Taking co-ordinated action to avert yet another massive violation of human rights, seven United Nations special rapporteurs have issued a press release calling for an immediate halt to plans to excavate a vast open-pit coal mine in northwest Bangladesh. See...
Indonesia is considering imposing a hefty tax on mineral exports to curb over-exploitation of the country’s resources, as companies scramble to beat a 2014 law requiring ores be upgraded on-shore. It’s a rational follow-up to the government’s...
Buried in Indonesia’s rich soil is a minefield of brutality, literally. Last year, the Grasberg mine of the Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold (in which Rio Tinto has a major investment and from which it profits enormously), one of the largest such operations in...
The drama over the proposed Executive Order of the Philippine President, Nonoy Aquino, continues. There are further hints about its coming out, but when, how – or indeed if – it will appear is now anyone’s guess. A recent article explains that the...
Local and international NGOs say black & indigenous communities did not consent to London-listed AngloGold Ashanti’s operations on their lands, raise concerns about respect for human rights amid ongoing conflict. Business and Human Rights Resource Centre...
CEO Mark Cutifani’s compensation was raised 24% in 2011 as profit rose to a record, the Johannesburg-based, London-listed gold miner said in its annual report published on its website. See...
Averting the worst consequences of human-induced climate change is a “great moral issue” on a par with slavery, according to the leading Nasa climate scientist Prof Jim Hansen. He argues that storing up expensive and destructive consequences for society in...
Continued controversy over a coal power project in Kosovo, partly funded by the World Bank (itself part-funded by the UK), and a catalogue of complaints over its projects highlight the impact of extractives and the lack of alternatives in the Bank’s energy lending...
More than 8,000 people marched through the streets of Alma in Lac Saint-Jean to demand an end to the lock out and to fight for the preservation of jobs at the Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA) smelter. USW National Director Ken Neumann addresses the crowd. See...
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Alma in Lac Saint-Jean, Quebec, to demand an end to the lockout and to fight for the preservation of jobs at the Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA) smelter. Three months and one day after the multinational corporation’s...
Demand for metals on the world market is prompting a mining boom in Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula, where jobs are scarce. But possible environmental damage to forests, lakes, and rivers alarms some locals. One of the companies causing concern is Rio Tinto...
The world’s biggest miner, BHP Billiton, is declaring force majeure at its coal mines in Australia’s Bowen Basin due to prolonged union strikes and heavy rain, the company said on Monday, in a move that could spur prices of metallurgical coal. About 3,500...
