Mining

USDA Pauses Land Transfer Of Oak Flat To Mining Company

March 2, 2021 Levi Rickert, Native News Online. Resist! Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites, USDA

Washington, DC - Citing the Presidential Memorandum signed by President Joe Biden on Jan. 26 on tribal consultation and strengthening nation to nation relationships, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) has put on hold the transfer of 5,439 acres of high-value conservation land in Arizona to Resolution Copper. The acres include Chich’il Bildagoteel, known as Oak Flat, which is the heart of several southwest tribal religious and cultural beliefs. During the last days of the Trump administration, federal officials attempted to speed up the transfer to Resolution Copper that would mine the land. On January 15, 2021, five days before Trump left the presidency, the Tonto National Forest released the Resolution Copper Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and draft Record of Decision (ROD) for objection.

Protecting The Peatlands

March 2, 2021 Saba Dar, Briarpatch Magazine. Resist! Canada, Environment, Mining, Peat

In September, Kona Barreda, a teacher in the northern community of Air Ronge, was working on a lesson about “finding the courage” for her Grade 7 class when she came across a proposal from Quebec-based company Lambert Peat Moss Inc. The company had outlined its plan, with a timeline of 80 years, to mine peat in four designated areas south of nearby La Ronge, an area covering about 2,619 hectares. Shocked by the implications, Barreda, a Woodland Cree woman, started asking people in the community if they had heard about the project. Although Lambert claimed to have distributed letters among residents, no one Barreda spoke to had received one. Hoping to teach her students how to find the courage to fight for a cause, even when the opponent is a multimillion-dollar mining company, Barreda and the Grade 7 class launched a petition demanding that Lambert leave the northern Saskatchewan muskegs alone.

Mary River Mine Protesters End Blockade, Announce Next Steps

February 11, 2021 Randi Beers, Nunatsiaq News. Resist! Blockade, Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining

After a week of blockading an airstrip and road to an iron mine on north Baffin Island, a small group of protesters are packing up their tents. That’s according to protesters’ spokesperson Marie Naqitarvik, wife of protester Tom Naqitarvik. She sent out a news release late Feb. 10, announcing the group would be decamping and moving to an observation position at a nearby hunting cabin, before heading to Pond Inlet Saturday to prepare for face-to-face meetings with community leaders and Inuit organizations. The protesters call themselves the Nuluujaat Land Guardians, and they have been blocking access to Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s Mary River iron mine since the evening of Feb. 4.

Protesters Say Mine Expansion Ignores Nunavut Agreement

February 8, 2021 Beth Brown, CBC News. Resist! Biodiversity, Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining

Protests continue in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, on Saturday, as a two-week environmental hearing on an expansion at the Mary River iron ore mine wraps up. At noon Saturday, around 50 residents gathered outside the community hall where the hearings are happening. It was – 32 C with the windchill, according to Environment Canada. "We protested and chanted, 'Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, protect our rights, protect our people, protect our animals'," said resident Sheena Akoomalik. At the protest, she brandished a copy of the Nunavut Agreement. She said the legal agreement between Nunavut Inuit and the Canadian government, and its protections for land and harvesting rights, are being ignored.

Emotional Court Hearing Over Proposed Copper Mine At Oak Flat Sacred Site

February 5, 2021 Debra Utacia Krol, Arizona Central. Resist! Arizona, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

Opponents of a copper mine project that would obliterate an Apache sacred site east of Phoenix asked a federal judge Wednesday to stop work on the project. The group Apache Stronghold filed the first in a series of three lawsuits Jan. 12 to stop Resolution Copper from proceeding with a huge copper mine below Oak Flat, a site deemed sacred to many Apaches and other Southwestern tribes. The suit was filed three days before the Forest Service issued the final environmental impact statement regarding the mine project on Jan. 15, starting a 60-day clock on a land swap that would turn the land over to Resolution. The site, currently a Forest Service campground, sits about 5 miles east of Superior just off U.S. Highway 60.

Corporations Battle Apache Tribes To Build North America’s Biggest Copper Mine

January 27, 2021 Sue Lannin, ABC News. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Rio Tinto, Sacred sites

"This place is very holy and religious to us." Wendsler Nosie Senior, an elder of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, is describing his people's land, Oak Flat or Chi'chil Bildagoteel, in the Arizona desert in the US south-west. The site in the Tonto National Forest is a popular camping and hiking ground and contains sacred cultural heritage locations that include rock carvings, burial sites and the Apache Leap, where Apache warriors jumped to their death after being driven to the edge of the cliff by the US cavalry. But earlier this month, in the dying days of the Trump administration, the US Government handed over Oak Flat to two of the world's biggest mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP.

Activists Occupy Site Of Proposed Lithium Mine In Nevada

January 26, 2021 Kollibri Terre Sonnenblum, Counterpunch. Resist! Electric Cars, Lithium, Mining, Nevada

On Friday, January 15th, two activists drove eight hours from Eugene, Oregon, to a remote corner of public land in Nevada, where they pitched a tent in below-freezing temperatures and unfurled a banner declaring: “Protect Thacker Pass.” You’ll be forgiven if you’ve never heard of the place—it’s seriously in the boonies—but these activists, Will Falk and Max Wilbert, hope to make it into a household name. One of the activists is Will Falk, a writer and lawyer who helped bring a suit to US District Court seeking personhood for the Colorado River in 2017. He describes himself as a “biophilic essayist” and he certainly lyrical in describing the area where they set up.

