Shares in Turquoise Hill Resources jumped last week after the company’s parent Rio Tinto and the Mongolia government signed an agreement for the expansion of the Vancouver-based company’s massive copper-gold mine in the Asian country.
World’s No.1 miner BHP Billiton said it will pay $25 million to settle charges that it violated a U.S. anti-bribery law by paying for dozens of foreign government officials to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Lobbying by big miners helped kill a proposed Australian Senate inquiry into the iron ore industry after allegations they had colluded to depress prices and drive rivals out of business, the senator who had called for the inquiry said.
The volume of gem quality diamonds available in countries like South Africa does not necessarily correspond to the value that will be received by governments. That is, mining is not always in the interests of a country where governments are politically weak or corrupt—or both.
Deadly violence has erupted once again at a South African platinum mine, this time one in which Anglo American has a major stake. After the troubled industry hit global headlines with the multiple homicides of workers at Marikana, the focus now seems to be shifting towards local community protests (although in the case of platinum mining in South Africa there is often a great deal of overlap between the two). There has already been warning signs of a growing discontent. Yet this is the first full echo of the tragedy at Marikana. It seems that any lessons from that calamity have yet to be applied.
