The mining company Anglo Gold Ashanti is one of the six companies nominated for the award of worst company of the year, in the contest ”Public Eye”, organized annually by Green Peace.  

Source: Semana.com

Jan/30/2011.The particular contest aims at putting on the spot the “most cruel” to the environment. And to the judgment of the organizers, the activities of the South African multinational has contaminated “the earth and the people” of Ghana as a consequence of the excessive extraction of gold in this African country.  The company is in the phase of exploration in the polemic Project of “La Colosa”, in Cajamarca, (Tolima). It is figured that this could become the largest gold extraction mining zone in the country.

Green Peace points that the damage of the mining activity in Ghana are now irreversible. Environmentally, it holds the company responsible for the destruction of 50 rivers. Many of those rivers have gone dry due to the erosion resulting from the extraction of gold, and other rivers are seriously contaminated since the great majority of toxic waste from this activity is poured into them. Even though the company, in 2004, had compromised to mitigate environmental damage, we point that in February 2010 the Agency for Environmental Protection of the country had to close two mines because the company continued affecting the rivers which provided water to the communities. On the other hand, the company is nominated to the indecorous award for the increasing designations related to violations of human rights which include reports of torture and assassinations from the part of the personnel in the private security of the company.

The company issued a release which points that its corporative policies are of responsibility towards the environment and society. Regarding the situation in Ghana, in particular, they explain that any accusations should be made on the context of over 110 years of mining. And that, in the past, the minerals were extracted using methods which do not comply with current environmental standards.  Nevertheless, it points that since the company started working in the country in 2004, they have invested 765 million dollars in operations which have allowed the strengthening of the country infrastructure and repairing as much as possible any damages to the environment.

Since the year 2000, the environmental organization Green Peace has had a contest to elect the companies that have perpetrated the “most cruel environmental offenses”. The award is given on the same date of the World Economic Forum, the most important economic event in the world, which happens in Davos, Switzerland every year. The award has two categories, one that is elected by a group of experts recruited by the organizers, and one that is elected by the public via Internet voting.

The other nominated companies are BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; FoxConn, for violations to the workers rights in Hong Kong; Nestle Oil, for the irregular acquisition of palm oil in Malasia and Indonesia; Philip Morris, for the lobby regarding anti smoking laws in Uruguay, and Axpo, for the extraction of uranium in Russia, one of the most unstable areas of the planet.

The other "winners"

In the past editions, the following multinational companies have received the dishonorable award. Currently, Green Peace displays them in a section of the contest page, called  “the hall of shame”:

2010

Royal Bank Canada

Roche

2009

Newmont

BKW FMB Energie AG

2008

Glencore

Areva

2007

Novartis

Bridgeston

2006

City Group Inc.

Walt Disney

Wal Mart

2005

Shell

Dow Chemical

KPMG