06.05.2025 Blog Entry On the Day of Barrick Gold’s Annual General Meeting, Communities in the Dominican Republic Reaffirm their Call for Relocation The following blog was written by Diana Martin of MiningWatch Canada and María Alejandra Torres García of Earthworks. Barrick Gold’s Annual General Shareholder Meeting (AGM) is virtual again this year. After last year’s AGM, the company announced it would “continue to host virtual-only annual general meetings despite calls for public companies to return to an in-person format.” Despite this decision...

05.05.2025 Blog Entry Update on Barrick's Days in Court in Canada In 2022, [1] and again in 2024, [2] Indigenous Kuria from villages surrounding North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania filed cases in Canada against Barrick Gold Corporation [3] (Barrick) for alleged “acts of extreme violence committed by Mine Police in the service of Barrick in and around the North Mara Mine.” [4] The 29 plaintiffs include victims and their family...

05.05.2025 Publication Reflections on Legal Proceedings in Canada against Barrick Gold Regarding the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania Between 2022 and 2024, Indigenous Kuria from villages surrounding North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania filed cases in Canada against Barrick Gold Corporation for alleged human rights abuses in and around the North Mara mine. MiningWatch Canada attended the hearings in Toronto and has prepared this report where we: Expand on the legal context for the cases brought against Barrick... Read more

05.05.2025 Friends of MiningWatch Statement from the Community of Diaguita Patay Co on Barrick's 'El Alto' exploration project As the Diaguita Patay Co Indigenous Community, we express our firm opposition to Barrick Gold's new attempt to encroach on our territory through its “El Alto” mining exploration project, located in the same area impacted by the failed Pascua Lama mine. This is not about a new project. Rather, it represents a recycled strategy that is underhanded and opportunistic, aimed...

05.05.2025 News Release Indigenous Communities in Chile Say “No” to Pascua Lama 2.0 Five years after a Chilean court made an historic ruling ordering the permanent closure of Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama project and ahead of tomorrow’s Barrick’s AGM, the Indigenous community of Diaguita Patay Co in the Huasco Valley is denouncing renewed threats from mining. Barrick is looking to develop another mining project in the same protected area, a biosphere home to...

01.05.2025 Newsletter April Newsletter: A spotlight on mining resistance in Latin America Dear friend, MiningWatch has long supported communities in Latin America who are protecting their lands and livelihoods from the harmful impacts of Canadian mining. Across the board, we’re seeing environmental defenders who speak out against these projects be hit with trumped-up criminal charges in an effort to intimidate them and silence their opposition. Threats and attacks against communities are continuing...

30.04.2025 Blog Entry A global movement speaks out in support of environmental defenders in Penco, Chile More than 100 Chilean, Canadian, and other international organizations and coalitions published an open letter today in solidarity with environmental defenders who are being harassed and persecuted for defending their territory in southern Chile from a Canadian rare earths mining company. The company, Aclara Resources, has filed a court injunction ( recurso de protección ) against two environmental defenders in...

29.04.2025 Friends of MiningWatch Rogue industry actions signal urgent need to strengthen global governance through a moratorium on deep-sea mining The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) urges governments to call for an immediate global moratorium on deep-sea mining to send an urgent political signal defending the ocean, multilateralism, and UNCLOS, following today’s announcement by The Metals Company (TMC) USA of its application to mine the international seabed under U.S. domestic law. TMC’s move, following the Trump Administration’s Executive Order last...

28.04.2025 MiningWatch in the News Ontario's push to fast-track Ring of Fire mining may actually delay the development it seeks to speed up Sonal Gupta, the National Observer As Ontario moves to fast-track mining in the Ring of Fire, legal experts and Indigenous leaders warn that the province's rush to cut red tape could cause environmental destruction and a wave of lawsuits — potentially slowing the very development it seeks to speed up. The Ford government’s newly-tabled bill, designating “special economic zones” in...

