Key points:
- Campaigners are coming together in London echoing community demands that Rio Tinto’s shareholders put pressure on addressing a series of long-standing issues concerning lack of transparency and accountability regarding social and environmental impacts.
- The campaigners have alerted the investors to a number of significant “gaps” between Rio Tinto’s reporting and the lived experience on the ground.
- Rio Tinto’s AGM will be held in London on 3 April 2024.
Press release:
As Rio Tinto plc prepares to boast at its annual general meeting (AGM) of growing production, decarbonisation and “impeccable” ESG credentials, a group of campaigners amplifying the voice of communities affected by the company’s operations in Arizona, Australia, Madagascar, Mongolia, Serbia warn that these claims do not reflect the reality for communities and their living environments.
The campaigners are calling on investors to ‘Mind the Gap’ between what Rio Tinto is telling them and the local lived experience. These “gaps” represent significant legal, financial and reputational risks for investors. These risks can only increase if Rio Tinto expands its production in response to a growing demand for so-called ‘critical minerals’. Cases presented in a briefing document shed light on continued issues over due respect for human rights, good governance and regulatory compliance in host countries.
A culture of self-reporting, internal evaluation and a lack of independent external scrutiny has allowed Rio Tinto to assert its own narrative, and minimise or ignore the voices and complaints of communities affected by their operations. This is especially concerning in host countries where governance is weak.
The campaigners highlight how Rio Tinto: with its large copper project endangers a Native American sacred site in Arizona, and the water supply in the drought-struck region; depletes water and pasture access to the shepherding communities in South Gobi Desert, Mongolia, compounded by concerns regarding leaks from the mining tailings; repeatedly refuses an independent environmental and human rights impact assessment for its mine in Madagascar despite civil society demands; continues to provide inadequate information and ignore stern community demands concerning the project in the valley of river Jadar in Serbia; and continues with extensive abstraction of water from the Bungaroo waterway and acquifer, against evidence and the Traditional Owners Robe River Kuruma People, for whom the river is a spiritually and culturally significant place.
Campaigners are calling on Rio Tinto to engage meaningfully with these cases, listen to communities’ experiences and without further delay address their grievances and demands.
Quotes from campaigners:
“The gap between Rio Tinto’s rhetoric about their proposed Resolution Copper mine in Arizona, USA, and reality is astounding. While Rio Tinto would have you believe that the proposed mine is without problems, in reality the project would destroy Oak Flat, a sacred recreational and ecological haven on public land. In the real world, the Resolution Copper mine would decimate the regional water supply, wreak havoc on local communities and the environment, and would be a technological failure.”
Roger Featherstone, Director Emeritus of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition.
While Rio Tinto claims that it is compliant with its own group tailings management procedure”,also following industry standards such as the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), it dumps tailings with 4000 tons excess water every day failing to achieve 64% slides content approved in the tailings design. His gap resulted in 248.2 million liters of water having been lost since 2017, costing Oyu Tolgoi approximately $12.41 million in replacement water and further straining the desert region’s life sustaining water supply. It is a crime to continue business as usual causing an added impact on climate change in the Gobi Desert.”
Sukhgerel Dugersuren, Oyu Tolgoi Watch
“Rio Tinto is just delaying the inevitable. Its claims about the QMM mine do not stand up to scrutiny. Its studies lack the necessary evidence to support the company’s assertions. More importantly, QMM lost the trust of local communities many years ago. Rio Tinto needs to show the courage it claims to be a core value of the company and undertake a fully independent impact assessment of QMM as requested by Malagasy civil society”
Yvonne Orengo, Andrew Lees Trust
“Rio Tinto has been developing their Jadar project for the past 20 odd years alleging the use of ‘first-class research, exploration and legal standards’ and promising the project would operate to “highest” Serbian and EU standards. Could they then, therefore, provide the public in Serbia with credible answers as to why the crucial cumulative impacts are barely tackled in the EIA scoping request and answer the experts’ claims that dozens of protected species are missing from the request? To name but a few. IF they care about Nature protection as they claim! Would those GLARING GAPS be the ‘highest possible standards’ you insist on referring to? With this reality in mind, it is no wonder the company does not have a social license and therefore the continuation of this project represents a liability for the shareholders!”
Zoe Lujic, Earth Thrive
Contact:
For more information, photo documentation and interview requests, contact:
Mirko Nikolic, Communications Coordinator, London Mining Network
Email: press@londonminingnetwork.org
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London Mining Network (LMN) is an alliance of human rights, environmental and solidarity groups. We work together to support communities harmed by London-based and financed mining companies.