Lynda Hubert Ta is a professor of environmental law at the University of Ottawa. As part of her doctoral thesis, she looked at the practices of the Quit Madagascar Minerals (QMM) subsidiary, owned by Rio Tinto, to extract ilmenite (an ore composed of titanium and iron) in the region of ‘Anousy, southeast of Madagascar.
According to her, if Rio Tinto is today rarely worried regarding the social and environmental consequences of its mining activities, it is because the company benefits from an asymmetry in the relationship of power, which influences relations between States and mining companies:Since the 80s and the impetus of a process of liberalization, the regulatory context in Madagascar has become very favorable for large mining companies. It has reduced the State’s capacity for intervention and allows companies to negotiate the rules themselves (the mining code, environmental protection standards, etc.) which are supposed to govern them”.
“Rio Tinto’s mining project has had, has and will continue to have a certain influence on the development of the standards that govern its own activities”, she adds.
