A corporate watchdog is calling for the London Bullion Market Association to suspend the membership of one of the world’s biggest gold refineries for its alleged failure to act over claims of human rights and environmental abuses at a mine in Tanzania. The UK-based Raid group says the Swiss-Indian venture MMTC-PAMP, which supplies gold to Apple, Nokia, Disney, Amazon, Tesla and others, has not fully investigated claims police guarding the North Mara mine have beaten, shot and sometimes killed locals. Last year the Guardian reported on the alleged violations as part of the Green Blood investigative journalism project with the Forbidden Stories consortium. Following this publication, Apple, Nokia and Canon said they would ask MMTC-PAMP to look into the claims, and the refinery announced it would assess its gold supply chain from Tanzania and arrange for a site visit by an independent expert. The visit took place on in November under conditions that made it difficult for the independent expert, Synergy Global Consulting, to make a full and fair evaluation of the situation, according to Raid.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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