Indigenous Organizations Unite Against Controversial Amazon Copper Mining Project
On February 13, 2024, at SSR Mining’s Çöpler gold mine in Turkey’s eastern Erzincan province, the hill that the mine’s heap leach pad was built on collapsed, taking with it an estimated 10 million tonnes of cyanide-laced ore, burying nine mineworkers alive and pouring into the valley below and towards the Euphrates River.
Montreal – One hundred (100) Indigenous people, academics, and representatives of civil society published an open letter today in support of the Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation in its challenge to Quebec's Mining Act.
The Canadian mining company Belo Sun is attempting to build the Volta Grande gold mine which, if built, would be the largest open-pit gold mine in Brazil. Instead of responding to legitimate concerns about the environmental and human rights impacts of the project, the company has filed a criminal lawsuit against local community members and activists who are speaking out.
On February 13, MiningWatch Canada’s Latin America Program Coordinator Viviana Herrera, alongside Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, testified before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on International Trade as part of its study of free trade negotiations between Canada and Ecuador.
Geoffrey York and Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail
When a Canadian mining company filed a lawsuit against a small African human-rights group, the company said it was merely seeking to get errors corrected. The African group disagreed, calling the suit an attempt to bully and silence it.
...
Late January marked the fifth anniversary of the world's worst modern-day tailings dam disaster at an iron ore mine in Brumadinho, Brazil. The collapse killed at least 270 people. They were mostly Vale company employees eating lunch in a canteen directly below a dam that gave way, sending a tidal wave of 12 million cubic metres of toxic orange sludge eight kilometres downstream, bulldozing houses, offices and people.
Shane Mercer, Canadian Occupational Safety
The investigation into the tragic plane crash near Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, that claimed six lives, including four mine employees and two pilots, continues to develop. One survivor is recovering in hospital.