Our Stories
Raising the Bar: Investing in community development at Masbate
September 22, 2023
Mining projects offer unique opportunities to engage with and contribute to the development of host communities. As part of B2Gold’s socio-economic impact and legacy, one of our goals is to help build sustainable communities, with the company serving as a catalyst, and community members playing a lead role in their own development. Our community projects in the Philippines exemplify what’s possible under his model.
In 2013, B2Gold acquired a substantial interest in the Masbate Gold Project. The mine is situated in the municipality of Aroroy, in an ancient mining town at the northern tip of Masbate Island, where gold mining has long been the heartbeat of the local community. Masbate is the largest employer and single private investment in the province, as well as the largest operating gold mine in the Philippines.
Each year, B2Gold and its local partner, Filminera, reinvest a portion of the mine’s operating costs into local projects under a Sustainable Development Management Program (SDMP), working closely with local communities and officials to maximize positive impact. To date, the SDMP has invested in initiatives focusing on education, the environment, health, infrastructure, entrepreneurship, cultural values, and livelihoods.
Read on to learn about four inspiring examples where targeted investments led to significant impacts and improvements for local communities – and legacies that will last for decades to come.
1. Investing in clean water: A new reservoir and waterworks for residents of Tigbao, Aroroy
Back when Jerry Malinao, a 52-year-old kagawad (councillor) of Tigbao, Aroroy, was a young boy attending Tigbao Elementary School, he had to carry not only his books and bag, but also an empty gallon container or two – to bring back water for his household from a neighbouring sitio (community).
“We would fetch water and bring it home,” he recalls.* The queue was often hours long, and he had to walk 30 minutes back to his home in Sitio Tangig. Worse, the water was murky and yellow. Despite the coastal setting, clean water was hard to come by.
Not much changed until 2020, when the barangay of Tigbao made the decision to allocate funds from their annual share of the Masbate mine’s SDMP to prioritize the development of a water system. With seed funds of P476,000 from the mine SDMP, and a P350,000 counterpart fund from Aroroy, the residents sourced a fresh-water spring 1.5 km away – installing waterworks on May 28, 2021.
Under a food-for-work scheme, a group of residents then built a concrete reservoir and installed pipes in 39 homes in Tangig; roughly a third of the households in the sitio. The rest are able to fetch water from the reservoir, which is just a stone’s throw away. Those with running water in their homes pay P100 a month, while those who still have to fetch water pay P50.
“Only three faucets are allowed in homes where water is delivered. But it is a godsend compared to what we used to endure,” says Malinao.
Seeing how Sitio Tangig was transformed by the project, other nearby barangays have also asked the mine’s SDMP assist with waterworks projects.
2. Investing in livelihoods: Rural capacity for agriculture
Goats are easy to keep, and they can eat almost anything, anywhere. This was Cresil Ostia’s logic when she selected goat-raising as part of a Masbate SDMP-funded livelihood project.
“An international organization offered pig husbandry years ago, and we tried it but it’s very costly,” recalls Ostia, who is the local barangay kagawad (councillor), and president of the Colorada Barangay Rural Improvement Club.
The project initially distributed 22 goats in June 2019, to be raised by eight beneficiaries; all members of the club. Later, 44 goats were added, this time to be raised communally by 11 local families.
“Many of our association members were not fond of goats [at first]. They would say, ‘malas sa dagat ang kambing’ (goats are the misfortune of the sea). I think it’s about their smell driving away the fish,” says Erlinda Cantuba, another barangay kagawad. “But there are no misfortunes to those who are industrious.”
3. Investing in safety: Public infrastructure upgrades
Prior to 2019, a riprap, or stone, seawall protected the coastline of Barangay Talib from erosion and damage. But successive storms had damaged the wall, leaving the community open to the tides and washed-up debris.
But with funding from the Masbate Mine SDMP, locals were able to repair the seawall in 2021, restoring their protection from large waves that eat into the coast, also attracting garbage.
“When we didn’t have the riprap wall, we became the dumping ground of the sea,” recalls local kagawad Rico Placencia.
As part of the restoration, the community also plans to lengthen the seawall from 100 to 140 metres, fortifying the riprap with steel bars and planting at least 260 fruit trees to serve as both windbreakers and a food source.
Elsewhere, Masbate’s SDMP has funded safety-related upgrades to public facilities. For instance, at the first stand-alone senior high school in Masbate, recently opened at Talabaan barangay in Aroroy, the main pathway leading to the school was precariously situated and dark. SDMP funding helped cover the cost of concreting a roughly 1.7 km pathway. The fund also helped pay for solar street lights in populated areas, and repairs to a local health centre and chapel.
