9 August is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, and at Polyus we are celebrating this day alongside our local Indigenous communities.
As a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), Polyus is committed to ICMM principles, including:
— Principle 3: “Respect human rights and the interests, cultures, customs and values of employees and communities affected by our activities”
— Principle 9: “Pursue continual improvement in social performance and contribute to the social, economic and institutional development of host countries and communities”
Polyus fully complies with Russian legislations, but also assumes additional commitments, including those that come under ICMM membership. The Company has several additional standards, which reflect our social role. Our Standard for Engagement with Indigenous Peoples was developed to regulate potential situations in which the company’s business could affect indigenous peoples and their land.
Polyus takes proactive measures to preserve indigenous cultural heritage in the regions where we operate, and support their unique traditions and native languages. Often this involves financial support in the form of regular sponsorship of local cultural festivals and other events. For example, every year Polyus supports the annual Seveki Legends festival in Severo-Yeniseysky District, Krasnoyarsk Territory, celebrating the culture of the Evenki people, and the Ysyakh Indigenous Yakutia people holiday celebrated in the Republic of Sakha.
Another annual event, Polyus’ Golden Season theatre competition, is aimed at promoting regional equality within Russia by supporting amateur theatre groups from Russia’s most remote regions, who often perform in their own indigenous languages. In 2021, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) theaters submitted a total of seven applications to the contest.
In 2021, Polyus was pleased to open an exhibition devoted to the Indigenous People of the North in the Sakha republic in Nizhny Kuranakh. Among the exhibits were household items, ornaments and hunting tools.
Find out more about International Day of the World’s Indigenous People’s here, or view ICMMs’ Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples and Mining here.
Polyus’ Corporate Standard on Engagement with Indigenous Peoples is available to download here.