A group of Mongolian goat and camel herdsmen are taking on global mining giant Rio Tinto, claiming one of its mines – which produced gold for Olympic medals – have driven them off their ancestral plains.
The herders are demanding ‘just compensation’ for the impact of Rio’s Oyu Tolgoi (OT) copper and gold mine in the South Gobi desert.
A spokesman for Mongolian campaign group OT Watch said Rio Tinto was ‘manipulating herders’ into signing meagre compensation contracts and had failed to help them relocate to good pastures.