24.04.2025 Blog Entry Why Speeding Up Mining Approvals Won’t Solve Tariff Troubles Provincial governments and federal election candidates are falling over each other in a rush to expedite approvals for mining, as their response to the damage that US tariffs are just beginning to do to the Canadian economy. It’s important to take a closer look at what is really happening, what is really going to result, and what we should do...

23.04.2025 Blog Entry Webinar - The fight for permanent closure: Panamanians address renewed efforts to reopen a Canadian copper mine This webinar will take place on Zoom with simultaneous Spanish-English interpretation. Register here . DATE: Wednesday, May 7th TIME: 11 AM PST / 2 PM EST A year and a half after First Quantum Minerals’ Cobre Panama’s closure order and the historic nationwide protests against the mine, Panamanians are facing a new threat: the Panamanian government and First Quantum Minerals...

23.04.2025 MiningWatch in the News Poilievre says feds are holding up oil, gas and mining projects. Is he right, and could he change that? A number of the Conservative leader’s priority projects are nearing or have final approvals, while others face concerns about environmental and First Nations impacts Carl Meyer, The Narwhal Pierre Poilievre says a slew of new oil, gas and mining projects in Canada have been “stuck for years” awaiting federal approval. The reality is more complicated. Poilievre, the leader of the...

22.04.2025 Brief Centering Human Rights in the Rush for Critical Minerals MiningWatch Canada makes a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change, to inform the rapporteur’s upcoming report on “Human Rights in the Life Cycle of Renewable Energy and Critical Minerals.” This submission highlights several examples of human rights violations linked to mining for critical minerals, from initial claims staking to exploration, exploitation, and recycling. While our focus is... Read more

22.04.2025 Blog Entry Eyes on Argentina: Verdict Expected Today in Case Against Chubut Environmental Defenders An Argentinian court is expected to issue a ruling today in a case against eight community members from Chubut who participated in the 2021 “Chubutazo” – a powerful province-wide protest that succeeded in stopping government efforts to impose the Canadian-owned Navidad silver project and allow for industrial mining activities in parts of the province. Out of the eight, seven have...

15.04.2025 News Release MiningWatch Supports Xatśūll First Nation’s Mount Polley Tailings Dam Challenge (Ottawa) MiningWatch Canada strongly supports the legal challenge filed today by Xatśūll First Nation against the British Columbia government’s approval of an increase in the height of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley Mine. The Mount Polley mine was the site of Canada’s largest environmental disaster when its tailings dam collapsed on August 4, 2014, sending 25 million cubic...

15.04.2025 Friends of MiningWatch Xatśūll First Nation files Judicial Review against B.C. for approving the Mount Polley Mine expansion The Province of B.C. ignores DRIPA legislation, bypasses environmental assessment, to approve raise of dam at Mount Polley Mine Tailings Storage Facility (Vancouver, B.C. – 15 April 2025) Xatśūll First Nation has filed a Judicial Review with the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals, the Minister of Environment and Parks, the Deputy Permitting Officer, Major Mines Offices and Mount Polley Mining Corporation (MPMC) to overturn two provincial decisions authorizing Mount Polley Mining Corporation to raise the height of the dam at the Tailings Storage Facility that so devastated Xatśūll’s territory in 2014 and that is still harming the Nation’s rights, culture and way of life.

08.04.2025 MiningWatch in the News B.C. loses fight to deny Seabridge Gold millions of dollars in tax credits A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled mining companies can receive tax credits on a broad range of activities to prove their mine is 'economically viable' Stefan Labbé, Business in Vancouver A Canadian company looking to advance a major B.C. mining project has won an appeal against the province after it denied the company tax credits for millions of dollars of...

01.04.2025 MiningWatch in the News B.C. company to seek U.S. approval for deep sea mining — 'a violation of international law,' says United Nations Head of United Nations seabed authority warns unilateral action would violate international law and undermine multilateral efforts to govern the world's oceans. Stefan Labbé, Business in Vancouver A Vancouver-based company said it is seeking approval under United States law to mine several deposits in the Pacific Ocean — a move that could set up a collision with a United Nations...