Canada may fly the flag of "a peaceful nation" or relatively better than its Anglo-Saxon counterparts in US & UK, around the world, but Canadian companies are famous in developing countries, in South America & Africa, for unethical business practices.
Be it Kinross, or Goldcorp, or SNC-Lavalin; they have all been exposed or sued in the past decade for unethical practices, ranging from bribery scandals in Africa to destroying the environment, of the surroundings where their operations are based, in South America.
Ironically, these Canadian companies are also considered some of the best companies in Canada, because of their management team, environmental stewardship, & overall business management. They return good money to their shareholders & investors love them.
It is one thing to be actively destroying your own backyard (Canadian companies being involved in Canadian oilsands in Alberta & destroying the environment there), but it is very wrong to be destroying the environment of a developing country, & then digging your heels that we are not destroying the environment in the face of clear evidence.
Most of the companies from the Western developed countries, in one way or another, exploit & destroy the developing countries. They all have long ethical codes of conducts, but they are written in such a way, that they support unethical business practices. So, besides the mining & energy companies, other companies, for example, Nestle is famous for robbing small villages & communities of their precious clean water resources to sell that water to the millions around the world.
Honesty & fairness in the developed world are only for their own citizens, & only rich business & political elites among them; not for everyone else around them. Talking about spreading democracy, freedom, free speech etc. are all smoke & mirrors for the ignorant billions of people around the world.
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... Paracatu is the epicentre of Brazil’s mining production, in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, which generates almost one-third of Brazil’s total mining production.
The exploitation of gold started in Paracatu as early as 1722. ... Since the 1990s the hunt has moved from the river banks to underground deposits. ...
Booming gold prices
In 2005, Canadian company Kinross – which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange & owns gold mines in Chile, US, Russia & Ghana, among other countries – took over the mining concession in Paracatu. During a period in which gold prices rose to historical new heights in global markets, Kinross invested $1.86bn in the site, tripling annual production to the current 15 tonnes & making Paracatu the most productive gold mine in Brazil. As the gold in Paracatu takes the form of a powder & not grain or nuggets, the company had to greatly intensify mining activities to keep production up. Today as many as 160 dynamite explosions are carried out daily to dig the Morro do Ouro, the Golden Hill, as locals refer to the area where the main deposits are found.
As a consequence, the local geography has been profoundly transformed. As you approach the mining area we witness an immense crater that covers 615 hectares, half the size of Heathrow’s airport, & resembles a lunar landscape. The only signs of life are the imposing bulldozers & the high-wheeled vehicles that transport the rocks to the plant. There, toxic chemicals, including cyanide, are employed to separate out the gold powder, which is later molten in ingots & transported by helicopter to São Paulo for export around the globe.
Arsenic health risks
While the visual impact seems hard to deny – in addition to the mining area, two large dams the size of an extra Heathrow airport are used for toxic waste disposal – many argue that the mine poses a threat to the local environment & to the health of the 90,000 Paracatu residents. Not only is dynamite used to access the gold reserves as close as 200 metres from the urban area, the precious metal is mixed in the rock with arsenic, a carcinogenic.
Arsenic is commonly found in gold mines, but in Paracatu it is of particular concern. For each tonne of rock removed only 0.4 grams of gold is recovered & 1kg of arsenic is released into the air & groundwater, according to Márcio José dos Santos, a geologist & local activist.
“Nobody knows how much arsenic is going to the city. The northeasterly wind here means that the arsenic travels in the air from the mine to the urban area. People are inhaling the toxic dust & consequently are inhaling arsenic,” explains José. Sergio Ulhoa Dani, a local physician & also an opponent of the mine, argued in a recent scientific article that “the potential damage of arsenic in a gold mine like the one in Paracatu could impact 7 trillion people”.
Many in the city wonder if their life is at risk, while the word “cancer” has become a taboo. Data from Paracatu’s city council shows that the cancer mortality rate in the town is similar to the rest of the country. Critics argue that statistics from the local government are unreliable. As Paracatu lacks medical institutions, patients must go to hospitals located hundreds of kilometres away to receive treatment & so are not counted in the city’s official data.
Opponents face harassment & threats
The attitude of the company is also under scrutiny. According to documents seen by The Guardian & interviews with former employees, several Kinross’ employees worked as an intelligence unit to track any potential activity against the mine or the company’s reputation.
In an interview with the Guardian, Gilberto Azevedo, general manager of the mine, denied any risk to the health or the environment. “We monitor everything. People have nothing to fear, because we have everything under control. We regularly make environmental & biological tests, & we have hired external sources to carry studies. They all show there is no risk.”
He also underlined the economic importance of the company’s activity for the region. In 2014, Kinross paid about $10m in taxes & currently employs 3,300 people in the mine, about 8% of the active population in the city.
However, tension is perceptible. As we drive through the public roads bordering the concession, an armed guard who had been following the car for an hour brings us to a halt & questions us.
Dozens of documents & internal emails seen by The Guardian show that in 2012 & 2013 Kinross had a policy in Paracatu of regularly monitoring potential opponents, including the former mayor Almir Paraca – known for being outspoken against the mine – & several union leaders.
“They monitor social movements, politicians, neighbourhood associations & their representatives, environmental activists, union leaders... They even monitor what some Kinross’s employees do at their free time. The main goal is to hide or repress any action, demonstration or reference against the mining company or their interests”, said one of the sources, knowledgeable of Kinross’ policies because of his/her former post at the company.
And at least 2 local activists – Rafaela Xavier Luiz & Evane Lopes - have had to leave the city in recent months after they received death threats, which they argue were linked to their opposition to the mine.
