Calibre Mining Corp. is a Canadian-listed growing mid-tier gold producer with a strong pipeline of development and exploration opportunities across the Americas. The company operates five gold mines: one in Nevada, USA, and four in Nicaragua. Sustainability plays a major part in its business strategy, affirms Petri Salopera, Calibre’s Vice President of Sustainability.
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Calibre is a diversified producer in the Americas, with operating gold mines in Nevada and Nicaragua. The company has strong growth potential and focuses on building long-term sustainable value for its shareholders, the communities in which it operates, and all stakeholders.
2022 was a record year for the company in terms of gold production, with significant reinvestment in exploration, including a 170,000-metre drill program across all assets. Calibre is looking at further growth in 2023.
The majority of Calibre’s assets are located in Nicaragua, a country with a strong mining tradition. The company entered Nicaragua in 2009. Ten years later, Calibre acquired 100% ownership of La Libertad and El Limon mines and mills from B2Gold, along with several exploration projects. Since then, Calibre has invested significantly in business development, with demonstrated results in terms of gold production, identification of exploration targets, discovery of new deposits, and growth of reserves.
Initiating production in Q2 of 2023, Eastern Borosi is the most recent satellite mine Calibre has opened to provide ore to its plant at La Libertad. The
company now has four operating mines and two mills in Nicaragua: El Limon Mine and Mill, La Libertad Mine and Mill, Pavon Mine and Eastern Borosi Mine.
Gold is currently Nicaragua’s top export commodity, and Calibre is one of the largest single exporting companies of any product from Nicaragua. This means that the impact of the
company’s activities on the country are significant from both economic and social perspectives. From the beginning, Calibre has striven to operate its assets in a manner that is protective of people, respectful of human rights and cultural heritage, with a strong focus on economic development and protection of the natural environment.
“With more than 3,500 workers across our assets, we are
clearly the main operator within the mining industry in the country,” said Mr Salopera, reiterating Calibre’s strong focus on local hiring: “96% of our employees in Nicaragua are Nicaraguan nationals, of whom 78% are from the communities immediately adjacent to the operations where they work.”
With wide-ranging industry experience leading multi-disciplinary teams, mostly related to sustainabil-
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ity, Mr Salopera was contacted by Calibre in 2021, as the company was seeking to strengthen its ESG performance and, particularly, its strategic planning and execution around sustainability.
“One of the things that attracted me to Calibre was its focus on improving ESG policy, as I saw a very interesting opportunity to contribute to what I consider essential: long-term,
sustainable value for all stakeholders, from both social and environmental perspectives.”
Mr Salopera affirmed that the company is committed to significant social investment in the communities where it operates, focusing on sustainable projects to improve health, education, livelihoods and social infrastructure.
“Beyond labour opportunities, which of course are important from the
economic perspective, our objective has always been to contribute on a wider scale, from introducing more resilient agricultural practices and promoting women’s entrepreneurship, to supporting local educational systems, facilitating healthier homes with smokeless stoves, and improving people’s access to clean water.”
Under Mr Salopera’s leadership, Calibre has made significant pro-
gress in terms of its sustainability strategy, although he insists that any advance is a collective effort. “What we have achieved over the last two years is the result not only of our talented and committed sustainability team, but of all Calibre’s different departments, working together to improve our ESG performance.”
One tangible result of these efforts is Calibre’s five-year sustainability strategy, which spearheads the company’s environmental, social and governance efforts, but also integrates these efforts fully within the overall corporate strategy.
The company recently published its third annual Sustainability Report, which details Calibre’s 2022 ESG performance in both Nicaragua and Nevada and highlights the important progress made to reduce Scope 2 Indirect GHG emissions. The company succeeded in signing an agreement with the
local Central American energy provider, a holder of the IREC certification, to guarantee that all energy purchased by the company from the grid be 100% produced from renewable resources.
“This is a very important step internally,” Mr Salopera noted, “and a tremendous contribution to mitigating climate change.”
