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Cape Town - A director of Canadian-headquartered mining company Ivanhoe, which is developing a South Africa platinum mine, has been forced to resign over his racist and pro-slavery comments.
Marc Faber wrote in his October investment newsletter called the “Gloom, Boom & Doom Report” that American had enjoyed “200 years in the economic and political sun under a white majority”.
Images of the newsletter were posted and circulated on social media.
Faber also wrote: “And thank God white people populated American and not the blacks. Otherwise the US might look like Zimbabwe, which it might look like anyway.”
In relation to the debate in the US about the removal of Confederate statues, Faber wrote that the only crimes of the people depicted were to “defend what all societies had done for more than 5 000 years: keep a part of the population enslaved”.
Following a sharp backlash, Ivanhoe put out a statement saying it had requested and accepted Faber’s resignation.
“Ivanhoe Mines’ values of equality, respect and dignity for all people are a fundamental underpinning of the company’s enterprise and the conduct of every aspect of its business,” it said in a statement.
“There is zero tolerance for racism. Ivanhoe Mines disagrees with, and deplores, the personally-held views about race that Marc Faber has published in his current investment newsletter.
“As a result, Ivanhoe Mines requested, and has accepted, Dr. Faber’s resignation as a member of the Ivanhoe Board of Directors, effective immediately.”
Faber’s CV was also removed from the mine’s website.
Faber had been a director at Ivanhoe since 2004.
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is active in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It is currently developing platinum mine in SA called the ‘flatreef deposit’ and has started sinking shafts.
In an update on its operations in July, it stated that the platinum mine development would “include construction of a state-of-the-art underground mine, concentrator and other associated infrastructure to support initial concentrate production by early 2022”.
Toronto-based asset manager Sprott, meanwhile, has also parted ways with Faber.
“The recent comments by Dr. Faber are deeply disappointing and are completely contradictory with the views of Sprott and its employees,” said its CEO Peter Grosskopf.
“We pride ourselves on being a diverse organisation and comments of this sort will not be tolerated. We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace for all of our employees and we extend the same respect to our clients and investors.”
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