Climate Chaos – Page 34

Dodgy deals and corporate collusion: SNP still selling communities out to Scottish Coal

Whilst a lot has happened in the past few days –

Whilst a lot has happened in the past few days – secret meetings for MSPs, the liquidation of the UK’s largest opencast operator – a picture of the deal that Fergus Ewing and Russel Griggs are trying to strike to save the opencast industry is increasingly coming to light. Announcements of a new trust for restoration make clear our suspicions that there isn’t anywhere near enough money for restoration, or even the will to use any of it. Rumblings from the Scottish Government and mining companies such as Hargreves indicate that potentially profitable mines will be sold, whilst spent ones lie unrestored and forgotten. The question is: what deal will be struck that will allow other mining companies to operate these mines profitably? And more importantly in the grand scheme of things, what lengths will this SNP government go to save one of the most despised companies in the central belt?

We don’t need another trust – restoration bonds and more broken promises

Something funny has happened since Scottish Coal announced they’d gone belly up – a new Trust to restore opencast sites materialised seemingly out of nowhere. Ewing and Griggs must have been thinking on their feet, because there was no mention whatsoever of a new trust at the “private” briefing to MSPs on the future of the coal industry last Wednesday, 17th April. Surely that was the opportune moment to announce the new plans? Obviously, the briefing was a charade. But what else were they keeping from MSPs and therefore the rest of us?

Questions need answering about this new trust: Where will the money come from? Which sites will be restored and when will restoration start? Will communities have any control over it? But the biggest of all: what about the bonds that were in place for each site? Opencasts gain planning permission on the condition that (and this is bound by a legal agreement) sites will be fully restored afterwards. Surely therefore there’s insurance money waiting to be accessed. Bonds can be called in either by the local authority, or by the developer in the instance that they go bust. Surely now is exactly the time that they should be called in, and if they’re not, then was it all a hoax in the first place?

The announcement of a new trust reveals other truths too. The insurance companies responsible for the bonds apparently consider them high-risk now that the mining companies have gone under, and won’t issue any more bonds. Therefore, for mining operations to resume in the future, a new system for restoration needs to be created. This new trust isn’t some benevolent act to help the environment or give communities what they want, it’s about covering the backs of the mining companies in the future, and just another dirty trick.

Fergus Ewing had this to say: “We have been working closely with the key stakeholders over the past six months to address the issues facing the coal industry in Scotland and we share the concerns raised by local communities around the responsible restoration of open cast coal sites.” We’d like to know who these key stakeholders are, and why communities living next to sites and ultimately bearing all the negative impacts of them aren’t considered “key stakeholders”.

He also said: “I am, therefore, pleased to announce that we are setting up a new trust to help facilitate the restoration of old open cast coal mines across Scotland.” Yes, but what about the bonds, and the fact that they were a condition of approval for every single mine application?

He then said: “…the restoration process itself is expected, over time, to create hundreds of jobs across the country – as well as restoring the local environment.” Well we wonder where he got that idea from.

Last minute extensions

Scottish Coal bosses were up to their usual tricks right up until the last minute. At two sites in particular, Mainshill in South Lanarkshire and St Ninnians in Fife, Scottish Coal applied for wee extensions by extending excavation areas slightly and into bits not mentioned in original applications. The tonnage in both cases was 70,000. Mainshill was all but exhausted of its reserve, and St Ninnians was finished apart from the consented extension. These tiny extensions aren’t worth another mining company buying the site, but are worth at least a year in terms of restoration commitments. With these extensions the sites aren’t finished any more, so there’s no requirement to begin restoration until the extensions are worked. Smooth. Looking at the state that Mainshill and St Ninnians are currently in one wonders whether they’ll ever get restored.

Worse still, the local authorities must have known that Scottish Coal wouldn’t survive, as they’d supposedly been involved in the negotiations for months now. What local authority would accept an application that they knew would deliberately delay restoration obligations? Ah wait – local authorities that have been colluding with Scottish Coal since day one would do that.

