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Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas

‘There will be nobody … monitoring the land’: Grand chief urges Ontario to meet – by Maija Hoggett (Timmins Today – September 20, 2024)

https://www.timminstoday.com/

‘Despite our best efforts to work with the province of Ontario, we have yet to see meaningful signals of their willingness to work with us’

If Ontario doesn’t come to the table soon, years of work to protect the land and water of the Far North are at risk. Mushkegowuk Council Grand Chief Leo Friday issued a statement today urging Premier Doug Ford to meet with their chiefs. They want the province to agree to immediately protect the coast of Western James Bay and southwestern Hudson Bay, and the North French River.

The ask isn’t for money, in 2022 the federal government committed $800 million to create up to four Indigenous-led conservation areas, including Mushkegowuk.

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Grays Bay road and port could be $1B project, proponent estimates – by Jeff Pelletier (Nunatsiaq News – September 18, 2024)

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GN, West Kitikmeot Resources Corp. sign MOU at Nunavut Trade Show

The estimated cost of the proposed Grays Bay road and port project, which would connect resource-rich western Nunavut to the rest of Canada, has nearly doubled according to its proponent.

Brendan Bell, CEO of West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., provided a new cost figure to Nunatsiaq News after signing a memorandum of understanding to continue support for the project at the Nunavut Trade Show in Iqaluit on Wednesday. “I would estimate that it’s at least a billion-dollar undertaking at this point,” Bell said.

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Thousands rally at Queen’s Park to demand action on mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows First Nation – by Sarah Law (CBC News Thunder Bay – September 18, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Demands for northwestern Ontario community include compensation, respect for traditional land, remediation

Thousands marched to Queen’s Park in Toronto on Wednesday to demand action to help people in Grassy Narrows First Nation, a northwestern Ontario community that has faced decades of mercury contamination.

The Walk for Mercury Justice was the culmination of River Run 2024, a grassroots movement to address the poisoning that has impacted about 90 per cent of the population of Grassy Narrows, also known as Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek.

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Yukon appeal court hears case over approval of Kudz Ze Kayah mine project – by Jackie Hong (CBC News North – September 16, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Lawyers representing Kaska Nation maintained Thursday that proper consultation did not happen

A major mining project in southeast Yukon, and whether Kaska Nation was properly consulted on it, was back in court last week — this time, in front of the Yukon Court of Appeal.

Lawyers representing Kaska Nation maintained Thursday that proper consultation did not happen on BMC Minerals’ Kudz Ze Kayah project and that a ruling from a lower court that found otherwise should be tossed. Lawyers for the attorney general of Canada, the Yukon government and the company, meanwhile, argued Friday that Kaska Nation’s appeal was without merit.

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New regulations, proposed changes to Quebec’s Mining Act target exploration sector – by Susan Bell (CBC News North – September 17, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

New rules around consultation and authorization ‘a huge win for Cree Nation,’ says grand chief

Cree officials are welcoming changes to the way mining exploration happens in Quebec. Eleven per cent of the province, much of it in northern Quebec Cree territory and Nunavik, is currently under an active claim, according to provincial officials.

According to media reports, in 2022, there were 400 mining exploration projects within Eeyou Istchee, the traditional lands of the James Bay Cree. In the past, exploration was a largely unregulated corner of the mining world in Quebec.

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[Australia] Mirarr Traditional Owners criticise uranium miner ahead of final fight over Jabiluka – by David Prestipino (National Indigenous Times – September 16, 2024)

https://nit.com.au/

Mirarr Traditional Owners in the Northern Territory are disappointed at comments from Energy Resources Australia bosses they say undermine their cultural authority.

Criticism of the “disrespectful” comments in legal documents by ERA chief executive Brad Welsh and independent director Ken Wyatt comes as the company appeals the NT Government’s rejection in July of a 10-year-extension to its minerals licence over the uranium-rich land surrounded by Kakadu National Park.

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Mining exploration mess finally slated to be cleaned up in northern Quebec – by Susan Bell (CBC News North – September 16, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Abandoned exploration camp on John Rupert’s trapline one of almost 500 such sites in Cree territory

After many, many years of asking, John Rupert’s trapline is finally scheduled to be cleaned up. The Whapmagoostui elder knows it’s likely too late for him to return to hunt there, but maybe not for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“Because of my age, I might not be able to go back there,” said Rupert, 71, whose trapline, as traditional hunting grounds are called in northern Quebec, is 60 kilometres southeast of the community. It’s a place he knows so deep and so well that he and his father used to travel there in the dark, in a time before flashlights.

