September 30, 2008 by f4denz.

So in the past 24 hours a lot has been made on the net (blogs and discussion boards) about the partnership of Real Salt Lake and Rio Tinto and the naming rights to the new soccer stadium. I understand that a lot of people have looked for and dug up some things in Rio Tinto’s history that are questionable and other items that are simply disturbing to some. I have to admit this is all very similar to the way things are today, first assume no good and look for as much dirt as possible, we see this everyday in almost every aspect of the media, so why should the online community be different.

I thought I would take a look at Rio Tinto and see if they really are as evil as some would claim:

Some Background Info

Rio Tinto Wikipedia Page- remember Wikipedia is a user generate resource and not always 100% accurate

Rio Tinto Home Page- remember that corporate pages are generated by the company and not always 100% accurate

The Bad

Norway oil fund exits Riot Tinto on ethical grounds uk.reuters.com
Norway on Tuesday excluded iron ore miner Rio Tinto from its $375 billion (212.8 billion pounds) sovereign wealth fund due to environmental concerns over its activities in Indonesia, as part of its drive for ethical investment… Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said the problems with Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest iron ore miner, concerned a joint venture with Freeport McMoRan a group excluded by the fund in 2006, at their Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

Rio Tinto has a 40 percent stake in the mine, which is operated by Freeport McMoRan, a Rio Tinto spokesman said.

“We do not want to contribute to serious environmental damage,” Halvorsen told a news conference.

“The Grasberg mine discharges very large amounts of tailings directly into a natural river system; approximately 230,000 tonnes or more per day,” the finance ministry said in a statement, adding that it did not foresee any change. Rio Tinto’s spokesman Nick Cobban in London said: “Our immediate response is one of surprise and disappointment.” 

The Truth about Rio Tinto wrm.org (world rainforest movement)
At a meeting held last February in Johannesburg, South Africa, a group of trade unionists from 14 countries announced the launch of an international campaign against the international mining company Rio Tinto. During the meeting Bob Hawke, former Australian Prime Minister, accused the company of “monumental hypocrisy”. Meanwhile, 51 Members of the House of Commons, in London, supported a motion that “condems the activities of Rio Tinto Corporation . . . probably the most uncaring and ruthless company in the world judged by its appalling record of human rights violations, community destruction, environmental damage and disregard for the lives of indigenous peoples.”

A report titled “Undermined”, prepared by OXFAM-Australia, documents the loss of land and income, forced evictions by the military, arbitrary arrests, pollution and social upheaval suffered by the Indonesian communities affected by PT KEM, in East Kalimantan, and PT Freeport in West Papua. Both companies are owned -90% and 11,8% respectively- by Rio Tinto.

As informed in WRM Bulletin nr. 10, a group of Dayaks recently toured Australia seeking support for their struggle for land rights and compensation for the social and environmental damage caused by Australian-based mining companies, among which Rio Tinto.

Source: WRM’s bulletin Nº 12, May 1998

Rio Tinto: The world’s worst company? greenleft.org
The dispute with coal miners at the Hunter Valley No 1 is the latest in its ongoing battle with unions and workers. In that dispute it presents itself as offering workers an extra for “productivity” improvements.

But its history of ties to the apartheid regime, its abuse of indigenous peoples, its attacks on workers and unions, its global environmental pillaging and its use of child labour tell a different story.

Roger Moody, in his book Plunder, describes Rio Tinto’s activities as ranging from “brow-beating opponents, leaning on governments and price-fixing, to violating international law, union-busting and management of one of the world’s biggest commodity cartels”.

It is the quintessential capitalist corporation, skilled at maximising profits irrespective of environmental and human rights concerns.

Rio Tinto evades questions on Bougainville at AGM mpi.org
Rio Tinto directors evaded questions over whether they would take responsibility for the legacy of environmental problems at the  Panguna mine on Bougainville Island, and failed to make any clear commitments that they would engage the Indigenous traditional landowners  before continuing discussions over resumption of the operations. While they said they had “no plans’ to reopen the mine, they did admit that discussion where taking place amongst some stakeholders.

