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Mining Conflict and Opposition

Barrick’s woes in Chile deepen as Pascua Lama is suspended – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – April 11, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barrick Gold Corp. has suspended construction in Chile on its massive Pascua-Lama gold and silver project, responding to a court order that further delays work on a mine already a year behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Barrick stock fell 8.6 per cent to a new 52-week low of $24.81 per share on Wednesday after the appeals court said Pascua-Lama should be halted amid allegations the project is polluting precious groundwater and rivers in the Atacama desert region, one of the driest areas on earth.

The allegations have not been proven in court, but they mark the latest roadblock to a project that has been more than a decade in the making, enduring intense environmental scrutiny that has reverberated from Santiago to Toronto.

The complaints are also another instance of communities demanding more control over their environment amid building resource nationalism.

Less than a year ago, Barrick raised the development price tag on Pascua-Lama to more than $8-billion, compared to estimates of around $3-billion when the company launched the project in 2009. A significant portion of higher costs were attributed to a year-long delay in building the mine.

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Tibet’s mining disaster draws criticism in Canada – by Yeshe Choesang (The Tibet Post International – April 11, 2013)

http://www.thetibetpost.com/

Toronto: – Following the devastating landslide in Tibet that left 83 dead, dozens of Tibetan-Canadians and supporters rallied in front of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) Wednesday demanding that the Vancouver-based China Gold International Resources stop its destructive mining operations in Gyama township near Tibet’s capital Lhasa.

Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) Canada members simulated a landslide in front of the TSX (where China Gold International Resources is listed as CGG) with Tibetans lying on the sidewalk to represent the fatal impacts of mining-related environmental destruction in Tibet.

“This catastrophic landslide shows how China Gold International Resources, a Canadian-based mining company, is tearing apart the fragile ecology of Tibet and triggering devastating impacts on the Tibetan people. This is but a glimpse of the fatal consequences mining in Chinese-occupied Tibet poses for all involved, and particularly for the Tibetan people who are not in a position to give their free, prior and informed consent over the mine operations,” said Urgyen Badheytsang, National Director Students for a Free Tibet Canada.

“Canadian and Chinese mining companies are turning the beautiful Meldro Gungkhar valley into the tar sands of Tibet, and this is only confirmed by the pressure from Chinese State media to stick to their reports on this incident.”

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Massive mineral exploitation in Tibet caused recent mining disaster – by Yeshe Choesang (The Tibet Post International – April 10, 2013)

http://www.thetibetpost.com/

Dharamshala: – The environmental researchers of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamshala Wednesday said China’s large-scale exploitation of mineral resources in Tibet caused the recent disaster that killed more than 80 Chinese miners.

‘On Friday, 29 March 2013, Chinese state media reported that 83 miners including two Tibetans have been buried after a major landslide hit part of the Gyama (Ch:Jiama) Copper Polymetallic Mine at 6.00 AM local time. As of 4 April, 66 miners have been confirmed dead and 17 are reported missing, believed dead,’ CTA environment desk said in an assessment report of the recent landslide event in the Gyama Valley, near Tibet’s capital Lhasa.

“The workers were reportedly asleep in their tents when they were buried by a mass of mud, rocks and debris, three kilometres wide and 30 metres deep. The landslide occurred in the Pulang Valley in Siphug Village of Tashi Gang Town of Central Tibet,” the report said.

The Tibetan administration said that “Tibet’s rich mineral deposits have become a resource curse for the local residents and ecosystem. Since the late ’60s, these mineral deposits have been exploited in various scales, mostly under poor environmental norms and regulations. As for the minerals extracted, copper, chromium, gold, lead, iron and zinc are the minerals of greatest interest to Chinese and other foreign miners operating in Tibet.”

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FEATURE-Profit eludes accident-prone Finnish nickel mine – by Terhi Kinnunen (Reuters U.S. – April 10, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

SOTKAMO, Finland, April 10 (Reuters) – Talvivaara CEO Pekka Pera still has the one euro coin he used to buy the rights to ore deposits at the company’s nickel mine in Sotkamo, eastern Finland, a decade ago.

