Summary
the Moramanga area, however it is likely that an injection of expenditures
in the above amounts will be a large benefit.
In addition to direct employment and business opportunities, the project
will be a stimulus for indirect and induced employment and business
opportunities. Businesses contracted to supply the project will require
new employees. With increasing direct and indirect local economic
activity, individuals and business will spend more on local goods and
services. This in turn will induce more employment and perhaps more
small businesses as people in the community organize to provide
additional goods and services for others with new disposable income.
The project is predicted to create 2,200 local indirect and 590 local
induced jobs during mine construction and 340 local indirect and 150
local induced jobs during mine operations.
Employees during exploration
phase
The project will develop a formal training program for employees. This
will include skills upgrading, apprenticeship training and the
establishment of entry-level positions with a view to advancing people
beyond entry level on a regular interval. At present US$10 million is
estimated for training purposes over the life of the project. As the project
moves forward, employees and suppliers are also expected to gain
valuable experience that will position them to increase their level of
participation. To the extent that this training program uses local
educational institutions the quality of skills training in the Moramanga
area is expected to improve.
Training
Legislation in Madagascar requires a portion of royalties paid in relation
to mining projects be directed to communes within which mineral
resources lie. In addition, a portion goes to the provincial and national
governments. The large scale of the mine means that annual royalty
payments will be very large in relation to existing commune revenue
flows. However, the project footprint goes beyond the mine area,
extending along the slurry pipeline route to the tailings and process plant
facilities. These other areas, although far from the ore bodies, will
experience project effects that royalty distribution is intended to help
address. The proponents are willing to work with the Government of
Madagascar to establish an equitable system for distribution of royalties
paid by the project.
Commune
government
budgets
The economic opportunity of a large project such as the Ambatovy
Project has the potential to attract large numbers of migrants. Existing
trends in rural urban migration, tensions over land in rural communes
and the shortage of housing in Moramanga suggest that additional
migration as a result of the project could be difficult to manage. The
project will develop recruitment policies to discourage migration, and
advertise these aggressively. The project will provide accommodation,
meals, services and transport to and from their points of hire for all out-
of-country workers during construction and operations.
Migration
January 2006
Ambatovy Project — 15