“We have nothing to do with this. Kinross is a company that dialogues with the community,” says Azevedo, when asked if the enterprise was in any way involved in the threats to activists. Kinross also denied it monitored activists or opponents.
Be it Kinross, or Goldcorp, or SNC-Lavalin; they have all been exposed or sued in the past decade for unethical practices, ranging from bribery scandals in Africa to destroying the environment, of the surroundings where their operations are based, in South America.
Ironically, these Canadian companies are also considered some of the best companies in Canada, because of their management team, environmental stewardship, & overall business management. They return good money to their shareholders & investors love them.
It is one thing to be actively destroying your own backyard (Canadian companies being involved in Canadian oilsands in Alberta & destroying the environment there), but it is very wrong to be destroying the environment of a developing country, & then digging your heels that we are not destroying the environment in the face of clear evidence.
Most of the companies from the Western developed countries, in one way or another, exploit & destroy the developing countries. They all have long ethical codes of conducts, but they are written in such a way, that they support unethical business practices. So, besides the mining & energy companies, other companies, for example, Nestle is famous for robbing small villages & communities of their precious clean water resources to sell that water to the millions around the world.
Honesty & fairness in the developed world are only for their own citizens, & only rich business & political elites among them; not for everyone else around them. Talking about spreading democracy, freedom, free speech etc. are all smoke & mirrors for the ignorant billions of people around the world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... Paracatu is the epicentre of Brazil’s mining production, in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, which generates almost one-third of Brazil’s total mining production.
The exploitation of gold started in Paracatu as early as 1722. ... Since the 1990s the hunt has moved from the river banks to underground deposits. ...
Booming gold prices
In 2005, Canadian company Kinross – which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange & owns gold mines in Chile, US, Russia & Ghana, among other countries – took over the mining concession in Paracatu. During a period in which gold prices rose to historical new heights in global markets, Kinross invested $1.86bn in the site, tripling annual production to the current 15 tonnes & making Paracatu the most productive gold mine in Brazil. As the gold in Paracatu takes the form of a powder & not grain or nuggets, the company had to greatly intensify mining activities to keep production up. Today as many as 160 dynamite explosions are carried out daily to dig the Morro do Ouro, the Golden Hill, as locals refer to the area where the main deposits are found.
As a consequence, the local geography has been profoundly transformed. As you approach the mining area we witness an immense crater that covers 615 hectares, half the size of Heathrow’s airport, & resembles a lunar landscape. The only signs of life are the imposing bulldozers & the high-wheeled vehicles that transport the rocks to the plant. There, toxic chemicals, including cyanide, are employed to separate out the gold powder, which is later molten in ingots & transported by helicopter to São Paulo for export around the globe.
Arsenic health risks
While the visual impact seems hard to deny – in addition to the mining area, two large dams the size of an extra Heathrow airport are used for toxic waste disposal – many argue that the mine poses a threat to the local environment & to the health of the 90,000 Paracatu residents. Not only is dynamite used to access the gold reserves as close as 200 metres from the urban area, the precious metal is mixed in the rock with arsenic, a carcinogenic.
Arsenic is commonly found in gold mines, but in Paracatu it is of particular concern. For each tonne of rock removed only 0.4 grams of gold is recovered & 1kg of arsenic is released into the air & groundwater, according to Márcio José dos Santos, a geologist & local activist.
“Nobody knows how much arsenic is going to the city. The northeasterly wind here means that the arsenic travels in the air from the mine to the urban area. People are inhaling the toxic dust & consequently are inhaling arsenic,” explains José. Sergio Ulhoa Dani, a local physician & also an opponent of the mine, argued in a recent scientific article that “the potential damage of arsenic in a gold mine like the one in Paracatu could impact 7 trillion people”.
Many in the city wonder if their life is at risk, while the word “cancer” has become a taboo. Data from Paracatu’s city council shows that the cancer mortality rate in the town is similar to the rest of the country. Critics argue that statistics from the local government are unreliable. As Paracatu lacks medical institutions, patients must go to hospitals located hundreds of kilometres away to receive treatment & so are not counted in the city’s official data.
Opponents face harassment & threats
The attitude of the company is also under scrutiny. According to documents seen by The Guardian & interviews with former employees, several Kinross’ employees worked as an intelligence unit to track any potential activity against the mine or the company’s reputation.
In an interview with the Guardian, Gilberto Azevedo, general manager of the mine, denied any risk to the health or the environment. “We monitor everything. People have nothing to fear, because we have everything under control. We regularly make environmental & biological tests, & we have hired external sources to carry studies. They all show there is no risk.”
He also underlined the economic importance of the company’s activity for the region. In 2014, Kinross paid about $10m in taxes & currently employs 3,300 people in the mine, about 8% of the active population in the city.
However, tension is perceptible. As we drive through the public roads bordering the concession, an armed guard who had been following the car for an hour brings us to a halt & questions us.
Dozens of documents & internal emails seen by The Guardian show that in 2012 & 2013 Kinross had a policy in Paracatu of regularly monitoring potential opponents, including the former mayor Almir Paraca – known for being outspoken against the mine – & several union leaders.
“They monitor social movements, politicians, neighbourhood associations & their representatives, environmental activists, union leaders... They even monitor what some Kinross’s employees do at their free time. The main goal is to hide or repress any action, demonstration or reference against the mining company or their interests”, said one of the sources, knowledgeable of Kinross’ policies because of his/her former post at the company.
And at least 2 local activists – Rafaela Xavier Luiz & Evane Lopes - have had to leave the city in recent months after they received death threats, which they argue were linked to their opposition to the mine.
“We have nothing to do with this. Kinross is a company that dialogues with the community,” says Azevedo, when asked if the enterprise was in any way involved in the threats to activists. Kinross also denied it monitored activists or opponents.
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