The issue is highly charged, given the tens of thousands of lives lost when the environmental problems caused by riverine waste dumping and the exclusion of traditional landowners concerns shut down the mine and lead to a civil war.  There remains significant sentiments on the island that the project should never be reopened, and legitimate concerns that failing to respond to community sensitivities could be a receipe for disaster.

Related Background Information

Bougainville Island- Panguna Copper Mine Conflict natural-resources.org
The following page is a collection of information, links and documents relating to the conflict between the people of Bougainville Island and the Papua New Guinea government arising from the activities of the Panguna Copper Mine project owned and operated by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL).

Grasberg Mine Wikipedia page
The Grasberg mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia near and employs 19 500. It is majority owned through a subsidiary by Freeport-McMoRan, based in the United States (67.3%), along with its wholly owned subsidiary, PT Indocopper Investama Corporation (9.3%), and the government of Indonesia (9.3%), and additionally, a production sharing JV with Rio Tinto Group (13%). The cost of building a mine on the mountain was $3 billion United States dollars.

The Good?

Participation in the UN Global Compact
The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of: human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary agent driving globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.
Rio Tinto Participant Information

2006 Rio Tinto Review

Rio Tinto ranked 7^th by Covalence Covalence ranks ethical reputation (Covalence’s EthicalQuote, a weekly updated information system measuring the ethical reputation of multinational companies. The universe includes 200 companies within 10 major sectors.)

Rio Tinto to give State’s last company town a $296 million makeover thewest.com
Pannawonica, the Pilbara iron ore settlement that faced extinction last year because of fears a new mine would threaten a rare breed of spider-like creatures, is set for a $296 million facelift after mining giant Rio Tinto vowed to reinvest some of its huge profits into upgrading WA’s last remaining company town.
 
The town’s 1000 residents will this morning be told of Rio’s proposed investment, which will include upgrading public facilities such as the police station, primary school, medical centre, nurses’ quarters, church, community hall and dining mess as well as refurbishing 238 homes, building 10 new ones and expanding the mining village

Participation in the Global Reporting Initiative
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an international, multi-stakeholder effort to create a common framework for voluntary reporting of the economic, environmental and social impact of an organisation. The GRI seeks to elevate the comparability and credibility of sustainable development reporting practices worldwide. The most recent Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (the Guidelines) were released in 2002.

As a member of the International Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM), Rio Tinto was involved in the work of the ICMM and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to develop a Mining and Metals Sector Supplement to the 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. ICMM member companies have committed themselves to move to reporting in accordance with the guidelines.

By identifying and targeting economic, environmental, and social performance issues and indicators specific to the mining, minerals and metals industry, the Supplement can help companies to address these issues in a common fashion, producing more relevant, meaningful, and comparable reports.

2005 Rio Tinto Global Reporting Initiative Checklist

2007 Rio Tinto Community Investment Giving

So what does it all mean?

It means that Rio Tinto like a lot of other huge multinational companies makes mistakes, and historically has made some big ones. They have partnered with some companies that have done bad things. It also shows that most recently they are trying to improve not only their reputation, but the way they do business. If you own any products with iron, copper, gold, silver, diamonds, or any other product that Rio or it’s subsidiaries produce it is a bit hypocritical to question their reputation or business practices, at least in my opinion it is.

I for one still believe that there are very few, if any companies in the world that can please all the people all the time. Rio Tinto has made a commitment to Utah with Kennecott and now has made another commitment in their partnership with Real Salt Lake. If anything this will put them more in the public eye and will continue to add pressure to make sure they are doing business in an ethical and just manner.

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September 30, 2008 by f4denz.

Another update from the front office

Dear Royal Club Members,

As a follow up reminder to the e-mail last week, we will have your tickets for the inaugural games at the new Rio Tinto Stadium available to be picked up at the Real Salt Lake Front Office (515 S. 700 E., Suite 2R, SLC, Utah 84102) beginning this Friday, October 3^rd.

