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Mining Conflict and Opposition

South Africa police open fire at striking mine workers – by Jon Gambrell (Associated Press/Globe and Mail – August 17, 2012)

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.

JOHANNESBURG — South African police opened fire Thursday on a crowd of striking miners that charged a line of officers trying to disperse them, killing some and wounding others in one of the worst shootings by authorities since the end of the apartheid era.

Police declined to offer casualty figures after the shooting at the Lonmin PLC mine near Marikana, a dusty town about 70 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. However, the main South African news agency, SAPA, has reported that 18 people have been killed. Police ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi acknowledged late Thursday some of the miners there had died as more police and soldiers surrounded the hostels and shacks near Lonmin’s shuttered platinum mine.

The shooting happened Thursday afternoon after police failed to get the striking miners to hand over machetes, clubs and other weapons. Some miners did leave, though others carrying weapons began war chants and soon started marching toward the township near the mine, said Molaole Montsho, a journalist with the South African Press Association who was at the scene.

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Mining, repression and the rhetoric of democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala – by Grahame Russell (Rabble.ca – August 13, 2012)

http://rabble.ca/

Increasingly, over the past few years, information has been published about serious human rights violations and health and environmental harms being caused in Guatemala by (mainly) Canadian mining company operations: Goldcorp Inc, Radius Gold, Tahoe Resources, Hudbay Minerals, Skye Resources, etc.
 
It is not possible to understand how these violations and harms occur, and will continue to occur, without understanding the political context. In short, global mining companies profit financially and benefit directly from the fundamental lack of democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala, both historically and on-going today. (This is true, in varying degrees, about global businesses and investors operating in many countries around the world.)
 
Rhetoric aside about respecting the sovereign democratic will of the duly elected officials of Guatemala, about abiding by the laws and regulations that govern the country and the mining industry, impunity and corruption are the norm in Guatemala. The wealthy elites in Guatemala, including international companies and investors, act with a huge amount of impunity and have almost complete immunity from legal or political accountability.

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Asbestos’s future in Quebec election crosshairs – CBC News Montreal (August 12, 2012)

http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/

Quebec’s party leaders tossed around the delicate subject of the province’s still operating asbestos industry on Saturday as they outlined platforms on health and the environment. François Legault, the Coalition Avenir Québec leader, said he would ban exports of asbestos from Quebec, one of a series of environmental initiatives the party laid out.
 
“Exporting a toxic product is morally and scientifically indefensible,” Legault said. “Quebec has to come to terms with an industry that’s stuck in the past.”
 
Legault said a CAQ government would honour the province’s $58-million loan to the Jeffrey asbestos mine in the Eastern Townships, which is set to reopen after it shut down last year in financial distress. But he would work with the company — the last remaining producer of asbestos in Canada — to switch to other lines of business.
 
As recently as 2010, Canada was producing 150,000 tonnes of asbestos annually, all of it in Quebec, and exporting 90 per cent — worth about $90 million — to developing countries. More than 50 countries ban the mining and use of asbestos, but Canada, traditionally a major exporter, has successfully lobbied in the past to keep it off a UN list of hazardous substances.

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Charest government may have miscalculated announcement to reopen Jeffrey Asbestos Mine with a $58-million loan – by Michelle Lalonde, (Montreal Gazette – July 30, 2012)

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

GAZETTE Environment Reporter

QUEBEC – If the Charest government was hoping to avoid criticism by quietly announcing the relaunch of Quebec’s controversial asbestos industry on the Friday before a holiday weekend, it might have miscalculated.
 
In the month following the June 29 announcement that Quebec would loan $58 million to help reopen and expand the Jeffrey Mine in the town of Asbestos, newspapers across Quebec and Canada have run editorials and columns condemning the decision. The wisdom of staking public money on this project has come under question, and last week an international scientific organization of epidemiologists joined the call for a global ban on asbestos.
 
In April 2011, the Liberal government had promised to provide a guarantee on a $58-million loan to the project’s proponents — Westmount businessman Baljit Chadha and Jeffrey Mine president Bernard Coulombe — if and when they could come up with $25 million in private investments to enable the reopening of the mine.
 
The government is now providing a direct loan rather than a guarantee, and critics charge that’s because no financial institution would loan the money, even with a government guarantee.

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Contractor says Detour Gold owes them money – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 2012)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A southern Ontario contractor claims Detour Gold Corp. (DGC) owes them more than $66.4 million for excavation and construction work performed at the company’s flagship Detour Lake gold mine project in northeastern Ontario.
 
North America Construction (NAC) has filed two statements of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Cochrane against the Toronto miner and its affiliated Trade Winds Ventures of Vancouver.
 
NAC claims it’s owed $58 million for concrete work and $8.4 million for excavation work performed at the massive and remote open pit mine and mill project now under construction, 180 km northeast of Cochrane. The Morristown, Ont.-headquartered general contractor has slapped three construction liens for work performed by the company between November 2010 and April, 2012.
 
