Latest News
Kyrgyzstan Horsemen Attack Gold Mine
At around midnight on Friday, 10 horsemen charged into the exploration camp and set fire to outbuildings, said Talas Copper Gold, a joint venture between the British company Orsu Metals and South African miner Gold Fields. See...
UK companies wage coal war on Peace River
Xstrata to acquire Canadian metallurgical coal deposit Xstrata Coal has entered into an agreement to acquire the Lossan metallurgical coal deposit in British Columbia, Canada, from Cline Mining for C$40m ($38.45m). The coal deposit is located in the Peace River...
Smalley village needs your support now!
Re: Lodge House opencast expansion, planning application CM6/0910/94 to extract an additional 748,000 tonnes of coal from an extension to the mine adjacent to the village: Derbyshire County Council as the Mineral Planning Authority, had indicated that it would oppose...
Africa's Energy Future Heading Down a Dark Tunnel
BHP Billiton’s proposed Inga 3 hyropower scheme in DR Congo, and its existing Mphanda Nkugwa dam in Mozambique – both designed to provide electricity for the company’s aluminium plants - come under fire from the former Africa programme director of the International...
Essar Weighs $750M Infrastructure IPO in London
Essar Group, the Indian company whose businesses range from shipping to power, is considering listing infrastructure assets in London to raise about $750 million, three people with knowledge of the matter said. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Credit Suisse Group AG...
Apply Chhattisgarh's special security law to Essar, says Congress
The opposition Congress Party has asked Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to proceed under the state's stringent public security law against the Essar group, which is alleged to have provided huge protection money to Maoist rebels. See...
Ecocide trial in London
Last week an 'ecocide trial' was held in London. The trial tested barrister Polly Higgins' proposal for a crime of Ecocide - to hold to account directors of companies (rather than the company) who cause extensive damage to ecosystems to such an extent that the...
Barrick’s Tanzanian project tests ethical mining policies
Toronto's leading newspaper, The Globe and Mail, has published a lengthy examination of the activities of the world's second biggest gold miner in the east African state of Tanzania. Its report - while giving space to the company's own justifications for continuing...
Miner dies at UK Coal Yorkshire colliery
A fortnight ago Mines and Communities (MAC) reported the flooding of a coal shaft in Wales, which took the lives of four mineworkers. MAC commented then that: "The Gleision tragedy could now mark the end of a particularly hazardous type of small-scale coal extraction...
Philippines: Details of the Tampakan project challenged
The Xstrata-controlled Tampakan project has become one of the most contentious in the Philippines, and one that the Mines and Communities website has critiqued for several years. There are many reasons for this - not least that, if it goes ahead, the mine will become...