Anglo American PLC, which joined the Canadian corporation Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. in 2007 to form the Pebble Partnership, has a century-long long history of managing major mining operations, mostly in Africa, but also in other places including Ireland and the United States.
The report, "Anglo American's Track Record: Rhetoric or Reality," was written by corporate researcher Philip Mattera and commissioned by a group representing Native corporations, commercial fishing companies, sportsmen, conservation interests and businesses committed to the protection of the Bristol Bay watershed, as well as the Renewable Resources Coalition. It was released last week.
Anglo American professes to uphold high standards of corporate social responsibility.
"But the reality of the company's track record is not consistent with those claims," Mattera said during a press conference Thursday morning.
The study reports "a series of problems with regard to environmental protection, worker safety, community impacts and human rights" around the world. Among the 10 specific examples of Anglo's problems included in the study were:
* Sulfur dioxide emissions, numerous spills and accidental discharges at platinum operations in South Africa;
* Acid runoff at a Zimbabwe mine owned by Anglo until 2003, polluting groundwater and the Yellow Jacket River;
* During ownership by Anglo American subsidiary AngloGold, which began in 1998, a Nevada mine at Jerritt Canyon near Elko was determined by the EPA to be the single largest source of mercury air pollution in the United States;
* School children near an Anglo-American zinc, lead and copper mine in South Africa have elevated levels of lead in their blood;
* Bitter conflicts with subsistence communities and farmers in Ghana, South Africa and Mali, displacing villagers to make way for mining operations;
* Polluted river sediments at Anglo zinc mining operations in Ireland that led to fishing closures; and
* The deaths of more than 220 mine workers at Anglo mining operations in the past five years.
According to the executive summary of the report, the mining company "tries very hard" to appear a caring company committed to "good corporate citizenship," worker safety and environmental protection, but its track record "falls far short of its rhetoric."
The report shows that regardless of where Anglo American operates, what rules it plays under and who is at its helm, there have been problems, including worker fatalities, polluted water, fish kills and uprooted communities," said Bobby Andrew, a board member of Numata Aulukestai, a group of eight Native Bristol Bay corporations and villages. "We can't afford to risk our wild salmon on the slim promise that Anglo American might do things differently in Alaska," he said in a prepared statement.
The Pebble Partnership has been conducting extensive testing at the Pebble site. Mining operations, still years away, would make the mine among the largest in the world. Uncovering the huge wealth of gold, copper and molybdenum believed to lie beneath the surface would require ripping open the earth near the headwaters of the Nushagak and Kvichak rivers, both very productive salmon-spawning habitats feeding Bristol Bay.
That is what most concerns mine opponents.
Andrew was born and raised near Dillingham and is the spokesman for Numata Aulukestai, which he said translates to "caretakers of our land." He said last Thursday that Native corporations created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act selected lands capable of supporting subsistence lifestyles. Those lands are rich in wildlife and, most importantly, the five species of salmon, he said.
"All of these lands are located downriver from the Pebble Mine site and need to be protected from contaminants, which in many cases are created by mineral extraction," he said, noting he has yet to hear from mine proponents how such protection could be assured.
The Pebble project, Andrew said, is a "direct and inevitable threat" to those resources.
The trouble with Pebble Mine, said Dave Atcheson, of the resource coalition, "is location, location, location." The proposed mining area is wet and groundwater is on or very near the surface.
"Hydrologists say that trying to predict where that water is going to go is like predicting the weather," he said. "Part of the problem with that is that it is also a sulfide mine, and sulfide rock exposed to air and water during the mining process creates toxins that need to be stored in perpetuity. Sulfide rocks have always polluted ground and surface water in every other mining situation."
Even trace amounts of copper, another target ore of the mine, affects the olfactory senses that fish need to find their way to native streams, Atcheson said.
Izetta Chambers, a resident and business owner in Naknek, said the report left her "very apprehensive" about Anglo's ability to live up to its promises. "Considering that there never has been a copper mine of this size that has not adversely affected fishing, I find Anglo American's promises disingenuous at the least," she said.
Mattera said information in the report came from a variety of sources, including the company's own reports, scientific studies from journals around the world, including some published in Africa, as well as material from local newspapers in areas where mines were located. Sources are listed in endnotes at the back of the report.
The report could play a roll in the politics of a controversial clean water ballot measure (Proposition 4) aimed primarily at Pebble, but which mining proponents claim would harm the industry statewide. Andrew said it would be used to educate voters.
"People need to make an informed decision," Atcheson said. "This is just another tool to allow them to do that. They need to know who we're dealing with."
Asked whether he thought Anglo could and would comply with strict provisions should they be imposed by Alaska if Pebble Mine were eventually permitted, Mattera said the report doesn't suggest Anglo never complies with restrictions.
"We're saying there have been a number of incidents in which they have failed to comply, even in places like Ireland, where there were fairly rigorous regulations," he said.
The report, which can be read at the Web site www.eyeonpebblemine.org, does not include a response from Anglo American.
Reached for comment, company spokesman Paul Henry said some of the issues raised in the report concern operations that have not been under Anglo American's control for some time.
"We will, of course, study its contents carefully and respond ... once we have done so," Henry said.
The report was based in part on company statements. That, said Henry, "bears witness to our commitment to open and transparent reporting of our activities."
In more than 90 years of company operations in multiple geographies, he said, "there have inevitably been issues which have arisen during that time; where this has been the case, we have taken appropriate steps to address them properly."
Anglo American, Henry said, welcomes scrutiny, but added the report appeared to be "a disingenuous attempt to misrepresent the company's performance," failing to report successful operations more representative of the character of the company.
He invited interested readers to visit the company Web site at www.angloamerican.co.uk.
Hal Spence is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion.
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Story last updated at
9:58 PM on
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Anglo American's record challenged
By Hal Spence
Morris News Service - Alaska
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