It may not have the allure of gold, but as a key component of solar panels, next generation batteries and computer memory chips, there is a rush on finding new deposits of tellurium, a so-called critical metal.
Published on: October 6, 2020 | Last Updated: October 6, 2020 9:44 AM EDT
Last week, Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. issued a press release that declared its Pebble Mine, located in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, as the “most significant” source of rhenium in the world.
(Kamloops, B.C.) Declining water quality in Peterson Creek, a tributary of the South Thompson River, due to contamination from waste rock at the closed Ajax mine has prompted the Kamloops Area Preservation Association (KAPA) to ask the Government of British Columbia for increased monitoring of effluent from the mine.
Why do affected communities care about mine waste? And why should we care?
When companies dig the metals and minerals we use from the ground, they typically only extract a tiny fraction that is economically viable and sold to the markets. The rest is waste.
For example, for each ton of iron extracted, over 3 tons of solid waste are typically generated.
A MEMBER OF THE INDIGENOUS TUWALI TRIBE WALKS PAST BARBED WIRES DURING A PROTEST AGAINST THE AUSTRALIAN-CANADIAN MINING CORPORATION, OCEANAGOLD PHILIPPINES, NEAR MALACANANG PALACE IN MANILA IN NOVEMBER 2019. PHOTO BY DANTE DIOSINA/AFP
(Ottawa) There has been an explosion of international and national support for Ecuador’s Indigenous Shuar People, announced the Governing Council of the Shuar Arutam People (CGPSHA in Spanish) in a press conference yesterday. A week-long letter campaign coordinated by MiningWatch Canada and Amazon Watch to ensure that Canadian company Solaris Resources hears the CGPSHA’s demands provoked a powerful response.
Today marks one month since the Ejido of Carrizalillo began a peaceful, legal encampment to stop operations at Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine in Guerrero, Mexico, over the company’s failure to comply with 70% of the terms of its social cooperation agreement with the community. The company’s breaches of the agreement include failing to ensure an adequate supply of potable water and medicines, among other issues. The community has now rescinded the agreement, but remains open to dialogue.
[Posted from the The Union of the Assemblies of the Communities of Chubut]
A Constitutional Injunction win at the Cotacachi Court on September 24 may stop mining companies destroying the habitats of endemic species in Ecuador.
(Intag, Ecuador) In a huge win for the environment, on Thursday 24 September a judge at the Cotacachi Court ruled that the Ministry of the Environment failed at its job of protecting species on the Llurimagua mining concession in northwestern Ecuador’s biodiverse cloud forests. The case has implications for mining companies operating throughout Ecuador.
On September 8, Canadian mining company Solaris Resources Inc. issued a press release announcing the signing of an “Impacts and Benefits Agreement (“IBA”) for the Warintza Project ” with the Shuar Centres of Warints and Yawi. The release followed statements that the company has been making since March about a successful “prior consultation process” the company had completed with the Shuar Arutam People through a “strategic alliance”. Following this release, the Shuar Arutam People's Government Council (CGPSHA) which represents the 45 Indigenous centres in Shuar Arutam territory, publicly condemned the statements as false, and accused the company of violating their rights as Indigenous peoples. Take action here to support the Shuar Arutam People and tell Canadian mining company Solaris Resources to respect the Shuar Arutam Peoples' Indigenous rights to self-determination in the Amazon region of Ecuador.