Indigenous Land Grab On The Horizon

January 22, 2021 Madeline McClure, AFGJ. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

BHP and Rio Tinto, two of the world’s largest resource extraction companies, have earned themselves a solid reputation for obliterating native lands and communities throughout the world. Leaders in the international mining market, the British-Australian companies are globally condemned for their labor, environmental and human rights abuses. Today, they’re hard at work to expand that reputation to Arizona, where their jointly-owned company Resolution Copper advances toward the destruction of ancestral Apache land Oak Flat. Following the outcry caused by Rio Tinto’s deliberate gutting of 46,000-year-old Aboriginal sacred site Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, Rio Tinto and BHP voiced public concessions to work cooperatively with First Nations.

Apache Stronghold Lawsuit Over Oak Flat Halts Transfer To Mining Company

January 17, 2021 Apache Stronghold, Popular Resistance. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

Apache Stronghold, on behalf of traditional Apache religious and cultural leaders, placed a lien on Oak Flat on Wednesday, January 13, with the Pinal County Recorder’s Office. The lien prevents the planned transfer of Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Bildagoteel, to a foreign mining company until the recently filed ongoing Apache Stronghold lawsuit is finalized. The lien and one of the lawsuit claims are based on the Treaty of Santa Fe of 1852 between the United States and the Apache which promises that Apache lands, at the center of which lies Chi’chil Bildagoteel, are to remain in Apache ownership. The Treaty of Santa Fe is still in force.

Apache Sue To Protect Religious Freedom

January 12, 2021 Apache Stronghold, Popular Resistance. Resist! Indigenous culture, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

Apache Stronghold, on behalf of traditional Apache religious and cultural leaders, sued the Trump administration today in U.S. District Court in Phoenix to stop the transfer of Oak Flat, or Chi'chil Bildagoteel, to British-Australian corporate mining giant Rio Tinto and its subsidiary, Resolution Copper. The lawsuit seeks to stop the U.S. Forest Service’s publication on January 15, 2021, of a final environmental impact statement that will trigger the transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper. The Forest Service is rushing publication to help Rio Tinto take possession of Oak Flat before the end of the Trump administration, despite opposition by Apache Stronghold, San Carlos Apache Tribe, White Mountain Apache Tribe and hundreds of other Native American tribes.

No Holiday For Honduran Anti-Mining Activists

December 25, 2020 Jen Moore, Counterpunch. Resist! Activism, Honduras, Mining

For the families of eight water protectors in Honduras, there will be no holiday season this year. They will continue to fight for the freedom of their loved ones who have each been jailed for up to two years for participating in a struggle to keep iron ore mining out of the headwaters of the rivers they depend on. “It is the start of a new stage of struggle, a stage of unity and we are not going to stay at home,” said Juana Zúniga, the wife of one of the eight imprisoned water protectors, during a December 21 press conference, “The joy of spending Christmas with family has been taken away from us, but we will nonetheless continue fighting. We will continue struggling for the freedom of our compañeros.”

Statement On The Defense Of Chi’chil Bildagoteel, Oak Flat

December 11, 2020 the Alliance for Global Justice, Popular Resistance. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

The Alliance for Global Justice stands in solidarity with Apache Clans and over 300 Native Nations who seek to protect the Oak Flat site of south-eastern Arizona from devastating copper mining extraction. For over ten years, the San Carlos Apache and neighboring tribes have mobilized to prevent the destruction of this sacred land, which for centuries has been revered as a holy site by the Apache. Oak Flat holds the history, lives and prayers of at least eight Apache Clans and two Apache Western Bands, is home to a wealth of medicinal and edible plants, burial grounds and water sources rising from the Apache Leap Tuff aquifer.

Trump Administration Is Rushing To Mine Sacred Tribal Land

November 26, 2020 Carly Nairn, Ecowatch. Educate! Arizona, Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Trump Administration

In yet another attack on the environment before leaving office, the Trump administration is seeking to transfer ownership of San Carlos Apache holy ground in Oak Flat, Arizona, to a copper mining company. The administration pushed to finish the environmental review process, a necessary step to transfer ownership to copper mining company Resolution Copper, and its two parent companies Rio Tinto and BHP, to December 2020, almost a full year ahead of the planned completion. "The Trump administration is cutting corners and doing a rushed job just to take care of Rio Tinto..."

Indigenous Peoples Are Using Ancestral Organizing Practices

August 6, 2020 Valerie Croft, Inequality.org. Resist! COVID-19, Guatemala, Indigenous Resistance, Mining

As the effects of Covid-19 continue to be felt unequally around the globe, Indigenous peoples, such as the Xinka in Guatemala, are finding ways to organize and care for each other, while firmly rooting their response in ancestral practices that have sustained them throughout time. The Xinka people mostly live in southeastern Guatemala, in the municipalities of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, Jutiapa, and Escuintla. Since the time of Spanish colonization, the Xinka have fought to protect their land and culture. Today, they continue asserting their rights to self-determination, to fight for recognition from the Guatemalan government, and to resist transnational mining companies set on extracting large amounts of silver from their territory, which hosts one of the largest-known deposits in the world.

On Contact: Paying The Land

July 26, 2020 Chris Hedges, RT. Resistance Report Canada, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to comics journalist Joe Sacco about his new book, ‘Paying the Land’. In the book Sacco travels to the frozen Canadian Northwest Territories to reveal the Dene people in conflict over the costs and benefits of the resource extraction industry and development. The Dene have lived in the vast Mackenzie River Valley since time immemorial, by their account. To the Dene, the land owns them, not the other way around, and it is central to their livelihood and very way of being.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources