See http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ggU5a5myh4ewO_qJ9P-8EasAa_YQ?docId=CNG.b16557cdf41a87e85d20681fb83362ab.31.

Read the Bankwatch report at http://bankwatch.org/sites/default/files/spirited-away-mongolia-mining.pdf.

See the video at http://bankwatch.org/news-media/blog/video-spirited-away-mongolias-mining-boom-and-people-development-left-behind.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11476&l=1.

The organisation Get Up! Action for Australia believes it is part of a strategy by the mining industry.

They said: “This week mining billionaire Gina Rinehart became the largest shareholder in Fairfax, having already bought a stake in Channel Ten. But this new video (http://www.getup.org.au/minersmediaplan) reveals this move is bigger than one woman’s ambition – it’s part of a coordinated and very deliberate strategy, with climate skeptic ‘Lord’ Monkton seen here advising a room full of mining executives on how the industry must gain control of Australia’s media.

“We’ve seen what happened in the USA when coordinated, super-wealthy corporate interests set about deliberately reshaping the media landscape to suit their agendas. It’s bad news for democracy and it’s bad news for the issues we care about. And while this most recent purchase was a brazen move, it’s hardly the first time a mining industry executive has used their vast wealth to push an agenda.

“Last year, Rinehart helped set up a new lobby group calling for a special ‘Northern Economic Zone’ demanding lower tax, government concessions and cheap migrant labor from Asia. She helped bankroll the campaign against Government efforts to ask the mining industry to pay their fair share of tax through the Mining Super Profits tax and she’s been actively sponsoring prominent climate skeptics like Monckton, Ian Plimer and Andrew Bolt, who got his own TV show weeks after she invested in Channel Ten.”

Given the entrenchment of opposition to mine, including by thousands of subsistence farmers who have said they are ready to die to prevent this mine, there appears to be a real risk of large scale violence.

LMN member group LAMMP co-ordinated the preparation of an open letter of protest to the President of Peru, and produced a video. The letter was co-signed by LMN, a number of its member groups, and many others. See http://lammp.org/2011/12/10/1750/.

Among investors in Newmont are UK-based Blackrock World Mining Trust and AXA Investment Managers UK. See http://moneytometal.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&button=&search=newmont.

copyright: Gaia Foundation

Gaia Foundation press release, Thursday 15th December 2011

Yesterday in Central London a silent protest took place outside the General Meeting of Shareholders of Australian mining company, Coal of Africa Ltd (CoAL). The protest was held in solidarity with the communities of the Limpopo Province, South Africa, who face untold ecological, social and economic damage to their ancestral homes should the mine go ahead.

The CoAL project which will affect this region is known as the Makhado Project. It is in addition to one other mine owned by the company in Limpopo Province, known as Vele, and a further two in the neighbouring Mpumalanga province. Yesterday’s meeting preceded CoAL’s Conditional Placing of Shares on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange plc, which is set to take place today.

Liz Hosken, founding director of The Gaia Foundation, took part in the protest: “We are here in support of the local communities and especially the Makadzhis - the guardians of the sacred sites and sacred lands of Venda in Limpopo Province. These are the spiritual leaders of the people whose responsibility it is to protect their ancestral homeland, which these coal-mining projects will destroy if  they go ahead. The company haven’t even carried out proper studies, but the one thing that they have admitted is that the underground water will be finished within two years. So there isn’t even enough water for their own projects; let alone for life itself. If there is no water, there is no life. This is truly Ecocide.”

Earlier this week twelve civil society groups and community members from the Limpopo Province sent a letter to over fifty shareholders and potential investors of Coal of Africa (CoAL) demanding that they reconsider their plans to support the company – and specifically the Makhado Project.

The letter set out a number of grave concerns relating to CoAL’s handling of the Makhado project and their neighbouring Vele mine. These included a flawed public participation process; failure to provide adequate answers to questions raised by the community; no water licence; and an insufficient Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Plan.

The letter states: “We have a responsibility to our ancestors and to our children to stop the destruction of our ancestral lands. You would do the same if someone wanted to mine your home. Please think about that”.

Notes to Editors:
Watch a 2-minute film about yesterday’s protest and what the mine will mean for the lives of the communities of Limpopo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZG0Sc9NTRY&feature=youtu.be

For further information please contact Rowan Phillimore at The Gaia Foundation, London on +44 207 428 0054 or rowan@gaianet.org
or A.M. Mudau, Dzomo la Mupo, South Africa email: azwihangwisimosesm@yahoo.com or +27 79 412 2666

Image: Silent protest outside CoAL’s General Meeting of Shareholders which took place in Central London yesterday (Wednesday 14th December). Copyright, The Gaia Foundation.

