How the global mining industry is profiting from the global COVID-19 Pandemic

June 2nd, 2020 saw the release of a new global analysis that explores the four main ways in which the mining industry and states are profiting from the COVID-19 pandemic, at the expense of people and planet.

Drawing on 500+ sources and endorsed by 300+ communities and organisations globally, the new analysis highlights the following key trends:

  1. Mining companies have continued to operate during the pandemic, using any means necessary, despite the health risks to host communities and workers;
  2. Mining companies and states have used the pandemic as an opportunity to shutdown protests and intensify the persecution of land, water and human rights defenders;
  3. Mining companies are attempting to use the crisis to cover up their dirty track records through large cash donations and privately sourcing PPE;
  4. Mining companies and states are circumventing democratic processes to sneak through regulatory changes that favour the industry now and in the future.

Read the full report here and the global sign-on statement that summarises this analysis here.

We’re proud to have worked on this major project with our friends at;

Earthworks (USA), Institute for Policy Studies – Global Economy Program (USA), MiningWatch Canada, TerraJusta, War on Want (UK), and Yes to Life No to Mining, as well as the numerous partner organizations and communities in different parts of the world who contributed.

For more on how Mining companies are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic, see our articles on: