See http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-19/bhubaneswar/30642318_1_review-petition-vedanta-aluminum-alumina-refinery.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11428&l=1.

See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550304577136533843111036.html.

•World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is partnered with Rio Tinto Alcan, owned by Rio Tinto  

•Plan Canada = IAMGOLD

•World Vision Canada = Barrick Gold

See http://thewrongkindofgreen.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/ngos-receive-funds-from-canadian-government-mining-companies/.

Now, a civil society organization (Odisha Water Initiatives – OWI) which pledges to protect water supplies for the people of Orissa (Odisha), provided evidence of numerous instances where the company illegally extracted water from rivers and reservoirs.

But, even when fined for these violations, the company failed to pay the penalties – now amounting to some US$2 million.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11395.

See http://expressbuzz.com/states/orissa/why-waive-rs-9-crore-penalty-on-vedanta/344648.html.

See also Water tax waiver issue rocks Assembly at http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/28643-water-tax-waiver-issue-rocks-assembly.html and Water Lootera Vedanta gets undue favour from Water Bureaucracy at http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/2011/12/water-lootera-vedanta-gets-undue-favour.html.

(One crore = ten million. Nine crore rupees is equivalent to over £1,080,000 sterling.)

But if its power is harnessed, who will benefit – the DRC’s millions of poor or a wealthy regional and international elite?

Civil society organisations are worried that ordinary Congolese, only 6% of whom have access to electricity, will remain in the dark, while their river’s power is transmitted to mines and industrial facilities in South Africa, elsewhere in Africa or even Europe, or to power-hungry installations such as a massive aluminium smelter proposed for the coast by BHP Billiton.

See http://www.news24.com/Columnists/AndreasSpath/Energy-colonialism-in-the-Congo-20111130

The UK government itself is now reported to be “monitoring” the investigation.

CMS’ top executive is in fact UK citizen Richard Curtis who, according to the Switzerland-based Bruno Manser Fund, “plays a key role as aide of the deeply corrupted Taib family that runs the [Sarawak] state”.

There is a highly significant connection between CMS and Rio Tinto‘s Sarawak aluminium smelter project at Similajau.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11321.

(One of the companies hoping to benefit from cheap power from the Inga Dam project is BHP Billiton.)

See http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105843.

Rio Tinto’s shutdown of its aluminium smelter at Lynemouth in Northumberland, in north east England, announced recently, marks the start of the company’s attempt to reap some dividend for, arguably, the worst business decision taken in the company’s history – the acquisition of Alcan in 2007.

It’s hardly an auspicious beginning to  Rio Tinto’s attempt to sell off 13 of its aluminium-related assets  in its newly-packaged Pacific Aluminium. “Under performing” is something of a euphemism to describe just what these assets are worth.

Matt Chambers pointed out last month in The Australian that: “What remains to be seen is whether Rio can sell the four smelters and the Gove [bauxite and alumina] operations in a trade sale, is forced to split them up or floats them on the stock exchange.”

The split up has begun with the Lynemouth closuree – leaving over 500 workers on the scrap heap (nice timing Albanese, just as the UK government issues the worst ever unemployment figures for 17 years!)

Although it looks certain that no one will now purchase the Lynemouth plant – except in a “fire sale” of individual lots – the related coal fired/biomass power plant, which supplied not only the smelter but the national grid, is a different matter.

(As a wikipedia entry points out in an intelligent summary of the status of this power plant: “It is the most thermally efficient coal-fired power station in the UK. Two separate wind farm plans currently have permission to be built near the station…In 2009, Alcan announced that they hope to fit the station with carbon capture and storage technology. In 2011, it was announced that the power station may be converted to burn biomass only, in a bid to avoid government legislation”. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynemouth_power_station.)

As for the other dozen assets within Pacific Aluminium, it’s anyone’s guess as to who might be interested in taking them over, though Glencore (never one to neglect opportunities afforded by buying at the lower end of the market and integrating the assets within its own global strategy) might be a front runner.

It seems unlikely that Rio Tinto would go for an IPO – and if so, even more unlikely that it would try for a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (especially since, following the Lynemouth closure, public and investor opinion in the UK isn’t going to be that favourable. (The ASX would be the obvious target.)

At any rate, one is left with the firm impression that Rio Tinto, extremely well-cashed up as it is, doesn’t care particularly about what happens to these assets, nor the workforces at them.

“No doubt there will be plenty of analysis in the world’s press about the Rio decision” a well-informed commentator said, “and most of it should be positive. Rio gets back to doing what it does best, digging”.

And the company has shown no sign that it wants to shed its bauxite mining  operations in northern Queensland.

However,  the Gove operations  are important for that particular enterprise – and Gove, at least at present, seems part of the Pacific Aluminium deal.

Another commentator makes the important point of  “disagree[ing] that it’s a good thing for Rio to get back to digging things out of the ground.  With 80% of their earnings coming from iron ore, the divestment of aluminium increases their dependency, or the risk factor for RT’s shareholders.”

Put bluntly – the company made an almighty hash of acquiring Alcan’s primary operations  in the first place; and it looks to be almost as messy a job to dispose of them.

See:

Rio Shutdown, http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Rio-Tinto-aluminium-Spotless-Pacific-Equity-Partne-pd20111117-NNRE3?OpenDocument&src=sph

Rio Tinto in no hurry on $3bn smelter sale, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/rio-tinto-in-no-hurry-on-3bn-smelter-sale/story-e6frg9if-1226169154465

Pacific Aluminium, http://az-china.com/blackchinablog/?p=1725 and http://az-china.com/blackchinablog/?p=1742

Kazakhmys is the world’s 10th-largest copper miner, while Eurasian Natural Resources Corp is the world’s largest ferrochrome producer and a major producer of iron ore, alumina and aluminium. Both companies are listed in London.

Glencore-controlled Kazzinc, formed in 1997 by the merger of three lead and zinc plants, is the largest zinc producer in the former Soviet Union. It also mines precious metals and copper.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11271&l=1.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11241.

See http://www.internationalrivers.org/blog/lori-pottinger/2011-9-26/africas-energy-future-heading-down-dark-tunnel.

Guinea’s new mining code, passed on September 9, promises to maximise the public revenues generated by foreign deposits and impose stricter regulations upon mining companies operating in the country. The management of the country’s mining practices has been in dire need of reform for some time. Although Guinea possesses half of the world’s supply of bauxite – the main source of aluminium – it remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with 47% of its population living on less than $1 per day.

Among the mining companies active in the country is Rio Tinto.

See http://thinkafricapress.com/guinea/new-mining-code

One of the problems faced by this mammoth hymenoptera larrimae is the prospect that Rio Tinto will mine huge tonnages of nickel from its habitat.

The UK-Australian mega-miner will doubtless propose establishing a biosphere reserve in the area, to mitigate any damage its mining will cause. However, the warrior wasp is far from being the only endemic species threatened by mining in Sulawesi. Nor is this the only region where non-human creatures are potentially affected by Rio Tinto’s plans. The company may also soon be locking pincers with crabs close to its Weipa bauxite mine in the Australian state of Queensland. Or, at any rate, having to take on environmentalists who are siding with the crustaceans.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/11180.