Message Sam 4 Fév 2012 00:12

Mining watchdog quiet on cause of lone open file

A government office charged with tackling human rights and environmental abuses by Canadian mining companies overseas won’t reveal the cause of its only ongoing complaint.

The Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor, launched in March 2010 amid allegations by NGOs and the mining industry that abuses were taking place around the world, will not say why a review of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s Kansanshi copper mine in Mauritania is taking place.

“The content of the request is something we do not disclose,” said Marketa Evans, who was appointed as the office’s first counsellor in October 2009, in an interview with iPolitics.

Kansanshi is Africa’s biggest copper mine, according to First Quantum Minerals, and produces 250,000 tons of copper a year in the West African country. Calls to its Vancouver office were not returned.

A review of its practices was triggered by a Maître Ahmed Mohamed Lemine, according to the scant information provided on the counsellor’s website about the case. But there is no publicly available information on why the complaint was triggered.

When the office was established two years ago as an alternative to litigation, stakeholders surveyed during a public consultation suggested that details of the reviews should not be made public, said Evans.

“This office has to balance transparency with confidentiality,” she said. “And we decided we would not disclose the content of the reviews.”

Stakeholders included over 40 civil society groups in countries where Canadian mining companies operate, she said.

In opting to keep the cause of the complaint secret, the office is trying to ensure mining companies participate in the reviews, which must have their consent to take place.

“These kinds of processes can be very fragile,” said Evans.

The office’s only other review was cancelled last October when the company, Toronto-based Excellon Resources Inc., pulled out of the process.

Workers at its La Platosa mine in Mexico triggered the complaint six months earlier because of poor and unsafe working conditions, according to a report written by the counsellor’s office following the review’s closure.

Workers also reported harassment after joining a union and one union leader was even fired for his involvement, the report says.

Excellon collaborated with the office for several months before finally pulling the plug.

“Excellon stated that the process does not provide value to the company as Excellon stated that it is meeting all its commitments at the site level and that is it currently engaging in dialogue with relevant stakeholders,” the counsellor’s report says.

“The requesters however, do not share that perspective and continued to express their interest in mediated dialogue with the company,” it says.

Excellon’s decision to withdraw represents a “significant missed opportunity to build a deeper understanding of the issues and enhance reputation and risk management.”

“The Counsellor regrets that she has been unable to fulfill her mandate,” it says.

The office spent $22,438 in trips to Mexico during the review process, Minister of International Trade Ed Fast revealed in documents tabled in the House of Commons Monday.

Despite the setbacks, the office is still necessary in places where clashes between communities and Canadian corporations exist, Evans said.

Taking companies to court can be expensive and often lead to deadly clashes, she said. “We are trying to offer an alternative where conflict occurs.”

But critics in Canada say the office’s methodology for tackling conflicts — known as alternative dispute resolution, or ADR — is flawed because it favours mining companies.

“The people who have been harmed have to go up to the mines and ask if they would please, if they could, consider a remedy,” said Catherine Coumans, research co-ordinator for Ottawa-based Miningwatch.

If a human rights abuse were to happen in Canada, a complainant would first use a court to seek redress, which is much more confrontational but allows for both sides to be treated equally, she said.

“In these places they often don’t even have the court option, they only have mediation,” she said.

A private member’s bill by Liberal MP John Mackay that would have given foreign complainants the ability to take Canadian mining companies to court here in Canada was narrowly defeated in the House of Commons last year.

The corporate social responsibility office is part of a larger effort by the Harper government to increase the competitiveness of mining companies from Canada — home to some of the biggest in the world – while offering a business-friendly approach to resolving complaints about its impacts overseas.

The Canadian International Development Agency is partnering with mining companies in offering corporate social responsibility programs as part of the strategy.

Canadian mining companies were behind a third of all reported human rights abuses, environmental damage and instances of unethical behavior in a study of 171 incidents around the globe, says a 2009 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada report that was kept from the public until it was released by Miningwatch.

First Quantum Minerals is currently under investigation under the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, another venue for complaints about mining companies, said Jamie Kneen, communications co-ordinator for Miningwatch.

That case stems from allegations the company hid the earnings of a copper mine in Zambia and evaded taxes in the sub-Saharan nation, said Kneen.

The guidelines are managed by governments party to them. First Quantum Minerals’ case is currently being handled by the Canadian and Swiss governments because First Quantum Minerals’ partner in its Zambian operation is Swiss commodities trading giant, Glencore International PLC.

In the six months since the Mauritania case was triggered, only $435.50 in phone calls has been spent by the counsellor’s office on the review, according to the documents from Minister Fast.

First Quantum Minerals is collaborating and the office hasn’t decided whether or not to travel to Mauritania, said Evans.

“We’ll see how it evolves,” she said.