In October 2015 Foil Vedanta visited Vedanta’s Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) for the second time to investigate the legacy of pollution that has destroyed the environment and livelihoods around Chingola since 2004, when Vedanta bought controlling shares in KCM. KCM is Africa’s largest copper mine and the largest mining company in the copper dependent economy of Zambia.
A firm that’s almost half-owned by President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane, obtained shares in a company founded by the Gupta family weeks before that firm bought Glencore’s Optimum coal complex in South Africa, share register documents show.
A long-awaited and important event took place in the High Court in London recently. 25 February saw the preliminary hearing in the case being brought by a group of Peruvian citizens against the mining giant Xstrata, now owned by Glencore.
BHP and Glencore both own 33 per cent of the Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia, and have been approached by the owner of the remaining 33 per cent, Anglo American, about its desire to sell its stake.
Civil society groups say potential partners are coal-friendly and have chequered past, but finance experts say it needs help from major institutions to leverage green billions
