Communities

Our Gornostay Project is located in the Beskaragay district in the Vostochno-Kazakhstanskaya oblast. The general surrounding land of the mine site comprises mainly farm land. There are not any farms, villages, towns on the Left River Side area and the nearby residents lived in towns including Bodene (22 km to east from our Gornostay Project), Kurchatov (approximately 25 km away from our Gornostay Project), Chagan (30 km to east from our GornostayProject), Mostik (22 km to north-east from our Gornostay Project). Other villages/towns/cities are located farther than 50 km from our Gornostay Project.

As a condition of the SSU Contract, we are obliged to maintain certain social programmes and projects for the benefit of local communities, including investing 1.0% of total investments in the exploration stage.

Kazakhstan is a party to the Aarhus Convention which generally grants the public rights, including rights to access information regarding, and participate in governmental decision-making processes on matters concerning, the environment and the right to judicial or administrative recourse in the event of violation or failure to adhere to environmental law.

In connection with such principles, we have already participated in discussions with community stakeholders and local governmental authorities with regard to our Gornostay Project. In September 2018, we participated in meetings with governmental authorities, including the mayor of the nearby Beskaragay region, representatives from the Environmental Protection Department and MIID and community representatives, public stakeholders and local residents in the Beskaragay region in connection with our Environmental Impact Assessment. Local residents had the opportunity to express their opinions of our Gornostay Project and communicate any concerns with us.

We believe relation with public stakeholders has generally been positive.