The number of electric vehicles (EVs) hitting the road in B.C. — and the rest of North America — is surging ahead, and sales growth is accelerating. Policies like B.C’s zero emission vehicle mandate coupled with growing consumer interest are driving a transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles and toward EVs, with B.C. leading North America in sales. In response, global automakers are rapidly pivoting their vehicle line-ups, and demand for the metals and minerals needed for EV batteries is projected to grow rapidly. 

MiningWatch Canada has reviewed and provided comments on Nauru Ocean Resources Incorporated (NORI)’s Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed “collector test” of seabed mining equipment. The EIS lays bare the fundamental flaw in proposed deep seabed mining – the lack of adequate information about, and understanding of, deep sea ecosystems and how mining will impact deep sea habitats and associated species.

(Vancouver/Ottawa) In a new backgrounder report, MiningWatch Canada and the BC Mining Law Reform network conclude that British Columbia fails to meet the Indigenous consent standard for mining, even two years after the passing of the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

(Montreal /Papineauville) The Lake Associations of the Petite-Nation River Watershed announces that all of the municipalities of the Papineau Regional County Municipality (RCM) have passed resolutions urging Quebec to protect their environment in light of a graphite mining boom in the region.

Nine years ago, faced with threats posed by mining operations, communities in southeastern Guatemala organized a municipal consultation in the town of Mataquescuintla. The question was simple — do residents want mining? — and the answer was clear. Over 98% of participants expressed firm opposition to mining activities in the area.

November 27, 2021 marks 12 years since the assassination of Mexican environmental defender Mariano Abarca. As a founding member of the Mexican Network of Mining Affected People (REMA) and community leader, Mariano actively spoke out against the social and environmental impacts of a barite mining project in his community of Chicomuselo, Chiapas. His assassins were employed and/or contracted by the Canadian company that operated the mine, Blackfire Exploration.

by Joyce Nelson, November 23, 2021

The metals and minerals needed to conduct this transition will result in a drastic increase in environmentally dirty mining. The global energy transition is perhaps more red than green after all.

The shift to electric vehicles is sparking considerable new demand for metals and minerals, which some feel Canada should rush to fill. That is the argument Martin Wightman articulated in The Daily Gleaner on Nov. 15. However, mining watchdog groups, most recently at the UN climate conference, COP26, say that we can’t mine our way out of the climate crisis and that Canadian mining is doing more harm than good.

(November 23, 2021 - Ottawa/Barcelona) On the heels of COP-26, where global leaders agreed to make unprecedented investments in the energy transition, frontline communities already in the crosshairs of mining for critical minerals warn of the dangers posed by the mining boom for ‘green tech.’

The global mining industry, often supported by host governments, is positioning mining as a “green solution” to the climate crisis. This “green mining boom” is rapidly expanding into culturally and ecologically sensitive areas, increasingly affecting Indigenous and human rights, community livelihoods and the environment.

Communities, academics, and activists say that an energy transition that heavily depends on mining new materials without considering materials and energy for what, for whom, and at what socio-environmental costs will only reinforce injustices and lack of sustainability that have deepened the climate crisis in the first place.