A holiday appeal from the Sandy Pond Alliance: The Sandy Pond Alliance, a group of private citizens, has launched a legal challenge to nullify Schedule 2 and prevent the destruction of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Your gift will go directly to the Sandy Pond Alliance to support their legal challenge. This action involves commitment, effort and dedication to our province and country.

News release: (Québec) A forest in Australia, a cemetery in India? If Quebeckers felt proud to have an Australian forest named after Québec Premier Jean Charest for his actions to address climate change, how would they feel if, one day, a cemetery in India was named after their Premier to commemorate the victims of Québec asbestos? It’s a question that the Coalition Pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine! (Better Mining Coalition) is asking in response to a $58-million loan guarantee the government is offering to renew operations at the Jeffery mine, near the town of Asbestos.

MiningWatch Canada is concerned about the statements made by junior mining company Strateco Resources claiming that recent hearings in Mistissini and Chibougamau showed it had “strong support” for its Matoush Uranium Exploration Project in the James Bay region of Quebec. The company’s press release does not accurately reflect the significant opposition it faces from the Cree and stakeholders, nor the resulting risks to approval and further advancement of this project.

News release: A recently announced lawsuit against HudBay Minerals Inc. points to the industry's failure to take responsibility for corporate abuses beyond Canadian borders. Paradoxically, the company recently won an award for Corporate Social Responsibility from the Mining Association of Canada. Toronto-based HudBay and two of its subsidiaries are being sued for the death of Adolfo Ich Chamán, who was hacked and shot to death by private security forces employed at the company's nickel mining project in eastern Guatemala on September 27th 2009.

(Ottawa) Following Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's kick-off to his pre-budget consultations in Toronto Friday, Canadian environmental organisations released their priority recommendations for the 2011 federal budget, including measures that could save the government well over $800 million per year.

News release from the Coordinadora Norte “Tierra y Libertad”: On Wednesday, November 24th, 2010, the Contentious Administrative Tribunal (TCA by its initials in Spanish) sided with the demand of organizations that form part of the Opposition Front to mining in the north of Costa Rica when it ordered the annulment of the concession for gold extraction granted to the transnational company Infinito Gold in the district of Crucitas, along the border of Costa Rica with Nicaragua.

(Mistissini Cree Nation – November 23, 2010) The message was clear – reject Strateco Resources’ proposal for an advanced uranium exploration project at its Matoush site In the Otish Mountains. The message came from Mistissini Chief Richard Shecapio, from MiningWatch Canada, from the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, from Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and from individuals living in Mistissini and from southern Québec who traveled here for the first of two public hearings on the proposed project.

Newsletter 29: Autumn 2010 – available here as a PDF file

News release: The federal government announced yesterday that it would not approve Taseko Mines’ proposed open pit gold-copper mine in the traditional territory of the Tsilhqot’in Nation, 125 kilometres west of Williams Lake, B.C. “We were very pleased to see many of our concerns about this project reflected in the Panel Report,” commented Ramsey Hart, who led the MiningWatch’s analysis of the project. “We are even more pleased to see the government respect those findings and reject the project. Looking ahead, this decision will help establish the limits to acceptable practice for mine proponents.”

News release: The narrow defeat in the House of Commons of Bill C-300, the "Responsible Mining Act", marks a significant turning point for the country. In spite of an unprecedented and sustained year-long lobbying effort by the mining industry aimed at defeating the Bill, the close vote reflects the degree to which legislators have come to understand the need to regulate the activities of Canadian mining companies operating internationally.

by Noticias Yurata: The Wikárika People from the three states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango (Mexico) oppose First Majestic Silver's presence in their territory.