“All that Glitters is not Gold” is an informative and disturbing 6-minute video that looks at the Olympic Dam in Australia, the site of the world’s largest known uranium deposit.

Currently, BHP Billiton wants the federal and state government to approve a plan to bring 40 million tonnes of the radioactive ore to the surface every year for the next 50-100 years.

As relayed in the film, and in a press release for a related film, more than 80% of the radiation that will be brought up from deep within the earth will remain at the surface of the …

photo courtesy of www.paqg.org/

On Tuesday, December 12, the three judge tribunal in San Marcos released the sentence of the 7 seven Mayan farmers who were charged with a barrage of criminal offenses by GoldCorp earlier this year. To my surprise, the judgment was pretty much in favour of the Goldcorp 7! Five were acquitted of all charges, and the other two were put on two years probation and given …

photo courtesy of www.paqg.org/

Rights Action sent out a reminder today about the ongoing legal case against the group of Mayan Farmers known as the GoldCorp 7.

If you’re not familiar with the case—in January, 2007, residents of the communities neighboring Goldcorp’s open pit, cyanide-leeching mine in San Marcos set up a blockade in an effort to start a dialogue with the company. Prior to this, the community repeatedly tried to talk with the …

Earlier this month, the Latin American Water Tribunal (LAWT) gathered in Guadalajara, Mexico to hold a public hearing against the Government of Honduras and Minerales Entre Mares de Honduras, S.A, a subsidiary of Canada’s Goldcorp Inc.

The Siria Valley Regional Environmental Committee submitted a petition to the tribunal charging the government acted illegally to favour of Goldcorp’s open-pit cyanide-leeching mine in the Siria Valley, and that the company itself is responsible for water usurpation and the irrational exploitation and contamination of water which adversely effected the ecosystem as well …

This is a trailer to the film Tambogrande (2003), the story of proud fruit growers from Peru’s northern coast who came together to defend their lands and culture from foreign (Canadian) mining interests.

Canadian-based Manhattan Minerals was granted concessions by the government in the 1990’s to extract an estimated US$1 billion in gold, silver, copper and zinc from beneath the streets of Tambogrande.

The people were at no point consulted about this; and even though Manhattan made some significant offers to them, it was just not worth …

Some positive news came out of British Columbia this week. The Kemess North Mine Joint Review Panel released its report regarding the Kemess North Copper-Gold Mine–recommending against the Kemess mine, worth $8 Billion, which would turn Amazay Lake into a toxic waste dump. This is quite possibly the first mine in Canadian history the government has made a recommendation against.

On top of that, the Review Panel has also given–or rather confirmed Indigenous Nations in BC have veto power over resource development projects on their respective territories.

This is by all …

Beneath the village of Rosia Montana, located in west-central Romania, there lies a massive deposit of gold ore–over 300 tonnes. The village has been living on top of it for over 2000 years now; but today the village, indeed the entire area is threatened. Canada’s own Gabriel Resources wants to turn it into Europe’s largest open-pit cyanide mine.

If all goes as planned, 2000 people will be relocated; and 5 mountains, 10 Churches, 12 Cemeteries and 958 farms will be destroyed. On top of that, a cyanide lake will be made of a valley neighboring Rosia Montana.

Some are welcoming the …

After British and Canadian politicians visited Honduras to have a look at the problems associated with Goldcorp in the region, the Siria Valley Environmental Committee has authored the following open letter—discussing the historical and ongoing damages caused by the open pit gold mine in the Siria Valley (department of Francisco Morazan, Honduras)

Thanks to rights action for sending this out.

OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
FROM THE SIRIA VALLEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE

We extend our welcome to Alexa McDonough, Canadian Member of Parliament, thanking her for her interest in learning in …

Reports have been coming in that Montana Exploradora, which is owned by Canada’s own Goldcorp, is about to begin spilling sewage water from the waste dam of the Marlin mine (see map) into the Quivichil stream and the Cuilco river, in Guatemala.

As I understand it, the water has been treated so the level of toxins in the water is “below levels of concern,” however, as explored in this assessment report (pdf), numerous assumptions and opinion-based claims are being made with regard to how this dump …

Gold, Skin and Bones: Goldcorp’s adventure in Honduras - by Dawn Paley, March 1, 2007

“We’ve been here for seven years,” explains Pedro Rodolfo Arteaga, gesturing at a scattering of plain houses lining a dirt road “and we never thought we would find ourselves in this situation.” A resident of Palo Ralo, in the Siria Valley in central Honduras, Arteaga explains that “the old village was inside the perimeter of where the company wanted to put their machinery, and we were obstacles for them.”

Palo Ralo is a village constructed in 1999 …