Affi Pays for New School Building for Health Workers at Rumginae

Affi, the big copper smelter at Hamburg, made a donation to the Evangelical Church of Papua Newguinea, to replace a rotten school building by a new one at their health center at Rumginae (located at the road from Kiunga to Tabubil). Health workers are educated and trained at the Rumginae health center, to serve people in the villages of the Ok Tedi region. The school building was build completely new by OTML, and the bill paid by Affi, approximately US$ 70,000.

Dr. Schultek, physician in charge at Affi's, was sent to PNG to check opportunities, how Affi could contribute to improve living conditions around Ok Tedi, to fulfill the promise given on their visit to PNG, November 2000. This way, Affi wants to demonstrate to feel responsible as an important customer of Ok Tedi ore, which causes so many social and environmental problems. Though Dr. Schultek will be affiliated to the project, and support it personally, Affi did not establish continuous sponsorship by a foundation or similar.

The estimated lifetime of the building is 20 years, which corresponds to the time, Affi will have received copper ore concentrate from OTML till mine closure by 2010. So far, Affi got 1.2 million tons, and the total will accumulate to 2 million tons in 2010, equivalent to 700,000 tons of copper, 100 tons of silver, and 50 tons of gold. The metals value at prices July 2002

  • Copper US$ 1,200 million
  • Silver US$ 18 million
  • Gold US$ 500 million
A 20 years turnover of almost US$ 2 billion, which will yield profits to shareholders US$ 40 million, makes a one time gift worth US$ 70 thousand look a bit cheap.
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