Dear friends, 

Over the past month we have recalled three grave injustices related to the mining industry: the 9 August 2001 eviction of the village of Tabaco to make way for the expansion of the Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia, then part-owned by Anglo American, BHP and Glencore and operated by Exxon, now owned wholly by Glencore; the 16 August 2012 massacre of striking mineworkers at Lonmin’s platinum operations at Marikana, South Africa; and the 26 August 2006 massacre of protesters against GCM Resources’ Phulbari coal project in Bangladesh. In each case, British capital and British-linked mining companies have assisted in actions which have cost lives and livelihoods in the pursuit of profit.
 

In recent days, some of our friends in communities around the Cerrejon mine have blockaded parts of the mine and a road in an attempt to force Glencore, rather than local mine management, to talk to them and address the multiple injustices which the mine continues to inflict on them.
 

The new government in Colombia is taking some welcome steps to reform the country’s mining regulations. Meanwhile, the mining industry is clearly pleased at the rejection on Sunday by voters in Chile of a proposed new constitution which might have reined in their profits somewhat. We will be consulting with friends in Chile about the way forward for solidarity with mining-affected communities in that country in the light of this development. Conflict continues between Brazilian regulatory authorities and the companies involved in the 2015 Samarco tailings dam disaster, BHP and Vale. BHP can surely afford to do more to address the legacy of the disaster.
 

The war between Russia and Ukraine has had an enormous impact on the coal mining industry. Profits have rocketed (though apparently not enough for Glencore to pay for the minimal demands of the communities affected by its Cerrejon mine) and expansion of coal mining is being aggressively pursued. This is a catastrophe for the climate. The London Science Museum’s relationship with Indian company Adani is a scandal against which we at LMN have been protesting along with many other organisations.
 

Proposed solutions to climate change are often themselves catastrophic: the destruction of ecosystems and disruption of communities by vast expansion of mining for the low-carbon energy transition or the complete insanity of the nuclear energy, creating wastes that will be deadly for hundreds of thousands of years and which nobody has yet found a satisfactory way of making safe for this amount of time. The current standoff at Zaporizhzhia is one reason why relying on nuclear energy is foolhardy in the extreme, whatever its empty promises.
 

What we need instead is to develop ways of life which use less energy and fewer raw materials and which ensure that everyone has enough to live on and nobody hoards what they do not need.
 

Given this challenging set of circumstances, we need to organise and act to change them. Please take the online actions suggested below. Please also participate in our coming events, both online and in person, listed below. And do inform yourselves about the behaviour of the London-linked mining companies in which so many of our financial institutions invest. There are plenty of articles below about the biggest mining companies on the London Stock Exchange – Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP, Glencore and Rio Tinto – and others about smaller companies of great concern. We need to tear the mask of respectability off an industry which is consuming the planet and sacrificing so many of the communities which have been tending and caring for the Earth.

All the best,

Richard Solly,

Co-ordinator, London Mining Network.

In this mailout

Take Action!

Turn off the money pipeline to fossil fuels. Now.
Fossil Free Careers

Events coming up

Resisting Mining Book Club: Between the Plough and the Pick: Informal, Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in the Contemporary World, 14 September 2022
Announcing the Powerlands UK Screening Tour!
Earth Laws Month, September 2022

News

1) The struggle for justice at Cerrejón Coal
2) Adani in the news
3) GCM Resources Must Be Brought to Justice and Delisted from London Stock Exchange
4) Tenth anniversary of the Marikana Massacre
5) Other news about Glencore
6) New mining regulations in Colombia
7) More coal news
8) News about Rio Tinto
9) News about Anglo American
10) BHP in the news
11) Traditional communities’ prize-winning coffee and cachaça at risk from Brazil mine
12) Brazil’s Vale fined $17 mln for Brumadinho tailings dam disaster
13) Hochschild Mining granted environmental permit for Brazil gold project
14) News about Antofagasta
15) SolGold reshuffles C-suite as it ramps up Cascabel
16) ‘We borrow our lands from our children’: Sami say they are paying for Sweden going green
17) Portuguese community files legal action against lithium mining company
18) Why the low carbon transition must not create sacrifice zones
19) The hazards of nuclear energy
20) UK Law Commission: Options Paper includes criminal offence of failure to prevent human rights abuses
21) RMF website

Take Action!

