Coal is generally obtained through open pit mining. Major coal reserves are found in China, the United States, India, Australia, Russia, Poland, Indonesia and Japan. Coal is mainly used for the production of electricity and heat. When used in a power plant, coal emits sulphur gas (containing sulphur...

Asbestos is a mineral based fibre that has been widely used all over the world due it its resistance to heat and corrosive chemicals. Typically asbestos appears as a whitish, fibrous material, known as chrysotile asbestos. Asbestos has been used in over 3000 products, everything from brake linings...

While definitions vary, abandoned mines are most consistently defined as those mine sites where the mine operator or exploration company has ceased or suspended indefinitely their activities, be that exploration, mining or mine production, without rehabilitating the site. Some parties make a...

Violence perpetrated by Porgera Joint Venture’s security forces

Allegations of rapes, beatings and killings of community members by Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) security forces have been prevalent for at least a decade. In 2005, a grass roots human rights organization established by indigenous...

The struggle of the former Zaire towards democracy and away from extreme exploitation and impoverishment has been a difficult and violent process. Mining has been a lucrative business in the Congo since colonial times, but it has also been brutal and hugely destructive of the environment and peoples...

On March 26 2009, B2Gold merged with Central Sun Mining, formerly Glencairn.

Mining takes place in many parts of Canada, mostly on Aboriginal lands, causing a range of impacts - environmental, economic, social, and health-related.

Latin America has seen a major expansion in mining investments since the early 1990s, facilitated by free trade agreements and structural reforms that have deregulated the economies of the region and made them more hospitable to direct foreign investments.

Mining has played an important economic role in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. After the Spanish conquest, it attracted settlers to the arid lands of northern Mexico, displacing the borders of the Spanish dominion. In modern times, it became one of the antecedents of the Mexican Revolution when...

Teck Corporation and Cominco Ltd. merged in 2001. Teck Cominco acquired Aur Resources Inc. in August 2007. Teck Cominco changed its name to Teck Resources Ltd. in April 2009. Company web site: www.teck.com

What Role for Canada in the Americas?
Meeting the Challenge of Human Rights, Democratic Development, and Economic Justice in a Time of Global Crisis

A Policy Roundtable organized by CCIC’s Americas Policy Group

“Corporate Accountability and the Extractive Industries”

Presentation Notes
Jamie Kneen
M...

Introduction

Prime Minister Harper has made a commitment to include the mining sector in an upcoming stimulus package. There is no denying that this sector, as with other industrial and resource sectors in Canada, is experiencing hard times. Metal prices have plummeted, fewer people are buying...

Since the early 1990s, the Intag region of Imbabura in northwestern Ecuador has been the target of mining exploration. Japanese and then Canadian interests have claimed substantial finds of copper, and have promoted the idea of building a huge open-pit mine in the middle of one...

While dumping mine tailings into the sea via a submerged pipe is effectively banned in Canada under the Fisheries Act, Canadian companies practice so-called Submarine Tailings Disposal (STD) overseas.

In November 2008 MiningWatch Canada’s Catherine Coumans had the opportunity to meet with partners at Barrick Gold’s Porgera Mine in the Papua New Guinea Highlands (Enga Province). Our partners are the grassroots human rights group called Akali Tange Association (ATA) and the Porgera Landowners...

In a letter dated December 4, 2009, MiningWatch Research Coordinator Catherine Coumans detailed serious concerns with the Human Rights Impact Assessment for Goldcorp's Marlin mine in Guatemala, announced April 24, 2008 as a response to pressure from shareholder groups (see announcement, below). A...