As politcians and mining companies gather at next week's mining indaba, the Economic Justice Network of Southern Africa will be holding a meeting of its own.

The network, a Christian group that lobbies for economic transformation, says the indaba excludes the poor by charging a participation fee of between R1900 and R11000 a person.

At a parallel conference down the road from the Cape Town Convention Centre, where the indaba is taking place, pollution emanating from the country's mines and the effects on the health of nearby communities will be discussed.

Network spokesman Mandla Hadebe said the organisation had "no problem with enterprise and the exploitation of resources. What we have a problem with is when companies infringe on people's rights and their governments don't protect them."

The network asked organisers of the mining indaba for a reduced fee but was refused.

The parallel conference will hear "evidence of atrocities committed by mining companies in the pursuit of profit", Hadebe said.

Leshiba Seshoka, spokesman of the National Union of Mineworkers, said that, for the past three years, the union had not been invited to the indaba and had been told it would have to pay to attend.

"They felt it was less important for us to attend. They are interested in labour for maximising profit," Seshoka said.

"We felt that we could not use the subscriptions of our members, who are poor people, to attend a [gathering] of the bourgeoisie."

John Capel, chief executive of the Benchmarks foundation, which is supporting the alternative conference, said the mining indaba was "an opportunity to ignore the voices of trade unions and communities affected by mining".

The department of mineral resources could not be reached.