Latin America and the Caribbean

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Latin America has seen a major expansion in mining investments since the early 1990s, facilitated by free trade agreements and structural reforms that have deregulated the economies of the region and made them more hospitable to direct foreign investments.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Mining has played an important economic role in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. After the Spanish conquest, it attracted settlers to the arid lands of northern Mexico, displacing the borders of the Spanish dominion. In modern times, it became one of the antecedents of the Mexican Revolution when, in 1906, workers launched a major strike against the American company Cananean Consolidated Copper in the state of Sonora. The strike was repressed with violence and bloodshed, consecrating the miners as the precursors of labour struggles in the country.

Mexico
Monday, January 5, 2009

Since the early 1990s, the Intag region of Imbabura in northwestern Ecuador has been the target of mining exploration. Japanese and then Canadian interests have claimed substantial finds of copper, and have promoted the idea of building a huge open-pit mine in the middle of one of the most biodiverse areas in the world – the Intag cloud forest falls into both the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena and Tropical Andes hotspots, according to Conservation International.

Ecuador
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

On January 8th and 9th, 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous people claim the land to be theirs, and resent the exploitation of a foreign corporation. Canada's Skye Resources now lays claim to the land, and paid workers a nominal sum to destroy people's homes.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Communiqué: Twenty-one Honduran environmental, indigenous and human rights organizations have issued a joint statement demanding that the Honduran government create space for real and effective debate over a proposed new mining law. They also report that the congressional commission that wrote the law has been under pressure to get it passed.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

News Alert: Protests against Osisko Mining suggest company lacks the social licence to operate at its Famatina gold project in La Rioja, Argentina.

Monday, January 9, 2012

News Release: The Panamanian Environmental Advocacy Centre (CIAM) observes that the Investment Agreement between Canadian company Inmet Mining Corporation, owner of the subsidiary Minera Panamá, and South Korean companies Kores and LS-Nikko Cobre Inc. violates Panama's constitution. The proposed open-pit Copper Panama project also poses tremendous threat to a protected area, which the non-profit group will continue to defend. 

Friday, January 6, 2012

While Toronto-based Inmet is widely distributing news of the approval of its ESIA by Panamanian environmental authorities in order to pave the way for further investment in the project, the company is ignoring a decision made one day earlier by the country's Supreme Court of Justice to maintain the protected status of the area.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Communiqué: With implications for Gran Colombia Gold's proposed open-pit mine, this communiqué from the Marmato Defence Committee and the Regional Indigenous Council of Caldas (CRIDEC) indicates that the local municipality will now prohibit open-pit mining and resettlement of the historic town centre. Recent changes to the municipal land use plan also include recognition of the Embera Chamí indigenous community within Marmato and prioritization of water and environmental protection.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Dr. Lyuba Zarsky, a Senior Research Fellow for the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, is the co-author of a study on the Marlin Mine,  owned and operated by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. in the western highlands of Guatemala. MiningWatch accompanied Dr. Zarsky during her visit to Ottawa in October 2011.

Hear about the ethical issues faced in determining an appropriate study methodology, the challenges involved in knowing what is true/not true, and why the study concludes that this mine operation should be suspended.