Ahead of Rio Tinto’s AGM, communities under threat from its mining operations in Mongolia, Madagascar, Serbia and Arizona, raise their voices and demand meaningful responses from Rio Tinto on the issues they have repeatedly raised.
Water
Water has been a significant area of contestation and dispute. Consent issues, technical problems, compliance, contamination, abstraction and human rights challenges related to water at existing and proposed Rio Tinto mines have already been reported to the company, yet the problems persist with no adequate response.
In an era of “water bankruptcy” as declared by the UN, communities’ concerns on water use and pollution must be taken seriously and prioritised with urgency.
Rio Tinto must not be free to act irresponsibly when it discharges, leaks or otherwise poorly manages its mine process wastewaters and tailings and pollutes vital water courses in Mongolia and Madagascar. It must abandon untenable plans to construct a copper mine in Oak Flat, Arizona, and to mine lithium in Serbia, all of which pose specific risks to water and nature, and have been contested.
“Blue in the face”
Community, civil society representatives and human rights advocates report they are “blue in the face” from having to persist with the same questions and demands each year – especially at the company’s AGMs – and without satisfactory action or meaningful response from the executive.
The persistent, well documented disjoint between community concerns and demands and Rio Tinto’s claims – together with the company’s failure to respond adequately or at all to technical and other questions around its existing and proposed operations – presents a systemic failure of Rio Tinto to meet its own standards for engagement and human and environmental rights commitments.
Rio Tinto also demonstrates a failure to meet investor requirements to fully apprise them of existing and potential risks, operational, fiscal and reputational, that may likely or already be incurred by ignoring community issues and concerns.
Engage
Given the distances and locations of many mines, and sometimes also their complexity, the opportunity to understand the realities for mine-affected communities is not always available.
So, we ask investors and the general public to be open and willing to hear the amplified voices from affected communities that are brought to them and shared by many engaged organisations, NGOs, researchers and advocacy groups from around the world.
We invite investors and the public to engage with campaigners and community representatives to understand and push for action on the following case studies:
Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia
Oyu Tolgoi is a massive combined open-pit and underground copper-gold mining project in Mongolia’s South Gobi desert, operated as a joint venture between Rio Tinto (66%) and the Mongolian government (34%). Since 2010, nomadic herders together with their advisers have been protesting, negotiating and monitoring Oyu Tolgoi’s promises, demanding compliance until we’re blue in the face. Oyu Tolgoi continues to waste water which should go to downstream users.
Instead of planning dry-stacking and improving the thickener technology to eliminate non-conformance on achieving 64-65% solids in the tailings, Rio Tinto is again looking at transferring water from northern rivers. The company considers the more effective options too costly and instead saves itself money by wasting desert water. Rio Tinto’s operations on the ground contribute to already steep desertification and climate disasters in Mongolia and globally.
In 2022, Rio Tinto promised not to use Orkhon River waters, but in 2025 it paid 3 million dollars for the feasibility study of the Kherlen River water transfer project. In addition, Rio Tinto refuses to pay water pollution charges. Communities impacted by Oyu Tolgoi demand Rio Tinto’s compliance with its environmental obligations. Hands off our rivers!
Read full briefing: https://londonminingnetwork.org/2026/05/blue-in-the-face-demanding-compliance-oyu-tolgoi-mongolia/
QIT Minerals Madagascar (QMM), Madagascar
Currently falling under a “strategic review”, the future of Rio Tinto’s QMM ilmenite mine in Madagascar is in question. Local people fear that Rio Tinto will cut and run from Madagascar leaving a toxic legacy and its social and environmental commitments abandoned.
Community members have been protesting over unpaid land compensation, and demanding transparency about the 4 million dollars per year fund promised in 2023 for social programmes that have not reached mine-affected populations with any meaningful impact. Poverty has deepened according to Anosy civil society.
Water quality has been an ongoing concern since 2009 when the mine’s weir changed water chemistry in the local estuary. QMM’s unregulated breach of an environmental buffer zone in 2014 broke two national laws, raising questions about radioactivity and other heavy metal contamination in local lakes. Five protests occurred after two tailings dam failures in 2022 when QMM then released a million cubic metres of toxic mine basin water into the local environment, followed by hundreds of fish deaths in the adjoining lake, and a fishing ban. Rio Tinto’s commitments to share studies on the fish deaths have never been honoured.
