Ricardo Lopez Tugendhat, a former manager at Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration and Mining, a Hancock Prospecting subsidiary, wrote to an Ecuadorian news outlet expressing grave fears for his safety. "Being familiar with the character and temperament of Mr Carlos de Miguel III, I am deeply concerned that the threats I have received from him … are carried out," the letter stated. "I hereby publicly hold the aforementioned Carlos de Miguel III responsible for any attack against the life or physical integrity of my family or myself."
Carlos de Miguel III is the chief executive of Hanrine and Rinehart's point man in Ecuador. A former US serviceman, de Miguel is alleged by former workers to have carried an assault rifle and walked with aggressive dogs at the company's sites in northern Ecuador.
The letter is the latest development in an investigation that spent a month in Ecuador examining Hanrine's activities. Journalists reviewed hundreds of pages of government documents, company records, court files and research papers, and spoke to dozens of villagers, environmental activists and experts. They detailed allegations of human rights breaches, irregularities in the concessioning process, and a pattern of violence and harassment toward local villagers.
Former Hanrine workers also described exploitation at the company's site in La Merced de Buenos Aires. Allegations include hiding contractless workers from compliance checks, serving raw meat to labourers, forcing employees to work while sick, and a culture of threats and intimidation.
The full investigation, published across Nine newspapers, also tracks the broader push by Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting into Ecuadorian mining.