As UK based metals and mining company, Vedanta, holds its AGM meeting in London this afternoon, Amnesty International has accused the company of holding a sham consultation this week with locals over the planned expansion of an alumina refinery in Odisha, India.
Links between gender based violence (GBV) and mining have been documented in many parts of the world. However, there is very little research that examines the scale of GBV in mine affected communities and the social and structural aspects that cause GBV. Research undertaken by Isabel Cane of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining helps fill this gap. The research was conducted in Mongolia. Mongolia is in the midst of a mining boom driven in part by Australia’s Rio Tinto and its Oyu Tolgoi mine – one of the largest gold and copper mines in the world.
The Mongolian Cabinet has approved a proposal to build a 450 MW coal-fired plant at the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine. The project, which will increase the domestic capacity of the Mongolian grid by approximately 40 per cent, is to supply the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine. The mine is majority owned by Turquoise Hill Resources, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto.
The UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) has opened up massive new regions of the ocean floor for mining companies to search for and dig up valuable minerals including copper, gold and manganese by issuing seven new exploration licences. State-owned and private companies from the UK, Germany, India, Brazil, Singapore and Russia are among those to benefit from the seabed regulator’s latest decision.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 is issuing a proposal to protect one of the world’s most valuable salmon fisheries, in Bristol Bay, Alaska, from the risks posed by large-scale mining at the Pebble deposit. Science has shown that development of this mine, which is backed by Northern Dynasty Minerals and the Pebble Limited Partnership, would be one of the largest open pit copper mines in the world and would threaten one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries.
UK-listed Anglo American and Rio Tinto have both pulled out of this project in the past year.
