On January 8th and 9th, 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous people claim the land to be theirs...
Violent Evictions at El Estor, Guatemala
On January 8th and 9th, 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous people claim the land to be theirs...
Laguna Pueblo Indian Reservation Case Study: Jackpile-Paguate Mine, New Mexico
For over 30 years, up until 1982, one of the world’s largest open pit uranium mines, the Jackpile-Paguate Mine, was operated on the Laguna Pueblo Indian Reservation in New Mexico. The mine has had a tremendous impact on the Pueblo: socially, economically, and environmentally. While the mine has been...
Mineral Policy Institute Case Study: Russia
In 1992, the Russian government disclosed the fact that a nameless mine on the outskirts of Baley, a small gold mining town in far east Russia, was a uranium mine which provided the material for the Soviet Union’s first nuclear bomb. The zone is now an environmental disaster.
According to a Japanese...
An Insult to Aboriginal People: A Critique of the Mining Information Kit for Aboriginal Communities Published by NRCan, PDAC, MAC and CAMA
(Jan. 5, 2007) Industry Associations (the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the Mining Association of Canada, and the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association) and Natural Resources Canada have developed and published an “Aboriginal Mining Toolkit” which they have been heavily...
Consolidated Rutile Ltd. in Sierra Leone
Mineral Policy Institute Case Study: Consolidated Rutile Ltd. (CRL)
CRL’s two big operations are on opposite sides of the world but both are highly controversial.
In Sierra Leone in West Africa, CRL owns half of the world’s biggest rutile mine. The mine has been closed since 1995 and the company has...
The Need to Shift Canadian Tax Incentives
Presentation to the Seventh Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Ottawa, October 23, 3006 (revised November 10, 2006) by Dr. Joan Kuyek, National Co-ordinator, MiningWatch Canada
There Are No Clean Diamonds: What You Need to Know About Canadian Diamonds
There are no clean diamonds. Exploring for them, digging them out of the ground and selling them requires sacrifices from the natural environment, from the wildlife and fish that live on it, and from the Aboriginal people who depend on it.
We want to ensure that the public understand that...
Urgent Action: Repression Against Residents, Leaders and Civil Authorities of Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe, Ecuador
The situation in Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe, in the south of Ecuador, has grown very serious.
On November 12, a Presidential Order was issued to immediately suspend all mining activity in the area, after massive popular demonstrations against multinational mining companies in the...
An Insult to Aboriginal People: A Critique of the Mining Information Kit for Aboriginal Communities
Industry Associations (the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the Mining Association of Canada, and the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association) and Natural Resources Canada have developed and published an “Mining Information Kit for Aboriginal Communities” which they have been...
Declaration of the Indigenous World Uranium Summit
(Window Rock, Navajo Nation, USA) We, the Peoples gathered at the Indigenous World Uranium Summit, at this critical time of intensifying nuclear threats to Mother Earth and all life, demand a worldwide ban on uranium mining, processing, enrichment, fuel use, and weapons testing and deployment, and...
Transnational Mining Tribunal: The Case of Barrick Gold Corporation in Latin America (Chile, Argentina and Peru)
II Social Forum Chile - Santiago de Chile, November 25, 2006
After hearing the arguments of the prosecution and the defence as well as the testimonies of civil society and traditional communities of Argentina, Chile and Perú, the judges have handed down a verdict and judicial sentence.
VERDICT -
...This is My Homeland: Stories of the effects of nuclear industries by people (Review)
(Edited by Lorraine Rekmans, Keith Lewis and Anabel Dwyer; published by the
Serpent River First Nation, Cutler, Ontario, 2003. 123 pp. Reviewed by Jamie Kneen.)
It was not the Anishinabe people of the Serpent River, who decided to mine
the massive uranium deposits that lie under the river...
Submission to Joint Panel Review on Kemess North Mine, BC
MiningWatch Canada presented our findings to the Kemess North Mine Environmental Assessment Joint Review Panel on November 22, 2006, concluding that the Panel "has no choice but to find that the Kemess North Mine project poses serious environmental effects which cannot be mitigated and that are not...
Land Conflicts in El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala & the Rights of the Maya Q'eqchi' People
Summary:
In the municipal jurisdiction of El Estor in northeastern Guatemala, Maya Q'eqchi' communities represent more than 90% of the population. They are scattered over an area of nearly 3,000 km2 in more than 100 villages as well as the town of El Estor, totaling over 35,000 persons.
The...
Intag Demonstration Against Ascendant Copper - video
Short video (3'11") of the July 13, 2006 demonstration by Intag residents in the courtyard of the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Quito, showing the non-violent expulsion of two women who were distributing pro-mining flyers. The blonde is Leslie Brooke Chaplin, who has accused Carlos Zorrilla of...