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In Malawi, litigation continues against Paladin Africa Limited, a subsidiary of Perth-based Paladin Energy, and its subcontractor after an explosion disfigured one worker with such heat that his skin shattered when touched by rescuers. Two others died in the same incident.

Other allegations include employees in South Africa hacking a woman with a machete and Malian police killing two protesters after a mine worker reportedly asked authorities to dislodge a barricade on the road to the mine.

An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in collaboration with 13 African reporters, uncovered locally-filed lawsuits, violent protests and community petitions criticising some Australian companies. 

In all, reporters counted more than 380 employees, subcontractors and community members in 13 countries who died in accidents or incidents linked to the companies since the beginning of 2004, including some who were shot to death. More were horribly disfigured or injured while working at Australian mines or during community protests against them.

The companies involved deny that they were responsible for any of the incidents.

But Tracey Davies, an attorney with the Centre for Environmental Rights in Cape Town, South Africa, says she has seen a pattern of poor behaviour by Australian mining companies, a sentiment echoed by employees, villagers, tribal leaders, members of parliament and activists across Africa.

“There is a very strong perception that when Australian mining companies come here they take every advantage of regulatory and compliance monitoring weaknesses, and of the huge disparity in power between themselves and affected communities, and aim to get away with things they wouldn’t even think of trying in Australia,” she said.

Australia has more publicly-traded mining companies with interests in Africa – more than 150 at the end of 2014 in 33 countries – than other resource rivals, including Canada and China.

In the Paladin case in Malawi, where two workers died and another was disfigured after an explosion, an initial accident report indicates unsafe practices by contractors may have been a factor……..

At Paladin’s second Africa-based mine in Namibia, unions criticised the company’s safety record after allegations that three female miners miscarried due to radiation exposure. In 2013, a government committee investigated and found “no scientific evidence” that the stillbirths were caused by radiation. The report did, however, identify other breaches of health and safety requirements, contributing to “an impression that Safety matters are not given the necessary priority,” according to report………

Although the companies have considerable legal leeway in what they report, critics believe that Australia should require companies to report more social and environmental impacts to the ASX.

Justine Nolan, associate professor at the University of New South Wales, says Australia lags behind other countries.

“Everything keeps getting swept under the rug,” she said.

Additional reporting by Shinovene Immanuel and Cecile Schilis-Gallego. http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/australian-miners-linked-to-hundreds-of-deaths-injuries-in-africa-20150710-gi7rzk.html