A prominent leader of Burma’s pro-democracy movement has cited the country’s biggest copper mine as a leading example of the type of “development” which must be eschewed at all costs in future. Last month, a forum in Rangoon, attended by a wide spectrum of Burmese civil society, was told that over 7,800 acres of land have already been seized from 26 villages since the Monwya complex began expanding last year. Meanwhile, Glenn Ford, a former Monywa mine manager, is alleged to have conspired in robbing the country of 338 tonnes of copper, during the period that Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines was in charge of operations.
It should be noted that, at this time, Ivanhoe itself was substantially part-owned by Rio Tinto which now controls the Canadian company.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11945.