In honour of May Day this year, MiningWatch Canada has assembled the following summary of reported COVID-19 outbreaks affecting mine workers at Canadian owned/operated mines across the world.

The list is not exhaustive, and relies heavily on media-reported outbreaks (as of April 30). The numbers provided here are likely lower than the actual number of cases.

How many of these infections could have been prevented had companies taken proactive action to protect their workforces?

How many more workers will die as a result of the virus?

(Manila/Ottawa) Over 190 non-governmental organisations from the Philippines and across the world have signed a statement condemning violent police action against a peaceful community barricade at a mining site in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya on 6 April 2020. The indigenous peoples’ barricade was set up in July 2019, following the expiration of Canadian-Australian mining company OceanaGold’s mining permit.

Online campaign launched in solidarity with peaceful resistance to Canadian mining project in Guatemala

(Vancouver, Ottawa) On Earth Day, the global COVID-19 pandemic has many reflecting on the importance of clean water and a healthy environment. For Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of struggles against Canadian mining projects in British Columbia and Guatemala, the public health crisis reinforces the importance of their ongoing, long-term efforts.

In my last column, we looked at the environmental risks of the mining industry, leaving us with a question: how do we reconcile the uncomfortable realities of modern mining with those of climate change, environmental integrity, and the rights of Canadians to health and natural beauty?

(Quezon City, April 6, 2020) Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) strongly condemns the violent dispersal by the police against indigenous community leaders in Barangay Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, late afternoon today.

More than 100 personnel of the Philippine National Police from the regional and Quirino provincial units escorted a diesel tanker and forcibly entered the premises of the Didipio mine of Oceana Gold Philippines, Inc. (OGPI).

Mining executives are washing their hands, alright — they’re washing their hands of responsibility for their workers’ and communities’ well-being.

In not acting quickly to curtail or halt operations in light of COVID-19, mining companies are putting workers and communities at greater risk. 

Here are ten points to consider:

Teck Resources’ Carmen de Andacollo mine in northern Chile has come under scrutiny for the way it is reacting to the COVID-19 crisis as the number of cases in that country continues to rise.

The peaceful resistance of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, and Jutiapa in southeastern Guatemala has struggled since 2010 to defend the health of their communities from the Escobal mine. Since June 2017, they have maintained a 24-hour roadside encampment to prevent traffic from reaching the mine site, which halted operations shortly before Guatemalan courts ordered the mine suspended.

The Xinka People of Guatemala Inform the Public That:

Twenty-four years after a catastrophic mine waste disaster on the small Philippine island of Marinduque filled a 26-kilometre river with mine tailings from the mountainous mine site to the sea, Marinduqueños still seek compensation for this disaster from Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold.

The 55,000 residents of the town of Boac, many of whom lost homes, rice fields, animals, and the use of the Boac River for food security and their livelihoods, continue to suffer from acidification and high metal levels in the river that has yet to be remediated.