Newmont Mining Corporation

Denver, Colorado

As a board member of the Rocky Mountain chapter of Junior Achievement (JA), Russell Ball, Newmont's executive vice president and chief financial officer, is passionate about educating youth about the business world.

Since May 2009, he has helped guide the organization that reaches nearly 9.7 million students worldwide using workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy programs.

"I liked the fact that JA focuses on kids and education and, in particular, on teaching children about financial literacy and the importance of staying in school and getting an education," Ball said.

According to Robin Wise, JA's president and chief executive officer, the program's interactive learning style allows students to make mistakes in a safe environment, while stimulating a desire to plan for financial stability.

"There's no hiding from mistakes you make financially," Wise said in an interview with the Denver Post. "That keeps people poor. Wealth creation doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't happen by someone doing it for you. You have to do it yourself."

Ball – along with a whole host of Newmont employees –
actively supports JA chapters in North America and Peru.

For the second consecutive year, JA's Rocky Mountain chapter invited Newmont employees to support a program called "JA in a Day." JA selected Leroy Drive Elementary School, located several miles north of Newmont's Denver office, because it offers an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme designed to promote a better and more peaceful world by fostering intercultural understanding and respect in students.
JA paired 37 Newmont volunteers from 11 departments with teachers throughout the school to blend the daylong curriculum with business and practical applications of subjects they had already been studying. Our employees spent the day explaining to kindergartners what money looks like and its worth, and taught students in higher grade levels fundamentals of operating a business and paying taxes.

According to Leslie Chapman, a member of Newmont's Socially and Environmentally Responsible Volunteer Employees (SERVE) committee and the JA event coordinator, volunteers had an overwhelmingly positive experience and were glad to participate in such a meaningful project.

JoLynn Brown of Corporate Development agreed.

"Overall, it was a wonderful experience," she said. "The teachers, students and faculty were wonderful, and I look forward to doing this again next year!"

Newmont's Denver office plans to participate in a similar JA event next spring.

In Peru, Minera Yanacocha has supported JA since 2005, when the Asociación los Andes de Cajamarca – the organization the mine created to promote sustainable human development in the region – established the Training Program for Young Entrepreneurs in partnership with JA Worldwide Peru to improve the quality of education there.

In just five years, more than 25,000 Peruvian teachers and students have benefitted from educational programs, activities and events aimed at promoting their entrepreneurial attitude, a better understanding of a free market economy and facilitating their transition into the adult world. Today, 31 high schools have established the Network of Cajamarca Entrepreneurial Schools, and another 500 youth are being mentored by mine managers as well as some of Yanacocha's suppliers.

"(The program) taught me to be a dreamer, tenacious and to persevere," said David Gutiérrez Chilón, a former student at the San Vicente de Paul School, who is now studying business administration in college. "It allowed me to discover some hidden strengths, to give my best and, above all, to think big."

November 30, 2010