Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are being pursued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for channelling billions of dollars in profits from iron ore sales through companies that pay almost no tax in Singapore.
Ivan Glasenberg, officially the richest person in South Africa, with a personal fortune of more than R60-billion, has little in common with Sprinkaan Masango, an unknown Mpumalanga cattle herder who earns just R2600 a month.
But the two are unlikely foes in a peculiar Land Claims Court tussle involving Glencore-owned Umcebo Mining.
A new report by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) reveals that while Greece endures harsh austerity measures, Greece’s economic recovery is being undermined by large-scale tax avoidance – enabled by the Netherlands. The report Fool’s Gold reveals that tax avoidance by London-listed Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold, which uses mailbox companies in the Netherlands, has led to tax losses of at least €1.7 million for Greece in the past two years. There are also serious environmental and human right concerns related to the company’s operations.
The EJOLT project has launched a new phase of the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, an interactive map that catalogues thousands of localized stories of resistance against damaging projects: from mines to toxic waste sites to oil refining operations to areas of deforestation.
A five million hectare slice of Western Australia’s Kimberley region will become the country’s largest national park after the State Government struck a deal forever banning mining in the iconic Mitchell Plateau. After extensive negotiations, a 45-year state agreement that gave Rio Tinto rights to mine bauxite and Alcoa the right to refine aluminium on the Mitchell Plateau has been cancelled.
