By Matthew Ross Modern society relies on metals like copper, gold and nickel for uses ranging from medicine to electronics. Most of these elements are rare in Earth’s crust, so mining them requires displacing vast volumes of dirt and rock. Hard rock mining – so called because it refers to excavating hard minerals, not softer […]
By Robert Valencia In April 2018, Afro-Colombian activist Francia Márquez won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, thanks to her work to retake her community’s ancestral territories from illegal gold mining. However, her international recognition comes at a very risky price. Francia was born in Yolombó, a town nestled in the southwestern department of Cauca, where […]
Gold miners invaded indigenous territory in Brazil‘s Amazon, killing one leader and prompting villagers to flee for safety, The New York Times reported Saturday. The violence confirms fears that right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro‘s promises to open protected lands to mining and other extractive industries will have devastating consequences for indigenous communities. “The president is responsible […]
In a blow to the Trump administration, the Supreme Court ruled Monday to uphold a Virginia ban on mining uranium, Reuters reported. The Trump administration had backed a lawsuit brought by Virginia Uranium Inc. and other companies who own the nation’s largest-known uranium deposit, valued at $6 billion. But that deposit is on private land […]
A Canadian company cannot carry out exploratory drilling for gold mining on land just north of Yellowstone National Park, a Montana district court ruled Monday. Protecting the public lands around Yellowstone has been a bipartisan effort, as Earthjustice, which argued the case against the Canadian company, pointed out in a press release. Former Interior Sec. […]
By Sue Branford and Maurício Torres For many years, international and Brazilian mining companies have dreamed of getting access to the mineral wealth lying beneath indigenous lands. And finally, the government of Jair Bolsonaro seems determined to give them that opportunity. On March 4, while Brazilians were distracted by Carnival celebrations, the new Minister of […]
A first-of-its-kind map has unveiled widespread environmental damage and contamination of the Amazon rainforest caused by the rise illegal mining. The survey, released Monday by the Amazon Socio-Environmental Geo-Referenced Information Project (RAISG), identifies at least 2,312 sites and 245 areas of prospecting or extraction of minerals such as gold, diamonds and coltan in six Amazonian […]
By Ramin Pejan Mining operations in Canada are threatening to destroy the way of life of Southeast Alaskan Tribes who were never consulted about the mines by the governments of Canada or British Columbia. The Tribes have depended for millennia upon the pristine watersheds of the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers. These waters flow through […]
Far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro, whose hostile campaign rhetoric has earned him comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump, won Brazil’s presidential election Sunday, a development that has raised concerns about the future of human rights and environmental action in the world’s sixth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, CNN reported. Like Trump, Bolsonaro has made homophobic, sexist and racist […]
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