Archive | Mining Conflict and Opposition

Ecuador’s rising opposition to mining may thwart exploration boom – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 6, 2019)

January 7, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition

http://www.mining.com/

Ecuador, one of the hottest destinations for copper prospectors, aims to more than double the value of mining to its economy by 2021, but projects risks delays and potential halts due to growing local opposition to the extraction of the country’s resources.

According to the latest report by Fitch Solutions Macro Research, the ongoing expansion of mining exploration in the South American country is raising the risk of tensions between companies and the local population.

In two landmark cases last year, Ecuadorian courts sided with rural and indigenous communities who argued the national government had failed to inform them it was setting aside parts of their territories for mineral exploitation. That, Fitch Solutions notes, is a right protected by the 2008 Constitution. Continue Reading →

Iron Range cities ready to welcome mining revival Matt McKinney (Minneapolis Star Tribune – December 30, 2018)

January 3, 2019 in International Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Minnesota Duluth Complex and Iron Range, Nickel

http://www.startribune.com/

As PolyMet, Twin Metals mines clear hurdles, cities hope for economic boost.

EVELETH, Minn. – At the new Boomtown Woodfire restaurant in this Iron Range city, diners can order the Steelworker prime rib with a Mesabi’s Best beer and, as the menu states, pay homage to the miners who dug the state’s mining industry out of a deposit of rich iron ore.

It’s a heritage many here hope will come roaring back, perhaps as soon as this summer, after officials granted the state’s first copper-nickel mine its final approvals last week.

“We’ve been talking for years about how to get ready,” said Biwabik Mayor Jim Weikum. “It’s been hard to keep people’s spirits up. You want people to be excited and to know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but it was a really long tunnel.” Continue Reading →

Are Afghanistan’s Mineral Deposits the Answer to the Country’s Economic Woes? – by Tamim Asey (Global Security Review – December 31, 2018)

January 3, 2019 in Asia Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition

Global Security Review

Afghanistan’s mineral deposits are a potential glimmer of hope for the country’s suffering economy.

As it stands, a mineral-based economy is one of the few options available when it comes to establishing a solid foundation on which to develop Afghanistan’s economy. The development of the country’s mineral sector has been hampered by insecurity, political instability, poor policy direction, the absence of a basic legal framework, and a lack of necessary infrastructure and transit agreements with neighboring countries.

However, Afghanistan’s mineral deposits present an alternative to the country’s increasing over-reliance on an economy dependent on foreign aid. Afghanistan’s mineral deposits consist of metals and non-metals. Many strategically essential minerals can be found in the country, including beryllium (used in airplanes, helicopters, ships, missiles, and spacecraft), uranium, lithium, and niobium (a rare soft-metal use in semiconductor production).

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is estimated at around (US) $1 trillion. This figure is based on previously conducted Swedish, British, and Soviet geological surveys, in addition to more recent studies performed by the USGS. In total, however, only about 30% of Afghanistan’s territory was covered by previous geological surveys. Continue Reading →

Guatemalan mine conflict alarms industry across Latin America – by David Alire Garcia (Reuters U.K. – December 24, 2018)

January 3, 2019 in Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Resource Nationalism, United States Mining

https://uk.reuters.com/

CASILLAS, Guatemala (Reuters) – A bitter drama playing out over a Guatemalan silver project forced to close by the courts has shocked miners throughout Latin America, sounding a warning to firms to approach indigenous issues more cautiously or pay the consequences.

Work at the Escobal mine, where U.S.-based Tahoe Resources has invested more than $500 million (395.3 million pounds), was abruptly suspended last year by judges pending consultation of nearby indigenous Xinca communities, a decision upheld by Guatemala’s top court in September.

Leaders of the Xinca, a mainly farming community which claims a 400,000-strong population, oppose the mine due to worries it will harm their ancestral land and water resources. Continue Reading →

Score One for the Flamingos in High-Altitude Fight for Lithium Supplies – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – December 22, 2018)

December 21, 2018 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Lithium, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines, United States Mining

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Chilean government is taking on a U.S. mining company in a spat that could rattle the electric-car industry.

For the past nine months, a U.S. company that is the world’s largest producer of lithium — a key ingredient in electric-car batteries — has been locked in battle with the Chilean government over pricing issues, production quotas and environmental compliance. With no resolution in sight, the fight is sending tremors all the way up the electric vehicle supply chain that provides batteries to Tesla Inc., Nissan Motor Co., Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and other car makers.

The drama is playing out in the northern reaches of Chile’s Andes Mountains amid the arid and austere Atacama Desert, a vast, high-altitude bowl surrounded by snow-capped volcanic peaks named after ancient gods of the indigenous people. The U.S. company, Albemarle Corp., has taken over a massive salt-flats mine, pumping scarce briny water through dried-out salt marshes and lagoons to extract the prized mineral.

