Newsletter 19: Summer 2005

MiningWatch Canada is participating as one of four representatives of the Canadian Environmental Network (CEN) in a multi-stakeholder review of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMERs) hosted by Environment Canada (EC). The MMERs came into force on December 6, 2002. Most of the proposed amendments to the MMERs are relatively minor adjustments based on experience over 3 years.

A "remediated" mine tailings area at Myersville, Jamaica became a watery grave for five people on July 16, 2005, when rains from Hurricane Emily washed their car off a road and over a precipice.

The bauxite mine, dug thirty years ago, belongs to Alpart and had been " restored, rehabilitated and certified," according to Lance Neita, Alpart's public relations manager. Jamaican National Works Agency (NWA) spokesman Stephen Shaw said that erosion had taken place at the site and guard rails should have been installed.

The Profits of Extermination looks at the links between foreign corporations and human rights violations in Colombia. Where corporations have sought access to Colombia's resources - oil, coal, gold, emeralds - they have used paramilitary violence, forced displacement, massacres, and disappearance as tactics to remove populations and secure their investments.