tagged w/ Mining
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Back in July last year in a boardroom of a western Australian free-market think tank, the extrovert British climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton was holding court.
The topic for discussion? How to better capture the Australian media to help push a right-wing, free-market and climate sceptic agenda.
At the time, Lord Monckton was in Australia at the behest of a mining association to deliver a series of talks on climate change and spread his conspiracy theories that human-caused climate change is a left-wing plot to bring down the West.
At one point during the tour, Monckton told a boisterous partisan crowd:
"So to the bogus scientists who have produced the bogus science that invented this bogus scare I say, we are coming after you. We are going to prosecute you, and we are going to lock you up."Back in July last year in a boardroom of a western Australian free-market think tank,... more
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Sister Valsa John wanted to go home. Living in self-imposed exile hundreds of kilometres away, she pined for the hut in an aboriginal village where she had built a life. She talked about the people she loved there, and the quiet of the nights. Then she added, in a voice both wistful and matter-of-fact: “If I go home, most probably they will kill me.”
They did kill her. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a mob of 25 or 30 men carrying spears, clubs and axes burst into her house in Pachuwara, a remote village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. They beat and hacked her to death, a week after she went home.
The “they” Sister Valsa feared were “goons” hired by the mining companies she had helped the community of Pachuwara fight. The “coal mafia” told her on more than one occasion to get out of Pachuwara or they would kill her. She had repeatedly appealed to police for protection after threats on her life.
Sister Valsa, 52, was from Kerala in south India, and 24 years ago took her vows as a member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. She was one of the remarkable breed of Indian religious figures who are grassroots social activists, who immerse themselves in the most marginalized and impoverished communities and work on literacy, basic health care and human rights. Sister Valsa said she did Jesus’s work by teaching the aboriginal people – known in India as adivasi or “tribals” – about their rights to their land.
The Santhal community with whom she lived for nearly two decades were pushed off their land seven years ago by a private coal company. It was a familiar story here. Across the tribal heartland of India there are hundreds of these battles being waged, between communities with little education and even fewer resources, and huge mining and industrial corporations whose investments are eagerly sought by India’s state and central governments for the jobs they create, the taxes they pay – and the opportunities for graft they offer.
Sister Valsa helped organize the Santhal to demand compensation for their land; she was arrested at a protest in 2007. The company, Panem Coal Ltd., was eventually forced into a compensation agreement, and began to dig an open-cast coal mine, but didn’t meet all the terms of the deal. So when it moved to expand on to new Santhal land this year, Sister Valsa and her Santhal supporters dug in to stop them – and that is when the threats turned really ugly.
This past summer, Sister Valsa reluctantly left Pachuwara and took refuge with a friend, a fellow activist nun, at a school for low-caste girls in Bihar where I have been spending time on a project for the Globe. She fit easily into life there, gently shepherding the girls through their day, but she spent hours talking to me about “my people” and the war for land and resources going on in the tribal belt.
A few of these stories have attracted considerable attention, in India and beyond its borders, such as efforts by Vedanta Resources to build a bauxite mine on a mountain considered a god by the Dongri tribal people in the state of Orissa. But most of these fights go on, as Sister Valsa’s did, almost entirely unremarked.
snip
Inspector R. K. Mallick, the senior police official in the region, told The Globe and Mail it was too soon to discuss the investigation, but that police would soon have “the clear picture.” No arrests had yet been made. He would not entertain the question of whether police could have done more to protect Sister Valsa while she was alive. Three years ago, she filed a formal notice with police about the death threats.
Sister Sudha, who attended the funeral Thursday, said most who knew Sister Valsa believe it was people from the Santhal community, in the pay of the mining company, who killed her. “This is what the companies do: they divide people. When people are this poor, when someone gives them a little money, they can do anything,” she said. “Valsa knew it, and so many times we asked her to leave. But she said, ‘These are my people and I cannot leave them.’ ”
More at the linkSister Valsa John wanted to go home. Living in self-imposed exile hundreds of... more
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A "Suck You" Halloween Message from the Vampires at Rio Tinto/Kennecott Minerals: Suck the Anishinaabe and the Environment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8DZPyUFiB8
Happy Halloween from your friends at Rio Tinto - Kennecott.
We’re celebrating the holiday by blowing up a frickin rock
The Eagle is sacred you say – we think not.
