The following guest blog was written by Elizabeth Ferry, a Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. She has been conducting research on mining in Latin America since 1996. With Stephen Ferry, she is the author of La Batea, a book of texts and photographs on small-scale gold mining in Colombia (Editorial Icono/Red Hook Editions, 2017, available here).

Vancouver-based The Metals Company wants to be the first to mine the sea floor for critical minerals. But Catherine Coumans, Asia-Pacific program co-ordination for MiningWatch Canada says, "We definitely need to stop climate change and the heating of the planet. But we have to think about doing it in such a way that doesn't get us from the frying pan into the fire." Lisa Johnson reports for CBC News. 

Chileans go to the polls this Sunday to vote on whether to adopt a new constitution that centres the protection of water and the environment as key pillars in the fight against the climate crisis. The Latin American Observatory for Environmental Conflicts (OLCA) has been at the forefront of the constituent process by organizing workshops and discussing key points in its “Eco-Constituyendo” podcast. OLCA provided MiningWatch with the following six highlights from the draft constitution as they relate to the protection of water and communities in the face of mining. 

This Sunday, September 4, Chileans go to the polls to vote on whether to adopt what’s widely regarded as one of the most progressive and environmentally ambitious constitutions in the world. As the movement to prioritize water and stronger environmental protections gains ground in Chile, there may be broader implications for the vast Canadian mining interests in the country. 

As two weeks of negotiations at United Nations headquarters in New York City wrap up Friday, many hope the culmination will be a legally binding international agreement to conserve and protect marine biodiversity in the high seas. The treaty has been more than a decade in the making, but at the previous round of talks held earlier this year, delegates failed to nail down the specifics. Catherine Coumans, research co-ordinator for MiningWatch Canada, said the sea floor of the high seas is hardly an underwater desert. "If you strip mine the seabed for minerals and metals, and destroy the biodiversity that exists there, that will have impacts and effects on all of the biodiversity in the water column above the seabed," she said in an interview from Ottawa. Safeguarding that ecosystem is why, Coumans said, a UN high seas treaty is desperately needed. 

(Montreal) In a new map released today, a coalition of local and national organizations reveals a boom in mining claims ranging from 49.1% to 408% for 18 months in four tourist regions of southern Quebec. Faced with this unprecedented boom, the coalition is urging Quebec to establish a moratorium, as long as the rules set out in the Mining Act have not been modified.

(Victoria/Ottawa/London) The Metals Company’s (TMC) second quarterly results are out – just as the company appears close to violating the listing standards of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange by trading below US$1 at closing bid price for 30 consecutive business days. (The closing bidding price was listed as $0.98 on 12 August. During an investor conference call on 15 August, the CEO tried to reassure shareholders by noting the company would have time to rectify breaching of the rules.)

In September of 2018, Guatemala’s highest court ordered the Ministry of Energy and Mines to consult with the Xinka people after finding that the government had discriminated against them and violated their rights when the Escobal mine was violently forced into production in 2014. Last month marked the end of the first phase of the process. Earthworks reports.

The mining industry is fixing to capitalize on the energy transition. But affected communities across the Americas are speaking out against “business as usual.” In June, representatives of communities from the Philippines to Ethiopia to the High Arctic and allies gathered outside PDAC 2022 to denounce the industry’s efforts to greenwash their extractive activities, and to amplify the voices of frontline communities caught in the crosshairs of ‘green’ mining. As the energy transition intensifies, communities across the globe are fighting for real solutions to the climate crisis, protecting their lands and waters from becoming sacrifice zones while the mining industry profits. Here we highlight a few of those struggles. 

Many governments allowed mining operations to continue during the pandemic citing the energy transition, while simultaneously deregulating the industry, studies find. Two recent studies investigated the power dynamics between mining companies and local communities in Latin American and European countries during the pandemic. The researchers, from the Coalition Against the Mining Pandemic (a collective of organisations including the Institute for Policy Studies and MiningWatch Canada), found that many governments used both economic recovery and the energy transition as justification to continue mining production, while simultaneously deregulating the industry.