Charities divest stock in controversial mining firm

Finance | Tania Mason | 18 Feb 2010

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has sold its £1.9m stake in FTSE100 mining company Vedanta, just days after the Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board sold their shares in the company worth £3.8m.

Other investors that follow Joseph Rowntree’s ethical policy, including the Marlborough Ethical Fund and Millfield House Foundation, have also unloaded their holdings, making a further £300,000 sold.

The charities are opposed to Vedanta’s plans to mine bauxite from sacred tribal lands in India, which international development NGOs claim will destroy the environment and local people’s livelihoods.

ActionAid, Survival International, Amnesty International and War on Want had called on the Church to use its voting power to prevent Vedanta’s mining plans. The Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) promised to examine the issue last autumn and began a process of engagement with the company.

However, after six months of engagement, the EIAG was not satisfied that Vedanta had shown, or was likely to show, “the level of respect for human rights and local communities” required by the Church investing bodies.

Susan Seymour, chair of Joseph Rowntree’s investment committee, added: “As a responsible shareholder we have serious concerns about Vedanta…its behaviour may be legal but it is morally indefensible. We have therefore decided to sell our entire stock in Vedanta.”

The EIAG has said it will maintain contact with Vedanta and review its recommendation if the company addresses the concerns raised.

Directory: ActionAid | Amnesty International | Church Commissioners for England

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