MiningWatch Canada advocates for policies and legislation in Canada to ensure that mining companies carry out due diligence to prevent harm that may be caused or contributed to by their operations and we seek effective access to remedy in Canada through both non-judicial mechanisms and judicial means. Given our organizational mandate, the ongoing use of forced labour in the operations of Canadian mining companies, their subsidiaries or contractors, is of serious concern for MiningWatch Canada.

At the invitation of Kamamuit Papakassikᵘ (“the Assembly” of Papakassik, the Master of the Caribou), a delegation visited the Innu community of Matimekush–Lac John and the Naskapi community of Kawawachikamach to provide independent information about the Strange Lake mining project being developed by Torngat Metals. The delegation was made up of hunters and custodians of Nitassinan – the territory of the Innu Nation – as well as representatives from MiningWatch Canada, Eau Secours, and the David Suzuki Foundation.

MiningWatch Canada provides comments on the Government of Canada’s “Getting Major Projects Built in Canada” discussion paper.

Deep seabed mining’s unprecedented ecosystem risks are exacerbated by environmental and governance practices imported from terrestrial mining

Report published by the Deep Sea Mining Campaign. 

Deep sea mining (DSM) risks releasing unregulated radioactivity directly into global ocean commons and marine food chains. There are at least 10 critical knowledge gaps that must be answered before DSM is permitted. We call on the science community and regulatory authorities to undertake a focused investigative effort.

This year has been a year of contradictions. In the midst of US tariffs and tension with Canada’s largest trading partner, the federal government and the governments of B.C., Ontario, Québec, and Nova Scotia all passed or tabled legislation aiming to deregulate the mining sector and incentivize more mining projects. Both in Canada and globally, we saw a worrying trend of dismantling environmental protections, limiting democratic participation, and trampling on Indigenous rights to consent in order to fast-track mining projects in the name of national security and economic growth.

Canada and Ecuador have negotiated a free trade agreement that is fiercely opposed by Indigenous Peoples, trade justice advocates, water defenders and human rights and environmental justice organizations in Ecuador. We join them in opposing the deal for the following reasons.

The provisions of the Projet de Règlement modifiant le Règlement sur les mines (Draft Regulation amending the Mining Regulation, hereinafter "draft regulation") follow the adoption in November 2024 of the Act to amend the Mining Act and other provisions.

At the invitation of the House of Commons National Defence Standing Committee, MiningWatch Canada submitted a brief to contribute to the Committee’s Study on the Nexus Between National Defence, National Security, and the Critical Minerals Sector in Canada. 

This report back includes: 

Template letter refusing mining operations on ancestral family territory.

The Metals Company (TMC), a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ, has released a Pre-Feasibility Study prepared by AMC Consultants Pty Ltd (2025) for the mining of deep-sea nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the northeast Pacific Ocean. TMC is seeking an exploitation permit from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), rather than from the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has not yet developed the regulatory framework for issuing exploitation permits.

This report is based on fieldwork carried out by Catherine Coumans, Asia Pacific Program Coordinator at MiningWatch Canada, on Sangihe Island in November 2025. It details the issues related to mining on small islands in Asia Pacific and the ongoing struggle by the grassroots Save Sangihe Island (SSI) coalition to protect Sangihe Island from gold mining by Canadian company Baru Gold Corp. The report discusses: 

The purpose of this brief is to present an analysis of the proposed Bill to accelerate authorizations required for the completion of priority and national-scale projects (PL5). The brief was produced by Eau Secours, with the support of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine (QMM) and Sept-Îles Sans Uranium (SISUR), and aims to convey our comments and positions regarding the proposed legislation.

The brief is available in french only. 

Denison Mines’ Wheeler River Project would constitute the first-ever use in Canada of in situ leaching (ISL), to extract uranium from an ore body, and the first attempt anywhere to use “freeze wall” technology to limit contaminant spread from an ISL mine. Our review has identified important gaps and shortcomings in the Environmental Impact Statement and the CNSC Staff Submission recommending licencing of the project related to the proposed ISL/freeze wall process and related issues.

In response to an initiative by the Sept-Îles Citizens' Group, MiningWatch Canada and the Coalition Québec meilleure mine held an information evening on human health and social licence concerning critical minerals, particularly iron ore and rare earth elements. The evening aimed to provide the public with an independent overview of current and future mining development in the Sept-Îles region. 

Community and environmental groups have prepared an important report on the impacts of mining exploration activities by Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) in Matawinie. Following an independent community environmental monitoring campaign, the report identifies numerous cases of heavy metal concentrations in watercourses that exceed environmental protection criteria, likely attributable to exploration activities.

Our annual report provides some key impact stories from MiningWatch's work in 2024, with additional information about our financial position in 2024.

This year marked a milestone for MiningWatch. Celebrating our 25th anniversary provided an important opportunity for reflecting on the reasons MiningWatch formed when we first opened our doors in 1999, the struggles we’ve supported, the relationships we’ve built along the way, and the immense challenges that lie ahead. 

We find the Act as a whole to represent a disturbingly unaccountable and anti-democratic initiative, in that many of its provisions either bypass, undo, or override established processes, reserving decision-making authority to Ministers or Cabinet and removing those decisions from the purview of the Legislature or any other deliberative and publicly-accountable body or process.

The global steel, iron and metallurgical coal industry is emission intensive: the Canadian steel industry contributes to 2 percent of national emissions. Many emission-intensive Canadian steel mills either do not have plans in place, or are experiencing delays and a lack of clarity about the path to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050  – which is both a government and Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) target.

