Extracted: The People Versus Vedanta

Synopsis

Konkola Copper Mine – a subsidiary of the UK-based mining giant Vedanta – has been polluting the main water source of surrounding villages in Chingola, in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, and leaving a trail of human rights and environmental abuses for nearly two decades. A legal action, brought by more than 2,500 Zambian villagers, including 643 children, against Konkola Copper Mines Plc and Vedanta Resources Limited, has settled out of court, it was announced on 19 January in a joint statement from the English law firm Leigh Day representing the claimants and the mining companies.