Latin American Donations Good for Mining

Maybe we’ll start getting some respect…

Latin American Donations Good for Mining By David J. DesLauriers 25 Jun 2007 at 10:00 PM TORONTO (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Recent announcements that Frank Giustra and Carlos Slim will donate US$100 million each to the Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative are highly positive for the mining sector. As Pierre Lassonde of Newmont fame stated in a recent interview with The Globe & Mail, “Although many of these mining conglomerates have spent millions on funding sustainable development, education, health and infrastructure in poorer countries, they have tended to do so in piecemeal fashion and, as a result, the industry still gets a bum rap”… “Mr. Giustra's ability to align his charitable push with the Clinton Foundation was both "genius" and "momentous," since it will help burnish the industry's image.” “It doesn't matter that each company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year helping hospitals and communities and whatnot," he said. "We get a bum rap. We're like the pinata of the world. All you have to do is take a stick and hit us and the money comes down. Everybody hits at us.” Indeed, Newmont [NYSE:NEM] and Teck Cominco [TSX:TCK-B; NYSE:TCK] have also signed on to be partners in the charity group, as have Canaccord and GMP. Both firms have had seen robust underwriting business from the present mining boom. Mining Industry Coming Together The general consensus among news reports that your correspondent has perused is that the mining industry is coming together here to help solve some of these problems, and indeed the publicity that goes along with the well-liked Clinton is going to be great for the sector. As a well-known and admired Democrat, Clinton’s lobbying should make it hard for the green groups and other troublemakers to continue to spread falsities, organize anti-mining rallies, and generally disturb the good business that Canadian mining companies have been attempting to proceed with in various countries. Background Your correspondent has covered the anti-mining brigade on several occasions in the past, noting in one story titled “The Anti-Mining Message Needs a Co-ordinated Response” that “anti-mining NGOs [non-government organizations] tend to multiply in the musk and slime of their own secretions.” We covered the Guatemalan situation in a story titled, “Guatemalan Gold Mine Opponents Try to Tarnish Glamis in Debate” and what looked like a potentially perilous situation emerging in Peru, “Could Anti-Mining Protests Turn Peru into the Next Guatemala?” More background for readers includes our story on the situation in Honduras where the church was making trouble for well-intentioned western mining companies “New Era for Mining & Exploration in Honduras” and an excellent review of Peter Munk’s thoughts on globalization and mining’s role called “Barrick’s Peter Munk Passionate About Globalisation’s Benefits.” Conclusion All of this to say, mining companies have suffered endless aggravation at the hands of anti-mining NGOs and other groups with no technical knowledge, and who are out to create nothing, and destroy the possibility of prosperity in impoverished areas. The mining community, made up of geologists and engineers who do not usually rank very high on the list of persuasive communicators able to build a brand with the media had a disjointed response that did not yield the sort of positive attention required to sway a naturally left-wing fourth estate. Frank Giustra with his Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative may have just cut the Gordian knot. © Copyright 2007, Resource Investor.

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