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Tuesday 13 March 2012

LONDON MINING NETWORK - REPORT to GOVERNMENT

PRESS RELEASE


London Mining Network has today published a report calling on the government to include a review of regulatory regimes as part of the current discussion on the Financial Services Bill. The Bill is replacing the existing FSA with a new body, the Financial Conduct Authority, which will inherit the FSA’s role as UK Listing Authority.

Looking at eight case studies, the report,
UK-Listed Mining Companies & the Case for Stricter Oversight, argues that:
  • Many mining companies listed in London have very poor records of complicity in human rights abuse, environmental pollution or destruction of people’s cultures and livelihoods around the world.
  • Once listed in London, some mining companies have continued to flout the law in the countries where they operate, or engage in damaging tax avoidance, or break accepted international mining industry standards, with no move by the UK Listing Authority to discipline them.
The report follows on from dramatic developments at the end of February in which a proposed opencast coal mine in Bangladesh being developed by GCM, one of the eight case studies used in the report, was condemned as “threatening human rights” by an independent panel of UN experts.
John McDonnell MP, who will be chairing the Parliamentary launch of the report today, said:

“We cannot stand by and witness these global mining companies brutally impoverishing and destroying the lives and environments of whole communities. We need not only to expose this exploitation but also to demand that a firm system of international regulation, control and accountability is put in place that halts the destructive activities of these corporate pirates.”

Peter Frankental, the Economic Relations Programme Director of Amnesty International UK, said:

“This report by London Mining Network presents a challenge to the Government to ensure that the proposed regulatory body has the powers to require mining companies to meet acceptable human rights and environmental standards as a condition for listing on the London Stock Exchange”.

Richard Solly, Co-ordinator of London Mining Network, said:

“This report provides a reminder to the Government of the need for measures to ensure that the London Stock Exchange does not continue to act as a repository for dodgy companies that harm the environment and abuse human rights. The ease with which such companies can list in the UK is an indictment of the existing regulatory framework”.

The report can be downloaded
here.

The eight London-listed mining companies looked at in the report are African Barrick, Brinkley Mining, African Minerals, London Mining, Vedanta Resources, Glencore, GCM Resources and Bumi.

The Government has introduced its Financial Services Bill, which is being considered in Committee between 21 February and 20 March

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Open-pit coal mine project in Bangladesh threatens human rights – UN experts

Earth Jurisprudence Resource Centre Coordinator and legal researcher

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