BHP Billiton Watch

BHP in Indonesian Borneo: the coal disaster waiting to happen

November 19, 2013 in Australia, Climate Change, Coal, Corruption, Country, Criminalisation, Environment, Food Security, Health, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indonesia, Issue Area, Press, Sensitive Ecosystems, Water | Tags: bhpbilliton, Coal, environment, humanrights, indigenous, indonesia, kalimantan, mining, water | Leave a comment

ABC News
19 November 2013

Endangered orangutans may be imperilled by a new coal development.
Credit: iStockphoto

BHP Billiton has a massive coal mine planned for Central Kalimantan. But local environmental activists are worried about its impact on people and forests.

FROM MY HOME IN Central Kalimantan, a province on the southern side of Indonesian Borneo, I have observed the Australian coal boom. Recently I was in Australia to talk about environmental destruction in Kalimantan and I was surprised how few people know that Kalimantan is experiencing a similar rush to extract fossil fuels. I think its important for Australians to know more because of the connections between our countries in the global coal market and the environmental crisis it is producing. Read the rest of this entry »

Indonesia Digging Up Too Much Coal: Greenpeace

April 8, 2013 in Climate Change, Coal, Country, Environment, Human Rights, Indonesia | Tags: bhpbilliton, climate change, Coal, humanrights, indonesia, kalimantan | Leave a comment

BHP Billiton is among the mining companies mining coal in Kalimantan in Indonesia

Indonesia’s ambitious plans to boost coal production and exports from Kalimantan are ill-advised and not worth the environmental and social cost, according to a key report from Greenpeace.

In the “Point of No Return” report released last week, the environmental group said the Indonesian government was one of a handful of governments helping “push the world past the point of no return” by pursuing massive coal, oil and gas projects that would produce as much new carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 as the entire United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Mozambique smelting profits should not fill foreign coffers, say campaigners

April 8, 2013 in Country, Economics, Environment, Human Rights, Issue Area, Mozambique, Supply Chain Justice | Leave a comment

Screen shot 2013-04-08 at 6.08.55 PM The Guardian | Mark Tran | 8 Jan 2013

UK government and World Bank among investors accused of benefiting disproportionately from lucrative Mozal smelter

Tax campaigners are calling on Britain, the World Bank and private investors to return “excessive” profits from a flagship aluminium smelting project in Mozambique started as part of a recovery programme after the country’s civil war in the early 1990s.

According to a report by Jubilee Debt Campaign in the UK, the Tax Justice Network and Justica Ambiental (Friends of the Earth Mozambique), the Mozal smelter – the biggest private-sector project investment in the former Portuguese colony – has benefited foreign interests much more than the people of Mozambique.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ok Tedi mine a curse

April 8, 2013 in Country, Environment, Food Security, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Papua New Guinea, Sensitive Ecosystems, Water | Leave a comment

Ok Tedi exnvironmental disaster. Source: www.uwec.edu

Ok Tedi exnvironmental disaster. Source: http://www.uwec.edu

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Environment and Conservation, John Pundari, broke his silence on the Ok Tedi mining pollution issue, describing it as a “curse” on the Fly River people of Western province. He says he plans a visit to all impacted areas along the Ok Tedi and Fly River areas and intends to take along a contingent of international and national media to see for themselves the scale of damage. “The mine has been operating in the country for some 27 years, and while it has made a significant contribution to the development of our country, it has also brought a curse upon the people of Western in terms of the enormous environmental damage caused to the Fly River system,” Pundari said. Ok Tedi was constructed and originally run by BHP Billiton.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=12194.

Colombia: Coal mining unions support Cerrejon community resistance

April 8, 2013 in Climate Change, Coal, Colombia, Country, Human Rights, Labor | Leave a comment

From Mines and Communities

There has been massive support among local communities in Colombia for striking workers who have previously backed them in confronting the Cerrejon coal mining expansions.

The workers have rejected the company’s plan to divert the River Rancheria.

Meanwhile, an armed attack on mine property has been condemned by both major mining unions, SINTRACARBON and FUNTRAENERGETICA.

To show support for the workers, see http://londonminingnetwork.org/2013/02/take-action-to-support-mine-workers-hungry-villagers-in-colombia/.

Previous article on MAC: UK NGOs call for urgent action on Colombian mega-coal mine

See update on the strike at Mines and Communities

Cambodia: BHP accused of corrupt deal with Cambodia’s prime minister

April 8, 2013 in Cambodia, Corruption, Issue Area | Leave a comment

Note from Mines and Communities

In May 2010, the world’s largest mining company, BHP-Billiton, was accused of bribing the Cambodian government four years earlier, by shelling out US$3.5 million which never appeared on government books – and didn’t result in any benefit to the country’s citizens.

The payments were said to have been made in pursuit of a bauxite mining concession on 100,000 hectares of land in Mondolkiri province, for which the company paid an additional US$ 1 million in 2006. See: BHP’s ‘tea money’ missing in Cambodia

These charges have recently re-surfaced with Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, being named as a beneficiary of the alleged corruption.

One Cambodian politician has described such illicit deals as “tea money”.

Such a payment (if it occurred) is technically “small beer” for a company worth many billions of dollars. And BHP Billiton withdrew from the country in 2009.

Nonetheless it’s a highly serious matter, being regarded as such, at least by officials in Australia and the USA.

Read the rest of this entry »

Japanese & Australian activist unfurl banner at BHP Sydney AGM

December 3, 2012 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

BHP AGM 2012 – Dirty Deeds

November 28, 2012 in Action, Australia, Borneo, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Climate Change, Coal, Colombia, Criminalisation, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Economics, Environment, Food Security, Health, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Labor, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Press, Sensitive Ecosystems, South Africa, Supply Chain Justice, The Philippines, Uranium, Water, West Papua (Indonesia), Western Sahara | Leave a comment

The BHP AGM is on again this Thursday. If you’re in Sydney, come down to Darling Harbour and let the shareholders know how destructive their company really is. We’ve prepared an alternative annual report detailing BHP’s dirty deeds, and we’ll be making more noise than an open cast mine.

Download the 2012 Alternative Annual Report

BHP report 2012 (PDF 3.8MB)

Killing me softly with his song: inside another BHP Billiton AGM

November 27, 2012 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Reflection by Richard Solly, Co-ordinator, London Mining Network

http://londonminingnetwork.org/2012/10/killing-me-softly-with-his-song-inside-another-bhp-billiton-agm/

BHP Billiton Sydney AGM Protest

November 23, 2012 in Australia | Tags: BHP Billiton, climate change, Dirty Deedse, environment, nuclear, resources, uranium | Leave a comment