Chapter 7 - Mining and communities

In the second of two articles, mining engineer Laurence Morris describes how the oligarchy of the 'Big Five' mining companies operates and the negative consequences of their monopoly of power, influence and resources.

Mining engineer Laurence Morris shows how the world's 5 largest mining companies constitute an oligarchy, with serious consequences for mine workers, communities, the environment and the countries which depend on their corporate 'largesse'

Wirikuta is the most important sacred place for the Indigenous Wixárika people in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. This place, which is of great importance for biodiversity and culture, is threatened by mining companies. The community has been fighting a legal battle to annul the 78 contracts threatening the site’s existence. They hope the Mexican judicial system will rule in their favour.

Communities of the Intag Valley are engaging in new tactics, using citizen science to resist mining through legal battles. A pioneering organisation, Ecoforensic, is training a growing movement of ‘paraecologists’ to gather the ecological data needed to win legal cases against mining companies – and it’s working.

In 2020, over 40 Kichwa women began to organise themselves in defence of their territory and to expel mining from the Ecuadorian Amazon. This is how Yuturi Warmi, the first Indigenous guard led by women in the region began.

Moira and Vilma had travelled from southern Patagonia to Europe to spread awareness of the urgent situation for Indigenous peoples in the south of Argentina, and to strengthen bonds of international solidarity. 

The Canadian gold mining company’s criminal lawsuit attempts to silence and intimidate defenders of the Volta Grande do Xingú, including community leaders, Amazon Watch, and other environmental and human rights activists.

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, warns that governemnt attacks on water defenders and others likely herald a return to metal mining, banned in the country since 2017. The IPS report also examines the increasing authoritarianism of the Bukele government and the new cllimate of fear it is inducing.

Members of Ejido El Bajío, in the Gran Desierto de Altar, Sonora, have been fighting for almost 20 years against a gold mining company that is destroying the fauna and flora of their beautiful but delicate surroundings.

Black and Indigenous Brazilian protestors halted a joint panel at the COP28 climate conference, where the mining company Vale and government representatives were talking complacently about 'energy transition'.