Joint news release with Common Frontiers, Council of Canadians, United Steelworkers, Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, Sierra Club Canada, L’Entraide missionnaire, and the Social Justice Committee: A coalition of Canadian non-governmental groups today filed a memo with the RCMP asking it to investigate Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd. and its Mexican subsidiary under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.

The creation of large volumes of waste, including solids, liquid effluents, and air emissions, is a fact of life for mining and mineral processing operations. Depending on the minerals’ natural geology and how they are processed these wastes can often be hazardous to the environment and human health. Solid wastes including waste rock and tailings are, by volume, the most significant waste generated by mining and mineral processing. Solid wastes are typically in the tens to hundreds of millions of tons of waste for a single mine.

Joint news release with Common Frontiers, United Steelworkers, Council of Canadians, and Sierra Club Canada: A coalition of Canadian organizations is condemning the threatened use of NAFTA by Blackfire Exploration to extract 800 million dollars from the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas. The Calgary-based mining company is embroiled in accusations of corruption of Mexican public officials and the murder of a prominent environmental activist in the Mexican State of Chiapas.

Joint news release with Ecojustice and the Canadian Environmental Law Association: Ottawa, ON – Today, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Canadian government has violated a national environmental law aimed at ensuring sustainable development. In a case centered on the proposed Red Chris mine in British Columbia, the Court ruled that the federal government cannot split projects into artificially small parts to avoid rigorous environmental assessments. The ruling also guarantees that the public will be consulted about major industrial projects, including large metal mines and tar sands developments.

The Canadian government has consistently failed to create meaningful measures to regulate the activities of Canadian mining companies operating overseas. A private member’s bill, number C-300, represents the best chance for urgently needed regulation. It is currently being reviewed by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Joint communiqué with CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador): On December 26, 2009, Dora “Alicia” Recinos Sorto, age 32, was assassinated, the second anti-mining activist killed this week in the small community of Nueva Trinidad in the department of Cabañas. Recinos Sorto was eight months pregnant and carrying her two-year old child when she was shot on her way back from doing laundry at a nearby river. She and her husband, José Santos Rodríguez, were outspoken opponents of the proposed El Dorado mine which Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, is desperate to open despite widespread community opposition.

Recently, Toronto-based Pinetree Capital bought a few million shares of Copper Mesa Mining Corporation, making it the largest share owner of a failing company currently embroiled in a lawsuit . The takeover raised the price of its penny stock upwards to between three and five cents. Copper Mesa, however, got a lot more than what it bargained for.

Joint news release with CAFOD, the Canadian Boreal Initiative, Earthworks, Great Basin Resource Watch, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, and the Western Shoshone Defense Project: A mining and jewelry industry trade association -- the Responsible Jewellery Council -- launched its certification scheme this week. The RJC is comprised of mining and jewelry companies -- the very entities the certification scheme would govern. Unfortunately, RJC's system primarily serves to illustrate the need for independent, third-party monitoring.

MiningWatch Canada is very pleased with yesterday’s announcement from the Government of Ontario regarding a resolution to the three-year stand off between the community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug ("KI") and Toronto-based exploration company Platinex.