Vale fined $1M in Sudbury miners' deaths

Vale Canada Ltd. fined $1,050,00 after 2 workers fatally injured in 2011

CBC News Posted: Sep 17, 2013 4:26 PM ET Last Updated: Sep 17, 2013 5:07 PM ET

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that there had been a hang-up of wet muck in the ore pass that eventually gave way and killed two miners in June 2011 at Vale's Stobie Mine in Sudbury. The ministry said the wet muck was a result of Vale not dealing with water accumulation in the mine.

Mining giant Vale Canada has been fined more than $1 million in connection with a double fatality in 2011 in which miners were buried in a torrent of mud.

Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram were killed when wet mud and ore flooded the tunnel where they were working at Vale's Stobie Mine in Sudbury, Ont.,  on June 8, 2011.

Chenier and Fram were working in an ore pass at the 3000 foot level, transferring broken rock and ore upwards when there was a sudden release of muck, sand and water. The run of muck came through a transfer gate, burying one working and hitting another causing massive crush injuries.

The Ministry of Labour laid charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in the accident after finding there had been a blockage of wet muck in the ore pass. It also said Vale had failed to deal with earlier water issues in the mine.

The company was fined $1,050,000, the highest fine ever given under the health and safety act, by an Ontario court.

In a Sudbury courtroom on Tuesday, Vale pleaded guilty to three counts:

• Failing to prevent the movement of material through an ore pass while hazardous conditions existed.
• Failing to maintain the drain holes at the 2,400-foot level of the Stobie Mine, leading to the accumulation of water, creating wet muck which then hung up.
• Failing to ensure that water, slimes and other wet material was not dumped into the ore pass at the 2,600-foot level of the mine.

Vale was fined $350,000 for each count.

Keith Birnie, the supervisor of the deceased men, had also been facing six charges, but the Crown elected to drop its case against Birnie, saying there was a slim chance of conviction. 

The fines come many months following a Steelworkers Local 6500 report that alleged nickel mining giant Vale failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram at Stobie Mine.

Chenier, 35, and Fram, 26, were killed by a run of muck, described by the union as an avalanche of wet rocks, gravel and sand.

Vale warned prior to tragedy

The union said there was too much water in the muck, making it sticky. It said the muck became lodged in what is known as an ore pass. When Chenier tried to assess the problem, the rock gave way and buried both men.

The report said Chenier wrote an email to management in the days before he died, warning there was a buildup of water in the ore pass and saying all dumping and blasting should stop until the water situation was under control.

"Jason Chenier sent two emails to management warning them of the dangerous water levels, but nothing was done," Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said. "We don't know why. Management failed to interview with our team."

Steelworkers, during a news conference in early 2012, called for a public inquiry.

The union also asked the Attorney General's Office to consider criminal charges against company officials, under what is known as the Westray bill. Named after a coal mining disaster in Nova Scotia, the bill makes workplace negligence a criminal offence.

USW Local 6500 Double Fatalities Investigation Report

Activist Shareholders Slam Brazilian Mining Giant

By Fabiola Ortiz

Source: IPS News Agency: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/04/activist-shareholders-slam-brazilian-mining-giant/

En español

Protest in Rio de Janeiro by residents affected by Vale mining company operations. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 18 2013 (IPS) - Representatives of social movements and communities affected by Brazilian mining company Vale’s operations have bought shares in the company, to make their voices heard.

The purchase of shares in transnational corporations, which grants the right to take part in shareholders’ meetings, is now standard practice among social movements and NGOs in order to set forth their demands and protests directly to investors.

Six activists of the Articulaçao Internacional dos Atingidos pela Vale (International Network of People Affected by Vale) attended a shareholders’ meeting of the company in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday Apr. 17.

Public companies listed on the stock market are compelled by law to hold an annual general meeting at least once a year at their headquarters.

Related IPS Articles

• Brazilian Mining Giant Under Fire for Deaths, Environmental Damage
• Wiping the Iron Dust Off Their Feet in Small Brazilian Town

At these meetings, investors receive information about the company’s results and can question management about what was done in the previous year, as well as take payment of dividends.

“This is the fourth time the Network has adopted this initiative. The meeting was successful. The annual general meeting anticipates that shareholders will participate, and our only opportunity to do so was when a vote was taken on the agenda. That’s when we asked for permission to speak,” lawyer Danilo Chammas told IPS about his participation in the three-hour meeting involving 50 shareholders.

While the activists took the floor, most of those present kept silence, but there were moments of tension when questions and criticisms were put forward.

“The opportunity for dialogue was positive, but there were no great prospects of change. Our aim is to draw attention to an aspect of which shareholders are ignorant, that should also be taken into account,” Chammas said.

According to estimates by social organisations, Vale, privatised in 1997, destroyed a total of 742 square kilometres of land in 2010.

Meanwhile, dozens of demonstrators belonging to the Network, an umbrella group for organisations in 10 of the 38 countries where Vale operates, gathered in front of the company offices in the centre of Rio de Janeiro to protest.

“As shareholders, we explain what the company’s risk-taking and violations mean for the affected communities,” activist Sandra Quintela, of the Institute for Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone (PACS), told IPS.

In her view, their strategy multiplies the pressure on the company and on the justice system.

“We try to strengthen the struggle, link the different resistance efforts and come up with common strategies. The way this company behaves in the mining areas is extremely cruel. It isn’t development, it’s destruction,” she said.

This is the second year that six residents from the village of Piquiá de Baixo, in the municipality of Açailândia in the northeastern state of Maranhão, have come to Rio to lodge their complaint.

A pig iron works has been installed in the village of 380 families, polluting the air, water and soil. For the past five years, local residents have been demanding relocation to a safe area.

“Piquiá de Baixo will cease to exist. We are obliged to move somewhere else, there is no alternative. The train that Vale loads with mineral ore crosses the town and the ore deposit is above our town. The five ironworks are practically on top of our vegetable gardens,” said 69-year-old “Seu” Edvard Dantas.

He has lived in Piquiá for 26 years and has witnessed the village’s decline. Before the ironworks arrived, it was a rural area. Seu Edvard grew rice, maize and cassava to feed his large family.

Now only his wife and one daughter still live with him. His other five children have left Piquiá, as have many other former residents.

Lung cancer, respiratory diseases and allergies are now common. “In the garden and on the tiled roof of my house there is a permanent layer of dust. We are suffering badly, and we hope it will not take more than two years before we are transferred to a new home,” he said. But he added that the new houses where they are to reside have still not been built.

Different country, same problems

Fabião Maniça, of the Tete Communities Association for Support and Legal Assistance in the central region of Mozambique, where Vale obtained a 35-year concession to exploit the Moatize coal mine, said “We’re joining forces to voice our demands.

“The company is not opening up opportunities for direct negotiations with the associations or the communities,” he said.

The main problem in the southeast African country is the relocation of 1,300 families displaced by the coal mine, because the new houses built for them are already showing structural flaws.

“The families moved a year and a half ago, and cracks have appeared – the dwellings are badly built. There is no drinking water for the children. There is no land to grow crops or room to raise children. They promised they would help us for one year, giving us food, free transport and jobs, but they haven’t kept their promises,” he said.

In some cases, families were relocated up to 50 kilometres away from where they used to live, Maniça said.

“We were in fertile areas, and our main activity is agriculture…My father is buried on our land. People were forced to abandon their ancestors and go far away,” he complained.

At IPS’s request, Vale handed over a communiqué saying it “respects the right to free expression” and is “available to listen to suggestions and criticisms of its enterprises.”

The company said it is participating in the relocation process for families from Piquiá de Baixo. In July 2012 it signed an agreement with the public prosecutor’s office to earmark some 200,000 dollars for the new housing estate.

In the case of Mozambique, two areas were selected for relocating the families, with “public participation consisting of three hearings, 20 theatre performances in the most widely spoken local language (Nyungwe), 110 meetings with the community and its leaders, 4,927 home visits and 639 consultations through the permanent services provided at the start of relocation,” according to Vale.

As part of the Moatize coal mine project, in addition to housing, schools were constructed or rebuilt, and health posts, a maternity clinic, a police station and streets were provided. Electricity was installed on the main avenues. The houses with structural problems, said Vale, are already being repaired.

Wiping the Iron Dust Off Their Feet in Small Brazilian Town

by Fabiola Ortiz

Source: International Press Service

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 26 2012 (IPS) - The 380 families living in Piquiá de Baixo, a small town in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão, are fed up with having to endure high levels of pollution from nearby steelworks in their water, air and soil.

Clouds of iron dust hang over Piquiá de Baixo. Credit: Courtesy of Piquiá de Baixo Residents' Association

The town takes its name from the piquiá tree, a species highly valued for its wood, which has become extinct in the area where five steel plants have been operating for the past 25 years, headed by Brazilian mining giant Vale.

At present some 500,000 tonnes of pig iron, an intermediate product in the process of steel refining, are produced annually in Piquiá de Baixo. Pig iron is produced in blast furnaces by smelting iron ore, using charcoal or coke as fuel and limestone as a purifying agent.

