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Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott Utah Copper Blamed By Doctors And Moms For Pollution

Richard — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:27:23 +0000

When winter comes to Utah and atmospheric conditions trap a soup of pollutants close to the ground, doctors say it turns every resident in the Salt Lake basin into the equivalent of a cigarette smoker.

They have filed a lawsuit against Kennecott Utah Copper, accusing it of violating the U.S. Clean Air Act. The company operates with the consent of state regulators who enforce the federal law.

The company is the No. 1 industrial air polluter along Utah’s heavily populated 120-mile Wasatch Front and operates heavy trucks and power and smelter plants.

See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/26/kennecott-utah-copper-lawsuit_n_1169915.html.

Human rights of women and girls at ‘extreme risk’ in nearly half the world

Richard — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:39:14 +0000

Companies operating in resource-rich countries risk complicity in actions by security forces against women. The results of the Women’s and Girls’ Right Index (WGRI), released by risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, reveal that the rights of women and girls are at ‘extreme risk’ within 80 countries, including 33 from sub-Saharan Africa, nearly all of the Middle East and North Africa region and many emerging economies. One of the main findings of the WGRI relates to the conduct of state and private security forces that are utilised by companies in the protection of high value assets, such as oil drilling operations, mines or plantations.

See http://maplecroft.com/about/news/womens_girls_right_index.html.

HudBay gets out of Guatemala – but won’t escape

Richard — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:22:17 +0000

Canada’s HudBay Minerals is about to sell all its interests in Guatemala’s Fenix project. Almost certainly one of the prompts for its withdrawal is the murder of a man, and the alleged gang-rapes of eleven women at the project in 2007. However, according to the victims’ lawyer:”HudBay and HMI Nickel cannot avoid liability for their past actions by selling the project” and their court action against the company is to continue.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11122&l=1.

One of the major shareholders in HudBay is London-based Vedanta.

Australia’s boomtown curse

Richard — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:24:43 +0000

An Al Jazeera report on the costs in Australia’s mining boom

See http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2011/08/20118284435996818.html.…
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Further Goldcorp human rights issues in Guatemala and Honduras

Richard — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:52:51 +0000

On 7 July 2010, Diodora Antonia Hernandez Cinto (a Mayan-Mam campesina woman from the mountainous village of San Jose Nueva Esperanza) was shot point-blank in the head and left for dead by two local men (mine workers) who ran off into the night. She was shot because she refuses to sell her plot of land to Montana Exploradora, Goldcorp’s subsidiary operating an open-pit, mountain-top removal, cyanide-leaching gold and silver mine in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11052.

Goldcorp is a Canadian company. Among its major investors are British-based AXA Investment Managers UK Ltd., Blackrock Commodities Income Trust plc and City Natural High Yield Trust plc.

HudBay loses out to Mayan community in Guatemala

Richard — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:35:54 +0000

Guatemala’s highest court has made a precedent-setting decision in favor of a small Maya Q’eqchi’ indigenous community of Agua Caliente in Izabal province, by recognising their right to land that is occupied by Canada’s HudBay mining company. Since 2004, when nickel mining was revived in eastern Guatemala, there has been a series of brutal forced evictions and other human rights violations (including killings and gang rapes). HudBay Minerals also faces charges, in Canadian courts, related to the 2009 killing of Adolfo Ich (a Mayan Qeqchi community leader), and the 2007 gang rape of 11 Mayan Qeqchi women from the Lote 8 community (as part of an illegal, brutal forced eviction). One of the major shareholders in HudBay is London-based Vedanta.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10862

Empowering women through EITI

Richard — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:45:52 +0000

EITI is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Why should we be concerned about extractive industries (EI) and gender? Experience at the World Bank has identified what we call the extractive industries (EI) gender bias.

For local communities, the bulk of the benefits are employment and income – which go primarily to men. Typically 80-90% of the employment at a mining site or oil/gas production area goes to men.

In contrast, most of the negative, social, environmental and cultural negative impacts, often including increased domestic and community violence, fall upon women and the families they care for.

See http://eiti.org/blog/empowering-women-through-eiti.

‘Green Gold’ fair trade inspires anti-mining advocates

Richard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:03:14 +0000

What could make the world’s staunchest critics of commercial mining pause and evaluate a mechanism that could bring the status of small-scale gold producers at par with corporate mines? The International Women and Mining Network (RIMM or Red Internacional Mujeres y Mineria) explored Latin America’s 2010 experiment with a Fair Trade Artisanal Gold Standard or “green gold,” that adds a premium to commercial gold that is extracted and processed by small-scale mining communities.

