(Guest blog by Paul Filteau) In June of 1981, a company executive from Eldorado had flown in to Uranium City, Saskatchewan to announce closure of the Beaverlodge Mine, the main employer. It was completely unexpected. It was a tight knit and prosperous community. The 3000 residents were stunned!
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The federal minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Seamus O’Regan Jr., has recently co-signed a series of opinion pieces across the country (e.g. here, here) that, simply put, cross an ethical line. In these letters, Minister O’Regan joins the CEO of Canada’s largest mining lobby group to promote the...
Join MiningWatch Canada, Oceans North and other Canadian organizations in calling for a moratorium on deep seabed mining in international waters. Sign the parliamentary petition we have co-sponsored. Canadian mining companies are on the forefront of efforts to extend mining and its harmful impacts...
Last Saturday, I had the great honour and surprise of receiving the “Allumettières” Recognition Award from the regional Fédération Intercoopérative de l'Outaouais, including for the commitment and work done with Coalition Québec Meilleure Mine and MiningWatch Canada.
This award, which was as...
Back in the early 1990s, the Kumtor mine was meant to become newly independent Kyrgyzstan’s ticket to prosperity. Kumtor, the seventh largest gold deposit in the world at the time, became the first mine in Central Asia to be operated by a Western company. But as often is the case with resource...
By Alain Deneault and Ugo Lapointe (Respectively, professor, author of "Canada: A New Tax Haven" and co-founder of Échec aux paradis fiscaux; co-founder of the Coalition pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine and coordinator at MiningWatch Canada.)
While Quebec and Ottawa are planning tens of...
We, Brazilian and international civil society organizations, would like to express our great concern and indignation about the situation currently affecting 1,500 families of the Aurizona district, located in the municipality of Godofredo Viana, in the Amazon region of the Brazilian state of...
Vancouver-based mining company Pan American Silver held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 12th: the final shareholder meeting for retiring founder and Board Chair Ross Beaty. To shareholders attending online, Beaty narrated a glowing chronicle of Pan American Silver’s socially and...
The industry is working hard to paint B.C. mining as “green” and meeting global ESG standards because it can supply “low-carbon” materials needed to support the green energy transition. But unless the B.C. Government enforces laws and standards to: protect water and ensures mine waste dumps do not...
On February 7, 2021, the same day as the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election, the National Electoral Council (CNC in Spanish) held a popular vote on banning industrial mining in the watersheds of 5 rivers surrounding the city of Cuenca. Residents voted overwhelmingly (80%) in favour of...
Join us on May 5! The mining sector is working hard to take advantage of the climate crisis, painting mining as "green" because it supplies materials needed to support the "green" energy transition. But unless demand for both energy and materials are curtailed, environmental destruction and social...
Since March 2nd, the Assembly El Algarrobo has been demonstrating against Yamana Gold’s large-scale copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum project in Andalgalá, Catamarca province, Argentina. The massive mobilizations have included peaceful strikes and selective road blockades leading to the mining...
Dear Pan American Silver,
When you purchased the Escobal mine in 2019, you knew about the broad opposition to the project and that there had been violent repression against those involved in the fight. Now, your refusal to halt local programs in Xinka communities is fomenting tension and...
On Sunday April 11th, 10-million-plus Ecuadorians will decide between two presidential candidates from distinct parties but with similar visions of extractivism. Both Andrés Arauz (Rafael Correa’s protégé) and Guillermo Lasso (a former banker) are openly pro-mining, and Canadian mining companies...
On March 30th, 2021, MiningWatch Canada, along with 26 other Canadian organizations, sent a letter to Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, asking them to make a formal public statement condemning the violence...