Corte Suprema de Canadá prohíbe fragmentar proyectos mineros

Fuente: AIDA

Proyecto: La Mina Red Chris, British Columbia, Canada

Comunicado de Prensa (PDF)
Sentencia de la Corte Suprema de Canadá (PDF)

Corte Suprema de Canadá prohíbe fragmentar proyectos mineros y rectifica la obligatoriedad de evaluaciones de impacto ambiental integrales y con participación pública

Ottawa, Canadá - En un cambio jurisprudencial fundamental, el 21 de enero la Corte Suprema de Canadá determinó que los grandes proyectos mineros están obligados a tener una evaluación de impacto ambiental comprehensiva, sin fragmentar el proyecto, y que garantice la participación pública. La sentencia concluye que las autoridades canadienses, al realizar la evaluación ambiental del proyecto minero Red Chris (un inmenso proyecto minero de oro y cobre a cielo abierto), lo fragmentaron ilegalmente impidiendo así conocer el verdadero impacto ambiental de la obra.

“Celebramos enormemente esta decisión de la Corte Suprema de Canadá, que debería ser replicada por los gobiernos y las empresas mineras, especialmente las canadienses, con grandes intereses en la región”, dijo Jacob Kopas, abogado de la Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA). AIDA, CELA y varias organizaciones presentaron un escrito ante la Corte, apoyando la demanda presentada por Ecojustice y otros grupos ambientalistas, resaltando entre otros, que la autorización de este proyecto también desconoce el derecho internacional ambiental.

El proyecto “Red Chris” procesaría 30,000 toneladas métricas de mineral al día y arrojaría los desechos tóxicos en un área remota y prístina de la provincia de Columbia Británica, Canadá, habitada por grandes mamíferos y que es un importante sitio para la reproducción de salmón. Ante los posibles riesgos irreparables que esta mina a cielo abierto implica para esta área y sus pobladores, una evaluación comprehensiva es sin duda, un requisito esencial antes de autorizarlo.

El máximo tribunal canadiense concluyó que el gobierno federal violó las normas aplicables al autorizar este proyecto de manera fragmentada, y también al impedir la participación pública activa de las comunidades y los grupos locales en la evaluación de impactos ambientales para grandes proyectos, como la minería. Estos dos elementos son esenciales dado que proyectos como la mina Red Chris no sólo interesan a los inversionistas y al gobierno, sino también a todas las comunidades locales que de múltiples maneras tienen un interés en las áreas a afectarse.

“En el hemisferio hemos sido testigos de innumerables proyectos con inmensos impactos ambientales y sociales, que desafortunadamente se presentan y evalúan por partes, las minas a cielo abierto son un ejemplo reiterado, por lo que esta sentencia es vital para la región”, dijo Astrid Puentes, Co-Directora de AIDA. “Además, la decisión de la Corte está de acuerdo con normas ambientales internacionales, contribuye a prevenir daños ambientales irreparables y respeta el derecho humano a la participación pública, constituyéndose en un gran ejemplo a seguir”.

Para mayor información ir a: www.aida-americas.org

CONTACTO: Jacob Kopas:jkopas@aida-americas.org Teléfonos: (+57) 1-338-1277 / 320-316-0379
Enlace a la sentencia: http://www.aida-americas.org/es/refpage/1501

Enlace de información de otras organizaciones: www.ecojustice.ca; www.cela.ca

EDC signs first agreement with key bank in Brazil’s extractive hub

(BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL) – December 5, 2008 – Export Development Canada (EDC) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Brazil’s Banco de Desenvolvimiento de Minas Gerais (BDMG) to formally enhance and broaden their relationship.

The MOU will be used to identify opportunities for EDC’s facilitation of financial support for BDMG projects and customers that engage Canadian goods and services.

“BDMG is the key financial institution in the State of Minas Gerais, the hub of Brazil’s growing extractive sector. EDC’s new partnership with BDMG will help expand business in Brazil for Canadian suppliers of all sizes,” said Benoit Daignault, EDC’s Senior Vice-President, Business Development, who signed the MOU on behalf of EDC.

