Madagascar Technology Lawsuit: Rio Tinto Faces London Court

More than 6,000 villagers from southeastern Madagascar are preparing a Rio Tinto Madagascar mine lawsuit in London, alleging that the company’s QMM ilmenite operation poisoned their drinking water with uranium and lead. The UK firm Leigh Day sent a formal letter of claim to Rio Tinto’s London headquarters on April 2, 2024, and has said it intends to file the case in an English court in 2026 unless a settlement is reached first.¹²

Who Is Suing Rio Tinto

The claimants are Antanosy residents of the Anosy region near Fort Dauphin, where QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), 80% owned by Rio Tinto and 20% by the Malagasy government, has mined ilmenite since 2008.³¹²

Leigh Day is withholding client identities. Paul Dowling, the lead partner on the case, has cited fear of reprisals against villagers and reports of coercion and intimidation in the area around the mine.¹

What the Claim Alleges

The lawsuit alleges that mining operations caused villagers to ingest dangerous levels of uranium and lead, resulting in measurable health damage. Around 15,000 people in Anosy rely on rivers, lakes, and wetlands near the mine for drinking, cooking, and fishing.⁴

The evidence cited by the claimants comes from several independent studies. A 2019 water-sampling study by mining-impact specialist Dr. Steven Emerman, commissioned by the UK-based Andrew Lees Trust, found downstream lead levels roughly 40 times the World Health Organization’s safe drinking-water standard and uranium levels about 52 times the WHO guideline. Statistically significant increases in uranium, thorium, and lead were recorded between upstream and downstream sampling points. A separate review of QMM’s own monitoring data by radioactivity expert Dr. Stella Swanson found uranium present at every QMM monitoring station, with 37% of uranium readings and 43% of lead readings exceeding WHO guidelines.⁵ The studies attribute contamination to QMM’s dredge-mining process, which disturbs naturally occurring radioactive minerals in the sand, and to a “passive water treatment” system that channels wastewater into surrounding wetlands rather than treating it actively.⁴

Leigh Day also commissioned blood-lead-level testing on 58 residents living near the mine. The majority showed levels above the WHO threshold of 5 micrograms per deciliter, the point at which clinical intervention is recommended. At least one person had lead concentrations high enough to require chelation therapy. A clinical toxicologist retained by the firm recommended ongoing monitoring and nutritional support, with particular urgency for children and women of childbearing age given the known link between lead exposure and permanent brain damage in young children.⁶¹

The claimants are seeking accountability, medical intervention including blood monitoring and specialized care, and compensation for damage to their health and environment.¹

The 2022 Overflow and Fishing Collapse

QMM’s waste-containment structures have failed at least four times: in 2010, 2018, and twice in early 2022. Rio Tinto disputes the label “tailings dams,” calling the structures “berms” or “excavated storage facilities.”⁷

After heavy rainfall caused an overflow in February 2022, QMM received emergency permission from Madagascar’s water regulator, ANDEA, to release one million cubic meters of mine process water over roughly seven weeks to prevent a full collapse of the containment structure. Dead fish appeared in the local lagoon. The regional governor banned fishing, cutting off a primary food source, and QMM was directed to provide emergency food and drinking water.⁸

A 2022 survey by Publish What You Pay Madagascar found that fisherfolk reported a 90% decline in traditional fish stocks compared with a decade earlier, and that over 90% of local respondents felt the mine had negatively affected their lives. The survey also documented that a weir built at the mouth of a river feeding Lake Ambavarano had converted a brackish lagoon into a freshwater system, destroying traditional fisheries and, according to communities, driving crocodiles upriver where they attacked children.⁹

Why Villagers Turned to a London Court

After the 2022 crisis, a tripartite commission involving the government, QMM, and community representatives was set up to handle claims. A total of 8,778 villagers submitted losses.¹⁰ QMM says more than 5,000 eligible individuals had received compensation by March 2023.³

Formal complaints sent to Rio Tinto’s London headquarters in December 2022 alleged that villagers were required to sign confidentiality clauses barring them from discussing terms outside QMM-controlled talks, that they were coerced and intimidated into signing, that they were not given copies of their own agreements, and that they were refused independent legal counsel. Rio Tinto itself acknowledged at the time that the grievance process did not yet meet international standards.¹¹

Tensions escalated in 2023. After protests led by the local group LUSUD disrupted mine operations in late June and early July, two LUSUD leaders were charged in absentia as “enemies of the state.” On October 20, 2023, state security forces shot and killed three demonstrators near the mine: Msr Damy, Mme Francia Rasolonirina, and Msr Andriamamonjy Jean Solomon. Rio Tinto said it was “deeply saddened” and stated the incident occurred when security forces intervened to free individuals who had been taken hostage by protesters. No independent inquiry into the use of live ammunition has been conducted, according to reporting by The Ecologist.¹²¹³

How a UK Court Can Hear the Case

The claim relies on a legal path Leigh Day has used before: suing a UK-domiciled parent company in English courts for harm caused by an overseas subsidiary. The controlling authority is Vedanta Resources v. Lungowe, in which the UK Supreme Court held in 2019 that a multinational parent can owe a duty of care to people harmed by its subsidiary’s operations abroad. That case, brought for over 2,500 Zambian farmers alleging copper-mine pollution, settled in 2020.¹⁴

Rio Tinto’s Response

Rio Tinto denies that its operations are responsible for the contamination alleged by claimants. The company says its own water monitoring data from 2021 to 2023 shows metal concentrations upstream and downstream of the mine are “comparable” and that uranium and lead levels were below analytical detection limits.¹⁵

Rio Tinto also points to a September 2023 radiation study by JBS&G Australia, using testing by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Covering over 260 samples collected between 2019 and 2022, the study concluded that QMM’s contribution to local radiation doses was “far smaller than the variation in natural background radiation levels” and below national and international regulatory limits.¹⁶ The Andrew Lees Trust commissioned experts to review the JBS&G report and concluded it did not confirm that Rio Tinto has its contamination and water quality management under control.¹⁷

Madagascar’s national environmental regulator, the Office National pour l’Environnement, has said its own expert analyses “indicated no contamination of surface waters nor mining sites.” The agency’s independence has been questioned because it is partly funded by QMM fees.⁴

What Could Reshape the Case

Two developments hang over the litigation. Rio Tinto has placed its entire Iron and Titanium business, which includes QMM, under strategic review. The company disclosed in 2025 that the review is “advancing as planned” and that the next phase involves “testing the market” for the assets, though no specific buyers have been identified.¹⁸ The QMM mine was briefly shuttered for six weeks in late 2025 before reopening on January 6, 2026. Campaigners have called for an independent human rights and environmental assessment of the mine before any divestment.¹⁹

The second is political. In October 2025, an elite army unit called CAPSAT seized power, ousting President Andry Rajoelina after weeks of protests. Colonel Michael Randrianirina took control and promised elections within two years. The African Union suspended Madagascar’s membership. The EITI Board placed Madagascar under “enhanced scrutiny” through November 2026, warning that the country could be suspended from the transparency initiative if governance standards slip.²⁰²¹ What the coup means for mining regulation, environmental oversight, and the pending lawsuit remains unclear. As of mid-2026, the case has not been formally filed and no settlement has been reported.²

1
Leigh Day. Rural Villagers Living Near Mine in Madagascar Take Legal Action Against Mining Giant Rio Tinto
2
MiningMX. Rio Tinto Faces Madagascar Rare Earths Lawsuit
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Mongabay. Rio Tinto-Owned Mine Is Polluting Malagasy Water With Uranium and Lead, NGOs Say
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21
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