Impact and Benefit Agreements

Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBAs) seek to address the impacts a mine will have on a community and the environment and set the ground rules for a relationship between the community and a mining company.

Law or policy does not require iBAs, but many companies may seek to negotiate IBAs...

Land Rights

It is estimated that 60% of all mining activity in Canada takes place on Aboriginal lands. In many cases Aboriginal people have been hit the hardest by the social and environmental impacts of mining activities, from exploration through mine development and operation and to closure and abandonment...

DeBeers' Victor Diamond Project in Attawapiskat

The Victor Diamond Project is located in Northern Ontario, approximately 90 km west of the coastal community of Attawapiskat. This project involves Attawapiskat First Nation, and three other remote communities on the shores of James Bay: Moose Cree, Fort Albany, and Kashechewan First Nations. It...

Ontario and Abandoned Mines

Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development and Mines announced in 1999 a $27 million commitment to an abandoned mines rehabilitation program, with an emphasis on "eliminating risks to public safety" through the capping of abandoned mine shafts, removal of mine structures, and backfilling pits and...

Bring the Ontario Mining Act into the 21st Century

In Ontario, a regulation made under Bill 26 (the Savings and Restructuring Act introduced in January 1996) enabled profound changes to the Public Lands Act. 

Giant Mine - Background

The Giant Mine went into production in 1948 using a roasting operation for its gold sulphide ore. This mine was the last gold-roasting operation in Canada. Arsenic, in the form of arsenic trioxide, and sulphur dioxide were emitted during the roasting. For the first three years of operation, no...

MiningWatch Canada responds to threat of a libel and defamation suit

MiningWatch Canada has responded to the threat of a libel and defamation suit from Grant Stapon on behalf of TVI with a letter from our lawyer, Brian MacLeod Rogers: MiningWatch Canada re TVI Pacific Inc.

Presentation to the Constitutional Court of Indonesia Regarding Mining and the 1999 Forest Act

This presentation by Catherine Coumans, Ph.D discusses:

  1. “No Go” Zones for Mining
  2. Environmental concerns associated with mining (water and soil)
  3. Mining companies’ inappropriate involvement in developing and changing legislation that affects them

Somboon Mining Project: A Failure of Democracy in Thailand

A case study by independent researcher Peter McCaslin.

Canadian Mining Companies Investments in Peru: The Tambogrande Case and the Need to Implement Reforms

"In the case of Tambogrande, for the first time there was a very clear and direct confrontation between agricultural and mining development." Case study by CooperAcción.

Pascua Lama Background

Pascua Lama Project(Taken from “Exile of the Cóndor: Transnational Hegemony on the Border: the Mining Treaty Between Chile and Argentina” – Moon, Padilla and Alcayata, Santiago, 2004)

Pascua Lama is a mining project consisting of the open-pit exploitation of a deposit of gold, silver and copper ore and its processing...

Letter from Heller Ehrman to Ascendant Holdings

The prestigious international law firm Heller Ehrman, acting on behalf of DECOIN, notified Chris Werner of Ascendant Holdings of improper activities in conjunction with the Junín mining project. The letter requests “Ascendant’s assistance in ensuring that the process of determining the future path...

38th Parliament, 1st Session: Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Development of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade

[The following text is excerpted from the proceedings of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Development of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. March 23, 2005. The entire transcript may be found at: http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee...

Letter to MiningWatch Canada from TVI Pacific

MiningWatch Canada received a letter from Grant Stapon at Bennett Jones, a law firm representing TVI Pacific. The letter threatens possible litigation against MiningWatch Canada, the board of directors, and Catherine Coumans.

New Country, Same Story: Review of the Glamis Gold Marlin Project EIA, Guatemala

MadreSelva, a Guatemalan environmental group, commissioned independent hydrogeologist Robert Moran to review Glamis Gold's Marlin project Environmental Impact Assessment. His report shows shocking inadequacies in the EIA as well as a refusal by the company to provide any further information or...

Letter from the Mayor of Cotacachi Cantón, Ecuador, to the Toronto Stock Exchange (unofficial translation)

Finance and Audit CommitteeToronto Stock ExchangeP.O. Box 4503rd floor, 130 King Street W.Toronto, OntarioM5X 1J2 CanadaDear Committee Members,On behalf of the Local Government of the Municipality of Cotacachi, we address this letter to you to express a cordial salutation, as well as our best wishes...