A year on from the Juukan Gorge destruction, Aboriginal sacred sites remain unprotected

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Admin

Rio Tinto’s reputation is in pieces, but the laws, policies and power imbalances that allowed the blast to happen remain largely unchanged

The Western Australian government has refused to commit to a moratorium on approving the destruction of Aboriginal heritage sites, despite the recommendation of a federal inquiry which found that the laws are “unfit for purpose”.

The recommendation was made by an inquiry into Rio Tinto’s destruction of Aboriginal heritage sites at Juukan Gorge on 24 May 2020.

The Nationals’ victory in Upper Hunter byelection may owe more to Berejiklian and Hanson than John Barilaro | Anne Davies

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Admin

More Labor voters prefer the premier than Jodi McKay, while One Nation’s spirited campaign in the NSW seat doomed Shooters, Fishers and Farmers to electoral failure

New South Wales Nationals leader John Barilaro has proclaimed “the Nationals are back” and all but declared victory for Dave Layzell in the coalmining and rural seat of Upper Hunter – but he should probably be thanking One Nation.

For Labor too there will be some soul-searching and pressure on opposition leader, Jodi McKay, to consider her future. Speaking on Sunday afternoon, McKay said she was “devastated” that people did not vote for Labor and that the party was shocked that it had “failed to connect” with the voters of the Upper Hunter.

Gaza damage and Glasgow raids: human rights this fortnight in pictures

Posted on May 22, 2021 by Admin

A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Peru

Petra Diamonds pays £4.3m to Tanzanians ‘abused’ by its contractors

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Admin

Firm settles over allegations claimants were shot, stabbed and beaten by guards at mine that produced one of Queen’s favourite gems

The British mining company Petra Diamonds has agreed to pay £4.3m in compensation to dozens of Tanzanians who allegedly suffered serious human rights abuses at a mine famed for producing a flawless pink diamond for one of the Queen’s favourite brooches.

The 71 Tanzanian claimants, represented in the London high court by the British law firm Leigh Day, alleged grave violations by the company, among them being shot, beaten, stabbed, assaulted, detained in cramped and filthy holding cells, and handcuffed to hospital beds.

Price of gold: DRC’s rich soil bears few riches for its miners – photo essay

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Admin

As the value of gold reached new heights last year, those mining it continued to face crippling deprivation and dangerous conditions

Produced as part of Congo In Conversation, with the support of the Carmignac photojournalism award. Text and photographs by Moses Sawasawa, a photographer based in Goma and co-founder of Collectif Goma Oeil

The muddy slopes surrounding the eastern Congolese gold-mining town of Kamituga hold vast wealth and crippling deprivation.

In South Kivu province near the borders of Rwanda and Burundi, Kamituga has mineral resources estimated to be worth $24tn (£17tn) in untapped deposits. Yet the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has one of the lowest levels of GDP per capita in the world and people work in dangerous conditions with little hope of scratching out anything more than a meagre existence from tough and dangerous work.

‘I’m not selling’: what happens when an Australian town is consumed by a US coalminer?

Posted on May 1, 2021 by Admin

Col Faulkner, 68, owns the only house in Wollar that hasn’t been bought up by US-based miner Peabody

Bev Smiles usually turns up at least an hour before the start of any functions at Wollar’s community hall – a spot for many a dance and committee meeting over the years.

“We have to get in early with leaf blowers to get an inch of dust off the floor – every surface in the hall is black,” Smiles says. “That’s what people’s kitchens are like.”

Mining exploration surges in Cape York as scheme to return land to traditional owners stalls

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Admin

No new properties have been purchased under the Queensland government program since 2017, a report finds

Cape York Indigenous groups have warned that a successful Queensland government program to return land to traditional owners is on the verge of stalling, potentially leaving large and significant swathes of the peninsula at the mercy of mining speculators.

The Cape York land tenure resolution program has returned more than 4m hectares of land to traditional owner groups since 2007, including about 2m hectares that is designated as national park.

John Barilaro attacks Turnbull over ‘war on Coalition’ and says NSW ‘firmly committed’ to coal

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Admin

NSW deputy premier says ‘there will be no moratorium on coal in the Upper Hunter or anywhere else in the state’

The New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, has rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s call for a moratorium on new coalmines in the state and demanded the former prime minister “set aside his war on the Coalition”.