The future for opencast sites

And then there’s the really massive holes in the ground, such as at Broken Cross, in South Lanarkshire. Whilst it might be worthwhile for another company to buy the site – there’s at least 2 million tonnes of coal left and most of the earth moving has been done – there’s no way that the pits at Broken Cross will get filled in with trust money or bond money, if it even exists that is. What do we think will happen to Broken Cross? Landfill site – the taxes will generate income to eventually restore once the hole has been filled in with rubbish, and South Lanarkshire has a solution to its waste problems. This could very well be the fate of most opencast sites, and a final injustice imposed on near-by communities.

Who is this Griggs character anyway?

Chair of the “Regulatory Review Group”, and chair of the new Restoration Trust apparently. He’s the go-to guy for deregulating industry. He’s also refused to meet with community members (so much for “representing each community”). Griggs said: “I am grateful for the support and constructive engagement I have had from local councils, landowners and the coal operators over the last few months in developing the new Trust. I look forward to working with them to launch the Trust and be ready to help with a fresh approach to restoring old mines.” Here he admits that they’ve been cooking up these new plans for months, but still not engaged with communities, and didn’t think it appropriate to mention this at his briefing to MSPs.

The scandal here is that a “fresh approach” and “new trust” is needed to restore old mines. How long have they known that existing measures wouldn’t be sufficient? Did they not think it important to mention to communities that, “by the way, you know the promises of restoration? Well, they’re not going to happen”. This means that either the bonds were never real or sufficient in the first place, or that local authorities have been failing in their obligations to monitor restoration progress. More likely though, it means both, and that we’ve been duped by the mining companies, local authorities and government for some time.

Put your money where your mouth is: call in the bonds

Maybe this is just flogging a dead horse now, but surely, surely some effort should be made to call in these restoration bonds. No one has even mentioned it! There must be at least a few of them that could make some money available? In theory there’s millions in them. Surely then, the equitable thing to do is to keep as many of the opencast workers on as possible to see the restoration of the sites, or at least as much as the finance will allow. The fact that no moves are being made to see to it that this is what happens just shows that there’s a bigger and worse announcement still to come, about a deal being struck between the Scottish Government, local authorities and whichever mining companies have their eyes on Scotland’s opencast sites.

Tsleil-Waututh First Nation Sign International Treaty to Oppose Tar Sands Development 21st April

In the latest step toward opposing oil pipelines at every port in Canada, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation of Burrard Inlet signed on to the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred yesterday. The nation held a press conference at the Sheraton Wall Centre where newly elected Chief Maureen Thomas signed the document, witnessed by the president of the BC Union of Indian Chiefs Stewart Phillip and national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo.

The West Coast Oil Pipeline Summit followed the signing. The theme of the event was urgency, with several leaders touching on the need to oppose development at a grassroots level.

Stewart Phillip told reporters and community members assembled that the First Nations of BC are committed to using the legal system to defend their constitutional rights, but that’s not the only strategy they’re using.

“More importantly, we have committed to standing shoulder to shoulder on the land itself.”

Atleo echoed Phillip’s fatigue with the justice system and spoke to the urgent nature of the struggle not just for Aboriginal land rights, but also for environmental protection for everyone.

“This is not just a North American moment you’re witnessing,” he said. “The tipping point we have reached is global.” He also spoke to the inadequacy of the legal avenues available to First Nations to settle land claims and hold the government accountable. He said he doesn’t want to see the courts clogged with cases.

“We don’t need to be pulled down into the weeds of whether consultation has happened.”

Tsleil-Waututh is the first nation whose territories are directly in the path of one of the proposed pipeline projects to sign the treaty. Phil Lane Jr., hereditary chief of the Yankton Sioux nation from South Dakota, said one of the key goals of the treaty is get signatures from all of the nations whose territories are directly affected.

The West Coast Oil Pipeline Summit brought together First Nations leaders from across the province as well as activists and business people from a handful of different alternative energy sectors.

The event was hosted by 2G Group of Companies, a consulting firm whose mandate is to help develop equitable relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal business ventures.

Economist Robyn Allan gave a keynote speech highlighting the Harper government’s extreme shifts in energy policy from the Kyoto Protocol and plans to limit bitumen exports to the current push to expand tar sands development. She criticized the message that the economy and the environment are on opposite sides of the debate.

“This is a fabricated trade-off designed to put ordinary Canadians against ordinary Canadians,” she said.

A panelist of five speakers discussed different facets of the tar sands debate from the economics of renewable energy development to the effects of climate change around the world.

