The Australian Green Party has obtainedinformation from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealing that the Australian government is now being advised by Rio Tinto – which to this day dodges war crime allegations over its former role on Bougainville.
A new and controversial frontier in mining is opening up as a British firm joins a growing rush to exploit minerals in the depths of the oceans. UK Seabed Resources is a subsidiary of the British arm of Lockheed Martin.
Anglo American is a major shareholder in Canadian seafloor miner Nautilus Minerals, which has won the first lease to mine the ocean floor for gold and copper, after resolving a long-running dispute with Papua New Guinea.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS and NGOs in Romania have won an important court ruling against a Canadian mining company that had plans to create Europe’s largest gold mine in the ancient Romanian village of Rosia Montana. (Its Romanian subsidiary has offices in London.)
A new report says that not only is mining “the world’s second-biggest user of water, after agriculture” but that the world’s largest users of water within the industry are Vale, Rio Tinto and Glencore. But, whereas Vale recycles most of its water, Rio Tinto and Glencore” use much more water directly from the environment.”