Representatives from The Gaia Foundation, the London Mining Network and the general public took part in the peaceful protest.
The letter which was sent to CoAL shareholders and investors earlier this week has been based on evidence and analysis drawn from a research report commissioned by an alliance of groups, to look into the impacts of coal mining. The report Mine Not – Waste Not: A preliminary critique of aspects of the CoAL Makhado Colliery Project EIA and EMP is available on the following websites: The Gaia Foundation http://www.gaiafoundation.org and London Mining Network www.londonminingnetwork.org.

Coal of Africa’s website states today that, ‘subject to obtaining shareholder approval to issue the Conditional Placing Shares, the Company will apply for admission of the Conditional Placing Shares to trading or quotation and listing of the Conditional Placing Shares on the AIM market of London Stock Exchange plc (“AIM”) on 15 December 2011 and on the Main Board of JSE Limited (“JSE”) on 20 December 2011. Accordingly, the anticipated settlement date for the Conditional Placing Shares on AIM is 15 December 2011’. www.coalofafrica.com

photo: Jane Calliste

Protesters from the Occupy LSX demonstration marched from St Paul’s cathedral to join anti-nuclear campaigners, supporters of London Mining Network member group Colombia Solidarity Campaign and others outside yesterday’s BHP Billiton AGM. See short video at http://vimeo.com/31028821 and report at http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10589.

Inside the AGM, Julio Gomez from Colombia confronted the company over its activities in Colombia. Julio is President of the Federation of Communities Affected and Displaced by Mining Exploitation in La Guajira (FECODEMIGUA).

This Federation was constituted because of the disappearance of communities, the loss of lands and the violations of people’s rights over the last thirty years by the Cerrejon mine, one-third owned by BHP Billiton.

Julio said:

“The benefits obtained in this part of the world from coal mining in La Guajira, such as electrical power and shareholders’ dividends, are stained with blood. This is because of
· the displacement and uprooting of communities neighbouring the Cerrejon mine;
· the humiliations, threats, and persecution suffered by leaders of these communities;
· the destruction and pollution of nature;
· and the exploitation of mine workers.

Many of you may be aware of the forced eviction of the community of Tabaco ten years ago, of the situation of other communities and that of the workers. What you are probably not aware of is that many other communities were destroyed completely before BHP Billiton bought into the mine – among them indigenous and Afro-descendant communities including Manantial, Palmarito, El Descanso, Caracolí, Sarahita and others located along the railway line between the mine and the port.

BHP Billiton has not accepted responsibility for the disappearance of these communities, but it ought to do so, because it has acquired the rights and benefits generated by this business and with it the responsibility for past and future activities.

It is unfair that while you are obtaining massive profits, we suffer from high rates of respiratory illness and cancers, malnutrition, high infant mortality, violations of our rights, land rendered infertile, loss of livelihood, and descent into poverty…

Meanwhile, Cerrejon Coal is carrying out publicity campaigns trying to show how generous it is. It uses the slogan ‘responsible mining’, which is completely inaccurate. Cerrejon seems to spend substantial amounts of money on publicity about social responsibility, but not enough on social responsibility itself.

My question, therefore, is, how long do we, the communities affected by Cerrejon, have to wait for BHP Billiton to take action and demand that its subsidiary Cerrejon Coal act with justice, respect and equity towards us, and that it have an effective and honest department of social responsibility?”

BHP Billiton Chairman Jac Nasser replied that some of the issues raised by Julio were of long standing but that others were new and alarming. He said that not everything the company did was perfect but that they had good intent and that he believed the company was making good progress and contributing to the local and national economy through taxes and social investment. He said that he would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Julio to discuss the issues with Julio in more detail. (Julio took him at his word, conversing with him after the AGM – though they were unable to ‘sit down’ for lack of available seating.) Julio made clear that if Cerrejon Coal’s activities were so beneficial to the communities in La Guajira, he would not have come from Colombia to raise these issues at the company’s AGM.

