Dear friends,

This week, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and African Minerals are all in trouble with the law in one way or another. But that isn’t stopping Rio Tinto expanding in Mongolia, where it is under fire for alleged tax avoidance, or Anglo American from expanding its Minas Rio project in Brazil, which is continuing to cause conflict. Anglo American’s most controversial big investor, Anil Agarwal of Vedanta, has recently stated that he intends to invest in the company for the long term.

Meanwhile, at Lonmin – the company associated with the August 2012 massacre of striking mine workers at its Marikana platinum mine in South Africa – an impairment has driven the company deeper into loss ahead of its takeover by South African mining company Sibanye Stillwater, while chief executive Ben Magara has had a pay rise. Ben Magara has already benefited. Investors may benefit from the terms of the takeover. But the families of the murdered mine workers are still waiting for justice.

But this mailout also contains encouraging articles about the value of resistance. Opponents of Barrick’s Pascua Lama open pit gold mine project in Chile have achieved the permanent closure of the project. (Barrick is Canadian, but has UK investment.) Research has found that protests succeed 20% of the time – often enough to make it well worth trying! Anti-fracking campaigners in the UK are risking arrest to protect land and water. The international Yes to Life No to Mining network has just republished basic principles to help communities protect themselves from extractive industries. Communities in Colombia who have successfully stopped largescale mining through the use of referenda are now demonstrating viable alternatives to mining.

There has even been some progress at government level. The UK Government has brought into force regulations about corporate involvement in human rights abuses overseas. The Canadian Government has, after years of campaigning by activists, created a watchdog to oversee Canadian companies’ conduct abroad – something we sorely need in Britain. And we include information about other ways to improve business accountability and empower local communities.

Let’s pay tribute to the communities struggling for justice, both those who are winning victories and those whose victories are yet to come.

All the best,
Richard Solly,
Co-ordinator, London Mining Network.

In this mailout

Take action
Coal Action Network skillshare, County Durham
Petition against Condor Gold in Nicaragua

News
1) Rio Tinto in the news
2) News about Anglo American
3) New Evidence of Africa’s Systematic Looting, From an Increasingly Schizophrenic World Bank
4) Lonmin news – bosses gain, investors lose, workers and their families left out completely
5) Acacia adopts fresh gold price protection measures
6) Petra Diamonds shares crash on profit and output forecast cuts
7) Landmark High Court case begins over alleged abuses by UK-based mining company in Sierra Leone
8) ‘Mining will remove the intestines of our land’
9) Arracacha: people of Cajamarca and Colombian businesses show there’s prosperity without mining
10) Complete and Permanent Closure of Pascua Lama: The Power of Conviction and Persistence
11) Antofagasta sees 2018 costs to reach $1bn on Pelambres expansion, equipment
12) UK ‘Magnitsky-style’ sanctions come into force 31 Jan.
13) The anti-fracking campaigners willing to risk a criminal record to stop the industry
14) Scheme to transform Welsh coal mine into green heat source wins £6.5m
15) The Government Responds to JCHR Report on Business and Human Rights
16) These are top-10 global mining trends expected for 2018
17) Environmental protests succeed 20 percent of the time and ‘compensation’ rarely stops communities, research finds
18) Batteries can be part of the fight against climate change – if we do these five things
19) Trends in global land use investment: implications for legal empowerment
20) Improving Paths to Business Accountability for Human Rights Abuses in the Global Supply Chains: A Legal Guide
21) Canada Creates Watchdog To Oversee Companies’ Conduct Abroad
22) Basic principles for protecting your community from extractive industries
23) The Circularity Gap report

Take action

Coal Action Network skillshare

Join our member group Coal Action Network at an outdoor skillshare between 26 February and 1 March at County Durham to stop Bradley opencast coal mine.

Petition against Condor Gold in Nicaragua

An entire Nicaraguan community is standing up to mining giant Condor Gold. Hundreds of families could be displaced from their homes and have their livelihoods destroyed — if mining giant Condor Gold gets its way in Mina la India, Nicaragua. The British mining corporation wants to go through with a destructive gold mine — despite fierce opposition from the local community.
Read the latest news and sign the petition.

News

1) Rio Tinto in the news

Rio Tinto, Mongolia and the real cost of tax avoidance

Corporations that avoid tax, like the mining company Turquoise Hill Resources (controlled by Rio Tinto), are depriving governments of billions of dollars a year in tax revenue — money that could be going to pay for everything from health care to national defence.