Turnbull said on Wednesday he believed coalmine proposals and approvals in the state’s upper Hunter Valley were “out of control”.

Rio Tinto pledges to protect cultural heritage after Juukan Gorge disaster

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Admin

Chief executive Jakob Stausholm says he will make heritage protection be ‘felt in the hearts and minds’ of his employees

Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm has pledged to make protecting cultural heritage an issue which is “felt in the hearts and minds” of his employees in an effort to avoid another Juukan Gorge-style disaster.

The mining company on Tuesday announced it would publicly report to investors on its progress on improving cultural heritage systems and renewing trust with traditional owners, as it attempts to rebuild its shattered social capital.

Mine that produced Queen’s diamond investigates claims of abuses by guards

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Admin

Petra Diamonds already faces court action on similar grounds, as its contractors are accused of continued assaults on illegal miners

A Tanzanian mine that produced a flawless pink diamond for one of the Queen’s favourite brooches is investigating claims that security personnel have shot and assaulted illegal miners.

New allegations come months after a lawsuit alleging “serious” human rights abuses was filed against Petra Diamonds, the mine’s British owner, in the high court in London.

‘Closing a portal to the Creator’: fresh setback for attempt to prevent destruction of US holy land by miner

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Admin

A federal judge rejects Apache tribal members’ request to halt the transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper mining company

Efforts to prevent a sacred Native American site from being destroyed by a copper mine received a setback yesterday, when a federal judge rejected Apache tribal members’ request to halt the site’s transfer to a a multi-national mining company.

While US district judge Steven Logan acknowledged that the mine would “close off a portal to the Creator forever and will completely devastate the Western Apaches’ lifeblood”, he said the activist group Apache Stronghold lacked legal standing in the case since it represented tribal individuals rather than a tribal government.

‘Too good to be true’: the deal with an Isis-linked Australian family that betrayed PNG’s most marginalised

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Admin

A sustainable forestry project established to develop some of PNG’s most marginalised communities has become mired in an international corruption scandal

“There is always the stench of corruption around a deal that is too bad to be true or too good to be true,” a full-page advertisement in Papua New Guinea’s Post Courier baldly declared in May 2018.

“Usually, because it’s not true.”

‘This land feeds our souls’: the battle to save the Rockies from big coal

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Admin

Growing opposition to the lifting of mining protections in Alberta has forced the Canadian province to backtrack

To the east of the Bluebird Valley ranch, the grasslands of the Canadian prairies extend beyond the horizon. To the west, the fields rise, and then sharply erupt into the Rocky Mountains.

Cattle graze the 3,600 hectares (9,000 acres) of the Bluebird, an hour south-west of Calgary, and on hot summer days rancher Jolayne Gardner’s children jump into the chilly waters of a creek that threads the rolling hills.

Mining giant Glencore faces human rights complaint over toxic spill in Chad

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Admin

Dozens of villagers, including children, claim they suffered severe burns and sickness after contact with contaminated water

The UK government has accepted a human rights complaint against mining and commodities giant Glencore regarding a toxic wastewater spill in Chad, where dozens of villagers – among them children – claim they suffered severe burns, skin lesions and sickness after contact with contaminated water.

The complaint, brought by three human rights groups on behalf of affected communities, alleges environmental abuses and social engagement failures by the FTSE-100 company in relation to two spillages, the wastewater spill and an alleged oil spill, both in 2018.

China mine rescue: nine miners found dead two weeks after blast

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Admin

The death toll from the disaster at a gold mine in Shandong province rises to 10

Chinese rescuers have found the bodies of nine workers killed in explosions at a gold mine, raising the death toll to 10.

Eleven others were rescued a day earlier after being trapped underground for two weeks at the mine in Shandong province. One person was still missing, officials said on Monday.

Israeli minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz convicted of corruption

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Admin

Tycoon sentenced to five years in prison for bribing officials and forging documents to gain mining rights in Guinea

The Israeli diamond and minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz has been convicted of corrupting foreign agents and forging documents by a Geneva court, in a trial over an attempt to reap lavish iron ore resources in Guinea.

