“Given that Anglo American South Africa knew about children’s death from lead poisoning back in the late 1960s, what is stopping you from turning your attention towards the ongoing suffering of the people of Kabwe, to keep the promise of your own promises to remedy where you have done harm, and to do no harm?” said said Lydia Moyo, Kabwe community members and mother of two children impacted by the mine’s toxic pollution.
“Our ancestral lands embody not only physical territory but the soul and history of our people,” said Indigenous leader Datu Sukanda. “To disregard our voices is to undermine our very existence.”
Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg Mine is one of the world’s largest open-pit and underground copper and gold mines. Mining operations and tailings, which are laden with hazardous waste, repeatedly displace local communities, damage food supplies, and destroy aquatic life closely tied to traditional livelihoods.
