The Pilbara killer will harm nothing but the iron ore price:
Rio Tinto chairman Dominic Barton has signalled the miner will set targets for the preservation of nature and biodiversity to bring international sustainability standards to projects in developing nations.
Rio’s sustainability credentials have been questioned this week by big European investors who are considering whether to divest from the miner over its minority stake in an Amazonian bauxite to alumina business.
The bauxite spat received little attention at Rio’s annual meeting of British shareholders on Thursday night, with investors instead questioning directors and management over whether they could achieve sustainability standards while working on Guinea’s Simandou iron ore project.
Of course, it will not harm anything. Working with a military junta and Chinese SOE guarantees no harm will happen be reported.
I expect that in due course, the Simandou Ranges and their accompanying hundreds of kilometres of pits, roads, a permacloud of dust, and noninvasive railways will be opened up as a wildlife reserve in themselves.
After all, the best way to ensure a species’ future is to preserve as many specimens as possible by impressing them deep into the natural concrete underpinning the capital works.
The ecosystem of Guinea is not the problem. No. No. No!
It is the ecosystem of corrupt iron ore-dependent economies with attached property bubbles that are at risk of extinction.
