Once more a demonstration against Eldorado Gold’s Skouries mine in Halkidiki was met with tons of teargas by the riot police. More than 1.500 demonstrators marched to the location where Eldorado’s subsidiary, Hellas Gold, is developing a huge open-pit gold and copper mine right in the middle of what used to be a pristine forest. Eldorado is a Candian company which trades on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
The UK government has urged British company GCM Resources to assess how its planned coal mine in Bangladesh would affect the human rights of local people, and has condemned the company for breaching international guidelines on ethical corporate behaviour.
A clear message is coming from mining affected communities the world-over: No More! In a statement released yesterday by the growing Yes to Life, No to Mining movement – a global coalition of civil society movements and mining affected communities – voices from Colombia, Uganda, the Philippines, Spain, Scotland, South Africa and beyond are united in their call for No Go Areas against mining and extraction, a move to a circular economy and rapid disinvestment from fossil fuels.
Latin America’s largest open-pit coal mine is struggling to persuade some members of a small community in northeastern Colombia to relocate and may have to alter its mining strategy.
Indonesia’s National Development Planning Minister, Andrinof Chaniago, has announced that a proposed coal railway in central Kalimantan, which would benefit BHP Billiton among others, will not be funded under the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development promoted by former President Bambang Yudhoyono.