Representatives of LMN member groups PIPLinks and Down to Earth challenged the Board about BHP Billiton’s plans for uranium mining at Yeelirrie in Western Australia, the massive expansion of its enormous Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia, its plans for coal mining in forested areas of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, and its refusal to accept Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior Informed Consent under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Statements were presented from Aboriginal Elders in the areas of BHP Billiton’s uranium projects in Australia.

19th October 2011: To BHP Billiton’s London Shareholders and the Parliament of Great Britain

In 2010 and again in 2011 we instructed our representative body- the Central Desert Native Title Services (CDNTS) Ltd that we, the Traditional Custodians of Yeelirrie, are strongly opposed to the development of uranium mine at Yeelirrie in Western Australia. Yeelirrie is currently under occupation from BHP Billiton who is pursuing a uranium mine application with the State of WA.
After extensive discussion at the meetings between the Traditional Custodians and the CDNTS in 2010 and 2011 the group arrived at the decision to oppose the development. In 2011 this decision was unanimous among the group.

Traditional Custodians have strong concerns about the safety and management of radiation and the effects that mining Yeelirrie will have on the well-being of our country and our people.

The place Yeelirrie, in our language, means the place of death. We are custodians of that place; it is our responsibility to keep that poison, the uranium, where it is. If that uranium leaves our country and does damage to someone, that’s our responsibility and we take that very seriously.

We have been to the BHP Billiton Annual General Meetings two years in a row, in Brisbane and in Perth and will go again this year to Melbourne to tell the company and their shareholders that we don’t want uranium mining on our country. Despite our position they continue to pursue the uranium mine and avoid engaging with us. We have been very clear about our position.

Kado Muir – Chairperson of the West Australia Nuclear Free Alliance and Ngalia Traditional Custodian
Richard Evans – Koara Tribal elder

I, Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna elder from Lake Eyre, make the following statement to the BHP Billiton AGM and shareholders:

We never did want Olympic Dam to develop in the first place under Western Mining.
The same thing applies to you. We don’t want you to continue with Olympic Dam.
In fact we want you to shut up shop immediately and leave that area.
By your influence, the State and Federal Governments have sold us out.

For over 40,000 years we’ve been able to maintain and look after our country.
Under the ancient culture and law, digging up and destroying sacred sites is prohibited.
The desert to us is just as important as the cities.

Because of the lack of consultation and understanding in the first place, and because of greed and selfishness, it seems easy to you people who are foreign to this land to destroy the ancient structure.

We have no alternative but to continue to expose you as wrongdoers. It is a criminal offence  that you people are committing, and you are already branded as criminals.

We are telling you to reverse the decision to expand and make an open cut mine, and cease this operation at Olympic Dam immediately.

Find a good use to spend your money. You will feel better as human beings.
I hope this message gets through to you.

I am inviting you to come and talk to reach a better understanding of the ancient dreamtime structure.

Kevin  Buzzacott.  19 October 2011

Meanwhile, there were protests in Adelaide, South Australia…

MEDIA RELEASE, 20 October 2011

A giant radioactive waste barrel has just been erected on Grenfell Street opposite City Cross Arcade to mark the introduction of the new Roxby Downs Indenture Agreement into SA Parliament.

“This barrel can be used to conceptualise the volume of radioactive tailings that will leak from the tailings dams of the newly approved Olympic Dam open-pit uranium mine” said Riley Ashton of Protest BHP Adelaide.

“This leak will contaminate the aquifer with radioactive isotopes and heavy metals, and threaten groundwater dependent ecosystems for thousands of years” said Mr Ashton.

“BHP Billiton’s Environmental Impact Statement states that the maximum rate of seepage from the radioactive tailings dams in the first decade will be 8 million litres per day.  That’s over 90 of these barrels each day, amounting to over 33 000 of these barrels each year (approximately 2922 million litres per year), and equivalent to more than 7.5 barrels every 2 hours,” said Mr Ashton.

“At 40 years of operation, the new tailings dams at Olympic Dam will have leaked well over 47.5 billion litres of radioactive waste into the underlying rock and groundwater, approximately 540 000 of these barrels” said Mr Ashton.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” continued Mr Ashton.

This coincides with a community rally at BHP Billiton’s Adelaide office, protesting the recent approval of the Olympic Dam Mine.

For comment, more information or photos contact:
Riley Ashton:  0421 593 902
Nectaria Calan: 0432 388 665

and in Perth, Western Australia…

Peaceful protest calls for an end to big exemptions for the Big Australian

More than 40 people from all over Perth gathered at BHP Billiton’s city offices on 20 October to protest the proposed Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion and remind the mining giant that there is no social license to mine uranium in Western Australia.

