Dear friends,
Today we publish, together with member group War on Want, our brand new report about the way the mining industry is greenwashing itself by appealing to the transition to a low carbon economy. The report points out the damage done by the mining of metals used in renewable energy production and vehicle batteries. It suggests that, in making the urgent and necessary move away from fossil fuel use, we must avoid embracing the expansion of other forms of damaging extractivism. We have to do better than that. We need to seek a low-consumption, low-energy, post extractivist economy.
Our friends at Business and Human Rights Resource Centre have recently published a useful searchable database enabling you to find information about the human rights impacts of companies involved in renewable energy production.
Meanwhile, we have not been slacking off in our efforts to oppose coal mining. During August, member group Coal Action Network supported a direct action against coal in North East England. We supported our friends at Phulbari Solidarity Group in an action at the London Stock Exchange calling for delisting of GCM Resources because it refuses to abandon plans for a huge opencast coal mine at Phulbari in Bangladesh – one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels as a result of climate change. We marked the 18th anniversary of the brutal eviction of the community of Tabaco in Colombia to make way for the expansion of the Cerrejon Coal mine, owned by London-listed Anglo American, BHP and Glencore. We pointed out an erroneous statement about that eviction made by Anglo American in oral testimony to the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs inquiry into Global Britain and South America, whose report was published earlier this month, and Anglo American wrote to the Committee to correct it. We have been working to assist our friends in Colombia who have suffered a massive increase in death threats against them since the President of Cerrejon Coal, Guillermo Fonseca, publicly denounced them for opposing mine expansion and said that this would lead to thousands of job losses. Please support War on Want’s urgent action request to ensure the company complies with legal decisions about its diversion of a river to get at more coal. We also produced two short video interviews with our friends Siti Maimunah and Sarah Agustio about the impacts of opencast coal mining in Indonesia.
During August we also supported our friends in the Marikana Solidarity Collective in marking the anniversary of the brutal massacre in 2012 of striking mine workers at the Marikana platinum mine, owned by London-listed Lonmin – which has recently been taken over by US-South African company Sibanye Stillwater. And we endorsed two new videos drawing attention to the damaging impacts of the secret corporate courts – Investor State Dispute Settlement or ISDS courts – looking at the case of Lydian at the Amulsar gold project in Armenia and Gabriel Resources at the Rosia Montana gold project in Romania. Both companies have UK links.
There is plenty more news below. And remember that, if you would like more frequent news, you can follow us on Twitter or read the articles we have shared on Twitter by looking at the Twitter feed on our website (and you don’t need a Twitter account to do that).
Finally, we are now planning a speaker tour in October with visitors from Brazil, Chile and Colombia who will be intervening in the London AGM of the world’s biggest mining company, BHP, on 17 October. There will be an action outside the AGM and other events during the days before and after. More details will follow shortly.
All the best,
Richard Solly,
Co-ordinator, London Mining Network.
In this mailout
New report: A just(ice) transition is a post-extractive transition
Take Action!
Stop Lydia suing Armenia
Free the Bruno River
News
1) The dangers of the ‘green’ economy
2) Statement of the Asia-Pacific Gathering on Human Rights and Extractives During ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples Forum (ACSC/APF) 2019 Bangkok, Thailand
3) Deep Sea Mining news
4) The farmers who worry about our phone batteries
5) Addressing crisis and building counter power through new African ecofeminist movement
6) Global Britain and South America
7) Anglo American in the news
8) News about Lydian in Armenia
9) Suing to force through a toxic gold mine: Gabriel Resources in Romania
10) Phulbari protest at London Stock Exchange
11) Videos: ‘Extracting coal is extracting life’
12) Tabaco, Colombia: still no justice after 18 years
13) Other coal news
14) Marikana Massacre Anniversary
15) Sibanye-Stillwater defeats mining communities challenging R5.4bn Lonmin merger
16) Glencore’s risk appetite dwindles, fueling focus on safer regions
17) Chile: Community of Caimanes announces legal action against Antofagasta Minerals for environmental damages
18) Billionaire Friedland-backed miner picks up iron ore deposit in Guinea
New report: A just(ice) transition is a post-extractive transition
London Mining Network and War on Want have launched a report today called ‘A Just Transition is a Post-extractive Transition’, ahead of Friday’s Global Climate Strike. The report exposes the mining industry’s greenwashing tactics, and makes the case for a transition to renewable energy rooted in social justice. Drawing on new, little-reported data, the report examines how the mining industry is destroying critical ecosystems globally, contributing to over a quarter of global carbon emissions (UNEP), and displacing communities already vulnerable to climate shocks in the process.