When money’s at play – the Anishinaabe can rot
To the Indians we say – just go away - suck the tribe
To the elected we say - money’s at play – offer the bribe
Mass murder and what not – that’s how we roll.
The fun of raping Eagle Rock – right in the hole.
We’ve told our kids it’s no fun to camp
It’s more fun as a blood sucking vamp
To us the Upper Peninsula is a place to trash.
At Rio Tinto Kennecott – we’re monsters that mash.
Suck you………
This is ArchAngel: The Environmental Hitman
Evil is as Evil Does
This is ArchAngel: The Environmental Hitman does not encourage or promote violence against the evildoers – but we will expose them….A "Suck You" Halloween Message from the Vampires at Rio Tinto/Kennecott... more
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"Rep. Raul Grijalva, environmental groups, American Indian tribes, ranchers, sportsmen and others have been on the opposite side of the Republican lawmakers, advocating for a permanent withdrawal of the land from new mining claims. They contend that the mining industry cannot guarantee that extracting uranium would not contaminate water sources, endanger public health or cripple the tourism industry.""Rep. Raul Grijalva, environmental groups, American Indian tribes, ranchers,... more
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Cabal
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4 months ago
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The regulation that Obama has backed down on has to do with the emissions that cause smog and other contaminants in the air. These contaminants are what is behind the uptick in cases of asthma, allergies, and other respiratory illnesses.The regulation that Obama has backed down on has to do with the emissions that cause... more
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On Sunday, August 21, the BLM began the White Mountain/Little Colorado roundup in Wyoming. As of Tuesday, the BLM reports that 355 horses have been removed from their families and homes on the range and three horses have been killed during the roundup. The BLM daily reports are available here.
Approximately 500 miles away, the Triple B roundup is taking place outside of Ely, Nevada. This is the fifth week of this roundup, the largest roundup of the summer, and as of Tuesday, August 23, the BLM reports that 1,182 horses have been captured and 10 horses have been killed in the roundup, the majority of them young foals. The BLM plans to remove 1,726 horses from the nearly 1.7-million-acre Triple B Complex. The BLM daily reports are available here. Also see AWHPC eyewitness reports from Triple B
The Triple B Complex wild horse roundup is the largest roundup scheduled for the summer of 2011. During this six to seven week roundup, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to remove 1,726 horses (according to the agency’s Decision Record). According to the BLM, this will supposedly leave 432 horses on the nearly 1.7 million-acre Complex (see Complex breakdown below). That means there will only be 1 horse for more than 3,900 acres (or every six square miles). AWHPC representatives have looked for horses in this vast area prior to the roundup – it was difficult to find horses. After the roundup, it will be nearly impossible for American citizens to visit the Triple B Complex and view wild horses.
Despite the BLM’s claims of reform, the agency is pushing full steam ahead with removal of nearly 4,000 horses in the three-month period from July through September 2011 – the Triple B roundup is just one of the summer roundups scheduled. These removals are taking place because Congress increased the agency’s budget by $12 million for fiscal year 2011. Without that budget increase, the BLM would not have been able to proceed with these costly, unnecessary and inhumane roundups.
Quick Facts
The Triple B Complex is comprised of the Triple B, Maverick-Medicine HMAs, and portion of Antelope Valley HMA west of U.S. Highway 93 are located in northwestern White Pine and southern Elko Counties approximately 30 miles northwest of Ely, Nevada, and 70 miles southeast of Elko, Nevada.
Triple B HMA: ~1,225,000 acres; AML 250-518 wild horses
Maverick-Medicine HMA: ~337,134 acres; AML 166-276 wild horses
Antelope Valley HMA (west of U.S. Highway 93): ~97,070 acres; AML 16-27 wild horsesOn Sunday, August 21, the BLM began the White Mountain/Little Colorado roundup in... more
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Welcome to my first installment of Biorhythms on Current Earth Care. I hope to do more to bring conversation, awareness and news on the environment that we don't see on MSM and items that help us see our connection to Earth. There is much more to come so don't be fooled by my mild manner this time. I'm just getting started.;-)
Thanks to everyone for their support. It most certainly is a labor of love.
Also, credit goes to my wonderful son Justin who is my cameraman ;-) and Mother Nature who provided the scenery.Welcome to my first installment of Biorhythms on Current Earth Care. I hope to do more... more
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“Patagonia without dams!” Ms. Bañados, 19, shouted with the others, pumping a fist in the air.