Ben West, director of the tar sands campaign for Forest Ethics Advocacy, discussed the viability of alternative energy sources and the ways in which conventional methods of development—such as the construction of the Port Mann Bridge to relieve congestion—are often counter intuitive.

“If we could build our way out of congestions, LA would be the best city in the world to drive in,” he quipped. For the cost of the $3 billion bridge, he said, Vancouver could build streetcar infrastructure to serve the better part of the city.

“We’re talking about very real technology, very real solutions.”

Also in attendance was Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who stood up to talk about Monday’s vote in the House of Commons that will determine whether the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act (FIPA) will go through.

She said she was impressed by the breadth of information presented throughout the evening particularly fact about how Canada imports the condensate required to transport bitumen.

“I don’t think we’re hearing about it nearly enough that we’re creating dependency on Middle Eastern fossil fuels rather than upgrade it in Alberta and refine it in Alberta,” she said, adding that she’s not seeing the response she’d like from BC politicians.

“Where is Adrian Dix on this project? It does not seem that provincial NDP is opposed to this project and that’s a big problem.”

Protesting for Human Rights, Environmental Abuses of Mining in London 20th April

Campaigners from four overseas countries visited London to protest alleged human rights and environmental abuses at the annual meetings of mining companies Rio Tinto and Anglo American which was held at The Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre. Here are some photos:

Sri Lankans Protest Planned Deforestation 20th April

Director of Environment Conservation Trust (ECT) Sajeewa Chamikara says that the mass destruction of environment may take place if a forest reserve in Sri Lanka’s northeast Padaviya area is vested to Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority.

He said that 12,900 hectares (50 sq miles) of the 48,451 hectare Padaviya forest reserve are to be handed over to Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority to establish settlements.

The gazette notification in this regard has already been compiled and it is to be published soon, said the environmentalist.

According to him, this area situated to the west of the Padaviya reservoir is a catchment area of the reservoir with unique environmental features. The environmental destruction in this sensitive area may have severe backlash, he said.

Further, the area provides habitat to the elephants and many other vulnerable species, he said.

Sri Lanka President is expected to visit the Mahaweli settlement near this area today to hand over deeds to 3,000 farmer families in the Mahaweli L Zone in the northeast part of the island.

For whom the bell tolls: Scottish Coal go into Liquidation

“In light of Scottish Coal’s poor trading and financial position, we have had to cease trading with immediate effect,”
-Blair Nimmo, joint provisional liquidator and head of restructuring at KPMG in Scotland.

Scottish Coal, the UK’s biggest coal producer, has announced today that they are entering administration. Due to recent “significant cash flow pressures” they have laid-off 600 workers and stopped all production at their six open cast sites.

New open cast sites are unlikely to happen, and this is something to be happy about. However, 600 people have lost their jobs, and they won’t be the moneymen at the top, but the workers with little safety net. They have also had their last week of wages stolen, as this won’t be paid. For those living next to existing or unrestored sites this means scars on the landscape that are unlikely to be fixed any time soon. It’s time to get angry, and take back the land and wages that Scottish Coal bosses have stolen.

Riot Police Attack Villagers During Mining Conflict 17th April

In the small village of Buzhe, in Guizhou Province, around 600 villagers were beaten and dispersed with teargas by about 300 riot police on April 11. The villagers had come to assist a young couple being abused by police during a mining-related dispute.

Alongside agriculture, coal mining is the main source of income in this mountainous village, but it is causing serious damage to the environment.

A resident called Mr. Han said that six or seven people were quite seriously injured during the clash, including an 80-year-old woman, and four people were sent to hospital to receive treatment for damage to their eyes from the gas.

Local authorities and the mining company made a resettlement agreement with the villagers nine years ago, but have not provided adequate compensation for the environmental damage to the area, according to Mr. Han.

“Landslides, ground subsidence, a large section of the mine is cracking and sinking, this can be seen everywhere,” he said. “Some of the sinkholes are almost 10 meters deep, and span more than 10 square meters.”

“No water can be stored in the ground, and over 300 Chinese acres of farmland can’t be cultivated anymore,” Mr. Han added.

“There are more than 200 households in the village, but only 26 were relocated last year.”

As a last resort, the villagers built shacks in front of the mine to block the entrance in protest, and prevent mining activities.

