The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

Techa Beaumont (Mineral Policy Institute, Australia):

Good morning Mr. Argus, Mr. Goodyear, and fellow shareholders.

My question relates to the El Cerrejon mine in Colombia, a matter which has been raised a number of times before the meeting over previous years and which the board had committed to resolving.

My concern is a matter which I believe poses reputational risks to the company, thanks to the forced displacement of communities around this mining operation

In particular the community of Tabaco, which in previous years is an incident of violent displacement that the board has acknowledged as regrettable. Now internationally concern over this issue has been growing among stakeholders of BHP Billiton.

Most recently the union at the El Cerrejon mine has included in its bargaining position with the company a request that they address the unresolved issues around the forced displacement of these communities. The Salem City Council has also expressed resolutions--they’re buyers of Cerrejon coal--they’ve expressed, committed to resolutions condemning the human rights abuses at this mine, so it is a matter that is a growing concern and reputational risk to the company.

Community representatives have some simple and easily resolvable requests. In particular the community of Tabaco that I have referred to has sought a community relocation arrangement that will enable them to continue living together as a farming community in a different location. They have already located the land where they could move.

However according to our sources who have recently undertaken a delegation to Colombia, in a meeting held with El Cerrejon president Leon Teicher, he stated that the company will not negotiate with the communities as a whole for relocation, but they will only negotiate with individual families one by one. Now I want to commend BHP Billiton for committing to World Bank guidelines on resettlement. But what I would like to request is that these commitments become practice, not only principle.

I would just like to briefly read out the particular commitment, the particular principle I would like to see the company put into practice in this operation.

The World Bank principles state: “Patterns of community organization appropriate to the needs or consensus for communities are based on choices made by the displaced persons.

To the extent possible, the existing social and cultural institutions of resettlers of any host communities are preserved and resettlers’ preferences with respect to relocation in preexisting communities and groups are honored.”

This is not the case in the El Cerrejon mine, and therefore this is not the case in practice with BHP Billiton’s operations.

I sincerely hope that this will be the last time I will be before this Annual General Meeting presenting this tragic and rather tired issue. As such, I’d like the company to live up to these publicly stated commitments and ensure that as a matter of urgency negotiations to resolve these matters with the representatives of these communities as they request as groups and communities be undertaken.

Thank you very much.

Don Argus: This is certainly an old subject, and clearly I reject any assertions that there has been no attempt to pay compensation to these people. The vast majority of the people, there’s agreement being reached for relocation. You’re right that we are complying with the World Bank guidelines, and we’re making every reasonable effort to settle, bearing in mind that this problem that you outlined was there when we acquired this particular mine, and we’ve been endeavoring to settle that since. There is good will certainly on our part to do that, and we’ll continue to go down that path in terms of the guidelines set by the World Bank.

Techa Beaumont: Can you give us a commitment that the company is willing to negotiate collectively with the groups who are requesting to negotiate with the company collectively? Because I think that is in line with the principles that the company commits to. And I am really rather tired of coming here with these concerns year after year…

Don Argus: We leave it up to the individuals who are running the mine over there. They’re best placed to do that. You’re getting information third hand. You haven’t been there. We give a different story to you, and we’ll agree to disagree on lots of things.

But we have entered these negotiations with the utmost goodwill we don’t like to have these things drag on either. And we want to treat with these people properly and we’re trying to do that.

Techa Beaumont: Can we get some commitment at least from the board, after this meeting, to simply respond to my question as to whether you are willing to collectively negotiate with communities who wish to be relocated?

Don Argus: The only commitment that I’ll give you is that we leave it in the hands of the person in charge of the mine to be able to deal with the local communities as they see fit to give a proper resolution.

Techa Beaumont: So you are telling me that you are not willing to commit to the World Bank guidelines in practice as you are in principle.