Ahead of Rio Tinto’s London AGM, Real Media filmed outside their London HQ, as London Mining Network staged a mock trial inviting international activists to speak about the corporation’s plans and actions in their areas.
Rio Tinto is an Anglo-Australian multi-national, one of the largest mining corporations in the world, which is big on green transition claims as it searches for lithium and other minerals needed to power electric vehicles. But its operations in dozens of countries often attract criticism and complaint, with multiple claims of human rights violations and ecological damage.
At the event, speakers from Madagascar, Arizona and Serbia gave accounts of how the company attacks and undermines opposition and threatens sacred lands and long-established cultures and livelihoods. All three areas have huge ecological significance and natural beauty, and Rio Tinto’s plans would devastate them, all in the name of providing materials the world needs.
In Madagascar, Ketakandriana Rafitoson (Transparency International Initiative Madagascar) condemns the company’s mining operations which are devastating the community and ecology.
In Arizona, Roger Featherstone (Arizona Mining Reform Coalition) describes the damage the company’s proposed mine would cause on Native American sacred lands at Oak Flat.
And in Serbia huge public outcry has delayed Rio Tinto’s plans, but they are still pushing (amidst accusations of corruption) to get government approval to mine in the Jadar Valley, an area of ancient forests and agricultural land where communities have lived for thousands of years, as described by Zoe Lujic (Earth Thrive, Serbia).
