Mining and Metals

Welcome to the Mining and Metals portal on Powerbase

This portal reports and exposes the spin and lobbying by the metals and mining industry. In particular we investigate the UK's complicity in the activities of companies registered on the London Stock Exchange, the epicentre of mining investment and metals price fixing worldwide. We reveal their links to government, the banking sector, think tanks, NGOs and the arms industry. We also document the effects of mining and processing on communities and the environment in the UK and worldwide, and expose attempts to 'greenwash' this. This portal is part of Powerbase—your guide to networks of power, lobbying and deceptive PR. Powerbase has a policy of strict referencing and is overseen by a Managing editor, a Sysop and several associate Portal editors. Bauxite mining in India: aluminium ore is shallow strip mined from semi-tropical forests, often displacing indigenous peoples and creating large scale soil erosion and water pollution. Why mining and metals? British-registered Indian aluminium company Vedanta has been exposed for human rights and environmental violations in its quest for 73 million tonnes of bauxite from the tribal mountain homeland of the Dongria Kondh Metals are all around us – from your can of lemonade, to your bike, car or plane, to your laptop, buildings and pots and pans. But we rarely think about where these materials come from and what impact they have on the planet and people. Mining and metals companies, with the support of their trade associations, think tanks, corporate social responsibility programmes and PR agencies, try to paint their products as clean and green. Yet these are among the most polluting and energy intensive industrial processes in the world, often linked to the displacement of indigenous peoples, poor working conditions, conflict, human rights abuses, pollution, climate change and militarisation. Around 30 per cent of aluminium, for example, is used by the arms or 'defence' industry, making it an important 'strategic metal' for most governments.

The aluminium industry Aluminium is more energy intensive and polluting than any other metal to produce. The industry goes to great lengths to portray this shiny and versatile metal as part of the solution to climate change due to its recyclability and lightweight nature. But the real story of aluminium is one of destruction, displacement and waste. The process and its impacts • Bauxite (aluminium's ore) is shallow strip mined from semi tropical forests, often displacing indigenous peoples and destroying their livelihoods, as well as creating large scale soil erosion and water pollution. • Bauxite is refined to produce alumina, leaving tonnes of 'red mud' - the caustic and toxic sludge that flooded several Hungarian towns in 2010. • Alumina is then smelted to remove the strongly bonded oxygen and produce aluminium. This process is often carried out thousands of miles from where it was mined and requires huge amounts of energy, producing highly polluting fluorides, sulphur dioxide, perfluorocarbons (very strong greenhouse gases), cyanide and a classified hazardous waste called Spent Pot Lining. • Producing one tonne of aluminium uses 1378 tonnes of water and produces 13.1 tons of greenhouse gases (CO2e), making it responsible for 1 per cent of global carbon emissions - and growing. Though recycling aluminium uses 95 per cent less energy than making it new, it still uses the same amount as producing new steel. Companies British-registered Indian aluminium company Vedanta has been exposed for human rights and environmental violations in its quest for 73 million tonnes of Bauxite from the tribal mountain homeland of the Dongria Kondh. Heading...

Categories This article is part of the Mining and Metals project of Spinwatch Powerbase categories associated with this page: Aluminium Industry Mining and Metals: Arms Industry Mining and Metals: Industry-Friendly Experts Mining and Metals: Industry Lobby Groups Mining and Metals: Lobbyists Mining and Metals: Public Relations Mining and Metals: Trade Associations Mining and Metals: Transnational Corporations Priority pages x x x x x x x x x x x

Getting Started Looking for somewhere to start? To learn how you can edit any article right now, visit Powerbase:About, Welcome, newcomers, our Help page, Frequently Asked Questions, A quick guide to editing or experiment in the sandbox. Or contribute a new article: go to Quick Guide to Getting Started. Research and Writing Tips How to research front groups | Resources for studying propaganda | Research using the web Can you help? Powerbase can be made more effective if more people join the project. If you have research or writing skills or just spare time, you can help. If you are unsure where to start, you could expand some of the recently created but currently very brief articles. (If you look at the recent changes page you will see some noted as being 'stubs' - articles that may just be a line or two and needing to be fleshed out). So if you would like to add to some of those you would be most welcome. There is an automatically updated page which includes the pages which have been signalled by Powerbase users as most wanted. In addition there is a page which includes a list of Things you can do to help. Or if you would like some other suggestions closer to your interests you could drop Powerbase editor, David Miller an email. His address is editor AT Powerbase.info Start Here View The Latest Articles View Articles By Category View The Most Popular Articles Create An Account Or Log In Change Your Preferences Write a new Article

Powerbase history Powerbase is a collaborative venture initiated by Spinwatch in collaboration with Lobbywatch, GM Watch Red Star Research and Corporate Watch, but put into effect by a wide variety of volunteers and independent researchers. Contributors are now working on 19,414 articles. Disclaimer: Powerbase is an encyclopedia of people, issues and groups shaping the public agenda. It is a project of the Spinwatch—email editor AT Powerbase.info. Antispam note: To avoid attracting spam email robots, email addresses on Powerbase are written with AT in place of the usual symbol, and we have removed "mail to" links. Replace AT with the correct symbol to get a valid address. We regret the inconvenience this entails. Campaign for more effective antispam regulations. Read the full disclaimer References