Northern Ontario First Nation wants gold exploration permit quashed in case that could have impact on Ring of Fire – by Jorge Barrera (CBC News Indigenous – January 27, 2018)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/

Mining company pushed to end consultation after Barrick Gold came knocking

No one kept a record of what was said during the meeting between mining company Landore Resources Canada and the Ontario ministry in January 2016, but at stake was a potential deal with Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining firm in the world.

Landore, a subsidiary of Landore Resources Ltd., based in the Guernsey Islands, U.K., was eyeing potential gold deposits in an area with two lakes about 40 kilometres from Eabametoong First Nation where several families had camps, traplines and burial sites. Eabametoong First Nation is about 350 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont.

The mining company requested the “urgent meeting” with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines because it wanted to wrap up consultations and obtain a permit to explore for gold, according to court records.

A little more than two months after the Jan. 19, 2016, meeting, which Eabametoong didn’t find out about until it began legal action, the ministry awarded the permit to Landore.

Eabametoong is headed to Ontario court in Toronto next month seeking a judicial review to quash the permit, arguing the province failed in its duty to consult.

The case could have a wider impact on the province’s plan for the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in the province’s James Bay lowlands about 575 km north of Thunder Bay.

For the rest of this article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/eabametoong-first-nation-ontario-court-mining-consultation-1.4506896