Open Letter to Equinox Gold and Brazilian Authorities

Submitted by Viviana on
Special Blog Type

We, Brazilian and international civil society organizations, would like to express our great concern and indignation about the situation currently affecting 1,500 families of the Aurizona district, located in the municipality of Godofredo Viana, in the Amazon region of the Brazilian state of Maranhão.

Shareholder Advisory Alerts Investors on DeepGreen-SOAC Merger

The Metals Company Is a High Risk and Fundamentally Unsustainable Mining Venture: (London) Civil society organisations from across the globe have alerted shareholders to the financial, environmental and liability risks of investing in would-be deep sea mining company The Metals Company (TMC), as it seeks to become a publicly traded company on NASDAQ.

“DeepGreen Metals hopes to go public by combining with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp (SOAC). Shareholders in SOAC will shortly be invited to vote on approving the business combination and/or redeeming their investment.” explained Andy Whitmore, Finance Advocacy Officer, Deep Sea Mining Campaign.

Source
Deep Sea Mining Campaign

SARW Opposes Attempts by First Quantum Minerals to Silence It Through Court Action

The Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) has lodged a notice of intention to defend a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) brought against the organisation by a Canadian mining company, First Quantum Minerals (FQM) at the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg. SARW is an independent, nonprofit organisation that monitors corporate and government’s conduct in the extraction of natural resources in Southern Africa. As part of its work, SARW assesses the extent to which these activities uplift the economic conditions of the SADC region's communities.

Source
Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW)

Community and Environmental Concerns Not “Pertinent” to Pan American Silver’s Business

Submitted by Viviana on
Special Blog Type

Vancouver-based mining company Pan American Silver held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 12th: the final shareholder meeting for retiring founder and Board Chair Ross Beaty. To shareholders attending online, Beaty narrated a glowing chronicle of Pan American Silver’s socially and environmentally responsible history in Latin America.

Revealed: The Dirty Secrets Behind B.C.'s Claim to Be a World-Class Mining Jurisdiction, New Report

(May 17, 2021) - British Columbia’s aim to become a choice supplier of metals and minerals needed to build a greener global economy will fail unless laws are changed, according to a new report released today. Legal reform and better enforcement are needed to force B.C. mining companies to live up to the claim that they are world leaders in social and environmental responsibility.

Source
BC Mining Law Reform, Northern Confluence, SkeenaWild
Key Issues

Sayona Mining Exploration in Témiscamingue: Long Point First Nation Asks Government to Immediately Suspend the Tansim Project

(Winneway) In a letter sent yesterday, May 12th, to the Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, the Council of Long Point First Nation officially asks the Government of Quebec to immediately suspend the mining rights of Sayona Mining on the Anishnabeg unceded ancestral territory and to intervene in compliance with the constitutional consultation obligation which is incumbent on the Crown.

Source
Council of Long Point First Nation

The Blackwash Part Two: Crimes against Black people no obstacle for signing the BlackNorth pledge

As Canadian mining companies sign the BlackNorth pledge to fight racism, they continue to attack, displace, and disenfranchise Black and Indigenous people in Africa and the Americas.

By El Jones and Desmond Cole

With files from Sakura Saunders and Rachel Small

As European colonizers installed slavery across the Americas in the sixteenth century, they shipped more Africans to modern-day Brazil than anywhere else. Labouring on sugar plantations, enslaved Africans were brutally tortured and murdered.

Source
Yes, Everything!

Dilution is Not the Solution – Mining Pollution, Compliance and Recognizing Indigenous Laws to Protect Watersheds

Submitted by Ugo on
Special Blog Type

The industry is working hard to paint B.C. mining as “green” and meeting global ESG standards because it can supply “low-carbon” materials needed to support the green energy transition. But unless the B.C. Government enforces laws and standards to: protect water and ensures mine waste dumps do not put communities and watersheds at risk; respect community decisions and Indigenous consent; and make sure companies pay to clean up their mess, environmental destruction and social conflicts will continue to occur. The B.C. Environmental Appeal Board hearing regarding the Tŝilhqot’in Nation’s legal challenge against Gibraltar Mine (Taseko Mines) mine wastewater discharge into the Fraser River is due to finish on May 21st, 2021.

The B.C. Government permits mines to discharge mine wastewater directly into lakes and rivers with little to no treatment, counting on a dilution factor to lower pollution levels, despite Indigenous and local opposition, concerns about water quality, as well as impacts to fish and wildlife.

Focus Terms

Barrick Gold Mines Focus of Conflict Globally

(Ottawa) As Barrick Gold’s CEO Mark Bristow touts the company’s financial gains at its annual shareholder meeting, communities and environments around the world continue to pay the price. In Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, communities oppose Barrick’s mines and their destructive legacy through letters, statements, petitions, and through legal action.

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