Press Release: New report reveals devastating human toll of Blyvooruitzicht Mine liquidation, 27 Jan 2017

The human toll of the abrupt closure of the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine in 2013 is devastating, according to a new FIDH and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) report. The two human rights organisations documented a widespread and precipitous decline in both environmental and socio-economic standards, since the Mine's collapse...“The catastrophe at Blyvooruitzicht is the result of a toxic cocktail involving private sector abdication of responsibility, inadequate implementation of the existing legislative framework and lack of anticipation of the severity of the impacts of a sudden liquidation of a major mining operation,” affirmed Michael Clements, lawyer and head of the Environmental Rights Program at LHR...“We have been dumped by the government and the gold mine,” said a member of the community interviewed during the research process...“Companies cannot show up, extract resources from the land, benefit from the labour of the people, and then just leave. They have responsibilities and legal obligations,” stated Alice Mogwe, FIDH Secretary General.