This document, published jointly by Earthworks (USA) and MiningWatch Canada, outlines guidelines for safety, respect for affected communities, and corporate accountability that must be incorporated into any tailings standards or regulations. Please see this page for related materials – maps, summaries, and infographics, as well as the related news release and supporting quotes.
(Ottawa/Washington, DC) Today an international group of 142 scientists, community groups, and NGOs from 24 countries published a set of 16 guidelines for the safer storage of mine waste. The guidelines aim to protect communities, workers and the environment from the risks posed by thousands of mine waste storage facilities, which are failing more frequently and with more severe outcomes.
“Safety First: Guidelines for Responsible Mine Tailings Management” states that the ultimate goal of tailings management must be zero harm to people and the environment and zero tolerance for human fatalities. Last year’s tragic dam collapse in Brazil killed 270 people and destroyed the town of Brumadinho, and came on the heels of tailings dam failures at the Mount Polley mine in Canada and the Samarco mine in Brazil, among others. Across the world, communities in the shadow of large tailings dams live in a state of perpetual fear.
We wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as part of an international effort by 630 groups from around the world to draw world leaders' attention to the threat of investor lawsuits under the grossly unjust investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions of most international trade and investment agreements, seeking compensation for investors for emergency public health and wellbeing measures undertaken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On June 22, the Union of the Assemblies of the Communities of Chubut, Argentina (UACCH) officially launched its second “Popular Initiative” campaign, #NosDebenUnaLey (“they owe us a law”) to collect signatures from residents of the province to present a law which would protect water and the environment from the devastating impacts of industrial mining. This campaign marks over 17 years of organized resistance to protect water and the environment in the southern province.
Cancel FTAA #1 and stop destructive large-scale mining in Nueva Vizcaya: It was a year ago when the mining contract of Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. (OGPI) expired. For all intents and purposes, OGPI should have stopped its destructive mining operations. It has failed to secure an extension or renewal of its FTAA (Financial and/or Technical Assistance Agreement #1), it does not have the support of the local governments of the village, the municipality or the province of Nueva Vizcaya. The local communities have refused its continued operations and set up people’s barricades to prevent any illegal entry of mining vehicles.
(Ottawa) Over 50 Ecuadorian organizations and dozens of individuals signed an open letter condemning the Canadian ambassador to Ecuador’s actions to promote Canadian mining in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
As early as 2010, landowners living along the coast of the Bismarck Sea in Papua New Guinea (PNG) sought and won an injunction to stop mine tailings from the Ramu nickel-cobalt mine from entering Basamuk Bay via a pipe system coming from the processing plant. This type of mine waste disposal is known as Submarine Tailings Disposal and is effectively banned in Canada and many other countries.
Guest blog by Rebekah Hayden, Rainforest Action Group
Resources company Currawong Resources has been granted a licence in the Wombat State Forest, about 70 km north of Melbourne, Australia, an area with 380 threatened species including brush-tailed phascogales and the dusky antechinus, a small marsupial mouse.
