Articles

Quebec is one of Canada’s top three mineral producers and a prime destination for speculative exploration spending. It has a reputation as a relatively easy place to explore and develop a mineral property, due to strong government support, established mining regions such as Val d’Or, and an agreement on resource development with the Cree and Inuit that guides development in much of the northern part of the province.

On March 1, 2011, MiningWatch Canada and our Papua New Guinea partners from Akali Tange Association and the Porgera Landowners Association filed a “Request for Review” with the Canadian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.

Open letter - The Wixárika indigenous people delivered the following letter to President of Mexico Felipe Calderón in Mexico City on May 9, 2011. A delegation from the Wixárika people then presented the same letter to First Majestic Silver shareholders on May 19, 2011, during the company's annual general meeting in Vancouver. The letter expresses concern about the impacts that a proposed silver mine will have on one of their most important sacred ceremonial sites, called Wirikuta.

Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is clearly established as an international human rights norm. The right of Indigenous peoples to grant or withhold approval for actions affecting their rights is an integral element of the right of self-determination. Article 3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) reflects the right of self-determination in common article 1 of the two human rights Covenants.

Quebec still ranks near the bottom of the heap in the collection mineral royalties, according to an analysis released today by the coalition Québec meilleure mine! and MiningWatch Canada. Despite changes to the royalty regime in 2010, Quebec still lags behind other Canadian jurisdictions with only 2% of the gross value of mineral production retained in royalties.

News release: Without ruling on allegations of human rights violations, the Canadian government has closed a complaint from indigenous communities affected by Goldcorp’s Marlin mine in Guatemala. The decision marks the end of a process that was both procedurally and substantively deficient, and provides yet another example of Canada’s failure to ensure that its mining industry respects human rights around the world.

Document - The Coalition Against Unjust Mining in Guatemala (CAMIGUA) responds to Goldcorp's arguments against an activist shareholder resolution, which will be voted upon at the company's upcoming Annual General Meeting on May 18th, 2011. The shareholder resolution asks Goldcorp to voluntarily comply with the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which include the temporary suspension of its operations at the Marlin mine in Guatemala's western highlands.

In February 2011 the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) began a process to develop a mineral strategy for the province. This is a welcome initiative as the last comprehensive policy review for the mineral sector was in the 1970s. As a starting point the government released a discusion paper and then hosted a number of community consultations and two themed workshops. MiningWatch participated in a workshop titled Environment Sustainable Mining held in St. John's on April 7 and submitted written comments on April 14.

News release from the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA), Santiago Anti-Pascua Lama Coordination, the Northern Chile Environmental Network, and the Huasco Valley Defence Council: Protests against Barrick Gold’s massive Pascua Lama project are taking place in the southern cone timed to coincide with the company’s Annual General Meeting in Toronto. In Buenos Aires, Santiago, San Juan, and Vallenar, communities are demonstrating against Barrick’s impacts on nature, people and democracy. They have released this open letter written to the attention of Barrick Gold’s shareholders.

News release: Five organizations, from Zambia, Switzerland, France, and Canada, have filed a complaint today against Glencore International AG and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. before the Swiss and Canadian National Contact Points (NCP) for violating the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Declaration - A statement from the Colombian Network Against Large Scale Transnational Mining, RECLAME, following Greystar Resources's decision to withdraw its request for an environmental permit for its Angostura project in the Colombian páramos of Santurbán. The decision comes on the heels of mobilizations in the city of Bucaramanga in which tens of thousands of people participated. RECLAME calls on Colombian authorities to ensure that these and other páramo ecosystems within the country are protected from mining activities, according to Colombian law. An estimated 108,972 hectares of páramo - a fragile high altitude wetland ecosystem - currently fall within concessioned areas.

[Update, April 4, 2011: CSR Counsellor Marketa Evans has responded to our brief, occasioning a further response from MiningWatch expanding on some of the key issues.] The Office of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Counsellor’s mandate from the Government of Canada and its review process are similar to those of the Canadian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines and replicate many of the shortcomings of that voluntary non-judicial grievance mechanism. This brief outlines some of the main concerns.