Turn off the money pipeline to fossil fuels. Now.

Money is fuelling climate chaos. Climate justice means keeping fossil fuels in the ground. We need to stop new coal, oil, gas and fracking projects.

Fossil Free Careers

People and Planet are running a campaign to get UK University careers services to end recruitment pipelines into the oil, gas, and mining industries. Sign the petition to End Fossil Fuel Recruitment Events at the University of Oxford.

Events

Resisting Mining Book Club: Between the Plough and the Pick: Informal, Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in the Contemporary World, 14 September 2022

LMN is delighted to announce the fifth Resisting Mining Book Club 2022 with guest speaker Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, who will be speaking about her edited collection Between the Plough and the Pick: Informal, Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in the Contemporary World (Canberra: ANU Press, 2018)

Announcing the Powerlands UK Screening Tour!

London Mining Network is excited to bring director Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso and producer Jordan Flaherty to the UK for a screening tour of the award-winning documentary film Powerlands. The film touches on many of London Mining Network’s key messages and features communities we have been working with for many years around the Cerrejon mine in Colombia. Begins 21 September.

Earth Laws Month, September 2022

Welcome to Earth Laws Month! Australian Earth Laws Alliance is hosting a huge month of events throughout September – webinars, public lectures, workshops, virtual art exhibitions and more – to explore and celebrate our relationship with the living world.

News

1) The struggle for justice at Cerrejón Coal 

Blockade by communities affected by Cerrejón Coal Mine, Colombia

Wayuú and Afro-descendant communities, resettled and historically affected by the Cerrejón Limited open-pit coal mine, decided to block the southern part of the mining operation in La Guajira due to the non-compliance of Cerrejón Limited on September 1, 2022.

21 years since eviction of the Tabaco community in Colombia and still no justice.

On 9 August 2001, the residents of the village of Tabaco in La Guajira, Colombia, were violently evicted from their land and their village was destroyed to make way for the expansion of the Cerrejon opencast coal mine. Cerrejon was then part-owned, and between 2002 and January 2022 was completely owned, by multinational mining companies Anglo American, BHP and Glencore. All three companies are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Operator of Cerrejón coalmine reports bumper profits as turnover reaches $2.5bn

Company says rising demand from Europe and China and increasing coal prices strengthened its performance.

2) Adani in the news

Adani aid for London’s Science Museum Gallery draws protests

South Asia Solidarity Group and nearly a dozen groups including LMN protested the London Science Museum taking sponsorship from Indian coal-producing conglomerate Gautam Adani Wednesday at their ‘India Lates’ art event. Over 1000 tickets booked for Wednesday night’s “Science Museum India Lates” event went unused, as protesters called for the cancellation of the Museum’s new sponsorship deal with Adani. Groups including young people, teachers, grandparents, local residents and scientists were represented by protesters holding giant event tickets outside the Museum.

Lockton rejects Adani’s Carmichael coal mine

Adani continues to face difficulties managing insurance coverage for its climate-wrecking Carmichael thermal coal project.

Adani Group (financed by JP Morgan, MUFG, HSBC, BlackRock) is running an enormous fossil fuel project in Australia, violating Indigenous Rights

This is a case study to accompany Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022, produced in collaboration with the Wangan and Jagalingou Cultural Custodians, Tipping Point Australia and BankTrack.

India coal baron becomes world’s third richest trailing only Musk, Bezos

Few outside of India had heard of Gautam Adani just a few years ago. Now the Indian businessman, a college dropout who first tried his luck as a diamond trader before turning to coal, has become the world’s third-richest person.

Adani’s Empire Is ‘Deeply Overleveraged,’ CreditSights Warns

Aggressive expansion putting pressure on credit, cash flow; strong bank, government ties a ‘comfort’ to analysts, though.

3) GCM Resources Must Be Brought to Justice and Delisted from London Stock Exchange

Joint Statement by Phulbari Solidarity, London Mining Network, and Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike

4) Tenth anniversary of the Marikana Massacre

New Education Resource: Marikana Lesson Materials

In this PowerPoint presentation, you will find resources for a two-lesson sequence about the Marikana Massacre. It is publicly available to all teachers and educators working with children and young people across Key Stages 3-5, and higher or further education settings, on issues relating to colonialism and neo-colonialism, resource extraction, labour rights, and social movements.

