TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Tanzanian locals have sued African Barrick Gold (ABG) in the UK for the alleged deaths and injuries caused by security and police guarding the company's North Mara mine, which has a history of illegal artisanal mining.

On November 19, the claimants in the proceedings against ABG would seek orders from the English court, requiring the company to hand over internal documents and take other steps to get the cases to trial.

UK law firm Leigh Day partner Shanta Martin, who was currently representing the Tanzanian claimants, on Thursday travelled to Ottawa, where she called on the company and its parent, Barrick Gold, to “live up to their corporate responsibility and human rights commitments”.

"Impoverished people from remote rural villages who sue multinational companies often face incredible obstacles to having their claims heard by an independent arbiter,” Martin said in a press release.

At the North Mara mine, which had been ABG’s best performer over recent months, the company had been dealing with deterring illegal artisanal miners from entering the property. Martin reported that impoverished villagers, tempted onto the North Mara mine to illegally scratch out rocks for tiny amounts of gold, were regularly being shot at with live ammunition.

Barrick acquired North Mara, when it took over Placer Dome in 2006. It later spun out ABG, which floated on the LSE in 2010.

ABG CEO Brad Gordon, who in September revealed that the company would rebrand later this month in an effort to break the association with Barrick Gold, at the Denver Gold Forum commented: “By taking the operation [North Mara] underground, we’re taking the heat out of the social challenges posed by illegal miners.

According to him, the company had managed to drive the number of incursions down from about 14 000 to about 2 000 a week.

ABG on Thursday pointed out to Mining Weekly Online that it had made a comprehensive effort to improve community relations and security at North Mara to prevent violent confrontation, which was reflected in a 35% reduction in the number of illegal miners on site in 2013 compared with 2012. This reduction followed five years of consecutive increases in the number of intruders on site.

ABG reported in May 2011, that five men were shot and killed and 12 intruders, as well as police, were injured when a group of 1 500 locals armed with machetes, rocks and hammers illegally entered the mine and tried to remove run-of-mine ore from the leach pad.

London-based Leigh Day was assisting at least nine local villagers to pursue claims against ABG and its Tanzanian subsidiary North Mara Gold Mines in the High Court of England and Wales for deaths and injuries they claim were a result of the excessive use of force by mine security and police, including the frequent use of live ammunition.

Six of the claims related to deaths by gunshot, while injured young men brought three claims, including one man made paraplegic by a gunshot wound through his spine, the law firm reported.

Two nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), Ottawa-based MiningWatch Canada and British group Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), also commented on the ongoing violence, saying they had completed a visit to the North Mara mine in June and July, where they had documented continuing incidents of lethal force used by police securing the mine.

MiningWatch and RAID reported that health staff in local medical facilities said at least ten victims had allegedly died from gunshot wounds received at the mine in a two-month period. Leigh Day on Thursday said it had informed ABG in the past week of a further nine legal claims against the company relating to incidents in 2013 and 2014.

NGO OBSERVANCES

The two NGO’s also reported that they had found that the grievance mechanism put in place at North Mara was "seriously flawed" and, in a previous report, fingered ABG investigations into security incidents at the mine – which were regulated by Barrick’s Mine Investigations policy – as being a “cause of concern" and appearing "to constitute a gross invasion of privacy”.

The group's reported instances suggested that ABG investigators were given regular access to the medical records of victims of violence by mine police and they routinely questioned and photographed seriously injured people awaiting treatment in nearby hospitals and clinics, as well as their family members.

Further, the grievance system was found by the NGOs to only provide remedies to victims of illegal mining on condition that the victims signed a legal waiver, relinquishing the right to launch a civil action against the company.

Leigh Day said several clients had attested to being specifically targeted to forgo their legal claims and sign up to the mine's grievance mechanism.

"We know ABG have these documents and have reviewed them; they have referred to the documents in correspondence since at least 2012. We will be asking the court to require the company to hand them over promptly, as we say they should have two years ago,” Martin said of the November 19 proceedings.

It was not the first time the Tanzanian villagers had challenged ABG’s approach to the litigation. In August 2013, the claimants obtained an injunction to stop ABG from suing them in Tanzania, where they had no legal representation.

ABG’s subsidiary applied to have a local Tanzanian court declare that they could not be responsible for the conduct of police paid to provide security at the mine. However, the application was denied after Leigh Day obtained an injunction to stop ABG and its subsidiary from proceeding.

PROCEDURAL HEARING

An ABG spokesperson told Mining Weekly Online that the November 19 court case constituted a “very minor procedural court hearing that would lay out the course of the case over next year”, adding that the claim had been ongoing since the company received a pre-action letter in early 2012.

ABG noted that since then, the number of claimants and the scope of the allegations in the claim had been reduced. "Many claimants in this action, as well as a similar action brought by a different firm in Canada, have elected to withdraw from this claim and apply to the grievance mechanism at North Mara, under which they have received a settlement package," the company said in a statement.

The company chalked-up the reduction in intruders to a number of initiatives which started with signing Village Benefit Agreements (VBA) and Village Benefit Implementation Agreements (VBIA) in 2011. The VBA/VBIAs provide for investment across health, water, education and alternative livelihoods within the seven villages surrounding the mine and have significantly improved the relationships with the community. To date, ABG said it had spent $15.5-million on implementing the agreements.

It added that staff continued to receive training to ensure they were prepared and equipped to manage situations that arose, while ensuring full compliance with the UN Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.