The steel industry in the municipality of Açailândia, where the town is located, depends on supplies from Vale’s iron ore mines. The pig iron is transported to Atlantic ocean ports near São Luis, the state capital, 500 km away.

Local people in the small town, who live in modest dwellings with yards bordering on the grounds of the large steel plants, are suffering health problems from pollution.

As a result of the extremely poor quality of the air they breathe and the water they drink, more than 40 percent of the residents of Piquiá de Baixo suffer from respiratory illnesses, lung diseases and skin lesions, according to a study by the Reference Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at the Federal University of Maranhão.

Related IPS Articles

• Brazilian Mining Giant under Fire for Deaths, Environmental Damage
• BRAZIL: Boycott of Dam Hearing Shows 'Radical' Foreign Policy Shift
• BRAZIL: Locals Protest 'Metal Rain' Pollution from Steelworks
• BRAZIL: Steel and Eucalyptus Heat Up Eastern Amazon – 2007

The local population is demanding a transfer to a clean, safe place far away from the steel plants. The majority are farmers, who now can only work land over 200 km from their homes.

Similarly dire situations are occurring in many of Brazil’s mining towns, and a number of them are also organising protests.

Edvard Dantas Cardeal, 68, is the president of the Piquiá de Baixo Residents’ Association, whose members are affected by the smoke, soot and residues generated by the 70 smelting furnaces in the area.

“We are in danger, because we live next to five steel mills. In addition, Vale has a railway station just 300 metres from our homes, where every day hundreds of tonnes of iron ore are transported across our town, 24 hours a day,” he told IPS.

The hazardous living conditions in Piquiá de Baixo are highlighted in the Relatório de Insustentabilidade da Vale 2012 (Report on Vale’s Unsustainability, 2012), launched Apr. 18 in Rio de Janeiro by the International Network of People Affected by Vale, which includes 30 social movements in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and Mozambique, some of the countries where the mining company operates.

Andressa Caldas, head of Justiça Global (Global Justice), an NGO working for human rights, told IPS that the situation in Açailândia is emblematic, because the community which has been settled there for over 50 years “is asking to be transferred due to the degree of environmental degradation and toxic pollution it is suffering.”

Danilo Chammas, the lawyer for the Piquiá de Baixo residents, concurred. He pointed out that the town already existed when the steel plants arrived 25 years ago. Now, “coexistence has become impossible, as the local people are forced to breathe iron ore dust mixed with charcoal every day,” he said.

“The families should have been relocated when the steelmaking complex was built; but a move is still the only alternative, and is urgently needed,” he told IPS.

Chammas said the residents are demanding “a greater commitment by Vale to the local people; and the company should contribute resources toward the building of a new settlement far away from the pollution.”

According to the Report on Vale’s Unsustainability, the company “refuses to make reparations for the harm caused these people, or to cover the cost of their resettlement.”

Cardeal also said his community’s demand is a matter of utmost urgency, as they cannot stay there any longer, because of the serious risk of further deterioration in public health.

“We cannot stand it any longer; the steel mills pollute the river that flows through the town, and all we can do is ask God to get us out of this place,” he said.

IPS was able to confirm that land a good distance from the steel mills was expropriated in July 2011 by the municipal government of Açailândia to relocate the affected families. The former owner of the land appealed the decision, but the issue was resolved in favour of the expropriation on Mar. 20 by a Maranhao court.

Cardeal and Chammas travelled to Rio de Janeiro in an attempt to meet with representatives of the Vale consortium, which was privatised in 1997.

“We came in the spirit of dialogue, to give Vale the opportunity to clean up its image, tarnished by its link with the pig iron industries, many of which promote slave and child labour,” Chammas said.

Vale’s press office declined to comment to IPS about the matter, although later it issued a communiqué in response to the Report on Vale’s Unsustainability.

“Vale respectfully receives all suggestions and complaints referring to its operations. We are aware that mining activity has an impact, and therefore we work in association with communities and governments to find solutions that guarantee people’s safety, as well as harmonious and healthy coexistence,” the statement says.