Some 36 Canadian companies, subsidiaries or agents operate in the State of Minas Gerais. These companies primarily do business with Brazil’s top mining companies or with key companies in the industrial, services and information and communications technology sectors.

EDC’s business volume in Brazil reached CAD 2.2 billion by the end of October 2008, currently second only to its volume of activity in the United States. In 2007, EDC facilitated $1.5 billion in Canadian exports and investments in Brazil.

EDC is Canada’s export credit agency, offering innovative commercial solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business. EDC’s knowledge and partnerships are used by nearly 7,000 Canadian companies and their global customers in up to 200 markets worldwide each year. EDC is financially self-sustaining, is a recognized leader in financial reporting and economic analysis, and has been named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for eight consecutive years.

Call to 1st International Meeting for Those Affected by Vale

Source: Mines and Communities

We who are active in the social, environmental and labour movements and organizations in Brazil call on the social, environmental and labour movements in Canada, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Mozambique, Australia, Norway, New Caledonia, South Africa and Indonesia to join us in the 1st Meeting of People, Communities and Workers affected by the aggressive and predatory activities of the company, Vale, from 12th to 15th of April 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Vale, a company which owns almost all of the iron in the sub-soil of Brazil, is today a transnational operating on five continents. It is the l4th largest company in the world in market value, exploiting natural resources, water resources and land, and creating precarious working conditions for people throughout the world. It was a state company until 1997 when it was privatized in a fraudulent manner by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government. It was sold for a much under-estimated value of R$ 3.14 billion U.S. dollars. Since then it has generated profits of 49 billion U.S. dollars and distributed 13 billion U.S. dollars to its shareholders. These profits are gained at the cost of massive exploitation of natural resources, waters and land and creating precarious conditions of work for the Vale labour force in all the countries where it operates.

Vale’s publicity machine reminds us daily that Vale is Brazilian, that it works with “passion” to promote “sustainable development” in Brazil and to guarantee a future for our children. Its publicity campaigns use images of prestigious Brazilians and famous artists. In 2008, Vale spent R$ 178.8 million (Brazilian Reais) in PR (Ibope Monitor). These fine images hide the less palatable face of the company, constructing in the mind of the common Brazilian the image of Vale as patriotic and paternal. This is not how those who live in the territories where Vale has its operations think of it, whether in Brazil or in the other countries where the company has a presence. The workers and communities affected by Vale, however, have neither the power nor the money that Vale has to get space in Brazilian and international media where they can publicize their opinions and give their reports about the impact of Vale on their lives.

Mining exploration and others activities in the steel chain have had serious impacts on the environment and on people’s lives. The pollution of water by chemical products, the direct intervention causing damages to aquifers, the production of enormous quantities of tailings in their mining activities (657 million tons per year), the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the rechannelling of rivers that used to serve whole communities for company use only, widespread deforestation, the destruction of natural monuments, mining in areas important for public water supply, lowering of the water table, the association of Vale with industrial and energy projects that have contributed to the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado regions, the elimination of train service in Minas Gerais, the accidents and fatalities in the mines themselves and involving company trains, whose victims and families are given no compensation by the company – all of these things that Vale PR says nothing about, are the strongest marks of Vale in the territories where it is active. The wanton extraction of natural resources, the destruction of the cultural patrimony of the country and the damages caused to the environment are, in some cases, irreparable and cause permanent damage to life.

Visible damages notwithstanding, Vale continues with its activities, many of them linked to very lucrative investments and partnerships. In Rio de Janeiro for example, Vale’s association with Thyssen Krupp through TKCSA, will result in a 12-fold increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the city of Rio (O Globo, Nov/2009). In addition, Vale is one of the companies that consumes the largest quantities of energy yet pays almost nothing for it. The company pays less than R$ 5 (Brazilian Reais) per 100 kilowatt hours, while the general public and the small and medium sized retailers and industries pay more than R$ 45 for the same amount.

