An upcoming documentary takes aim at Hudbay and its planned expansion into the US, but the source of the film’s funding has the company questioning its journalistic integrity.
Flin Flon Flim Flam, the work of American filmmaker John Dougherty, is being screened in southern Arizona ahead of an anticipated web release next month.
“Hudbay Minerals has had its base of operations in Flin Flon for nearly 100 years,” Dougherty told The Reminder when asked about the film’s title. “The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word ‘flimflam’ as ‘foolish or deceptive words.’ The documentary compares the statements made by Hudbay CEO David Garofalo during a 2012 companywide presentation to what has actually occurred in Flin Flon, Guatemala, Peru and Hudbay’s proposed Rosemont Mine in southeastern Arizona.”
Flin Flon Flim Flam examines Hudbay’s pollution in the Flin Flon region, First Nations resistance to northern Manitoba projects and allegations of violence in Guatemala. It further explores opposition to both Constancia Mine in Peru and the proposed Rosemont Mine in Arizona.
The Reminder viewed an advance copy of the 52-minute film, in which interview subjects challenge Hudbay’s record and honesty, and chastise governments for failing to place more stringent rules on the mining sector.
“I believe this documentary provides the public with important insights into the worldwide operations of Hudbay Minerals that no one else has or would have provided,” Dougherty said.
The question of funding
The film was funded not by a studio or Dougherty himself, but by Farmers Investment Co. (FICO), an Arizona-based company that publicly opposes Hudbay’s proposed Rosemont Mine. The end credits name FICO as a funder, with no other funders listed.
That was significant for Hudbay, which declined to be interviewed for the film.
The company was “unable to see how a fair and balanced outcome was possible in a video paid for by opponents of Rosemont,” said Scott Brubacher, director of corporate communications for Hudbay.
Brubacher said FICO, “a known opponent of the Rosemont project,” plans to build a 7,000-acre master-planned community in the area near where water would be drawn for the proposed mine.
“We believe fair-minded people will see the result for what it is,” Brubacher said of the film.
Brubacher added Hudbay has not seen the film and is therefore unable to comment on its content.
Dougherty dismissed concerns FICO funding shaped the documentary. FICO had no editorial control or direction in the production, he said, and no one from the company saw the film before it premiered.
“I produced the documentary the same way I would have produced a documentary if funded by a newspaper or a media organization,” he said.
Asked to disclose how much funding he received from FICO, and what percentage of total film funding this represents, Dougherty declined to answer, saying: “The documentary’s credits disclose that funding was provided by Farmers Investment Company.”
Dougherty says Hudbay refused “several opportunities to meet and present its views” for the film. In the film, Dougherty says he gave the company “repeated” opportunities to be interviewed.
Brubacher told The Reminder Dougherty asked for on-camera interviews twice, but Hudbay received no other requests to verify claims or content from the film.
The question of pollution
Flin Flon Flim Flam addresses past pollution in the Flin Flon region from Hudbay’s copper smelter, which closed in 2010. Ramsey Hart of industry watchdog MiningWatch appears on camera, saying the smelter was “one of the dirtiest facilities in Canada in terms of emissions.”
Hart concedes the Hudbay smelter was operating within the law but criticizes the company for producing emissions to the point where children were kept indoors during times of heavy smelter smoke.
Concerns over smelter pollution reached a crescendo between 2007 and 2013, when Hudbay hired an environmental health and consulting firm to determine whether smelter-borne metals in the environment posed health risks.
The resultant study concluded that the “likelihood of adverse health effects…is negligible to low,” a finding that did not satisfy Dr. Elaine MacDonald of environmental law organization Ecojustice.
“Their conclusions completely did not jibe with the actual results, if you look at the actual numbers in the report,” she says in the film, referring to what is known as the Flin Flon Soils Study (FFSS).
“There is lead poisoning in the community. There’s no doubt. It’s in those numbers.”
Dougherty did not interview scientists involved with the FFSS, nor did the film mention the study had government oversight and went through an independent peer review.
“The Flin Flon Soil Study concluded the likelihood of serious health impacts was negligible,” Dougherty said in his interview with The Reminder. “MacDonald disagreed. Both sides were presented.”
In the film and in his interview, Dougherty seemed to imply that Hudbay’s funding of the FFSS influenced the findings. Asked whether that was his intention, he replied: “I think that is a reasonable assumption. It would have been better for the province or the federal government to have conducted and paid for the study and analysis rather than Hudbay [paying for it].”