The project marked the 75 per cent construction completion mark in late June. North America Construction provides master building services to civil, municipal, biofuels, energy, mining and industrial sectors across Canada.

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Weenusk struggles to keep home lands free – Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – July 26, 2012)

 Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Residents of Weenusk First Nation are fearing for the loss of their traditional lifestyles as Ontario gets set to release geological data on one of the province’s last pristine wildernesses.
 
The Ontario Geologic Survey (OGS) conducted aerial geological surveying over a broad section of untouched wilderness along the shore of Hudson Bay between November 2011 and February 2012.

Many people in Weenusk, a community of approximately 300, believe the release of the information will spur mineral exploration on much of the First Nation’s traditional territory, and in the process irrevocably alter a way of life that has been practiced since time immemorial.
 
“We want to keep the land free,” says George Hunter, a community member and former chief of Weenusk. “To us, freedom doesn’t have staked claims. The moment you have staked claims and private property, our true freedom is compromised forever.”

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Legal fight tarnishing gold firm – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – July 26, 2012)

 The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The president of Solid Gold Resources blames the ongoing conflict with Wahgoshig First Nation and the provincial government for his company’s plummeting stock values.
 
“It has completely destroyed it,” said Darryl Stretch. “It’s at three cents, which values my company at less than what it costs to put a shelf together these days. “When we came out with our IPO (initial public offering), it was at 25 cents… For the stock price to be at three cents is unreasonable and outrageous.”
 
Solid Gold holds claims within a 200-square-kilometre area outside the boundary of the Wahgoshig reserve. In January, the First Nation succeeded in having an injunction imposed against the exploration company to stop drilling in that area.
 
In February, Solid Gold filed a Leave to Appeal on the basis that “any consultation and accommodation required should have been completed (with Wahgoshig) by the Crown long before mineral claims were granted to Solid Gold,” said Stretch.

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Chiefs near Ring of Fire not seeing eye-to-eye on evictions – by Tbnewswatch.com – July 23, 2012

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Chiefs near Ring of Fire not seeing eye-to-eye on evictions

A pending eviction notice to mining companies with interest around the Ring of Fire is causing divisions among Matawa First Nation communities. Six of the nine Matawa First Nations are supporting a plan to evict several mining companies from the area.

Neskantaga First Nation Chief Peter Moonias says the group is still preparing to take the next step, and he says people are starting to realize that the government is lying about their consultations.

But Chief Eli Moonias from Marten Falls, one of the Matawa communities opposed to the eviction, has a different viewpoint.  Eli Moonias said he believes they have achieved consultation and the main operator, Cliffs Natural Resources, is now ready to discuss a memorandum of understanding.

The Marten Falls Chief added that it is First Nation leaders who are the ones now showing disrespect, and resolution of the matter is being pushed forward despite strong opposition.

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Ring of Fire court battle on horizon after Neskantaga meets mining minister – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – July 23, 2012)

 Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Neskantaga First Nation is preparing for an extensive court battle over the Ring of Fire, following the latest failed meeting between the First Nation and the Ontario government.

Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias and Chief Sonny Gagnon of Aroland First Nation called for a pause of the Ring of Fire during a meeting with Ontario’s mining minister Rick Bartolucci on July 18, but Moonias said the government did not take the suggestion “too seriously.”
 
“The government is just going ahead with (with development) as if we’re nothing,” Moonias said. “It looks as if ‘yes’ has already been given from the First Nations, but we never did (give consent).”
 
Moonias and Gagnon argue that development of the Ring of Fire needs to stop in order for First Nations to establish plans for maximizing economic benefits and mitigating environmental risks.

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Ring of Fire Minister not listening to First Nations – Blogpost by Shane Moffatt (Greenpeace Canada – July 21, 2012)

 http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/

I recently had the privilege of attending a meeting with the Minister of Northern Development and Mines as an observer with Neskantaga First Nation. You can follow Neskantaga’s campaign to protect their rights here.

Talks were focused on proposed industrial developments in the so-called “Ring of Fire” in Northern Ontario. The “Ring of Fire” refers to a mineral rich area around McFaulds Lake, located over 1,000 kilometres north of Toronto in the heart of the boreal forest and in a one of the largest wetlands in the world. This also is smack in the middle of the traditional territories of Matawa First Nations, a Tribal Council of nine Ontario First Nations.

On May 9th, a giant US mining company (Cliffs Natural Resources) announced that they will go ahead with a $3.3 billion Ring of Fire project, which includes a chromite mine east of Webequie, a transportation route running south from the mine site and a ferrochrome processing plant in Sudbury.

The reaction from First Nations was swift and unequivocal – with Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose describing the announcement as a “classic example of development going ahead without adequate consultation, input and consent from our First Nations.”

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Anti-exploration NIMBYs win in Whitehorse, but elsewhere perhaps not so – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – July 20, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Mineral explorers in urban areas come up against NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) opposition as the will of mineral explorers meets with the will of the public, but economic necessity is turning the tables in some areas of the world.

