Marek Kreczmer presents important paper on Sustainable Development at PDA convention in Toronto

Tan Range Exploration is the second largest landholder in the Lake Victoria Goldfields of Tanzania after Barrick Gold with whom we have partnerships in eleven prospecting licenses. This classic Archean greenstone belt hosts several major gold producers including Barrick's Bulyanhulu Mine and Ashanti's Geita project.

In total we have 74 licenses in this prolific greenstone belt under various stages of development. We have expended several million dollars on these properties - all of which has had a significant but fluctuating economic impact on nearby rural communities and their indigenous populations.

Our history in Tanzania covers a period of considerable change in the country. While Tanzania has been spared the internal strife that has plagued many of its neighbors, it remains a very poor country by world standards. Indeed, it is heavily reliant on foreign aid with many of its people living below the World Bank-defined poverty line.

Working in Tanzania presents some unique challenges. However, dealing with these challenges provides an opportunity for explorers like Tan Range to do things differently and leave a positive and, hopefully, lasting impact on the country and its people.

Tanzania is a largely agricultural country and the needs of its rural population are basic and immediate. In the Western world, we would call these "bread and butter" issues. In Tanzania, however, their needs are very much "bread and water" issues ― the bread being maize and the water - at least in the rural areas - an incubation medium for diseases such as cholera and malaria.

Tan Range's Chairman and CEO, James E. Sinclair, the former Chairman of Sutton Resources, played a significant role in the development of the Bulyanhulu gold project which was later sold to Barrick for approximately $500 million.

His family trust has a long history of philanthropy in Tanzania which includes the construction of a hospital at Bulyanhulu and its staffing by a competent doctor who remains there today. Jim's charitable foundation has also constructed several maize mills and worked with Mother Theresa's Sisters of Charity to construct a home for orphaned children.

Meeting these basic and immediate needs is fundamental for rural populations and severely limits the capacity of local communities to participate in non-traditional activities. This is especially true for women who bear the children, are responsible for their care and maintenance, and are usually among the most poverty stricken.

Men's ability to participate in the economy is hampered by low educational and general skill levels, restricting them to manual tasks like artisanal mining and other subsistence-related activities.

Our policy of engagement ensures that first and foremost we do not create any false expectations in local communities and promote dependence. In fact, our goal is to leave a positive legacy in local communities by emphasizing education, skills training, and by making practical improvements to their living environment.

We built a school at Itetemia that includes classrooms and an office. And today, we regularly provide school equipment for children including desks, pens, writing pads, and even photocopying services at examination time.

We also provide computer courses and driver education and mechanical courses for local workers, utilizing our dedicated infrastructure which improves their employment prospects and job mobility ― a direct benefit to the local economy and the individuals themselves.

Ensuring that Tanzanian children have the facilities and tools to achieve their educational aspirations is one of the most important contributions we can make to their lives.

Our mobile infrastructure, mostly four wheel drive vehicles, is frequently used to transport locals to dispensaries and hospitals which are sometimes a considerable distance away.

In recent years, our efforts have been increasingly geared towards building "social capital" rather than going the somewhat more traditional route of developing infrastructure that may be difficult to support following our departure.

As mineral explorers the impact of our activities on the environment is short term and minimal and our environment compliance practices meet or exceed standards that are currently in place in Canada and the United States. The very nature of our activities, however, also creates opportunities to enhance the living environment for local communities at a modest cost.

One of our most important initiatives has involved drilling water wells near active exploration projects. Three deep water wells have been completed at various projects, two of which are equipped with manual pumps and another with an electrical pump powered by a generator. Water can also be drawn from these wells manually if required. In two cases, these pumps are the only source of water in the area.

Increasingly, we are seeing many more university-educated women in Tanzania working in non-traditional fields, one of whom, a geologist, Mwacha Mtoro is employed by the Company at its office in Mwanza.

As an exploration company, our activities in local communities are limited and we generally don't have to address issues that confront companies in the development and production phases. Nonetheless, we remain sensitive to the operational consequences of our activities and have developed internal policies that will allow us to optimize our resources in a cost-efficient and humane fashion.

Our sustainability strategy is a practical one that is designed to unfold over years rather than months and is, by definition, proactive and flexible in its implementation. Like any program of this nature, it must work for the community, the local environment, and the company.

As a publicly traded company, our shareholders rightly expect us to be effective and efficient explorers but they are increasingly demanding that we address social and environmental issues in a competent fashion as well.

It's not just good business - it's the right thing to do.