Mining, Communities and the Environment

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DirtyMetals Mining, Communities and the Environment

A Report by Earthworks and Oxfam America Table of Contents

About This Report ...... page 1 From Open Pit to Wedding Ring: How Gold is Produced ...... 2 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters ...... 4 Facts on the Ground: The Ok Tedi Mine ...... 7 Close-Up: Your Computer ...... 8 Acid Mine Drainage: Pollution on a Millennial Scale ...... 9 Facts on the Ground: The Yanacocha Mine ...... 10 Tambogrande and Esquel: Two Communities Stand up to the Companies ...... 11 Pouring Energy and Water into a Bottomless Pit ...... 12 Close-Up: An Aluminum Can ...... 13 Mining the Parks ...... 14 Map: Mining Hotspots ...... 16 Endangering Communities ...... 18 How Mining Injures Women ...... 21 The Toll on Indigenous Peoples ...... 22 Facts on the Ground: The Western Shoshone People ...... 23 Undermining the Rights and Safety of Workers ...... 24 Small-Scale Mining, Large-Scale Risk ...... 25 Metals and the Wealth of Nations ...... 27 Close-Up: Your Cell Phone ...... 28 Paying for the Clean-Up: No Guarantees ...... 29 Towards a Saner Strategy ...... 30 Notes ...... 31

Cover photo credits: Jeff Atkinson/Oxfam Australia, CONACAMI, Tibor Kocsis, Earthworks About this Report

The Metals Mining Industry ■ 96 percent of US arsenic A Few Highlights: emissions ■ 50 percent of all newly mined gold taken from native lands

■ Groundwater thousands of times more acid than battery acid

■ Implication in human rights abuses

■ 79 tons of mine waste for every ounce of gold

■ Employs only 0.09 percent of the global workforce

■ Up to 10 percent of world energy consumption

■ Craters blasted into officially protected natural areas

Tintaya mine, Peru Photo: CONACAMI About This Report The purpose of this report is to show you how much metal there is in your life—from the gold in your jewelry to the aluminum in your automobile—and to explain how it was produced. If you live in the United States, your annual consumption of “newly-mined” minerals (as opposed to those produced from recycling) comes to 21 metric tons*—just over 57 kilos a day.1 This report will show you what lies behind that stupendous lode of copper and tantalum, gold and platinum. We’ll explain how the mining of these and other metals damages landscapes, pollutes water, and poisons people. We’ll show you why modern, industrial mining is one of the world’s most destructive industries. And finally, we’ll show you what we as consumers and concerned citizens can do to clean it up.

*All references to tons in this report are to metric tons.

1 From Open Pit to Wedding Ring How Gold Is Produced

A golden wedding band, or some other piece of gold jewelry—for many people, these things are almost too valuable to put a price on. Perhaps you own such a ring yourself. But while the ring as a symbol may indeed be priceless, the gold certainly is not. Gold comes with a price—a heavy one. Gold mining costs the planet and its peoples far more than the metal itself is worth.

4. SMELTING & REFINING: The separated gold is then shipped to a smelter, where remaining impurities are 3. CYANIDE LEACHING: Once it’s extracted, the ore is crushed, piled into huge heaps and sprayed with cyanide, removed under intense heat. The metals which causes the gold to leach out of the ore. Some mines use smelting industry (of which gold is but several tons of cyanide per day. A rice-grain sized dose of a small part) is a major consumer of cyanide can be fatal. The cyanide-contaminated waste ore is energy and a major air polluter. For usually just abandoned. To produce enough gold for a ring, more on smelting, see pages 6 and 13. about 18 tons (20 short tons) of waste ore are created. For energy consumption, see page 12.

5. TRADE: Once the gold has been purified, it can be traded. More than 80 percent of gold is used for jewelry; most of the rest is bought by investors or used in 2. WASTE ROCK: An open pit mine generates huge piles of electronics. waste rock, which leach toxic metals and acid. Mine waste has turned groundwater thousands of times more acidic than battery acid. For more on waste rock, see page 9.

1. EXTRACTION: Of all the gold in use or in storage today, two-thirds is newly mined—it came directly from the Earth. (The other third came from scrap or recycled sources.) Of that newly mined gold, two-thirds was extracted from immense, 6. A RING MORE COSTLY THAN GOLD: Jewelry manufacturing open-pit mines. Several of these craters have grown so large can be a lucrative business. In the United States, a piece of gold that they are now visible from outer space.For more on open- jewelry typically sells for four or more times the value of the gold it pit mining, see page 4. contains. Few jewelers are likely to be able to tell you where the gold in their products came from. Theirs is a business that has yet to hold itself accountable for the damage done in creating its merchandise. The time has come to change that, and as a consumer, you can help make that happen. Please visit our website, at www.nodirtygold.org, 2 3 to learn more about what you can do.2 Sketch: Chris Engnoth Dirty Metals Ruined

Photo: Steve D’Esposito/ Earthworks Lands, Poisoned Waters Copper smelter site near Butte, Montana

he first step in mining is to locate a subterranean ore deposit and bring it to the surface. Increasingly, Tmining operations find that it’s cheaper to do this by blasting away the soil and surface rock, called “overburden,” rather than by digging underground shafts. The resulting open-pit mines essentially obliter- ate the surrounding landscape and open up vast craters. The world’s largest open pit, the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, measures 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) deep and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide. Open-pit mines produce 8 to 10 times as much waste rubble as underground mines. This rubble is generally piled into enormous mounds, some of them reaching heights of 100 meters, which is nearly as tall as a 30-story building. In the United States, 97 percent of all metals are now mined in open pits. Globally, that figure is two-thirds and it’s rising.3

Once the ore is brought to the surface it must be processed year, mines in the United States generate an amount of to extract the mineral. The processing varies depending on solid waste equivalent in weight to nearly nine times the the metal being mined, but it too generates immense quan- trash produced by all US cities and towns combined. The tities of waste. That’s because the amount of recoverable total amount of waste ore (not including overburden) that metal in even high grade ores is generally just a small frac- has been generated to date by the US metals mining indus- tion of their total mass. The amount of waste created per try probably exceeds 90 billion tons.5 unit of recovered metal has tended to increase as more and But to understand why the waste is so dangerous, you more high-grade deposits are exhausted and the industry have to look at more than just the amount of it. You have turns increasingly to lower grade ores. In the United States, to look at what the waste contains—and a lot of the con- for example, the copper ore mined at the beginning of the tents are toxic. When it comes to toxic emissions, metals 20th century consisted of about 2.5 percent usable metal by mining is one of the leading industries. In the United weight; today that proportion has dropped to 0.51 percent. States, where companies are required to report such emis- In gold mining, it is estimated that only 0.00001 percent sions, the industry’s own data have earned it the dubious (that’s one-hundred thousandth of 1 percent) of the ore is distinction of being the country’s top polluter. In 2001, actually refined into gold. Everything else is waste.4 the most recent year for which data were available, metals The cumulative amounts of solid waste produced by these mines produced 1,300 tons of toxic waste—46 percent of processes are so large as to be almost incomprehensible. As the total for all US industry combined—including 96 per- a global average, the production of 1 ton of copper results cent of all reported arsenic emissions, and 76 percent of in 110 tons of waste ore and 200 tons of overburden. Every all lead emissions.6

4 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Some of these toxics are contaminants of the ore itself—for laden with toxics. On-site tailings disposal generally consists example, heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, selenium, of bulldozing some of the dried tailings into a dam which and lead often drain out of the piles of waste rock. But can then retain the more fluid material. The dam is periodi- other toxics are introduced intentionally during the extrac- cally enlarged as the level of the tailings reservoir rises. tion process. Gold, for instance, is commonly extracted through a technique called “heap leaching.” The ore con- Despite its name, a tailings dam bears little structural simi- taining the gold is crushed, piled into heaps, and sprayed larity to an ordinary river dam. A conventional dam is gen- with cyanide, which trickles down through the ore, bond- erally constructed as a single project, to a single set of pre- ing with the gold. The resulting gold-cyanide solution is determined standards. On the other hand, the “construc- collected at the base of the heap and pumped to a mill, tion” of a tailings dam usually occurs over the life of the where the gold and cyanide are chemically separated. The mine, which makes it much more difficult to maintain cyanide is then stored in artificial ponds for reuse. Each structural integrity. Over the past quarter century or so, bout of leaching takes a few months, after which the heaps tailings dam failures have accounted for three-quarters of 8 receive a layer of fresh ore. Given the scale and duration of all major mining accidents. these operations (usually decades), contamination of the Consider, for example, the failure at the Omai gold mine in surrounding environment with cyanide is almost Guyana. A project of the Canadian mining corporation inevitable. A rice-grain sized dose of cyanide can be fatal to Cambior, the Omai is one of the largest open-pit mines in humans; cyanide concentrations of 1 microgram (one-mil- the world. Its tailings dam failed in 1995, releasing some 3 7 lionth of a gram) per liter of water can be fatal to fish. billion cubic liters of cyanide-laden tailings into the Omai River, a tributary of Guyana’s largest river, the Essequibo. Following the spill, the President of Guyana declared all 51 Wasting Rivers and Seas kilometers (32 miles) of river drainage from the mine to oxic emissions can be insidious—largely invisible until the Atlantic Ocean—home to 23,000 people—an official Ttheir effects are widespread. But there’s another kind of “Environmental Disaster Zone.” Initial government reports mining pollution that’s impossible to miss: tailings dam fail- estimated the cyanide concentration in the Omai to be 28 ures. A by-product of extraction, tailings are usually a soupy parts per million, which is 140 times the level that the US Kocsis Photo: Tibor to semi-solid suspension of pulverized rock in water, generally Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers lethal.9

Fish kill at Baia Mare, Romania

5 Dirty Metals

To get around the problems of managing tailings on site, It’s especially unfortunate that coastal dumping is practiced some mines pump them directly into nearby bodies of in parts of the Pacific that are home to some of the world’s water. “Riverine tailings disposal”—a euphemism for richest coral reef communities—places like the coastal dumping mine waste into rivers—poisons aquatic ecosys- waters of Marinduque island in the Philippines. Those are tems, clogs rivers, and can disrupt the hydrology of entire the waters where the Marcopper copper mine pumped 200 watersheds. Once a common practice around the world, it million tons of toxic waste rock over a period of 16 years, has now been effectively banned by most developed coun- carpeting 80 square kilometers of seabed, suffocating coral tries, including the United States and Canada. Elsewhere, reefs, and poisoning reef fish. In the island’s fishing com- the practice is not common, at least officially. Today, only munities, children have tested dangerously high for lead three mines in the world, all located on the giant Pacific and cyanide.13 island of New Guinea, openly use this disposal method: the In response to public health and ecological concerns over Ok Tedi, Grasberg, and Porgera mines. (For more on Ok shallow sea disposal, the industry is turning increasingly to Tedi, see page 7; for Grasberg, see pages 14, 19, and 24. deep-water disposal, a practice in which a pipe conducts the Porgera is a gold mine run by Placer Dome, a Canadian tailings to a depth of at least 100 meters before releasing corporation; it has been dumping all its tailings directly them into waters considerably deeper than 500 meters. The into the Porgera River since 1992.) To date, only three com- industry argues that this is a “best practice” because deep panies (the Canadian firm Falconbridge and Australian seawater has low levels of dissolved oxygen—a necessary firms Western Mining Corporation and BHP Billiton) have ingredient for the chemical reactions that release heavy met- publicly pledged not to dump waste into rivers.10 als from the rock. (See page 9.) But deep-water disposal Riverine disposal is, however, practiced illegally at many remains highly controversial because so little is known about other mines. In Ilo, Peru, for example, two mines and a the ecology of the ocean floors, and because of the possibility that broken pipes, deep-water currents, or geologic activi- smelter operated by the Southern Peru Copper ty could disperse the waste into shallower waters.14 Corporation (controlled by the Mexican firm Grupo Mexico) have caused severe environmental degradation A growing awareness of the risks of marine tailings dispos- through this kind of dumping, which the company prac- al has led the United States and Canada to effectively ban ticed for decades, in violation of Peruvian law. Between the practice. And in December 2003, the World Bank’s 1960 and 1992, the company dumped an average of 2,100 Extractive Industries Review recommended that the Bank tons of smelter slag per day onto beaches north of Ilo; until not finance mines that dump their tailings at sea. But it 1995, it pumped an average of 107,000 tons of tailings per remains to be seen whether such moves are the beginnings day into nearby Ite Bay. Between 8 and 9 million tons of of a broader ban, since other mines that use marine dispos- accumulated slag now form artificial beaches along the al continue to be developed. For example, BHP-Billiton has coast. The mine tailings are now pumped into inland tail- proposed a nickel mine on Indonesia’s Gag Island, which ings ponds, but these are still contaminating the Locumba contains the third-largest nickel deposit in the world. If the River, which flows into the bay.11 project is approved in its present form, all waste would be dumped at sea—even though the coral reefs off the island Ocean dumping is a form of water disposal that is less con- are among the most biologically diverse in the world.15 spicuous than the river option, and the Ilo mines are hardly the only coastal mines to have used the sea as a waste disposal site. Coastal dumping is a grave ecological concern Metal Smoke, Acid Air because coastal waters are biologically the richest parts of the oceans, and because they support ocean life elsewhere he ore processing at the mine does not yield a metal as well: many open-ocean species depend on coastal habitat Tthat is pure enough to use. Further refining is neces- for part of their life cycle. Coastal dumping is a menace to sary. For some metals, such as aluminum, nickel, and cop- public health as well. For example, in Northern Sulawesi, per, this takes place at a smelter, a kind of furnace in which Indonesia, the Minahasa Raya gold mine, operated by the very high temperatures release the metal from other mate- US-based Newmont Corporation, dumped over 4 million rials in the ore. Smelting technology has improved consid- tons of tailings into Buyat Bay during the mine’s seven-year erably over the past half century, but smelters still produce a great deal of air pollution, especially oxides of nitrogen life, from 1996 to 2003. Local people have reported skin and sulfur, components of smog and acid rain. rashes after contact with seawater, and a toxicologist has found heavy metals in fish and plankton.12 Continued on page 8

6 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Facts on the Ground: The Ok Tedi Mine

he Ok Tedi mine, on the banks have been drowned. A 1999 esti- that the mine be closed. In 2002, Tof the Ok Tedi river in western mate put the amount of forest the CEO of BHP Billiton (the suc- Papua New Guinea, began produc- damaged in that year alone at 176 cessor company to BHP) called the ing copper and gold for the giant square kilometers, an area nearly project “an environmental abyss” Australian mining corporation three times the size of Manhattan. and said it should never have been BHP (Broken Hill Properties Ltd.) Most of the wildlife has disap- built. in 1984. Because the mine’s tailing peared from the region. Plantings In the same year, BHP Billiton dam was destroyed during con- of sago palm and other staple handed over its 52 percent share struction by a massive landslide, crops have died, and some 30,000 of the project to a government- the company convinced the gov- to 50,000 people have been dis- controlled local corporation, in ernment to allow it to dump waste placed. One anthropologist study- exchange for indemnity from directly into the river. ing the situation coined a new future legal claims. In an effort at term to describe it: “ecocide.” Currently the mine discharges, on remediation, the government has a daily basis, 80,000 tons of ore The people affected were unable to begun dredging the river to and 120,000 tons of waste rock negotiate a settlement with BHP remove about 20 million tons of into the Ok Tedi river. One indus- directly, so a delegation of them sediment per year. The dredging try-funded study predicts that if addressed their concerns to the has begun to reverse the flooding, the dumping continues at that rate International Water Tribunal in and vegetation is slowly returning until the mine is scheduled to The Hague. Although the tribunal to some areas. Ultimately, how- close in 2010, the total amount of had little power to enforce change, ever, up to 6,600 square kilometers sediment in the river would be its involvement drew international of vegetation may be destroyed 1.72 billion tons, or the weight of attention. In 1996, an out-of-court during the life of the mine.19 4,712 Empire State Buildings. settlement was reached: BHP was required to pay compensation and The dumping has contaminated reform its waste disposal practices. the river with toxic metals and But even the industry and its fun- caused an enormous, permanent ders were beginning to wonder flood. Nearly all the fish in the Discharge from the whether the mine was worth the river have been poisoned, and Ok Tedi mine, Papua damage it was doing. In 2000, the some fish species appear to have New Guinea World Bank publicly suggested gone extinct. Vast tracts of forest Photo: Steve D’Esposito/ Earthworks

7 Dirty Metals

Close-Up: Your Computer

our personal computer con- has been shown to cause a range of one such operation, in Guiyu, a Ytains a medley of metals, of injuries, including abnormal village in China’s Guangdong including gold, silver, aluminum, brain development in children, Province, found workers disman- lead, copper, iron, zinc, and tin. nerve damage, disruption of the tling computer equipment with Many of these materials could be endocrine system, and damage to hammers, chisels, screw drivers, salvaged at the end of the comput- various organs. and their bare hands. Only the er’s life and recycled. But currently, most readily extracted metal com- most discarded computers are Because it contains substantial ponents were recovered. For dumped in landfills or incinerated. quantities of valuable metals, e- example, workers would crack Incineration of electronic waste, or waste is an internationally traded open monitors, extract the copper e-waste, releases heavy metals and commodity. Many junked com- dioxin into the atmosphere. The puters make their way to develop- “yoke,” then dump the smashed landfill option is also polluting. In ing countries, mostly in Asia, equipment in a field or push it the United States, about 70 per- where some of the metal is sal- into a river. Area residents say the vaged. These salvaging operations local water is now too foul-tasting cent of the heavy metals in land- Sketch: Chris Engnoth fills come from e-waste. These are usually very crude and operate to drink; drinking water is now metals can leach into the soil and outside any environmental or trucked into the area from 30 kilo- groundwater. Exposure to them labor regulations. An investigation meters away.20

Some of the larger and older smelters have done extensive year-old lead smelter operated by the Doe Run lead compa- ecological damage, primarily from heavy sulfur dioxide emis- ny have caused lead poisoning in 30 percent of the town’s sions. For example, nickel and copper smelters near Sudbury children. In the Peruvian town of La Oroya, where another in Ontario, Canada, rendered the soil practically lifeless with- Doe Run smelter operates, a study by the Peruvian Ministry in 3 kilometers and badly damaged forests, lakes, and wet- of Health revealed that 99 percent of the children have lands up to 30 kilometers away. Although the original severe lead poisoning, and 20 percent of these children Sudbury operation shut down in the 1970s, other smelters in needed hospitalization. Yet another type of pollutant detect- the region continue to number among the top air polluters in ed in the emissions of some smelters, such as Noranda’s Canada. Close by Sudbury, for example, is Inco’s Central Horne copper smelter in Quebec, Canada, is “persistent Mills smelter. By far the worst air polluter in the Canadian organic pollutants,” or POPs. These compounds do not metals mining sector, Central Mills released nearly 622 tons break down readily and they tend to bioaccumulate—that of sulfur dioxide and other toxic pollutants in 2001. A more is, they build up in the fat of animals in increasing concen- extreme but less studied case involves the nickel smelters at trations at higher links of the food chain. (“Organic” means Norilsk, in northeastern Russia. Acid emissions from these they’re carbon-based.) POPs can disrupt a broad range of smelters, which are still operating, have destroyed an estimat- physiological processes in animals and people.17 ed 3,500 square kilometers of forest and injured the respira- And since smelters burn huge amounts of fuel (see page tory health of thousands of people. Worldwide, smelting adds 12), they also release substantial quantities of greenhouse about 142 million tons of sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere gases, such as carbon dioxide and perfluorocarbons every year. That’s 13 percent of total global emissions.16 (PFCs). Aluminum smelters, for example, release 2 tons of Smelting releases a range of other pollutants as well. carbon dioxide and 1.4 kilos of PFCs for every ton of alu- Emissions of metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and minum produced. PFCs have up to 9,200 times the heat- zinc are common and can pose serious health risks. In the trapping potential of carbon and will linger in the atmos- town of Herculaneum, Missouri, emissions from the 110- phere for tens of thousands of years.18 ■

8 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Acid Mine Drainage: Pollution on a Millennial Scale

old, copper, silver, and other As they flow downstream, the acid Groundwater near the mine has Gvaluable metals are often and toxic metals can kill virtually registered pH levels as low as found in rocks rich in sulfide min- all aquatic life for several kilome- minus 3, which is 10,000 times erals, such as pyrite, or “fool’s ters and badly degrade down- more acidic than battery acid. And gold,” and pyrrhotite. Mining stream environments many times experts predict that Iron Mountain often exposes these rocks to the farther than that. will continue to poison its water- elements for the first time since shed for at least 3,000 years. This process, known as acid mine the rocks were formed. Once they drainage, or AMD, is the most Treatment procedures for AMD do are dumped as heaps of waste rock widespread and persistent form of exist, but they are costly and diffi- or pumped into impoundments as water pollution caused by mining. cult to implement. There are basi- crushed tailings, their sulfides are The signature of AMD is a slimy, cally two options: either prevent- exposed to oxygen and water. The orange coating that builds up in ing water and oxygen from reach- result is a chemical reaction that the beds of affected rivers and ing the sulfide-laden waste rock, produces sulfuric acid, a compo- streams. This is caused by metals, or applying alkaline materials such nent of acid rain. But in compari- especially iron, settling out of the as limestone to the leaching runoff son to acid rain, the acid in mine water column. For all practical to counteract the acidity. The first waste is 20 to 300 times more con- purposes, AMD is irreversible. option generally requires a massive centrated. There is evidence, for example, and very difficult revegetation As it leaches through the mine that some AMD in the Rio Tinto effort; building soil on barren, waste, the acid liberates various mining district of southern Spain poisonous rock and then getting metals from the rock—for exam- is coming from ancient Roman or plants to grow in that soil is not a ple, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, even Phoenician mines. simple matter. Treating the acid and lead. These metals are not runoff might seem more feasible, But ancient mines are small com- dangerous when embedded in the but to produce a stable result, the pared to those of our own day. rock, but once they are freed, they treatment would have to be main- Take the 17.8 square kilometer are highly toxic to a broad range tained as a matter of routine Iron Mountain mine in northern of living things. In humans, indefinitely—that is, for thousands California. During nearly a century chronic exposure to arsenic, for of years. And the limestone treat- of operation, the mine produced example, is associated with skin ments produce a metal-contami- iron, silver, gold, copper, and zinc. cancer and tumors. Cadmium has nated, toxic sludge that presents Iron Mountain was closed in 1963, been linked to liver disease, mer- additional remediation problems. but 40 years later, AMD continues cury to nerve damage, and lead to In many developing countries, a to poison fish and other aquatic growth retardation in children. lack of resources and political life in the Sacramento River, which interest makes treatment through Eventually, this toxic, acid leachate drains the region. The Sacramento either option an unlikely finds its way into streams and flows into the immense San prospect.21 rivers, where the acid releases still Francisco Bay and there too, the more metals from exposed rock. AMD is endangering aquatic life. Photo: Steve D’Esposito/ Earthworks

Porgera gold mine, Papua New Guinea

9 Dirty Metals

Facts on the Ground: The Yanacocha Mine

n June 2, 2000, a truck from problems and some have attempt- tests done by both the government Othe Yanacocha gold mine in ed to press their case against and the mine, many local river and northern Peru spilled 150 kilo- Newmont in US courts. stream sites exceed the World grams of mercury out of some Health Organization (WHO) limits Yanacocha, located high in the poorly sealed containers and onto for acidity and concentrations of Andes, is the most profitable gold a 43-kilometer stretch of road various metals, such as mercury mine in South America and the running through the towns of and arsenic. One site had an alu- second largest gold mine in the Choropampa, Magdalena, and San minum concentration 20 times the world (after the Grasberg mine in Juan. (Mercury is a secondary WHO limit. (Free aluminum is Indonesia). Newmont insists that it product of the mine.) Many local toxic to a wide range of plants and has been a good corporate citizen people, not knowing what the animals, including people.) The of the Yanacocha region. The com- material was or that it was toxic, tailings dust is also contaminated munities affected by the mine, the collected it in the hope that it with toxic metals. And a study company argues, receive a share of might be valuable. Other villagers recently commissioned by the IFC the mining wealth. The company were hired by the mine to clean up found that acid leaching from the also claims that it has created over the spill—but were not provided mine could further degrade local 1,600 jobs in the area, and helped with any protective gear. Mercury waters. build schools and clinics. can damage the lungs, kidneys, Since the mercury spill, Newmont and nervous system. It can also But many area residents worry has proposed expanding the mine cause birth defects. about the mine. Some argue that to Quilish Mountain, the sixth by causing local inflation and The spill affected an estimated 925 mountain in the area the company driving people off their land, it has people; 400 of them were treated would be leveling for gold. Quilish deepened their poverty. They also for mercury poisoning and over is a critical source of water for over worry about the condition of their 130 were hospitalized. The 100,000 people in and around the streams. “The water that comes Newmont Mining Company, the nearby city of Cajamarca. Many down from the mountains is now US-based corporation that co- local residents, concerned about brown, full of sediments,” says one owns the mine with Buenaventura the risks of water pollution, oppose resident. “The trout are dying.” Mining of Peru and the World the plan. There have been mass They worry about the cyanide Bank’s International Finance protests, including one in April used to leach the gold out of the Corporation (IFC), spent $12 to 2003 that drew thousands of peo- ore; they fear it has contaminated 14 million on the clean-up, but ple to Cajamarca’s main square. the water and is sickening their was unable to account for nearly “I’m aware that Peru is a country livestock. And they worry about 15 percent of the spilled mercury. that relies on mining,” Jorge Hoyos, what’s in the dust that blows In exchange for agreeing not to the Mayor of Cajamarca, told a off the tailing piles and sue the mine, some of the spill vic- Reuters reporter in 2002. “But we into their homes. tims were offered small cash settle- can’t sit by and wait for our ments and medical care. But many They have reason to water supply to be ruined. We residents continue to report health worry. According to can’t swap gold for lives.”22 Photo: Payal Sampat/Earthworks

10 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Protest in Esquel, Argentina Tambogrande and Esquel: Two Communities Stand Up to the Companies wo rural Latin American com- the Peruvian government not the the mine for 8 or 9 years, but it Tmunities, each faced with a local community—but the vote does not propose to guarantee the large-scale mining project, are attracted considerable internation- remediation costs up front. demonstrating the power of direct, al attention. It was followed by fre- Esquel is an ecotourist destination; peaceful opposition. quent protests against the mine, it is located near the Los Alerces and a peaceful, three-day general The small farming community of National Park, home to gigantic, strike in November 2002. Local Tambogrande, located in Peru’s 2,000-year-old alerce trees, a kind activists also began working with sub-tropical San Lorenzo Valley, is of conifer that grows only in that their counterparts in other coun- sitting on deposits of gold and cop- region. Esquel is also a farming tries to keep Tambogrande in the per worth millions of dollars. It’s and fishing community. So it’s not public eye. Finally, in December also sitting in the midst of prime surprising that when the town 2003, the Peruvian government orchard country: the San Lorenzo held its own mining referendum, turned down Manhattan’s pro- Valley is Peru’s top fruit-growing in March 2003, the response was posal. The official reasons for the region. Tambogrande produces similar to what it had been in rejection included an inadequately close to half of Peru’s citrus crop. Tambogrande: an overwhelming researched environmental impact No.Eighty-one percent of the vot- In 1999, the Canadian mining assessment, as well as insufficient ers opposed the mine. (Seventy- company Manhattan Minerals pro- proof of assets and processing five percent of Esquel’s residents posed to relocate half of the town’s capacity. Citizen activism, howev- voted.) Esquel’s referendum isn’t 16,000 residents, demolish most of er, had created a political context legally binding either—although it the town itself, and create an open- in which the proposal’s social and was called by the provincial gov- pit mine in its place. The proposal environmental deficiencies could ernment—but the project has included a promise of new jobs count against it.23 been stalled since the vote.24 and housing. But the people of A similar scenario has emerged in Tambogrande, fearing that the In both Esquel and Tambogrande, Esquel, a town of about 30,000 in mine would poison streams and the message to the mining industry the still largely unspoiled farmland, said no deal. is essentially the same. Increasingly, Patagonian region of Argentina. the communities directly affected by That message was delivered in a Meridian Gold, a mining company

mining proposals are demanding a Photo: Juan Miguel Santino referendum held in June 2002, in based in the United States and say in decision-making about their which 93 percent of the voters Canada, is proposing to mine a sil- future. That right imposes a basic opposed the mine. (About 75 per- ver and gold deposit about 7 kilo- obligation upon any form of extrac- cent of the town’s residents partic- meters outside the town. The mine tive project: the obligation to obtain ipated in the referendum.) The would be an open-pit operation the free, prior, informed consent of referendum was not legally bind- using 2.7 tons of cyanide per day. the communities concerned. ing—the mine proposal was put to The company proposes to operate

11 Dirty Metals

Pouring Energy and Water

into a Bottomless Pit Clearing land for mine, Ghana /

ining is one of the most energy-intensive industries water.Constant pumping can be necessary to keep the Min the world. The mining sector is thought to con- mine accessible as it drops below the water table. The sume 7 to 10 percent of annual global energy production. pumping sometimes dries up streams and other surface In the United States alone, mining uses 2.3 quadrillion waters. This type of disruption can outlive the operation (that’s 2,300,000,000,000,000) BTUs of energy per year— itself: once a mine has closed and the pumping ceases, the enough power to supply over 25 million single-family pits may fill with water, drawing flow from natural American households for a year, roughly 23 percent of the sources. Evaporation and seepage from the pits can per- country’s population. Most of the energy consumed by manently alter groundwater movement—and the seepage mining comes from fossil fuels, primarily coal and oil. is frequently contaminated with sulfuric acid and other (Nearly all of the rest comes from the hydro-electric power pollutants. Photo: Penny Tweedie/Oxfam used in aluminum smelting.)25 There are no comprehensive estimates of the water volume Mining also requires gargantuan quantities of fresh water. (Salt that flows through the industry. (In the United States, water cannot be used because it corrodes equipment.) Large pumping water out of mines is not defined as a “use” of amounts of water are needed for virtually every aspect of the that water, so there is no requirement to measure that at operation—drilling, dust control, grinding ores, and so forth. all.) But it is clear that mining can cause substantial hydro- At many mines, water is recycled—that is, it is fed through the logical disruption. In Nevada, for example, the US same operation repeatedly. But the systems leak. Tailings dis- Geological Survey has found a decline in water tables by as posal, especially, results in a high volume of water loss, so more much as 300 meters around some of the state’s largest water must be regularly pumped into the system. open-pit gold mines. One of these mines, Barrick’s Betze Paradoxically, given the huge water demand, mining is mine, pumps out 380,000 cubic meters (100 million gal- also frequently challenged with the problem of too much lons) of groundwater per day.26 ■

12 Dirty Metals

Close-Up: An Aluminum Can

hen was the last time you nies look for the cheapest energy wasted cans would encircle the Wdrank something from an they can find, and that usually globe at the equator 153 times. aluminum can? If you’re living in means shipping the alumina great Recycling aluminum cans con- the United States, chances are it distances. The aluminum in your sumes only 5 percent of the energy was sometime today—on average, soda or beer can probably origi- needed to make them from virgin an American consumes 350 single- nated as bauxite in Australia, ore. In the United States, the ener- serving canned beverages per year. Brazil, Guinea, or Jamaica—the gy wasted by not recycling all countries that produce three-quar- What went into the creation of those cans is equivalent to the ters of the world’s bauxite. The those cans? Aluminum begins as annual electricity use of 2.7 mil- smelters themselves are often sited bauxite ore, which is 45 to 60 per- lion American households. During next to power plants—and indeed, cent aluminum oxide. Bauxite is the 1990s, Americans discarded 7 many power plants are built espe- formed deep underground, and is million tons of cans—enough alu- cially to supply aluminum typically mined in open pits, a minum to make 316,000 Boeing smelters. (Virtually all aluminum process that produces vast 737 airplanes. That’s a fleet 25 smeltering is done with electricity.) amounts of waste rock. After it’s times the size of all the world’s extracted, the bauxite undergoes Worldwide, over half the alu- commercial airlines combined. extensive cleaning and processing, minum industry’s energy supply Think about that the next time after which it is dissolved in a comes from hydroelectric dams, you finish a beer or a soda, and caustic solution under high tem- and the industry is a powerful make sure that can finds its way perature and pressure to produce a lobby for dam construction. Like into a recycling bin!27 fine, white powder called alumina. mines, these dams cause enormous social and environmental The dried alumina is then shipped disruption. The next largest to a smelter, a metal-working fur- energy source is coal-burn- nace, where it is reduced to molten ing power plants, which aluminum. This is done by liberat- account for about a ing oxygen from the alumina, a third of the total supply. change that occurs only at a very Coal combustion is a high temperature—over 1,200 principal source of degrees Celsius—so the process is greenhouse gas emis- extremely energy intensive. sions. Primary (that is, non-recycled) aluminum production demands Fortunately, used alu- more energy per unit mass of fin- minum cans can be com- ished metal than does the produc- pletely recycled into new tion of any other metal. According metal. But in the United to the Container Recycling States, more than half of Institute in Washington, DC, the all aluminum is used just amount of energy needed to pro- once and tossed into the duce enough aluminum for one trash. Currently, over 50 beverage can is equivalent to about billion beverage cans are one-quarter of that can filled with wasted in the United gasoline. In 1999, aluminum pro- States every year— Sketch: Chris Engnoth duction accounted for 2 percent of that’s a quarter of a the world’s energy use. million tons of scrap metal valued at Because aluminum smelting is so $750 million. Laid energy intensive, mining compa- end to end, these

13 Photo: Mark Wilson/Douglas Day Dirty Metals

Mining the Parks The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area in Montana is threatened by a proposed copper and silver mine.

1872: The Yellowstone Lake basin in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho becomes the world’s first national park in the modern sense of the term. The area merits this distinction because it is home to one of North America’s most spectacular assemblages of megafauna, including grizzly bears, wolves, elk, and bison, and because it contains two-thirds of all the geysers in the world. 1978: Yellowstone is declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 1990: Crown Butte Mining Resources Ltd. decides to site a gold, silver, and copper mine 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the park boundary. Park officials warn of the possibility of permanent damage to the landscape. 1995: Yellowstone is placed on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. 1996: The US government agrees to a land-swap with the company in order to stop the project.28

ellowstone was spared, and withdrawn from obviously hasn’t eliminated the danger to the Reserve. In the list of endangered World Heritage Sites in 1999, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), a multilat- Y eral grant-making agency run by the United Nations and 2003. Unfortunately, however, this is not a typical the World Bank, awarded Côte d’Ivoire $16.5 million to scenario: the mining industry has a long and dismal protect its share of the Reserve, citing mining operations in record of damaging officially protected natural the region as among the threats the forest faced.29 areas. Consider the following cases, each involving Indonesia’s province of West Papua (the western half of the an area that, like Yellowstone, has been declared a island of New Guinea) is home to Lorentz National Park, the World Heritage Site. largest protected area in Southeast Asia. This 25,000 square- kilometer expanse—about the size of Vermont—was West Africa’s Mount Nimba Strict Natural Reserve, which declared a National Park in 1997 and a World Heritage site straddles the border between Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, was in 1999. But as early as 1973, US-based mining giant included in the World Heritage list in 1981. In 1993, a con- Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold had begun chasing sortium of mining companies, including BHP-Billiton and veins of gold through nearby formations. This operation Guinea-based EuroNimba, acting in concert with the eventually led to the discovery of the world’s richest lode of Guinean government, persuaded UNESCO to redraw the those metals, lying close to the park boundary. The resulting boundaries of the reserve on the Guinean side to allow for open-pit mine, the Grasberg (operated by Freeport’s local the development of an iron mine. (According to the govern- subsidiary, PT Freeport Indonesia), has already ruined its ment, the mine site wasn’t supposed to have been included immediate environment. The mine dumps 110,000 tons of in the Reserve to begin with.) But redrawing the boundaries tailings per day into the Ajikwa river, and by the time it closes

14 Dirty Metals

in 30 years, it will have excavated a 230 square-kilometer protected” (IUCN protected area management categories hole in the forest that will be visible from outer space.30 i-iv), and found that more than a quarter of active mines and exploration sites overlap with or are within 10 kilome- Overall, one-quarter of World Heritage Sites listed for nat- ters (6 miles) of such areas.31 ural value (other Sites are listed for cultural value) are at risk from past, current, or planned mining or oil and gas Some countries are attempting to tighten up on mining drilling. (See Table.) Perhaps this threat will eventually incursion into protected areas. In 1999, for example, decline as a result of the agreement reached in August Indonesia passed a law banning open-pit mining in protected 2003, in which 15 of the world’s largest mining companies forest areas. But the government is looking for foreign invest- pledged not to explore or mine in existing World Heritage ment to bolster a weak economy; it is also under intense pres- Sites. (The agreement was brokered by an international sure from the industry and foreign governments to override agency, the IUCN-World Conservation Union.) There are, the law and grant mining permits. In July 2003, 15 mining however, many important parks that are not on the World companies were granted leases to mine in Indonesian pro- Heritage list and that remain vulnerable to mining. A tected areas, in apparent violation of the law. Some of these recent analysis examined all the parks, reserves, and other companies are signatories to the World Heritage pledge— official natural areas that meet IUCN criteria for “strictly indicating their apparent disregard for protected areas that fall outside the World Heritage category.32 One reason that it’s difficult to keep mining out of protect- Selected World Heritage Sites ed areas is that the boundaries of these areas are often Affected by Metals Mining34 poorly defined. This is a common problem in some parts of the Pacific region, which has relatively few protected areas and many major mines. In the Philippines, for exam- World Heritage Site Metal Mined ple, mining is prohibited in intact forests and protected Okapi Wildlife Reserve, areas, yet approximately a third of all mining concessions Democratic Republic of Congo ...... Gold overlap with these areas. (That figure covers both exploratory and active concessions.) Vague park bound- Mt. Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, aries have contributed to this situation; another factor is Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire ...... Iron uncertainty over what constitutes an “intact forest.” Papua Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia ...... Tin New Guinea has a much larger version of the same problem. Nearly 90 percent of this island nation is still forested, Southeast Atlantic Forest Reserves, Brazil . . . Gold, Lead but more than a third of its forests are already allocated to Talamanca Range, Costa Rica and Panama . . . . . Copper oil, gas, or mining concessions. Establishing formal protected areas has been a challenge in Papua New Guinea Tai National Park, Côte d’Ivoire ...... Gold (illegal) because most of the country’s land is owned communally. Sangay National Park, Ecuador ...... Gold Forty-seven protected areas have been established, but even these suffer from poor management. Of the country’s high- Lorentz National Park, Indonesia ...... Gold, Copper land “fragile forests,” deemed especially vulnerable to Kinabulu National Park, Malaysia ...... Copper human disturbance, 26 percent now lie within oil, gas, and mining concessions.33 Huascaran National Park, Peru ...... Gold There is an urgent need to stop the industry from making Volcanoes of Kamatchka, Russia ...... Gold further inroads into protected areas, but this objective Pantanal Conservation Complex, alone would not make for adequate conservation policy. Brazil ...... Gold (small-scale) That’s partly because many major ecosystem types are still poorly represented within protected areas. This is true, for Doñana National Park, Spain . . Lead, Silver, Copper, Zinc example, of prairie, coastal, and marine ecosystems. It’s also Central Suriname Nature Reserve, Suriname ...... Gold because legal protection is difficult to implement on the vast scales at which nature operates. To be effective, conser- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda . . . . . Gold vation has to extend well beyond park boundaries—and Kahuzi-Biega National Park, for that reason, conservation is not likely to be compatible Democratic Republic of the Congo ...... Gold with mining as it is currently practiced. ■

15 Mining Hotspots

Thousands of metals mines now pockmark the surface of the planet, displacing communities, poisoning rivers, Romania: Baia Mare and ruining the lands of indigenous peoples. This map shows a small sample of the industry’s activities. In 2000, the tailings dam from this gold mine spilled 100,000 Kyrgyzstan: Kumtor Romania: Rosia Montana metric tons of toxic Cyanide spills and worker injuries and deaths If built, this proposed gold mine would create wastewater, killing fish have raised concerns about this enormous, Alaska: Red Dog Europe’s largest open pit, displacing 2,000 people and poisoning the World Bank-financed gold mining project. The world’s largest zinc mine, and destroying Roman archeological sites. drinking water of 2.5 Red Dog, is also the largest pol- Montana: Zortman-Landusky million people. Mongolia: Turquoise Hill luter in Alaska, releasing Ivanoe’s proposed copper mine is part of a mining 196,000 metric tons of toxic Gold mining has destroyed Spirit Mountain, a sacred site for the boom in Mongolia, where the number of prospect- pollutants a year. Spain: Los Frailes Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes. The ing licenses has tripled to 3,000 in two years. A 1998 accident from this most recent mine was abandoned by Nevada: Carlin Trend lead and zinc mine sent the Pegasus Gold company in 1998, The mining of Nevada’s toxic sludge into the Burma: Monywa when it went bankrupt. Carlin Trend, the world’s sec- Guadiamar river and con- The infrastructure for this copper mine, run by ond largest gold deposit, has taminated portions of the Mali: Syama Canada’s Ivanhoe company, was built by nearly a mil- damaged Western Shoshone Doñana National Park. The first large-scale mining Orissa, India: Utkal Project lion forced laborers. lands while making the state operation in Mali, this gold Proposed bauxite mines and an Laos: Sepon the world’s third largest gold mine is responsible for aluminum smelter would dis- This gold and copper project straddles a producer. extensive groundwater con- place three villages in an eco- tributary of the Mekong river, threatening tamination. logically sensitive area inhabit- local forests and the traditional livelihoods Utah: Bingham Canyon Guyana: Omai ed by tribal people. Police fired This copper and gold mine is now the of indigenous peoples. A 1995 tailings spill sent 3 upon a public protest, killing Papua New world’s largest open pit, measuring 1.5 billion liters of contaminat- three tribal members in 2000. kilometers deep and 4 kilometers Guinea: Ok Tedi ed effluent from this gold This mine sends across. The company is responsible for mine into the Essequibo, mass layoffs in violation of its contract Zambia: Copperbelt 200,000 tons of Guyana’s largest river. Marinduque, waste into the with the employees’ union. Local communities suffer Philippines: Marcopper Ok Tedi river from asthma, lung diseases, This copper mine each day. and other health problems dumped 200 million tons Honduras: San Martin Brazil: Small-Scale Mining caused by pollution from of waste rock directly This open-pit gold and silver mine, run by Tens of thousands of small-scale Ghana: Tarkwa copper mines and smelters into the sea over a 16- Canada’s Glamis Gold, is destroying forests and miners work the Amazon region Between 1990 and run by Anglo-American and year period. drying up local farmland. The mine consumes for gold, using mercury and little 1998, more than other companies. 1.5 million liters of water a day. protective equipment. 30,000 people in Tarkwa were dis- Indonesia: PT Kelian Peru: Tambogrande placed by gold mining operations. Hundreds of families A proposed gold mine was rejected by this rural were forcibly evicted community in Peru’s top fruit-growing region. to make way for this gold mine in Peru: Yanacocha Kalimantan. Residents of Choropampa, South Africa a town near the Newmont- Bolivia: Don Mario The world’s largest owned Yanacocha gold Indigenous communi- gold producer, South mine, still suffer the effects ties are protesting the Africa laid off nearly West Papua, Indonesia: Grasberg of a mercury spill in 2000. development of this half its mining work- The operators of this giant gold and gold and silver mine in force between 1985 copper mine, owned by US-based Argentina: Esquel the Chiquitano Forest. and 2000. Freeport McMoRan, have been impli- In a 2003 referendum, 81 per- cated in human rights violations, cent of this Patagonian town’s including forced evictions and murders. residents voted against a proposed open-pit gold mine.

Photos: Ernesto Cabellos/Guarango Cine y Video, ICEM, Tibor Kocsis, JATAM, Steve D'Esposito/Earthworks Photo: Ernesto Cabellos/Guarango Cine y Video Dirty Metals

Endangering Communitites Choropampa residents demand clean-up and compensation after mercury spill. hen a large mining operation begins, the area around the ore deposit often sees a sharp boost in Weconomic activity. New roads are built; housing goes up for the miners; smaller businesses set up shop to serve the mine and its workers. And indeed, such operations are typically presented as the ticket to local prosperity. But the economies that grow up around large mines usually suffer from the “company town”syndrome: there is generally little economic activity that is independent of the mine. This high degree of dependency has not proven to be a good way to build long-term economic stability.

Even over the short term, the local mining economy tends miners from their claims. The 440 families displaced by the to create some very powerful social deficits. The damage mine received only minimal compensation for their losses; may begin with the displacement of local peoples from the miners received nothing. Sometimes these evictions are their traditional lands. In the developing world and in imposed on an enormous scale; between 1990 and 1998, many indigenous communities in the industrialized world, for instance, mining displaced more than 30,000 people in many people lack legal title to the lands they live on, even Ghana’s Tarkwa District.35 though they may have occupied the same lands for many Even where there is no direct displacement of the people generations. Such people are vulnerable to eviction when a themselves, there is frequently a displacement of their tra- mining lease is granted, and the eviction may be imposed ditional livelihoods. Large-scale mining is so destructive to without prior consultation, meaningful compensation, or the landscape that little in the way of traditional rural life is the offer of equivalent lands elsewhere. liable to survive in its vicinity. Industrial mining generally In the Indonesian province of Kalimantan, for example, a eliminates farming, fishing, small-scale forestry, and even— 2001 investigation by the country’s National Human Rights as is apparent from events in Kalimantan—any previous Commission substantiated claims of forced evictions artisanal mining. around the PT Kelian gold mine, operated by the giant Despite the usual promise of jobs, the mining economy British and Australian mining company, Rio Tinto. The typically creates little employment for those who lose their Commission found that from 1989 to 1992, military forces, livelihoods to the mine. In large operations, most workers along with Rio Tinto security personnel, had burned vil- are not likely to come from local communities, since the lages around the mine and forcibly evicted small-scale mining companies are usually looking for skilled labor. The

18 Endangering Communities

former Panguna copper mine on the island of Bougainville, recurrent accidents—sometimes so recurrent, the term “acci- part of Papua New Guinea, is a case in point. Virtually all dent” may be something of a misnomer. For example, in the its workers came from off the island; during a single four- Tien Shen mountains of Kyrgyzstan, at the Kumtor gold year period, the mine imported 10,000 workers—to an mine operated by the Canadian company Cameco, trucks island whose total native population numbered just delivering nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, and cyanide 80,000.36 nitrate have on at least three occasions spilled part of their cargo into streams, poisoning more than 2,500 local resi- A host of subsidiary problems tends to follow all the initial dents. And beyond these immediate dangers, there looms the disruption. The loss of traditional ways of life and an influx threat of injury from long-term exposure to toxics.38 of male migrant workers, usually living away from their families—in many places, this scenario has led to an increase in alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution, crime, and The Violence of Metals domestic violence. A recent World Bank investigation iden- tified such problems around the giant Yanacocha gold mine ommunity opposition to mining may encounter vio- in northern Peru, an area formally inhabited by traditional Clent suppression by the companies themselves or by farmers and herders. (See page 10.) The Bank found that government forces working in concert with them—indeed, “people are troubled about their future and a heavy cloak as a practical matter, it can be difficult to distinguish of anxiety and profound concern darkens the spirit of the between these two entities. Especially in parts of Africa and place and threatens any meaningful sense of well-being.” In the Pacific region, large-scale mining tends to become “mil- Bougainville, the massive influx of mine workers spurred itarized.” In such situations, the actions of the police, the an increase in crime and alcohol abuse, which eventually military, or persons unknown have often resulted in the led to riots and finally to a civil war.37 death or disappearance of mining opponents. For example: The mining economy is also likely to produce a major public In West Papua, Indonesia, where Freeport McMoRan oper- health deficit. A part of that deficit is generally the result of ates the giant Grasberg gold and copper mine, human

Photo: Oxfam Australia

An Australian mining company in 19 Indonesia entertains military officials. Dirty Metals

In the west African nation of Ghana, a country with extensive gold mines, the Ghanaian Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice issued a report in 2000 that found “overwhelming evidence of human rights violations occasioned by the mining activities, which were not sporadic but a well established pattern common to almost all mining communities.”An investigation by the Ghanaian community group WACAM (Wassa Association of

Photo: Daniel Owusu-Koranteng/WACAM Communities Affected by Mining) supports that conclu- sion. WACAM found that the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) was committing human rights abuses against the Sansu community, which has a long history of artisanal mining in an area that AGC itself has recently begun to mine. The group found evidence that between 1994 and 1997, AGC security personnel, acting in conjunction with the police and the military, had killed three artisanal miners. In one incident in January 1997, 16 artisanal miners were severely beaten by AGC security personnel. WACAM also collected testimony from six other artisanal miners who say they were beaten and attacked by AGC security’s guard dogs.40 Eventually the boom goes bust, as ore deposits are exhausted and the jobs generated by the mine disappear. Most large-scale projects have a lifespan of between 10 and 40 years, after which the mining companies close up shop and move on to new projects. Any schools, clinics, and other services established by the companies usually lose their funding.