Lonmin’s Wall of Shame

On August 16th 2012, 34 mineworkers on strike for a living wage were shot dead by the police in two massacres at Marikana platinum mine in South Africa, owned by a British mining company called Lonmin. Another 78 miners suffered life-changing injuries.

10 Years Since the Marikana Massacre: Still No Justice, Still No Peace

On 16th August 2012, the South African police shot dead 34 platinum miners on strike for a living wage from their employer Lonmin, a corporate descendant of the notorious Lonrho, which was founded during Cecil Rhodes’ brutal white settler colonial occupation of southern Africa.

Marikana, 10 Years On: A One-day Symposium on the legacy of the Marikana Massacre

On 20 August 2022, at Constitution Hill – the site of South Africa’s highest court – in Johannesburg, South Africa, a one-day symposium was held to reflect on the legacies of the massacre.

Corporate remedy and accountability a decade after the Marikana Massacre

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the University of St. Gallen have conducted more than 40 interviews with key stakeholders, including victims, their attorneys, community activists and company representatives.

Marikana: 10 years later

Daily Maverick’s reflections on the tenth anniversary of the massacre.

5) Other news about Glencore

Miners at Glencore Peru demand better working conditions

Over 1,000 workers at Glencore-controlled mining firm Los Quenuales are taking action to press the company to respect outsourcing limitations and collective bargaining rights, provide better food and to comply with occupational health and safety requirements.

Glencore to spend $400 million to fix arsenic-emitting plant

Commodities giant Glencore Plc will invest C$520 million ($403 million) over five years in a copper smelter in northern Quebec to curb toxic emissions that health officials say have caused increased risk of cancer and other problems.

6) New mining regulations in Colombia

Mining title applications in Colombia to include stricter environmental considerations

Colombia’s State Council, which is the supreme tribunal with jurisdiction over administrative issues, ruled that the national government and the National Mining Agency (ANM) must “correct the deficit in environmental protection that is evidenced in the mining-environmental regulation when it comes to the granting of mining titles.”

Colombia abandons plan to tax gold exports

Colombian finance minister José Antonio Ocampo said the government has withdrawn a plan to introduce a 10% duty on gold exports included in the tax reform bill submitted by the new leftist government of President Gustavo Petro in early August.

ANALYSIS-Can President Petro crack Colombia’s reliance on oil and coal?

Petro aims to reduce Colombia’s reliance on oil and coal exports through a gradual transition to solar and wind energy, while promoting agriculture, food production and tourism to boost the economy.

7) More coal news

South32’s Dendrobium decision highlights increasing investor pressure on metallurgical coal projects

London-listed South32 has abandoned its plan to extend development of its Dendrobium metallurgical coal mine in NSW as it eyes an investment shift towards “metals critical to a low carbon future.”

Anglo coal spinoff weighs acquisitions after record profit

London-listed Thungela Resources Ltd, South Africa’s largest exporter of power-station coal, is searching for assets to buy after first-half profit surged on record-high fuel prices.

Coal giants are making mega profits as climate crisis grips the world

The globe is in the grips of a climate crisis as temperatures soar and rivers run dry, and yet it’s never been a better time to make money by digging up coal.

UK: Coal mine decision delayed again

A decision on whether or not to grant planning permission for a controversial new coal mine in Cumbria has been further delayed until “on or before 8 November 2022”.

8) News about Rio Tinto

Turquoise Hill’s fifth largest investor rejects Rio Tinto’s bid

Sailingstone Capital Partners, the fifth-biggest investor in Turquoise Hill Resources, is ready to put the brakes on Rio Tinto’s intended $3.3 billion takeover of the Canadian miner as it says the offer does not “adequately compensate” minority shareholders.

Early environmental report on Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine highlights clear risks for communities 

A new independent report reviewing satellite images and other historical data on Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine has warned of serious risks to local communities posed by unstable mine infrastructure and flooding caused by the build-up of mine waste in the rivers.

