THE mining conglomerate Rio Tinto Zinc is planning a £175 million mining project in
Madagascar that would almost obliterate the remnant of rare coastal forest in which the
environment campaigner Andrew Lees died.
Friends of the Earth, of which Mr Lees was campaigns director, confirmed yesterday that he
died while investigating the proposed activities of an RTZ subsidiary during a holiday in the
Indian Ocean island.
RTZ said that QIT Madagascar Minerals, a joint venture between the British company's
Canadian arm and the Madagascan government, is involved in negotiating a deal which would pay the debt-ridden island £13 million a year for the next 40 years.
The company said that mining heavy mineral sands for ilmenite, which is used to produce a
whitener used in paper and toothpaste, would destroy 65 per cent of Madagascar's coastal forest.
It already is reduced to three small remnants, one of which, the Patriky forest, Lees was attempting to film in when he died. Maps compiled for the company and seen by The Daily Telegraph show that mining would obliterate this area.
The coastal forest once stretched up the eastern side of Madagascar and contains 40 per cent of the island's known vertebrates, including rare lemurs such as the aye-aye and the white sifaka.
An RTZ spokesman said: "QIT are looking for as much input as possible internationally on the environmental and social side and want to balance that with the economic and social development of the country."
She said that the environment assessment carried out for the company recommended
protecting 30 per cent of the forest within conservation zones, a loss of 10 per cent of the mining area.