Jailed mining activists, Ghana When this happens, the miners and communities are generally left to fend for themselves. Since mining is specialized employment, miners typically have few other marketable job skills, nor do many governments or companies make much rights investigators have documented numerous human of an effort to provide those skills. There are few “just transi- rights violations—including rape, torture, extrajudicial tion” programs, in which former mineworkers are retrained killings, and arbitrary detention—committed by the for other work. For these reasons, laid-off miners are likely Indonesian military against indigenous communities living to stay unemployed for long periods. The social effect of near the mine. During 1994 and 1995, according to the these layoffs is often profound, because the miners generally Australian Council on Overseas Aid, the Indonesian mili- have a large number of dependents (although the majority tary, with the assistance of the mine’s own security forces, of them may not be in the mining communities themselves). “disappeared” or killed 22 civilians and 15 other people According to an estimate by the South African Chamber of they alleged were “guerillas.” Human rights advocates have Mines, one in every eight people in southern Africa is eco- long suspected that Freeport was paying Indonesian sol- nomically dependent on mining. In South Africa itself, the diers directly—an arrangement that would make the com- gold mining industry laid off some 400,000 workers between pany complicit in the military’s abuses. And in 2003, a doc- 1985 and 2000—nearly half its workforce.41 ument requested by Freeport’s shareholders confirmed that the company was indeed doing this: Freeport paid the This is the end game of the local mining economy: the Indonesian military $4.7 million in 2001 and $5.6 million destruction of the traditional employment base, followed in 2002. In August of that year, the military shot and killed by the loss of the mine itself. It’s little wonder that even in two American schoolteachers working near the mine, and the United States, mining areas exhibit some of the highest one Indonesian mine employee.39 poverty and unemployment rates in the country.42 ■

20 Endangering Communities

How Mining Injures Women

n the mining communities of Antamak region of Luzon, in the Province, where there is a mine Ithe developing world, it is the Philippines, around the operated by the company PT women, already disadvantaged, Philippines-based Benguet Freeport Indonesia. who bear some of the most diffi- Corporation’s open-pit gold mine. Environmental contamination cult burdens. A profile of their lot: As small-scale mining and farming from mining—especially water have disappeared, women have In many countries, women are not pollution—can greatly complicate been leaving town to look for permitted to own land or their land the traditional role of women as work elsewhere, often withdrawing rights are restricted. Lack of title providers of food and water to their children from school to take often excludes women from land their families. In drier regions of with them. compensation payments. Even the developing world, women when women have title, they may Women who do find work in min- must often walk considerable dis- be excluded from negotiations any- ing companies may face severe distances to collect the day’s water. way because such matters are fre- crimination—or worse. In East Mine pollution can lengthen that quently seen as a male prerogative. Kalimantan, Indonesia, for exam- walk, reducing the time for every- In Papua New Guinea, for example, ple, women employees of the PT thing else. And because it ruins women were excluded from formal Kelian Equatorial Mining compa- farmland, mine pollution may also compensation negotiations with ny report being sexually abused by strain local food resources, as has the Rio Tinto subsidiary that owns male supervisors. happened, for example, around the Lihir gold mine. Placer Dome’s gold mine on The drinking, drug use, and pros- Misima Island, Papua New Large-scale mining creates very titution typical of mining commu- Guinea. few employment opportunities for nities also aggravate some health women, and it displaces economic risks that fall especially heavily on In January 1997, female mining activities, such as agriculture or women, such as HIV infection. activists from around the world artisanal mining (see page 25), in (Women are disproportionately gathered in Baguio City, in the which women often play major affected by the spread of Philippines, to look for ways to roles. These changes tend to con- HIV/AIDS because they are address these issues. The result centrate economic power in the anatomically at greater risk of was the establishment of the hands of men, increasing women’s infection than men.) For example, International Women and Mining dependence on their husbands or widespread infection of women Network—and a commitment to male relatives. That’s what has has been found around the town make the plight of women a cen- happened, for example, in the of Timika, in Indonesia’s Irian Jaya tral concern of mining activism.43 Photo: Ingrid Macdonald/Oxfam CAA

Woman near gold and copper mine, Didipio, Philippines

21 Dirty Metals

The Toll on Indigenous Peoples

“IMK made us leave our gardens when the crops were ready for har- and social policies have prompted vest.… IMK also destroyed our graveyards and sacred places that we an IFC investigation. have protected and respected.” Some native communities have –Mumpung, testifying on February 6, 2003, before the South Jakarta State Court in managed to negotiate acceptable Indonesia, in a lawsuit brought by the Dayak people against the PT Indo Muro agreements with mining corpora- Kencana (IMK) Gold Mining Company. tions but so far, such negotiations are rare. As with violations of round half of all the gold of the landscape. Both surface and labor rights, (see pages 24 and 26), Amined from 1995 to 2015 is ground water have been extensively the key to progress may be the likely to come from native lands— contaminated. The acid mine enforcement of international the traditional territories of drainage (see page 9) has made agreements. The International indigenous peoples. Many indige- water treatment a permanent Labour Organization “Indigenous nous peoples live in remote areas necessity for people living down- and Tribal Peoples Convention,” that until recently had not been stream. Water quality problems and adopted in 1991, guarantees accessible to the mining industry. inadequate clean-up of damaged indigenous groups the right to And their relative isolation from lands have prompted multiple law- decide on their own development mainstream society often leaves suits by the indigenous peoples priorities, and to be consulted in them without basic legal and against both the state and federal good faith before any development political safeguards—a condition governments. Despite a $37 million takes place on their lands. In Latin that lends itself to abuse. In many settlement, the problems persist. America, where most countries countries, for example, the law In the United States and else- have ratified the Convention and does not recognize indigenous where, this same scenario is still written it into national law, some peoples clearly as owners of their being repeated. For example, indigenous movements have used lands. Even when surface land Glamis Gold Ltd. has a proposal the Convention to defend them- rights are clearly titled to indige- pending today in California for an selves against the incursion of nous groups, governments fre- open-pit cyanide-leach mine at extractive industries into remote quently sell off the subsurface Quechan Indian Pass. The mine parts of Amazonia. rights to mining corporations. would destroy or degrade over 50 Another international agreement, That’s why the Dayak complaint known sites of cultural or religious the UN draft “Declaration on the quoted above might sound very importance to the Quechan Indian Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” familiar to the Assiniboine and Nation, including graveyards, moves beyond consultation and Gros Ventre indigenous nations, prayer circles, shrines, petroglyphs, requires the free, prior, and whose traditional lands included and geoglyphs. To the south, in informed consent of the indige- parts of northern Montana. In Bolivia, the Canadian company nous peoples concerned before 1895, the tribes were forced by the Orvana Minerals opened its Don any development can proceed. US government to abandon 16,200 Mario gold and silver mine in May Indigenous groups around the hectares of what was then Spirit 2003. The mine is in the heart of world have invoked this right to Mountain, a site sacred to both the formerly pristine Chiquitano defend their cultures, lands, and tribes. The government then Forest, home to numerous livelihoods against resource opened the land to gold prospect- Chiquitano and Ayoreo indige- extraction operations. In ing. Today, Spirit Mountain has nous communities. One month December 2003, the Extractive been replaced by the Zortman- later, the regional indigenous fed- Industries Review, an independent Landusky open-pit cyanide-leach eration filed a complaint with the commission appointed by the gold mine. Although the mine was World Bank’s International World Bank, recommended that closed in 1998 when its owner, Finance Corporation (IFC), which the Bank itself introduce this Pegasus Gold, declared bankruptcy, is funding the mine. Alleged viola- requirement for all its extractive it continues to pollute what is left tions of the Bank’s environmental industry investments.44

22 Endangering Communities

Facts on the Ground: The Western Shoshone People he story of the Western The gold rush continues today, but ment continues to hand over huge TShoshone is a long lesson in the prospectors have been replaced tracts of Shoshone lands to min- the ways that law can fail indige- by corporate mining—a practice ing companies. Among the benefi- nous people threatened by mineral that has proved far more destruc- ciaries are Newmont, Placer interests. The ancestral territory of tive to Western Shoshone lands, Dome, and Barrick. Under the this native American people sacred places, and scarce water national mining law, which dates encompasses an area stretching resources. from 1872, corporations can pur- from southern Idaho, through chase so-called public lands from The failure to pay royalties is a eastern Nevada, to the Mojave the government for as little as $5 a treaty violation and the Shoshone Desert of California. Underneath hectare ($2.50 an acre), without have been attempting for decades this swath of over 240 thousand owing a penny in royalties for the to get the government to live up to square kilometers (over 60 million minerals they extract. its constitutional obligations. In acres) lie billions of dollars worth 1979, the government tried to leg- In December 2002, the Inter- of gold. Nearly 10 percent of the islate a settlement that would have American Commission on Human world’s gold production—and 64 abrogated the treaty and awarded Rights, a part of the Organization percent of US production—comes the Shoshone a one-time payment of American States, found that the from Western Shoshone land. of $26 million, or roughly 15 cents US government was violating the Prospectors hoping to strike it rich an acre, in exchange for relin- fundamental rights of the Western began entering Western Shoshone quishing title to their land. The Shoshone to property, due process, territory in the 1840s. Clashes with Shoshone refused the settlement, and equality under the law. But the the Shoshone prompted the 1863 maintaining that the lands government has ignored the ruling Treaty of Ruby Valley between the were never for sale in the and is moving forward with legis- US government and the Western first place. Even so, the lation that would open the terri- Shoshone Nation. The treaty government is acting as if tory up to a major new form of allowed settlers to mine, establish it were the landowner. extraction, geothermal energy, and ranches, cut timber, and extract Today, Shoshone ranch- to additional mining. In September other natural resources from ers are required to pay 2003, the Shoshone filed suit yet Shoshone lands, but it also recog- federal grazing fees to again, reasserting their claim to nized the Western Shoshone peo- run cattle on their their ancestral territory and ple as the landowner, entitled to traditional lands, demanding payment of the royal- royalties for the extractive and the govern- ties owed them under the treaty.45 activities. But no royalties have ever been paid.

Sacred site of the Western Shoshone, Nevada Photo: Chris Sewall/WSDP

23 Dirty Metals

Undermining the Rights

and Safety of Workers Mineworker in South Africa /

n October 9, 2003, the south face of the Grasberg gold mine in West Papua, Indonesia, collapsed. OEight workers died and five others were injured. Government investigators turned up evidence that in the days leading up to the accident, seismic data had led mine operators to suspect that slippage was immi- nent, and that key machinery—but not workers—had been moved from below the unstable zone. These were not the first deaths at the Grasberg mine, the largest open-pit gold mine in the world. In May 2000,

a landslide at the mine’s waste dump claimed four lives, prompting environmentalists and government Photo: ICEM officials to question the safety of recent production increases.46

In 1983, the chief safety engineer of an unnamed South Rock falls, tunnel collapses, fires, heat exhaustion, and African mining corporation told the Economist that “produc- other dangers claim the lives of over 15,000 miners every tion is more important than safety.” No one in a similar posi- year. (Miners in the notoriously dangerous coal mines of tion would go on record with such a statement today. And it China may account for up to half of these deaths.) is true that over the past 20 years, health and safety condi- According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), tions have improved in large-scale corporate operations in deaths within the mining sector as a whole (both metals most countries. Between 1984 and 2001, for instance, the and coal) account for 5 percent of all worker deaths on the average annual death rate in South African gold mines fell job, even though the sector employs just under 1 percent of from 1.23 per 1,000 workers to 1.05 per 1,000, while the all workers worldwide. But these are just the reported reported accident rate declined by one-third. (For conditions deaths; a substantial share of mining deaths go unrecorded. at small-scale sites, see page 25.) But even so, mining remains The data on injuries are even less reliable but it’s likely that one of the world’s most dangerous professions.47 hundreds of thousands of serious injuries are sustained

24 Undermining the Rights and Safety of Workers

Small-Scale Mining, Large-Scale Risk

fair share of the world’s min- Mercury is a neurotoxin that has Guiana, for instance, the Wayana Aing is done, not by big corpo- been shown to impair brain func- people live downstream from rations, but by individual people, tion in fetuses and children. People small-scale gold mining operations families, and collectives. This part continually exposed to it may and suffer from mercury poison- of the industry, which is largely experience loss of coordination ing. Their hair sample tests show confined to the developing world, and memory, personality change, mercury levels two to three times is known as “artisanal and small- and stupor. Mercury has also been higher than World Health scale mining,” or ASM. ASM covers linked to increases in miscarriages Organization limits. a range of activities. At the high and birth defects. In children, high Overall health and safety data for end are companies doing sophisti- levels of exposure correlate with ASM are sketchy, but the sector cated but small-scale mechanized lower intelligence and hearing loss. appears to experience a signifi- mining. But the overwhelming Mercury can also persist in the cantly higher accident rate than the majority of the sector’s workers are environment for decades in forms industry as a whole. Lack of train- found at the opposite end of the in which it is readily metabolized. ing and equipment lead to more spectrum: they are poor, untrained And it bioaccumulates—it builds frequent landslides, shaft collapses, miners often working their claims up in the fat of animals in increas- and accidents with explosives. In together with their families. Some ing concentrations at higher links matters of risk, ASM differs in of these miners are organized into of the food chain, with the result another important way from large- collectives of several hundred peo- that top predators (bears, for scale mining: many injuries in ple. All told, there are enormous example, or people) tend to absorb ASM are suffered by women and numbers of them: an estimated 13 the highest concentrations of it. children—a reflection of their million people are directly But in poor communities, where widespread presence in the sector. employed in the sector—as there is little information on such Children, for example, are fre- opposed to only around 2.75 mil- hazards, and where in any case, quently employed underground lion in industrial metals mining. people cannot afford to buy safety because of their small size. Women ASM produces a sizeable share of equipment, few precautions are make up an estimated 10 to 20 the world’s gem stones and pre- taken. Amalgamation is often done percent of the above-ground ASM cious metals, especially gold. But at home, by women and children, workforce, and are often engaged these riches are produced at great while the men are out on the claim in the amalgamation process. cost to both the environment and digging more ore. The mercury is This poor safety record is due in human health. often handled with bare hands, part to a lack of legal recognition. and heated in the same pots used On both counts, the single greatest According to the International for cooking. Under such circum- threat within the sector is proba- Labour Organization, about 80 stances, it’s virtually impossible to bly mercury poisoning. Artisanal percent of the world’s small-scale avoid inhaling mercury vapor, and extraction of gold is done through mining is illegal. In many poor contaminating food and drinking a process called amalgamation, in countries, the laws against ASM water with the metal. Much of the which gold ore is heated in the haven’t successfully controlled it, mercury eventually escapes into presence of mercury. The mercury but they have discouraged poor soil and water, and once released it “amalgamates” with—adheres miners from seeking medical help tends to be mobile. In French to—the gold, thereby drawing it and other forms of assistance. The out of the ore. The gold remains miners’ reticence, in turn, makes it in more or less pure form after the difficult to understand their needs, mercury evaporates in the heat. or how the sector as a whole might best be managed.54 But in both its liquid and its vapor Photo: JATAM forms, mercury is extremely toxic.

