Opposition to the “Free Entry” system of mine claim staking is being challenged across the country by Indigenous people and private property owners.
In southern British Columbia, a “landowners’ rights group” has been formed to take on staking of the mineral rights on their lands by prospectors....
On June 8th, 2006, magistrate Jean-Paul Briseul of the Administrative Court of Nouméa in New Caledonia called on his fellow magistrates to declare Goro-Nickel SA’s licence to operate the Goro mine illegal. On June 15th, the Administrative Court revoked Inco’s 2004 mining licence. The arguments...
Edited by Liisa North, Timothy David Clark, and Viviana Patroni.
Between the Lines (Toronto). $29.95 CDN (paperback). 288 pages. ISBN 897071-10-8
Canadian mining activity in Latin America has exploded over the past decade and a half. Investors have responded to neo-liberal policies of deregulation...
Alaskans for Responsible Mining
The Pebble project is a proposed gold, copper, and molybdenum mine in Southwestern Alaska, 24 kilometers north of Lake Iliamna. Northern Dynasty Minerals, a Canadian company based out of Vancouver, owns the rights to the mineral deposit.
The...
The Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship was released July 6 during the 14th Protecting Mother Earth Conference, convened by the Indigenous Environmental Network in Bemidji, Minnesota. It combines the ancient wisdom of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) -- "The first mandate.... is...
On June 21, 2006, a Chilean court returned two of Barrick Gold's Pascua Lama mining leases to prospector Rodolfo Villar, who had agreed to sell them to Barrick but had been paid only 10,000 pesos ($20 CDN). The ruling could have serious consequences since the leases are listed as Barrick's property...
In October 2005, the Canadian government rejected the recommendations of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade to adopt concrete regulatory measures to end human rights and environmental abuses committed by Canadian mining companies abroad. However, the...
Aur Resources plans to destroy two trout and salmon-bearing lakes in central Newfoundland by using them for the disposal of environmentally toxic mine waste. Environment Canada has recommended adding these two ponds to Schedule 2 of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER), effectively...
Update (July 2006): This matter is now before the courts in Chile, and no longer subject to political decisions. Please support our Chilean counterparts in their continuing struggle for democracy and environmental protection.
It's not too late! Barrick Gold's Pascua Lama project in the Andean peaks...
Comments prepared by Catherine Coumans as representative for the Canadian Environmental Network (CEN) on the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations Multistakeholder Advisory Group, together with Maggie Paquet (Citizens’ Stewardship Coalition, Port Alberni, BC), Judy Parkman (Recycling Organization...
The Fisheries Act is very clear that deleterious substances not be discharged into fish bearing waters or that fish habitat be destroyed. Weakening the Fisheries Act has the potential danger that economic considerations would influence political decisions to over ride scientific and environmental...
Canadian gold mining company Placer Dome, recently acquired by Barrick Gold, has confirmed reports coming out of the remote Papua New Guinea highlands that security guards at its Porgera gold mine have been shooting at, and killing, villagers. Placer Dome is owns a 75% interest in, and operates...
According to various analyses, a joint venture involving Kinross Gold, and which is now being taken over by Katanga Mining Limited, gives the multinationals access to huge pieces of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company, Gécamines (La Générale des Carrières et des Mines) at “fire...
On February 25, 2006, the Canada Gazette published a “Notice with Respect to Substances in the National Pollutant Release Inventory for 2006”. In “General Criteria”, Section 3(1)(h), the mining exemption now only applies to “pits and quarries”.
In Canada, the National Pollutant Release Inventory...
On March 15, 2005, the CBC aired a story titled “Mine site air heavily laden with asbestos” about the Baie Verte Mine in Newfoundland. The story was based on a provincial government study that CBC obtained through a freedom of information request. The study shows that the former mine — which...
MiningWatch Canada is currently participating, as a member of the Canadian Environmental Network (CEN), in a multistakeholder review of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER). The MMER were originally promulgated under the Fisheries Act (section 36) in 1977. The revised regulations came into...