Steinmetz, considered by some to be Israel’s richest man, was sentenced to five years in prison but had faced a maximum of 10 years in the case.

Miners in China trapped by explosion send note to rescuers – video

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Admin

Workers trapped in a gold mine after an explosion at the site in eastern China on 10 January have sent a written note to the surface saying that 12 of the miners trapped underground are still alive.

Twenty-two workers were trapped in the Hushan mine, in Shandong province. The condition of the other 10 is not known. It was not until 30 hours later that the accident was reported, however, leading to severe criticism of those responsible

Chinese miners trapped by blast a week ago send note to rescuers

Guatemala mine’s ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader’s murder

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Admin

Mynor Padilla pleaded guilty over death of Adolfo Ich in 2009
Mining firms accused of litany of abuses in Central America

A judge in Guatemala has accepted a guilty plea by the former head of security at Central America’s largest nickel mine who was on trial for killing an Indigenous leader, in a rare conviction over human rights violations allegedly linked to Canadian-owned mining companies in the region.

Mynor Padilla was found guilty on Wednesday of homicide for the 2009 fatal shooting of Adolfo Ich, a Maya Q’eqchi’ teacher and community leader who opposed the Fenix mine outside the town of El Estor.

‘Miners out, Covid out’: threats to indigenous reserve in Brazil grow

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Admin

Illegal goldminers supported by Bolsonaro bring environmental destruction and coronavirus to Yanomami communities

A petition with 439,000 signatures demanding “miners out, Covid out” of the Yanomami reserve in Roraima state was handed to Brazil’s congress this month as shamanic images were projected on to the building’s exterior. With Covid-19 ravaging the Yanomami population since the first death from the disease was reported in April, the existence of the “garimpeiros”, or goldminers, has brought even greater threats to the reserve.

The estimated 20,000 miners were already blamed for bringing alcohol and prostitution into the Yanomami reserve, where they have worked illegally for decades, clearing forests and polluting rivers with mercury used in separating out the gold. The destruction wreaked by their work has increased since far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office – and they have kept working during the pandemic.

Rio Tinto addresses ‘hurt and devastation’ of Juukan Gorge blast as remedial works begin

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Admin

Traditional owners acknowledge mining company’s efforts in rebuilding relationship but say more needs to be done

High-level talks have been held between Rio Tinto and the traditional owners of the Juukan Gorge rock shelter in an attempt to repair the fractured relationship.

Rio blew up the 46,000-year-old caves in Western Australia’s Pilbara region in May to extract $188m worth of high-grade iron ore, devastating the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people.

Roundup Newswires

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Category Archives: Mining

A year on from the Juukan Gorge destruction, Aboriginal sacred sites remain unprotected

The Nationals’ victory in Upper Hunter byelection may owe more to Berejiklian and Hanson than John Barilaro | Anne Davies

Gaza damage and Glasgow raids: human rights this fortnight in pictures

Petra Diamonds pays £4.3m to Tanzanians ‘abused’ by its contractors

Price of gold: DRC’s rich soil bears few riches for its miners – photo essay

‘I’m not selling’: what happens when an Australian town is consumed by a US coalminer?

Mining exploration surges in Cape York as scheme to return land to traditional owners stalls

John Barilaro attacks Turnbull over ‘war on Coalition’ and says NSW ‘firmly committed’ to coal

Rio Tinto pledges to protect cultural heritage after Juukan Gorge disaster

Mine that produced Queen’s diamond investigates claims of abuses by guards

‘Closing a portal to the Creator’: fresh setback for attempt to prevent destruction of US holy land by miner

‘Too good to be true’: the deal with an Isis-linked Australian family that betrayed PNG’s most marginalised

‘This land feeds our souls’: the battle to save the Rockies from big coal

Mining giant Glencore faces human rights complaint over toxic spill in Chad

China mine rescue: nine miners found dead two weeks after blast

Israeli minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz convicted of corruption

Miners in China trapped by explosion send note to rescuers – video

Guatemala mine’s ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader’s murder

‘Miners out, Covid out’: threats to indigenous reserve in Brazil grow

Rio Tinto addresses ‘hurt and devastation’ of Juukan Gorge blast as remedial works begin