Former Rio Tinto mine at Bougainville poses flood risk – report

Communities around Rio Tinto’s shuttered copper mine in Bougainville face a serious threat of flooding due to unstable mine infrastructure, an interim report commissioned by the mining company said.

Development banks under pressure to compensate harmed communities

Mamadou Lamarana was hoping the World Bank’s financial involvement in a western Guinean bauxite mine expansion would lead to compensation for the loss of land and pollution he says his community suffered in the run up to their resettlement in 2020.

Rio Tinto in Madagascar: “the conflict is not over” as QMM receives more than 8000 complaints from villagers

After months of crisis in Anosy following QMM’s mine tailings dam failures and the release of a million cubic metre of QMM mine basin water into the local environment with subsequent fish deaths and fishing ban, Rio Tinto’s CEO agreed to meet and discuss the issues at the London HQ.

McEwen lands Rio Tinto venture for Argentina-focused copper unit

Canadian mining entrepreneur Rob McEwen landed a big fish for his new copper unit, with a Rio Tinto Group venture set to take an almost 10% stake for $25 million as major producers line up new deposits to meet demand growth.

Rio Tinto’s bid for exploration in Dwellingup jarrah forest fiercely opposed by local community

Rio Tinto’s bid to explore for minerals in jarrah forest in Western Australia’s south west has been met with strong opposition, with local community and conservation groups calling for the forest to be protected.

Once a diamond mine, forever a sacred site

In the shadow of the Juukan Gorge disaster, negotiations about the future of the Argyle diamond mine hang in the balance.

9) News about Anglo American

Quellaveco starts trial production

The Quellaveco copper mine in Moquegua, owned by Anglo American (60%) and Mitsubishi (40%), has produced its first copper concentrate as part of the final stage of preparations prior to government sign-off and the commencement of full operations.

Anglo American to appeal El Soldado project rejection

Anglo American is planning to appeal a Chilean environmental commission’s rejection of its $40 million operational continuity project for El Soldado copper mine, 125km north of the capital Santiago.

Mining company will pay collective moral damages for false alarm of dam

(Original article in Portuguese.) Thanks to an agreement reached in the Minas Gerais State Court, the mining company Anglo American Brasil will pay R$ 2 million as compensation for collective moral damages caused by the improper triggering of a warning siren in a dam area. The case was registered on January 3, 2020, in the region of Conceição do Mato Dentro (MG). The emergency siren sounded and left residents of the communities of Passa Sete, Água Quente and São José do Jassém in panic. The sound signal is used to warn about problems occurring at the dam of the Minas-Rio Complex, owned by the mining company. The intention is, in the worst-case scenario, to avoid deaths like those that occurred in the disasters of Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019). Despite the siren, there was no risk to the population. At the time, the mining company published a note informing that the dam was safe, monitored and within normality. It said it contacted residents immediately to warn them and that it was investigating the possible causes of the sound alert.

Because of the error, the Public Ministry of Minas Gerais filed a public civil suit to collect collective moral damages caused by the episode. The case even had a hearing, which was suspended in order to try and reach an agreement. The consensual solution was ratified by the Single Court of Conceição do Mato Dentro on Monday (29/8).The mining company will pay R$ 2 million within 15 working days, which will be used in the Central Region Project Support Program in favour of social, environmental, inspection, protection and environmental remediation projects that have as their target audience the people from the communities of Passa Sete, Água Quente and São José do Jassém.

10) BHP in the news

Vale-BHP nearly double offer in mine disaster settlement

Samarco and its owners, Vale SA and BHP Group, agreed to almost double their offer in compensation for a 2015 mine waste disaster in Brazil, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

BHP hits profit record and sees demand healing in China

BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, posted its highest ever full-year profit on record commodity prices, and will push ahead with growth options on a stronger demand outlook in China.

ACCR Shareholder Resolutions to BHP Group Ltd on climate advocacy, accounting and audit

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) has filed shareholder resolutions to BHP Group Ltd seeking consistency on climate policy advocacy and the inclusion of climate sensitivity analysis in financial statements.