On April 11, police came to the shacks and took away an old man living in one of them. They then bashed up the furniture inside, and set fire to his place. A couple in their thirties rushed over to try and put out the fire, but were handcuffed and taken into a work shed, where they were apparently beaten by nine police officers.

As soon as locals heard about this incident, around 600 villagers quickly surrounded the work shed.

“Villagers had pieces of wood and fought with the police. They managed to free the couple in the end,” Mr. Han said, although they were still wearing handcuffs.

Soon after, about 300 riot police arrived at the scene, and began attacking the villagers, using teargas to disperse the crowd.

The next day, a large crowd came to protest outside the town hall, which was heavily guarded by riot police. Mr. Han said they would continue to protest as the lives of around 1,000 villagers are at stake.

Two Lifelong Oklahomans Halt Construction of Keystone XL Work Site 16th April

BRYAN COUNTY, OK – Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 8:00AM – Two lifelong Oklahomans have effectively halted construction on an active work site for TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in Bennington, Oklahoma.

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Eric Whelan, 26, who grew up in McLoud, Okla., has ascended 40 feet into the air in an aerial blockade that began at dawn this morning.

Gwen Ingram of Luther, Okla., 56, has locked herself to heavy machinery and shut down the construction site.

Today’s event marks the fourth act of civil disobedience by Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance and comes in the wake of the disastrous tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas. For the last three weeks, over 300,000 gallons of tar sands diluted bitumen have spil –>led into a residential neighborhood and local waterways.

“Keystone XL sounded like a bad idea from the beginning,” explained Whelan. “The Mayflower spill proves that we shouldn’t be trusting these multi-national corporations, like Exxon or TransCanada, because every spill further exposes their criminal incompetence. Now, TransCanada wants to build a toxic pipeline through the center of the country.

“I’m taking action to prevent a tragedy like that from happening in Oklahoma.”

The tar sands’ corrosive nature makes pipelines more prone to leaks than transporting crude oil, as evidenced by the Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline burst in Mayflower, Ark.

When spills inevitably do occur, the heavier diluted bitumen sinks in water and into the water table. Keystone XL’s proposed route cuts through the heartland of North America, crossing the Arbuckle Simpson and Edwards Trinity Aquifer in Oklahoma.

“The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would carry the dirtiest fuel on the planet from Canada to America’s Gulf Coast’s refineries and ports, and then overseas for export,” said Gwen Ingram, before locking herself to TransCanada’s heavy machinery.

“I simply won’t allow this pipeline to cross our precious rivers; the North and South Canadian, The Red River, The Cimmaron and threaten our drinking water.”

UPDATE 9:00 AM – Eric is holding strong on a tower 40 feet off the ground in the middle of the Keystone XL construction site

UPDATE 11:15 AM- Firefighters have extracted Gwen Ingram from the construction machinery. Gwen held strong in her nonviolent civil disobedience act for several hours.

Follow more of our actions live on our Facebook and Twitter. Sign up to join the resistance.

See more high res photos on our Flickr account.

Halkidiki Gold Mine Protesters Lift Roadblocks 16th April

Road transport in the broader region of Mount Athos, Halkidiki, was largely restored on Monday after residents of Ierissos lifted roadblocks they had set up last week to protest the detention of two fellow villagers in connection with an arson attack in February on the offices of a gold-mining company.

Despite lifting the blockades, the residents pledged to continue their opposition to the venture by Hellas Gold in nearby Skouries which they claim will damage the environment and impoverish locals.

Two local men who have denied any part in a brutal arson attack on Hellas Gold’s premises in February, where assailants tied up security guards and doused them with petrol, were remanded in custody on Monday.

The men, aged 33 and 44, submitted depositions on Sunday in which they denied any part in the raid.

The 33-year-old said that a woolen hat found near the scene with his DNA had been lost on another day when he was cutting wood in the forest. The 44-year-old was linked to the attack via a shotgun found in his house. He said he used the gun to hunt in Skouries forest.

Odd Alliance of Anarchists & Farmers Takes on French Gov’t in Airport Battle 16th April

They hurl sticks, stones and gasoline bombs. They have spent brutal winter months fortifying muddy encampments. And now they’re ready to ramp up their fight against the prime minister and his pet project — a massive new airport in western France.

