Category: Mining

Sustainability is one of the main arguments supported by synthetic diamonds manufacturers to promote their product as an alternative to mined diamond. Sustainability is perceived in terms of carbon footprints, ecology and social/human impact.… Read More

The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

From 26-28^thof November 2018, the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights was held in Geneva. The Forum is the world’s largest annual gathering on business and human rights with more than 2,000 participants from government, business, community groups and civil society, law firms, investor organizations, UN bodies, national human rights institutions, trade unions, academia and the media [1].… Read More

In the 1947, De Beers created the slogan, “A diamond is forever” (De Beers Group 2018). Little did they expect that several decades later, the same diamond could forever be a reminder of the atrocities of the diamond industry, in which conflict and violence were funded by the mines from which many of these diamonds had been harvested (Marr 2018).  … Read More

The 21^st Century is rife with narratives of threats and opportunities arising out of dramatic climate shifts. Contemporary transfiguration of the Arctic marinescape attest to this trend: for perhaps the first time in 100,000 years, the northern extremities are traversable by deep sea fishing vessels.… Read More

For centuries, mining has been an important economic activity to many people in the world. And its impacts, economic, environmental or social may leave an irreversible mark on the landscape and on the lives of the people affected by it.… Read More

Colombia’s economy is rising. The country is experiencing a mining boom, particularly of coal. The coal-rich areas are often found in rural areas where indigenous communities live.In 1976 one of the largest open-pit coal mines of the world was built in the department La Guajira, in the Northeast of Colombia after signing a partnership agreement between the state (Carbones de Colombia SA), Carboncol and Intercor (subsidiary of Exxon).… Read More

Cryptocurrencies are the hot topic at the moment and many are trying to get their fair share of the profits. Mining cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoins, has become a lucrative business, since the blockchain technology on which they are built on require a verification of transaction through a network of people, or, miners.… Read More

I would like to provide an English summary of an interview with Simonetta Sommaruga, Minister of Justice of the Swiss Federal Council, by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) published on November 12th 2017.… Read More