Living in fear: The corporate staff exposed to corruption by their employers

Mining corporations are leaving employees without support in countries where corruption is endemic, according to activists. One former executive is now in hiding in the Philippines, fearing for his life.

11) Traditional communities’ prize-winning coffee and cachaça at risk from Brazil mine

London-listed Brazil Iron’s activities in the region were shut down in April because of a string of violations; a monitoring committee that the company subsequently set up, composed of community representatives, is a token gesture that won’t allow them to voice their complaints, residents say.

12) Brazil’s Vale fined $17 mln for Brumadinho tailings dam disaster

Brazilian miner Vale SA was fined after the country’s comptroller general decided the firm failed to present reliable information on the conditions of its Brumadinho tailings dam prior to a 2019 disaster, the company said.

13) Hochschild Mining granted environmental permit for Brazil gold project


London-listed precious metals producer Hochschild Mining has been granted a key permit that allows it to build a processing plan and kick off mine pre-stripping at the Mara Rosa gold project in Brazil’s central state of Goías.

14) News about Antofagasta

Antofagasta’s Twin Metals sues US government over Minnesota copper project

Antofagasta Plc’s Twin Metals subsidiary sued the US government in a bid to revive its proposed Minnesota copper and nickel mine, which Biden administration officials had blocked this year over concerns it could pollute a major recreational waterway.

Chile investigates collapse at Antofagasta Minerals mining project

Chile’s environmental regulator said it launched an investigation after tidal waves caused the collapse of a construction platform belonging to an Antofagasta Minerals project in the country’s northern coast.

Antofagasta’s profit slumps on rising costs, Chile drought

Antofagasta posted a fall in half-year profit as higher costs, lower grades and a persistent drought in Chile hit the miner’s copper production.

15) SolGold reshuffles C-suite as it ramps up Cascabel

Ecuador-focused miner, London-listed SolGold, has announced a round of management changes, with newly appointed chief financial officer Ayten Saridas stepping down after only six weeks in the job.

16) ‘We borrow our lands from our children’: Sami say they are paying for Sweden going green

Indigenous reindeer herders fear the drive towards a more sustainable economy is destroying their traditional way of life and identity.

17) Portuguese community files legal action against lithium mining company

A community group in a lithium-rich area of northern Portugal said on Friday it had filed a legal suit against a subsidiary of London-based mining company Savannah Resources for alleged encroachment on communal land.

18) Why the low carbon transition must not create sacrifice zones

This Way Up: Unpacking human rights for business

Season 2, Episode 2 – Cost of Clean Energy: Conflict Minerals

Over the past decade, scientists and policy makers have noted how the climate crisis will exacerbate social, environmental and economic factors which increase the risk of conflict – particularly for the countries and regions most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. This episode poses an important question – will the measures we take to tackle the climate crisis drive conflict? Andrew Whitmore, Co-Chair of the London Mining Network, joins Elizabeth to give context to how a large-scale mining operation can perpetuate violence with high-profile government contracts. Excerpts from an interview with 2001 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Yosepha Alomang of the Amungme people show how detrimental operations can be for Indigenous communities.

The Guardian view on rare earths: mining them can’t cost the Earth

It will be no good if in transitioning to climate neutrality, large tracts of the planet are left uninhabitable by the mining of key raw materials.

19) The hazards of nuclear energy

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima: And now Zaporizhzhia?

There have been multiple reports of rocket attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ever since Russia occupied it

The Impossible Promises of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors

In 2003, an important study produced by nuclear advocates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology identified costs, safety, proliferation and waste as the four “unresolved problems” with nuclear power. Not surprisingly, then, companies trying to sell new reactor designs claimed that their product would be cheaper, produce less—or no—radioactive waste, be immune to accidents, and not contribute to nuclear proliferation.

20) UK Law Commission: Options Paper includes criminal offence of failure to prevent human rights abuses

The failure to hold to account criminally UK companies (and companies which operate in the UK and/or have UK listings) which are complicit in human rights abuses abroad stands in stark contrast to more promising developments in countries such as France, with the Lafarge case, and Sweden with the Lundin case.

21) RMF website

The Swiss-based Responsible Mining Foundation has now closed, buts its website remains functional and is a useful source of reports on the human rights and environmental impacts of the mining industry.