Hours for pick-up will be normal our normal business hours, 9:00 am - 5:30 am, Monday through Friday.  We will also open the office this weekend for anyone who may prefer to pick up their tickets then.  On Saturday, October 4th, the office will be open from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., and on Sunday, October 5^th 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 

Any tickets that are not picked up in the office will automatically be placed in will call for the game next Thursday, October 9^th.

If you would like to authorize someone to pick up your tickets (anyone other than the individual listed on the account) please send an e-mail to clientexperience@realsaltlake.com confirming the name of the individual picking them up, your name, and a phone number or return e-mail address with which we can contact you if further questions arise.

Thanks again for your support…we are only 10 days away!

Rio Tinto Stadium?

So how many of you had never heard of the name Rio Tinto before yesterday? I know that I had never heard of them before the announcement. So you have to ask yourself did the RSL staff rush to find the sponsor, I know there has been a lot of trash talking about the companies environmental record, but honestly would you expect a mining company to have a spotless record. I know that over the next 15-20 years that the Rio Tinto deal will pay about 30% of the out of pocket expenses incurred by SCP and Dave Checketts, and I know that the money will really help a team that has been in rough financial shape over the past couple years dealing with the expenses of building a world class stadium. Only time will tell if this partnership will be a good one.

Another week of big matches

Well with their road win at San Jose the boys from Salt Lake are right back into the playoff race, but there are some huge matchups this week that will have a major impact on the playoff race. First up are the Quakes who will try to rebound when they face off with FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park (I am still waiting to see someone bring a horse meat sign to a match there), FCD sits just one point behind RSL so this matchup is one that should see all the RSL fans cheering for San Jose. A win or draw by San Jose would be a huge help for RSL, and to make the playoffs we are going to need some help from some other teams.

Next up is Rapids playing host to Houston on Saturday night, both of these teams are fighting for the same playoff spots as RSL. While Houston a spot almost wrapped up, their busy schedule (they play tonight in Mexico against Pumas in CONCACAF Champions League-Fox Soccer Channel), we know they would like to finish atop the Western conference. A home loss by Colorado would not hurt the RSL playoff efforts at all, as it looks more and more like the final matchup between RSL and Colorado (at the Dick on October 25^th) could very well determine not only the RMC but which team makes the playoffs.

But no matchup will be bigger than RSL heading east to face the Revolution, a second straight road win would really help the RSL playoff cause:

So it is clear that this match has a huge impact for RSL, but this time of year each match impacts almost every team that is still in the playoff hunt. So leading up to next weeks opening of the new Rio Tinto Stadium (god that is going to take some getting used to) there are a lot of matches for RSL fans to not only watch, but actively cheer for teams that could do a lot to help the RSL playoff chances.

Quick Blog update

So I spent a little time looking at the numbers last night, in just 15 months we have gone from an average of 15 unique visitors a day to over 400 and our page views are up from 3,000 a month to averaging 15-20,000 view the last couple months. I am surprised by the numbers, thank you all very much.

If there is something you would like to see more of, or something different please just let me know. If you want to try your hand at blogging but don’t want to set up a site, just email me what you would like to have published and I will take a look, no promises that I will use everything submitted or not, but I will consider everything.

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September 29, 2008 by f4denz.

The cat is out of the bag

So local and national media have let the cat out of the bag, Real Salt Lake has teamed with Rio Tinto for naming rights to their new stadium. Who is Rio Tinto? They are the parent company behind Kennecott. Here are a couple links about the company and the naming rights announcement:

Rio Tinto Homepage

Rio Tinto page on Wikipedia It appears that as with any mining company (or most any company) that there are some critics as well.

Real Salt Lake: Rio Tinto to sponsor new RSL Stadium deseretnews.com

Real Salt Lake, mine firm strike a naming deal sportsbusinessjournal.com (this is a great article with superb information)

I am sure more details will be coming, but let’s start the nicknames. I am going for an easy one “The Pit” just add your thoughts to the comments.

New Stadium Site is up

Hot on the heels of the announcement of the new naming partner for the now Rio Tinto Stadium, is the new website.
Rio Tinto Stadium Site
Interesting design, I do find the rampant ads to be a bit over the top, you just got 1.5 million for this years naming rights, quit being so needy.