Small-scale gold mining, East 25 Kalimantan, Indonesia Dirty Metals

every year in the mines. In 1996, Pik Botha, then South tions that employ them, the unions themselves are global- Africa’s Minister for Mineral and Energy Affairs, estimated izing. In 1998, for example, members of the 20-million- that in his country, each ton of gold mined costs 1 life and strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, 12 serious injuries.48 Mine and General Workers Union (ICEM) formed the In addition to the deaths and injuries on the job, mining can Rio Tinto Global Network to confront the labor practices cause a range of long-term disabilities, the most common of of the Rio Tinto Corporation. Rio Tinto operates in 40 which are respiratory problems such as silicosis. Caused by countries and is the world’s largest private mining compa- the inhalation of crystalline silica dust, a common air con- ny.The Global Network charges that the company has taminant in hardrock mines, silicosis can develop after only employed union-busting activities, some of which might seven months of exposure to the qualify as human rights abuses, dust, and can lead to complete at mines in various parts of the loss of lung function. It also world. Among the charges are greatly increases its victims’ sus- accusations that Rio Tinto fired ceptibility to other lung diseases, HIV-positive workers in such as tuberculosis, bronchitis, Zimbabwe; that in Brazil’s and lung cancer. Deep mines, Paracatu gold mine, it spied on such as South Africa’s gold mines, and fired union leaders, and which reach depths of 3.5 kilo- exposed workers to highly toxic meters (2 miles), present their own special set of risks. The levels of lead; and that it violated extreme heat—up to 60 degrees Photo: ICEM a two-day-old collective bargain- Celsius (140 degrees F)—and the ing agreement with mass layoffs high atmospheric pressure put miners at risk for certain in Utah. Although the company has signed the United kinds of nerve damage and high blood pressure. South Nations Global Compact, a code of corporate responsibil- African gold mines sometimes also extract uranium, thereby ity, the Global Network points out that Rio Tinto’s poli- exposing thousands of workers to unsafe radiation.49 cies do not yet acknowledge basic ILO standards, such as protections for collective bargaining.52 It’s not surprising that in some countries, the lifespan of miners is substantially lower than that of the general population. But even though it is growing more sophisticated, labor In Bolivia, for example, the average miner in the tin mines of organizing in the mines remains a difficult and risky busi- Potosí will live only 35 to 40 years, whereas the general popu- ness. The International Council of Metals and Mining lation’s life expectancy at birth is about 64 years.50 (ICMM), a confederation of the 25 largest mining companies, still does not recognize the rights of workers to bar- Almost all governments have enacted health and safety reg- gain collectively in its guiding principles. In some coun- ulations that apply to the mining industry. But these laws tries, such as China, Burma (Myanmar), and Laos, organiz- are often poorly conceived and enforced. To help bridge the ing independent unions is illegal. In Burma, workers are regulatory gap, the ILO developed the “Convention on not only prohibited from forming unions, but have some- Safety and Health in Mines” in 1995. The Convention times even been subjected to forced labor, such as at the requires employers to “eliminate or minimize” safety and Monywa Copper Mine, operated by the Canadian corpora- health risks in their mines. It requires governments to over- tion Ivanhoe Mines, where the ILO reports that in the mid- see and report publicly on the implementation of such 1990s, nearly a million people were forced to build the measures, and to suspend mining when violations occur. hydroelectric plant and railway servicing the mine. Even And it guarantees miners’ rights to form unions and to be where unions are legal, they are often undercut in various informed of health and safety risks and precautions. But to ways. In 2001, for example, some 2,500 workers at copper date, only 20 countries have ratified the ILO Convention mining facilities in Kazakhstan were forced by the manage- and have agreed to abide by its standards. Among the major ment to join “house” unions—led by the director’s right- mining countries that have not done so are Australia, Brazil, hand man—or face dismissal. Sometimes the hostility to Canada, China, Indonesia, Peru, and Russia.51 the unions turns deadly. In Colombia, which has the Miners have tended to respond to this unfavorable regula- world’s worst record for trade unionist murders (one tory climate by looking to each other for support. To killing every other day), 11 members of the metals, mining, increase their leverage with the multinational corpora- and oil workers’ union federation were killed in 2001.53 ■

26 Metals and the Wealth of Nations Metals and the Wealth of Nations nternational agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have often presented mining Ito poor countries as a key to development. Mining, in this view, can attract substantial foreign investment. Mining can drive economic growth. And indeed, there are some national mining sectors that would appear to support this idea in one way or another. Mali, for example, shifted its main export from cotton to gold after undergoing World Bank-supported mining reforms. In Chile, copper production has been an important driver of economic growth; in Botswana, diamonds have played a similar role.56

But this apparent success can come at considerable cost. In colossal environmental and social deficit, and its gargantu- Chile, as elsewhere, mining areas have suffered extensive an appetite for energy (which claims, as noted earlier, up to environmental degradation. Success can also be very diffi- 10 percent of the world’s energy supply), metals mining cult to reproduce. Botswana’s diamond production is close- accounts for only a very small share of world economic ly linked to the DeBeers cartel, which keeps diamond prices output—less than 1 percent.58 artificially high. Very few if any other mined products have And when it comes to particular deals, the tax breaks and a similar history of high, stable prices. other incentives awarded to large corporations for establish- When you look at the industry’s general economic record, ing mines are often so large that the industry is practically the picture is actually quite exempted from contributing grim. For the most part, to national coffers. In the mineral-rich developing Mineral Dependence and Poverty United States, for example, countries have some of the 55 mining companies extracted slowest growth rates in the Rates: Selected Countries, 1990s $11 billion worth of gold, sil- world, and the highest ver, and other minerals from poverty rates—a phenome- Share of Total Population federal lands between 1993 non economists call “the Export Value Below and 2001, but paid the gov- resource curse.” (See the from Non-Fuel National ernment only a tiny fraction table for examples pertain- Country Minerals (%) Poverty Line (%) of that in fees. In developing ing specifically to mining.) Guinea 71 40 countries, it is often impossi- Harvard economists Jeffrey ble to know how much rev- Sachs and Andrew Warner Niger 67 63 enue a mine is actually gen- studied 95 developing Zambia 66 86 erating. In a recent study, the countries that had high International Monetary ratios of natural resource Jamaica 53 34 Fund dryly noted “signifi- exports relative to gross Chile 43 21 cant gaps” in the Malian domestic product (GDP) government’s accounting of for the period 1970 to 1990. Peru 40 49 gold exports.59 They found that the higher Democratic Of course, mineral exports the dependence on natural Republic of 40 na can generate some foreign resource exports, the slower Congo exchange, but they do not the per capita growth.57 Mauritania 40 57 usually do so in a very reli- There are several reasons able way, because interna- why mining is a poor bet Papua tional metals prices fluctu- for economic growth. In New Guinea 35 na ate greatly. In many coun- the first place, despite its Togo 30 32 tries, these unstable trading na: not available 27 Dirty Metals

Close-Up: Your Cell Phone

he latest cell phones boast lead, nickel, palladium, silver, 1,500 tons of Tglowing screens, a multitude zinc, and tantalum. coltan stocks. of ring tones, and face plates to They forced Tantalum production is a very match just about every shirt in Congolese farm- troubled business. The electron- your closet. But it’s the materials ers off coltan- ics industry depends on this behind the face plate that deter- rich lands and highly heat-resistant metal to mine the phone’s environmental arranged for make capacitors, tiny compo- impact. Among those materials Rwandan pris- nents that regulate the flow of are many different metals. The oners to mine current on circuit boards. batteries, for example, contain coltan in Tantalum comes from coltan, cobalt, nickel, zinc, and copper. exchange for short for columbite-tantalite, an (There’s more copper in the bat- reduced sen- ore that is mined in Australia, tery charger—that lode of cop- tences. But Canada, Brazil, and the mineral- per is likely to be the largest coltan is hardly rich Democratic Republic of mass of metal in the product.) the only “conflict Congo. Coltan mining in But the biggest variety of metals mineral.” Armies Congo’s Okapi Reserve is

is in the circuit board. About in the Congo and Sketch: Chris Engnoth destroying the habitat of the one-third of the circuit board is elsewhere have endangered lowland gorilla. It’s likely to be metal; another third fought over lands also fueling regional conflict. is ceramic and glass; the remain- rich in gold, cop- During 1998 and 1999, Rwandan ing third is plastic. Among the per, cobalt, dia- troops and their rebel Congolese metals on the circuit board are monds and other allies took control of 1,000 to copper, gold, arsenic, cadmium, gemstones.63

prices have contributed to a deepening of the national a wide range of serious social problems, such as debt. When prices are high, governments can find it hard high levels of poverty, low levels of education, and to resist pressure to borrow against the export revenue; poor health care. Nearly half of the world’s poorest coun- when prices fall, as they inevitably do, it may become diffi- tries show this dependency: mining is their biggest export cult to pay interest on the new debt. sector. And over the past couple of decades, the poverty in these mining-dependent countries appears to have deep- Yet another shortcoming of the sector is its employment ened: according to the UN Commission on Trade and record.Metals mining is no longer a strong generator of Development, the proportion of people living on less than jobs. The formal sector employs just 2.75 million people— $1 a day in poor mineral-exporting countries rose from 61 just 0.09 percent of the global workforce—and that num- percent in 1981–1983 to 82 percent in 1997–1999.61 ber is in rapid decline. According to the ILO, one-third of all mine workers in 25 major mineral–producing countries And finally there is the link with corruption and violence. lost their jobs between 1995 and 2000.(The downsizing is A study by the International Monetary Fund found a due primarily to increasing mechanization.)60 strong connection between heavy dependence on mining and government corruption. That finding correlates with Nor is the industry very effective at stimulating production the “Annual Corruption Index” of the UK-based organiza- in other economic sectors. Almost all of the metal extracted tion Transparency International: the index rated 26 of 32 in poor countries is exported as the ore itself. But most of mineral-dependent countries as corrupt or highly corrupt. that ore’s economic value is realized in subsequent stages of And a recent World Bank study found that countries with a processing and, of course, in manufacturing. These activi- high degree of dependence on primary commodities like ties rarely take place in poor mining countries. minerals have a risk of civil war that is 40 times greater Heavy dependence on mining also correlates strongly with than countries with no primary commodity exports.62 ■

