The Wire

Oxfam Australia has released a report condemning a failed Australian mining company, saying it’s responsible for the devastation of fishing stocks on the small island of Rapu Rapu in the Phillipines. Lafayett Mining Limited, a copper-zinc-gold-silver mine, was responsible for a cyanide spill in 2005 that contaminated local seas, killing fish, the main source of income for the local population. Further fish kills occurred in 2006 and 2007 before the company went into voluntary administration in December 2007. And while economists laud the Australian mining industry as the buffer against the economic crisis, Oxfam is calling on the government to regulate the way our companies operate overseas.