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Mining Conflict and Opposition

First Nation challenges B.C.’s approval to raise Mount Polley mine tailings dam (CBC British Columbia/Canadian Press – April 15, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

The Xatsull First Nation has filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court

A First Nation in B.C. has filed a legal challenge over the plan to allow the Mount Polley mine to raise its tailings dam a decade after a similar storage site at the mine gave way, creating one of the province’s largest environmental disasters.

The Xatsull First Nation has filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court requesting a judicial review of the government’s decision to approve the raising of the dam by four metres without “meaningful” conversations with the nation.

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WA’s need for EVs comes at a cost for mining towns – by Isabella Breda (Seattle Times – March 24, 2025)

https://www.seattletimes.com/

THACKER PASS, Nev. — Cody Davis is part of a global energy transition. He mined coal in North Dakota before taking a job at what’s slated to be one of the most productive lithium mines in the world. Davis says miners can help the world dig up resources it needs to expand energy production, including for renewables.

“Mining is what we do,” said Davis, the mine’s operations and safety manager. “Just take that skill set and it’s just a different mineral.” American coal mines are shutting down as coal-fired power plants are yanked offline, making way for cleaner sources of power. Washington state’s last remaining coal power plant in Centralia is set to shutter this year.

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Quebec town leaders, residents unite to decide fate of mine with ties to Pentagon – by Joe Bongiorno (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – July 13, 2024)

https://montrealgazette.com/

“We don’t want to have a gigantic open pit mine in the middle of all those lakes and all those people living around them.”

Five Quebec municipalities located by a proposed site for a graphite mine with ties to the Pentagon have created an alliance to accelerate public consultations on the project and pressure the provincial government to listen to what locals have to say.

When Lomiko Metals Inc., a mining company based in Surrey, B.C., announced plans for a mine in the Laurentians to produce graphite — one of the world’s most sought after critical minerals needed for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries — some residents living nearby began protesting against the project, fearing the potential harm to the environment.

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Indigenous group to take fight against Arizona copper mine to Supreme Court – by Clark Mindock (Reuters – May 14, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

May 14 (Reuters) – A Native American group said on Tuesday it will take its fight against Rio Tinto’s proposed Arizona copper mine to the U.S. Supreme Court, after a federal appeals court refused to reconsider whether the U.S. government may have improperly transferred land to the developer.

The group said they would ask the high court to weigh in after the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a longshot bid to have the full 29-judge court reconsider earlier decisions not to block a land grant for the project. The court did not provide an explanation for its decision.

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In Portugal’s Rural North, Communities Are Resisting Lithium Mining – by Marta Vidal and Diana Takacsova (New Lines Magazine – April 24, 2024)

https://newlinesmag.com/

The remarkable heritage and ecology of Barroso are at risk amid an EU push to secure minerals for a ‘green transition’

As the sun begins its gradual descent in the mountains of Barroso, in northeast Portugal, it casts golden hues upon the region’s vast pine and oak forests. The air fills with the gentle hum of bees collecting nectar from the heather that blankets the rugged landscape in swaths of vivid purple and pink.

August is the peak season for honey, when the heather is in full bloom. Carlos “Libo” Goncalves is as busy as his bees. After taking his horses up the oak-studded hills that surround the village of Covas do Barroso, he dons his protective gear and hurries to the hives he has spread across his village’s common lands.

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In Ecuador, gov’t sees mining as the future. But communities are divided – by Michele Bertelli (Al Jazeera.com – April 7, 2024)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Ecuador sees mining as a ‘crucial driver’ of the economy, providing jobs and incomes, but locals disagree.

Las Pampas, Ecuador – The alarm rang at 7am, summoning everyone in the main square. Protesters boarded three trucks, normally used to transport livestock. The convoy carried them close to the nearby town of Palo Quemado, home to the mining project of La Plata in northwestern Ecuador, 130km (81 miles) from the capital Quito.

Since last July, this quiet community has turned into an epicentre of anti-mining protests. Under the sight of military men stationed on the crest of the hill, roughly 100 demonstrators approached the road into town. But a whole riot squad blocked their way.

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Northwest First Nation wants to bring a stop to mine road construction – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 23,2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Cat Lake seeks injunction to halt First Mining Gold’s access road, pending judicial review

A northwestern Ontario First Nation in close proximity to First Mining Gold’s Springpole Project is heading to court, seeking to stop construction of an access road to the proposed mine site.

