Newsletter 22: Spring 2006

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Opposition to the “Free Entry” system of mine claim staking is being challenged across the country by Indigenous people and private property owners.

In southern British Columbia, a “landowners’ rights group” has been formed to take on staking of the mineral rights on their lands by prospectors. (See article in the Tyee.)

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

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.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

(Iskut, B.C.) On June 16, 2006, First Nations grandmothers from the town of Iskut prevented a mining company from driving heavy equipment through a trout spawning stream. The company and the B.C. government have been rushing to establish road access and widen the scope of drilling in the Todagin Wildlife Management Area, located east of Highway 37.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The amended Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMERs) have been published in the Canada Gazette Part One, and the public comment period has closed. They will become final when published in the Canada Gazette Part Two.

One of the amendments to the MMERs adds two lakes in Newfoundland to Schedule 2, which redefines them as mine waste dumps (for environmentally toxic tailings). Both lakes currently provide habitat for trout and Atlantic salmon as well as otter and other species.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Political killings of left-leaning activists, clergy and journalists in the Philippines have been escalating steadily under the Presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The majority of the victims belong to the Bayan Muna, a political group that is represented in parliament, of which as many as 95 members have been killed since 2001. However, other politically active groups have also been targeted, such as the Movement for National Democracy (KDP), an umbrella grouping of trade unions, farmers’ and fishermen’s organizations, and women’s and youth groups.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

On June 8th, 2006, magistrate Jean-Paul Briseul of the Administrative Court of Nouméa in New Caledonia called on his fellow magistrates to declare Goro-Nickel SA’s licence to operate the Goro mine illegal. On June 15th, the Administrative Court revoked Inco’s 2004 mining licence.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The controversy around Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama project in Chile has gone global. Thanks to a chain letter that has “gone feral” on the Internet, literally millions of people around the world have learned about this ill-conceived mine that will endanger entire watersheds on both sides of the Andes.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

In March 2005, MiningWatch Canada facilitated the presentation by two of our partners from Zamboanga del Norte in the Philippines before the parliamentary Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Development. As a result of the presentation these community leaders gave on the impacts they are suffering from the operations of TVI Pacific in their municipality of Siocon, the subcommittee conducted further hearings to investigate the mechanisms that the government currently has at its disposal to hold Canadian mining companies to account in Canada for their actions overseas.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
MiningWatch Canada and the Canary Research Institute of Mining, Environment and Health displayed information and presented two workshops at the ‘Embracing the Change’ symposium in Kemptville, Ontario on May 17, 2006. Over 350 student and teacher delegates participated in a full day conference hosted by Upper Canada District ...