Xstrata (Falconbridge/Noranda)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The Theory and Practice of Perpetual Care of Contaminated SitesIn fall 2010, Alternatives North hired Dr. Joan Kuyek to do a study. Giant Mine in Yellowknife has 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide to take care of. There is a plan to freeze this arsenic, so it can’t leak out and hurt the people and the land. For the Environmental Assessment of this plan, Alternatives North asked for a study of how contaminants are managed in other places.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez describes what he calls the cycle of corruption (círculo cerrado): companies are allowed to operate without adequate regard for the environment and subsequently use their enormous profits to ensure ever-increasing impunity. Mr. Gómez firmly believes that his office is best employed in prosecuting company directors as the intellectual authors of environmental crimes – feasible under Argentinean law, but difficult to do even under relatively progressive governments.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez outlines five lines of investigation related to this mining operation, from environmental issues to concerns about the Argentinean State's lost revenues.

Monday, August 15, 2011

A number of Argentinean universities have refused to accept donations from mining companies and Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez calls on Canadian institutions to carefully look at company practices when considering offers of this type of funding.

Monday, August 15, 2011

In Argentina, the movement to protect the environment has moved from the fringes and the university classroom, to communities concerned for their well-being, to the court room. Mr. Gómez discusses the challenges and his hopes for his country’s future. He also provides an interesting insight into the effectiveness of calling for justice from the judges hearing environmental cases, arguing that public attention helps counter-balance the behind-the-scenes influence often wielded by companies.

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted in 1998 and can be viewed as a precedent, according to Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez, for the establishment of an international environmental crimes court. He believes such a body is essential to ending the impunity that multi-national companies causing large-scale, long-term environmental damage enjoy. He explains how this dream could come true.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Antonio Gustavo Gómez is the General Prosecutor in Argentina’s Federal Court of Appeal for the province of Tucumán. He specializes in the investigation of environmental crimes. In early 2011, Mr. Gómez visited Canada. MiningWatch Canada hosted him while he was in Ottawa. We have produced five videos from that visit, in Spanish with English subtitles.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Joint news release with Ecojustice and Great Lakes United: New data released Friday in response to a lawsuit won last year by Ecojustice, on behalf of Great Lakes United and MiningWatch Canada, is beginning to shine a light on the toxic legacy of Canada's mining and tar sands industries. Unfortunately, despite a lawsuit and a government order to report pollutant releases, some facilities have failed to comply.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Xstrata’s Koniambo project in the South Pacific French territory of Kanaky-New Caledonia, formerly owned by Falconbridge, is coming under increasing scrutiny and criticism. The proposed nickel mine, in the northern province of Kanaky-New Caledonia, will be one of the largest mines in the world when it is built. The territory, called New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Caledonie) by the French, is called Kanaky by its native Kanak inhabitants.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ten days ago, the Federal Chambers of Tucumán in Argentina brought criminal charges of environmental contamination against Julián Rooney, Vice-President of Bajo La Alumbrera, Argentina’s largest mining operation located in Catamarca and Tucumán. Rooney is free, but his possessions are impounded, and the company will appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals, and possibly to the Supreme Court. This is the first ruling in all of Latin America against a mining company for crimes against the environment.