2,322 TOTAL EMPLOYEES
2,889 TOTAL CONTRACTORS
5,221 TOTAL COMBINED WORKFORCE

Our Company purpose is to create opportunities for people through responsible mining. We recognise that our accomplishments as a company are made possible through the commitment of our people.

Centamin’s approach to human resource management is to attract, develop, and retain a highly skilled workforce equipped to run a world-class operation and support the Company’s strategic objectives.

Our vision is to create and sustain an honest, transparent, safe and positive workplace for all

Centamin is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all, regardless of race, gender or religion, and the Company’s Code of Conduct prohibits discrimination of any kind.

Read more of the Code of Conduct

Centamin’s Code of Conduct affirms our commitment to uphold high moral and ethical principles and specifies the basic norms of behaviour for employees and others conducting business on our behalf. Our People Policy states our commitment on matters relating to employment, equal opportunity, training and professional development, diversity and inclusion, workforce engagement and labour rights. This is supplemented by the following policies:

The principles and commitments detailed in these policies are aligned with industry good practice, relevant International Labour Organisation Conventions and human rights frameworks.

At asset-level, our management teams are required to adhere to these principles and commitments in the development of local procedures and plans that are appropriately suited to the national regulatory and cultural setting.

We maintain a high national employment rate for our operations by targeting recruitment within our host jurisdictions.

We aim to employ local, regional or national candidates, in that order of preference. Globally, our total combined workforce is 5,211 persons of which 96% are national to the country of operation.

Sukari is located in the administrative area of the Red Sea Governorate, which covers a large expanse of the Eastern Desert in which the population density is small and largely distant from the mine. To the west, in Upper Egypt, the population density is substantially higher along the upper reaches of the Nile River. Overall, 50% of the Sukari workforce are residents of the Red Sea Governorate and Upper Egypt.

In Côte d’Ivoire, 73% of the workforce originates from the regions in which our Projects are located: Bounkani region at the Doropo Project; Kabadougou and Bafing regions at the ABC Project.

At Sukari, 78% of senior and middle management roles (comprising superintendents, coordinators and supervisors) are held by nationals, representing an increase from 70% in 2021. In Côte d’Ivoire, 64% of senior and middle management roles are held by nationals.

With a commitment to increase the percentage of nationals in management roles, Sukari has engaged a registered training organisation to provide leadership and management training courses. In 2022, nine employees successfully achieved a diploma level qualification, 38 completed a Certificate IV Level course, and 49 employees attended supervisory development training.

Diversity enriches discussion, better reflects our relationships with our stakeholders and allows for improved decision making. Valuing diversity and promoting inclusion is an ethical imperative for a sustainable business.

While we hire based on merit, we aspire to develop a workforce that represents the diversity of our host countries and communities; and a culture of belonging and inclusion where everyone is respected, valued and empowered to excel within the workplace.

In 2021, the FTSE Women Leaders Review published its first report on improving gender balance in leadership, with new voluntary targets for FTSE 350 companies that 40% of board and leadership positions should be held by women by the end of 2025. We have reported our achievements against the recommendations of the review in our Annual Report and put in place a roadmap to address identified gaps. We are committed to addressing gender imbalance across the Company with gender diversity representing a key performance metric under our remuneration policy and recently established sustainability linked revolving credit facility.

Mining has historically been a male-dominated industry. However, in Egypt, Centamin has faced additional and significant legal and cultural challenges to the employment of women. Sukari is in a remote location and Egyptian custom discourages women from working away from their families for extended periods of time, as is required with a rostered workforce. Of our global workforce, 2.7% are women. In jurisdictions outside of Egypt, women represent 21% of our workforce.

In 2021, Centamin welcomed changes to the Egyptian regulatory framework that removed restrictions to the employment of women in the mining sector. These legal restrictions had previously excluded women from 70 to 85% of the roles at Sukari. The new regulations now specifically grant women the right to work in managerial, technical and administrative positions - except certain restrictions on underground shift work, night shift, manual labour, activities during pregnancy and postnatal.

We recognise that broad and concerted leadership will be required to advance the participation of women within the workplace at large, and Egypt in particular. Under the leadership of the General Manager the gender diversity working group elaborated an action plan for gender diversity and inclusion at Sukari which included: interim targets for the recruitment of women to critical roles; management training and awareness; and a range of measures to strengthen diversity in all aspects of workplace culture, policies, procedures and practices. In 2022, these interim targets were successfully achieved. We now employ 34 women in Egypt, two of whom are in positions of management and the majority in qualified roles.

In Egypt we are setting a new benchmark for diversity and inclusion within the mining sector.

Through our partnership with Women in Mining UK we are providing a platform for our Egyptian employees to connect with their industry peers and to promote the advancement of women in the mining industry. In 2022, we welcomed three female graduates to an internship programme in partnership with WIM UK.

