Just last week, for example, a story from Chile reported that the country's environment agency had levied a $16.4-million fine -- the largest possible -- against Barrick Gold Corp. for "very serious" violations of its permit related to water protection measures. Indigenous communities near the $8.5-billion mine -- so often the victims of mining initiatives -- cheered the decision.
On the very same day, a new report by World Vision, the Christian charity, documented the widespread use of children as young as eight working in the harsh conditions of African mines. Their report focuses on the Congo and doesn't name names. But the phenomenon covers most of the continent. All mining is tough and nasty. In poor countries, not least the Congo where Canadian mines are prominent, it's positively hellish.
In far too many of those mines, worker safety is irrelevant, wages are scandalously low, managers routinely bribe officials, companies pay trivial royalties and taxes, human rights abuses are widespread, conflict and violence are common, and environmental degradation is ubiquitous
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