Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy has withdrawn an amendment to legislation that helped protect, among others, communal land rights holders from unwanted mining on their land. Was this because of Cabinet pressure from the mining ministry?
Minister of Environment, Barbara Creecy’s recent revocation of the 2021 Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations Amendment is effectively reversing some of the very important progress communities have made in their ongoing fight for environmental justice and self-determination.
In South Africa on 3 March 2022, mining-affected communities and the broader environmental justice sector woke up to the news that the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, had removed a vital protection for mining-affected communities.
Ecuador has elevated nature as a legal subject in its constitution - and still allows harmful copper mining. A young woman learns to fight back
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El gobierno hondureño de Xiomara Castro declaró al país "libre de minería a cielo abierto" y anunció la "cancelación" de las licencias, permisos y concesiones, hecho celebrado por ambientalistas y que pone en jaque a la industria.
"Se declara todo el territorio hondureño libre de minería a cielo abierto (...) y se procederá a la revisión, suspensión y cancelación de las licencias ambientales, permisos y concesiones", dijo el lunes en un comunicado la Secretaría de Energía, Recursos Naturales, Ambiente y Minas.
This report is based on research into three mining companies operating in the Sekhukhune area of Limpopo and the experiences of local mining-affected communities. This research was undertaken by a team from Sekhukhune Combined Mining Affected Communities, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and Amnesty International South Africa.
YET another Chinese miner, Monalof, is embroiled in a bitter wrangle with villagers in Binga who are resisting is bid to evict them from their ancestral lands.
The villagers were recently given a three months’ notice to vacate their homes and pave way for the establishment of a coal mine by Monalof.
This was revealed during a consultative meeting held between the villagers and management from the Chinese company last week.
15 years ago, when the Mozambican government signed the contract with VALE, almost everybody in Mozambique believed that coal would develop the country. This investigation exposes part of the destruction that VALE Moçambique is preparing to leave behind now that it has announced an agreement to sell its projects to Vulcan Minerals for US $270 million.
Alexkor in Port Nolloth is facing criminal charges for buiding coffer dams to hold back the ocean. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
An anthracite mine in rural KwaZulu-Natal which has operated for more than 30 years and has reportedly been involved in several controversies during this time involving water pollution, illegal mine expansion and water shortages in neighbouring rural communities, experienced a slurry dam collapse on 24 December 2021. Large volumes of potentially toxic and acidic coal-mine effluent have spilled into rivers flowing through rural communities and the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi and iSimangaliso wildlife reserves.
Burundi’s government is trying to increase its share of the mineral wealth that foreign mining companies extract from its soil. The government receives only 10% of the income from the minerals even though it owns the land, according to an official of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
To put pressure on foreign mining companies operating in Burundi, the government ordered a shut-down last July of mines belonging to seven British, Chinese and Russian companies. It says the mines can re-open once the contracts have been renegotiated.
As companies extract wealth, villagers say they see little benefit and are instead exploited in quarries, live in homes damaged by blasts and are unable to farm polluted land