By kakteen @ Shutterstock.com
Mining. Lots of mining. Toxic & Criminal. Airstrips, too. Illegal ones.
Mining companies apparently have taken a not-so-ecological interest in the Amazon rainforest.
From a publication called Mining Technology, February 12, 2018:
The Amazon rainforest in South America has large quantities of copper, tin, nickel, bauxite, manganese, iron ore and gold, making it attractive to mining companies all around the world.
Nickel and manganese, explains Francis Menton, are the big inputs to the electric vehicle batteries. “Bauxite is ore for aluminum, the main material needed, along with copper, for the huge amounts of new electric transmission lines that need to be built to support wind and solar power. Iron ore? Vast amount of that will be needed for the coming onslaught of wind turbine bases.
So is it just gold and tin that people are looking for? Or are there lots of other, higher-volume materials to be found?
On 3 August, the NYT’s 3 published a front-page article meant to get people riled up, writes the Manhattan Contrarian.
The obvious purpose of this lengthy Times piece is to get you outraged about the criminal mining wildcatters now said to be swarming the Amazon jungle.
The piece starts with research conducted by the Times, using satellite photographs, that has identified a large number of airstrips — close to 1300 of them — that have been carved into the Amazon jungle, and that are now being used to bring in supplies to support the development of new mines.
Who Is Funding the Big New Mines?
According to Mr. Menton, “Undark” (magazine) informs readers that all the major American financial institutions — “the same ones that are now boycotting the fossil fuel industries” — are lining up to finance the big new mines in the Amazon:
U.S.-based financial institutions are among their top funders, according to a new report by Amazon Watch and the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous People, or APIB. . . .
The report focuses on nine mining companies, including Vale, Anglo American, Belo Sun, and Glencore. . . . Capital Group, BlackRock, and Vanguard, which collectively invested $14.8 billion in the mining companies, are the top U.S. investors named in the report. The leading U.S.-based creditor is Bank of America, which provided $670 million in loans and underwriting services to the companies. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were also named as top creditors.
The Manhattan Contrarian reminds readers that this mining is for EV batteries, transmission lines, wind turbine bases, and all other kinds of good things to make the world “green.”
Of course all the big financial institutions are behind it. It’s ESG investing!
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