First Quantum Minerals has agreed to pay Zambia $224-million in tax arrears. The company has also been singled out along with Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), owned by London-listed Vedanta Resources, and Glencore’s local unit Mopani, for tax issues related to...
Millions of pounds of British aid money is funding coal-fired power stations in developing countries – even though their use is being scaled back in this country. The level of spending on fossil-fuel plants by the World Bank, which receives billions from Britain, is...
Corporate Europe Observatory Press release 27 June 2011 Brussels – Europe’s future strategy on access to raw materials – due to be voted on in the Parliament on Thursday 30 June – is being shaped by MEPs with vested interests in related...
On 26 May, SOMO organised a Roundtable in the European Parliament, together with Judith Sargentini (Member of European Parliament, GroenLinks). This well attended meeting focused on conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This Roundtable focused...
Last week, a total ban on global trading of white asbestos moved closer, as all but four signatories to the Rotterdam Convention agreed to include the material on its hazardous chemicals list. The Convention guarantees the right of governments to exercise “prior...
Global miner Rio Tinto will raise its stake in Ivanhoe Mines to 46.5 percent from 42 percent after exercising outstanding warrants, a move that will allow it to name an extra board member. Ivanhoe is developing the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold-silver project in Mongolia...
Press Release 27 June 2011 Today, Bryce Bird, Director of the Utah Division of Air Quality (DAQ) signed a modified approval order for Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine. The clean air activist community, including Utah Moms for Clean Air and the Utah...
African analyst, Khadiha Sharife, exposes “tax avoidance” by mining companies in Africa – specifically by Glencore in Zambia – and elsewhere. She notes that mining corporations’ tax avoidance schemes cost African nations billions of...
Orissa’s state government has suspended action to forcibly remove villagers resisting the takeover of their land for POSCO’s massive iron and steel project. Meanwhile, however, the company has started construction elsewhere on another part of the project....
The London-based World Gold Council said Friday that it had drafted framework standards designed to combat gold that enables, fuels or finances armed conflict. The draft standards which were orchestrated with WGC member companies and leading gold refiners represent...
Channel 4’s current affairs programme Dispatches has gone undercover to investigate the gold sold through some of the high street’s biggest jewellery retailers. The programme was presented by Deirdre Bounds, who went campaigning on the streets of London. The programme...
Goldcorp’s Marlin mine in Guatemala is getting to be the most criticised in Latin America – and one of the most divisive too. International bodies are lining up to demand a close down, while Goldcorp and some of its shareholders claim the company is doing...