28 Metals and the Wealth of Nations

Paying for the Clean-Up: No Guarantees

he aftermath of a large-scale inated places. Mining companies mine in Romania, when a tailings Tmining operation is generally in the United States, for instance, dam failed, releasing more than a landscape of devastation: thou- have thus far underestimated the 100,000 tons of wastewater laden sands of hectares of poisoned, costs of closing their operations by with cyanide and heavy metals rubble-strewn land drained by as much as $12 billion, according into the Tisza river. The toxic acidified streams that will likely to a 2003 estimate. plume made its way into the remain too polluted to support Danube, killing 1,240 tons of fish And when the deposit runs out, their full complement of life for and contaminating the drinking the taxpayers have to step in to thousands of years to come. water of 2.5 million people. Faced pick up the tab. That’s what hap- with skyrocketing cleanup costs In many developing countries, the pened in Colorado in 1992 at the and only partially covered by its companies that have enriched Summitville gold mine, when the insurance, Esmeralda Exploration, themselves through this destruc- Canadian owner, Galactic the Australian company that held tion are under no binding obliga- Resources, declared bankruptcy the principal interest in the mine, tion to attempt to mitigate it. The and walked away, sticking US tax- went into a form of bankruptcy to Meridian proposal for Esquel, payers with a $200 million recla- protect its shareholders. Unfor- mentioned on page 11, is typical: mation bill. The 3,300-hectare tunately, the citizens of the coun- Argentinean regulations have not mine had been leaking cyanide tries affected received no such pro- required the firm to plan for the into the Alamosa River since its tection. mine’s closure or to deposit any first week of operation; by the cash to cover the eventual clean-up. time it closed, it had destroyed 25 Taxpayer-funded reclamation is an kilometers of the river. Galactic enormous, hidden subsidy of the Wealthier countries like the United had mined $130 million worth of mining industry. “Subsidy” may States usually attempt to avoid this metals at Summitville—a sum so not be the official term for such end game by requiring (at least in small it wouldn’t even cover the liability, but that’s how it is treat- theory) that the mining company mess it left behind. ed, even in the mining regulations set aside a certain amount of themselves. Despite decades of money up front to cover expenses Or consider what happened in experience with reclamation cost necessary to meet environmental January 2000, at the Baia Mare overruns, current regulations in standards—money for water treat- the United States allow mining ment, tailings pond liners, and so companies to underestimate those on. But these funds have fallen far costs as a matter of routine. And short of the actual costs of even in many other countries, compa- basic reclamation work around nies aren’t required to put up even defunct mines, some of which are a single peso or a rupiah.64 among the world’s most contam- Photo: Tibor Kocsis

Fish kill from Baia Mare mine, Romania

29 Dirty Metals

Towards a Saner Strategy “If humanity knew the truth about gold mining, and how much harm it generates, things would begin to change.”

—Mariano Fiestas, a citrus farmer in the San Lorenzo Valley, the site of the proposed Tambogrande gold mine in Peru.

n one way or another, metals underlie virtually every prod- ■ Stay out of protected areas. uct and service in our economy—our food production, I ■ Stop dumping mine waste into natural bodies of water. housing, transportation, medical care, you name it. And pre- cious metals like gold can serve as symbols of our deepest ■ Refrain from projects that are expected to cause acid commitments. But it’s one thing to enjoy the benefits of met- drainage. als. It’s something else entirely to damage the lives of millions ■ Provide guaranteed funding, before beginning a proj- of people and ruin entire landscapes in the pursuit of miner- ect, that will fully cover reclamation and closure costs. als. The destruction and misery described in this report need not be inevitable byproducts of our need for metal. Even from a conventional business perspective, the industry’s current practices no longer make sense, because Clearly, the time has come to reform our “metals econo- investors are growing increasingly concerned about the my,” and we already know what path reform must take. We industry’s failure to meet these rather obvious legal and must fundamentally reform the way we produce metals, moral obligations. In December 2003, the World Bank find ways to use metals far more efficiently, and to continue heard back from an independent commission it had using metals that are already in circulation. Some metals appointed to review its investments in oil, gas, and mining; mining may always be necessary, but ultimately, our most the commission recommended that the Bank refrain from important extraction operations should take place in scrap financing any mining project that fails to meet a set of yards and recycling centers, rather than in nature reserves basic criteria, including those listed above. The growing and native lands. field of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) is also hav- Those are the long-term goals. But there are also things ing a hard time supporting mining. As of January 2004, for that the mining industry can and should do immediately. example, the Calvert Group, an American SRI firm, had no Among them: holdings in any metals mining corporation because it could not find a single one that met its criteria for corporate ■ Respect the basic human rights outlined in interna- responsibility. Insurance companies are growing wary of tional declarations and conventions, such as the UN the industry as well, because of its heavy liability for work- “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the draft place accidents, chemical spills, and unsecured clean-up “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” and expenses.66 others.65 You can play an important role in driving this reform. A ■ Provide safe working conditions and respect workers’ few, simple actions on your part could make an enormous rights to collective bargaining, in accordance with the difference. First, recycle products that contain metals, such eight core conventions of the International Labour as cell phones, cans, and appliances. Second, if you have Organization. investments—mutual funds, maybe, or a retirement ■ Refrain from projects that have not secured the free, account—make sure that you’re not inadvertently a part of prior, and informed consent of the communities con- the problem you’re trying to correct! And third, lend your cerned. voice directly to the reform effort by signing the consumer petition on our website, at www.nodirtygold.org. Your sig- ■ Fully disclose information about the social and envi- nature will help us convince retailers, manufacturers, and ronmental effects of its projects. mining companies that consumers want to see real changes ■ Allow independent reviews of social and environmen- in the mining industry—and an alternative to irresponsibly tal management practices. mined metals. ■

30 Notes

17 International Right to Know Campaign, “Doe Run: ; Anna K. Cederstav and Alberto enduse_consump.pdf>. Barandiarán, La Oroya Cannot Wait (2002), 1 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network, 26 Wayne B. Solley, Robert H. Pierce, and Howard A. http://www.aida-americas.org/aida.php, p. 28; Lesley U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Industrial Perlman, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in Wroughton, “Mining Operations in Canada Released Technologies website on mining, 1995 (Denver, CO: USGS, 1998); “USGS reports on 2.3 Million Pounds of Heavy Metals in 1998,” The . mine dewatering impact,” Elko Daily Free Press,15 Gallon Environment Letter,vol 5, n7 (12 Feb 2001). 2 Gold data are from Philip Klapwijk et al., Gold Survey March 1999. 18 Jennifer Gitlitz, Trashed Cans (Arlington, VA: 2002 (London: Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd., April 27 Sources for an Aluminum Can: Jennifer Gitlitz, Container Recycling Institute (CRI), June 2002), pp. 2002), p. 51; waste for one gold ring is Earthworks cal- Container Recycling Institute (CRI), “The Role of the 12-13; and EPA, “International Efforts to Reduce PFC culation based on data from USGS, Infomine, and Consumer in Reducing Primary Aluminum Demand,” Emissions from Primary Aluminum Production,” mining company reported data. 15 October 2003; DOE, Office of Industrial September 1999. 3 Carlos D. Da Rosa, J.C. and James S. Lyon, Golden Technologies, Energy and Environmental Profile of the Dreams, Poisoned Streams (Washington, DC: Mineral 19 Sources for Ok Tedi: MMSD, Breaking New Ground; U.S. Aluminum Industry (Washington, DC: 1997); Policy Center (MPC), 1997), pp. 37, 42; World David McKay, “Ok Tedi is an ‘Environmental Abyss’ – Gitlitz, e-mail to Leanne Farrell, 24 November, 2003; Conservation Union (IUCN) and World Wide Fund Gilbertson,” Mineweb,8 August 2002. International Energy Agency (IEA), Key World Energy Statistics 2001 (Paris: 2001), idem., World Energy for Nature (WWF), Metals from the Forest (Gland, 20 Sources for Your Computer: Silicon Valley Toxics Outlook 2000 (Paris: 2000); USGS, Mineral Commodity Switzerland: January 1999), pp. 8, 15; Mary E. Ewell, Coalition (SVTC), “Chemicals in a Desktop Summaries 2002 (Reston, VA: 2002); Lori Pottinger, “Mining and Quarrying Trends,” Minerals Yearbook Computer,” fact sheet, ; Basel Action Network and with Dam Plans,” World Rivers Review,October 2001; 2001), p. 1. SVTC, Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia Iddo K. Wernick and Nickolas J. Themelis, “Recycling (Seattle, WA and San Jose, CA: February 2002), pp. 6- 4 Daniel Edelstein, USGS, e-mail to Leanne Farrell, 17 Metals for the Environment,” Annual Review of Energy 7, 9, 16-18; SVTC et al., Poison PCs and Toxic TVs December 2003. Number excludes leach ores; Gary and the Environment 1998 (Palo Alto, CA: Annual (San Jose, CA: June 2001), p. 15. Gardner and Payal Sampat, Mind over Matter: Reviews, 1998), pp. 465–97; Jennifer Gitlitz, Trashed Recasting the Role of Materials in Our Lives 21 Sources for Acid Mine Drainage: Da Rosa and Lyon; Cans (Arlington, VA: CRI, June 2002). (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1998), p. 18. EPA, “Fact Sheet: National Secondary Drinking Water 28 UNESCO, World Heritage Committee, “List of World Standards,” undated; MMSD, Breaking New Ground, p. 5 Payal Sampat, “Scrapping Mining Dependence,” State Heritage Sites in Danger,” . Institute, 2003), p. 117; Resource Conservation and Mountain, California,” in Acid Mine Drainage: Recovery Act Orientation Manual (Washington, DC: 29 Ibid.;IUCN and WWF, p. 22; UNESCO, “Mount Designing for Closure (Vancouver, Canada: 21 June U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), January Nimba Strict Nature Reserve,” factsheet, 1991), p. 18. 2003); EPA, Report to Congress: Wastes from the ; Global Environment Agency, “Cote d’Ivoire: National Extraction and Beneficiation of Metallic Ores, Phosphate 22 Sources for Yanacocha: International Finance Protected Area Management Program,” Project Brief, Rock, Asbestos, Overburden from Uranium Mining, and Corporation (IFC), “Independent Commission Report May 1999. Oil Shale (13 December 1985), p. ES-17. on the Mercury Spill in the Province of Cajamarca, Peru,” press release (Washington, DC: undated); Greg 30 IUCN and WWF; Sampat, p. 115. 6 EPA, Toxics Release Inventory 2001,. 31 Marta Miranda et al., Mining and Critical Ecosystems Blessing,” Denver Post, 29 October 2000 ; “Aid case (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2003), 7 Da Rosa and Lyon, p. 43; Robert E. Moran, Cyanide in study: Peru’s Yanacocha gold mine,” BBC News Online, pp. 16-17; Nick Trevethan, “Mining Firms Agree to Mining (Golden, Colorado: MPC, undated), p. 6. 15 March 2002, ; Erica Etelson, “Mountains of 8 Mines, Minerals, and Sustainable Development 2003. Trouble: Golden Dreams, Poisoned Streams in Peru,” (MMSD), Breaking New Ground (London: 2002), p. San Francisco Bay Guardian,7 February 2001; Stratus 32 JATAM, “Save Indonesia’s Protected Forest Areas from 235. Consulting, Inc, “Report on the Independent Mining,” at . Press Service, 23 June 1998; U.N. Department of Yanacocha Mining District, Cajamarca, Peru,” 33 Miranda et al., pp. 16-20. Humanitarian Affairs, “Guyana - Cyanide Mine Waste November 2003, pp. 5-19 to 5-23; Missy Ryan, “Peru’s Spill Information Report No. 2,” 23 August 1995. Yanacocha eyes deposit in disputed gold site,” Reuters 34 Miranda et al., Appendix 2; IUCN and WWF. News Service, 27 June 2002. 10 U.N. Environmental Programme, Industry and 35 Danny Kennedy, “Rio Tinto: Global Compact Violator; Environment,vol. 23 (2000); Extractive Industries 23 Sources for Tambogrande: Stephanie Boyd, PT Kelian: A Case Study of Global Operations,” and Review (EIR), Striking a New Balance (Jakarta: Tambogrande Referendum Has Domino Effect in Peru Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network, “Associating with December 2003), . (Silver City, NM: The Americas Program of the the Wrong Company: Rio Tinto’s Record and the Interhemispheric Resource Center, 16 July 2002); Global Compact,” 13 July 2001, ; Thomas Caso Southern Peru (Lima, Peru: 1995), p. 53. Peru,” Business News Americas,2 October 2003); MPC, Akabzaa, Boom and Dislocation: The Environmental 12 Fred Pearce, “Tails of Woe,” New Scientist,11 Mining Watch Canada, and Oxfam America, “Major and Social Impacts of Mining in the Wassa West District November 2000. Gold Project Implodes in Peru,” press release of Ghana (Accra: Third World Network, 2000), p. 82. (Washington, DC: 12 December 2003). 13 Ibid. 36 Michael Ross, “Natural Resource and Civil Conflict: 24 Sources for Esquel: Robert Moran, “Esquel, Argentina: Evidence from Case Studies,” unpublished paper, May 14 Catherine Coumans, “The Case Against Submarine Predictions and Promises of a Flawed EIA,” prepared 2001. Tailings Disposal,” Mining Environmental Management for Greenpeace Argentina and Mineral Policy Center, (September 2000), pp.14-18. 37 World Bank, Office of the Compliance Advisor March 2003, ; Cajamarca: Situation Assessment and Proposal for a Papua,” Tempo (Jakarta), 19–25 March 2002. Naomi Klein, “Once strip-mined, Twice Shy,” Toronto Dialogue Process,” August 2001, p. 5; Ross, “Natural Globe and Mail, 29 September 2003; Greenpeace 16 E.A. Ripley, Environmental Effects of Mining (Delray Resource and Civil Conflict.” Argentina and Mineral Policy Center, “Argentine Beach, FL: St. Lucie Press, 1996), p. 170-180; People Reject Mining Proposal,” press release (Esquel, 38 CEE Bankwatch Network, Mountains of Gold: Kumtor Environmental Defense Canada, “Inco Limited Named Argentina: 24 March 2003). Mine in Kyrgyz Republic (Budapest, Hungary: May Worst Mining Polluter in Canada,” press release, 24 2002). July 2003; IUCN and WWF, p. 17; Emission Database 25 Sampat, p. 111; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for Global Atmospheric Research, National Institute of Mining Industry webpage, ; DOE, “A Look at Mining in West Papua” in Moving Mountains: . Residential Energy Consumption in 2001,” Communities Confront Mining and Globalisation

