News release: Indigenous leaders from Porgera in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have traveled to Canada to speak out about devastating impacts in their mountainous community from a Barrick Gold-operated mine. Joining the indigenous leaders are researchers with the International Human Rights Clinic at the Harvard Law School and MiningWatch Canada. Concerns about killings by security guards at the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine, as well as about serious public health, environmental and socio-cultural impacts of the mine have continued since Barrick’s purchase of the mine two years ago. Neither the PNG government nor Barrick have responded effectively to these concerns.

Uranium mining is a highly contentious issue across Canada and globally. Uranium mining, from exploration through to mining, processing, and eventual decommissioning, is risky and dangerous to the environment, wildlife, local peoples and communities, and workers.

Uranium is used for three purposes: weaponry, medical and scientific technology, and energy. MiningWatch Canada believes that there is no public support in Canada for the use of uranium for weaponry, and that medical and scientific technology uses could be well served by existing stockpiles of uranium.

On January 8th and 9th, 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous people claim the land to be theirs, and resent the exploitation of a foreign corporation. Canada's Skye Resources now lays claim to the land, and paid workers a nominal sum to destroy people's homes.

(Revised November 2006.) Investigating mining as it relates to aspects of the economy, the environment, and communities; a cross-curricular programme relating Reading, Geography, and Science, this package contains everything needed to deliver an effective, skill-based unit. Prepared by Beth Nicol and Marilyn Crawford. Available as a PDF file (2.3 MB) (58 pages). Published by the Canary Research Institute of Mining, Environment and Health.

In 2004, MiningWatch Canada partnered with two women’s groups in the remote mining communities of Wabush and Labrador City (together known as Lab West) to consider the health implications of living in a mining town for community women. The Labrador West Status of Women Council and the Femmes francophones de l’Ouest du Labrador were interested in a community-centred participatory approach to better understand, document and communicate the health concerns of women in Labrador West. 

We have been disappointed, but not surprised, at the tone of some of the mining industry's responses to our report, Looking Beneath the Surface: An Assessment of the Value of Public Support for the Metal Mining Industry in Canada. The study, released in October 2002, examined the subsidization of the metal mining industry by Canadian governments, and the industry's contribution to the Canadian economy over the past decade.

The cost to federal taxpayers for the care and feeding of the metal mining industry has increased to $383 million a year, while the industry is delivering in return fewer jobs and reduced economic activity, according to a new report released today by MiningWatch Canada and the Pembina Institute.

"The richest vein of gold the Canadian mining industry has ever tapped was the one they discovered in the taxpayer's arm," said Joan Kuyek, National Co-ordinator of MiningWatch Canada.

On October 4-6 of this year, MiningWatch will hold an Activist Workshop on Canadian Mining in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This will be a fantastic opportunity to strengthen the network of activists around mining issues in Canada. The workshop will focus on the full costs of mining, perverse subsidies given to mining companies, unlimited access to land ("free entry"), exploration, and diamond mining.

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