(Toronto) MiningWatch Canada is concerned about ongoing social, environmental and financial risks of Nouveau Monde Graphite (NOU; NMGRF; NM9) Matawinie Project near Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, Canada.

After a careful review of the project’s documents, multiple onsite visits, and active participation to Quebec’s environmental review and public panel hearings held recently, MiningWatch Canada is primarily concerned about the following risks:

(Ottawa) In a judgment released today, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a lawsuit brought against Nevsun Resources Limited by former mine workers regarding the use of forced labour at its Bisha mine in Eritrea should be heard in British Columbia – not in Eritrea, as the company had argued.

The non-governmental organisation MiningWatch Canada was an intervener in the case, and was represented by Andrew Cleland and Trudel Johnston & Lespérance.

A number of Outaouais politicians, environmental activists and tourism operators are mobilizing against what they consider an explosion in mining exploration in the area.

They gathered Wednesday at the Chateau Montebello in Montebello, Que., to voice concerns over the impact mining operations could have on tourism and the environment.

They also want the Quebec government to give municipalities the ability to dictate how close mineral exploration and mining can encroach on their boundaries. 

(Montreal) The Québec Meilleure Mine Coalition and dozens of organizations in Quebec are delighted by the news that the mining company Canada Carbon is dropping its $96 million lawsuit against the small municipality of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge in the lower Laurentians.

New research by SOMO and OT Watch shows how one of the world’s largest copper mine, Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, was negotiated at the expense of the Mongolian people. Leaked documents expose how mining companies Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources, the US embassy, the IMF and the World Bank compelled the Mongolian government into offering generous corporate incentives that leave the country with debt, environmental damage and a loss of democratic control over their natural resources.

The new president has appointed a former mining executive to a high-level post, worrying indigenous communities that have long protested the company’s harmful extraction activities.

(Ottawa/London) A group of seven Tanzanian human rights victims launched a legal claim at the British High Court against subsidiaries of Canada-based Barrick Gold, one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, alleging serious abuses by security forces, including local police, employed at Barrick’s North Mara gold mine.

MiningWatch Canada joined JATAM, the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network, in writing to Vale Indonesia and Vale Canada to renew a request that the company support the restoration of the electricity to homes of the Karonsi’e Dongi people in Bumper, East Luwu, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The CEO of a major mining asset-management firm recently told a power breakfast for mining executives in Vancouver that he sees a “monster opportunity” for the industry to profit off Canadian mining disasters.

Rick Rule, the CEO of Sprott US Holdings, was addressing executives gathered at an industry conference organized by the Association for Mineral Exploration.