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Arizona’s battle over crucial copper mine poised to sway US election – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – September 13, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Sept 12 (Reuters) – Native American opposition to Rio Tinto and BHP’s Resolution Copper mine could prove crucial for the 2024 U.S. presidential vote in the battleground state of Arizona, underscoring the high tension over where best to extract critical minerals for the energy transition.

The mine would, if built, supply more than a quarter of America’s appetite for copper and be a key part of Washington’s efforts to eat into China’s role as the world’s largest copper processor and consumer.

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Eagle mine cleanup efforts hit stumbles after Victoria Gold put into receivership, former top engineer says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 16, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Efforts to clean up a massive cyanide spill at the Eagle gold mine in the Yukon have faltered after the receivership of Victoria Gold Corp., potentially posing new threats for the environment, a former top engineer at the company says.

Four million tonnes of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed at the company’s outdoor gold-processing facility in late June, causing massive damage to mine infrastructure and contamination. About two million tonnes of contaminated materials broke through the company’s containment zone and spilled into the local environment, killing fish and raising concerns about groundwater pollution.

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Indigenous Group Takes Fight Against Rio Tinto Arizona Copper Mine to US Supreme Court – by Ernest Scheyder (U.S. News/Reuters – September 11, 2024)

https://www.usnews.com/

Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group comprised of Arizona’s San Carlos Apache tribe and conservationists, asked the court to overturn a March ruling from a sharply divided San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the federal government to swap acreage with the mining companies for their Resolution Copper project.

The appeal to the nine justices was delivered in person by a courier after the Apache held a ceremony of prayer and dancing on the court’s steps in Washington, the culmination of a months-long caravan from their Arizona reservation to the capital.

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Equinox Gold cuts the ribbon on Greenstone mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 29, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mining, community leaders reflect on arduous path to reach gold production

When Long Lake #58 Chief Judy Desmoulin views what’s been accomplished with the opening of a massive open-pit gold mine outside Geraldton, she offers a template of what can be accomplished in Canada when all parties work together to reach consensus.

“This is the model that needs to happen everywhere, with every industry.” Desmoulin took to the podium on Aug. 29 for the official opening of Equinox Gold’s Greenstone Gold Mine, one of the largest open-pit operations in Canada and the Vancouver company’s flagship mine.

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Protest concert in Carmacks, Yukon, calls for a ban on heap leaching – by Caitrin Pilkington (CBC News North – August 27, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Headliners included Snotty Nose Rez Kids and Love and a .38

First Nations across the Yukon are coming together in support of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun following the Eagle Gold mining disaster. On Aug, 24, crowds from across the Yukon gathered in Carmacks for a concert series — called Cyanide in the Water —in support of the First Nation, and to protest heap leach mining facilities in the territory.

The idea for a concert came to Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation Chief Nicole Tom in the weeks following the heap leach failure on June 24, which saw hundreds of millions of litres of cyanide-contaminated solution escape containment at the mine site.

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Indigenous investment in resource projects ups demand for specialized legal know-how – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – September 2, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Relationships are evolving quickly between Indigenous communities and Canadian businesses seeking to develop energy and natural-resource projects on their territories – and that’s boosting demand for specialized legal know-how.

In past decades, oil, mining and pipeline companies often sought to push their developments through by designing them in-house, then seeking support and access agreements from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. If they got pushback, some offered financial incentives or ownership stakes, and the results were hit or miss. Some of the misses were extremely costly.

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[Yukon’s Eagle gold mine disaster] Troubled water – by Julien Greene (CBC News – August 24, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/

In June, Yukon’s Eagle gold mine saw what the territory’s mines minister is calling a “catastrophic failure”: the release of hundreds of millions of litres of toxic cyanide solution into the environment. For many local residents, it’s a wake-up call about the risks and costs of large-scale mining in the territory.

Steve Buyck walks a forest path framed by highbush cranberries, rosehips and Siberian Aster. Slung over his shoulder, a rifle. The bullet in the chamber is large enough to down a moose.

These days, however, hunting the animal doesn’t come so easily for him. Not far away from Buyck’s home, along the banks of the Stewart River in central Yukon, is the Eagle mine, the site of a “catastrophic” heap leach pad failure and cyanide spill in late June.

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Judge blocks Arizona lithium drilling that tribe says is threat to sacred lands – by Scott Sonner(Associated Press – August 21, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

A federal judge has temporarily blocked exploratory drilling for a lithium project in Arizona that tribal leaders say will harm land they have used for religious and cultural ceremonies for centuries.

Lawyers for the national environmental group Earthjustice and Colorado-based Western Mining Action Project are suing federal land managers on behalf of the Hualapai Tribe. They accuse the U.S. Bureau of Land Management of illegally approving drilling planned by an Australian mining company in the Big Sandy River Basin in northwestern Arizona, about halfway between Phoenix and Las Vegas.

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