On January 31, 2006, the Board of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm, approved loans amounting to USD $125 million for Denver-based Newmont Mining Company's controversial Afaho gold mining project in Ghana. Ghanaian and international human rights and environmental NGOs had previously called on the IFC Board to postpone loan consideration until IFC and Newmont had fully addressed the project's human rights and environmental problems.