Canada's Mining Titans
Seems as though Canada the Good, that very country which celebrates its record on human rights, which holds sacred its constitution which entitles all its citizens to believe in equality of the person, that very country which recently brought forward a motion within the United Nations to have it intervene in situations where a nation's inactivity threatens the safety and security of its citizens, is, how shall we put it delicately...somewhat lacking...?
Appears there is a global challenge for resource extraction and Canadian mining firms are leading the charge. They're big, they're knowledgeable, not averse to risk-taking and have a sound record behind them. Sound? As in successful business dealings, as in profitable, as in reputations for getting out there and bringing home the goods. Observance of human rights? Care for the global environment? A legacy for future generations? Well, hell, business is business right?
Um, wrong. These companies have become so incredibly rapacious that those who run them haven't bothered to stop and think about the death and destruction they leave in their wake. But they're Canadian, right? so they've got to care. So we'd like to think. The Canadian government, were it but aware of the dreadful pollution left by mining projects such as cyanide choking up rivers, ensuring the land will be virtually uninhabitable, unarable for thousands of people, would do something, would pull its weight, would demand accountability. In the best of possible worlds. Mineral extraction is right up there with growth, profit, the bottom line, and nothing, absolutely nothing should come in the way of achieving profit goals. These mining companies have become an utter environmental and human rights scourge.
So we have Inco Ltd., working its extraction magic in the world's bio-diversity hotspots such as New Caledonia, placing in peril millions of acres of coral reef, thousands of species of plants rare elsewhere on earth; mammals unique to the area and nearby cluster islands home to butterfly species and birds unseen elsewhere. Inco plans on mining areas in New Caledonia setting up open-pit nickel mines, pumping effluent into the reef. In the process it will send thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air every day of its planned operation.
We have B.C.-based Ascendant Copper Corp.'s plan to build an open-pit mine in yet another watershed conservation and rainforest protection area in Ecuador. Contamination of the area water around the projected mine is assured, and massive deforestation will be a concomittant by-product of the mine's activity.
Canadian-owned Bonte Gold Mines Ltd. has ignored massive environmental problems in Ghana resulting from its now-defunct mine in the gold-rich Ashanti region. The mine has left a massive debt of $21 million in clean-up to state institutions; has left behind unpaid workers as well as unpaid compensation to farmers whose livelihoods were deleteriously affected by the mine.
In Chile Barrick Gold Corp. plans to "move" three glaciers for its $1.8 billion project on the border with Argentina. Barrick plans to scoop out about a third of the glaciers' total area to enable it to build an open-pit mine on the slopes of the Andes. Adjacent to a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Yes, nothing is sacred in the rush for mineral extraction to the detriment of world heritage and countries' ecological stability.
Toronto-based Tiomin Resources plans to strip-mine for titanium in four sites along the coastline of Kenya, right in another biodiversity hotspot. The area is a tropical paradise with endangered animals in the area, all certain to be horribly affected by the projected site. Hundreds of farm families must be relocated, given a pittance for their troubles to be held in trust by their government.
In Thailand Toronto-based Asia Pacific Resources has plans for a massive deposit of potash to be mined, although critics of the project fear that the potash extraction will ruin surrounding farmland, while the mine's underground tunnels will cause the land to sink. Local anti-mining opponents have threatened armed resistance and some of their leaders have reported death threats from local contractors who stand to gain from the project.
A decade ago a tailings dam in Guyana at Cambior's gold mine burst, spilling a billion litres of cyanide-laced sludge into the Essequibo River, a major waterway, effectively ruining the country's main source of fresh water.
Spain, the Philippines, even the United States (Washington State and the Colvilles Confederated Tribes are suing B.C.-based Teck Cominco for coating the bottom of Lake Roosevelt with slag, now declared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency one of the most polluted places in the country) have all been horribly adversely affected by these Canadian mining companies.
NASA has conferred with the Sudbury(Ontario)-based Northern Centre for Advanced Technology to help devise technology geared to mining exploitation on space missions. And several Canadian mining companies are pioneering the art of submarine mining on the ocean floor. Whither the future, indeed.
Nothing appears to stop these mining ventures, and they operate in unique ecological sites, heritage and/or sacred sites, leaving in their wake environmental disasters. Isn't it past time for the government to step in, set out immutable guidelines and demand accountability? Doesn't this country owe these steps at the very least to the world at large?
Anyone interested in learning more about this issue should look up "The Ottawa Citizen" and "The Citizen's Weekly". (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) The series was researched and superbly written by reporter Kelly Patterson and consists of the following stories:
- FBI probes terrorist payoffs
- Open veins
- Into the final frontier
- Tax dollars and human rights
- The Good Samaritans
- Dealing with abuses
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, October 04, 2005
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