While the previous owner saw no future for the site, Pera was so sure it would succeed with the help of a pioneering metals extraction process called bioheapleaching that he bought the coin back as a keepsake.

But after waste water leaked last year, pushing up uranium levels in nearby lakes and rivers, and repeated failures to meet production targets, the mine is now saddled with debt and burning through cash. Investors are uncertain whether they will ever see a profit from what is supposed to become Europe’s biggest nickel mine.

A new leak from its waste pond last Sunday was the latest in a series of troubles which analysts say show the company has overestimated the benefits of the rarely-used bioheapleaching method, and underestimated its risks.

“During the last three to four years, there have been so many problems and they haven’t had success in ramping up production,” said Pohjola analyst Jari Raisanen. “I think nobody really knows what the future is.”

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B.C. mine’s temporary foreign workers case in Federal Court – CBC News (April 9, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/

Unions challenge hiring of Chinese workers for B.C. coal mine

The fight by two labour unions against a company that hired more than 200 temporary workers from China for its coal mine in northeastern B.C. heads to Federal Court in Vancouver today.

The judicial review comes as the federal temporary foreign worker program has raised controversy following a CBC report this week that foreign workers were replacing some Royal Bank staff.

HD Mining International says it hired 201 workers from China for its coal mine in Tumbler Ridge because the 300 Canadians who applied for the jobs weren’t qualified. The two labour unions argue that HD Mining hired temporary foreign workers for jobs Canadians could have filled.

HD Mining International is a B.C.-based company. The majority owner is Huiyong Holdings Group, a private company from China, which operates several coal mines in that country. Vancouver-based Canadian Dehua International Mines Group also owns a stake in HD.

Brian Cochrane, of the International Union of Operating Engineers, hopes the case will result in changes to the temporary foreign worker program.

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Report questions ‘genuineness’ of Chinese mining firm in B.C. to hire Canadians – by Dene Moore (Canadian Press/CTV News – April 7, 2013)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

VANCOUVER — An internal federal review of a decision to grant permits to a Chinese company to bring temporary foreign workers from China for its British Columbia coal mine found the company met or exceeded all requirements.

But the November report notes that the sequence of events in HD Mining’s application to bring 201 miners over from China for its Murray River coal mine leaves some questions as to the “genuineness” of the company in its search for Canadian workers.

The File Review Report obtained by The Canadian Press through Access to Information found that due diligence was performed on the applications.

“The employer, HD Mining International Ltd., has met all the program requirements for the (Temporary Foreign Worker Program),” said the Nov. 27 report prepared by Michele Morandini, acting director of the program, and approved by Heather Backhouse, executive director of the Citizen Services program delivery branch, B.C. and Yukon.

However, the review noted that of the 201 applications submitted by HD Mining, 84 of the workers had previously been applied for by its sister company, Canadian Dehua International. Fourteen of those workers were resubmitted by HD Mining for different positions.

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Eco-activists should show more concern for jobs – by Cary Pinkowski (Vancouver Sun – January 24, 2013)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Cary Pinkowski is president and chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Astur Gold Corp.

Even though pipelines, including one that has operated for some 60 years, transect our beautiful province, the proposed Northern Gateway project has turned what should be a rational discussion into a virtual screaming match. It’s time to take a look at the bigger picture.

As a business executive who works in the mining sector, where environmental stewardship and safety are key elements to corporate survival, I am in favour of the pipeline. In part, that’s because I am also in favour of health care, hospitals, education and social programs that take care of our most vulnerable.

According to projections, our province will be more than $66 billion in debt by 2015. With a population of 4.4 million — and only 2.2 million taxpayers — this equates to debt of about $30,000 per taxpayer, not including federal, municipal or personal debt.

How will you pay for your share? I want nurses and doctors to be paid for their important work. I also want teachers and professors to be compensated for their role in ensuring British Columbians and Canadians are equipped with the skills they need for our collective success. What about our elderly? Who will pay their pensions?

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Northern Ontario First Nations ask Minister to defer new mining rules – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – April 4, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A group of First Nations residing in the north of Ontario this week asked Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle to delay implementing new mining rules that came into effect on Monday, claiming that the new regulations had not gone through a proper consultation process.