War on Want and LMN have collaborated with the global Yes to Life, No to Mining solidarity network to release five case studies on community-developed alternatives to mining, in conjunction with the report.
Take Action!
Stop Lydia suing Armenia
Lydian, a mining company, is using corporate courts to try and bully the Armenian government into cracking down on public protests that have successfully resisted a gold mine. And they’re using a UK investment deal to do so. Can you write to the mining company, Lydian, and tell them to drop the case?
Free the Bruno River
Carbones del Cerrejón – a company owned by three UK mining giants – has diverted the Bruno River in La Guajira, Colombia, to extract deadly coal from the infamous Cerrejón mine. This is not only illegal, it is wrong. This is climate violence. Please take action in solidarity with our partners, and indigenous and afro-descendent Human Rights Defenders.
News
1) The dangers of the ‘green’ economy
Most renewable energy companies linked with claims of abuses in mines
Corporate watchdog urges clean-up of supply chains as analysis finds weak regulation and enforcement has led to lack of scrutiny.
Transition MineralsTracker
Tracking the human rights implications of the mineral boom powering the transition to a low-carbon economy.
2) Statement of the Asia-Pacific Gathering on Human Rights and Extractives During ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples Forum (ACSC/APF) 2019 Bangkok, Thailand
Stop The Expansion of Extractive Projects
3) Deep Sea Mining news
Collapse of PNG deep-sea mining venture sparks calls for moratorium
Papua New Guinea out of pocket $157m from failed attempt at mining material from deep-sea vents as opponents point to environmental risk
Moratorium on Deep Sea Mining welcomed in Papua New Guinea but more courage required of PM Marape
PNG citizens call for a full ban on seabed mining
4) The farmers who worry about our phone batteries
Lithium mining on the Atacama is using up all the fresh water in the region’s aquifers – layers of porous rock beneath the soil which act as stores of water.
5) Addressing crisis and building counter power through new African ecofeminist movement
Women are at the epicentre of resistance to dispossessions of their land, water, forests and way of life. It is in defence of these that women are proposing the development alternatives that are needed to stave off the worst of the coming catastrophe and adapt to a world radically transformed by a changed climate.
6) Global Britain and South America
The Foreign Affairs Committee published its Report Global Britain and South America on Monday 9 September. LMN submitted written evidence last year. Mining multinational Anglo American was called to give oral evidence in July and provided supplementary written evidence after the hearing and a correction to an erroneous statement in their oral testimony.
7) Anglo American in the news
Peru: residents block roads in protest against Anglo American
In Moquegua (southern Peru), hundreds of citizens including campesinas and campesinos protesting against the Quellaveco copper mining project, run by the British Anglo American company, blocked the most important roads in the region, which has caused dozens of vehicles to be stranded.
Anglo American might face class-action over Zambia lead poisoning
Alleged sins of the past are catching up with Anglo American via class-action suits – a tool through which the poor and vulnerable can seek redress. First it was over the lung disease silicosis; now it’s lead poisoning in Zambia.
8) News about Lydian in Armenia
More Precious Than Gold
LMN endorsed the production of a short video about London-linked Lydian’s Amulsar gold project in Armenia.
Lydian’s gold project in Armenia faces yet another environmental review
Lydian International’s Amulsar gold project in Armenia may have to go through a fourth environmental review in less than a year after the country’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, asked the environment authority to study the conclusions of a third-party audit published last week.
Armenia: Expert Report Should Not Be Green Light for Harmful Mining to Resume
In early August, the long-awaited Independent Third Party Assessment commissioned by Armenian government on Impacts on Water Resources, Geology, Biodiversity and Air Quality of Amulsar Gold Mine was published.
Armenia’s Prime Minister caves in to gold mine company after legal threat
CAMPAIGNERS have hit out at Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after he caved under pressure to approve a controversial gold mine in the south of the country.
Victory for Lydian as Armenia launches criminal case
Lydian International has scored a victory in Armenia after a court of appeal compelled local police to prosecute a group of protesters who have been illegally blocking access to the Amulsar gold project for more than a year.
UK Foreign Office criticised for supporting controversial gold mine in Armenia
In a fierce dispute between mine owners and local people in Armenia, the UK has weighed in – on the side of the international mining company.
