Five kilometres deep on the Cook Islands seafloor, potato-shaped rocks pave the bottom loaded with expensive minerals like cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel.  They're called polymetallic nodules and three weeks ago the Cook Islands Prime Minister, Mark Brown referred to them as "golden apples". Brown made the comment during an official signing ceremony where three companies were awarded a seabed minerals exploration licence. Caleb Fotheringham reports for the Cook Island News. 

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for The Metals Company (TMC’s) deep sea mining test by its Nauruan subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), received over 600 comments across a range of critical issues. Government and non-government organisations declared it sub-standard and not fit for purpose as a risk management tool.

(Quebec, Canada) MiningWatch Canada and members of Québec Meilleure Mine strongly oppose a relaxation of air quality standards for nickel, as currently proposed by the Government of Quebec. 

One month ago, on February 4, 2022, hundreds of people took to the streets in the municipality of Loja in southern Ecuador to protest against the industrial mining activities in the Fierro Urco páramo.

(Ottawa) The Federal Court has ruled that the Canadian government is not legally required to disclose details about its diplomatic interventions on behalf of a Canadian mining firm accused of human rights abuse in Guatemala.

The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Shin Imai, a York University law professor and co-founder of the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, requesting that Ottawa be ordered to remove redactions from documents it provided in response to an access-to- information request.

Sign here to support First Nations in calling on Minister Guilbeault to retract the draft Terms of Reference for the Ring of Fire Regional Assessment and restart the process with First Nations as full partners in a co-designed process. Mining companies have their eyes set on developing the so-called “Ring of Fire,” a complex of mineral deposits in the remote James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario. Already, the federal government is reviewing proposals to build access roads and the Ontario government is granting permits for mineral exploration – ignoring calls from several First Nations for a moratorium on all mining-related permitting and development until protection plans are in place for the region’s sensitive wetlands and watersheds, and until access to clean water, housing, and health services have been secured for all communities neighbouring the proposed development.

Residents of the district of Aurizona (municipality of Godofredo Viana-MA) are suffering from the violation of their basic rights since Equinox Gold’s tailings dam collapsed almost a year ago 

Written by the Movement of Dam-Affected People (Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens).

Original article in Portuguese. 

New report by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and Amazon Watch reveals that five Canadian investors alone were responsible for injecting over US$ 2 billion into mining companies with interests in Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon. The Royal Bank of Canada is highlighted as one of the main institutional investors of Belo Sun project in Brazil, accused of potential ecocide in the region. 

As Chile drafts a new constitution, will Canadian companies still cash in on a mining boom driven by demand for renewable energy? Naomi Larsson writes for the Breach. 
 

In the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region in northern Quebec, a historic civil society movement has sprung up in response to threats from mining. The Collectif des Pas du Lieu is encouraging residents to join collective hikes on top of Sayona Mining's controversial claims, as a way to better understand and appreciate the beauty around the Saint-Matthieu-Berry esker -- and fight to protect it.