Government Response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2009–10 In December, the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights published the report on its inquiry into UK business and human rights. See...
There’s nothing like scarcity and supply disruptions to fuel violent price spikes. And there’s nothing like the basic human needs for food and water to light that fuse. Today’s world food supplies run on razor-thin inventories. While the food riots...
Mining and financial shares led the way as the FTSE 100 surged to an 18 month high, helped by a return of investors’ appetite for risk, hopes for a solution to Greece’s debt problems and better than expected US jobless figures. In particular Xstrata added...
The autobiography of a former director of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is likely to reignite fears about the safety of nuclear power, as Britain prepares for a new generation of reactors, by exposing the panic that rocked the industry two decades ago when a link was...
Investment by the Universities Superannuation Scheme in a British mining company could damage an ancient forest sacred to an Indian tribe, activists say. Survival International, a charity that supports tribal peoples, has been lobbying the main pension provider for...
London-based resource giant Vedanta has decided to take on its critics who have been attacking from all sides over its plans to mine an area in India held sacred by a tribal group. See http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100304/wl_sthasia_afp/indiabritainminingvedantarights.
Ramesh to review Posco, Vedanta clearances Controversy-prone Indian minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh has now decided to review the forest clearances granted to Posco and Vedanta Resources. Both the giant Korean firm (Pohang Steel Company) and the...
Vedanta Aluminium, a subsidiary of the billionaire Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources, has raised a Rs 17,000-crore debt for its ongoing project in Orissa to increase its fully-integrated aluminium smelting capacity. (One crore is equivalent to ten million....
Indigenous Dongria Kondhs trekked to Niyam Dongar hill, the abode of their presiding deity Niyam Raja, and designated it as inviolate, meaning that they were stepping up their resistance to a controversial alumina refinery and bauxite mine project. They carried out...
The 600 workers were shut out of the world’s second largest borax mine on January 31 after a five month contract dispute with Rio Tinto. See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9945.
Tar sands extraction in Canada is devastating Indigenous communities, wildlife and vast areas of boreal forests, as well as being many times more carbon-intensive to produce than ‘conventional’ oil. “We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan...
London-listed Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Xstrata are all involved in copper mining in Chile. Chile copper mines, ports recover All but one of Chile’s biggest copper mines hit by the massive weekend earthquake had restored operations by Monday, but...
