Webinar: Life in the Triangle of Death - Dominican communities talk mining

March 20, 2024 at 3PM EST | Zoom Registration

Metallic mining exploitation in the Dominican Republic is located in the heart of the country, in the provinces of La Vega, Monseñor Nouel and Sánchez Ramírez, which is also the centre for water sources and biodiversity. An area where life could thrive is...

Canada Turns Its Back on Mining Tragedy in Turkey

On February 13, 2024, at SSR Mining’s Çöpler gold mine in Turkey’s eastern Erzincan province, the hill that the mine’s heap leach pad was built on collapsed, taking with it an estimated 10 million tonnes of cyanide-laced ore, burying nine mineworkers alive and pouring into the valley below and...

MiningWatch’s Viviana Herrera Testifies Before Canada’s International Trade Committee on a Possible Ecuador-Canada Free Trade Agreement

On February 13, MiningWatch Canada’s Latin America Program Coordinator Viviana Herrera, alongside Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, testified before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on International Trade as part of its study of free trade...

Canada Joins Peru’s President in Mining Push

It’s been barely a year since Dina Boluarte assumed the presidency in Peru, but she is wasting no time making big changes to attract foreign investment and guarantee the expansion of industrial mining across the country. Following the impeachment and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo on...

Global Allies Call for Charges to be Dropped Against 5 Salvadoran Water Defenders

It’s been one year since five water defenders were arrested in El Salvador and communities in Canada, the United States and El Salvador are taking action to urge the Attorney General to drop the charges.

Known colloquially as the “Santa Marta 5,” Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro...

Review of "Canadian corporate identity: economic diplomacy, mining and racism around the Escobal mine in Guatemala"

A new chapter provides insight into the role the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala played as the Canadian-owned Escobal mine moved into operations in 2013 in southeastern Guatemala. While Canada tries to paint itself a world leader when it comes to upholding human rights, this chapter offers a clear and...

The Fight to Close First Quantum Minerals Canadian Mine in Panama

Before narrating the latest events on the anti-mining struggle, it is relevant to clarify that we are not a mining country, despite the fact that during the time of the colony and the Spanish subjugation, some gold mines were established with the same logic of extractivist dispossession of a foreign...

More than a Hundred Organizations Demand Justice for Assassination of Xinka Leader Noé Gómez Barrera

Following the murder of Xinka human and environmental rights defender, Noé Gómez Barrera, more than a hundred organizations - including MiningWatch Canada - issued the following letter:

On Saturday October 28, 2023, Xinka community leader, 69-year old Noé Gómez Barrera was murdered in the department...

People Power and Pushback: First Quantum’s Stock Price Plummets Amidst Massive Protests in Panama

A deal to allow operations to continue at one of the world’s biggest copper mines, high in the Panamanian mountain rainforest, is in limbo. Country-wide protests erupted last week in response to the announced deal and now the government says it’ll put the issue to a national referendum. Is this a...

Guatemalans Participate in Historic National Strike to Defend Democracy

Guatemalans are entering a fifth week of a national strike, with hundreds of thousands across the country taking to the streets in an effort to uphold the most basic tenets of democracy.

Progressive presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo resoundingly won August’s national election, but his future as...

International Organizations Express Concern for Democracy in Guatemala Amidst Attacks

MiningWatch Canada joins a host of international solidarity and human rights organizations in expressing deep concern over recent attacks against democracy in Guatemala. While the current Attorney General seeks to delegitimize election results and prevent the peaceful transfer of power, thousands of...

Ecuadorian Court Suspends Dundee Precious Metals' Operations

A local court in southern Ecuador has ordered Dundee Precious Metals to suspend its mining operations in the páramo de Kimsakocha, upholding the rights of local communities and dealing another blow to Canadian mining interests in the region. 

Dundee is attempting to build the “Loma Larga” gold...

With Little Transparency from Barrick, Affected Communities Hire Independent Expert to Review Pueblo Viejo Expansion Plans

Living a stone’s throw from Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo mine, the largest gold mine in Latin America, communities in the Dominican Republic have good reason to be concerned. 

Yearly, the Canadian mining giant extracts over 700,000 ounces of gold at the open-pit mine, dumping mine waste into the...

Critical Concerns about Manitoba’s Minerals Strategy

By: Heather Fast, Jamie Kneen, Eric Reder and Warren Bernauer

Last week, the Government of Manitoba released the Critical Minerals Strategy: Driving Sustainable Growth. For years, Manitoba’s environmental community has been raising the alarm about the short and long-term implications of mining...

Violence Surrounds Canadian Mining Projects in Ecuador

Two Canadian mining companies are drawing the ire of activists and Indigenous groups in Ecuador, where the government of Guillermo Lasso is using Toronto-based Adventus Mining’s Curipamba copper-gold project in Las Naves and Vancouver-headquartered Atico Mining’s La Plata project in Sigchos as test...

As EITI Celebrates its 20th Anniversary, Communities in the Dominican Republic Still Demand Transparency

Recent developments surrounding Barrick Gold’s moves to significantly expand the Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic have concerned civil society, highlighting a significant lack of transparency on the part of the government and the company. Transparency plays a vital role in ensuring...