The new mining regulations were part of a modernised Mining Act that was passed in 2009 to promote mineral exploration and development in a manner that recognised Aboriginal and treaty rights, was more respectful of private landowners and minimised the impact of mineral exploration and development on the environment.

The Anishinabek Nation, which represented 39 member communities and about 55 000 people in the mineral-rich north of the province, was calling for the establishment of a bilateral table on mining and a meeting with the Minister.

Grand council chief Patrick Madahbee has asked Minister Gravelle to postpone the mandatory implementation of the new mining regulations, saying the Anishinabek Nation was looking for a chance for its leadership to meet with their citizens to discuss concerns with regulations that “did not go through a proper consultation process”.

The Anishinabek Nation had concerns about the recognition of treaty rights, resource revenue sharing, environmental stewardship and the local capacity to permit First Nations to meet demands of the new regulations.

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Quebec imposes moratorium on uranium development – by Kevin Dougherty and Monique Beaudin (Montreal Gazette – March 28, 2013)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

QUEBEC — No permits for the exploration or mining of uranium in Quebec will be issued until an independent study on the environmental impact and social acceptance of extracting uranium has been completed, Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet announced Thursday.

Blanchet has asked Quebec’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement to examine the issue of uranium development and uranium waste in general, with hearings throughout the province.

“Some people fear uranium more than iron or gold,” Blanchet said, explaining the BAPE will have full latitude to recommend all possible scenarios, from a permanent moratorium to determining safe ways to develop the heavy metal, used to fuel nuclear reactors and build nuclear bombs.

“As far as I know, this stuff is radioactive,” Blanchet said, adding he cannot predict the outcome of the study. “It might not be dangerous and it might be. This is the kind of issue that the Bureau will address.”

As a first step Thursday, Blanchet announced he has ordered scientific studies to prepare for the BAPE panel, which would begin its work in the fall, reporting in about a year.

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Canadian mining companies subject of worldwide protests – by Santiago Ortega Arango (CBC News – April 3, 2013)

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

Citizen’s groups in at least 10 countries complaining about gold and silver miners’ environmental practices

Tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets of Bucaramanga, the country’s sixth-largest city, last month to defend their water supply from a Canadian-owned gold-mining project.

The chief target of their protest was Vancouver-based Eco Oro Minerals Corp. The company is exploring for gold and silver in a high-altitude, environmentally sensitive area that is the main source of water for Bucaramanga’s one million inhabitants.

This was the fourth anti-gold-mining demonstration in the area since 2010, and one of the biggest. But Eco Oro shouldn’t feel singled out. It is only one in a string of Canadian mining and exploration companies that have drawn the ire of local communities around the world.

On March 12, for example, more than 10,000 Greeks protested in Thessaloniki against several gold mining projects owned by Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold.

Then on March 21, Catholic priests marched with 5,000 locals in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, against a project owned by Vancouver-based B2Gold Corp.

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INSIGHT – Young nation Kyrgyzstan fights over gold at top of the world – by Dmitry Solovyov (Reuters India – April 3, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

KUMTOR, Kyrgyzstan – (Reuters) – In an impoverished young nation with a habit of overthrowing its rulers, the future now balances on a mountain of gold at the top of the world, where the air is so thin collapsing visitors may be rushed to a pressure chamber for oxygen.

After two revolutions in eight years, nationalists in Kyrgyzstan are threatening to return to the streets to topple another government unless it expropriates the Kumtor goldmine, a treasure they say was sold off too cheaply to foreigners.

Parliament in the remote ex-Soviet Central Asian state has set a deadline of June 1 for the government to renegotiate – or repudiate – a deal struck in 2009 with Canadian firm Centerra Gold (CG.TO) to operate the mine.

A state commission said the Canadian firm has been paying too little to run the mine, and accused it of inflicting environmental damage leading to $457 million in fines.

Three lawmakers were convicted last week of trying to seize power in the country by force after leading demonstrations late last year demanding the mine be renationalised.

Prime Minister Zhantoro Satybaldiyev, who took his job last September as a technocrat pledging to alleviate poverty in the country of 5.5 million, says compromise is vital and banishing Centerra would dash hopes of winning more foreign investment.

