(Manawan, Quebec) While the Chairman and CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG), Mr. Eric Desaulniers, is speaking at the international online Benchmark Minerals Week 2020 event today, the Atikamekw Council of Manawan reaffirms that its community members have still not given their free, prior, and informed consent to the proposed Matawinie open pit graphite mine located in Quebec, Canada.  

We, the undersigned organizations, write to you with great concern about the current threat, provoked by the mining lobby of some Canadian mining companies, of the possible zoning of the historic Law XVII-Nº 68 through Bill N 128/2020. If approved, this bill would allow for a a "mining zone" on the plateau of the province. We believe that this is an attack against the overwhelming will of the people of Chubut to protect their water sources. We also want to echo the position of the indigenous communities in resistance in the Meseta, who are directly affected by the mining projects and this bill.

Information received by MiningWatch Canada indicates that Barrick Gold (Barrick) continues to play hardball with the government of Papua New Guinea, while ignoring responsibility for a long history of un-remedied human rights abuses at its former Porgera Joint Venture mine in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

In November, 2020, organizations from Southern Ecuador requested that Canadian company INV Metals give them access to the Environmental Impact Assessment for its Loma Larga project, as well as other technical studies. The company has failed to respond, denying these organizations basic access to critical environmental and social information, despite saying time and again that the project will not negatively affect the highly sensitive Kimsakocha páramo ecosystem.

[take action to support these organizations by sending your own letter] 

Dec. 4, 2020

Ms. Candace MacGibbon,
President,
INV Metals
Toronto, Canada

Re: Respond to Ecuadorian organizations’ request for access to critical technical information: make Loma Larga´s EIA public

Ms. MacGibbon,

On November 24th, 2020, the Provincial Legislature of Chubut, Argentina initiated debate on two important laws for the future of mining in the province. In an online session, both the Popular Initiative to protect the region’s water supplies from mining and the pro-mining “Zoning” bill were sent to commission on the same day, to be analyzed and brought back, with recommendations, to the legislature.

The Ejido of Carrizalillo shut down Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine in Guerrero, Mexico on September 3, after two months of failed attempts at dialogue to address racist and discriminatory treatment, as well as breaches of their social cooperation agreement. This is the longest-running strike since the mine started operating in 2007. Instead of genuine efforts to achieve talks over a new agreement with the community, Equinox Gold, has resorted to provocation and threats, and is even suing the Ejido in Mexican courts. BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and the National Bank of Canada are funding this unnecessary conflict having participated in a $500 million credit agreement with Equinox in March 2020. These banks have a responsibility to demand Equinox stop putting communities, and investors, at risk. Call on BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, and the National Bank of Canada to demand that Equinox negotiate in good faith without threats.

Today, Equinox Gold reached the 83-day mark in the shut-down of the Los Filos mine in Guerrero, Mexico. This has not occurred since 2007, when the community of Carrizalillo learned that Goldcorp (since merged to form part of US firm Newmont) had illegally purchased collective lands. The current shutdown is motivated by Equinox’s poor treatment of the community and breaches in their social-cooperation agreement that was signed in April 2019.

The complaint is based on the violation of the right to consultation in the granting of concessions in more than half of the Shuar Arutam territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon