Mining companies and their stakeholders, including investors, governments and politicians, must confront the human rights abuses that are rife in the industry, nongovernmental organisation Amnesty International said on Monday.

The statement was issued as the yearly Investing in African Mining Indaba got under way in Cape Town.

Amnesty International will hold its own ‘Alternative Mining Indaba’ in the city this week, which it said would bring to attention “stories of injustice and socioeconomic rights violations in mining communities”, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique and South Africa.

Amnesty International East and Southern Africa director Deprose Muchena mentioned that there were a variety of issues to discuss, from child labour in the DRC, to “squalid living conditions” for workers at the Marikana platinum group metals mine, in South Africa.

“The mining industry is tainted with human rights abuses, [and] mining firms have often caused or contributed to [these] in pursuit of profit while governments have been too weak in regulating them effectively,” Muchena said.

Muchena added that pollution, forced evictions, a lack of transparency over the awarding of mining rights, corruption, tax evasion and abuse, and transfer pricing should be among the issues at the forefront of discussions in Cape Town this week.

The theme of Amnesty’s alternative indaba is 'Optimising Growth and Investment in the Digitised Mining Economy', and discussions are also planned on the “industry's role in addressing climate change and decarbonisation and sustainability measures”.

“Mining corporations have been some of the biggest contributors to greenhouse-gas emissions, yet they are only just starting to put climate change on the agenda. This meeting should produce clear time frames and a commitment to reduce carbon emissions.”

Owing to these issues, Amnesty International is calling on companies to immediately put measures in place to minimise their greenhouse-gas emissions.

“Governments must introduce legislation requiring companies to identify, prevent, address and account for negative human rights impacts, including those linked to greenhouse-gas emissions.”