Earthworks, MiningWatch Canada, and the London Mining Network have released an updated version of their Safety First guidelines for improving the management of mine waste disposal facilities, also known as tailings dams. The guidelines were updated as tailings dams around the world are failing with increasing frequency and severity, a risk expected to increase with climate-related extreme weather events.
The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation has released an interim policy on mine reclamation bonding, detailing the financial security mines are required to pay up front to cover the costs of reclamation – a significant step in the right direction in the right direction toward encouraging mining companies to minimize the environmental damage they cause.
Imperial Metals has applied for an extension to its permit to continue discharging wastewater from the Mount Polley mine into Quesnel Lake. Take action with the Concerned Citizens of Quesnel Lake to oppose the application.
More than seven years after the dam breach at Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine, communities and the environment are still at risk from mine waste failures in British Columbia. The province lags behind other jurisdictions in Canada and globally in mine waste storage safety.
First Nations in BC are proactively working towards re-establishing sovereignty over their territories in British Columbia, by introducing and exercising their own law-making authority to regulate and monitor mining on their own lands.
In a new backgrounder report, MiningWatch Canada and the BC Mining Law Reform network conclude that British Columbia fails to meet the Indigenous consent standard for mining, even two years after the passing of the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
Today, SkeenaWild and the BC Mining Law Reform network released new maps pointing to over a hundred known and potentially contaminated mine waste sites that threaten to pollute waters, fish habitat and communities across the province.
One of the things most British Columbians can agree on is that the polluter should actually pay. We recently conducted a poll that shows 90% of us want mining companies to clean up the environmental messes they make. Right now, that doesn’t always happen.
The Narwhal | Survey also shows majority of British Columbians want government to create more protected areas with Indigenous Peoples — even if that means less mining and logging.
CBC | Contamination from Teck coal mines in waterways of Elk River watershed is a long-standing problem
