For nearly a decade, in the south central highlands of Ecuador, just south of the country’s third largest city of Cuenca, campesino and Indigenous communities that depend on farming and dairy production have been fighting against the gold and silver projects of Canadian mining companies, such as IAMGOLD. They continue to voice concerns about the destructive …
Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration operated a barite mine in the municipality of Chicomuselo, Chiapas in late 2007. In late 2009, the mine was shut down for environmental reasons days after the murder of environmental activist Mariano Abarca. Canadian Complicity The criminalization and murder of Mariano Abarca in November 2009 in connection with Blackfire Exploration’s Payback mine …
Since 2012, Vancouver-based Candente Copper has been exploring for copper and gold in the community of San Juan de Cañaris, in the province of Ferranafe, a largely Indigenous, Quechua-speaking agricultural community. The company’s proposal to construct an open-pit mine near the principal source of water for downstream communities in San Juan de Cañaris has given …
Following the Molina administration’s lifting of the moratorium on mining concessions in 2012, Tahoe Resources ramped up construction of its Escobal silver mine east of San Rafael Las Flores, Guatemala. Since 2011, communities living in the area of the Escobal mine have peacefully resisted the project through marches and community referenda. More than half of …
The Marlin mine is a goldmine in Guatemala owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, a subsidiary of Canadian company Goldcorp. The exploitation licence for the Marlin mine straddles the municipalities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipakapa, where local residents recall that company representatives had not been transparent about their plans for the mine, having originally …