'Wold Bank loan undermines Lonmin arguments, says academic', 7 Nov 2014: During...the Marikana Commission, Lonmin executives said the company had not been able to afford to keep its 2006 promise to build 5,500 new houses for workers. Yet a year later...the International Finance Corporation had made finance of US$150 million available to Lonmin - part of it for a "large-scale community development programme"...Lonmin undertook to convert all...single sex hostel[s]...and to build...5,500 houses for...workers...by September 2011...But by the end of...2009...only three...houses had been built and only 29 hostels converted...In a press release at the time, Lonmin CEO Brad Mills said: “Our partnership with IFC will help to enhance Lonmin’s continued commitment to the... sustainability of our local communities”...Rashad Kaldany, IFC Director ...[said] “IFC and Lonmin share the objective of maximizing the benefits from mining operations to help improve people’s lives in Africa.”...the [Marikana] Commission's evidence leaders dismissed Lonmin’s affordability argument...The obligation to build houses was legally binding...they said, and Lonmin had made no application to the government to vary these obligations...