Despite BHP sending dire warnings of protestor violence to its Perth-based employees, the event took on a carnival atmosphere with a cheeky BHPeep Show featuring doubles of BHP CEO Marius Kloppers and Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Part of a national day of action timed to coincide with the BHP Billiton Annual General Meeting being held in London, the protest followed Minister Burke approving the expansion of South Australia’s Olympic Dam uranium mine last week. The multinational mining giant is also pursuing a uranium mine at Yeelirrie, 70kms South West of Wiluna in central WA.

See http://ccwa.org.au/media/peaceful-protest-calls-end-big-exemptions-big-australian.

See also http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/bhp-warning-is-ridiculous-protest-group-20111020-1m96y.html
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/10502297/bhp-warns-staff-of-protest-fear/
and http://www.smh.com.au/wa-news/bhp-warning-is-ridiculous-protest-group-20111020-1m96y.html.

Greens tying up Olympic Dam with new parliamentary inquiry, $30 billion project faces delays

News reports from Australia say BHP Billiton may face delays in getting approvals for its $30 billion Olympic Dam expansion, as Greens and other minor parties holding the balance of power in the South Australian Parliament push for an inquiry into the project. See http://www.mining.com/2011/10/18/greens-tying-up-olympic-dam-with-new-parliamentary-inquiry-30-billion-project-faces-delays/.

Back in Britain, Julio Gomez accompanied his visit to the BHP Billiton AGM with meetings with Coal Action Scotland in Edinburgh, UNISON North East in Newcastle, Latin American community groups, workers’ organisations and solidarity campaigns in London and the South East, officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Peers and Members of Parliament, and the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group. He spoke at a well-attended public meeting in the Houses of Parliament the evening before the BHP Billiton AGM. His visit to Britain was organised by London Mining Network and the Colombia Solidarity Campaign.

Nearest tube: Knightsbridge.

Organised by:

Colombia Solidarity Campaign

Movimiento 22

COLOMBIA, the second most BIODIVERSE country in the world, home to 105 INDIGENOUS CULTURES, is under theat by MINING MULTINATIONALS.  Mining titles now cover 8% of national territory.  London-listed ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI holds the majority of them, many in Indigenous or Afro-Colombian lands, or areas with UNIQUE or IRREPLACEABLE ECOSYSTEMS.  Land is being handed over to mining companies with the blessing of the Colombian state.

On 3 June this year, 13,000 people marched in the streets of Tolima to say YES TO LIFE, and NO TO LA COLOSA MINE.  Unless stopped, La Colosa will become the largest open cast gold mine in South America.  Nestled in the Colombian Andes in an area of strategic importance as a ‘water factory’, the CYANIDE used to process the ore will contaminate water for drinking and irrigation for the wider region.  Colombians are demanding the right to continue living in a clean and safe environment.

The people of Tolima will march again on 14 OCTOBER. They would like Colombians and Friends of Colombia throughout the world to show their Solidarity, by convening at their closest Colombian Embassy on the day to say YES TO LIFE, and NO TO THE MINE.  Our solidarity is of utmost importance as recently, threats have been received by opponents of the mine in Anaime, near Cajamarca, Tolima.

Bring Placards, Banners and let’s make a noise!!

More info:

Report: LA COLOSA: The Quest for El Dorado in Cajamarca, Colombia
http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/mining/548-la-colosa-the-quest-for-el-dorado-in-cajamarca-colombia

Documentary: Gold Fever in Cajamarca http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHxcZZ50opU

Documentary: AngloGold Ashanti in Ghana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Mz4hsCEpk

Threats to opponents of the mine: http://www.elnuevodia.com.co/nuevodia/tolima/regional/112789-campesinos-de-anaime-amenazados-por-coincidencias

See http://www.roxstop-action.org/.

Civil Disobedience against the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that would bring Alberta Tar Sands “dirty” oil from Canada down through the US heartland to Gulf refineries in Texas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u45sOa_G6GE

Sending our love to Washington DC
http://www.no-tar-sands.org/2011/08/sending-our-love-to-washington-dc/

Canadian government accused of ‘unprecedented’ tar sands lobbying
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/04/canada-tar-sands-lobbying

See http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2011/08/20118284435996818.html.

