Rio Tinto board told at annual meeting they were ‘selling the family silver‘
Many private investors in Rio Tinto vented their anger at the mining group’s annual meeting in London over the board’s decision to pursue a $20bn (£13.3bn) bailout from the Chinese government.
Andrew Hickman, of LMN member group Down to Earth, criticised the practice of dumping tailings – water containing waste minerals and chemicals – directly into rivers at the Grasberg mine, in a remote forest region of Indonesia. Rio holds a stake in the mine, one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits. Skinner said there was nowhere else to dispose of the tailings. He said Rio did not operate the venture but had many suggestions about how to improve the mine’s environmental impact.
The Government Pension Fund of Norway, one of the world’s largest pension funds, does not invest in Rio or its joint venture partner Freeport because of environmental damage caused by the mine.
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/15/rio-tinto-agm-anger