Colombia Gold Symposium 2021 Announces Economic Development Awards, Nominations Open Until October 15

As Colombia Gold Symposium returns to an in-person format at the Marriott Medellín November 15-16, the event’s organizers continue to innovate as they seek to support the growth of a healthy formal mining sector in the region. With this objective in mind, Colombia Gold Symposium has announced the inaugural Economic Development Awards.

ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) is an increasingly important part of any exploration and mining development project in order to obtain a social license to operate and successfully permit operations. Colombia Gold Symposium says that exploration and development companies in Latin America are therefore effectively regional development companies. Mining and exploration companies operating in Latin America are developing innovative economic development programs to support their host communities which have real economic and social impact and will be sustainable long into the future.

These efforts often lack the recognition they deserve and so Colombia Gold Symposium has developed the “Colombia Gold Symposium Economic Development Awards” to showcase some of the best economic development projects undertaken by miners and explorers. The aim is to highlight the most innovative and effective programs to raise awareness of some of the things that can be done and which may serve to stimulate other mining and exploration companies’ efforts, in addition to providing broader peer recognition to some of the great things companies are doing.

The Colombia Gold Symposium 2021 program will include a session showcasing the most impactful projects as determined by our expert panel, with each company able to provide a brief presentation of their projects, following which a prize for the best projects will be awarded. All submissions will also be showcased on the ColombiaGold.co website.

“We hope this initiative serves to inspire to develop and look forward to showcasing the great projects companies are advancing with their communities,” said Paul Harris, Colombia Gold Symposium President

Projects will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Innovation concept – How innovative is the project concept?
• Effectiveness – Extent the project improved the economic environment of the community.
• Replicability – Could this project be carried out in similar contexts?
• Social inclusion – To what extent did it involve the community, particularly women?
• Creation of alliances – Articulation with other actors to increase project scope and potential?
• Sustainability – Is the project sustainable over time and independently of ongoing company support?

Nominators are asked to send submissions to [email protected] to be received no later than Friday, October 15th with the following information:

• Name of project
• Summary of concept of program/project
• Project description and details of the economic impact it is having and the number of people benefitting.
• Supporting photos and/or video