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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Monday, 22 February 2021 16:00
PBI
Brent Patterson
On the morning of February 22, Libertad para los defensores de Guapinol (Freedom for the defenders of Guapinol) tweeted: “Minutes from the start of the trial of Jeremías Martínez, one of the 8 defenders of water and life.”
Jeremías is one of the defenders who has been imprisoned for protecting the Guapinol River from being polluted by the Inversiones Los Pinares mine.
He has introduced himself as follows:
“I’m Jeremias & I’m 64 years old. I’m a father and a member of a peasant enterprise of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan (MUCA). I have been in jail since December 8, 2018, for defending the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers in Honduras.”
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Monday, 15 February 2021 16:39
NACLA
Beth Geglia and Andrea Nuila
It’s almost like an insult that this is happening to us now, after so much sacrifice to develop the community to the point it’s at today,” Venessa Cardenas explains, in Crawfish Rock, Roatán, as she remembers her grandmother who passed away last May at 90 years old. “She was the one who fought for us to have the road, the school, water, all of the basic projects… the government has never given us anything that we didn’t fight for. She gave everything for this community. She’s the reason me and my family are so firm.”
Venessa’s community is located between two tourism projects—Pristine Bay and Palmetto Bay—on the Honduran island of Roatán, where she serves as vice-president of the patronato, the community governing council. Her family has been in Crawfish Rock for five generations and seen different kinds of tourism investment come to the island over the years. But recently, Crawfish residents learned that their municipality was ground zero for a new enclave model that has allowed a group of investors from the Washington DC-based firm NeWay Capital to establish an independent governance system as an experiment with privatized jurisdictions.
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Category: OceanaGold
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Published: Monday, 15 February 2021 12:55
The Market Herald
Oliver Gray
OceanaGold (OGC) has been fined US$100,000 (roughly A$128,500) for breaching environmental rules at its Haile Gold Mine in South Carolina
This marks the third time in the last year that the company has run into trouble with the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and follows other violations noted in 2018 and 2019
The company is accused of releasing excessive amounts of mercury, failing to submit the required pollution test results, providing misleading statements and failing to secure a DHEC permit
An independent third-party has been hired to audit the mine's environmental performance amid questions regarding the company's commitment to environmental regulations
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Category: OceanaGold
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Published: Friday, 12 February 2021 12:51
The State
Sammy
South Carolina regulators have fined a large gold mine $100,000 for breaking environmental rules, marking the third time in the past year the operation north of Camden has run into trouble with the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The fine is the largest involving the Haile Gold Mine, and in this case, DHEC said the company released excessive amounts of mercury, failed to submit pollution test results as required, provided misleading statements and failed to get a DHEC permit.
An agency spokeswoman said DHEC levied the $100,000 fine -- the heftiest air pollution penalty against any South Carolina company in at least a year -- because of the period of time the gold mine did not follow the rules. The violations were noted in 2018 and 2019.
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Category: OceanaGold Philippines
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Published: Wednesday, 27 January 2021 17:21
Manila Standard
Brenda Jocson
Nueva Vizcaya Governor Carlos Padilla on Friday reiterated his opposition to the renewal of the mining contract of OceanaGold Philippines Inc. in his province, saying even President Rodrigo Duterte expressed concern over the gold-copper mine’s resumption of operations. We strongly oppose the renewal of the FTAA (Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement) of OceanaGold. We believe that the protection of the environment is more paramount than the interest of OGPI,” said Padilla in a text message.
“No less than President Duterte expressed this concern when he visited Cagayan Valley immediately after typhoon Ulysses,” he added.
The governor was responding to the November 7 press release of OGPI, saying the firm will soon finalize the renewal of its FTAA with concerned government offices.
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Thursday, 21 January 2021 14:29
Passage
Liam Meisner
Any future government that’s concerned about environmental and human rights issues will have to rein in mining companies operating abroad.
Walter Aduviri knows better than anyone what pushing back against Canadian corporate interests can do. In 2011, Aduviri, an Indigenous Aymara leader from Peru’s Puno region, helped lead a protest movement against a silver mine in the region operated by Bear Creek Mining, a Canadian company. The Peruvian government eventually cancelled the mining concession, but Aduviri was hounded for years by court cases brought against him by public prosecutors for the protests, until he was jailed in 2019, a year after being elected governor of Puno.
Aduviri, a supporter of Bolivian President Evo Morales, was released from prison this past December through a Supreme Court ruling that suspended his sentence. However, the judicial harassment he and other leaders of the Aymarazo protest movement have faced is a reminder of Canada’s leading role in the global resource extraction system that devastates environments and communities in the Global South and suppresses popular resistance through violence and coercion.
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