By GERALD IMRAY

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — An appeal hearing opened Monday in South Africa on whether a subsidiary of British-based mining company Anglo American PLC was responsible for lead poisoning over decades that affected around 140,000 people in Zambia .

The class action by women and children asks South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal to overturn a judgment by a lower court that dismissed their case against Anglo American South Africa.

They allege that a mine in the Zambian city of Kabwe — which Anglo American South Africa was involved with from 1925 to 1974 — “poisoned generations of local people,” according to a statement from their lawyers.

The lower court in Johannesburg dismissed their case in 2023, ruling that there was a lack of initial evidence that they had b

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