An unlikely alliance of anarchists and beret-wearing farmers is creating a headache for President Francois Hollande’s beleaguered government by mounting an escalating Occupy Wall Street-style battle that has delayed construction on the ambitious airport near the city of Nantes for months. The conflict has flared anew at a particularly tricky time for the Socialist government, amid a growing scandal over tax-dodging revelations that forced the budget minister to resign, and ever-worsening news about the French economy.

A protest held over the weekend is likely to trigger a new round of demonstrations like those that drew thousands of protesters to the remote woodlands of Brittany in the fall. In those earlier protests, heavily armored riot police battled young anarchists and farmers, causing injuries on both sides. On Monday, similar clashes erupted, with three demonstrators injured, according to the radicals’ website.

The fight has brought together odd bedfellows: Local farmers who represent traditional French conservative values are collaborating with anarchists, radical eco-feminists and drifters from around Europe — who see the anti-airport movement as a flashpoint against globalization and capitalism. Environmentalists and the far-left Green Party also oppose the airport, arguing that it will bring pollution.

The clash has been particularly damaging for Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Nantes’ longtime mayor and the airport’s highest-profile champion. He and the project’s supporters say the airport will attract business at a time when France sorely needs an economic boost and job creation. The Aeroport du Grand Ouest is intended to replace the existing Nantes Atlantique airport, with runways able to handle larger aircraft such as the A380 superjumbo and room to expand from 4.5 million passengers a year at the open to 9 million in the longer term.

With an approval rating at historic lows, Ayrault’s leverage to push through the project is shrinking. Meanwhile the opponents’ threat to remobilize is leading to new fears of violent clashes.

Protesters have spent months illegally occupying the site of the planned Notre-Dame-Des-Landes airport, which is set to start operating in 2017. In November, more than 500 riot police tried to remove thousands of squatters in the wooded area near this village 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Nantes. Protesters responded by hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails. Police fired back with tear gas in clashes that dominated the national news.

For the farmers, it’s all about protecting the land.

“This will be a runway,” says Sylvain Fresneau, gesturing toward the two-story house built by his grandfather and the dairy farm that has been in his family for five generations.

Fresneau and his cousin Dominique are among the local farmers who are holding out, refusing to sell up and clear off the land where they have lived and worked their entire lives. Sylvain’s 88 cows produce 550,000 liters (580,000 quarts) of milk a year. “Since January,” Fresneau says, “we are squatters and so are the cows.”

While some local farmers have accepted buyouts from Vinci, the giant construction firm that was selected to build and run the airport, the Fresneaus and many of their neighbors have fought the project for years.

“It’s not a question of money,” Sylvain Fresneau says. “You can’t put a price on five generations of peasants. It’s my duty not to accept that money from any builder.”

He says his 80-year-old father was one of the first to resist the airport project when the idea surfaced 40 years ago. Long-mothballed, the airport plan gained fresh impetus when Ayrault’s Socialist Party came to power nationally in the late 1990s. The plan then wound its way through a slow and torturously complex process of studies, commissions and advisory committees.

Although Sylvain Fresneau claims the farmers “could make one call and block Nantes with our tractors in half a day,” the reality is that the farmers alone could not have delayed the project as long as they have without help from a surprising quarter: the mainly 20-something radicals who call themselves “ZADists.”

Their name derives from the French acronym for “development zone,” the generic name given to the area where the airport is to be built. The ZADists have delighted in appropriating the acronym for their own use, but with various new takes: Zone To Defend, or Zone of Definitive Autonomy, among others.

Since 2009, the activists have been occupying the fields where the airport is to be built. Some squat in abandoned farmhouses or homes opened up to them by locals who refuse to sell. Others spent the winter in ingeniously constructed cabins set up deep in the wooded and muddy scrubland outside the village.

“Without the ZADists we wouldn’t have kept the land,” admits Sylvain Fresneau.

Up to several hundred ZADists live on the site at any given time. Police control access to the zone with checkpoints at road crossings, but the ZADists avoid them by simply cutting across fields to their campsites.

ZADists have also built their own fortifications, ramshackle assemblages of wood, wire, mattresses and hay bales. The entrance is controlled by ZADists who cover their faces with scarves and hoods, not only to ward off the cold but also to hide their identities from the police posted at the road crossing barely 100 yards (meters) away.

