Promises Broken
Thursday July 24, 2008
In April, local community members attended Rio Tinto’s Annual General Meeting where Chief Executive Bret Clayton (Rio Tinto Copper, London) agreed to hold a public meeting with the mine opposition back in the states.
However, on Wednesday July 24th Bret Clayton snubbed the community as he visited Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Clayton instead only took time to meet with the Lake Superior Community Partnership and the Marquette County Ambassadors.
“Rio Tinto’s decision not to meet with anyone knowledgeable about the proposed mine seems obviously calculated as nothing more than a PR opportunity,” said Michelle Halley, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation. “The company opted to meet with hand-picked community members who have been fed the sugar-coated version of the project from Kennecott since its inception.
But ironically, Clayton frequently uttered the word “community” throughout his presentation.
At the meeting Clayton stated, “. . . we want to come into communities . . . We’re very excited about the opportunity that we have to invest in the Upper Peninsula here in the region and be a part of your community . . . we want to be welcomed into communities because they recognize that we are a company that you want to work with and that will share values with you, that will listen and work with you”.
Clayton further stated “community engagement is very important and we think we’ve done a good job of that.” According to Clayton, Rio Tinto is “working to always improve its reputation by “doing things to the highest standard.”
A good job and high standard? Considering Bret Clayton didn’t even take 5 minutes to visit with the community while in the Upper Peninsula, he sure is laying his “community” involvement on pretty thick.
Public relations 101 for Mr. Clayton: if you want to be welcomed into a community, you probably shouldn’t ignore us, dodging opposition to your project won’t make it go away. In fact, how can we trust Rio Tinto and Kennecott to protect our freshwater resources if they can’t even keep a simple promise to meet with us?
Poor treatment of local communities is bad for business.
We called Kennecott today to request a meeting with Bret Clayton, but Mr. Bret “Sneaky” Clayton had already disappeared back to London.
The absolute refusal of the opposition to truly inform itself about the business and science of mining is mind numbing to me. If you would so much as fire up the Rio Tinto website you would see that Brett Clayton is not the CEO of Rio Tinto. That role belongs to Tom Albanese.
That being said Brett Clayton did meet with the president of MTU to encourage him to consider revitalizing the Mining Engineering program there. Which would help provide the training and expertise for the State of Michigan to make informed decisions about the mining process.
The article does not say Bret Clayton is the Chief Executive of Rio Tinto. It just says “Chief Executive Bret Clayton”. We do understand that he is the Chief Executive of Rio Tinto Copper, London.
At Save The Wild UP we are very careful to inform ourselves and the public as to the science of metallic sulfide mining as well as the “poor” business practices, environmental degradation, and human rights violations of most multinational mining corporations, especially Rio Tinto.
Thank you for your comment and we will certainly change the article, so it is more clear that the Chief executive of Rio Tinto Copper, London, snuck through town without speaking to concerned community members.
It doesn’t say he’s the chief executive of Rio Tinto? The heading is “”Rio Tinto’s CEO Brett Clayton Sneaks through Town” Pretty clear that Mr. Williams is correct.
I would also like to comment that I don’t believe that LSCP is a handpicked group. Membership is open to anyone and looking through the 33 page list I see many opposed to the mine. I personally don’t blame Mr. Clayton for not meeting with groups who are either suing to stop his company from mining or whose director has publicly criticized his company for of all things, contributing to local charities amongst others.
IN an almost universal acceptance of George Orwell’s “1984” concept of doublespeak, the people will be mesmerized by words like…’community, we are your friends”…and then let you have it, as in the movie, “Mars Attacks”. Watch as they use words like “peaceful” “friendly” “open”…and then slam the door on anything that stands in their way. The DEQ, DNR…the entire body of people who will allow Kennecott to doublespeak our environment into ruin should be taken out of office. War is Peace, Peace is War, is just around the corner.