See http://archive.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&story_id=280306.

Criminalized and threatened, women stand their ground against the Goldcorp mine in Guatemala

Richard — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:11:18 +0000

The San Marcos highlands like the rest of the country of Guatemala are almost entirely covered by mineral claims and concessions. According to the Commission for Peace and Ecology (COPAE) of the Diocese of San Marcos, the Marlin mine, which opened in 2005, uses 250,000 litres of water per hour, which is equivalent to what a Guatemalan family uses in 22 years. Goldcorp is required to pay only 1% in royalties for the minerals they extract in an area where 97% of the people live in poverty and 79% live in extreme poverty.

See http://www.nbmediacoop.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1022:qyou-are-just-a-womanq&catid=98:world&Itemid=150.

Goldcorp is a Canadian company but among its major investors are British-based AXA Investment Managers UK Ltd (US$4.3 million), Blackrock Commodities Income Trust plc, and City Natural Resources High Yield Trust PLC, according to the document From Money to Metals ( http://moneytometal.org/index.php/From_Money_to_Metals) by mining researcher Roger Moody.)

Bougainville Women oppose re-opening of Panguna Mine

Richard — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:38:15 +0000

According to the CEO of Bougainville Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, the Panguna mine is to re-open within the next five years. His words were a direct contradiction of the words spoken by Rio Tinto Chairman Jan du Plessis at the company’s London AGM on 15 April.

The Bougainville Indigenous Women Landowner Association (BIWLA) has demanded, at the very least, to participate in decision-making regarding the re-opening of the mine. Respect for the matrilineal nature of Bougainville society has been one of the problems previously encountered.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10086.

Women’s group opposes reopening of Bougainville mine

Richard — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:22:57 +0000

Women representing an indigenous landowner’s group on the Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville say they’re opposed to reopening the mine that was at the centre of a bloody civil war. Local anger towards the Panguna copper mine was at the heart of the civil war that gripped Bougainville during the 1990s. The mine was run by a Rio Tinto subsidiary. It’s been closed ever since but the possibility of it reopening will be a big issue during next month’s Autonomous Bougainville Government elections.

See http://australianetworknews.com/stories/201004/2867728.htm?desktop.

Women sue BHP Billiton mine in Canada for discrimination

Richard — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:49:35 +0000

Two women who say they suffered harassment and gender discrimination while training to work at the Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories have launched a $10-million lawsuit against the mine owners and their trainers. Diane Taylor and Laura Lorenzen have named BHP Billiton, Procon Mining and Tunnelling, and the N.W.T. Mine Training Society in their civil suit, which was filed with the N.W.T. Supreme Court late last month.

See http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/01/07/nwt-mine-women-lawsuit.html.

Bloody oil: the struggle against the Tar Sands

Richard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:51:14 +0000

Three indigenous women from Canada are visiting the United Kingdom and Ireland conducting a 10-day tour to raise awareness about the Alberta Tar Sands. Dubbed ‘the most destructive project on earth’, the Tar Sands are devastating indigenous communities and driving global climate change. British companies such as BP, Shell and the Royal Bank of Scotland are heavily involved. The inspirational young women are working in partnership with UK groups, including Tar sands in focus, to internationalize their campaign supporting Indigenous Peoples Rights and to halt one of the world’s fastest growing causes of climate crisis.

See http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1410089511.

Taxpayer stakes in banks ‘will take seven years to sell’
Leading accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers urges governments to take more active role in management of banks and to focus on wider social goals. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/12/taxpayer-bailout-banks.

Report on the European tour by Indigenous women from Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru

Richard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:41:39 +0000

organised by LMN member group LAMMP, October 2009

It could be considered that the testimonies here discussed are nothing more than anecdotal information, but this is far from true. The rural and indigenous women from Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru who took part in the European tour organised by LAMMP in October brought emblematic cases illustrating the range of obstacles faced by courageous women whose activism is grounded in environmental values and stems from a simple urge to survive. Their stories show the immense influence of the extractive industry and its capacity to shape the destiny of the region. The women’s unsettling testimonies also emphasise that the expansion of the extractive industry in Latin America is happening at great speed and at the expense of rural and indigenous land.

See http://www.lammp.org.uk/images/document/ReportEuropeanTour.pdf.

Women fight South American mines

Richard — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:30:10 +0000

LMN member group LAMMP organised a successful visit to London by women activists from Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru, all of whom are under threat for their resistance to largescale mining projects.

• UK urged to pressure South American governments to refuse mining licences
• Women say mining is damaging their homes and environment

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/12/women-fight-south-american-mines.