Community investment is an important part of our approach to community relations. Through investments that support sustainable local development, we aim to share the benefits of our operations with our local communities and support our social licence to operate.

During 2008 OZ Minerals contributed over $7.3 million in community programs and initiatives. In addition to this, while payment did not fall into the 2008 reporting period, at the company's Sepon operations in Laos a further $1.6 million was committed in late 2007 to undertake a community road sealing project. This spending was not previously reported in Oxiana's Sustainability Report but has been captured in OZ Minerals' community investment figures as outlined in its recently released Business Review 2008.

While the structure of community investments varies between operations, with priorities determined based on local development needs, initiatives and programs generally target:

• Community development (including infrastructure, communications and health)
• Local business development
• Education and pre-employment training, and
• Sponsorships and donations

A breakdown of OZ Minerals investments by category is provided in figure 1.

OZ Minerals works with governments, local communities, development groups, non-government organisations, financial institutions and other stakeholders to continually improve our understanding of and ability to support local development priorities.

For more information about OZ Minerals’ community investments see socio-economic contributions.