In 2021, Lenzoloto, part of Polyus, has donated new healthcare equipment and medication, as well as computers for schools in remote villages, financed children’s institutions renovations, supported young athletes and provided training for volunteers. These charitable donations totaled RUB 20 million. It is a particularly large contributor to supporting the Bodaibo District, where it has operated for 100 years.
Sponsoring local hockey team to win an inter-regional tournament
In early November, the Mamakan men’s and women’s hockey team in the Bodaibo District won the Udmurtia inter-regional ice hockey championships. The team beat opponents from Tatarstan and the Kirov Region, with Mamakan’s Elizaveta Shipitsyna named player of the tournament.
The team’s coach, Minafatykh Asharapov, noted that such milestones are important for athletes from Mamakan because they do not get to travel often. The team were unlikely champions, lacking competition experience and having to rent an ice rink for training. Lenzoloto helped to make this possible, and this is not the only example of it supporting local sporting development.
Yuri Tyurin, director of the Bodaibo Education and Wellness Center, commented,«As another example, this year we installed new ping-pong tables at our stadium. These are very modern, with a solid and reinforced concrete base, and are impossible to move or damage. They are a great fit for any weather. In Bodaibo table tennis is very popular, so people continued to play until the cold set in.»
On-line English lessons for students in Kropotkin
Polyus is committed to participating in charity initiatives as part of its socio-economic partnership agreement, and the Company makes major contributions to supporting education. For example, last year Lenzoloto helped to renovate the Berezka daycare center in Bodaibo and the Kapelka daycare center in the remote village of Perevoz. Lenzoloto also provided assistance to a local school for children with special needs and Middle School #1 in the district’s administrative center. The Company donated RUB 1 million to the Kropotkin school.
Svetlana Narumova, Head of the Education department in Bodaibo and the surrounding district, commented,«We donated new furniture and computer equipment for the school. Given the shortage of teaching staff in the northern regions, this will be a great help to the school, whose students who will be able to learn English online with a teacher from Bodaibo. Kropotkin is located very near to where Lenzoloto operates, so the Company has taken the school under its wing. When necessary, the Company’s employees even lend a hand helping at the school, which is greatly appreciated. I would like to thank Lenzoloto for the annual gifts to first-grade students, and for its „lessons in kindness“ that were held in different schools this year. The Company brought in coaches from Moscow, who talked to the kids about charity and entrepreneurship in an engaging, for which we received very positive feedback.»
Svetlana also noted, if it were not for the pandemic, that there could have been even more of these joint projects.
New hospital equipment for COVID patients
Denis Kerner, Chief Physician at the Bodaibo District Hospital, emphasized the huge contribution that Lenzoloto has made to combating the spread of COVID-19 in its area of operations.
Dr. Kerner commented,«Lenzoloto has helped us to buy a high quality Newport ventilator, a cardio monitor for resuscitation, an excellent endoscopic device called a nasopharyngoscope and a Mindray hematology analyzer, which helps us with COVID patients. Throughout the last year, we have received regular shipments of expensive equipment and medication for treating COVID, including a bronchoscope, some nebulizers, oxygen concentrators and pulse oximeters, as well as antibiotics, hormones and other medication. Without Polyus’ help, the Bodaibo healthcare system would have been hit much harder by the pandemic.»
Additionally, Polyus and Lenzoloto helped the district center. In October, the Ivan and Matryona Children’s Hospital held a reopening ceremony following renovations to its surgical unit for newborns and premature babies. The hospital was built and commissioned 126 years ago by Ivan Bazanov, a merchant from Irkutsk who, fittingly, owned the same gold deposits that Lenzoloto currently mines.
Lenzoloto CEO Maxim Semyanskikh, commented,«Lenzoloto will turn 100 years old this December. Over the course of this century, tens of thousands of people have worked at our assets. We are delighted to be able to continue our long-standing tradition of helping the Irkutsk Region and Bodaibo District. We will carry on supporting our communities and do our best to ensure that future generations live more comfortable lives.»