En este comunicado del Parlamento del Reino Unido, varios congresistas expresan su preocupacion por los potenciales impactos relacionados con las actividades mineras en Cajamarca Colombia, realizadas por Anglogold Ashanti.
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
AGA and its Strategy of Greenwashing
On June 22, the magazine Dinero reported AngloGold Ashanti’s entry into the Global Sustainability Index. There are several ways to interpret this development, the official line being that it shows the level of the company's concern, since "the commitment to social responsibility goes beyond complying with the laws established by the country, and is demonstrated by the voluntary reporting on sustainability that the company carries out." Yet the voluntary reporting carried out by AGA on its sustainability never mentions the size of its operations in Colombia, not even when it was operating through its ghost company Kedhada, or when it acquired hundreds of mining rights, amounting to almost one million hectares.
AGA’s admission to the Global Sustainability Index undoubtedly aims to counter the persistent complaints against the company. It is clear that AGA’s "corporate reputation" has been seriously compromised by the conflicts in which it has become embroiled in several regions of Colombia, and especially in several African countries. Among those that stand out are the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana, where AGA has been identified as the worst mining company in the country for its discharging of toxic substances into streams (see the Ghanian environmental authority page which denounces the case of AGA).
Corporate social responsibility is an initiative far removed from the good intentions with which it is sold. It is a voluntary rather than a binding process, while its subjectivity allows impunity from laws and regulations where the government is weak (a good analysis of this can be found in this book).
The President of AGA in Colombia, Rafael Hertz, claims that "commitment to social responsibility goes beyond compliance with the laws established by the country, and is demonstrated by the voluntary reporting on sustainability that the company carries out ". If such a commitment were real we would imagine that the company would be willing to clarify the murky background surrounding the delivery of mining rights by INGEOMINAS [the Colombian state mining agency] in Colombia (see the article on the "rotten pot"), which allowed it to accumulate and consolidate mining rights along the length and breadth of the country. One of the basic principles of corporate social responsibility is transparency. Is AngloGold Ashanti really willing to be transparent with the people of Colombia? The facts leave few grounds for optimism.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
AGA and the corruption in INGEOMINAS
Recently Colombia’s press has begun to report what has been dubbed as the "rotten pot" of corruption in the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining (INGEOMINAS). Thousands of mining rights have been handed out to individuals and companies without regard for technical, economic or environmental regulations. According to the national government, five types of irregularities have been discovered. These include the presence of mining rights in national parks and páramos [a high altitude ecosystem unique to Colombia where mining is prohibited]; the investment in mining rights in areas with high potential by former employees of INGEOMINAS using confidential information; areas with mining rights where legislation is not being adequately enforced; the stockpiling of mining rights; and the violation of the rights of traditional mining communities. These irregularities highlight the widespread and systematic corruption within INGEOMINAS.
The scandals began to surface after investigations regarding corruption in the delivery of mining rights to the so-called "mining cartels" pointed instinctively towards AngloGold Ashanti (AGA). Furthermore, former employees of INGEOMINAS are under investigation, some of whom are now staff members of AGA. Julian Villarruel, director of INGEOMINAS until 2007 is now Director of Operations of AGA in Gramalote (a municipality in the department of Norte de Santander). Liliana Alvarado, former Deputy Director of subsoil resources, is now a socioeconomic analyst for AGA. This raises the question: Does this transfer of information and privileged knowledge from INGEOMINAS not constitute a conflict of interest?
It cannot be overlooked that AGA is the company with the largest number of mining rights in Colombia. At the last count (according to the Colombian mining property registry in February 2011) it had almost 496 mining rights in 20 departments, covering a total area of around one million hectares.
The final question that must be asked is: if AGA is by far the largest beneficiary of titles delivered by INGEOMINAS, if the corruption scandals continue to affect INGEOMINAS, how should AGA be held responsible for the massive collection of land titles in Colombia?
One would hope that the authorities have the capacity to find out who is ultimately responsible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)