OZ Minerals operations provide a direct benefit to local economies in the form of wages and salaries paid to employees. At each of our operations a significant proportion of employees are drawn from the local community (Figure 1).

Our operations have a variety of programs and initiatives in place to ensure employment opportunities are offered preferentially to local people, including individuals from disadvantaged or minority groups. These are generally developed and implemented by the operations’ human resources and community relations team s, working in conjunction with local communities and government agencies.

In some of the locations in which we operate, standards of community health and education are below the minimum prerequisites for employment on a mine site. To improve standards of living and build the capacity of local people to take advantage of employment opportunities, OZ Minerals undertakes a range of community health, education and pre-employment training initiatives.

At our Australian operations a key focus is creation of opportunities for increased Indigenous employment.

At Century we recruit local indigenous people through our community liaison offices in Mornington Island, Burketown, Doomadgee and Normanton as part of the Gulf Communities Agreement, which is the operation’s social licence to operate. Numeracy and literacy assistance, mentoring and a pre-vocational program are provided to assist with the transition into a career in mining. One of the outcomes of the Gulf Communities Agreement Ten Year-Review was to develop specific targets for Indigenous employment at Century in 2009.

At Golden Grove, support was increased during 2008 for the Bayalgu Indigenous trainee program.

At our Sepon operations we implemented an initiative which involves channelling all local external recruitment via the community relations department to district representatives and village chiefs. This allows the operation to better monitor the villages from which the majority of labour is sourced and support the requirement of the Government of Laos to distribute more even offers of employment across all areas surrounding our mining operations.

Sepon also employed community relations representatives who speak a minority dialect and developed a new approach to recruitment that aims to share opportunities with all local villages. As employment opportunities will not increase proportionally with the operation’s footprint, a significant issue during 2009 will be to manage expectations and maximise alternative employment options.

Through ongoing training of local employees, OZ Minerals aims to develop and retain the skilled employees who are essential to our operations and ensure employees develop skills that are transferable post mine closure. OZ Minerals is a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and can train and accredit employees in a range of formal qualifications. For more information see the training and development section.

At the end of 2008 27 per cent of senior management, middle management and technical/professional roles across OZ Minerals operations were held by local employees.

At Sepon the Minerals Exploration and Production Agreement (MEPA) between OZ Minerals and the Government of Laos includes targets for employment of Laotians at all levels of the operation. The internal definition of employee categories, specifically Clerical, Technical Supervisory and Management Professionals has been amended and clarified to ensure data is more representative of performance against the MEPA and to ensure the accuracy of report is replicable on an annual basis. Following the reclassification performance in the categories of Unskilled, Skilled, Clerical and Technical Supervisory have either achieved or are on track to achieve target performance in 2010. The number of Lao employees engaged as Management Professionals has not dropped although the percentage has decreased from 61 per cent to 37.6 per cent as compared to a 2010 target of 75 per cent. This decrease in the percentage of local employees is a function of reclassification of the category. A key long term strategy to increasing the number of Lao employees engaged as Management Professionals is the ongoing development and mentoring of high potential Lao employees plus the provision of scholarships to enable further overseas tertiary education.

Employment opportunities are also created by OZ Minerals operations’ purchase of goods and services preferentially from local suppliers. For more information see the local expenditure section.