(Montreal/Quebec - Tuesday, March 22, 2022) The members of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine denounce an absence of concrete measures in the provincial budget to promote a circular economy and the recycling of Quebec’s minerals, including funds to support recycling electric vehicle batteries.
(Winneway, March 21, 2022) This morning, the Council of the Long Point First Nation (LPFN) sent a letter to the Government of Quebec requesting to conduct its own assessment of the impacts of Sayona Mining's proposed mining project affecting its unceded ancestral territory.
On August 4, 2014, the worst mining disaster in Canadian history happened at the Mount Polley Copper Mine northeast of Williams Lake, British Columbia. The tailings dam failed, dumping over 25 million cubic metres of toxic wastewater and mine tailings into Hazeltine Creek, Polley Lake, and ultimately into Quesnel Lake. Quesnel Lake is one of the deepest freshwater fjord lakes in the world at over 2000 feet deep. It is in a rare inland rain forest, glacially fed, and supports a host of wildlife including many spawning salmon and trout species. It is indeed a special place. After the dam failure, the B.C. government approved a permit for Mount Polley Mining Corporation (MPMC) to temporarily discharge the mine wastewater directly into Quesnel Lake via pipelines, with the condition that it find alternative discharge options by December, 2022 to improve effluent water quality before discharge.
Five kilometres deep on the Cook Islands seafloor, potato-shaped rocks pave the bottom loaded with expensive minerals like cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel. They're called polymetallic nodules and three weeks ago the Cook Islands Prime Minister, Mark Brown referred to them as "golden apples". Brown made the comment during an official signing ceremony where three companies were awarded a seabed minerals exploration licence. Caleb Fotheringham reports for the Cook Island News.
When MiningWatch Canada started up in 1999, we all hoped that our work would challenge the industry-dominated discourse about mining and smelting in Canada.
We were determined to see academics, journalists, and popular publishers expose the enormous externalized costs of the metals extracted in this country to workers, indigenous peoples, the ecosystem and communities – to see that this is an industry that makes its profits from terrible and often permanent loss.
Mining Country, by John Sandlos and Arn Keeling (in paperback, 224 pages, published by Lorimer) is an exciting fulfilment of this hope. The book is a large-format, popularly-written history full of stunning archival photos and well-researched, clear examples of mining conflicts and impacts. The story it tells shows the costs.
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for The Metals Company (TMC’s) deep sea mining test by its Nauruan subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), received over 600 comments across a range of critical issues. Government and non-government organisations declared it sub-standard and not fit for purpose as a risk management tool.
(Quebec, Canada) MiningWatch Canada and members of Québec Meilleure Mine strongly oppose a relaxation of air quality standards for nickel, as currently proposed by the Government of Quebec.
One month ago, on February 4, 2022, hundreds of people took to the streets in the municipality of Loja in southern Ecuador to protest against the industrial mining activities in the Fierro Urco páramo.
(Ottawa) The Federal Court has ruled that the Canadian government is not legally required to disclose details about its diplomatic interventions on behalf of a Canadian mining firm accused of human rights abuse in Guatemala.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Shin Imai, a York University law professor and co-founder of the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, requesting that Ottawa be ordered to remove redactions from documents it provided in response to an access-to- information request.
Sign here to support First Nations in calling on Minister Guilbeault to retract the draft Terms of Reference for the Ring of Fire Regional Assessment and restart the process with First Nations as full partners in a co-designed process. Mining companies have their eyes set on developing the so-called “Ring of Fire,” a complex of mineral deposits in the remote James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario. Already, the federal government is reviewing proposals to build access roads and the Ontario government is granting permits for mineral exploration – ignoring calls from several First Nations for a moratorium on all mining-related permitting and development until protection plans are in place for the region’s sensitive wetlands and watersheds, and until access to clean water, housing, and health services have been secured for all communities neighbouring the proposed development.