“The government is saying we will be left without energy, but it’s a lie,” she said. “They are just trying to scare us. But we won’t be scared away, because we know we’re right.”
By the time Ms. Bañados reached Chile’s presidential palace, some demonstrators had begun hurling stones and pieces of wood at the armored police vehicles. As sirens blared, the police responded by firing water cannons on the crowd, driving protesters back.
Other protests took place in several more Chilean cities. In what has become a surprising national movement, organizers have mounted large protests for several weeks since a government environmental commission in May approved the $3.2 billion HidroAysén dam complex in a pristine region of Patagonia, known for breathtaking glaciers and lakes, that draws thousands of tourists a year.
The protest movement, which has resulted in 28 police officers’ being injured and more than $100,000 in damage to public property, has rattled the government of President Sebastián Piñera. His approval rating fell to 36 percent in May from 41 percent in April, in part because of the outcry over HidroAysén, according to Adimark, a Santiago-based research group.
While the government supports expanding hydroelectric power production, more than 60 percent of Chileans are against HidroAysén, polls show. After the commission’s decision, now the fight turns to the 1,912-kilometer (about 1,200-mile) transmission line yet to be approved. Many Chileans consider Patagonia a national treasure, and the battle to stop the project has inspired people to join the anti-dam cause to an extent that other environmental protest movements in South America have not.
HidroAysén is an especially tense subject in Chile because the country, more than its neighbors, is struggling to secure energy supplies to keep up with its economic growth. Chile will need to double its electricity capacity generation over the next 10 to 15 years, according to government officials and private energy analysts.
Chile has little oil or natural gas of its own. Importing gas became unreliable after Argentina began reneging on its commitments to ship gas to its neighbor starting in 2004. After the earthquake in Japan this year, Chile’s mining and energy minister, Laurence Golborne, said it would be “very difficult” now to build a nuclear plant, given fears that the quake raised about Chile’s own earthquake-prone geology.
Government officials say more energy is needed to raise the economic level of poorer Chileans, and to lower electricity prices, which in southern Chile average about twice those in Brazil.
More energy also will be needed to expand Chile’s mining sector — the engine of Chile’s economy, said James Brick, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy.
Brazil has embraced hydroelectric power, which produces about 80 percent of the country’s electricity. Chile produces about 40 percent of its energy from hydroelectric power. But HidroAysén, a planned complex of five dams on two rivers, would produce 18,430 gigawatts a year, which was about 35 percent of Chile’s total consumption in 2008. It would also flood a large part of a region dominated by national parks and reserves, say people opposed to the dams.
“This project is the tip of the spear to convert our Patagonia into a true service patio for energy generation,” said Luis Rendón, coordinator of Acción Ecológica, an environmental group.
Those opposing the dams say the government should focus on improving energy efficiency and boosting capacity for nonconventional renewable fuels like wind, solar and geothermal power.
“Compared to Brazil or Argentina, Chile is doing very little to incentivize renewables,” said Roberto Román, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Chile. “In 5 to 10 years, solar options will be cheaper than HidroAysén.”
continue“Patagonia without dams!” Ms. Bañados, 19, shouted with the others,... more
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A documentary about the children in the Bolivian mining town of Potosi where mining the Cerro Rico has been a way of life for centuries.A documentary about the children in the Bolivian mining town of Potosi where mining... more
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edmaka
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8 months ago
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/amnesty-says-vedantas-orissa-unit-poses-health-risk-co-refutes/137340/on
Rights group Amnesty International today said red mud pond, containing toxic residue, at Vedanta's aluminium refinery in Orissa poses "serious health risks" to local people, a contention denied by the mining major.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Resources#Criticism
The NGO Amnesty International has also come to criticize the company's record on human rights. It has stated, "[I]t is clear that Vedanta Resources and its subsidiaries […] have failed to respect the human rights of the people of Lanjigarh and the Niyamgiri Hills." They add, "The proposed bauxite mine […] threatens the survival of a protected Indigenous community […] However, these risks have been largely ignored and consultation with and disclosure of information to affected communities have been almost non-existent."
