About the project
Located in southern Georgia, the Kvemo Kartli region has long faced the harmful environmental, social and cultural impacts of gold and copper mining projects. In 2014, for example, the mining company RMG Gold destroyed the Sakdrisi archaeological site despite widespread resistance from local communities and academics.
RMG Copper and RMG Gold are subsidiaries of “Rich Metals Group”, a Netherlands-based company with a complex chain of ownership. Journalists have traced RMG’s ownership to an apparent parent company, Eulachon, based in the Isle of Man and owned by two Russian billionaires, Dmitry Korzhev and Dmitry Troitsky.
Tours with journalists in the territory around the village of Geta.
About the community-led struggle
In 2022, RMG decided to expand its operations as close as less than one kilometer from the village Mushevani, using an open pit extraction method. The CRE supported the Salam Movement, a movement consisting of ethnic Azerbaijani community in Georgia, including members from Mushevani villages, which wanted to mobilize the community and raise awareness of the harms of the expansion project. Partners organized democratic gatherings and debates, petitions, media tours, village festivals as part of their local and national campaign.
As a result of these initiativies, villagers were able to unite, better assert their demands, and secure alliances among national organizations, activists and academia. The company announced it was stopping the projects and withdrawing its equipment. However, it is not yet clear whether the project might still resume.