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Category: OceanaGold Philippines
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Published: Thursday, 25 February 2021 00:03
Mining Watch
A petition calling on the Canadian Government to act in response to increasing extrajudicial killings of civilians and human rights defenders in the Philippines will be tabled by the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona, Heather McPherson, in the House of Commons on February 25, 2021, at 10:00 A.M. EST. Viewers can watch Ms. McPherson Heather table the petition on “House of Commons proceedings Live at 10” on CPAC. She will hold an online press conference following the tabling of the petition (details below). Canada is implicated in the rights abuses through military aid to the Philippines and through the role that Canadian mining companies play in the country. “The Philippines is now one of the two most dangerous countries for defenders of human and environmental rights according to Global Witness,” said Patricia Lisson of ICHRP-Canada (International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-Canada). “In 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report highlighting severe human rights violations, reinforced by harmful rhetoric from high-level officials against human rights organizations, lawyers, political, judicial actors, journalists, trade unionists, and religious groups,” she added.
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Tuesday, 23 February 2021 08:15
GuapinolResiste
Read complete bill, refering to arbitrary detention of Guapinol River Defenders and illegal mining in Carlos Escaleras National Park here.
Introduction comes as Honduran President Is Investigated by U.S. Federal Prosecutors for Drug Trafficking, Corruption
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, and Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) today led a group of eight lawmakers in introducing the Honduras Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Act of 2021—legislation that lays out a comprehensive framework for combating corruption, impunity, and human rights violations in Honduras.
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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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