UK Companies Conflict Presentation Compass Conference
1. UK Companies in Conflict Presentation for Compass Conference 25 June 2011 By Andy Whitmore, London Mining Network (http://www.londonminingnetwork.org)
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8. Gasaya Matiku, the uncle of 19-year-old Chacha Ngoka Chacha, with a photo of his nephew, who was killed at African Barrick's mine on 16 May 2011 The police refused to allow relatives to hold a memorial Source: Jocelyn Edwards, Toronto Star
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11. Red Mud Pond at Lanjigarh, 23 May 2011 Source: Amnesty International
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Editor's Notes
Members include ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa), CATAPA (Comite Academico Tecnico de Asesoramiento a Problemas Ambientales), Colombia Solidarity Campaign, The Corner House, Corporate Watch, Down to Earth (the ecological campaign for Indonesia), ECCR (Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility), Forest Peoples Programme, LAMMP (Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme), Partizans (People Against Rio Tinto and its Subsidiaries), PIPLinks (Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links), TAPOL (the Indonesia human rights campaign) and the Society of St Columban. LMN’s twelve observer groups include leading human rights, environmental and development organisations.
UK-listed mining companies together enjoy around half the market capital available to the world’s ten biggest miners. The British government has consistently backed UK mining companies, despite the many accusations laid at their doors. In January 2011, four of the world’s top five mining companies (by value in the market, or market capitalisation) were listed on the London Stock Exchange (the exception being Vale). The market capitalisation of these top five mining companies (in billions of US dollars) was, according to mining analyst Barry Sergeant of Mineweb: 1) BHP Billiton (Australia/UK) 242.19 2) Vale (Brazil) 182.83 3) Rio Tinto (UK/Australia) 143.30 4) Anglo American (UK) 69.37 5) Xstrata (UK/Switzerland) 69.13 London is the world’s biggest centre for investment in the minerals industry: British high street and investment banks, pension funds and insurance companies invest hundreds of millions of pounds a year in scores of mining projects across the globe, connecting working people’s earnings in Britain with the fate of mining-affected communities around the world. London is the world’s biggest centre for investment in the minerals industry: British high street and investment banks (like Barclays, HSBC, RBS, Citibank and Standard Chartered), pension funds, hedge funds and insurance companies invest hundreds of millions of pounds a year in scores of dubious mining projects across the globe, connecting working people’s earnings in Britain with the fate of mining-affected communities around the world.