“Mining Without Borders, Accountability Without Excuse: A Worldwide Call to Mining Companies”
Johannesburg / London / Vancouver / Santiago / Brisbane — 7 October 2025
On Wednesday 8th October 2025, South Africa convenes international industry leaders, policymakers and government officials amid pivotal changes in Africa’s mining landscape.
For over a century, Anglo American has stood as a pillar of South Africa’s business and industrial identity.
Now, that legacy of both pain and prosperity faces a reckoning as the proposed Anglo American–Teck Resources merger threatens to prioritise profit over people, planet, and shared accountability.
The combined group would operate in more than 20 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.
On the morning of 8th October 2025, Anglo American CEO Mr Duncan Wanblad steps to the podium in South Africa to deliver his scheduled keynote speech, “Anglo American’s perspective on South Africa as a mining jurisdiction”.
Industry leaders widely uphold the principle set by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM): “Metals and minerals power our homes, cities, and technologies… But this doesn’t give the industry a licence to mine at any cost. It deepens our duty to mine with care, transparency, and respect.”
As executives gather in Johannesburg, the voices of mining-affected communities, civil society organisations, labour unions, and environmental advocates echo across continents, reminding us that while corporations speak of “perspective,” the world’s communities speak of lived reality.
A Pattern That Spans Continents
Anglo American is accused of abandoning its birthplace while chasing new profits abroad, leaving behind unfulfilled promises and environmental harm.
“Before expanding a global footprint, corporations must first clean up their house,” says Reginald Letsholo, a youth activist from South Africa’s mining regions.
As affirmed by the United Nations Panel on Critical Minerals, “human rights must be at the core of all mineral value chains”.
Anglo’s recent losses through corporate restructuring, coupled with the proposed multi-billion-dollar merger has drawn sharp scrutiny from regulators, Indigenous peoples and civil society in various territories.
Across the globe, “critical minerals” are framed as progress yet often delivered through the same extractive patterns of empire.
The London Mining Network warns that the UK’s new Critical Minerals Strategy risks repeating colonial habits — where profits accumulate in London while communities in Africa and Latin America bear the costs.
This mirrors frustrations within South Africa’s own Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy, which seeks fairness and reciprocity, not dependency.
In Chile, movements such as MODATIMA insist that “our territories and ecosystems are not available to sustain an economy that brings destruction and death.”
Together, these perspectives reveal a truth: without justice and accountability, the global energy transition risks becoming another chapter of unequal extraction.
The UNDP Sourcebook on Managing Mining for Sustainable Development likewise affirms that Indigenous and local communities must be central to decision-making at every stage.
In Canada, Teck’s Elk Valley operations have been accused of polluting waterways with selenium, threatening fish and Indigenous lands. The Osoyoos Indian Band has challenged aspects of the merger, while Ecojustice Canada and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation call for transparency and full consultation before approval.
In Chile and Peru, Teck’s Quebrada Blanca and Anglo’s water-intensive copper mines face scrutiny for creating “sacrifice zones” of illness, animal deaths, and drought.
In London, civil society groups and global partners have delivered open letters demanding genuine remediation and ESG credibility from a company built on colonial extraction.
In Australia’s Bowen Basin, communities remember the 2020 Grosvenor mine explosion that injured five workers and prompted a Queensland inquiry into systemic safety failures. A 2024 mine fire renewed questions about methane, emissions, and the true meaning of “responsible mining.”
Together, these incidents form a pattern that has many looking to Mr Wanblad’s keynote for clarity and direction.
The message from civil society remains consistent: growth without integrity is no longer sustainable.
Mining-affected communities have posed urgent questions to CEO Duncan Wanblad: Why is Anglo American investing CAD $4.5 billion in Canada while new investments in South Africa stall? How can a company that generated more than USD$11.2 billion in South Africa last year see declining royalties and taxes at home?
And after eight South African and twelve global fatalities in five years, will safety and respect ever hold the same value as profit?
Mining can uplift nations — through infrastructure, jobs, skills, and innovation — but only if companies uphold the World Trade Organization’s Indigenous Peoples Declaration and the World Economic Forum’s Enabling Indigenous Trade framework, both of which affirm that inclusion and consent are essential to just and sustainable value chains.
As Duncan Wanblad addresses delegates in Johannesburg, sentiments are echoing from Vancouver to Santiago, from Brisbane to London: mining communities still want to believe that Anglo American can stand for something better — for balance, for fairness, for humanity, and for trust that must now be earned.
by The Tlou Mogale Foundation — independent coalition for mining accountability in South Africa