In July 2021, Gemfields, the main shareholder of Montepuez Ruby Mining in Mozambique and Kagem in Zambia, announced the “G Factor for Natural Resources”, a measure aimed at promoting greater transparency about the wealth of natural resources shared with governments.
According to an article on the Mining Weekly news portal published on Wednesday, April 24, the mining company released the updated figures of the measure for the year 2023, inviting extractive companies, industry observers and governments to adopt the “G Factor for Natural Resources” to improve the transparency and accountability of companies.
Reporting the calculations of the measure on its two main mining subsidiaries, Gemfields notes that it provides a simple indicator of the percentage of revenues that are paid to governments in primary taxes and duties. “This is also an indicator of the efficiency of natural resource companies in converting them into funds for the governments of the countries in which they operate,” said the mining company’s statement.
According to the portal, the Montepuez mine contributed 35% of its revenues to the state coffers in 2023, while the Kagem mine paid 31%. In the same period, Gemfields profited 151.3 million dollars (9.5 billion meticais), and Zambia collected 92.7 million dollars (5.8 billion meticais).
“The ‘G Factor for Natural Resources’ provides a simple school score that allows observers to assess the efficiency of extractive companies in converting natural resources into wealth for the nations in which they operate,” explained Sean Gilbertson, CEO of Gemfields. “In order to better align ourselves with the practices of other countries in our region, we have this year added export duties and taxes as an additional parameter in the calculation.”
The CEO also pointed out that he hopes “the ‘G Factor’ will be voluntarily adopted by other companies and governments and incorporated into projects such as the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI)”.
