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Added by Oniscoid 4929d ago

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In the late 1970's, the UK...(more) mining conglomerate Rio Tinto Zinc (now Rio Tinto) was exploring for uranium in Scotland, mooting an open pit mine on the Isle of Orkney. However Rio Tinto and its backers, the UK's Civil Uranium Procurement Directorate, were surprised at the strength of opposition to their plans from the Islanders. Their Island Council incorporated a ban on uranium in its structural development plan. And the composer Peter "Max" Maxwell Davies, its most famous citizen, launched into campaign mode. His five minute hauntingly lyrical "Farewell to Stromness" was originally part of The Yellow Cake Revue, staged at Orkney's St Magnus Festival in 1980. It rapidly became a paean for the anti-uranium movement, and is still broadcast to this day. (Rio Tinto was forced to abandoned its plans for Orkney without fanfare.) - info from PARTiZANS (People Against Rio Tinto Zinc and Subsidiaries), now incorporated into Mines and Communities - http://www.minesandcommunities.org/