Rio Tinto bets big on Mongolia, opens local office

Mining giant Rio Tinto is setting up a new office in Mongolia, independent from its massive Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, which will focus on exploration and local links.

Rio Tinto and two former top execs must face fraud charges — SEC

The United States’ top securities regulator has rejected arguments by Rio Tinto and two former top executives that its civil lawsuit claiming they tried to cover up multi-billion losses on a coal investment in Africa should be dismissed.

Rio Tinto autonomous trucks now hauling a quarter of Pilbara material

Driverless trucks have proven to be more efficient than their manned counterparts, the company said, with autonomous vehicles operating 700 hours longer last year and with 15% lower unit costs.

Rio Tinto talks loom as a lifeline for Freeport in Indonesia

When it comes to finally reaching a deal to secure Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s long-term right to keep mining in Indonesia, the ball appears to be firmly in Rio Tinto Group’s court.

2) News about Anglo American 

Brazilian prosecutors say Anglo’s sale of Amapa iron ore shady

Brazilian prosecutors said Anglo American’s sale of its 70% stake in the Amapá iron ore operation in Brazil to Swiss group Zamin Ferrous in late 2013 was full of irregularities, suggesting the miner offloaded the asset to avoid paying for environmental damage caused by it.

Anglo’s Brazil iron ore expansion to go ahead

Anglo American has received long-awaited environmental permits that pave the way for the world’s number four diversified miner to expand its Minas-Rio iron ore mine in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. See LMN’s briefing on this mine from last summer.

Agarwal plans to keep his Anglo American stake for a long time

Anil Agarwal, the Indian commodities billionaire, said the rally in Anglo American Plc vindicated his personal bet in the mining group, adding that he plans to own the shares for a long time.

Extractives in Peru: a watch-list of concerns as prices pick up

As mineral prices strengthen once again, international business analysts are ranking Peru high for the good economic returns they portend. One analyst describes Peru and Brazil as positioned to lead the pack in copper, with Peru the winner “owing to its number of high-value projects and a faster-growing mining industry value”. Anglo American sees Quellaveco (in Moquegua region) as its priority copper project, due to start production in March. The list of the six cheapest places in the world to mine gold includes Peru.

3) New Evidence of Africa’s Systematic Looting, From an Increasingly Schizophrenic World Bank

A brand new World Bank report, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, offers evidence of how much poorer Africa is becoming thanks to rampant minerals, oil and gas extraction. Yet Bank policies and practices remain oriented to enforcing foreign loan repayments and transnational corporate (TNC) profit repatriation, thus maintaining the looting.

4) Lonmin news – bosses gain, investors lose, workers and their families left out completely

Lonmin : First pay rise for Lonmin bosses in 5 years 

Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, said that it had increased the salary of its chief executive, Ben Magara, for the first time since October 2013. Lonmin is the subject of a takeover bid by Sibanye-Stillwater and its reputation has been damaged by the massacre of mine workers at Marikana in 2012.

Impairment drives Lonmin deeper into loss ahead of takeover

London-listed South African miner Lonmin announced a $1.1 billion impairment charge due to weaker platinum prices and a firmer rand, plunging it deeper into operating losses ahead of its planned takeover by rival Sibanye-Stillwater.

5) Acacia adopts fresh gold price protection measures

Miner has spent $2 million to lock in the option to sell 120,000 ounces of future output at $1,320 an ounce.

6) Petra Diamonds shares crash on profit and output forecast cuts

The London-listed South African diamond producer, owner of the iconic Cullinan mine, which produced the diamonds for the British crown jewels, said it expected its 2018 fiscal year earnings to be 10% to 15% below consensus due to a stronger South African rand, which increases its US dollar costs.

7) Landmark High Court case begins over alleged abuses by UK-based mining company in Sierra Leone

A British Judge will travel to Sierra Leone to hear allegations against a mining company which had its headquarters in the UK and is accused of complicity in the killing, rape, assault and false imprisonment of workers and villagers in the country.

8) ‘Mining will remove the intestines of our land’

Sgidi is one of five villages that fall in an area targeted by Australian company Mineral Commodities Ltd (MRC), which wants to mine titanium along a 22km stretch on the Wild Coast. If it goes ahead, the Xolobeni Mine Sands Project will affect Sgidi, Mtentu, Sikombe, Kwayana and Mdatya. But a long, protracted struggle by residents of the area, who have organised themselves under the Amadiba Crisis Committee, has temporarily halted the proposed mining.
LMN reported on this in 2016 because of British investment in MRC.

