From Dateline Pacific, 4:04 pm on 19 December 2018 

A spokesperson for MiningWatch Canada says after the Porgera region in Papua New Guinea has hosted a huge open cut gold mine for nearly 30 years, the people are desperate.

Catherine Coumans was speaking as a landowners' group called the Justice Foundation for Porgera announced it was suing the PNG government for billions of dollars over the destruction caused by the Barrick Niugini mine.

(Ottawa/Manila) In October, 27 individuals and a number of organizations in the Philippines found themselves targeted in a way that is a common precursor to extra-judicial killings. The one thing these individuals and organizations have in common is their open criticism of Canadian mining company OceanaGold’s copper-gold mine in the Province of Nueva Vizcaya.

Catherine Coumans talks to Coop Radio's "Redeye" about the need for an ombudsperson to monitor the practices of Canadian mining companies abroad, and the Canadian government's announced (but not yet appointed) CORE - Canada's Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise.

On October 31, 2018, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and MiningWatch Canada released a study on the impact of OceanaGold's Didipio gold and copper mine in the Philippines on the surrounding communities. The study, OceanaGold in the Philippines: Ten Violations that Should Prompt Its Removal, concludes that the company has repeatedly violated President Duterte’s calls for responsible mining. The study found:

(Papua New Guinea) Nautilus Minerals’ aspirations to be the world's first deep sea mining company sink to the bottom of the ocean on news that the project support vessel critical to the development of the company's deep sea mining project in Papua New Guinea has been purchased for repurposing by Indian company MDL Energy.

As 2018 comes to an end, we want to give you just a few highlights of our work.

The peoples that form part of M4 who resist the capitalist and extractive model and are working towards social transformation

DECLARE

In Guatemala City’s historic centre, on November 15, 16 and 17, we met to discuss and analyze current efforts to regulate prior consultation of our peoples in order to build collective strategies based on shared principles in defence of nature, our shared commons, and to denounce once more the manipulativeness of big business and the role played by states.

A proposed open-pit lithium mine in northwestern Quebec has triggered community tension and calls for the provincial government to order an independent environmental review with public hearings.

An Australian firm, Sayona Mining Ltd., is the proponent that is proposing to build the Authier lithium mine project.

(Geneva) 2018 has been another dangerous year for human rights defenders seeking justice in cases involving large extraction companies, including Canadian companies. At the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights this week, mining affected communities from Guatemala and Papua New Guinea are asking, “Where is Canada’s Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise?” The Canadian government committed to create this mechanism more than ten months ago and has yet to appoint anyone to the post.

MiningWatch Canada has carried out and reported on yearly human rights assessments at Barrick Gold’s North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania since 2014. We have interviewed 66 victims of violence¹ at the hands of private and public mine security at the mine, including killings, maiming, rape, and gang rape.