Between 2022 and 2024, Indigenous Kuria from villages surrounding North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania filed cases in Canada against Barrick Gold Corporation for alleged human rights abuses in and around the North Mara mine. MiningWatch Canada attended the hearings in Toronto and has prepared this report where we: 

MiningWatch Canada makes a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change, to inform the rapporteur’s upcoming report on “Human Rights in the Life Cycle of Renewable Energy and Critical Minerals.” 

This submission highlights several examples of human rights violations linked to mining for critical minerals, from initial claims staking to exploration, exploitation, and recycling. While our focus is on mining in Canada and the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad, these violations are common globally. 

In Canada, the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is the means by which Canadians can access information on pollutants released into the environment from emitting companies. It helps Indigenous Nations, governments, scientists and civil society identify priorities for action to protect public health and the environment. 

Public access to the NPRI is through its web page. 

The purpose of a public pollutant release and transfer registry such as the NPRI is transparency, responding to the principle of Community Right to Know, that is, the right of people to know what pollutants could potentially affect them so that they can make risk-informed decisions and take appropriate action – or demand appropriate action from facility operators and authorities – including in case of emergency. 

Submission to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, to inform the Rapporteur’s 2025 thematic report to the UN Human Rights Council.

The role of mercenaries, mercenary-related actors and private military and/or security companies (PMSCs) in the exploitation of natural resources.

Submission to the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries to inform the Working Group's report to be presented to the 60th Session of the Human Rights Council in September 2025.

This submission updates and expands on MiningWatch Canada’s 2019 submission to the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries with a focus on: 

On May 28, Québec’s Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, tabled Bill 63, an Act to amend the Mining Act and other provisions. The Coalition Québec meilleure mine (QMM) carried out an exhaustive analysis of the bill. In this brief, we present our general comments and proposed amendments. A detailed article-by-article analysis of the bill is available in the French version of this brief, originally published in September 2024 and available online.  

MiningWatch Canada launched as a pan-Canadian initiative on April 1, 1999, on the heels of a decade that saw an unprecedented global expansion of mining brought about by economic globalization. Indigenous, environmental, social justice, and labour organizations came together with different backgrounds and experiences to respond to threats posed by irresponsible mining practices in Canada and around the world.

Experts from the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) say First Quantum’s Cobre Panama tailings dam is at very serious and imminent risk of failure due to internal erosion and a lack of proper monitoring. ELAW's report analyzes the Ninth Monitoring Report, presented by Minera Panama, a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals that operates the Cobre Panama mine, in September 2024, together with other documents that were provided by the Ministry of Environment to ELAW experts who visited Panama in November 2024. 

For over a decade, MiningWatch Canada and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) have advocated for an effective and independent ombudsperson with the powers to compel documents and witness testimony, in an effort to hold Canadian companies accountable for abuse at their operations overseas. 

This year, MiningWatch gathered information on alleged violence against Kuria villagers in 2023 and 2024 carried out by police assigned to the mine. We received information on 28 cases and conducted interviews with alleged victims and family members of those who have been killed. The 28 cases include villagers who have been shot and killed, shot and survived, beaten to death, arrested and tortured, and maimed in a life-altering way through being hit by a teargas canister.

Canada and Ecuador are in their fourth round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement set to dramatically expand Canadian mining investment in the South American country.

MiningWatch Canada and the Coalition Québec Meilleure Mine hereby submit their joint comments on the Government of Canada's Emergency Order to Protect Boreal Caribou Habitat in Quebec (hereinafter, the "Federal Order") as part of the consultation process announced on June 19, 2024 and ending today.

To accompany a meeting with UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, we provide six case studies spanning 17 years that demonstrate Canada's failures to respect human rights when it comes to mining. The first two case studies precede Canada’s adoption in 2016 of Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders (Voices at Risk). Events outlined in the four subsequent case studies take place after the adoption of Voices at Risk.

Our annual report provides some key highlights from MiningWatch's work in 2023, with additional information about our financial position in 2023.

International Campaigns: Holding government and industry accountable for mining abuses abroad 

Panamanian organizations released a report documenting the rights violations and criminalization of activists during last year’s large-scale protests over First Quantum Minerals’ copper mine, Cobre Panamá.

The Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) filed a complaint against Solaris Resources Inc. (TSX: SLS) before the British Columbia Securities Commission over its failure to continuously disclose material information to shareholders regarding its Warintza mining project which overlaps PSHA’s titled territory. In spite of PSHA's explicit and continuous rejection of the Warintza project, Vancouver-based Solaris has kept moving forward with its mining plans in the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet.

In Quebec, the media often singles out the mining industry for being a repeat offender. This reputation stems from the bad practices of certain mine developers who have abandoned contaminated mine sites and left Quebec residents on the hook for billions of dollars for restoration, turned rivers red for dozens of kilometres, or have used lakes as dumping grounds for the tailings from iron ore processing plants.

Mine waste safety expert Dr. Steven Emerman released findings of his independent review of Barrick Gold’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the Naranjo Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), warning that the Canadian mining giant is failing to adequately disclose the environmental and social risks posed by its planned expansion at the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic.

Lighting summary:

Brief prepared for the country visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo.

Since 1999, MiningWatch has provided technical expertise and advocacy support to hundreds of communities across the globe as they assert their rights to safe drinking water and sanitation in the face of imminent and past harm by industrial mining.

MiningWatch Canada submitted a brief to the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, ahead of Professor Tomoya Obokata's country visit to Canada.

In May 2023, a delegation of 13 representatives from social and environmental justice organisations from eight countries in the Americas and Europe visited Colombia to share experiences of struggles against the global investment protection regime. The mission also went to learn firsthand about the peoples and ecosystems being threatened by corporate lawsuits, as well as the environmental, social and cultural harms that transnational investments have already caused, particularly in the departments of La Guajira and Santander.