Latest News
MEPs call for EU to clean up oil, mining industries
The European Parliament has urged EU countries to clean up the mining and oil industries by publishing what companies pay to get their hands on contracts and by giving legal protection to whistleblowers. Two reports - on financial transparency by German Green MEP...
Protests at Philippine mining conference
The Philippine mining industry's annual conference has just taken place in Manila. As usual government officials and industry bigwigs queued up to praise the state of the industry. And - as usual - vocal protestors stood up to denounce the state of the industry....
Australia PM introduces controversial carbon laws
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has staked her minority government's future on passing the laws, which would force around 500 big polluting companies to pay for carbon emissions through a A$23 ($23.75) per tonne carbon tax from July 2012, ahead of emissions...
Borneo tribe loses Bakun dam case: Rio Tinto implicated in deal
A tribal group in the Malaysian state of Sarawak has lost a decade-long struggle to assert that a massive government land seizure violated its rights. The tribe had tried to overturn a decision which opened the way for the notorious Bakun dam project in the 1990s. In...
UK Government challenged to declare a moratorium on 'fracking'
The Green Party in England and Wales has used its autumn conference in Sheffield to call for an immediate moratorium on fracking. 'Fracking' is the controversial process of extracting shale gas, or coal bed methane, from underground by hydraulic fracture of the strata...
Anglo American starts phase two production at Barro Alto nickel operation, Brazil
London-based resource group Anglo American has started phase two production at its Barro Alto nickel operation in Brazil's Goiás state, the company reported in a release. See...
Nuclear news
Protesters have been on hunger strike to prevent nuclear power station construction in Tamil Nadu, India Indefinite Fast Against Nuclear Plant in Koodankulam http://www.justicia.in/indefinite-fast-against-koodankulam-nuclear-plant-5th-day-update/ Anti- Nuclear...
The LME commodity price grand final: nickel versus tin
Vying for the title of the London Metal Exchange’s highest priced mainstream metal are nickel and tin. At the time of writing, the cash quotes for these metals panned out as follows: nickel ~$US21,400 per tonne and tin $US23,900 per tonne. See...
UN tells UK: ensure your mining companies respect human rights
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has now added the UK to the list of countries, about which concerns have been raised following reports of "adverse effects of operations by transnational corporations registered in the...
Glencore's sorry record of fatalities and fines
The world's largest commodities trader - and one of the mightiest of miners - has published its first-ever sustainability report, many years after the company was established. It makes for sober - if not shocking - reading, revealing that, between 2008 and 2010, no ...