9) Arracacha: people of Cajamarca and Colombian businesses show there’s prosperity without mining

What happens after a community successfully says No to mining? Having rejected the La Colosa Gold Mine in a popular consultation last year, the people of Cajamarca, Colombia, and forward-thinking Colombia businesses are building a future based on the region’s real treasures – clean water, land and agriculture.

10) Complete and Permanent Closure of Pascua Lama: The Power of Conviction and Persistence

On Wednesday, January 17, the Chilean Environmental Superintendence (SMA) ordered the permanent closure of Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama open pit gold mine project and imposed a fine of approximately $12 million on the company. The agency’s decision follows five years of investigation and a series of community complaints about environmental infractions at the project site. The authority imposed penalties and laid more than 30 charges for a series of offences, six of which were classified as very serious, including two that concern irreparable damage to the environment. Barrick is a Canadian company with UK investment.

11) Antofagasta sees 2018 costs to reach $1bn on Pelambres expansion, equipment

Shares in Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc plummeted after the company reported marked drops in gold and copper output during the last quarter of 2017, which weighted on full-year production. See LMN’s report on Antofagasta, published last May.

12) UK ‘Magnitsky-style’ sanctions come into force 31 January

The UK government has passed the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/78), which, among other things, brings section 13 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 into force on 31 January 2018. Section 13 deals with the UK’s ‘Magnitsky-style’ sanctions provisions by expanding the definition of “unlawful conduct” under Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) to include conduct (occurring outside of the UK) which “constitutes, or is connected with, the commission of a gross human rights abuse or violation”.

13) The anti-fracking campaigners willing to risk a criminal record to stop the industry

Anti-fracking activists are so determined to stop the shale gas industry taking root in Yorkshire they are willing to risk criminal records.

14) Scheme to transform Welsh coal mine into green heat source wins £6.5m

Project to warm houses using water naturally heated in underground mine workings secures £6.5m in EU funding.

15) The Government Responds to JCHR Report on Business and Human Rights

On Friday 12th January the Joint Committee on Human Rights published the Government’s response to the Committee’s 2016 report, ‘Human Rights and Business 2017: Promoting responsibility and ensuring accountability’. While the inquiry and subsequent report were very thorough, the Government response over-emphasises the impact of current initiatives and fails to engage meaningfully with the committee’s recommendations.

16) These are top-10 global mining trends expected for 2018

The most important one? Transitioning towards a “digital mine”

17) Environmental protests succeed 20 percent of the time and ‘compensation’ rarely stops communities, research finds

Protests against the extraction of fossil fuels and other natural resources – ecological distribution conflicts – cannot simply be resolved by payments of compensation. That is because for most people outside of the corporate boardroom, money is not the primary concern.

18) Batteries can be part of the fight against climate change – if we do these five things 

At the COP23 climate meeting, electric shuttles moved delegates across town, showcasing sustainable energy and green technology. But for farmer Zhang Tuling, green technology means dusty air and stunted crops.

19) Trends in global land use investment: implications for legal empowerment

From the mid-2000s, a commodity boom underpinned a wave of land use investments in low- and middle-income countries. While agribusiness, mining and petroleum concessions often involve promises of jobs and public revenues, they have also prompted concerns about land dispossession, exclusionary investment models and infringements of the rights of vulnerable groups. One of the major challenges is in empowering rural people to make informed choices, exercise their rights and have their voices heard. A solid understanding of evolving investment trends is essential for designing effective initiatives. This report discusses evolving patterns in land use investments, developments in investment frameworks, and implications for legal empowerment approaches.

20) Improving Paths to Business Accountability for Human Rights Abuses in the Global Supply Chains: A Legal Guide

As part of its project on human rights accountability in the global supply chain the University of Essex Business and Human Rights Project have published a legal guide on business accountability for human rights abuses in supply chains.

21) Canada Creates Watchdog To Oversee Companies’ Conduct Abroad

Canada said on January 17 it is creating an independent watchdog to monitor and investigate claims of human rights abuses by its companies operating abroad, describing it as the first initiative of its kind in the world.

22) Basic principles for protecting your community from extractive industries

This 5-page introduction to how to protect your community from mining is perfect for helping communities respond rapidly to emerging threats from mining in their regions.

23) The Circularity Gap report

How the linear economy is failing people and the planet and what we can do to close the global circularity gap