A skilled and empowered workforce is required to sustain a world class operation and development pipeline for the Company. We aim to provide professional and personal development opportunities that empower our employees to fulfil their potential.

All employees across the Group participate in our annual performance appraisal and objective setting process. This is a structured process between each employee and their line manager to review progress and mutually agree forward looking objectives and personal development goals.

Egypt has an educated and skilled workforce and an established oil and gas sector. However, the mining and minerals sector remains small and formal training opportunities are much less developed and under-represented in the educational system. This necessitates that the Company take a proactive role in the training and professional development of its people.

At Sukari we have put in place a professional development framework that aims to develop a shared understanding of the required skills to achieve proficiency in each and every role, and the critical behaviours required for successful performance in Centamin. The key elements of the framework include: an Employee Development Pathway (“EDP”) to ensure all positions are undertaken to a proficient level; supervisory and leadership training to equip employees for increased levels of technical and management responsibility;  succession planning. Our commitment to the EDP is reflected in the recently established sustainability linked revolving credit facility which incorporates performance metrics for employee training, assessment and progression.

In 2022, the EDP was formally launched and in-scope employees, representing approximately 90% of employees at Sukari, were assessed against the competency framework relevant to their role. Each role has four levels of progression – entry, competent, productive and proficient; and all employees have the opportunity to progress to the top level if they have the ability. In 2022 we assessed 84% of in-scope employees and 58% progressed to a higher level of competency. The methods of assessment that underpin these performance metrics, were the subject of independent assurance in 2022.

The EDP has necessitated the provision of leadership training to our senior and middle-level management team – to build their capacity to apply industry recognised standards to the training and assessment of their teams. We have partnered with a number of registered training organisations to deliver certified training modules in leadership and management. In 2023 we will focus on developing a Leadership Development Pathway for employees at supervisory level and above

Effective workforce engagement instils a shared understanding of the critical behaviours required for successful performance and more broadly, improves personal wellbeing.

We deploy a variety of mechanisms to engage with our workforce including: operational and management meetings; pre-shift meeting and workplace inspections; quarterly risk review; performance appraisal and objective setting; awareness sessions; training and development programmes; bulletins and notice boards; employee surveys; and social and cultural events. Through this engagement, we strive to reinforce purpose and values, levels of workplace proficiency and the confidence of our workers to raise concerns.

We encourage employees to raise questions and concerns with their supervisor and by doing so, maintain a workplace free from corruption, discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Our asset-level grievance mechanism and independent whistleblower hotline allow workers to anonymously file a complaint. Furthermore, we prohibit any form of retaliation in relation to reports received through either our grievance process or whistleblower hotline.

In 2022, we recorded ten workplace grievances (compared to 35 in 2021) most of which related to disrespectful behaviour between co-workers. All grievances were managed internally and no external arbitration was required. The average time to resolve these grievances was 18 days and all grievances were closed within the target time of 30 days. There were nine grievances recorded through the Whistleblower hotline, of which: six cases were minor breaches to the Code of Conduct; two cases lacked sufficient information to investigate; and one potentially serious breach to the Code of Conduct that remains under investigation. Under our whistleblower procedure, all complainants are offered the opportunity to engage with an independent intermediary on a strictly confidential basis.

All our employees participated in an annual performance review with their line manager, which provides an opportunity to assess progress and mutually agree forward-looking objectives and personal development goals.

We recognise and respect employees’ rights to freedom of association. While we do not place any restrictions or prescriptions on union representation, there is no such representation within our workforce in Egypt and no collective bargaining agreements. In Côte d’Ivoire we supported our employees establish a committee comprising elected representatives to facilitate engagement with the management team on workplace conditions, as is required under national regulations. There were two committee meetings in 2022 with no material issues reported. In 2022, Centamin sustained positive industrial relations with no strike action nor lockout.

We recognise the need to integrate human rights considerations into our social management approaches, including human resources, health and safety, contracts and procurement, community relations and security.

Despite our best controls, we recognise the potential for our activities to impact human rights. We are committed to improving systems for identifying human rights risks and putting in place effective mechanisms for responding to risks and incidents.

Our Human Rights Policy includes our commitment to adopt and implement policies, practices and systems based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (“UNGP”); World Gold Council’s conflict-free gold standard; and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. The policy outlines our management approach to protecting the rights of our stakeholders to not cause, or be complicit, in any instances of human rights abuses directly or through our business relationships. The policy is signed by the Chief Executive Officer and endorsed by the Board. This and our other policies are published on the Centamin website and made available to all workers at asset-level through employee onboarding, workplace inductions and notice boards.

As a condition of doing business with Centamin, our suppliers are required to comply with applicable laws and meet the commitments and obligations of our Group policy framework, including human rights. In 2022, we published our annual modern slavery statement in response to section 54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act which sets out our commitment to respect human rights and highlights key actions taken to address risks in our business and supply chain.