31 Dirty Metals

(London: Zed Books, 2002), p. 68; Maria Ressa, “Gold Taylor, “Chinese Mining Industry Still Notoriously 57 Jeffrey D. Sachs and Andrew M. Warner, Natural and Blood in the wilderness,” CNN, 21 February 1996; Dangerous,” transcript from ABC correspondents’ Resource Abundance and Economic Growth “US mining firm Pays Papuan Army,” BBC News Online, report, 8 June 2003; ILO, “Sectoral Activities: Mining,” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, November 1997). 14 March 2003. information sheet, ; Roger Moody, The 58 U.N. Statistics Division, National Accounts Statistics: 40 Charity Bowles, “Newmont Moves In to Open Ghana’s Lure of Gold – How Golden is the Future? Panos Media Main Aggregates and Detailed Tables, 1998 (New York: Closed Forest Reserves,” February 2003, ; WACAM, Fact Finding Mission on Human Rights 49 Gregory R. Wagner, Screening and Surveillance of Development Indicators 2001. Abuses of Ashanti Goldfields Company (Obuasi Mine) Workers Exposed to Mineral Dust (Geneva: World (Accra, Ghana: February 2003). Health Organization, 1996), p. 13; Carolyn Stephens 59 Robert McClure and Andrew Schneider, “The General and Mike Ahern, “Worker and Community Health Mining Act of 1872 has Left a Legacy of Riches and 41 MMSD, p. 216; Z. Diliza, “The New Minerals Impact Related to Mining Operations Internationally” Ruin,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11 June 2001; Development Bill — Chamber of Mines viewpoint,” (London: 2002), p. 19; Yefim Cavalier, “Depth of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Mali—Sixth address at Geological Society of South Africa, 4 April Deepest Mine,” http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/ Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth 2002; International Labour Organization (ILO), The YefimCavalier.shtml; Richard Monastersky, “Deep Facility” (Washington, DC: August 2003). Evolution of Employment, Working Time and Training Dwellers: Microbes Thrive far Below Ground”, Science in the Mining Industry (Geneva: 2002). News, 29 March 1997; Nicol Degli Innocenti, “Gold 60 Norman Jennings, ILO, e-mail to Leanne Farrell, 21 42 Thomas Power, Digging to Development? A Historical Fields Faces Uranium Exposure Lawsuit,” Financial January 2004; ILO, The Evolution of Employment, Look at Mining and Economic Development Times,5 May 2003. Working Time and Training in the Mining Industry (Geneva: 2002), p. 10. (Washington, DC: Oxfam America, 2002). 50 Isabel Ambler, “Inside the Rich Mountain,” 43 Sources for How Mining Injures Women: Oxfam Geographical, vol 66 issue 5 (May 1994), p 26; U.N. 61 Michael Ross, Extractive Sectors and the Poor Community Aid Abroad, Tunnel Vision: Women, Development Programme, Human Development Report (Washington, DC: Oxfam America, 2001); Nancy Mining and Communities (Victoria, Australia:, 2003 (New York: 2003). Birdsall, Thomas Pinckney, and Richard Sabot, Natural November 2002); TPF Report: Around the PT KEM 51 ILO, Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995; list Resources, Human Capital, and Growth (Washington, mine region, West Kutai District, East Kalimantan of ratifying nations is current as of January 2004. DC:Carnegie Endowment, February 2000); UNCTAD, (Indonesia: National Commission on Human Rights in The Least Developed Countries Report 2002 (New York: Indonesia, Feb 2000). 52 “Human Rights: Workers Brace for Action against Rio 2002). Tinto Mine,” Inter Press Service, 10 February 1998; 44 Sources for Indigenous Peoples: JATAM, “Dayaks Take United Steelworkers of America, “Global Union Group 62 Carlos Leite and Jens Weidmann, Does Mother Nature Legal Action, Demand Justice,” press release (Jakarta, 6 Commits to Bring Rogue Company Rio Tinto to Corrupt? Natural Resources, Corruption and Economic February 2003); Roger Moody, “The Lure of Gold— Justice, Reaffirms Solidarity,” press release, 26 Growth,working paper (Washington, DC: IMF, 1999); How Golden is the Future?” Panos Media Briefing 19 September 2003; Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network, Transparency International, “Corrupt Political Elites (London: Panos Institute, May 1996); Andrew “Associating with the Wrong Company;” CFMEU, Rio and Unscrupulous Investors Kill Sustainable Growth in Schneider, “A Wounded Mountain Spewing Poison,” Tinto Global Campaign website, . 28 August 2002), Paul Collier, “Economic Causes of Coyle, “Defending Quechan Indian Pass – Again,” Civil Conflict and their Implications for Policy,” Indian Country Today, 10 November 2003; “World 53 International Council on Metals and Mining, (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2000), p. 6. Bank ombudsman probing Don Mario,” Business News “Sustainable Development Framework: ICMM Americas, 28 August 2003; International Labour Principles,” ; Canadian Labour Congress and ICEM, “CLC Junk Explosion,” Environmental Health Perspectives, Convention Calls on Canadian Government to Convention 169,available at http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/ Volume 110, Issue 4 (April 2002); Bette K. Fishbein, Implement Full Sanctions on Corporate Investments in english/convdisp1.htm; Extractive Industries Review, Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell Burma: CLC and ICEM Tell Ivanhoe Mines to Striking a Better Balance (Jakarta: December 2003). Phones (New York: INFORM, 2002), pp. 6, 16; Michael Withdraw from Burma,” Press Release, 25 June 2002; 45 Sources for the Western Shoshone: Christopher Sewall, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Renner, “Breaking the Link Between Resources and Digging Holes in the Spirit: Gold Mining and the Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights 2001 Repression,” in State of the World 2002 (New York: Survival of the Western Shoshone Nation (Berkeley, CA: (Brussels, Belgium: 2001); U.S./Labor Education in the W.W. Norton & Company, 2002), pp. 156-161; Simon Project Underground, June 1999); Western Shoshone Americas Project, Violence Against Colombian Trade Denyer, “Mining Drives Congo’s Gorillas Close to Defense Project (WSDP), “Background on Western Unionists Bulletin,October 2002, issue 5; Sara Cifuentes Extinction,” Reuters, 10 May 2001. Shoshone issues: History of Western Shoshone Land Ortiz, “Life as a Trade Unionist in Colombia: Each Year 64 Sources for Paying for the Clean-Up: Robert McClure Rights,” ; Steven J. Crum, The Brings New Miseries,” Counter Punch,3 December 2002. and Andrew Schneider, “The Mining of the West: Road On Which We Came: A History of the Western Shoshone (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 54 Sources for Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining: The indus- Profit and Pollution on Public Lands,” multipart series, 1994), pp. 79-80, 129; Inter-American Commission on trial mining sector as a whole employs 11 million people, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11–14 June 2001; “Disastrous Human Rights, Report Nº 75/02, Case 11.140: Mary of whom 25 percent are metals miners and 75 percent are Cyanide Spill Could Spawn Liability Reforms,” and Carrie Dann, United States of America coal miners, per Norman Jennings, ILO, email to Leanne Environmental Science and Technology,1 May 2000, pp. (Washington, DC: 27 December, 2002); WSDP, Farrell, 21 January 2004; MMSD, “Artisanal and Small- 202a–03a; UNEP/OCHA, Report on the Cyanide Spill at “Western Shoshone Indians Sue U.S. Government,” Scale Mining,” in Breaking New Ground;World Bank, Baia Mare,Romania (Paris: 2000); Jim Kuipers, Putting Mining and the Environment in Indonesia (Washington, press release, 19 September 2003. a Price on Pollution: Financial Assurance for Mine DC:November 2000); Ed Susman, “The Price of Gold,” Reclamation and Closure (Washington, DC: Mineral 46 Matthew Moore and Karuni Rompies, “Fatal Error Left Environmental Health Perspectives,5 May 2001, p. A225; Policy Center, March 2003), p. 2. Miners At Mercy Of Landslide,” Sydney Morning “Small-scale Mining: Positives and Negatives,” Mining Herald,1 November 2003; Muklis Ali, “Indonesia’s Journal,3 September 1999; ILO, “Small-scale Mining on 65 These include the UN Universal Declaration of Freeport Mine Will Shut for 2 Weeks,” Reuters,10 the Increase in Developing Countries,” press release Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil October 2003. (Geneva: 17 May 1999). and Political Rights, the International Covenant on 47 “South African Mine Safety; Unsafe and Not Sorry,” 55 UNCTAD, Handbook of World Mineral Trade Statistics Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights, the draft The Economist, 12 February 1983, p. 70; Chamber of 1994-1999 (New York: 2001); World Bank, World Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Mines of South Africa, “Gold Mining Safety Statistics,” Development Indicators 2001 (Washington, DC: 2001); Racial Discrimination Convention, the Convention on http://www.bullion.org.za/bulza/stat/Safty/safstat.htm. U.N. Development Programme, Human Development the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Report 2001 (New York: 2001). and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 48 ILO, Safety and Health in Mines (Geneva: 1994); Simon Santow and Linda Motram, “Dangers faced by Mine 56 World Bank, “Mali at a Glance,” data sheet, 2003 66 EIR, Striking a New Balance;Julie Frieder, environmen- Workers,” transcript from Australian Broadcasting . Farrell, Earthworks, 22 January 2004.

32 This report was written by Leanne Farrell, Payal Sampat, Radhika Sarin, and Keith Slack. Research and other textual contributions were supplied by Dave Taylor and Saranga Jain. The report was edited by Chris Bright, designed by Design Action Collective, and illustrated by Chris Engnoth.

We are grateful to the following people and organizations who generous- ly donated their time, reviewed portions of the report, and provided the photos:

Earle Amey, Stephanie Boyd, Paul Bugala, Ernesto Cabellos, Dave Chambers, Peter Colley, CONACAMI, Catherine Coumans, EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund, Daniel Edelstein, Julie Fishel, Bonnie Gestring, Jennifer Gitlitz, Gino Govender, Tom Green, Gavin Hilson, Chris Hufstader, Laura Inouye, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), Jim Kuipers, Kate Lazarus, Aaron Lien, Ingrid Macdonald, Glenn Miller, Marta Miranda, Uli Mueller, Oxfam Australia, Alan Septoff, and Chris Sewall.

About the No Dirty Gold Campaign Earthworks and Oxfam America are working with local organizations and communities around the world to end destructive mining practices. The No Dirty Gold campaign calls upon the mining industry to commit verifiably to full respect for all basic human rights and to full protection of the environment. And it urges manufacturers and retailers to ensure that the gold in their jewelry, electronic goods, and other products was not produced at the expense of communities, workers, and the environment. For more information about the campaign, visit www.nodirtygold.org.

This report was written using publicly available data and interviews. The information contained herein is believed to be accurate but does not purport to be complete. www.nodirtygold.org

For additional copies of this report, contact:

Earthworks 1612 K Street, NW, Suite 808 Washington DC 20006 Telephone 202.887.1872 Web www.earthworksaction.org

Oxfam America 26 West Street Boston MA 02111-1206 Telephone 800.77.OXFAM

112 16th Street, NW, Suite 600 Washington DC 20036 Telephone 202.496.1180 Web www.oxfamamerica.org