A new report highlights the lack of transparency and action by Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals in the face of a COVID-19 outbreak at its Constancia mine in Peru as part of a broader pattern of irresponsible behaviour.
Highlights of the report
(Ottawa) Tensions are high as the population of Andacollo in Chile nervously awaits COVID-19 test results from a worker at Teck’s Carmen de Andcaollo mine.
MiningWatch was informed Wednesday evening that a worker at Vancouver-based Teck’s copper mine had been exposed to COVID-19 after his son tested positive for the virus. According to local sources, the worker unknowingly passed a full shift inside the mine after having been exposed to his son, and has now been isolated awaiting his test results.
Canadian mining company Pan American Silver is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) today in Vancouver, with a small group of company insiders in the room and limited phone access for others. But despite the challenges of being heard, Guatemalan communities are raising serious questions about the company's acquisition of the Escobal mine with its 2019 purchase of Tahoe Resources and about social division the company is sowing by intervening in communities during the global health pandemic.
On May 5, 2020, Barrick Gold held its annual general meeting (AGM) online. I attended via a proxy and raised questions regarding human rights abuses at the company's North Mara mine in Tanzania.
On May 5, 2020, Barrick Gold held its annual general meeting (AGM) online. I attended (as a proxy shareholder) along with McDiyan Robert Yapari of Akali Tange Association in Porgera, Papua New Guinea, and raised questions regarding human rights abuses at the company’s Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea.
As Barrick Gold executives once again face their shareholders, investors should be asking themselves why this company is continuously embroiled in conflict and legal action involving its deeply harmful relationships with the indigenous communities that surround its mines.
In honour of May Day this year, MiningWatch Canada has assembled the following summary of reported COVID-19 outbreaks affecting mine workers at Canadian owned/operated mines across the world.
The list is not exhaustive, and relies heavily on media-reported outbreaks (as of April 30). The numbers provided here are likely lower than the actual number of cases.
How many of these infections could have been prevented had companies taken proactive action to protect their workforces?
How many more workers will die as a result of the virus?
(Manila/Ottawa) Over 190 non-governmental organisations from the Philippines and across the world have signed a statement condemning violent police action against a peaceful community barricade at a mining site in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya on 6 April 2020. The indigenous peoples’ barricade was set up in July 2019, following the expiration of Canadian-Australian mining company OceanaGold’s mining permit.
Online campaign launched in solidarity with peaceful resistance to Canadian mining project in Guatemala
(Vancouver, Ottawa) On Earth Day, the global COVID-19 pandemic has many reflecting on the importance of clean water and a healthy environment. For Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of struggles against Canadian mining projects in British Columbia and Guatemala, the public health crisis reinforces the importance of their ongoing, long-term efforts.
In my last column, we looked at the environmental risks of the mining industry, leaving us with a question: how do we reconcile the uncomfortable realities of modern mining with those of climate change, environmental integrity, and the rights of Canadians to health and natural beauty?