LAB, based in London, analyses the mining industry in Latin America

14 November 2012 Dear LAB supporter and friend, MINING AND SOCIAL CONFLICT This year has seen a seemingly endless tide of bad news about mining from every continent on the globe: reckless use of toxic chemicals; contamination and threats to the environment; draining or diversion of lakes and rivers; voracious demand for energy; construction of roads and railways to the detriment of vulnerable ecosystems; bitter and sometimes lethal labour conflicts; co-option of police and security forces to protect company facilities; the long-lasting social costs of wild-west style mining camps and towns.  Notable, however, in many of the news stories has been the active role played by local communities, no longer willing to be passive bystanders in processes that threaten their future, nor to accept at face value the promises of jobs and development. Nowhere has this protest been more marked than in Latin America. In a masterly overview for LAB of the deepening contradictions involved in mining development, Luis Claps, The Editor of Mines and Communities takes an extensive sweep through the Region, charting the numerous mining projects and the problems and conflicts they create. Read more. Luis’ article contains links to detailed news stories published on www.minesandcommunities.org. LAB was also assisted in preparing this newsletter by London Mining Network, whose own excellent newsletter includes numerous reports from Latin America. An idea of the scale of mining operations is given by an interactive map of the operations of Canadian mining companies just in Central America. Read more. Of course, mining is only one (although arguably the most destructive) of the ‘extractive industries’. There is keen debate throughout Latin America, especially in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Venezuela, about the dilemma confronting progressive governments for whom licensing of extraction appears to offer the only means of fulfilling their promises of social programmes in health, education and family support—the so-called ‘brown left’ option. Earlier this year the Uruguayan commentator Eduardo Gudynas gave an interview on this topic to the Spanish journal ECOS. Read more. Similar questions are posed by Raúl Zibechi, who asks: “Will Latin America be the new Middle East?” Read more. LAB will return to this topic in the coming months and we hope to dedicate a newsletter soon to the wider issues of extraction. In Argentina, communities in Tinogasta, Catamarca province, have been mounting a selective blockade of the highways leading to major mining developments in the area. They have formulated a ‘Plan Cerro Negro’ to pursue a blockade that has attracted nationwide support. Read more. An interview with a local activist gives an idea of how local residents feel about the mining company, Minera Alumbrera (jointly owned by Xstrata, Goldcorp and Yamana Gold), and the progress of the blockade. Read more. In Colombia, mining projects, like almost every aspect of life in the countryside, have been implicated in the country’s interminable and bloody civil war. Behind the combatants stand the companies that provide equipment, transport, guards, armaments and the incentives to seize and exploit land and mineral rights. Patrick Kane of War on Want, has examined the role played by the City of London in financing some of these. Read more. Mining sector publications can sound positively euphoric about development possibilities, particularly in the Middle Cauca region. Read more. However, key to resolving conflicts with communities remains a process of genuine consultation. Small (artisanal) and medium-scale projects can offer better and ultimately less destructive potential than the mega-projects beloved of government and the multi-national lenders. Read more. In Peru, communities around the town of Espinar took to the streets in May to complain about the activities of Swiss mining firm XStrata which runs a huge copper mine at Tintaya, which it took over from BHP Billiton in 2006.  Despite clashes with police which left two dead and over 100 injured, negotiations have resumed. The company has made some commitment to financing social projects and maintaining meaningful dialogue with community leaders. Read more. In the north of the country, however, Monterrico Metals, listed on the London Metals Exchange, but owned since 2007 by Chinese  mining giant Zijin Mining Group, chose to settle out of court for a very modest sum judged sufficient to divide and disarm its opponents. Read more. Meanwhile, there is a lively debate about the relative demerits of large-scale and artisanal mining. The latter is often blamed by environmentalists for the indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals, total lack of provision for restoring ravaged landscape and poor safety record. A detailed report from Peru Support Group weighs up the pros and cons. Read more. Mining conflicts are often presented as simple bilateral confrontations between victims (workers, trade unions, communities, ethnic groups) and perpetrators (the mining companies, corrupt local officials, distant national governments, security forces). Reality, however, is often much more complex. In Bolivia, short-sighted government policies have had the unintended consequence of pitting mining employees and their trade union against small-scale co-operative producers (Read more). This has provoked sharp discussion on the left. Read more. Become a LAB Partner Latin America Bureau (LAB) is extending a cordial invitation to NGOs, CSOs and others in the Region (as well as Aid Agencies, Campaigns, Human Rights and Solidarity groups concerned with the Region) to become LAB Partners. LAB will list Partners, with a brief Profile of each, where they work, their objectives, contact details, website links, etc., on the Partners Page of LAB's website (www.lab.org.uk) There is no cost. The Partner simply completes a very brief survey and signs the agreement. LAB will then add them to the listing of LAB Partners. As our work develops, we hope to publish links to websites and articles with news of the Partners' work and campaigns; to launch discussions and blogs through which the Partners can communicate with one another; to provide training material and skills to help Partners to improve their communication skills; and to build an e-Library of links to articles and reports on campaigns and themes of common interest. To become a LAB Partner, simply click the appropriate link below and complete the Survey and Agreement:  Spanish: www.surveymonkey.com/s/LABPartnerProfileSpa English: www.surveymonkey.com/s/LABPartnerProfileEng  French: www.surveymonkey.com/s/LABPartnerProfileFre  Portuguese: www.surveymonkey.com/s/LABPartnerProfilePor  Forthcoming Events The annual trade union-sponsored conference on Latin America has established itself as a fixture in the London solidarity calendar.  This year’s conference on December 12 includes a workshop by LAB editors Sue Branford and Francis McDonagh on 'New Threats to the Brazilian Amazon'.  Best wishes The LAB team

