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Canada’s corporate ethics watchdog on Tuesday said it was likely that human rights abuses of using Uyghur forced labor had occurred at a mine in China operated by Vancouver-based firm Dynasty Gold.
In a report, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) recommended the federal government refuse to provide any future financial support to Dynasty until it implemented recommendations to combat abuse.
Dynasty Gold told Reuters that the report is full of errors and inaccuracies.
The report by CORE is a result of an investigation over complaints filed by 28 Canadian organizations who alleged that Dynasty Gold used or benefited from Uyghur forced labor at the Hatu mining operations that took place in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
In its final report the watchdog concluded that Dynasty contributed to the use of forced labor through its relationship with its joint venture partners Xinjiang Non-Ferrous Metal and Western Region Gold. These two companies had relationship with another company called Terraxin in which CORE said Dynasty is a majority shareholder.
Ivy Chong, CEO of Dynasty Gold, told Reuters that CORE decided to publish the report without providing any evidence to support the claims, even though the company repeatedly explained the situation and the timeline of the events.
However, Chong said the joint venture company (Terraxin) in Xinjiang lost its exploration license in 2008 and business license shortly thereafter. And there has not been any relationship between Dynasty and the State-owned Xinjiang companies since 2008.
A report by the UN human rights chief in 2022 said that China’s treatment of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in Xinjiang, in the country’s far west, may constitute crimes against humanity.
Beijing has denied these allegations.
CORE said Dynasty Gold did nothing to identify, assess, and mitigate the risk of Uyghur forced labor at the mine, which led to the watchdog to reach its conclusion.
The watchdog has asked Dynasty to make significant financial donations to organizations working to combat Uyghur forced labour, assess its leverage to prevent or mitigate use of forced labour at Hatu mine and determine whether it should exit responsibly from its business relationships in the Xinjiang region.
Dynasty shares were up 3.7%.
(By Divya Rajagopal and David Ljunggren; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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