Australian Mining Companies Digging A Deadly Footprint in Africa | International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
▻http://www.icij.org/project/fatal-extraction/australian-mining-companies-digging-deadly-footprint-africa
Anvil Mining was a pioneer, leading the West’s re-entry into a country reeling from a coup d’état, a three-year civil war and a presidential assassination. The company had come to the DRC in 1995 with high hopes. “Cashed up with a million dollars in the bank, we set off to Africa to see what we could do,” recalled Turner during a 2011 industry luncheon.
A report prepared for the company noted that “the neutral profile of an Australian company” pleased DRC leaders. It soon had powerful political friends, including one of the president’s close advisors who sat on the board of directors.
While the Kilwa massacre is unique in its severity, it is part of a pattern of Australian mining companies whose activities have been implicated in death, disfigurement, environmental destruction and displacement across Africa, according to ICIJ’s Fatal Extraction investigation.
That mining in Africa provokes controversy, even violence, is not new. Chinese companies receive regular criticism. Canada, too, has been forced to confront allegations of violence and even slavery linked to its mining companies. The Canadian parliament has gone as far as debating a bill that would have tightened government oversight of resource companies in developing countries. It failed, narrowly.
We looked at Australia’s dramatically increasing role in exploring and developing mining projects on the African continent because it has been less examined.
FATAL EXTRACTION
▻http://projects.icij.org/fatalextraction/s/2
Australia is a giant in African mining, but its vast — and in some cases deadly — footprint has never been examined.
Australian-listed mining companies are linked to hundreds of deaths and alleged injustices which wouldn’t be tolerated in better-regulated nations.
The stories that follow are from people across Africa, rarely heard outside their own communities.
Explore the Data: Where Australian Mining Leaves Its Mark
▻http://www.icij.org/project/fatal-extraction/explore-data-where-australian-mining-leaves-its-mark