Asesinadas en Mexico dos personas que se oponían a la instalación de la minera El Cascabel, filial de la canadiense Mag Silver

COMUNICACIÓN URGENTE

EL ASESINATO DEL DIRIGENTE ISMAEL SOLORIO URRUTIA Y A SU ESPOSA MANUELA MARTHA SOLIS EN CHIHUAHUA, SON UN CRIMEN DE ESTADO, PUES NO SE ESCUCHARON LAS ADVERTENCIAS QUE LAS ORGANIZACIONES SOCIALES HICIERON AL RESPECTO.

Una gran indignación esta causando en la sociedad chihuahuense el doble asesinato perpetrado hoy lunes a las 2.30 de la tarde en contra del dirigente de El Barzón en esta entidad, Ismael Solorio Urrutia, y de su esposa Manuela Martha Solís Contreras. Fueron acribillados mientras circulaban en la camioneta de Ismael en el kilometro 26.5 de la carretera Ciudad Cuauhtemoc+Coloniia Obregón. Ante este crimen de Estado, las y los activistas sociales de Chihuahua van a plantarse en el Palacio de Gobierno por un tiempo indefinido hasta que no se entrevisten con el Gobernador César Duarte y se les haga justicia.

El doble asesinato es el desemboque de toda una campaña de linchamiento emprendida en contra de las diversas organizaciones de El Barzón, desde hace varias semanas, denunciada precisamente hace una semana por la propia organización y otras organizaciones sociales de Chihuahua ante el Secretario de Gobierno de esta entidad. En dicha reunión, se le advirtió al representante del Gobierno del Estado que dada la situación de ataques a Ismael Solorio y a su hijo así como a diversos barzonistas que se oponen a la instalación de la minera El Cascabel, filial de la canadiense Mag Silver en el ejido Benito Juárez, municipio de buenaventura.
 

En efecto, luego de ser golpeados por un grupo de asalariados de la minera Ismael Solorio y su hijo Eric el sábado 13 de octubre, el contingente de El Barzón y las organizaciones que con él se solidarizan se hicieron presente en el palacio de gobierno para exigir que el Ejecutivo Estatal garantizara la gobernabilidad en el pueblo y la integridad física de todos quienes participan en el movimiento barzonista.

Solorio, ha sido uno de los dirigentes no solo de la oposición del establecimiento de la mina, sino también de quienes llevan cuatro meses denunciando los aprovechamientos ilegales y las perforaciones también ilegales de pozos en la cuenca del río del Carmen, sin haber sido solucionadas sus demandas hasta ahora. Dichas perforaciones y aprovechamientos los realiza un pequeño grupo de acaudalados

Posterior a la entrevista colectiva con el Srio. de Gobierno, un grupo de gente pagada por la mina acudió al Congreso del Estado, donde fueron apoyados por legisladores del PRI. En dicha reunión se volvió a atacar, a calumniar y a amenazar a quienes forman parte de la mayoría ejidal que se opone a la mina.

Es muy claro que en el corredor comercial Cuauhtémoc-Colonia Obregón opera normalmente, a ciencia y paciencia de las autoridades, una patrulla del crimen organizado. Lo más probable es que ella sea quien ultimó a Solorio y a su esposa. La autoría intelectual es muy clara: quienes detentan los grandes intereses afectados por el activismo de las y los barzonistas y la actitud omisa o ineficiente del Gobierno del Estado.

La decisión firme de El Barzón y las organizaciones sociales de Chihuahua es permanecer en el Palacio de Gobierno hasta plantear sus exigencias al Gobernado, César Duarte y hasta que se haga justicia ante este crimen de Estado, semejante en sus circunstancias al feminicidio de Marisela Escobedo, ultimada el 16 de diciembre de 2010 en la acera del Palacio de Gobierno, a pesar también de las advertencias del peligro que corría la vida de la activista hechas a los funcionarios estatales días antes.

Chihuahua, Mexico, a 22 de octubre de 2012.