Environmental degradation
April 30, 2021
There is the Cerrejon thermal coal mine in Colombia jointly owned by Glencore and two other transnational companies, BHP and Anglo American whose expansion over the past 40 years is alleged to have caused environmental degradation and health problems for the local community.
Glencore has also been blamed for contaminating the area around Peru s Cerro de Pasco mine, run by a local company, Volcan, in which the mining giant has a majority stake. The dangerously high levels of lead, arsenic, aluminium and manganese found in local water caused the Peruvian government to declare a health emergency in 2018 after several children fell ill with lead poisoning. In Glencore s Porco mine in Bolivia, there are allegations of child labour and other abuses.
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In June 2020, a statement signed by more than 200 organizations around the world publicly denounced transnational mining companies for ignoring the threat of the pandemic and continuing to operate as normal.
The statement, which was based on a report jointly produced by non-profit and activist groups, such as the US-based Earthworks and the Bolivia-based Terra Justa, criticised the extraordinary measures being taken by some governments to suppress protests against mining activity, as well as attempts to push through regulatory changes in favour of the mining sector.
Transnational mining hasn’t gone into quarantine, and neither have the conflicts over how and where it operates. As in the past, activists have focused their attention on Glencore, the giant Anglo-Swiss commodities trading and mining company. The issues raised are familiar.