Clashes between the two sides are common. On a recent visit, ZADists who all identified themselves by the pseudonym “Camille” described an expedition the night before in which they succeeded in splashing some police with paint, traces of which were still visible on the road.

For the farmers, the fight is mostly a matter of keeping their land. The ZADists, on the other hand, say they have wider, loftier goals. “Against the Airport … and its World” is one of the slogans spray-painted on signs around the zone.

Some of the ZADists have taken part in anti-globalization and Occupy movements across Europe. They see the movement to support the farmers of Notre-Dame-des-Landes as an extension of their goal of “learning to live together, cultivate the land, and increase our autonomy from the capitalist system,” as their website explains.

“It’s a bit utopian, but sometimes you need some utopia,” said Dominique Fresneau. The farmers’ appreciation for the ZADists’ energy and the attention they’ve brought to their fight against the airport is mixed with bemusement at some of their radical positions.

At meetings between the two groups of allies, Fresneau admitted that “we clash” sometimes. But more often they find ways to work together. Some farmers have used their tractors to set up a protective barricade around one of the encampments. A ZADist who was also a graduate student in agricultural studies helped a farmer complete a geological survey of his land. Farmers bring in food and building supplies for the ZADists.

In early April, a commission set up by Ayrault to try to calm the debate over the airport delivered its report. It recommended further evaluation of the cost of expanding the Nantes Atlantique airport instead of building a new one at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, and suggested that additional noise, traffic and environmental studies be carried out.

The government welcomed the commission’s report, saying it underscored the need for the new airport. Opponents, meanwhile, said that on the contrary it bolstered their case that the new airport should be scrapped. In any event, the activists said, all the new studies will delay the start of work on the airport, likely pushing back its opening from the originally planned 2017 date.

Ecologists went as far as to cry victory.

“As it stands, carrying out all the recommendations called for in these reports amounts to a ‘mission impossible’ and postpone the project indefinitely,” the Green Party said in a statement.

Meanwhile in the fields around Notre-Dame-des-Landes, farmers and activists are not going away.

Their next action is Saturday, when they plan a day of planting, clearing and repair work at their camp across the site of the future airport.

Newmont May Abandon Minas Conga Plans, Forbes Predicts 14th April

Forbes has published an analysis speculating that Newmont Mining Corporation may be preparing to cut its losses and abandon its much-embattled plans for the Minas Conga gold mine in Yanacocha, Peru:

According to the company’s 2012 annual report, while it remains committed to the $4.8 billion project for the time being, continued opposition may force it to divert investments elsewhere. This may be a sign that Newmont is looking for an exit strategy from the project.

The mine, which would be the largest gold mine in Peru, has suffered fierce opposition from local indigenous communities and from the regional government, in spite of its promotion by the federal government. Clashes over the mine in 2011 led to the deaths of five protesters. And just a few days ago, 400 protesters stormed the mine site and set fire to construction equipment.

That means anything to make Newmont’s investors more skittish about the Minas Conga project — such as protests or more bad publicity — could help tip the scales. So contact Newmont and tell them to abandon Minas Conga. Say no to destruction of indigenous communities and the murder of protesters!

Forbes also predicts that the company could suffer severe financial losses if forced to abandon the project:

We believe that if the Conga project gets cancelled, it will have serious ramifications for Newmont. The company will find it extremely difficult to meet its annual production target of 7 million ounces by 2017, up from the present production levels of 5 million ounces. The production shortfall has obvious implications for revenue as well.

In order to salvage its revenue growth and gold operating margins of $985 an ounce, the company would have to find another source of production quickly. The company has acknowledged in its 2012 annual report that any inability to continue to develop the Conga project could have an adverse impact on its growth if it is not able to replace the expected production.

Newmont pointed out in the annual report that the regional government remains stridently opposed to the viability of the project in contrast to the stand adopted by the central government. This it fears could make operating difficult. It could face more protests as well as new and tougher regulations and taxes. If unable to continue, the company will change priorities and reallocate capital to development alternatives in Nevada, Australia, Ghana and Indonesia.

This may mean that Newmont will fight as hard as possible to hold onto Minas Conga, although its skittishness suggests it may already be reaching its limit. In any case, if you live in one of the “alternative” areas listed above, get ready to fight Newmont on the ground at home.