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Discretion isn't the better part of Vallar!
PT Renaissance Capital is an Indonesian bank, controlled by two Indonesian citizens, both educated abroad.(It should not be confused with Russia's Renaissance Capital to which there is no known link). In 2009, the bank acquired control of one of Indonesia's major coal...
Vedanta subsidiary to benefit from gold rush in Goa?
The reported discovery of gold deposits in the Indian State of Goa has got gold miners a little worked up. Will local mining companies get the first rights to mine it? See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=118122&sn=Detail&pid=102055.
DRC wikileak reveals a uranium scandal: UK company put in the spotlight
One of the most explosive wikileaks published late last year escaped the attention of many in the international media - though it was quite widely covered elsewhere, as in this article by Julio Godoy of Inter Press Service (IPS). In this particular instance, leaked US...
Wikileaks stories on Freeport Rio Tinto in West Papua
Further "wikileaks" may demonstrate that US embassy officials in Jakarta were genuinely concerned about "rampant corruption and human rights abuses" by the Indonesian military in West Papua over the past four years. However the cables also show they are more than...
Vedanta: serial offending in Zambia too?
In November of last year, Vedanta's Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) was fined in court for polluting the very river it had poisoned four years earlier in the north of the country. In November 2006, effluents cascaded from a burst slurry pipeline into the...
Wikileaks on Bangladesh, GCM and government collaboration
A WikiLeaked cable from US embassy, Dhaka shows that Moriarty urged Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, the prime minister’s energy adviser, to authorise coal mining in Phulbari, saying that ‘open-pit mining seemed the best way forward’ (Guardian, December 21). But for whom? He...
Statement on the Saxena Committee Report on the Indian Forest Rights Act
India's 2006 Forest Rights Act* is potentially the most significant pro-Peoples legislation of its kind in the country's history. If thoroughly implemented, the Act stands to benefit more forest-dependent communities, impacted by mineral projects, than anywhere else...
Vedanta and market fundamentalism
The road from Rayagada north to Bissamcuttack and the Kalahandi border is in a state of rampant disrepair. A smashed lorry lies overturned in a ditch — one of countless accidents in recent years. At least two policemen are among the last five years’ hundreds of...
More violence at Xstrata's Philippine project
Once again there has been a violent incident at Xstrata's Tampakan copper-gold project over the Christmas holiday period. This time security operatives, working for an affiliate of UK-based Securicor, have been injured in an armed attack on company offices. Although...
Deadly Coal comes to Europe
For many years, LMN member group Down to Earth has been working with JATAM, the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network on a variety of mining campaigns in Indonesia. Following the launch of Indonesian network JATAM's 'Deadly Coal' campaign early in 2010, DTE and JATAM...