Vale’s workers suffer from the company’s ability to lay them off without due cause. Many workers, faced with no measures in place for job security and other pressures of a diverse nature, resort to suicide. Two out of every hundred workers were laid off because of workplace accidents in 2008 and there were nine fatalities. The city of Itabira in Minas Gerais state where Vale began its operations has the highest index of suicides in Brazil. Vale also has many contract workers, a strategy that allows the company to avoid long-term responsibility for its workers and creates precarious terms of employment. Vale has 146,000 workers of whom 83,000 are contractors rather than permanent employees.

Vale has used the global economic crisis to pressure its workers throughout the world, reducing salaries, increasing the hours of work, laying workers off, reducing rights previously won by its workers through years of struggle. The strike launched by Vale’s Canadian workers in June 2009 provides an important example of struggle and resistance to the arrogance and intransigence of the company. It also provides an example of the construction of our international unity. The Vale workers on strike in Canada count on support and active solidarity from all of us to guarantee a victory.

Vale uses the same tactics with communities throughout the world. It pressures, threatens, co-opts public officials and even reaches the point of using local militias and military forces to guarantee its “investments”. In many places, Vale finances electoral campaigns, ecological zoning, and municipal planning, all of this turning on its head the basic principles of public management and government sovereignty over what is in the public interest of the society.

Ordinary citizens are also affected, since the public funds created by their taxes are passed on to Vale by BNDES, the National Bank for Socio-Economic Development, and other state agencies. While taxes are very high for common citizens and also for small and medium industries, big companies like Vale receive years and years of tax exemptions. The public services which should have benefited from corporate taxes on companies like Vale such as hospitals and schools continue to function in dreadful conditions. Thus Vale’s actions deepen the financial, ecological and social debt owed to the affected populations. Every cent of public money which goes to Vale could have been invested in creating sources of employment which do not prejudice the life of the planet.

We are organizing this international meeting of those affected by Vale with the objective of changing this situation. We are going to demonstrate with concrete facts and case studies what is really happening to the people living in the areas where Vale carries out its operations, and to Vale’s workers. Our objective is to hear the voices of those who suffer daily from the actions of this mining giant, whether living in nearby communities, displaced or in areas where the company is hoping to relocate them, or as workers employed by this company.

In addition to exposing the aggressive behaviour of Vale, we are also going to identify common instruments and strategies to contest the absolute power of this company and to strengthen the workers and communities affected by it. These instruments can include common demands in the collective bargaining agreements of Vale with its workers, independent monitoring structures for environment impact or for monitoring the value chain of licenses, taxes, royalties etc. and measuring its impact on local and national development.

Building links between the people and movements in different countries where mining exploration is taking place is fundamental to strengthening our local, national and international struggles. We need to unite to construct our strategies together, and to pressure our governments so that our rights to life, work, land, housing, health and a just and healthy environment are guaranteed. We need to pressure Vale to maintain the highest standards in its environmental, technological and labour practices. It needs to respect existing legislation rather than weaken it. We will not allow Vale to take away rights already conquered and destroy our lives!

The natural resources of each country constitute the sovereign patrimony of its people and belong to them, and not to Vale’s national and international shareholders.

The auction to privatize Vale was illegal. We demand that this auction be annulled, echoing what was said by about 4 million Brazilians in the Popular Plebiscite on privatization of Vale and the public debt carried out in 2007. We defend the return to the Brazilian people of the “mining rights” not calculated in the sale price, the re-nationalization of the company and worker control of its operations!

We call people from the communities that are suffering the impact of these mining megaprojects, civil society, men and women employed by Vale, social movements and organizations, faith communities, students and professors to participate in the construction of this gathering, in the hope of building a more just and environmentally sustainable society.