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September 29, 2008 by f4denz.

“They can conquer who believe they can”

Last week I used that quote from Virgil to describe how I felt Real Salt Lake’s players had to approach the matchup with San Jose. RSL had been struggling in recent matches and had struggled all year at home, they have the talent to beat any team in MLS but something had been lacking. I put the blame where I thought it belonged, our big name players had not been stepping up in the big matches and as a result we had went from the top of the West and almost a lock on making the playoffs, to being on the outside looking in.

Well whatever had been wrong with RSL was cured on Saturday night (if you have a copy of the match and wouldn’t mind making me a copy I would be very appreciative). As I listened to the match it was clear that a couple things happened, first once again the “small” name players stole the show. Robbie Russell got moved into the midfield and was a force that San Jose had trouble dealing with, Clint Mathis moved into the starting lineup as the second striker and while his performance didn’t show up on the stat sheet for goals or assists, he forced San Jose to deal with him up front. That opened the door for Yura who put in goals 4&5 and gets my vote for man of the match.

Then you have the “big” names, it was refreshing to hear how Kyle stepped up and was a vital part in breaking up the San Jose offensive rhythm time and time again for the entire match, then add in the assist on Yura’s second goal and you have a performance worthy of a team captain. As Javier Morales signed an extension with Real earlier in the week, it was our number 10 Javi who steps up by getting his 11 assist oh and the game winning goal. That is exactly what type of performance we need out of our midfield stars.

The RSL defense gave up two goals, but to be honest I am not surprised and Saturday morning in my post I predicted the 3-2 score. The defense was facing the most improved offensive unit in MLS and a team that had not lost since early July, they did what the needed to do by eliminating mistakes and playing whole team defense and the end result was 3 vital points on the road.

RSL put up 18 shots to San Jose’s 10, Real had 10 shots on goal to 5 for the Quake’s and while RSL did pick up some yellow cards that will impact how they have to play the next couple matches, it was the road win that had to happen. As I told Jonathan from San Jose earlier in the week, RSL can beat any team in MLS, they have the talent, all that has been missing was the belief and that appears to be something that they have found.

Video Highlights from mlsnet.com:
Match Highlights

If the season ended today

With the results from the weekend, if the season ended today RSL would be in the playoffs as the 8^th team. With the exception of the Galaxy getting handled by Chicago, the West had a big weekend against teams from the East, Chivas beat KC 2-1, Dallas beat DC United 3-0, the Dynamo went to TFC and got a 1-1 draw, and nothing was bigger than the barnburner in NYC where the lowly Rapids beat the Red Bulls 5-4. It will be interesting to see how the MLS pundits who had proclaimed the superiority of the East will try to spin this weekend, it is clear that there is a lot of parity in MLS and the playoff race got a lot closer for a lot of teams.

Sportsclubstats has four teams as either locks or virtual locks for the MLS playoffs; Columbus has locked up their spot, while New England has a 99.9% chance of making the playoffs, both Chicago and Houston are sitting at 99.8%. From there things get tricky and could change based on the results of any of the remaining matches as teams 5-11 are separated by only 4 points. The final 3 teams all have less than a 20% chance of making the playoffs and both the Galaxy and TFC now see their chances in the single digits (if you’re a TFC fan, keep clinging to that 2.3% chance).

For Real Salt Lake, who will announce their naming rights partner for their new stadium this morning, the task is still simple, win. This team showed at home earlier this season that they can play with New England and beat them 2-1, in fact over the last 5 times these two teams matched up RSL has the advantage. In 2006 a 0-0 draw at RES, and a 3-1 RSL victory on the road, and last year New England got a 2-1 win at RES but RSL picked up a 0-0 draw on the road. It will not be an easy task for RSL to get back to back road victories, but “they can conquer who believe they can”

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September 27, 2008 by f4denz.

