MiningWatch Canada’s Directors and staff are pleased to announce that Susan Murdock has accepted the position of Resource Development and Administrative Coordinator. She takes over from Julea Boswell, whose abrupt departure brought us the good fortune of having Liz Kim help out on an interim basis...
Technical Review of the El Dorado Mine Project Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), El Salvador
Independent hydrogeologist Robert Moran did this review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Pacific Rim Mining Corp's El Dorado project for the Asociación de Desarrollo Económica y Social, Santa Marta (ADES) of Sensuntepeque, Cabañas, El Salvador.
Water Is More Precious Than Gold: The Pascua Lama Binational (Chile-Argentina) Mining Project
Presentation by César Padilla of the Chile-based Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales to a round table on "Regulating Canadian Mining Companies Operating Internationally" held by MiningWatch Canada in Ottawa on October 20, 2005.
Regulating Canadian Mining Companies Operating Internationally: background documents
On October 20, 2005, MiningWatch Canada held a round table on "Regulating Canadian Mining Companies Operating Internationally" with industry, government, and civil society representatives, including invited guests from Latin America, Africa, and Asia to examine options for regulatory and/or...
Philippine Province Files Suit Against Placer Dome – Background
Catherine Coumans, Ph.D.
Placer Dome in Marinduque
The Province of Marinduque is a small heart-shaped island near the middle of the Philippine archipelago. Most of its 200,000 citizens are fishers and farmers and many rely on what they can harvest from rivers, the sea and their land for their...
CAO Marlin Mine Assessment: Technical Responses
Hydrogeologist Robert Moran responds to the International Finance Corporation's Compliance Advisor Obmudsman Assessment of Glamis Gold's Marlin project.
Letter from Auki Tituaña, Mayor of Cotacachi County, Ecuador to the British Columbia Securities Commission
Unofficial translation
Mr. Darcy Krohman
British Columbia Securities Commission
Vancouver, Canada
Cotacachi, 19 September 2005
SUBJECT: Ascendant’s Revised Prospectus
Dear Sirs,
In the name of the Cotacachi Local Government, our most cordial and sincere greetings.
In light of the fact that...
Mining Concessions in Guatemala
A presentation of the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines explaining the mineral concession process in that country. In Spanish.
Elliot Lake Uranium Mines
By the early 1980s, the development of high-grade uranium deposits in Australia and Saskatchewan played a major role in driving down the price of uranium -- along with the collapse of the Canadian industry's illegal price-fixing cartel. The mines at Elliot Lake, Ontario, with their massive but low...
The Betrayal of Environmental Assessment
If anyone still thought that the environmental assessment process was there to ensure that development projects would not destroy the environment and local economies, it's time to wake up and smell the bulldozers' diesel exhaust.
A recent spate of astonishing decisions on a range of mining projects...
Sacrificing Another of Canada's Lakes to Mining
MiningWatch Canada is participating as one of four representatives of the Canadian Environmental Network (CEN) in a multi-stakeholder review of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMERs) hosted by Environment Canada (EC). The MMERs came into force on December 6, 2002. Most of the proposed...
New Caledonia: International Nickel Symposium
With an estimated 25% of known nickel reserves, the tiny South Pacific island of New Caledonia is a priority area for Canadian mining corporations Inco and Falconbridge. Both companies are currently engaged in major expansions, and both projects are characterized by social, political and...
Protected Areas: Testifying Before Indonesia's Constitutional Court
Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch flew to Jakarta in June at the request of our partner organization JATAM to testify as an expert witness before the constitutional court of Indonesia. At issue was the constitutionality of a Government Decree granting 13 mining companies an exemption from a...
House of Commons Committee tells Government - “Regulate Canadian Mining Companies Abroad - Investigate TVI Pacific in the Philippines
In a landmark report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) calls on the Canadian government to ensure "socially and environmentally responsible conduct by Canadian companies."
In their 14th report, the Committee members state that they are:...
Book Review: The Profits of Extermination: How U.S. Corporate Power is Destroying Colombia by Francisco Ramírez Cuellar
The Profits of Extermination looks at the links between foreign corporations and human rights violations in Colombia. Where corporations have sought access to Colombia's resources - oil, coal, gold, emeralds - they have used paramilitary violence, forced displacement, massacres, and disappearance as...
North American Indigenous Peoples Mining Summit, July 27-30, 2005
The North American Indigenous Peoples' Mining Summit brought Indigenous Peoples together from throughout North America to share their stories about how the mining industry has affected their communities and to discuss strategies and solutions.
Technical experts were on hand to lead panel...