Handicrafts produced by Kanto, a cooperative in Ambinanibe, Fort Dauphin

QMM Communities

At QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), partnership with the local community is important to us, and we aim to work in ways that deliver sustained value for both our business and our host communities.

We are finding better ways to be a better partner to our communities to create a sustainable and shared future.

As part of the new agreement with the government of Madagascar, we have doubled our annual investment for community and social responsibility projects in Madagascar to US$4 million. Half will be spent locally, and half in the region. We’ll be co-designing projects with communities, consistent with local, regional and national development plans, and approved by conseil des ministers. As part of this, we’ll be investing US$500,000 per year in reforestation activities.

A sweet investment

At QMM, we’re providing funding for equipment and marketing, as well as business development training, to a local honey co-operative. This support helps producers to harvest and sell more than 4,800 litres of honey from 500 beehives in the remote region of Ampasy Nahampoana.

QMM has also worked with the Centre d’Affaires Régional Anosy (CARA). Established in 2012 to support local businesses, CARA is a partnership between QMM, the Integrated Growth Poles project (PIC), Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Fort Dauphin and the Association for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship. Its work includes providing finance, marketing and training to micro, small and medium-sized businesses and has, since inception, trained more than 4,500 people and supported around 200 businesses.

Access to potable water

Access to safe and clean water is a fundamental human right. We are committed to playing our part in protecting water in and around our operations and helping host communities, including the people of Fort Dauphin, to have access to potable water.

Beginning in 2021, we have invested to help the communities in the communes of Ampasy Nahampoana, Mandromondromotra, Andrakaraka and Emanaka receive infrastructure to access potable water, with the construction of the potable water stations for Mandromondromotra and Ampasy Nahampoana to be completed soon.

We continue to make this a community development priority.

Transparency

We continue to identify ways to be more transparent and have greater engagement with local communities. We intend to set up an information centre within the community and identify more opportunities for community engagement, including through our Rainy Season Release Readiness program.

Community monitoring

To focus on environmental issues that the community cares about, we’re supporting an independent, community-led monitoring program. We are working with host communities and an independent external party to develop and implement this program.

Cultural heritage

We work with the Malagasy people and with archaeologists to survey and map sites and artefacts of cultural significance. Malagasy culture assigns special status to sites including:

Kibory - Tombs which Malagasy people consider the place where ancestors live
Orimbato - Stone slabs near the paths beside a tomb
Fisorogna - Places of sacrifice
Doany - Places of worship

Protecting ancestors

While preparing access to Vatovy, a new mining area close to the village of Mangaiky, QMM worked in collaboration with the village association 'Miray' to protect a burial house, known as a Kibory. QMM employed local Mangaiky villagers, working with them to design and build a protection wall, defining this important place and protecting the area long-term.

Land agreements

QMM was the first mining company in Madagascar to recognise the land rights of traditional land users. In 2016, we signed an agreement with the government of Madagascar and the Mandena communities on which the mining concession sits, which set up a framework to provide a legal basis for the joint rights of each party within the mining concession.

As part of its mining license agreement, QMM committed to a biodiversity conservation program that included the identification and management of protected areas and offset areas. These areas are designed to ensure gains in natural forest cover, preserve priority species and ensure that the loss of biodiversity in mining areas is compensated for.

QMM works in partnership with organisations to manage these sites, for example with Asity, a Malagasy NGO, Birdlife International and Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), who have a long history of conservation work in Madagascar.

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QMM Communities