Good investigation but ironic timing - OFAC just issued a licence for conflict-tainted Venezuelan gold to be traded freely to US refineries ofac.treasury.gov/media/935091... and Trafigura has signed up to deliver a ton of it www.bloomberg.com/news/article... The mining conditions haven't changed.
The abuses in Venezuela's gold sector are widely known. Armed groups control the mines. Artisanal miners are terrorised and exploited. Deforestation is rampant. Mercury contaminates the rivers. Neither the US nor Venezuela has come up with any plan to stop it. Just to profit.
And two days after Doug Burgum met with mining execs and metals traders in Caracas, with Rodriguez promising to move at "Trump speed" to exploit Venezuelan minerals www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
This comes one day after Trafigura does a deal to sell up to 1,000kg of gold bars from Venezuelan company Minerven to US gold refineries www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
OFAC issues general licence for dealing in Venezuelan-origin gold ofac.treasury.gov/media/935091... I've been down one of the mines where that gold comes from. It's hacked out of tunnels by teenagers with jackhammers controlled by armed groups. Apparently that doesn't matter.
Also just out - on raw materials (MF = material footprint): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I missed this last week but sharing now because dodgy commodity traders registered in Switzerland are the bane of my investigative life. Nice to hear that "the Swiss Finance Minister thanked the commodity traders for the additional tax revenues from 2022 and 2023" www.publiceye.ch/en/media-cor...
The DRC has been pillaged for its resources for over a century. It's interesting to see it realise its power in the supply chain - and a lesson for consuming countries that the interests of producing countries cannot be ignored www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/int...
"TechMet’s investment partner in the Dobra lithium project is Ronald Lauder, a billionaire friend of President Trump. Lauder has also been a big advocate of US efforts to buy Greenland."
www.ft.com/content/bc0c...
There's no utopia hiding in the cruelty. No transformative change in the preening belligerence. There's nothing in the centre to find except for exterminatory desire to be the only person in the room, country, world who gets to decide what's important. He's like the apotheosis of bad self help
At least she's come up with a great position for all those who identify as both racists and pedants
The Greenpeace report refers to "European energy investments". France has already signed deals with Rabat to develop energy projects in Western Sahara. Western governments are successively capitulating on this issue, I say watch this space re Xlinks www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
I don't see it mentioned in the article, but a large proportion of Morocco's renewable energy projects are in Western Sahara, a territory under occupation since the 1970s, from which much of the indigenous population has been exiled. I'm all pro renewables, but that seems ground for concern to me.
Seems DR Congo is taking lessons from Ukraine - if you want military support from Trump's US, you better have some minerals to offer... www.africa-confidential.com/article/id/1...
Pretty crazy mapping of the international expansion of Russia's state nuclear corporation during the Ukraine war - still largely escaping Western sanctions dixigroup.org/en/over-70-a...
While Trump blusters, bullies and brags about "deals" on Ukraine's minerals, Russia moves to create its own facts on the ground www.reuters.com/markets/comm...
The EU's Conflict Minerals Regulation imposes due diligence on EU companies sourcing 3TG minerals from conflict-affected regions. But GW's analysis found tungsten ore entering Europe from conflict-wracked South Kivu in the DRC, where brutal militias profit from the trade tinyurl.com/mvze23c2
In 2022, Global Witness reported on how the ITSCI scheme appeared to be used to launder conflict minerals from eastern DRC through Rwanda www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns...
Congolese government files criminal complaint against Apple for conflict minerals in its supply chain, saying Apple is hiding behind "discredited" ITSCI certification scheme www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
"Afriland bank's DR Congo subsidiary, which is under provisional administration by the country's central bank and is in arbitration proceedings, may have one final use. The government may use it in a risky financial deal that would benefit Israeli tycoon Dan Gertler." shorturl.at/TwKnU
Guatemalan mining ministry renewed export permits for formerly-sanctioned nickel mines CGN and Mayaniquel, but Mayaniquel still hasn't dropped its arbitration claim www.prensalibre.com/economia/mem...
You can listen to the full series on Spotify (in Spanish) at shorturl.at/Da9fg and watch the accompanying video clips (with English subtitles) on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@HablaPacha
The series tells how their centuries-long struggle for land rights must now confront the new threat of multinational lithium miners laying claim to the "white gold" beneath their feet. Their story of resistance is framed against the music, art and legends of the ancestral culture they fear to lose.
It's not often we hear the story of the energy transition told by mining-affected communities themselves. "Habla Pacha" is a 9-part podcast series, designed and told by the Indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes, Argentina - one of the world's lithium frontlines www.youtube.com/@HablaPacha
Fascinating to read @louisguitton.bsky.social's work applying a range of AI techniques to @icij.org's Offshore Leaks database to create knowledge graphs and generate new leads for journalists to investigate guitton.co/posts/entity... cc @pirhoo.com @karriekehoe.bsky.social @pacoid.bsky.social
Cash-strapped Liberian gov't looks to settle arbitration claim from one mining company by granting exclusive rail rights to another mining company... www.liberianobserver.com/news/liberia...
A fifth of the Philippines' land mass is now covered by mining and exploration permits, eating into Indigenous lands and causing damage visible from space. New investigation on the Philippines' militarised "green" mineral push by my colleague @hanna-hindstrom.bsky.social shorturl.at/OPNxs
"En el juicio por genocidio contra el comandante militar retirado Benedicto Lucas García, la defensa ha intentado recusar al tribunal para retrasar la sentencia, inminente desde inicios de noviembre"
Seguimiento de mi colega Yuliana Ramazzini a nuestra cobertura del caso: elfaro.net/es/202411/ce...