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Giant Mine to cost billions to cleanup and look after for thousands of years – by Jack Caldwell (Mining.com – April 3, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

The news wires are alive with reports of a billion dollar estimate for remediating the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Here is an extract from one report:

Documents obtained by northern environmentalists show the government expects the cost of cleaning up the Giant Mine just outside Yellowknife to be nearly a billion dollars – perhaps the largest single environmental cleanup in Canada and paid for entirely by taxpayers. Initial estimates for safely dealing with the huge site, which includes a toxic smorgasbord of buildings, tailings ponds and a quarter-million tonnes of arsenic stored underground, were about $488 million. A federal progress report on the project says costs have increased as more has become known about the scale of the problem.

“The increase in estimated costs occurred as a result of the normal progression through the preliminary phases of the remediation project (… increased site information and detail obtained over time),” the report says. Rising labour and equipment costs are also part of the problem. So is the current state of the mine, which is so bad that emergency measures need to be taken this summer before large amounts of arsenic start escaping from collapsing buildings. The official price tag of $903 million could get higher yet.

The 2010 764-page Giant Mine Remediation Project Developer’s Assessment Report is available at this link:

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Northern Ontario First Nations seek delay on new mining rules – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – April 3, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

A group of First Nation communities in mineral-rich Northern Ontario is asking the province to postpone implementation of new mining regulations that went into effect this week, claiming the rules were drafted without full consultation.

The new regulations are part of a modernized Mining Act that was passed in 2009 to promote mineral exploration and development in a way that recognizes aboriginal and treaty rights and minimizes impact on the environment.

The Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 member communities and some 55,000 people in Ontario, says the new regulations should have the blessing of a bilateral table on mining that the government agreed to create in September.

“We had a very distinct understanding with Ontario as to the process by which we were going to do this work,” said Chief Isadore Day, a spokesman for the Union of Ontario Indians that represents the Anishinabek Nation.

In a statement penned by Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee, the Union of Ontario Indians also said the Anishinabek was concerned about recognition of treaty rights, resource revenue sharing, environmental stewardship and local capacity of First Nations to meet demands of regulations.

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Quebec imposes moratorium on uranium exploration and mining – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 28, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Quebec-focused uranium explorer Strateco Resources on Thursday denounced an announcement made by Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet, effectively placing a moratorium on uranium exploration and mining in the province, and ordering an impact study on the exploration and development of the mineral.

The Minister’s announcement followed ongoing legal proceedings aimed at forcing the provincial government to make a decision on the company’s flagship Matoush project, which is located east of James Bay on The James Bay Cree Nation’s Eeyou Istchee reserve.

Last year, after two years of public hearings, the James Bay Cree Nation enacted a permanent moratorium on uranium exploration, mining, milling and waste emplacement on their territory on the east shore of James Bay, known as Eeyou Istchee.

Despite this moratorium, federal regulators, including the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, allowed Strateco’s Matoush uranium project to proceed within this Cree territory. Nevertheless, before this project could proceed, provincial authorisation was also required, for which Strateco had already been waiting for two years.

The company in January filed a court order to force the Quebec government to make a decision on its exploration project in the province’s Otish Mountains.

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Congo Reassures Copper Miners Rattled by Attack in Katanga – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg.com – March 27, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Democratic Republic of Congo’s mines minister reassured investors after separatists attacked the capital of mineral-rich Katanga province, raising concern among analysts that the region faces increased conflict.

At least 35 people died when 250 Kata Katanga militants battled soldiers and police in Lubumbashi on March 23 before surrendering to the United Nations. The government introduced a curfew and some businesses and schools closed early on March 25 in the city, home to the offices of some of the biggest mining companies operating in Congo.

“I’m personally reassuring miners that these events are temporary and will be completely put to a halt,” Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said by mobile-phone message on March 25. “A psychosis will reign for several days, but that will pass as well.”

After years of conflict and instability, Congo’s mining industry has flourished since 2009, with copper production doubling to about 600,000 metric tons last year, most of it coming from Katanga in the southeast. The Central African country was the eighth-largest producer of the metal in 2012, accounting for 3.4 percent of world output, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It also produces half of the world’s cobalt, used in rechargeable batteries.

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