RSL get a boost

With LA losing 3-1, Real Salt Lake gained some ground on their chase for the playoffs, RSL now has a 40% chance of making it to the post season for the first time in franchise history. If Real wants to control their own destiny waiting on other teams to lose is not what they want to do, they have to get some wins. Houston failed to secure their spot, a win at TFC earlier would have locked up a playoff spot, but with their draw they are simply 99.9% likely to make the playoffs, so that is one of the three Western spots down and two to go. With both Colorado and FC Dallas facing tough Eastern conference foes, Real Salt Lake could get a boost if both of those teams lose, but nothing would be sweeter and help the team turn things back around to their better days than a road win.

Back against the wall

RSL sits tied for 3^rd place in the West with 31 points and a 8-10-7 record, I said it earlier in the year that I thought RSL would need 42 points to secure a playoff spot this year, and while I thought LA would make a big splash in the second half of the season and that San Jose would continue to struggle (I was wrong on both counts as LA is 1-5-3 since the All Star break and San Jose is 4-0-3), I still believe that 42 is the magic number for RSL.

So how do we get there, if we can pull two wins off at home (which is no sure thing) that would give us 37, so that means we need 5 points from 3 road matches, a win and two draws or two wins. Either that or we will need a lot of help from other teams to get into the playoffs, and I think this weekend we have a matchup that we can win, despite our troubles on the road. In talking with a couple players on Friday, they did not lack confidence, but they also realize the task is big and not going to be easy.

Beat San Jose, period

It is simple I believe the RSL season comes down to this match, a win and the momentum is RSL’s and making the playoffs is for the first time not just a possibility, but a reality. We will be facing a team that hasn’t lost since the All Star break, but while they have started scoring goals San Jose, they have only had 3 clean sheets in their last 10 matches. RSL will have to hope that Yura is still hot after not scoring last weekend, and that someone else can step up on the offensive side RSL has 5 goals in their last 5 matches and I believe they will need at least 2 in order to beat San Jose. Can the Real Salt Lake defense get back to playing the way they did in June and July? The defensive mistake last week was the reason for the loss, no questions asked, and in the last 5 matches the defense has allowed 8 goals and had only one clean sheet. Communication will be the key and mistakes like last weeks have to be eliminated, twice this year clear communication mistakes between Borchers and Rimando have cost RSL points, no more mistakes like that can be made if the playoff push is going to get any results.

San Jose’s Cannon has been impressive, and he single handedly got the Quakes their 0-0 draw when these teams faced off the last time. He faced 24 shots and made 4 saves in the 0-0 draw at RES back in June. San Jose has added some key players since the last time these two teams faced off, Darren Huckerby (4 goals, 4 assists in 8 matches), Arturo Alvarez (3 goals, 1 assist in 6 matches), Scott Sealy (1 goal, 3 assists in 8 matches), and Francisco Lima (2 assists in 8 matches) all have played huge roles in the resurgent San Jose attack. They will be a real test for RSL, but so much offensive power almost always mean that the other team will have great chances to counter, with Wingert and Joy both being very good at pushing up the wings this one could really end up being a shoot out.

Control your own Destiny

It is simple, RSL must win this match if they want to control their own destiny and despite a horrible road record (every Western team has a horrible road record-no team has more than 3 wins), this is a match that RSL knows they have to win and unlike the match at LA, I expect everyone to play with a very high energy level. Javi must prove that signing him to a new long term contract was the right move for Real, captain Kyle Beckerman knows that a lot of eyes are on him and wondering what has happened in recent months, newcomer Will Johnson has quickly won over fans by playing hard for 90 minutes and the 21 year old is setting an example for many of his older teammates, Yura Movsisyan is proving to everyone that he is deserving of a starting role and Robbie Findley is poised to make a breakout any time by using his speed to spark the RSL counter attack.

This one is going to be exciting; the shame is that almost nobody will see the matchup. I have no idea why there is no local coverage either in Salt Lake or San Jose, I understand the HDNet thing, but when matches were played on HDNet in LA, Colorado, and other markets somebody steps up with local coverage but no such luck for fans tonight. I am going to go out on a real limb and pick RSL to win 3-2 in a wild and exciting match.

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