The company’s commitment to transparency and open engagement with stakeholders has resulted in significant achievements. In 2022, Calibre reported zero substantiated cases of human rights violations and zero significant instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations, as well as zero substantiated incidents of supplier corruption.
Also in 2022, 88% of all Calibre security personnel received formal training on the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, and the company significantly reduced the carrying of firearms by its contracted security guards in Nicaragua.
“We provide internal training to both our staff
as well as suppliers and contractors. Safety is one area of focus among all mining companies, but Calibre also has very extensive environmental and human rights training, for all people associated with the company.”
Speaking about the wider global network, Mr Salopera acknowledged that Calibre has been lucky to remain largely unaffected by worldwide supply chain challenges and disruptions. “We work closely with our suppliers to make sure that required products and services are available as and when needed on site. Solid, trustworthy relationships with suppliers enable us to predict potential issues and address them before they happen. Another important aspect, which also supports the local economy, is that we link local suppliers with larger contractors; this helps to raise the former’s standards and opens new business opportunities for them.”
Petri Salopera further affirmed that environmental protection is a priority across all levels of Calibre’s mining operations. The company carries out consistent monitoring and reclamation activities in previously operated areas to ensure biodiversity as well as environmental rehabilitation.
“From the environmental perspective, the participation of local communities in our efforts has been fundamental,” he emphasised, highlighting, in particular, Calibre’s cooperation with the Centre for an Understanding with Nature (CEN), an organisation focused on conservation and rehabilitation of natural and agricultural ecosystems in the mountain regions of northern Nicaragua.
“CEN has been fundamental in providing the local knowledge needed to invest successfully in sustainable local development. The strategic partnership that we have today is something of which we are very proud. We believe that building a relationship with local communities is the right way to operate. Creating local alliances through grassroots organisations and through the participation of host communities is key for the success of any company.”
An example of the benefits of such cooperation is the activity around Calibre’s Pavon Mine. In June 2022, Calibre received from the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources the key environmental permit for development and production of the Pavon Central open-pit mine, having
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worked closely with environmental consultants and CEN to develop top-quality project engineering with minimal impact on the environment.
In areas around its Pavon operations, the company is implementing socio-environmental initiatives focused on water conservation and sustainable forestry. Since 2010, Calibre has planted more than one million trees, restored more than 200 hectares of forest in Nicaragua, and protected more than 2.2 million bees, essential to restoring local ecosystems and biodiversity.
Water sources are another highly impor-
tant topic. Mr Salopera explained that in and around Calibre’s areas of operation, the company ensures that water sources are protected and sustained. Deploying the latest technologies, Calibre complies with the highest standards of engineering and environmental monitoring at its tailings-storage facilities, ensuring that safe and regulated processes are in place, and allowing 77% of the water used to be recycled.
With its strong social and sustainability strategy, Calibre is set to continue playing an essential role in the
Nicaraguan mining sector. With its rich mining heritage, the country has seen the positive impacts and benefits that responsible mining can bring. Nicaragua has enjoyed strong economic growth compared to other Central American countries, and the government has made significant investments in the country’s infrastructure.
Calibre has started 2023 successfully, delivering record gold production, expanding its operating strategy, and continuing to solidify its position as a growing mid-tier gold producer. In May, the company announced that mining had com-
menced at the Eastern Borosi open pit mine and ore deliveries were underway to the Libertad processing plant, successfully transforming the Eastern Borosi exploration project into a producing mine.
Calibre’s 2023 guidance calls for production growth of 20% to between 250,000 and 275,000 ounces, and the company expects grades to continue to improve in 2024. As such, Calibre Mining is well-positioned to continue on a path of robust organic growth, achieved in large part due to its strong sustainability strategy that seeks to secure benefits for all stakeholders.
Calibre has started 2023 successfully, delivering record gold production
More than 200,000 meters drilled over the last five years for mining exploration as well as geotechnical investigation and instrumentation throughout the Central American region, make evident the trust of our clients.
This trust is based on maintaining our main objective of consistently offering the most innovative solutions in the field, with very high safety and quality controls, cutting edge technology, high respect of our environment and compliance of current applicable norms.
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