How much thought have you given to copper recently? My guess is that the answer is “not much” or “none at all.” I’d probably have said the same myself until recently, when I read Bill Carter’s fascinating new book, Boom, Bust, Boom. Its central theme is the author’s ongoing struggle with his conscience: how is he to reconcile his disgust with the ugliness of the copper-mining industry -- the yawning pits, the sulfuric acid dripping through mountains of crushed rock, the acid mine drainage -- with his dependence on copper for every aspect of his everyday life? And that includes his dreams of a future economy powered by renewable energy.
I was forcefully reminded of Carter’s dilemma last week by a news item from newly democratic Myanmar, once known as Burma. It concerned a copper mine called Letpadaung. This began life as a 50-50 joint venture between a Canadian company, Ivanhoe Mines, and the military government of Myanmar. Two years ago, Ivanhoe’s share was bought out by a subsidiary of the giant state-owned Chinese company NORINCO -- the China North Industries Corporation. NORINCO is best known as a manufacturer of weapons systems for the People’s Liberation Army, though its tentacles also reach into engineering and infrastructure projects such as highways, dams, power plants, and subway systems; precision optics; retail vehicle sales; and microelectronics; as well as mining. Think of it as Halliburton, IBM, and Lockheed Martin all rolled into one.
Last Thursday, riot police used water cannons, tear gas, and incendiary devices to attack a peaceful encampment of protesters at the Letpadaung mine site -- an assortment of Buddhist monks, peasants complaining of illegal land seizures, and activists taking advantage of the country’s recent democratic opening -- who had been protesting for months against a proposed billion-dollar expansion. When the raid was over, dozens were injured; videos from a local hospital showed saffron-robed monks disfigured by burns.
This was just the latest in a string of similar events around the world. Five protesters against a new gold and copper mine were killed in Peru while I was there earlier this year (a story I tell in the current issue of OnEarth); a few weeks earlier, two more Peruvians had died during protests against another copper mine; and just days before the Myanmar attack, the Democratic Republic of Congo saw a new warlord and accused war criminal, Bosco "The Terminator" Ntaganda, seize control of the province of North Kivu. The endless bloodletting in North Kivu is explained by the fact that it contains some of the richest mineral deposits on the planet -- including copper, gold, cobalt, tungsten, and 70 percent of the world’s supply of tantalum, a mineral critical to our cell phones, tablets, and computers.
tungsten rod manufacturer
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