Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) this week submitted a petition to the South Africa Parliament on Mining Accountability, Capital Flight, and Community Abandonment.
Anglo American recently sold all shares in Anglo American Platinum, which has been renamed Valterra Platinum, and are pursuing a takeover of Teck Resources which would see their headquarters shift to Canada. The petition raises grave concerns regarding Anglo American’s exit from South Africa and their extractive corporate conduct that undermines national economic sovereignty and community well-being.
The petition calls for remedies including a parliamentary inquiry, reparations, binding obligations to Free Prior and Informed Consent, mine closure and rehabilitation, and stronger oversight of corporate disinvestment and transnational merger.
London Mining Network and Action for Southern Africa stand in solidarity with MACUA and partners in South Africa. We released the following statement which was shared at the press conference announcing the petition.
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London Mining Network and Action for Southern Africa express our firm support for the parliamentary petition on mining accountability, capital flight, and community abandonment presented by Mining Affected Communities United in Action and for the actions requested.
London Mining Network works closely with communities across the world impacted by Anglo American and as such have developed a close understanding of the company’s operations. It has a sprawling global footprint, with 56 operations across 16 countries. Across the world, its footprint is one of dispossessing communities from their land, environment degradation and a lack of accountability.
In Chile, Anglo American’s copper mining expansions have dried up watersheds, polluted the air and violated basic rights. The Los Bronces mining project has accelerated glacier melt, jeopardising water security for Santiago’s 6 million residents while communities close to the mine rely on water trucks. In Peru, the Quellaveco copper project has led to heavy metal pollution, resulting in the presence of heavy metals in the blood of local children, and the diversion of the Asana river – a crucial source of water for local communities. Communities have united to condemn ‘the disaster that Anglo American’s operations leave in our ecosystems with no response from the company’.
There are numerous examples of the company conducting restructures and divesting from assets without taking responsibility for injustices it is responsible for and without providing adequate remediation. Nowhere is this clearer than the example of Kabwe.
Kabwe stands as an example of Anglo American’s persistent evasion of responsibility, particularly once it has left a country, and the long-lasting nature of its pollution and harm to communities. The town in Zambia was home to a huge lead mine which sat within the Anglo American group’s portfolio for 49 years, and is now one of the world’s most polluted, due to lead-contaminated mining waste. Most children have lead poisoning and crops either fail or contain toxic lead. The company has never cleaned up any of its pollution and is even now trying to block the community’s class-action, which is the only way that Kabwe will be cleaned up and safe to live in for generations to come.
Another glaring example of this pattern is the case of the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, which Anglo American owned a 33.3% stake in from 2002 to 2022. During this period there were forced displacements and evictions involving police violence of Afro-descendent Colombians and Wayuu indigenous communities as well as diversions of waterways and death threats against community protestors. Attempts to hold Anglo American liable for these injustices have been met with claims that the company is not responsible given that they sold their shares in the mine in 2022.
We are gravely concerned that Anglo American’s disinvestment from South Africa is an attempt to evade responsibility for the harms meticulously documented in the MACUA petition after a century of profiteering from the country’s resources. The proposed merger with Teck Resources, and relocation of the company’s headquarters, are further attempts to shed responsibility for historic harms and evade liability.
There are countless examples of Anglo American violating its own human rights policies as well as those it has signed up to. The result is communities and families around the world suffering real harm – some of this harm lasting even a century and some just starting – due to Anglo American’s relentless pursuit for profit over people and the natural environment.
If we want a world where communities’ rights to free, prior and informed consent are upheld, where communities and workers benefit from the mineral wealth extracted from their lands, and where nature and the planet we all rely on can recover, Anglo American must be held accountable for what it has done in South Africa and elsewhere. Mining companies must contribute to and not devastate our fragile eco-systems. Full solidarity with South Africans holding Anglo American accountable – No Exit Without Justice.