B2Gold launches
THE RHINO GOLD BAR PROJECT A monumental initiative to help rural communities save a species Text Elzanne McCulloch
“What difference can 1000 ounces of gold make?” asked the booklet on our dinner table. A prospectus compiled by Canadian mining company B2Gold to introduce a new project. A project of colossal proportions. During the course of an evening, what I imagined would be another corporate grandstanding event morphed from project-launch-slash-donationhandover to a celebration of philanthropy on a level never before seen in southern Africa. An initiative not just spectacular in the enormousness of the monetary value of its contribution (a whopping N$25 million worth of gold), but also in the scale in which it will be implemented. Sustainably and with an ultimate focus on longevity. The N$25 million will represent the spot price of gold plus a 15% conservation premium.
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he prospectus answers its own question regarding the aid power of 1000 ounces: “At B2Gold, we believe it has the power to help rural communities in Namibia save a species.” The species in question? Namibia’s unique and special population of desert-adapted black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis bicornis. The communities? The local population and conservancies of Namibia’s Kunene Region who have been given the burden, and privilege, to safeguard the largest population of free-roaming black rhinos on earth. A monumental task, worthy of monumental support.
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Gathered at Droombos just outside Windhoek on January 30th, a collection of Namibia’s most prominent business personalities, B2Gold executives (some coming from as far as Canada) and the shining stars in Namibia’s conservation fraternity gathered beneath canopies of camel thorn trees to clink glasses and later celebrate the largest single contribution to conservation Namibia has ever seen. Launching the project, Save the Rhino Trust board member Ginger Mauney (who designed the original concept), B2Gold Namibia Country Manager Mark Dawe and B2Gold President Clive Johnson each addressed the gathered masses. Passion
