Manganese mine in Chiatura (Luka Pertaia/OC Media)
Georgia’s Kutaisi Court of Appeals overturned on 30 June a ₾200 million ($82 million) fine imposed on mining company Georgian Manganese.
The original fine was issued after a tax inspection by Georgia’s Revenue Service.
According to the Appeals Court, the Revenue Service issued the fine ‘without studying and assessing circumstances of utmost importance for the case’.
The Revenue Service issued the fine in April 2016, after studying the company’s activities between 2012–2015. The case included several points, including a dispute over the taxation of mining byproducts in Chiatura.
According toTabula, the company presented the conclusions of audits to Kutaisi City Court and the Revenue Service by international auditors Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, but these were not taken into account.
The Revenue Service has now been ordered to reopen the case.
Georgian Manganese employs more than 3,000 people in Chiatura, making mining vital for the town’s economy. It has faced repeated accusations of employing exploitative labour practices, which labour rights groups allege have led to injuries and death. The company has denied any violations of the law.
Georgian Manganese, a subsidiary of Florida-based Georgian American Alloys, operates seven mines in Chiatura, and is a major producer of manganese. Georgian American Alloys, which is registered in Luxembourg, also owns a ferroalloy plant in Zestaponi — Georgia’s largest silicomanganese processing plant — and Vartsikhe, a nearby hydroelectric facility that partly powers factories in Zestaponi and Chiatura.
In 2021, Vera Kupatadze was one of eight people who spent a month on hunger strike, her lips sewn shut, to demand compensation from Georgian Manganese for damage to her property.
Today, Vera is one of dozens of Shukrutians who are demanding action and clarity from the company, which operates the mines in Chiatura, on the fate of their houses and the entire village.
[Read more: Mine entrance blocked near Shukruti in renewed protest against Georgian Manganese]
During the 2021 protests,
Residents of a village near the Georgian mining town of Chiatura have blocked access to a mine running under their village, to demand adequate compensation for the destruction of their village.
Residents of Shukruti, in western Georgia, set up a tent outside the mine entrance on Wednesday, the latest in a series of protests against mining company Georgian Manganese.
The land in and around Shukruti began to collapse in 2019, with Georgian Manganese initially denying any connection to the mine
A strike by manganese miners in the central Georgian town of Chiatura has come to an end after 18 days, with the mining company agreeing to key demands from the workers.
On Saturday, mining firm Georgian Manganese agreed to reverse new ore quotas that miners had described as ‘inhuman’. They also agreed to honour their contractual obligation to increase salaries by 12%, in line with inflation.
The miners went on strike after the company announced that workers would have to mine up to 40% more
Manganese miners from the central Georgian town of Chiatura have for weeks been on strike over their working conditions. But since a portion of the strikers moved their protest to the capital Tbilisi, far-right figures have been seen attempting to ingratiate themselves into the protests, leaving the miners unsure who to trust.
When several dozen striking miners and their supporters arrived in Tbilisi on 19 June, their intention was to bring wider attention to their cause. And the strike resona
Georgia’s Kutaisi Court of Appeals 
