One of the world's biggest mining companies [Rio Tinto, through its subsidiary QIT Madagascar Minerals] has been given permission to open up an enormous mine on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar which will involve digging up some of the world's most unique forest. The decision has outraged campaigners at Friends of the Earth...Andrew Mackenzie, head of Industrial Minerals, the product group of Rio Tinto responsible for the mine, said yesterday: 'We believe we have done everything we can do to minimise the impact on what I would say was an inevitable decision.'