Woes Related to Human Rights and Environmental Abuses Raised
by Protestors at Yearly Annual Meetings – Shareholders Should Pay
Attention!
(Toronto,
April 30, 2014) As Barrick Gold struggles with deepening financial and
management crises, it is time to squarely recognize the relationship
between the decline of the corporation and the environmental and human
rights abuses at Barrick projects around the world – which are protested
against yearly outside and inside the annual shareholder meeting.
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Northern Marinduque site of environmental disasters .
This
year the Barrick Annual General Meeting will undoubtedly be dominated
by the overdue departure of company founder and co-chair Peter Munk, as
well as by this week’s exchange of blame and insults between Barrick and
US mining giant Newmont over their failed merger talks. But the AGM
also takes place in the shadow of a recently filed notice of action for a
6 billion dollar shareholder class action suit in Canada that claims
the company and several of its senior executives did not disclose the
problems that eventually led to huge cost overruns at its Pascua Lama
project in Chile in a timely fashion. These “problems” were both
environmental in nature, rooted in concern for impacts of the project on
downstream water resources, and driven by persistent multi-year protest
by downstream indigenous communities whose concerns were responded to
favourably by the Supreme Court of Chile and by environmental
regulators, leading to project delays, cost overruns, and costly fines.
“This
is a perfect illustration where shareholders were given every
opportunity to know that the Pascua Lama project was in trouble, had
they but paid attention to the protest outside and statements inside the
AGM where members of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos came from Chile to
protest the project,” says Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada, who
attends the AGM and protests yearly. “Their presence, and the
information groups like MiningWatch published on their plight, should
have been a warning sign that all is not well and shareholders should
have been questioning Barrick about local dissent and environmental
concerns.”
This week, another highly troubled Barrick project, in
Papua New Guinea (PNG), is erupting in violence again, as the State has
declared a state of emergency and reportedly sent over 100 special
police forces and soldiers to the mine site to counter incursions into
the mine by poor people seeking gold. In 2009, when a similar police
action was ordered, at least 300 houses of local indigenous people were
burnt down, prompting an investigation by Amnesty International, who
declared the actions a gross violation of human rights.
“Again,
shareholders who are paying attention will remember that for four years
between 2008 and 2011, indigenous Ipili people travelled from PNG to
attend and speak at Barrick’s AGM about systemic and long-standing
violence by mine security guards and special police units who raped and
gang-raped local women and shot at local men,” says Coumans. “After
years of denial, Barrick is now trying to get victims to sign away their
legal rights in return for small benefit packages, but as the violence
continues legal action remains a possibility.”
Other risks
associated with human rights abuses, severe environmental degradation,
and lawsuits related to these that shareholders should be concerned
about include:
- Marinduque,
Philippines – Barrick has offered a multi-million dollar settlement in a
law suit over environmental damages, which is critiqued by plaintiffs
as too low and containing unacceptably onerous conditions, including
prohibiting the use of the funds to rehabilitate affected ecosystems.
- North
Mara, Tanzania – A lawsuit was brought by UK-based law firm Leigh Day
against African Barrick Gold and its 100% subsidiary, North Mara Gold
Mine Limited (NMGML) in the High Court of England and Wales on behalf of
Tanzanian villagers who claim that the companies are “liable for deaths
and injuries allegedly caused by the use of excessive force by mine
security and police.” Here, as in Papua New Guinea, violence by security
guards is alleged against local men, as well as against local women,
who have endured rapes.
- Pueblo
Viejo, Dominican Republic – Barrick’s 60% ownership of the Pueblo Viejo
Mine led to government pressure on the company to spend upwards of 75
million dollars to clean up some of the heavy contamination left over
from prior mining in the area. Nonetheless, villagers from four
communities near the mining areas are requesting relocation. Other
demands include better access to clean water without having to pay fees
for water consumption and compensation for dead livestock and damaged
produce attributed to the mine. Protesting Barrick’s AGM in Toronto this
year is a student group from London, Ontario that recently visited
communities next to the Pueblo Viejo Mine. Compelled by the desperate
situation that they witnessed, they have come to represent those
communities’ demands to be resettled and compensated for the devastating
impacts on their health and loss of livelihoods.
“The
above-mentioned concerns at Barrick mines really just scratch the
surface,” says Coumans, “but we hope that shareholders will start to dig
a little deeper to get behind the glossy reports and slick
presentations to better understand the real risks from environmental
damage and human rights abuses that local people face at many of these
mines. Their suffering is an unacceptable result of Barrick’s mines, and
therefore creates risk for shareholders.” - MiningWatch Canada Mines Alerte |
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