In August the Australian company Orchid Capital announced its withdrawal from a controversial mining project in Tibet. Orchid had established a joint-venture partnership with the China Tibet Institute of Geology Survey to form the Tibet Pioneer Mining Company with the intention of exploration in the vicinity of sacred Yamdrok Tso for gold and the Qu Long and Jia Ma fields for copper.

Free Tibet Campaign and Australia Tibet Council had strongly opposed Orchid's involvement in the project, stating that it was inexcusable for a Western company to collude in the extraction of non-renewable Tibetan resources whilst Tibetans were denied the right to decide how such resources be utilised. As soon as plans were announced to finance the project through Orchid's listing on London's Alternative Investment Market, Free Tibet Campaign wrote to ethical investment funds in the UK advising them to stay clear of investing in a company complicit in China's exploitation of Tibet's mineral wealth.

In early August Orchid was forced into a humiliating announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange that it was withdrawing from its operations in Tibet. It transpired that, despite having signed a letter of intent, Orchid's joint-venture partners had refused to sign a binding contract and had instead entered into negotiations with a separate Chinese party; a graphic demonstration of the commercial, as well as ethical, implications of investing in Tibet. Orchid's share price plummeted in both Australia and London as a result and Orchid became the latest in a string of Western companies to have invested in Tibet only to have subsequently pulled out after incurring significant damage to its reputation.

Tibet campaigners have since written to Orchid welcoming their decision to withdraw from Tibet and seeking an unequivocal undertaking that the company will not be renewing its interest in Tibet until the China-Tibet situation has been solved satisfactorily, such that Tibetans can decide if and how their resources are utilised.

However, the China Tibet Institute of Geology Survey is planning to go ahead with the project, employing Chinese partners in place of Orchid. In related news, China announced in August the start of construction of a copper mine in Qamdo, eastern Tibet; officially marking the start of China's effort to exploit the rich copper deposits in Tibet and thereby lessening its dependency on imports.

Thanks to all supporters who wrote to Orchid Capital expressing their opposition to the company's plans in Tibet.