The documentary delves further into pollution concerns. Eric Reder, Manitoba campaign director for environmental group The Wilderness Committee, reports finding “incredibly toxic” remnant water at the site of Hudbay’s defunct Spruce Point Mine outside Snow Lake.
Reder said both Hudbay and the government stated the Spruce Point area had been cleaned up, but he added tests ordered by his group showed the water contained 1,000 times more heavy metals than it should.
The question of First Nations
Chief Arlen Dumas of Pukatawagan’s Mathias Colomb Cree Nation is also interviewed in the documentary. He relays how his band’s protests of Hudbay operations saw the company file a court injunction.
Dumas tells viewers Hudbay has operated on his band’s ancestral lands for nearly a century but has “never offered anything to our community.”
For its part, Hudbay stated in an annual report that it funded land-use studies on behalf of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation to provide an independent assessment of the impact of the Lalor and Reed mine operations.
Hudbay has also spoken publicly about its intention to increase the number of First Nations people in its workforce.
The question of accountability
Throughout the film, following allegations levied against Hudbay, viewers see blurry footage of Hudbay CEO Garofalo saying, “In everything we do, we are responsible.” The footage was taken from an address Garofalo delivered in Flin Flon in 2012.
Dougherty uses terms such as “alleges” and “claims” to describe Hudbay’s public positions on matters. On the website of his company, InvestigativeMEDIA, a summary of Flin Flon Flim Flam states that an “ecological treasure” would “be destroyed” if Rosemont goes ahead.
And by The Reminder’s count, no one in the film, with the exception of third-party footage of Garofalo and another company official, says anything positive about Hudbay or its projects. (One interviewee, City of Flin Flon chief administrative officer Mark Kolt, neutrally notes that Hudbay’s Flin Flon operations changed as regulations changed.)
The question of fairness
Asked whether he presents his film as fair and balanced, Dougherty reiterates Hudbay was given “numerous” opportunities to present its side but declined.
“As a result, publicly available information from Hudbay was used to present their views,” he said.
“The documentary conveys information about Hudbay in an accurate and visually compelling manner.”
Asked whether he attempted to interview anyone with a positive take on Hudbay or the Rosemont project, Dougherty addressed The Reminder directly: “As a journalist, you must know that sources with direct knowledge of the issues are the most effective. Again, I gave Hudbay ample opportunity to provide their views, but they refused.”
Dougherty said he has no target for how many people will see Flin Flon Flim Flam, but noted that his documentary on the previous owners of the Rosemont site, titled Cyanide Beach, has more than 10,000 YouTube hits.
Beyond the North
Flin Flon Flim Flam ventures beyond northern Manitoba.
Documentary filmmaker John Dougherty travelled to Guatemala, where Hudbay once owned the Fenix nickel project.
It is alleged that mine security forces participated in the gang rape of 11 women, unjustly killed one protester and unjustly shot and paralyzed another protester.
Dougherty interviews the alleged rape victims, the deceased protestor’s widow and the paralyzed protestor, all of whom are suing Hudbay for a combined total of $55 million.
Cory Wanless, a Toronto-based lawyer for the complainants, relays the oft-reported allegations. Hudbay’s public denials in the ongoing court case are presented.
The film then shifts to southern Peru, site of Hudbay’s Constancia copper mine, with footage said to show hundreds of marchers protesting the operations and being beaten and tear-gassed by Peruvian police.
“I want Hudbay to pick up their things and go back to Canada!” one woman yells into the camera, her words translated into subtitles.
Many residents in the Constancia Mine area believed Hudbay owed the community over $9.5 million. Dougherty said he obtained official documents from the community supporting that claim.
Hudbay has said it works cooperatively with stakeholders in Peru. Between December 2012 and December 2014, the company says, it invested $23.1 million under community agreements.
The final segment of Flin Flon Flim Flam revolves around Hudbay’s proposed Rosemont Mine at the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson, Arizona. The film refers to the site as “Hudbay’s Next Target.”
Several Arizonians are interviewed about Rosemont, with all of them opposed to the project on environmental grounds.
“We believe that this is a particularly egregious case where the damage cannot be mitigated and that permit should be denied,” says Randy Serraglio of Tucson’s Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, a non-profit that works to protect endangered species.
Dougherty points out the air quality control permit for Rosemont was overturned by a court in early 2015. He quotes David Garofalo, Hudbay CEO, as saying this was not a “material permit” whose overturning needed to be reported to company investors.
However, permitting around Rosemont remains an ongoing process, with the state of Arizona appealing the permit’s overturning.
Hudbay still hopes to start construction on Rosemont in 2016.
At least one mining analyst, however, believes the mine may not open until 2022, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
