MiningWatch Canada is urging the Yukon Government to heed a call for land use planning in the sensitive Alsek Valley on the boundary of Kluane National Park in the south-western Yukon. The national mining watchdog is adding its voice to local residents and the Yukon Conservation Society who have appealed for a cautious and planned approach to development in the area.

Yesterday the federal review panel examining the New Prosperity Gold Copper Mine Project issued a notice to the proponent, Taseko Mines, that the company's environmental impact statement (EIS) is deficient in fifty different ways. This determination follows a scathing review of an earlier draft in July and an initial indication at the end of November that the Panel was not satisfied with how Taseko dealt with cumulative effects.

ATLIN, BRITISH COLUMBIA - The Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), faced with significant concerns about the state of Chieftain Metals' proposal and negotiations, held a Joint Clan meeting on November 18, 2012 where the Joint Clan Forum rejected the proposed Tulsequah Chief Project.

In 2006, a remote Ontario First Nation, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), said 'no' to a mining company, was sued for $10 billion, had its leaders found in contempt of court and jailed but eventually prevailed when, three years later, the Ontario government paid the company $5 million to go away. This 7-page e-book by KI's political advisor and former MiningWatch board member David Peerla tells how it all happened.

(Whitehorse) Today in the Yukon Legislature, opposition member Jim Trudger will submit a petition from residents of Keno City asking for assistance with relocation and compensation for residences and businesses impacted by Alexco Resources rapidly expanding mining operations. The petition includes a long list of concerns related to how the mining projects have “fundamentally changed the nature of Keno City.”

The residents’ concerns include

Members of Neskantaga First Nation speak of their love for their land and the Attawapiskat River - an area threatened by extensive mining developments in the so-called "Ring of Fire" in northern Ontario. With visually stunning images taken and compiled by Allan Lissner.

The publicly traded companies with mining claims in the Peel watershed have written off almost all of their expenses for these claims. Of $168,431,781 spent by these companies in the Peel since 2005, all but $5,772,274 has been written off, according to a MiningWatch Canada report commissioned by Yukon Conservation Society.

News release: Mining critics are calling yesterday’s parliamentary committee report on the use of Canadian aid money to support mining companies’ interests in developing countries “a wholesale handover of CIDA to the private sector.”

(Ottawa) In a decision that represents the end of any judicial relief in Canada for victims of the Kilwa massacre, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the application for leave to appeal brought in the case against Anvil Mining by The Canadian Association against Impunity (CAAI), an organization representing survivors and families of victims of the 2004 Kilwa massacre.

North American and Mexican organizations express their solidarity with the families of Ismael Solorio Urrutia and his wife Manuela Martha Solís Contreras following their murder on October 22, 2012 in Chihuahua, Mexico. Amnesty International has called for international solidarity in response to the murder, noting a pattern of threats against Solorio Urrutia in response to his campaing for better access to water, including opposition to a Canadian-owned mine project.