9) Suing to force through a toxic gold mine: Gabriel Resources in Romania
For nearly 20 years residents of Roşia Montană in Romania have fought against a multi-billion dollar gold mining project, which would have destroyed their homes and the surrounding environment. In a remarkable show of people power, they appealed to the Romanian courts, and succeeded in stopping the mine. Now the project’s majority owner, Canadian company Gabriel Resources, is suing Romania in an investment arbitration tribunal, seeking US$5.7 billion in compensation for lost profits – nearly three per cent of the size of the entire Romanian economy.
10) Phulbari protest at London Stock Exchange
Dramatic protests took place at the London Stock Exchange as scores of police blocked off both entrances to the LSE with barriers and police lines in an attempt to stop protesters entering the building. The protesters, wearing all black, held a vigil outside the blocked entrance in commemoration of the massacre of three teenage boys during a non-violent protest against AIM listed GCM Resources plc by communities around a proposed coal mine in Phulbari in 2006.
11) Videos: ‘Extracting coal is extracting life’
These interviews with Sarah Agustio from Indonesian mining advocacy network JATAM and Indonesian PhD student Siti Maimunah were filmed during ‘Extracting Us’, a photography exhibition held in ONCA gallery, Brighton, UK, from 11-21 July 2019.
12) Tabaco, Colombia: still no justice after 18 years
On 9 August 2001 the Afro-Descendant community of Tabaco was forcibly displaced from their ancestral land to give way to the biggest open cast coal mine in Latin America: Cerrejon. Cerrejon Coal commented on the anniversary.
13) Other coal news
South Africa’s latest coal controversy
A major deal between mining company Seriti Resources and spun-off BHP’s outfit South62, in order to acquire the latter’s South African Energy Coal resources, is creating deep concerns in the African state.
BHP urges investors to veto resolution against coal lobbying
Mining giant BHP Group Ltd urged shareholders to vote against a resolution that would require the company to quit industry groups that lobby for policies inconsistent with the Paris climate change agreement.
Glencore’s massive NSW coal project gets conditional approval
The New South Wales government’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has approved, with conditions, Glencore’s A$381 million United Wambo coal project in the Australian state’s Hunter Valley.
Activists under the banner of Earth First! Take on Coal Mining in the North East of England
Activists from the North East, around the UK and abroad entered and occupied machinery in Field House mine and blockaded Shotton mine to stop them from continuing to dig up coal, destroying the surrounding environment and contributing to the climate catastrophe.
14) Marikana Massacre Anniversary
Solidarity vigil marking Marikana 7th anniversary
This August was the seventh anniversary of the Marikana Massacre, when 34 striking mine workers at a platinum mine in Marikana, South Africa, were shot dead for demanding a living wage. LMN supported a vigil organised by Marikana Solidarity groups and a short video was made.
Coverage of events in South Africa
Video (4 minutes): Waiting for Justice
Interview with union leader Joseph Mathunjwa – Critiques Sibanye Stillwater and Lonmin
Fresh hope for families of murdered mine workers
Joseph Mathunjwa addresses the 7th Marikana massacre commemoration
Marikana wasn’t a tragedy, it was a massacre, Sisonke Msimang tells Ramaphosa
Ramaphosa says ‘never again‘ on Marikana massacre
Former mine workers march to Parliament as Marikana massacre is commemorated
‘Marikana commission can’t be blamed for fact that there were no prosecutions’ – Judge Farlam
Marikana massacre: Mineworkers died in vain, says analyst
Thousands gather in Marikana to remember massacre victims
15) Sibanye-Stillwater defeats mining communities challenging R5.4bn Lonmin merger
Sibanye-Stillwater might have won in court, but the six mining communities on the platinum belt of Rustenburg are not backing down. The communities will write to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, asking him to clarify the Constitutional Court’s order that dismissed its application to have the Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin merger declared unlawful.
16) Glencore’s risk appetite dwindles, fueling focus on safer regions
Glencore Inc’s penchant for risk has long been mining industry lore, but the company is quickly expanding into a part of the world that would have been improbable just a few years ago: Minnesota.
17) Chile: Community of Caimanes announces legal action against Antofagasta Minerals for environmental damages
The community of Caimanes is taking fresh legal action against Minera Los Pelambres, a mining company controlled by Antofagasta Minerals (the Chilean subsidiary of London-listed Antofagasta plc) over the situation of the Mauro tailings (fine wastes) dam above the small town.
18) Billionaire Friedland-backed miner picks up iron ore deposit in Guinea
Billionaire Robert Friedland-backed High Power Exploration (HPX) has secured rights to develop a massive iron ore deposit in Guinea left undeveloped for years by its previous owners. The US company, run by the Canadian mining icon, said the decision allowed it to buy a 95% stake in Nimba, owned until now by BHP, Newmont Mining and France’s Orano.