After the Mine: Lynn Lake, Manitoba

Report by Joan Kuyek

When Sherritt Gordon Mines and Black Hawk Mining had taken all the copper, zinc, nickel and gold they could get out of Lynn Lake, Manitoba, they closed their mines and took their profits, but they left millions of tonnes of toxic tailings and a devastated community...

Massive mobilization and march to urge Alcan executives and shareholders to pull out of a destructive mining project in Kashipur

The Alcan't in India campaign, supporting the indigenous and low-caste peoples of Kashipur in their work to protect their homes and lives from an Alcan-backed bauxite mine, is organizing a series of events around Alcan's Annual General Meeting (see below for details on the issue).

BACKGROUNDER: Cheviot Mine

Sierra Club of Canada/MiningWatch Canada

First proposed in 1996 and reviewed by federal-provincial hearings in 1997 and 2000, Cheviot was not developed due its poor economics and public opposition. Now the company has commenced a different and potentially more destructive mine project. In 1997...

Exporting Death: Asbestos and Canada

In December 2003, the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument for the Application of the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (PIC), resisted...

Risk First, Safety Last

Environmentalists from across Canada were told about plans by Health Canada to gut health protection for Canadians through a proposed new "Canadian Health Protection Act" at a retreat February 17-19.

Health Canada proposes to consolidate four laws and bring them into compliance with language in...

"Overburdened" Women's Health Project: In Search of a Pilot Community

In January, MiningWatch had the privilege of visiting with inspirational people from three mining communities across Canada. Mel Quevillon, Canadian Program Coordinator, visited Labrador West (Labrador City and Wabush) in Labrador and Thompson and Flin Flon in Manitoba to meet with community members...

Asbestos and Canada

Together with the Sierra Club of Canada and as part of the Ban Asbestos Canada Network we've published a two-page background piece.

A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Prairie Creek Mine - PDF

The Prairie Creek mine, located just outside the boundary of the Nahanni National Park Reserve and World Heritage Site, is an environmental and financial disaster wating to happen. The issues are numerous and somewhat complex. The involve the mine's poor location, toxic substances, regulatory...

Background information: Brazilian Justice?

By Laurie Kazan-Allen, February 20, 2004.

When it comes to upsetting the economic status quo, little seems to have changed since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva became President of Brazil. Despite the hopes of many of his supporters, powerful vested interests continue to set the agenda, silencing...

Mining in Russia

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Canadian companies have been playing a leading role in developing mining projects in Russia and other former Soviet republics. This paper by Anna Palframan offers an introduction to some of the issues surrounding the Russian mining industry in general, the...

Undermining Our Future: How Mining’s Privileged Access to Land Harms People and the Environment

A discussion paper on the need to reform mineral tenure law in Canada by Karen Campbell, West Coast Environmental Law staff counsel, January 2004. The summary below is also available as a PDF, attached as Mining’s Privileged Access to Land: A Free Entry Backgrounder.

What is free entry?

The...

Declaration on the Investment of Multinational Corporations in Colombia and Against the Elimination of MINERCOL, the State Mining Company of Colombia

We, the citizens of the world, have been informed by the workers affiliated to SINTRAMINERCOL-FUNTRAENERGETICA-CUT of the results of their study, titled Large-Scale Mining in Colombia: The Profits of Extermination, and of the decision of President Alvaro Uribe Vélez to liquidate the State Mining...

Mushkegowuk Tribal Council Comments on the Scoping of the Environmental Assessment of DeBeers' Victor Project at Attawapiskat on James Bay

Mushkegowuk Council is the regional organization that represents the interests of seven Cree First Nations in the James Bay Basin of North-Eastern Ontario. Besides Attawapiskat First Nation, it includes three other remote communities on the shores of James Bay: Moose Cree, Fort Albany and...

Northwatch Comments on the Scoping of the Environmental Assessment of DeBeers' Victor Project at Attawapiskat on James Bay

RE: Victor Diamond Project, De Beers Canada Exploration Inc., FEAI Reference Number 40658 - Draft Guidelines for the Conduct of a Comprehensive Study and the preparation of a Draft Comprehensive Study Report dated December 12, 2003

Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Comments on the Scoping of the Environmental Assessment of DeBeers' Victor Project at Attawapiskat on James Bay

RE: Victor Diamond Project, De Beers Canada Exploration Inc., FEAI Reference Number 40658 - Draft Guidelines for the Conduct of a Comprehensive Study and the preparation of a Draft Comprehensive Study Report dated December 12, 2003

MiningWatch Canada Comments on the Scoping of the Environmental Assessment of DeBeers' Victor Project at Attawapiskat on James Bay

RE: Victor Diamond Project, De Beers Canada Exploration Inc., FEAI Reference Number 40658 - Draft Guidelines for the Conduct of a Comprehensive Study and the preparation of a Draft Comprehensive Study Report dated December 12, 2003