(Ottawa) Ecuador’s Subsecretary for Environmental Protection (of the Ministry of Energy and Mines) has rejected Ascendant Copper’s Environmental Impact Study for the Junín mining project in the Intag region of north-western Ecuador. The decision was taken primarily because the study did not document any consultation with several affected communities and did not consider remediation measures, extensive deforestation caused by the project, or impacts to the area’s threatened brown-headed spider monkey Ateles fusciceps). The order was made December 8, 2006, but only made public today.

To ensure that this information is available to the public and to Ascendant shareholders, and in response to the recent attacks on DECOIN and the communities of Intag -- in the media by Ascendant Copper Corporation's management and by César Espinosa, Vice-President of Ecuador’s Chamber of Mines, and on the ground by Ascendant's mercenaries -- MiningWatch Canada and Friends of the Earth Canada have launched a new web site: DECOINwatch.

This web site brings together key documents and information about the struggle to build a sustainable future for the Intag region, as well as linking to the Ascendant Alert site, the home on the Web for the documentary film "The Curse of Copper", which looks at the struggle from the perspective of local leaders as well as looking at the international context of a globalised industry that prizes profits over conservation and sustainable development.

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For more details:

• Beatrice Olivastri, CEO, Friends of the Earth Canada (613) 241-0085, extension 26
• Jamie Kneen, Communications Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada (613) 569-3439