A dozen or so miles away, thick flocks of Andean flamingos feed peacefully in a lagoon teaming with tiny shrimp, as they have for countless millennia. But as mining activity surges, water tables are falling amid growing environmental concerns. Continue Reading →

Three days of violence that emptied an Angolan town of Congolese – by Stephen Eisenhammer and Giulia Paravicini (Reuters U.S. – October 25, 2018)

December 20, 2018 in Africa Mining, Diamond Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://www.reuters.com/

LUCAPA, Angola (Reuters) – Residents of Kapende, a Congolese neighborhood in the Angolan town of Lucapa, scrawled messages on their homes to keep the looters away, but it did not work.

“Occupied”, “do not enter”, “home of an Angolan”: The writing remains visible on the wrecked houses belonging to Congolese who have gone home as Angola has clamped down on illegal diamond mines and the migrants who worked them.

The destruction in Kapende, where no house remains occupied or intact, marked the culmination of three days of violence in Lucapa, a sprawling mining town in the northeast surrounded by some of the world’s richest diamond fields. About 300,000 Congolese have fled Angola in the last few weeks, many of them in response to the violence in Lucapa at the beginning of October. Continue Reading →

From gold bars to barring mining, U.S. town awaits extractive ban ruling – by Gregory Scruggs (Thomson Reuters Foundation – December 18, 2018)

December 18, 2018 in International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition, United States Mining

http://news.trust.org/

WINTHROP, Washington, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A lthough the wooden boardwalk and turn-of-the-century saloons reflect Winthrop’s Old West history as a mining town, residents these days are counting down to a year-end deadline that could see the government ban extraction there for 20 years.

Dec. 29 will mark the culmination of a battle by citizens of the Methow Valley, a constellation of small towns along a scenic river 116 miles (187 kilometres) northeast of Seattle.

For two years they have worked to convince the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to withdraw 340,000 acres (137,600 hectares) of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest at the Methow Headwaters from future mining claims. If successful, they hope Congress will pass a law that will permanently bar mining in the nearby hills. Continue Reading →

ASIA INSIGHT: A small island gets caught in China’s Pacific power game with West – by Fumi Matsumoto (Nikkei Asian Review – December 11, 2018)

December 11, 2018 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://asia.nikkei.com/

SYDNEY — A small island has found itself caught in the escalating battle for influence in the South Pacific. On both economic and diplomatic fronts, Papua New Guinea’s autonomous region of Bougainville has become a key piece in the game between Beijing, on one side, and the U.S. and its allies on the other.

With Bougainville holding one of the world’s largest untapped deposits of copper, Chinese and Western companies are weighing the prospects for reopening its Panguna copper mine — closed since a vicious civil war broke out in 1989. The island is also set to hold an independence referendum on June 15, potentially creating a new country that could vote in international forums such as the United Nations.

John Momis, president of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, told the Nikkei Asian Review that Chinese businesspeople raised the matter of investing in the mine on a visit to PNG ahead of last month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in the capital, Port Moresby. Continue Reading →

Illegal gold rush destroying Amazon rainforest – study – by Anastasia Moloney (Thomson Reuters Foundation – December 10, 2018)

December 11, 2018 in Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining/Mercury Problems, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines

https://af.reuters.com/

BOGOTA, Dec 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A rise in small-scale illegal gold mining is destroying swathes of the Amazon rainforest, according to research released on Monday that maps the scale of the damage for the first time.

Researchers used satellite imagery and government data to identify at least 2,312 illegal mining sites across six countries in South America – Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela.

The maps show the spread and scale of illegal mining and were produced by the Amazon Socio-environmental, Geo-referenced Information Project (RAISG), which brings together a network of nonprofit environmental groups in the Amazon. Continue Reading →

Sisters of Mercy help push Canadian mining giant to abandon operations – by Michael Swan (The Catholic Register – December 10, 2018)

December 11, 2018 in Africa Mining, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Potash/Phosphate, Saskatchewan Mining

https://www.catholicregister.org/

After years of lobbying by a small community of Catholic sisters from eastern Canada, the world’s largest producer of potash is abandoning mining operations in territory south of Morocco.

Canadian-owned fertilizer giant Nutrien — created by a 2017 merger of Saskatoon-based Potash Corp. and Calgary-based Agrium Inc. — will cease all potash shipments from occupied and disputed Western Sahara territory before Jan. 1, 2019.