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib.http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/amnesty-says-vedantas-orissa-unit-poses-hea... more
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More concessions at the expense of our environment. Makes it hard for me to vote for people who do this. Our land isn't worth fighting for?More concessions at the expense of our environment. Makes it hard for me to vote for... more
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After weeks of peaceful protests, demonstrators, outnumbering police, have targeted buildings and set cars on fire in southeast Peru, where the government is allowing a Canadian firm to open a silver mine. Al Jazeera's Craig Mauro reports from Peru.After weeks of peaceful protests, demonstrators, outnumbering police, have targeted... more
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The Santa Fe Reporter's cover story yesterday (May 19), contrasts the opposition to all aspects of the nuclear industry that is fairly common in Santa Fe to the enthusiasm in the southern part of the state (and to some extent in Farmington) as evidenced at the conference in Hobbs, which stressed "New Mexico’s future as a focal point for the new nuclear age, in which economies rely increasingly on nuclear power and entire processing industries spring up around the “uranium fuel cycle,” which begins with mining and ends with waste disposal. Every stage of that process can be monetized--and nearly every stage has commercial operations in New Mexico."
http://www.foorumnm.com/news.php?news_id=358458The Santa Fe Reporter's cover story yesterday (May 19), contrasts the opposition... more
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As the Obama administration considers whether to put federal land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park off limits to future mining claims, a report by the Pew Environment Group shows many national parks and landmarks are in jeopardy due to a dramatic increase in gold, uranium and other hardrock claims. The report calls on the Obama administration on the eve of National Parks Week to use its power to protect these sites and work with Congress to modernize the 1872 mining law that still governs hardrock mining on public lands in the West.
Ten Treasures at Stake: New Claims and an Old Law Put Parks and Forests at Risk ( http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/reports/ten-treasures-at-stake-85899358611 ) uses federal data to map claims staked around 10 national parks, wilderness study areas, historic and cultural sites and other natural landmarks. On the list are Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Arches, Canyonlands and Joshua Tree National Parks; Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota; Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington; Siskiyou Wild Rivers in Oregon; Gila Wilderness in New Mexico; and Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah.
The report finds that more than 8,000 claims have been staked in national forest and other public land adjacent to the Grand Canyon since 2004, a 2,000 percent increase. More than two-thirds of the claims on public lands near Yosemite National Park and 99 percent of claims surrounding Arches and Canyonlands in Utah have been staked since 2005.
Signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, the 1872 law gives mining companies "free and open access" to nearly 350 million acres of public land. It also allows mining companies—even those that are foreign-owned—to take approximately $1 billion annually in gold and other metals from public lands without paying a royalty, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency has identified the hardrock mining industry as the nation's top polluter, citing more than $2 billion in federal spending over the past decade on mine cleanup.
After efforts to reform the 1872 law stalled in Congress in 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has called mining law reform a top priority, initiated a process under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to withdraw roughly 1 million acres of public land around the Grand Canyon threatened by uranium mining activity. On February 17, the Obama administration called for comment on four alternatives. They range from the original proposal of more than 1 million acres to as few as 300,000 acres protected, as well as an option that would allow new claim-staking to resume around the park. A final decision is expected this summer.
"The president has a unique opportunity to stand with leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and defend the Grand Canyon from uranium mining," said Jane Danowitz, U.S. public lands director for the Pew Environment Group. "With mining allowed on most public lands, the Obama administration should use its power to protect the Grand Canyon and other natural treasures. It should also address the root of the problem by working with Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to modernize the 1872 Mining Law. Protecting the Grand Canyon from mining is something on which lawmakers should agree."
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grand-canyon-threatened-by-mining-claims-119916839.htmlAs the Obama administration considers whether to put federal land surrounding Grand... more
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March 22, 2011, President Barack Obama visits San Salvador, the capital city of this Central American country. President Obama hopes to forge new alliances within the Americas and begin to, "stand with those who take responsibility — helping farmers grow more food, supporting doctors who care for the sick, and combating the corruption that can rot a society and rob people of opportunity". Return to El Salvador, a feature length documentary film narrated by Martin Sheen and directed by Jamie Moffett, will premiere on television stations throughout the country on March 26. Learn more about the feud and struggle of the Salvadorian people at www.returntoelsalvador.comMarch 22, 2011, President Barack Obama visits San Salvador, the capital city of this... more
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The world's biggest mining firm BHP Billiton has made record half-year profits thanks to strong demand and high prices.
link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12476574The world's biggest mining firm BHP Billiton has made record half-year profits... more
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eva2
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12 months ago
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Rare earth minerals are essential in the manufacturing of many electronics like mini harddrives and emerging nanotechnologies.
