Affairs Manager Rodrigo Rivas joined the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, and other officials at a special event on Oct. 25 to mark the official opening of the center.
Meanwhile, in Tudcum, a small town of 700 near Barrick’s Veladero mine, Barrick is contributing $325,000 towards the construction of the new Tudcum Community Center. The 1,200-square-meter facility will replace the ageing, and far smaller, center currently used by the community. Construction began in May and the center is expected to open early in 2012.
“This project will leave a lasting legacy,” says Julio Claudeville, Barrick’s Corporate Affairs Manager for Argentina.
In Coquimbo, the El Indio Sports Complex near Barrick’s El Indio gold mine has long supported sports activities in the community. With this history in mind, Barrick approached the National Institute of Sports with the idea for the renovation. It took four years to get the project approved and completed. Barrick contributed $600,000 for the project.
“This is an important milestone for us,” says Robert Mayne-Nicholls, General Manager for Barrick in Chile. “Residents now have a modern facility with a soccer field that meets professional soccer standards, new dressing rooms and bathrooms, a basketball court and an athletic track.”
In 2010, Barrick contributed $10.3 million for a myriad of infrastructure projects, including medical centers, roads, schools and water pipelines. That’s up from $7.7 million a year earlier.
The children’s rehabilitation center in Copiapó.
