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BHP Billiton shareholders call for moral stand on lucrative trade
Jan Mayman in Perth  October 1, 2007 The Guardian The world’s biggest mining company is facing a revolt from shareholders who want the group to stop excavating uranium.Activist plan to use the annual meeting of BHP Billiton, which last year made record-breaking profits of $13.4bn (£6.7bn), to force the company to take a “moral stand” and pull out of the highly profitable trade in uranium,
Led by John Poppins, a retired engineer whose family controls more than A$1m (£434,000) worth of stock in the company, the BHP Billiton Shareholders for Social Responsibilities group hope to enlist support from conservationists, churches and unions on the shareholder register.Mr Poppins has 60 of the 100 signatures he needs to get the issue on the agenda of the AGM in Adelaide next month, with more pledged.BHP Billiton’s outstanding commercial success and market pre-eminence carries an equally large moral obligation to provide leadership on issues of uranium production and nuclear proliferation,’ he said……….
………He is concerned that the Australian government has recently declared its support for uranium sales to Russia and India. And the notion that uranium was a clean fuel was wrong, he said. ‘Claims that uranium is ‘carbon-free’ completely ignore the substantial carbon costs of its mining, processing, power station construction, protection and disposal,’he said.Mr Poppins was an engineer in computing and aviation before retiring to take up ethical investment issues………………………..”

Radioactive alert on ethical investment
The Age Frances Howe September 2, 2008 A RECENT Corporate Watch Australia survey reveals that many so-called ethical investment funds invest in uranium mining.Some fund managers justify investment in uranium with questionable arguments about nuclear power and climate change, but the primary reason for the shift is probably BHP Billiton’s entry into the uranium industry with its 2005 acquisition of WMC Resources, which owns the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia.Of 16 ethical investment funds studied, just two allow absolutely no investment in uranium or nuclear power.The rest either have no policy on the matter or allow limited investment in the nuclear industry…………………………rapid growth (in ethical investment) is accompanied by a crisis of definition and a dilution of its original principles. The concept “ethical investment” is vaguely defined: fund managers make their own rules, and their definitions of “ethical” vary………………..Some fund managers rule out investment in companies that get more than 5% of their revenue from uranium mining or nuclear power. This means that AMP’s ethical portfolio can still include shares in BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto — the world’s fifth and third largest uranium miners respectively………………………….There is no attempt to refute the large and growing body of scientific literature that demonstrates how the expansion of renewable energy sources, coupled with concerted energy-efficiency programs, can generate major reductions in greenhouse emissions without recourse to nuclear power.Nor have most fund managers dealt with the ethical problems associated with uranium mining and nuclear power. The uranium mining industry has a poor track record in its dealings with Aboriginal communities — failing to consult traditional owners, using divide-and-rule tactics, and ignoring sacred sites.In the words of Yvonne Margarula, Mirarr senior traditional owner in the Northern Territory: “Uranium mining has taken our country away from us and destroyed it. Mining and the millions of dollars in royalties have not improved our quality of life.”