Cat Lake First Nation imposed a mining moratorium in 2023 on all mining-related activity within its traditional territory, which includes the Vancouver mine developer’s open-pit project.

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Gold miners bring fresh wave of suffering to Brazil’s Yanomami – by Ueslei Marcelino and Anthony Boadle (Reuters – Janaury 18, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Brazil is losing the upper hand in its battle to save the Yanomami Indigenous people, who are dying from flu, malaria and malnutrition brought into their vast, isolated Amazon rainforest reservation by resurgent illegal miners.

A year after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami and vowed zero tolerance for illegal mining, environmental enforcers warn that Brazil is jeopardizing last year’s hard-won progress, when about 80% of roughly 20,000 wildcatters were ousted from the Portugal-sized reservation.

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Australian company revives its push for a controversial coal mine in Alberta – by Emma Ganey (Globe and Mail – November 21, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A company whose application for a coal mine in Alberta was rejected two years ago is back – with a new name, and an updated request to explore its lease in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Northback Holdings Corp., formerly Benga Mining Ltd., is a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. It is again eyeing a potential mine at Grassy Mountain, submitting applications to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for a 105-day exploratory drilling program and a request for a water diversion.

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Vern vs. the miners – by Robson Fletcher and Joel Dryden (CBC News – November 20, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/

Vern Emard is 62 years old but his age doesn’t show as he leads the way up a rickety plywood ramp. His boots clomp as he steps onto the metal roof of what he calls his “palapa” — a shelter that’s not quite a complete house — at a high point of land on his remote property north of Blairmore, in the southern Alberta Rockies.

From atop the roof, he gestures across the valley toward Grassy Mountain, its rocky peak protruding from an evergreen forest, dotted with yellow deciduous trees, into blue sky.

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Fierce community opposition to copper, lithium projects threatens energy transition – by Editor (Mining.com – November 9, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Nationwide protests against mining projects are once again grabbing headlines amid a sweeping sense of urgency from governments and communities to gain greater control over minerals and metals that are essential for the transition to a low-carbon economy.

While nothing new, resource nationalism has ignited high-profile disputes in recent weeks, with First Quantum’s struggles in Panama and lithium miners’ in Portugal the two most radical examples.

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Indigenous in Argentina appeal to Pope Francis amid mining protests – by Eduardo Campos Lima (Crux Now – July 5, 2023)

https://cruxnow.com/

SÃO PAULO – Two weeks after the northwestern Jujuy province in Argentina approved a broad constitutional reform, indigenous communities and labor unions, supported by an official arm of the Argentine bishops’ conference, are demonstrating against it and demanding its revocation.

Groups of protesters have been blockading roads and marching against the legal changes, which they say put in danger their right to occupy traditional lands, their access to water, and their right to manifest against the government.

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Federal court allows international mining giant to oppose tribes in Oak Flat lawsuit – by Debra Utacia Krol (Arizona Republic – May 31, 2023)

https://www.azcentral.com/

The U.S. District Court in Arizona granted mining giant Resolution Copper permission on Monday to join the U.S. government as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by grassroots group Apache Stronghold.

The Native organization has been fighting to prevent Resolution from building a huge copper mining operation that would obliterate Oak Flat, one of the Apaches peoples’ most sacred sites. Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, “the place where the Emory oak grows,” is also culturally important to other Southwestern tribes, and is one of Arizona’s remaining riparian zones and a popular site for recreational users.

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OPINION EDITORIALS: Our View: Declare Minnesota what it is, a mining-friendly state (Deluth News Tribune – March 23, 2023)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Of course Minnesota is a mining-friendly state. We’ve been successfully mining here for more than a century and a half, the industry fueling our state economy, propping up our schools, and defining us.

Minnesota mining has been credited for being a key to victory in two world wars. If it wasn’t for Minnesota mining, the bustle and activity at the port of Duluth-Superior, the largest on the Great Lakes, would be a shadow of itself.

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Alaska gold, copper mine blocked over environmental worries – by Becky Bohrer and Patrick Whittle (Associated Press – February 1, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took an unusually strong step Tuesday and blocked a proposed mine heralded by backers as the most significant undeveloped copper and gold resource in the world because of concerns about its environmental impact on a rich Alaska aquatic ecosystem that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The move, cheered by Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists and condemned by some state officials and mining interests, deals a heavy blow to the proposed Pebble Mine. The intended site is in a remote area of southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.

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