News Alert: Protests against Osisko Mining suggest company lacks the social licence to operate at its Famatina gold project in La Rioja, Argentina.

News Release: The Panamanian Environmental Advocacy Centre (CIAM) observes that the Investment Agreement between Canadian company Inmet Mining Corporation, owner of the subsidiary Minera Panamá, and South Korean companies Kores and LS-Nikko Cobre Inc. violates Panama's constitution. The proposed open-pit Copper Panama project also poses tremendous threat to a protected area, which the non-profit group will continue to defend. 

News item: While Toronto-based Inmet is widely distributing news of the approval of its ESIA by Panamanian environmental authorities in order to pave the way for further investment in the project, the company is ignoring a decision made one day earlier by the country's Supreme Court of Justice to maintain the protected status of the area.

Communiqué: With implications for Gran Colombia Gold's proposed open-pit mine, this communiqué from the Marmato Defence Committee and the Regional Indigenous Council of Caldas (CRIDEC) indicates that the local municipality will now prohibit open-pit mining and resettlement of the historic town centre. Recent changes to the municipal land use plan also include recognition of the Embera Chamí indigenous community within Marmato and prioritization of water and environmental protection.

News release: The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and MiningWatch Canada today expressed deep concern at the political pressure being brought to bear on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the western hemisphere’s primary organ for protecting human rights.  Under substantial pressure from governments, the IACHR decided in late December to modify an earlier order regarding the controversial Marlin mine in Guatemala, the subject of an ongoing human rights complaint

News release: (Toronto) The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ordered that Solid Gold Resources Corp. cannot carry on any further exploration activity on its claims block for 120 days, and that during this time the company and the Ontario Crown must engage with Wahgoshig in a process of meaningful consultation and accommodation about any such further exploration.

News release: After weeks of delay and two adjournments, Wahgoshig First Nation finally had its day in court on December 20, 2011. The hearing of Wahgoshig's injunction motion lasted the full day and went in to the early evening. A decision is expected in mid-late January.

In the last two weeks there has been an intense media storm around the current housing crisis in Attawapiskat, a remote Cree community on the coast of James Bay. One element of the story that’s getting some attention and is of particular interest to MiningWatch is the fact that the community is ‘host’ to DeBeers’ Victor diamond mine, located 90 km west of the community, upstream on the Attawapiskat River, within the traditional territory of the Omushkego Cree. The juxtaposition is stark: a diamond mine producing millions of dollars of a sparkling luxury item, next to the poverty and infrastructure deficits in Attawapiskat. It has led people to ask us: if there are millions of dollars of diamonds being taken from their traditional territory, why aren’t the conditions in the community improving?

News release: Canada’s largest labour federation is demanding that Ontario respect Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) Nation’s moratorium to protect their burials and sacred lands from desecration by mining exploration. Ontario has allowed exploration company God’s Lake Resources to stake claims directly on top of sacred KI burials. The company has dismissed KI’s concerns as rhetoric, indicating that they intend to continue exploration at the site in December.

News Release: The Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights in Papua New Guinea and MiningWatch Canada and have released a new report called "Out of Our Depth." It details serious environmental and social impacts expected as a result of unprecedented mining of the ocean floor.