“There have been massive radiation spikes in Canada because of Fukushima,” said Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. “The authorities don’t want people to have an understanding of this. The government of Canada tends to pooh-pooh the dangers of nuclear power because it is a promoter of nuclear energy and uranium sales.”

See http://www.straight.com/article-415211/vancouver/fukushima-brings-big-radiation-spikes-bc?page=0%2C0.

Fukushima…what you haven’t been hearing and why
7 minute video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4WwMISWTy9U

Fukushima protesters urge end to nuclear power

An estimated 1,700 people rallied in the capital of Japan’s Fukushima region, home to a crippled atomic power plant, on Sunday, calling for an end to nuclear energy, local media reported. “Abolish all the nuclear power plants!” and “Give radiation-free Fukushima back to us,” the demonstrators chanted as they marched in Fukushima City, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the nuclear plant. The rally, joined by residents evacuated from areas outside the Fukushima Daiichi plant, was organised by the Japan Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs as part of its longtime campaign against nuclear weapons.

See http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iuxxvlwXaUMFvimSyz0RPHh0_TAA.

The Post-Fukushima Arms Race?

Reduced worldwide demand for nuclear plants is pushing nuclear firms into riskier nuclear markets in the Middle East and Asia, with potentially drastic security consequences. As past experience with India, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Syria demonstrates, such projects are also bomb starter kits.

See http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/29/the_post_fukushima_arms_race.

For ongoing updates and analysis on Fukushima, see:
http://fairewinds.com/ and http://www.beyondnuclear.org

Why the UK must choose renewables over nuclear: an answer to Monbiot

There are four main reasons why co-existence between nuclear and renewables has become a foolish pipedream.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/jul/26/george-monbiot-renewable-nuclear.

Northern protesters begin 820-km walk

Fourteen residents of northern Saskatchewan (Canada) have now begun an 820-kilometre walk from Pinehouse Lake to Regina to protest nuclear waste storage in Saskatchewan.

See http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Northern+protesters+begin+walk/5170779/story.html.

Saskatchewan: 800 km Walk Heats Up Nuclear Waste Controversy
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1082

How Germany plans to succeed in a nuclear free, low-carbon economy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/29/nuclearpower-energy

Germany’s nuclear endgame: the lessons

The historic decision by Germany’s government to end the country’s nuclear-energy programme is owed to the enduring vitality of the anti-nuclear movement. Paul Hockenos maps the implications for the rest of the world.

See http://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-hockenos/germany%E2%80%99s-nuclear-endgame-lessons.

Sellafield MOX plant to close

The manufacture of mixed oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel at Sellafield is to stop “at the earliest practical opportunity” to reduce the financial risks to British taxpayers from events in Japan.

See http://89.151.116.69/WR_Sellafield_MOX_plant_to_close_0308111.html.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/27/london-2012-gold-medals-launch.

The article does not mention the controversial nature of both mines and the extent of community opposition to Rio Tinto’s activities in both areas. See short movies at http://londonminingnetwork.org/2011/04/rio-tinto-the-movie/ for background.

Radioactive tea from Japan detained in France http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/18/52031497.html

Radioactive contamination of beef in Japan worsens  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/radiation-health-whats-new/2011/7/22/radioactive-contamination-of-beef-in-japan-worsens.html

Suicide Plague: Japan swept by Fukushima depression 4 min. news video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZIvPRMCLr0

Nuclear Delusions – Why nuclear power is not a solution to our energy challenge http://www.countercurrents.org/weyler190711.htm

Nuclear power’s real chain reaction: spiralling costs http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jul/22/nuclear-power-cost-delay-edf

Watch the film to find out what the hell we’re talking about.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lz7ECeOCWQ&feature=player_embedded&utm_source=UK+Tar+Sands+Campaign+List&utm_campaign=420018385e-UK_Tar_Sands_Campaign12_2_2009&utm_medium=email.

See also Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Wendell Berry Call for Civil Disobedience on Tar Sands
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2011/06/23/bill-mckibben-naomi-klein-wendell-berry-call-for-civil-disobedience-on-tar-sands/

See http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?list=~%5Chome%5Clists%5Csearch&id=641445

See also WAVE Players Lampoon Corrupt Michigan Officials, Politicians, Crooked Sulfide Mining Company at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0cNtSGqdPY&feature=share.

See http://pointblankcreative.ca/blog/?p=1951 – then disconnect from the internet and turn off your computer!