“It’s not our place as Canadians to go in and tell other countries how to live or what to do,” said Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland superior Sr. Elizabeth Davis. “It certainly is our place as Canadians — if we are living or working or present in other countries — to act with justice and to act ethically.” Continue Reading →

Native Americans hope to protect ancestral sites threatened by multibillion-dollar copper mine – by Daisy Finch (Cronkite News – December 7, 2018)

December 10, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition, United States Mining

Cronkite News

TONTO NATIONAL FOREST – LeRoy Shingoitewa dug his hiking boots into loose gravel and sand, watching the early November morning sunlight slowly spread across shrubby hills and rocky valleys near the proposed site of an enormous copper mine.

Resolution Copper plans to develop the mine east of Superior and predicts the mine will meet about a quarter of the nation’s demand for copper once it is in full production. The company says the mine, which may cost as much as $8 billion, is the “largest single investment in Arizona history.”

It has been passionately opposed by some Native Americans who say it will destroy a sacred site near Oak Flat Campground in the Tonto National Forest about 70 miles east of Phoenix. The Resolution Copper-Oak Flat controversy is not lost on Shingoitewa, even though he’s a field director for a team of Native American “tribal monitors” chosen for a program funded by Resolution Copper and designed with help from the U.S. Forest Service. Continue Reading →

Canada As Ugly Neighbor: Mines in B.C. Would Devastate Alaskan Tribes – by Ramin Pejan (Earth Justice.org – December 7, 2018)

December 10, 2018 in Alaska Mining, British Columbia Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines

https://earthjustice.org/

Southeast Alaskan Tribes have brought a human rights petition against Canada to protect the fish at the center of their cultures.

Mining operations in Canada are threatening to destroy the way of life of Southeast Alaskan Tribes who were never consulted about the mines by the governments of Canada or British Columbia.

The Tribes have depended for millennia upon the pristine watersheds of the Taku, Stikine, and Unuk rivers. These waters flow through varied and wild landscapes from British Columbia through Alaska and are teeming with salmon and eulachon.

The mines – two of which are operating and four that are proposed – endanger downstream fish populations through the release of toxic mine waste and acidic waters. Fish are fundamental to the Tribes’ cultural practices and livelihoods, making the pollution a violation of the Tribes’ human rights to culture and an adequate means of subsistence. Continue Reading →

Crossing Cartels Leads to Death for Mexican Environmentalists – by Emily Pickrell (Bloomberg News – December 7, 2018)

December 10, 2018 in International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/

He was shot point-blank in the face while asleep in bed, in front of his wife. Margarito Diaz Gonzalez was an indigenous spiritual leader of the Wixarika community. He was also an environmental activist who defended ancestral territory from encroachment by mining companies and hydropower plants, and Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights has asked Nayarit state to investigate whether his opposition to the construction of a dam was the motive.

It’s a familiar story in Mexico, where none of the 15 murders of environmentalists in 2017 has been solved, according to the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, known as Cemda.

Disputes over mining, logging, and water-protection rights raise the ire of powerful business interests and organized crime in a country with a deeply flawed justice system, according to a recent report by Global Witness, an international group researching natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses. Continue Reading →

10 business risks facing mining and metals – by Paul Mitchel (EY Global Mining & Metals – December 4, 2018)

December 6, 2018 in Canada Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://www.ey.com/en_gl/

The top risks facing mining and metals in 2019-20 reflect a new era of disruption from both within and outside of the sector.

The themes of license to operate and disruption run through this year’s risks as mining and metals companies have to deal with many new and variable factors, including societal expectations, digital transformation, and unique challenges to portfolio and capital investment decisions.

A time of disruption

The large movements across the radar are clear indicators that disruption is already here. Societal change, new technologies and the race to transform business models are driving a whole range of disruption for mining and metals companies. Pressure on technology and automotive companies to secure the supply of New World commodities is opening another avenue of potential disruption to current business models.

Over 30% of our survey respondents thought that technology companies have the potential to disrupt the sector. Continue Reading →

Bougainville’s tinderbox threatens to reignite – by Alan Boyd (Asia Times – December 4, 2018)

December 4, 2018 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition

http://www.atimes.com/

An independence referendum and unresolved issues over the rich Panguna copper mine threaten to tilt Papua New Guinea’s tumultuous autonomous island back to civil war

Foreign mining companies are jostling for exploration rights on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville ahead of a crucial independence vote next year that some fear could revive tensions that sparked a civil war that killed 20,000 in the 1980’s.

The island will need mining royalties to maintain a viable economy if the referendum backs independence, but unresolved issues over the Panguna copper mine are still a sensitive point with traditional landowners. Villagers shut the pit down in 1989, triggering the previous lethal conflict.

The referendum is the culmination of the Bougainville Peace Agreement, which formally ended the decade-long bloody civil war. It will take place as the US and Australia aim to work closely with Papua New Guinea to develop its Lombrum Naval Base to counterbalance China’s growing maritime influence in the region. Continue Reading →