A provincial decision is imminent on a massive industrial gold mine complex proposed for Wells, BC, (population 250) that would dominate the scenic entrance to the small mountain town, loom over half the community and funnel heavy industrial traffic through it, say concerned citizens. The worried residents are asking for design changes to minimize the significant impacts of the Cariboo Gold Project where a three-year environmental assessment process has just concluded.

[Smithers, Osoyoos, Kimberley] - The BC Supreme Court released its decision Tuesday holding that the Province needs to change its free entry mineral claim system within the next 18 months to align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The ruling is a result of the Gitxaała and Ehattesaht Nations’ joint legal challenge of one of British Columbia’s oldest colonial laws.

OTTAWA – This month, Indonesians from the Island of Sangihe are celebrating yet another victory in their long struggle to stop Canada’s Baru Gold from starting an industrial gold mine on their small island. With its operating permit revoked this month and the youth of Sangihe adding their voices to the opposition to Baru’s project, it remains to be seen whether Baru Gold will accept that it has neither a legal, nor a social, license to operate in Sangihe.  

səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Territories (Vancouver, B.C.) – Today twenty-two organizations sent a letter to Environment and Climate Change Minister George Heyman, calling on him to require an environmental assessment for the Copper Mountain Mine expansion. Copper Mountain Mine, located south of Princeton, B.C.

By John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus

(Winnipeg/Treaty 1 Territory and Homeland of the Métis Nation) Last week the Wilderness Committee discovered new mining claims in a protected area inside Nopiming Provincial Park, on the popular Seagrims Lake Chain canoe route. The mining claims were staked on July 29, mere days after the misguided new critical minerals strategy was released by the Manitoba government.

Less than a quarter of Manitoba’s parks are protected from industry. As companies race to dig up minerals deemed critical to a low-carbon economy, exploration for new mines is ramping up in provincial parks

Written by Julia-Simone Rutgers, The Narwhal

Miners across Canada are using a legally undefined status known as ‘care and maintenance’ to dodge responsibility for environmental liabilities

Written by Nick Gottlieb, The Breach

Imagine you own a coal mine in British Columbia. (Yes, governments in Canada are still approving new coal mines.)

Photo: A house in the community of El Naranjo in the Dominican Republic, metres away from the existing area for mine waste at Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo mine. Source: Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada

A local court in southern Ecuador has ordered Dundee Precious Metals to suspend its mining operations in the páramo de Kimsakocha, upholding the rights of local communities and dealing another blow to Canadian mining interests in the region.