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War in Bougainville

The people of Bougainville fought a ten-year war against global mining giant Rio Tinto who destroyed their land, felled their forests and poisoned their rivers to create the Panguna copper and gold mine.  Thousands of people died in the resulting war that involved Rio Tinto with military forces, police, and hired mercenaries who employed concentration camps, air and sea blockades, and media backouts against local people. The mine has been closed since 1989, but shareholder costs and liabilities continue.

Attacking families in Boron, California

Rio Tinto is now attacking 600 families in California’s Mojave Desert.  On January 31, 2010, Rio Tinto locked-out these workers for refusing to sign away basic civil and human rights.  The company hired armed guards in paramilitary uniforms and had helicopters fly overhead to threaten employees. Rio Tinto is trying to starve the families into signing an illegal ultimatum that’s being investigated by US government officials. 

Rio Tinto’s human rights record & legacy of shame

Rio Tinto has a long record of abusing human rights and the environment across the globe from Colombia, Kalimantan, Orissa, India, Alaska, Namibia, Mapoon to Madagascar.

Bad for business

Corporate malfeasance isn’t just bad for the environment and communities, it’s hurting shareholders:

• In March, Rio Tinto executives in China plead guilty and to serious bribery charges, harming the company’s reputation and costing shareholders a small fortune.

• Rio Tinto is facing massive potential damages in the US courts for "crimes against humanity, war crimes, and racial discrimination" alleged to have been committed  against the people of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

• In 2008, he Norwegian Ministry of Finance decided to exclude the company Rio Tinto from the Government Pension Fund, the world's second-largest divesting $870 million in Rio Tinto stock.  The decision was to protest the company’s "unethical" partnership with Freeport McMoRan at the infamous Grasberg mine in Irian Jaya where local citizens have been murdered.

• In 2003, Australian mining families won the nation’s largest settlement of its kind when Rio Tinto paid $25 million to 190 coal workers it had victimised at the Hunter Valley and Mount Thorley mines in the 1990s.

Rio Tinto should respect the law and work with employees and local communities to solve problems together in a positive way.

• In Boron, California, Rio should end the lockout and negotiate a fair contract with employees. 

• In Bougainville, Rio Tinto should apologise for past injustices and compensate for past misdeeds.