Bloomberg reports that Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board blocked a Chinese mining company from acquiring controlling interest in Lynas Corp, an Australian mining company, because “We have concluded that they would not be able to exclude the possibility that Lynas’ production could be controlled to the detriment of non-Chinese end users.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14/australia-blocked-china-rare-earth-takeover-on-concern-of-threat-to-supply.htmlRare earth minerals are essential in the manufacturing of many electronics like mini... more
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Barrick Gold Corp.’s North Mara mine near the Tanzanian border with Kenya disgorges millions of pounds of waste rock each week, piled high around communities where almost half the people live on less than 33 cents a day.
Security guards and federal police allegedly have shot and killed people scavenging the gold-laced rocks to sell for small amounts of cash, according to interviews with 28 people, including victims’ relatives, witnesses, local officials and human-rights workers.
“They are not arresting them or taking them to court,” said Machage Bartholomew Machage, a member of the Tarime District Council, the highest local government body. “They are just shooting them.”
At least seven people have been killed in clashes with security forces at the mine in the past two years, according to the 28 people interviewed. In at least four cases, police acknowledged the shootings in contemporaneous press accounts.
The dead include Mwita Werema, a father of four who was killed one day after gold set another record price in October 2009; Chacha Nyamakono, who was one year from becoming the first in his family to complete a basic education; and Daudi Nyagabure, shot in February, who was eager to build a future for his pregnant wife.
Fifteen people were seriously wounded in the same period, according to the Legal and Human Rights Center, a human-rights group in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, and Machage, who was the district council vice chairman until August.
Toronto-based Barrick and African Barrick Gold Plc, which is 74 percent-owned by the Canadian miner, pay the Tanzanian government for federal police protection at the mine and employ private armed guards, according to company documents.
The violence at North Mara is a brutal dividend of gold prices that have risen almost threefold in the past five years to a record $1,431.25 on Dec. 7.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/65489136/Barrick Gold Corp.’s North Mara mine near the Tanzanian border with Kenya... more
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A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. EP estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.
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By Michelle Castillo, TechLand, on December 15, 2010
Many of our electronic devices are made up of minerals like tantalum, used to make the capacitors in most cell phones, and tin, which makes up the inside lining of some cell phones and is used to solder circuit boards. Unfortunately, many of these materials come from conflict-ridden areas of the Congo, where increasing profits from electronic sales help fund the inhumane treatment of people who live and work in the country. The Enough Project, an advocacy group focused on ending genocide and crimes against humanity, estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.
According to Raise Hope for Congo, more than 5.4 million people have died from the continuous wars that ravage the country. The organization urges people to tell companies that they want conflict free products. Congo's minerals are especially attractive to electronic manufacturers because of unregulated mining practices and cheap labor. Minerals from the African nation cost half or a third as much the same materials from other countries, according to the Washington Post. Though the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act requires manufacturers to identify and get rid of conflict minerals in their products and similar legislation will be mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2011, Congolese mines are often controlled by armed groups and militias. These groups smuggle the minerals out of the country to smelting companies on other continents, which means the origin of the minerals can often be masked even from the company commissioning the product. Even though Congo's president announced a ban on all artisanal mining in eastern Congo last August, the ruling has not been enforced by the country's national military and has even negatively affected the citizens who work in the mines as a main source of income.
A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. Leading the pack was HP with an over 30 percent improvement. The company has endorsed anti-conflict mineral legislation and advocates for strong US regulations for all manufacturers. Apple, who uses tantalum not only in their smartphones but in iPods as well, were given a yellow score, which means there is much room for improvement. (Though several of their top executives have spoken out against conflict mineral mining in the Congo, they did not weigh in on key US conflict mineral legislation.) Toshiba received the worst score of the bunch; they have barely made any changes at all according to the study. Enough Project knows it may be hard for the average consumer to tell whether or not they are helping fund a war over natural resources just by looking at a product. Still, the group hopes that especially this holiday season when people are out shopping for the latest gadgets that by being little more knowledgeable about which companies are taking a stand against genocide and human rights abuses, shoppers can judge for themselves whether or not to support these crimes against humanity.
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Is Your Mobile Device or Laptop Funding Conflict Mineral Wars?
By Michelle Castillo on December 15, 2010
http://techland.time.com/2010/12/15/is-your-mobile-device-or-laptop-funding-conflict-wars/A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers,... more
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