Global activists target mining giants over ‘abuse’

Rio Tinto mines

Image by David Domingo

Campaigners from four overseas countries will visit London next week for events climaxed by protests over alleged human rights and environmental abuses at the annual meetings of mining companies Rio Tinto and Anglo American.

Activists, union leaders and community representatives from Colombia, Mongolia, South Africa and the USA are to arrive in London next week for a series of events culminating in protests at the AGMs of two controversial mining companies, Rio Tinto and Anglo American.

After a public event on Monday evening, the visitors will be attending the Rio Tinto and Anglo American AGMs on Thursday and Friday respectively, where their complaints against the two companies include:

• Rio Tinto’s controversial Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, which has been the subject of a complaint to the World Bank over its impact on local herders.
• Rio Tinto’s construction of a massive copper mine in Arizona on land that is scared to local indigenous peoples.
• Anglo American’s failure to provide decent compensation and medical services for the thousands of ex gold miners who are now suffering from silicosis
• The Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia, co-owned by Anglo American, where communities whose homes were destroyed by the expansion of the mine have not been compensated.

The visits follow complaints being made to the newly-launched Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by a number of civil society groups over the issue of human rights and environmental abuses being carried out by London-listed mining companies. A letter to the FCA signed by nine different civil society groups (see notes) has called on the FCA to “ensure that UK Stock Exchanges do not continue to act as a haven for those mining companies whose human rights and environmental records leave so much to be desired.”

Richard Solly, the coordinator of London Mining Network, one of the organisations facilitating the visits, said:

“The London Stock Exchange is littered with mining companies like Rio Tinto and Anglo American that are embroiled in numerous controversies around the world. It’s scandalous that the scope of new Financial Conduct Authority doesn’t extend to ensuring that such controversial companies comply with basic human rights and environmental standards”

All of the visitors are available for interview during the week. Short biogs can be found in the notes below, as well timing/location of the events through the week. Print quality photos of the AGM protests will be available upon request.

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Notes

The events, demos and visits are being coordinated by a coalition of UK-based groups which are members of London Mining Network, including War on Want, World Development Movement, Colombia Solidarity Campaign and ACTSA

What/When/Where

What: ‘Stories of Resistance – Mining-impacted communities bear witness’ – Public event

When: Mon 15 April – 6.30-8.30pm

Where: Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Centre, 17 – 25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

What: Rio Tinto AGM protest

When: Thurs 18 April – 10-11am

Where: Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London SW1.

What: Anglo-American AGM protest

When: Friday 19 April, 1-2pm

Where: Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London SW1.

Biogs

Sukhgerel Dugersuren is Executive Director of Oyu Tolgoi Watch, the Mongolian civil society organization working to support traditional herders and others affected by Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi copper-silver-gold mine in the south Gobi desert which was the source of some of the gold for the Olympic 2012 medals. Photos of Sukhgerel and the Oyu Tolgoi mine http://www.flickr.com/photos/martsynka/ More info on the Oyu Tolgoi mine: http://newint.org/blog/2013/04/04/mongolia-rio-tinto-oyu-tolgoi/

Roger Featherstone is Director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition in Tucson, Arizona. Native American Tribes, local communities, concerned miners, recreation, conservation, and religious organizations, are fighting to protect the Oak Flat watershed, an area of 25 square miles of public land where Rio Tinto wants to build an enormous copper mine. http://www.azminingreform.org/

Alexandra Thebert is the executive director of Save the Wild U.P., a grassroots environmental justice organization based in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (300 miles due north of Chicago). SWUP works with activists across the region to highlight that the potential contamination Rio Tinto’s nickel and copper Eagle Mine, is too great for the economy, culture, and environment. http://savethewildup.org/

Peter Bailey is the National Chairperson for Health and Safety for the National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa’s largest trade union. Tens of thousands of former mineworkers are suffering from silicosis, a lung disease caused by prolonged exposure to silica dust in mines, and three legal actions being taken in London and South Africa on behalf of those suffering from silicosis against companies including Anglo American. http://www.actsa.org/page-1516-Justice_for_South_African_Gold_Miners.html

Julio Gomez is President of FECODEMIGUA, the Federation of Communities Displaced by Mining in La Guajira, Colombia, home to the massive Cerrejon opencast coal mine, owned since 2000 by three London-listed mining companies including Anglo American. Since the 70s, a number of communities have been evicted and their villages destroyed as the mine expanded. The FECODEMIGUA federation is trying to get justice from the mining companies involved for those who were displaced. More info on the Cerrejón mine: http://newint.org/blog/2013/04/09/colombia-mining-london/

Glen Mpufane is Director of Mining and Diamonds, Gems, Ornaments and Jewellery Production for IndustriALL Global Union (IndustriALL) based in Geneva, Switzerland.  As a constituent of the International Labour Organisation, IndustriALL represents workers in a wide range of sectors from extraction of oil and gas, mining, generation and distribution of electric power, to footwear and environmental services. IndustriALL is particularly concerned about Rio Tinto’s approach to trade union organizing in the mining industry.