For more than five years, Malagasy civil society, international human rights advocates and investors have repeatedly demanded that Rio Tinto agree to an independent human rights impact assessment of QMM. The company has ignored or denied these requests.
Read full briefing: https://londonminingnetwork.org/2026/05/blue-in-the-face-demanding-transparent-just-and-equitable-outcomes-qmm-madagascar/
Lire en français: https://miningobs.mg/ressources
Jadar, Serbia
Rio Tinto’s Jadar project, which proposes a large-scale lithium mine in the valley of River Jadar in Western Serbia, has been placed under “care and maintenance” by the company, continuing the state of persistent threat against local communities and Nature. For many years now, the project has been met with staunch opposition at local, national and international levels. In earlier stages, the project had been opposed mainly due to lackluster communication about its impacts, and the overtly aggressive mode of Rio Tinto’s approach to permitting and parcel acquisition. This has since grown into a deep-seated distrust towards the project and the company.
The scientific community in Serbia has documented the possible environmental impacts of the project, as well as its negative social effects, in an effort to inform the public with independent information about the project’s many flaws. An international legal complaint before the Bern Convention against the project, led by Earth Thrive, has been running since 2021. The project could potentially impact more than 68 protected wildlife species, and disturb their living habitats and ecological connectivity.
We first challenged Rio Tinto at their AGM in 2020, and communities and movements have been raising questions and demands across countless other fora over the years. The company has however invested the bulk of their time and resources in deflection and “dialogue,” and has not been able to provide any convincing answers. We’re blue in the face with saying this and we shall say it once again: Jadar is a Nature-, food- and water-rich, thriving bioregion with inherent rights to life and health. Jadar is a living community – not a mining site!
Read full briefing: https://londonminingnetwork.org/2026/05/blue-in-the-face-saying-you-will-not-dig-here-jadar-serbia/
Resolution Copper mine, Arizona
Citizens from all walks of life oppose Rio Tinto’s plans to destroy Oak Flat, a sacred recreational and ecological haven that had been public land in Arizona, USA. Oak Flat has been used for holy ceremonies, picnicking, hiking, birdwatching, rock climbing, 4-wheel driving and other activities. Oak Flat is home to many species of animals, birds, and plants including the endangered Arizona Hedgehog Cactus.
Rio Tinto’s plans are to destroy Oak Flat by creating a 3.2 kilometer wide, 305 meter deep crater resulting from ground subsidence if they were to build an underground block cave copper mine. The proposed copper mine is a joint venture between mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP. Mining experts have determined that the project will fail for multiple reasons if built as currently planned.
Oak Flat is vital for the religious freedom of Native Americans. Oak Flat has been used for holy ceremonies for a thousand years and is the place where Native American holy beings live. To destroy this place would kill a people’s religion. Rio Tinto would destroy someone else’s religion for the sake of corporate greed.
On Friday, March 13, 2026, in a shady, unprecedented, and illegal maneuver, the US government gave Rio Tinto the deed to Oak Flat. However, Rio Tinto’s subsidiary, Resolution Copper, has no permits to mine and numerous legal and administrative actions will continue to block project approval.
We’ve demanded Rio Tinto leave Oak Flat until we’re blue in the face! The project is untenable for many reasons, and we demand that Rio Tinto and BHP abandon their plans and give the land back to the public.
Read full briefing: https://londonminingnetwork.org/2026/05/blue-in-the-face-saying-leave-oak-flat-alone-arizona-usa/
On May 6, 2026, Rio Tinto will be holding its Annual General Meeting. Across the globe, this giant mining company continues to destroy Indigenous heritage, put communities under water stress, harm the environment, and loot resources.
This year, campaigners have come together to say enough is enough! We’ve demanded action from Rio Tinto until we are blue in the face and It’s time for Rio Tinto to heed our demands. Add your voice to our call of international solidarity and send a message to Rio Tinto!
Please edit and send this sample letter to Rio Tinto executives and ask them to stop destroying our communities, our climate and nature.