On November 17, 2020, one year after the international conference "Turning Down the Heat: Can We Mine Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?", we convened a report-back, update, and conversation with MiningWatch staff and special guests from around the world. Following a presentation of the conference...
Audio recording of the virtual round table: "Turning Down the Heat: Can We Mine Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?"
On November 17, 2020, one year after the international conference "Turning Down the Heat: Can We Mine Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?", we convened a report-back, update, and conversation with MiningWatch staff and special guests from around the world. Following a presentation of the conference...
What Do Mine Tailings Dam Disasters Teach Us?
Brazilian mining activists invited Judith Marshall to participate in their November 5 commemorations of the anniversary of the tailings dam collapse at the Vale/BHP iron mine in Mariana, Brazil. Marshall was a founding member of the International Network of People Affected by Vale (AV) formed in...
Virtual round table: "Turning Down the Heat: Can We Mine Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?"
Please join us for a virtual round table: where are we at, one year after the conference "Turning Down the Heat: Can We Mine Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?" A report-back and conversation with MiningWatch staff and special guests from around the world. November 17, 2020 – 2-4 pm EST (7-9 pm...
Take Action To Protect the Ida Mountains, Turkey
The Ida mountain range and Mount Ida itself (Kazdaği, in Turkish, home to the ancient city of Troy), have been subject to gold mining interests in recent years. Since 2010, Canadian company Alamos Gold has been seeking to develop gold mines there in the face of determined local and nation-wide...
Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Kirsten Francescone, Dan Kovalik, Janine Bandcroft
There is jubilation in Bolivia, as the people’s representatives are again in power following the removal by force of arms last year of president Evo Morales’ MAS party. The party’s new iteration, under the leadership of Luis Arce, won an even larger majority than last time, sweeping away the coup...
Xinka Parliament Announces Breakthrough in Escobal Mine Consultation Process, Rejects Pan American Silver’s Bad Faith
On October 15, 2020, the Xinka Parliament announced that Guatemalan authorities have finally recognized their representatives elected to participate in a consultation on the Escobal silver mine. Along with other agreements, this breakthrough could allow the court-ordered process over the future of...
From Mines to Electric Vehicles: Three conditions to ensure electrification isn’t a mining disaster
As Ottawa and Quebec develop multi-billion dollar recovery plans that aim, in particular, to expand extractive mining to feed the growth in electric batteries, we call on our governments to implement needed reforms to ensure this does not undermine the sustainability of transportation. To enable a...
Talks at Los Filos in Guerrero, Mexico, Break Down; Ejido Calls On Equinox Gold to Name New Negotiators
After 42 days of camping out to stop operations at the Los Filos mine in Guerrero, México, the Ejido of Carrizalillo has issued a public statement (translated below) to Equinox Gold’s top management calling on the company to send a new negotiating team after talks broke down this week over a new...
Why Can't Equinox Gold Keep an Agreement? Timeline of events at Los Filos, Mexico
[updated November 25, 2020]
On September 3, 2020, the Ejido of Carrizalillo shut down the Los Filos gold mine in Guerrero, México over racist and discriminatory treatment as well as the company’s breaches of their social-cooperation agreement. On September 11 the Ejido agreed to terms that...
RMI Report 2020: Even the Best Mining Companies Fail to Protect Human Rights & the Environment
As the extraction of minerals continue to grow exponentially worldwide, including to supply increasing demand for energy transition technologies and batteries for electric vehicles, the Responsible Mineral Index 2020 (RMI 2020) concludes that "even the best mining companies" still fail to meet...
Canada’s National Contact Point is Long Overdue for an Overhaul
On October 7, 2020, MiningWatch submitted a brief to Global Affairs Canada with detailed recommendations for a complete overhaul of Canada’s National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD Guidelines). This Canadian non-judicial body was set up to receive...
Mine Waste in Canada: A Growing Liability
Why do affected communities care about mine waste? And why should we care?
When companies dig the metals and minerals we use from the ground, they typically only extract a tiny fraction that is economically viable and sold to the markets. The rest is waste.
For example, for each ton of iron...
One Month Later, Equinox Gold Still Failing to Meet Basic Conditions for Dialogue with Communities at Los Filos Mine
Today marks one month since the Ejido of Carrizalillo began a peaceful, legal encampment to stop operations at Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine in Guerrero, Mexico, over the company’s failure to comply with 70% of the terms of its social cooperation agreement with the community. The company’s...
Declaration of the Union of the Assemblies of the Communities of Chubut
[Posted from the The Union of the Assemblies of the Communities of Chubut]
The Union of the Assemblies of the Communities of Chubut (UACCh), made up of assemblies from across the provincial territory, declare: We repudiate the information published on September 24 in the Official Bulletin of...
Take Action to Support the Indigenous Shuar Arutam People in the Ecuadorian Amazon
On September 8, Canadian mining company Solaris Resources Inc. issued a press release announcing the signing of an “Impacts and Benefits Agreement (“IBA”) for the Warintza Project ” with the Shuar Centres of Warints and Yawi. The release followed statements that the company has been making since...