HALIFAX, NS –  If you had plans to stake a claim in downtown Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, forget it, at least for the next five years. The Yukon territorial government, after prodding from the Whitehorse City Council, has put a moratorium on staking of hard rock claims in one of North America’s more storied gold jurisdictions. Whitehorse, after all, was a prospector’s hub during the Yukon Gold Rush and, indeed, a launching point for Yukon’s recent gold renaissance. But Whitehorse is no more the dusty turn-of-the-19th-century town where, for the most part, destitute men descended to make their fortunes, of which a few did and many did not. It is now a growing city centre – if minuscule by global standards with about 25,000 inhabitants – with a populace that has more than mining on their mind.
 
Indeed the banning of claim staking in Whitehorse has for years been an issue. Of all banner bearers, one of the more vocal has been the Whitehorse Country Ski Club. With the prospect of mineral development in the city’s parks and ski trail system, it has demanded a ban on claim staking in town. It is a rather surreal issue that might befuddle a Parisien, Londoner or even Vancouverite for that matter: to find wooden posts with small metal tags nailed to their tops stabbed into the earth at, say, a local park.

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Support for Ring of Fire Moratorium – AFN Annual General Assembly – Draft Resolution #16/2012

(L to R: Angus Toulouse, former AFN Regional Chief for Ontario; Sonny Gagnon, Chief of Aroland First Nation; Peter Moonias, Chief of Neskantaga First Nation (Lansdowne House); Shawn Atleo, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (November 2011/Photo supplied by Matawa First Nations Tribal Council)

AFN Annual General Assembly, July 17 – 19, 2012, Toronto, Ontario/ Draft Resolution #16/2012

TITLE: Support for Ring of Fire Moratorium

SUBJECT: Free, Prior and Informed Consent; Treaty

MOVED BY: Chief Peter Moonias, Neskantaga First Nation, ON

SECONDED BY: Chief Sonny Gagnon Aroland First Nation, ON

WHEREAS:

A. Article 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that “1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources; 2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources; 3. States shall provide effective mechanisms for just and fair redress for any such activities, and appropriate measures shall be taken to mitigate adverse environmental, economic, social, cultural or spiritual impact”.

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Atleo must use mandate [resource development] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (July 20, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

IT turns out that claims of a close race putting Shawn Atleo in danger of defeat were off the mark. But while the incumbent is back in charge of the Assembly of First Nations with a comfortable majority and a renewed mandate, his challenge is greater than ever. Challenges, really, for there are two.

First, he must quell those voices among First Nations who claim Atleo is too tight with Ottawa. Healthy consultation will achieve more than still more confrontation which now wearies many Canadians.

Atleo’s second obstacle is cobbling together something resembling a united front among an assembly of traditionally but notoriously independent members in order to convince them and the other levels of government to build a model of success around a new natural resources boom.

For the first time ever there exists a path for First Nations to lift themselves out of the poverty and dependence that for most is the norm. The exceptions have been those whose leaders used opportunity to their advantage. Whether it was building a local economy around business or the proximity of forests, oil, gas or minerals, there are a relative few First Nations who got out of the old traps and built a new life for their people.

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Native people on cusp of change, AFN chief Atleo says [resource revenue sharing] – CBC News (July 19, 2012)


 

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Shawn Atleo, the newly re-elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called on all Canadians to unite with his people in making a new future for native people, saying they “are on the cusp of major transformative change.”
 
“It is about time we pull back the veil on misunderstanding and we engage all Canadians to walk with us and give effect to the notion… we are all treaty people,” said Atleo at his Toronto news conference Thursday. He also paid tribute to the young people in native communities.
 
“You can’t helped but be moved by stories of resilience of what young people are achieving irrespective of seven generations of residential schools.” Atleo reiterated what he considered key issues: resource development, economic sustainability and called for a national inquiry into the hundreds of dead or missing native women across the country.
 
Atleo said he would stand up to any attempts to sweep away native rights to their resources or control over their lands:”We will act on our rights, our treaty rights, our inherent rights, our title rights.”

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In Panama, Locals Protest Canadian Copper Mines – PBS News Hour – July 17, 2012

 

Watch In Panama, ‘New Conquistadors’ Protest Canadian Copper Mines on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/

Transcript

JEFFREY BROWN: Next, new battle lines are being drawn in the rain forests of the Americas, and billions of dollars are at stake. Canadian mining companies hold about 1,400 properties in developing nations from Mexico to Argentina.
 
One of those is in Panama, where local groups have teamed up with environmental activists to halt the building of new mines.

Our story is a collaboration with CBC News in Canada and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The producer is Lynn Burgess. The reporter is Mellissa Fung.
 
MELLISSA FUNG, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Deep in the Panamanian rain forest, more than three hours northwest of Panama City, small agricultural communities dot the landscape, places that have remained unchanged for generations.
 
Carmelo Yanguez has lived in this town of Coclesito for more than 40 years. A subsistence farmer, he lives on what he grows, planting coffee, rice and beans and fish from nearby rivers. But his peaceful life, he fears, is changing.

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