miningmagazine.com
Anglo's Kabwe role challenged in new report
A new report written by mining historian Duncan Money for Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) presents a compelling challenge to Anglo American's position that it is not responsible for the devastating lead pollution that blights the Zambian town of Kabwe.Kabwe, home to more than 300,000 people, is one of the world's most polluted towns. It grew in close proximity to the Broken Hill lead and zinc mine and smelter, which began extraction in 1904 and closed in 1994.Anglo American denies responsibility for the pollution, claiming it was only ever involved as an indirect minority shareholder that provided certain technical services to the mine. It claims it at no stage owned or operated the mine.Money found internal company records in a Zambian archive that appear to show that the mine operated as a direct subsidiary of Anglo American, taking orders directly from the then Johannesburg-based miner.