London: Call for justice at mining company AGM

Protestors outside the Lonmin 2019 AGM, London

Members of the London Mining Network, including representatives of faith groups, protested outside Lonmin's Annual General Meeting yesterday, while others attended the meeting where the London-listed company announced profits of US$100 million.

Lonmin spoke of preserving its assets rather than investing in the company, ahead of a takeover bid by the gold mining giant Sibanye-Stillwater. Lonmin executives urged shareholders to back the bid by the South African corporation, in a meeting that would have been focused on salvaging profit and shares, were it not for an alliance of Marikana solidarity groups present.

From Ethical Shareholders Germany, Markus Dufner asked about Sibanye-Stillwater's terrible track record on worker fatalities - with 24 deaths in 2018 alone. Lonmin Chair Brian Beamish explained that the company is advising its successor on how to improve standards. This is despite Lonmin's own failure to be held to account over the 2012 Marikana massacre in which mine workers were killed for demanding improved working conditions. On 16 August 2012, Lonmin had called in South African police to end a strike of miners at the Marikana platinum mine. The police killed 34 miners and injured more than 70 at what is known as the Marikana Massacre. Since the massacre, Lonmin has been accused of complicity in processes of intimidation, criminalisation and incarceration of miners and their families, with many still imprisoned for their actions during the strike while impunity reigns for the corporation's executives despite the allegations against them.

Despite Lonmin's improving financial performance, Beamish described Marikana as a "social project for housing and education" and "one which shareholders aren't getting anything out of". Members of the solidarity alliance responded by reminding Lonmin that it had accumulated vast profits from Marikana over decades-paying $607 million in dividends to its shareholders in the four years prior to the massacre and diverting $160 million to a tax haven in Bermuda-whilst failing to fulfill its legal obligations to provide its workers and the community with affordable housing and decent living conditions.

The takeover threatens 12,600 mine worker jobs, which Lonmin executives said could not be saved. Other questions from the alliance included ones about the community's Social Labour Plan, the unresolved issue of compensation for the widows of the Marikana massacre, and the company's environmental record.

Seven environmental incidents concerning the Marikana mine and its waste took place in 2018. On 26 February 2018, some 4,000 tons of slurry from a bulk tailings treatment pipeline spilled into the surrounding area in Marikana, including into a river. Answering the question of how the British-South African company will ensure these incidents do not happen again, Beamish said: "We're a responsible operator, we do not contaminate the environment at all if we can help it".

Many shareholders were unhappy with the questions from the solidarity alliance, with one telling the board and the alliance that they should "have a private meeting; we just want to find out about our shares".

Around 30 demonstrators gathered outside the venue, demanding justice for Marikana and reading out the names of the 34 murdered mine workers.

Link: www.londonminingnetwork.org