MORE than 6,000 villagers living near Rio Tinto’s ilmenite and monazite mine in Madagascar are preparing to sue the company over alleged environmental contamination, said the Financial Times. The case highlights the risks facing miners as western nations race to secure rare earth supplies.
UK law firm Leigh Day, representing the villagers, told the newspaper a lawsuit would be filed this year unless the parties reach a settlement. The claimants allege that Rio’s subsidiary QIT Madagascar Minerals has contaminated local waterways with hazardous materials including uranium through its extraction operations.
Rio disputes the allegations, saying its handling of monazite — a radioactive rare earth mineral extracted as a byproduct of ilmenite production — complied with legal and regulatory obligations, and that commissioned studies showed radiation levels were below national and international limits.
The matter comes to surface as western governments intensify efforts to reduce dependence on China’s dominance of the rare earths sector, vital for electric vehicles, wind turbines and defence systems. Beijing’s imposition of export controls last year sharpened those concerns, but environmental contamination in the rare earths industry is not new.
Rare earth production in Myanmar has been linked to water acidification and agricultural damage through in situ leaching, a cheap but destructive extraction method. In the US, previous owners of the Mountain Pass mine now operated by MP Materials were held liable for hazardous waste spills in the 1980s and 1990s.
Analysts warn that hard-rock rare earth projects carry heightened risks of radioactive waste, and that regulators often lack the expertise to monitor them adequately, said the Financial Times.