Signatures

Brazilian Organizations

JnT - Campanha Justiça nos Trilhos (Justice on the Rails Campaign), Pará and Maranhão
PACS – Instituto Políticas Alternativas para o Cone-Sul (Institute of Policy Alternatives for the Southern Cone of Latin America), Rio de Janeiro-RJ
Movimento pelas Serras e Águas de Minas Gerais (Movement for the protection of Mountains and Waters in Minas Gerais)
Comitê Mineiro dos Atingidos pela Vale (Minas Gerais Committee of those Impacted by Vale)
RBJA – Rede Brasileira de Justiça Ambiental (Brazilian Environmental Justice Network)
MST – Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless People’s Movement)
MAB – Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (Movement of Dam Affected People)
CPT – Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Commission)
CONLUTAS – Coordenação Nacional de Lutas (National Coordination of Struggle, a Brazilian Coordination of Workers’ Unions)
CUT – Central Única dos Trabalhadores - Maranhão
Sindicato Metabase Inconfidentes (Union Metabase Inconfidentes), Congonhas-MG
STEFEM - Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Empresas Ferroviárias dos Estados do Maranhão, Pará e Tocantins (Trade Union of Workers in Railroad Companies of Maranhão, Pará and Tocantins)
SINDIMINA – Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias de Prospecção, Pesquisa e Extração de Minérios no Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Sindicato Metabase Itabira (Union Metabase Itabira), Itabira-MG
Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos (Social Network for Justice and Human Rights), São Paulo-SP
Justiça Global (Global Justice), Rio de Janeiro-RJ
IBASE - Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas, Rio de Janeiro-RJ
Sociedade Maranhense de Direitos Humanos (Maranhão Human Rights Society)
Sociedade Paraense de Direitos Humanos (Pará Human Rights Society)
Instituto Madeira Vivo (Madeira Vivo Institute)
Movimento Articulado de Mulheres da Amazônia (Amazonian Women’s Movement)
Fórum de Mulheres da Amazônia Paraense (Amazonian Women’s Forum, Pará)
APACC - Associação Paraense de Apoio às Comunidades Carentes (Pará Association in Support of Communities in Need)
MACACA – Movimento Artístico, Cultural e Ambiental de Caeté (Artistic, Cultural and Environmental Movement of Caeté-MG)
ILAESE (Latin American Institute of Socio-economic Studies), São Paulo-SP
CEPASP – Marabá/PA (Centre for Education, Research and Support for Unions and Community Groups, Marabá-PA
Brigadas Populares (MG)
Assembléia Popular Nacional
Jubileu Sul Brasil
Grito dos Excluídos – Brasil
Grito dos Excluídos Continental
Associação de Favelas de São José dos Campos/SP
Consulta Popular
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Desempregados (MTD)
Associação de Pescadores de Pedra de Guaratiba (AAPP)
APESCARI
Fé e Política – Sepetiba
Núcleo Socialista de Campo Grande (RJ)
Coletivo “A Baía de Sepetiba pede Socorro”
FASE/ Amazônia
Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Empresas Ferroviárias dos estados do Maranhão, Pará e Tocantins (STEFEM)
SINDIMINA – RJ
CUT Maranhão
Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC)

Vale to restart some Sudbury production despite strike

February 3, 2010

Source: Reuters

Brazilian miner Vale will restart one nickel mine and boost production at another at its Sudbury, Ontario, operation despite a seven-month strike at the complex, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

Vale will restart its Creighton nickel mine and run it up to full production, and will also move to full output at its Coleman mine, which has had partial production since October. The company's Garson mine has also been running at partial output since October.

Processed ore from the operations will be used to feed Vale's Copper Cliff smelter in Sudbury, which recently began operating at 50 percent capacity with nonunion workers and has been eating through stockpiled ore.

"We're just looking longer term that a source of feed will be needed," said Core McPhee, spokesman for Vale's Canadian nickel and copper operations, which the company acquired when it bought Inco in 2006.

Vale will staff the mines using workers provided from a contractor, he said.

More than 3,100 workers at Vale's operations at Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, went on strike in July. On Aug. 1. workers at Vale's Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador on Canada's East Coast also went on strike.

Vale's move to partially restart the Sudbury operations last year increased tensions between the company and the United Steelworkers Union, which represents the workers.

The union was not immediately available for comment.

