Outokumpu will visit miner Vale's On??a Puma operation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest as part of an ethics 'audit' of its supply chain, the Finland-based steelmaking company said in a press statement on March 25.
Vale, the world's largest nickel miner, supplies ferronickel to Outokumpu, one of the top stainless steelmakers in Europe and the Americas.
Outokumpu has 9,000 suppliers and, "if there is evidence of any kind of violation of the supplier requirements... Outokumpu can discontinue purchasing from the supplier," according to a footnote to its press release.
Outokumpu's statement made several references to a critical report by a non-governmental organization (NGO) in its home country, Finland.
This said that Outokumpu had "failed to fulfil its human rights due diligence obligations" in its sourcing of raw materials from On??a Puma, which was alleged to have "polluted" land in Brazil that belongs to indigenous peoples.
State-owned companies have...