There were more than 150 publicly traded Australian mining companies present in 33 African nations at the end of 2014, some of them linked to alleged injustices that would never be tolerated in better-regulated nations.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Center for Public Integrity, reviewed financial reports, announcements and news articles reporting fatalities directly or indirectly connected to mining activities in Africa. We were able to document more than 380 deaths in 13 African countries since 2004.
ICIJ also reviewed more than 1,000 annual or quarterly reports and company announcements to investors to identify all mining companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that were actively exploring or producing minerals on the African continent as of December 31, 2014. We found 152 companies active in 33 countries.