Diamonds

There are no clean diamonds. Exploring for them, digging them out of the ground and selling them requires sacrifices from the natural environment, from the wildlife and fish that live on it, and from the Aboriginal people who depend on it.

We want to ensure that the public understand that Canada’s Aboriginal communities are engaged in a daily power struggle to ensure that the mines benefit their people, and to ensure that these mines do not irreversibly damage the intricate web of life on which we all depend.

Submitted by Alternatives North.

What is BHP-Billiton so afraid of? That’s the question Mining Watch’s Joan Kuyek asked recently in Yellowknife, NWT, while speaking about the strike at the Australian mining giant’s Ekati diamond mine, 300 kilometres north of the city.

MiningWatch has submitted comments on the Victor Diamond Mine Environmental Assessment. This huge project, on the traditional territory of Attawapiskat First Nation, is being proposed by DeBeers. It may drain and dry out over 1950 square kilometres of muskeg, will dramatically affect flows an important fish-bearing river, and will have untold effects on the social, cultural and economic life of the region.

Attawapiskat First Nation Member Mike Koostachin submitted the following statement to the Federal Regulators on January 21, 2004. It concerns the impact of a possible diamond mine in the James Bay lowlands.

Wachay!

A number of key issues are delaying a decision on the Environmental Assessment of DeBeers' proposed Victor Diamond Mine in Attawapiskat in northern Ontario.

DeBeers has staked over 1.94 million hectares of land in north eastern Manitoba near the Hudson Bay coast, in return for a payment of $1 million to the Manitoba government - about 50 cents a hectare. The claims surround another 60,900 hectares staked by Western Warrior Resources.

The Victor project should be delayed until Attawapiskat First Nation and the communities in the Mushkekowuk Council region have created the capacity, land use planning and education to benefit from the profits from the mine over generations. Regulatory Authorities (RAs) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency have a responsibility to find that there are "significant environmental effects"?

DeBeers has staked over 1.94 million hectares of land in north eastern Manitoba near the Hudson Bay coast, in return for a payment of $1 million to the Manitoba government - about 50 cents a hectare. The claims surround another 60,900 hectares staked by Western Warrior Resources.

The Victor Diamond Project is located in Northern Ontario, approximately 90 km west of the coastal community of Attawapiskat. This project involves Attawapiskat First Nation, and three other remote communities on the shores of James Bay: Moose Cree, Fort Albany, and Kashechewan First Nations. It also includes three road accessible communities: Taykwa Tagamou, Chapleau Cree and Missanabie Cree First Nations.

The diamond mine will be an open pit mine with an expected life of 12 years.