Mining

A recent report, published by the Cyrus R. Vance Centre for International Justice, Earth Law Centre and International Rivers has found that the movement to grant legal rights to rivers and the natural environment is rapidly gaining momentum around the world.

British businessman and football club owner, Joe Lewis, has created resistance from the indigenous community by purchasing and developing their ancestral lands in Rio Negro, Argentina. Lewis blocks access to the land, where he has hosted Israeli soldiers and former right-wing President Mauricio Macri.

he crowdfunding campaign for The Heart of Our Earth, our project dedicated to community resistance to mining in Latin America, came to an end on 23 December. The Crowdfunding campaign raised just under £9,000, while two separate large donations to the project added a futher £7,250 yielding a magnificent total of approximately £16,250.

Ever since the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century, many outsiders have followed the example of these bold European adventurers along with the crown heads of Europe in seeing South America as a treasure house of mineral wealth.

This is the second post in the new London Mining Network blog, a partnership initiative between LAB and LMN. Cerrejón’s ‘agreement’ with Wayúu community comes as news to them; Chubut communities mobilise again; updates from Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

Residents of traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon municipality of Barcarena, near the mouth of the Amazon River, say that their subsistence and commercial livelihoods, and their health, have been destroyed by an invasion of mining companies which began in the mid-1980’s. This story is the fifth in a series.

Almost 85 per cent of the world’s lithium reserves are concentrated in the Lithium Triangle along the borderlands of Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Bolivia’s resources remain largely unexploited. Will Bolivia be able to industrialise Lithium production on its own terms?

Today, LAB is proud to launch a crowdfunding campaign for a brand new and very important LAB project: The Heart of Our Earth: Community Resistance to Mining in Latin America. But why mining? And why now?

Across Latin America, mining has expanded massively in recent decades. But communities aren't taking this lying down. LAB plans a new book and website, entitled The Heart of Our Earth: Community Resistance to Mining in Latin America.

Today LAB is launching a Crowdfunding appeal for £10,000 to enable us to continue our major new project The Heart of Our Earth - Community Resistance to Mining in Latin America.