A group of legal experts has written to Ontario Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, Greg Rickford, calling for an immediate halt to mineral staking and permitting processes in the province on account of difficulties remote Indigenous communities face in responding to consultation...
Support Chile’s “First Territory Free of Mining” – Send a Message to the Canadian Ambassador to Chile
On April 20, in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis and a terrible drought, the Environmental Evaluation Commission of Valparaíso, Chile, approved Vizcachitas Holding's new drill program in the regional municipality of Putaendo, without citizen participation. Since 2007, Vizcachitas has been owned...
Supreme Court of Canada Confirms Death of Zombie “New Prosperity” Mine Project
In a victory for the Tŝilhqot’in Nation, but also for the integrity of environmental assessment processes, the Supreme Court of Canada today dismissed Taseko Mines Ltd.’s application for leave to appeal last year’s Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) ruling about the federal assessment of Taseko’s...
Barrick Gold AGM 2020 – CEO Mark Bristow Responds to Questions about Porgera Mine
On May 5, 2020, Barrick Gold held its annual general meeting (AGM) online. I attended (as a proxy shareholder) along with McDiyan Robert Yapari of Akali Tange Association in Porgera, Papua New Guinea, and raised questions regarding human rights abuses at the company’s Porgera mine in Papua New...
Barrick Gold AGM 2020 – CEO Mark Bristow Responds to Questions about North Mara Mine in Tanzania
On May 5, 2020, Barrick Gold held its annual general meeting (AGM) online. I attended via a proxy and raised questions regarding human rights abuses at the company's North Mara mine in Tanzania.
Barrick is again facing legal action in the UK over accusations of excess use of force by public...
May Day COVID-19 Report
In honour of May Day this year, MiningWatch Canada has assembled the following summary of reported COVID-19 outbreaks affecting mine workers at Canadian owned/operated mines across the world.
The list is not exhaustive, and relies heavily on media-reported outbreaks (as of April 30). The...
COVID-19: Mining Companies Putting Workers and Communities at Greater Risk
Mining executives are washing their hands, alright — they’re washing their hands of responsibility for their workers’ and communities’ well-being.
In not acting quickly to curtail or halt operations in light of COVID-19, mining companies are putting workers and communities at greater risk.
...
Chilean Mayor Asks Teck to Protect Municipality, Warns Population Vulnerable to COVID-19 Due to Mining Contamination
Teck Resources’ Carmen de Andacollo mine in northern Chile has come under scrutiny for the way it is reacting to the COVID-19 crisis as the number of cases in that country continues to rise.
The mayor of the municipality of Andacollo, Juan Carlos Alfaro, spoke with the Chilean press yesterday...
Communities Defend Public Health Against Mining and COVID-19 in Guatemala
The peaceful resistance of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, and Jutiapa in southeastern Guatemala has struggled since 2010 to defend the health of their communities from the Escobal mine. Since June 2017, they have maintained a 24-hour roadside encampment to prevent traffic from reaching the mine site, which...
Still No Justice for Marinduque’s Mining Victims
Twenty-four years after a catastrophic mine waste disaster on the small Philippine island of Marinduque filled a 26-kilometre river with mine tailings from the mountainous mine site to the sea, Marinduqueños still seek compensation for this disaster from Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold.
The...
Canadian Mining Companies in Argentine Patagonia: 'Go Home and Stay Home!'
Seventeen years after the Esquel referendum (March 23, 2003), funding dirty metal extraction projects seems further away than ever.
Author: Luis Manuel Claps
Until just a month ago, official media represented the expansion of the Canadian mining companies that operate in Santa Cruz into...
Bankruptcy Court Informed of Misleading Information in Mining Company Lydian’s Affidavit
[Guest blog by the Armenian Environmental Front] On February 28, members of the Armenian Environmental Front addressed a letter to Honorable Geoffrey B. Morawetz, Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Commercial List, specialized in insolvency cases, who presides over Lydian...
Global Mining Corporations Have a Friend in the New Guatemalan Government
The new president has appointed a former mining executive to a high-level post, worrying indigenous communities that have long protested the company’s harmful extraction activities.
MiningWatch and JATAM Write to Vale Indonesia and Vale Canada to Support Karonsi'e Dongi Demand for Electricity
MiningWatch Canada joined JATAM, the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network, in writing to Vale Indonesia and Vale Canada to renew a request that the company support the restoration of the electricity to homes of the Karonsi’e Dongi people in Bumper, East Luwu, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Background on Pro-Mining Law Amendments in Mendoza, Argentina
On December 20th, the Provincial Court of the Argentinean province of Mendoza amended an anti-mining Law (#7722) to permit the use of dangerous chemical substances banned under the law like cyanide and sulphuric acid used in the mining industry, essentially giving a green light to large-scale...
Banro Corporation in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The international community remains concerned with the ability of transnational mining corporations to operate outside the law, with a lack of enforced accountability for violations committed. Banro Corporation, operating gold mines in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)...