The Risks We Run: Mining, Communities and Political Risk Insurance

This critique of political risk insurance (PRI), the type of insurance used by large-scale mining projects, includes six case studies that show how PRI has severe negative social and environmental impacts on mining communities. Included are descriptions of such landmark cases as the Omai gold mine in Guyana, which was insured through PRI by the World Bank and the Canadian government and whose waste facilities completely collapsed, causing the country’s worst environmental disaster in recorded history. Conclusions are drawn about the failure of agencies such as the World Bank to anticipate the consequences of major mining projects and consider the effects of large-scale mining on sustainable development.