CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT
Today [April 26, 2023], Newmont—the largest gold mining company in the world—is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM). This year, Newmont will be focused on pitching shareholders on its proposed acquisition of Australia’s Newcrest Mining Limited. On the other side of the world, Haitian organizations continue to protest its activities in the country’s Massif du Nord mountain range.
Newmont conducted exploration in Haiti between 2009 and 2013 under permits that covered swathes of the country’s North but has been unable to exploit its now-expired concessions due to political and legal obstacles. A revised Mining Law, drafted with World Bank assistance and presented to Parliament in 2017, has yet to pass due to Haiti’s ongoing political crisis. If and when it does pass, it is believed that industrial gold mining would commence. However, the gravity of the humanitarian situation in the country presents another significant hurdle for Newmont: recent reports suggest that gang violence, disease, and food insecurity continue to escalate.
Since 2013, the Global Justice Clinic has worked in solidarity with social justice and community organizations in Haiti who oppose metal mining. In the small, densely populated country, where many depend on subsistence agriculture, the environmental and human rights impacts of Newmont’s proposed open-pit mines would be disastrous.
This April, communities in the North of Haiti marked Newmont’s AGM by renewing their opposition to the company’s presence on their land. Sixteen local organizations signed a declaration which reiterates their resistance to metal mining and denounces, in the strongest terms, the environmental harm and loss of livelihoods that Newmont’s proposed mine would entail. Their declaration calls on all the communities in the world suffering under the threat of mining operations to “bring our strength and energy together to defend our lives.”
To bring these concerns to the attention of investors, the Global Justice Clinic has published a brief setting out a business case against Newmont’s proposed mining operations in Haiti. In the view of the Clinic and its partners, the material, environmental, and human rights risks of metal mining in Haiti outweigh the value of any investment. Newmont should dissolve its Haitian subsidiaries and responsibly disengage from the country, including by cleaning up its encampments.
April 26, 2023.
