22 July 2024, 8:00am EDT

New Report Sounds Alarm Over Sale of Teck Resources’ B.C. Coal Mines to Glencore

Glencore British Columbia Coal Corporate Accountability

Swiss mining giant’s poor ESG record not reflected in federal government’s approval

(Ottawa, Monday, July 22, 2024) A new report gives cause for concern over Teck's July 4 sale of Elk Valley Resources (EVR) and its massive B.C. coal mines to the Swiss-based mining giant Glencore, based on Glencore’s poor ESG record, involving significant corruption, climate failings, and environmental and human rights violations.

The federal government’s approval of the sale of Teck Resources’ coal operation to Glencore – announced without warning nearly three months before its deadline – came with vague conditions the government claimed would assure Canadians their wallets and the environment would be protected.

But A Bad Deal for Canada – a report by MiningWatch Canada, the London Mining Network (UK), and the Swiss corporate responsibility organization ASK – uses public information to highlight Glencore’s long history of failed environmental promises, anti-climate and other controversial ESG practices, human rights violations, and even illegal activity.

From being founded by an American “fugitive financier,” wanted by the US government for making deals with Iran during the US hostage crisis, Glencore has built an amoral corporate history that includes doing business with apartheid South Africa, supporting dictators like Saddam Hussein, funding recent anti-climate and pro-coal campaigns around the world, and owning and operating some of the world’s most polluting and dangerous mines and smelters. Only two years ago, it was fined US $1.1 billion by the US government in an anti-corruption case, the largest fine ever imposed in a market manipulation and corruption case. 

“You’d think a company’s record would be considered when the government assesses whether selling a Canadian company to a foreign corporation is in Canada’s best interests – especially when the sale carries significant implications for climate, communities, health, and the public purse,” says MiningWatch spokesperson Jamie Kneen.

“Yet there is no evidence in the federal decision or the conditions it imposes that Glencore’s controversial record was even a consideration in the decision,” said Kneen. “And most Canadians are unaware of the company’s record, so they don’t know to question the decision.”

Stephan Suhner, Director of ASK!, says, “After two decades of working with affected communities and unions, we can confirm that Glencore has a long history of misleading communities, causing widespread environmental damage, suing governments who try to impose limitations, and denying responsibility for the impacts of its operations, making it one of the least responsible global mining giants.”

The Teck-Glencore sale had already begun to attract major concerns about Glencore’s plans to spin off EVR into a stand-alone global coal giant, based on the impacts such a move would have on climate change and on the ability of the eventual owners to pay for EVR’s massive – and growing – environmental liabilities. The Elk Valley mines have spread massive amounts of toxic selenium into the transboundary Kootenay watershed, affecting downstream aquatic life, residents, and Indigenous nations in B.C., Idaho, and Montana; a recent study pegged the liabilities for cleaning up the contamination at $6.4 billion – more than triple the amount currently held as clean-up bonds by the province of B.C.

Kneen points out that while the federal decision on the sale was not expected until this fall, mounting concern from public interest groups and negative media coverage may have prompted the government to announce the approval out of the blue, as the summer holidays began in earnest. “It’s a pretty standard practice to try and avoid public scrutiny by dropping questionable announcements when they will get less attention,” he adds. “It just looks too much like a quick move to please the two corporations and get this off the government’s plate before people start asking more questions.”

Kneen concludes, "The approval puts a lot of pressure on federal and provincial regulators to enforce environmental protections much more rigorously, to stop the pollution and ensure it’s actually cleaned up, and to ensure that EVR’s environmental liabilities don’t end up in taxpayers’ laps."

The report is available for download here.

For more information: