“Background Brief: Adding Insult to Injury at the North Mara Gold Mine, Tanzania”

This report is based on a third field assessment by MiningWatch Canada (MiningWatch) and UK -based Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) into the situation of human rights at the North Mara Gold Mine(NMGM), Tanzania. The North Mara Gold mine is operated by UK-listed Acacia Mining (‘Acacia’, formerly African Barrick Gold), a majority owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation. The mine has been beset by human rights and environmental problems for over 10 years. The research was carried out between 24 July and 1 August 2016 in Tarime and the villages surrounding the mine.

The objectives of RAID and MiningWatch were threefold: (i)to collect information on allegations of the use of excessive force by mine security and by police guarding the mine under an MOU between the company and the Tanzanian state;(ii)to examine how–from the claimants’ perspective the mine deals with human rights complaints; and, (iii) to re-assess concerns about the mine’s remedy programme raised previously by MiningWatch and RAID in the light of Acacia’s responses. Previous field assessments were conducted in 20142and 2015. MiningWatch and RAID have also engaged in extensive written exchanges with Acacia’s senior management and a meeting was held with company officials in London in March 2016.4There have been two meetings with staff at the North Mara mine in 2014 and 2015. During the recent visit interviews were held with alleged victims and witnesses of mine-related violence, with Tanzanian human rights organisations and monitors, and with members of a Committee of Inquiry, established in February 2016 by the Government of Tanzania to investigate problems between communities and the mine.