NO TALKS

The two sides have not returned to the bargaining table since the strike began, and they are far apart on several issues, include reforms to the company's pension plan and proposed changes to a potentially lucrative worker bonus tied to the price of nickel.

That bonus boosted miners' salaries well into six-figure territory when nickel prices jumped on 2006 and 2007, eventually hitting a record high of just under $25 a pound in May of 2007.

The lack of progress at Vale contrasts with labor relations at rival Sudbury nickel miner Xstrata, which averted a strike when it reached a last-minute deal with unionized workers early on Monday.

That deal included modifications to workers' nickel-price bonus and a negotiated restart of the company's Fraser nickel mine in Sudbury, where operations were suspended a year earlier due to weak nickel demand. Workers ratified the new three-year contract on Tuesday.

Nickel was hit hard by the 2008 economic downturn, and the price bottomed at around $4 a pound in December of that year. Nickel was trading around $8.20 a pound on Wednesday.

Vale vai retomar operações no Canadá

Fonte: Valor Econômico - 04/02/2010

by Cameron Francês e John Bowker, Reuters, de Ontário e Moscou

A Vale irá reiniciar a operação de uma mina de níquel e impulsionar a produção em outra, na sua operação de Sudbury, Ontário, no Canadá, apesar de uma greve que já dura quase sete meses, disse um porta-voz da empresa ontem. A mineradora brasileira vai voltar a operar na mina de níquel de Creighton e levá-la até a produção plena. Também disse que irá aumentar a produção na sua mina Coleman - que tem funcionado parcialmente desde outubro - para ritmo total. O minério beneficiado nas operações será usado para alimentar a fundição Copper Cliff, em Sudbury, que recentemente começou a operar com 50% da capacidade, usando minério estocado. "Nós estamos olhando apenas a longo prazo que uma fonte de alimentação será necessária", disse Core McPhee, porta-voz da subsidiária canadense de níquel e cobre da Vale, adquirida em 2006. A Vale vai operar as minas usando trabalhadores fornecidos por uma empresa terceirizada. Mais de 3,1 mil trabalhadores das operações da Vale em Sudbury e em Port Colborne, Ontário, entraram em greve em julho. Ela reiniciou parcialmente as operações no ano passado, aumentando as tensões entre a empresa e o sindicato que representa os trabalhadores. O crescimento econômico na China e na Índia deve dobrar a demanda global por alumínio, minério de ferro e cobre nos próximos 15 anos, exigindo uma grande reação das mineradoras, disse uma autoridade da Rio Tinto. A demanda no curto prazo foi mais difícil de medir, afirmou o diretor-financeiro da Rio Tinto, Guy Elliott, por conta das preocupações com os pacotes de estímulos do governo e da atividade especulativa ligada à queda das taxas de juros. "No longo prazo, eu sinto que a intensidade do uso de algumas matérias na Índia e China vai elevar ao dobro a demanda global por alumínio, minério de ferro e cobre nos próximos 15 anos", disse Elliott durante fórum de investimento Troika Dialog. "A demanda será forte a longo prazo, e isso vai requerer uma grande reação de oferta. É possível prever que essa combinação de demanda e oferta vai elevar os preços", acrescentou. A Rio Tinto é a segunda maior mineradora de ferro do mundo e deve aumentar a produção em 6% em 2010, encorajada por preços à vista muito maiores à medida que a indústria de aço da China - a maior do mundo - está devorando mais matéria-prima. No entanto, a Rio Tinto está operando parte de suas operações de fundição de alumínio em baixa capacidade. Embora os preços para o alumínio tenham se recuperado do agravamento da crise financeira global, os estoques mundiais ainda estão acima de 4,6 milhões de toneladas. Elliott disse que a política monetária dos Estados Unidos está criando "algumas preocupações" sobre a falta de crescimento da China na demanda por metais industriais. "Portanto, trata-se de uma figura mista a curto prazo", disse ele na conferência, "mas a longo prazo, o cenário é de forte aumento da urbanização da China e da Índia."