The Dominion - 55

Multi-Billion Dollar Mining Boom

Moira Peters — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:24:08 +0000

From the archives: the economics of war and empire in Afghanistan

Two years ago, in State of Mine—our 2008 special issue on the Canadian extractive industry—the Dominion published an article by Michael Skinner about the international bidding war for Afghan minerals. Skinner cites a 2002 US Geological Survey report detailing over 1,000 mineral deposits in Afghanistan, and Soviet geological studies from the 1970s that led to large-scale mining operations in the country.

We thought—given the New York Times just broke the "news" about a trillion dollars in minerals in Afghanistan—that we would, ahem, dig up this piece for our readers.

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BAMIYAN, AFGHANISTAN—On a brilliant sunny afternoon in July, 2007, my research partner Hamayon Rastgar and I climbed Shahr-e Gholghola, a tiny but strategically-located mountain that incongruously juts upward in the center of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan’s central province, Bamiyan. Our guide was a geologist I’ll call Aziz.

Aziz led us through the minefields that guard the approach to Shahr-e Gholghola to reach the strategic lookout above. From the mountaintop we surveyed the incredibly verdant Bamiyan Valley bounded by the famous cliffs of Bamiyan to the north, the snow-capped mountains of the Koh-e Baba Mountains to the south, and looking downstream along the Bamiyan River to the east, the red cliffs of Shahr-e Zohak. A chain-smoking Afghan soldier, posted on sentinel duty to keep watch over the NATO airbase below and guard the BBC broadcasting equipment installed atop the mountain, kept us under his bored gaze. But we didn’t climb Shahr-e Gholghola just to admire the spectacular view. Aziz wanted to tell us his story of war, empire, and mining in Afghanistan with the Bamiyan Valley as his dramatic backdrop.

Some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, said Aziz, exist within a few kilometres of where we stood. Many more deposits are scattered throughout the rest of Afghanistan. A promotional brochure distributed by the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines claims the Hajigak iron deposit in Bamiyan contains 1.8 billion tonnes of ore with a concentration of 62 per cent iron. There is also abundant coal nearby that can be used for the coking process and to generate electricity, making this a world-class site for mine development.

Since antiquity, Afghanistan has been a source for gems and semi-precious stones, metals, and marble. Small-scale artisanal mining has always existed to supply jewelers and metal industries. A Soviet geological survey conducted in the 1970s led to some development of large-scale industrial mining, but most of these developments stalled after 1992 during the upheavals of the American-backed Mujaheddin regime, and then the Taliban regime after 1996. The Soviets also developed natural gas extraction, which helped to fuel the Soviet economy and provided the Afghan economy with a significant portion of its foreign trade.

In 2002, the US Geological Survey (USGS) published a list of more than 1000 deposits, mines, and occurrences in Afghanistan to confirm the country’s wealth of mineral and hydrocarbon resources. Among the minerals found in abundance are gold, copper, iron, mercury, lead, and rare metals such as cesium, lithium, niobium, and tantalum. Tantalum, which is also known as coltan, is a rare element essential in the manufacture of cell phones, computers, and digital cameras. Lithium is necessary for high-tech batteries, specialty glasses and ceramics, and for some high-performance metal alloys. Niobium is used in steel alloys. According to Afghan geology expert John Shroder, writing for online geography journal GeoJournal in 2007, oil and natural gas reserves identified by the USGS far surpass earlier Soviet estimates.

Aziz said he fears most Afghans could be condemned to even greater suffering if these resources are developed by giant transnational companies. Looking over the Bamiyan Valley, we can see that productive and sustainable agriculture fills every available niche in a delicate balance of nature. It is an extremely fragile environment, similar to the arid American southwest. Building a railway through the valley, spewing toxic waste into the atmosphere during the smelting process, and dumping tons of slag onto the watershed would have an incredibly destructive impact on the delicate ecological balance that has been maintained for millennia by local farmers. Aziz reminded us of the genocidal slaughter of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as they were displaced to make way for economic development and the ecological destruction that resulted from resource extraction. Recognizing that, to this day, resource extraction practices continue to disrupt social and environmental systems, Aziz fears for the future of the Hazara people of Bamiyan and all Afghans throughout his country.

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As part of its economic liberalization and privatization strategy, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is directing the sale of every Afghan state enterprise in transportation, communications, manufacturing, and resource extraction. Any potentially profitable sector of the Afghan economy is overseen by the agency.

In October 2006, the British Agencies Afghanistan Group announced that privatization of the Jawzjan gas field was beginning and that deals had already been signed to privatize the Karkar-e Dodkash coal mine in Baghlan, a fluoride mine in Uruzagan, a gold mine in Herat, a precious stones mine in Nuristan and cement factories in Ghori and Parwan.

In November 2007, the huge Aynak copper deposit, which is approximately 35 kilometres southeast of Kabul, was auctioned under the USAID plan. According to an article in GeoJournal, the Aynak deposit is estimated to contain more than 11 million metric tons of recoverable copper.

For centuries, if not millennia, artisanal copper mining was practiced at Aynak. In the 1980s, Soviet geologists and engineers began exploration and preliminary mine development of the 28-square-kilometre Aynak copper field, but the Soviet miners were forced to leave when the Soviet military withdrew in 1989. In August and September 2008, the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines tendered four more mine sites for auction: the Feranjal barite deposits in Parwan, the Da Eman coal deposits in Bamiyan, the Namakab coal deposits in Takhar and the Ghorian iron deposits in Herat.

While the privatization program is overseen by an office of USAID, the ultimate decision to accept a winning auction bid rests with the Afghan government. However, there are questions about whether the Karzai government has the power to make autonomous decisions. Some Afghan critics complain that American, British and Canadian diplomatic and military advisers act as Karzai’s shadow cabinet.

For example, a team of Canadian Forces advisers called SAT-A (Strategic Advisory Team Argus) is embedded within Karzai’s presidential offices. During Karzai’s September 2007 visit to Canada, documents acquired under the Access to Information act suggested that Karzai’s speech to the Canadian Parliament was written by the SAT-A.

Ironically, Aynak was technically not privatized in accordance with liberalization doctrine—it was sold to a Chinese state enterprise, China Metallurgical Group, for an astounding US$3.5 billion. The principals of Vancouver-based Hunter-Dickinson, who thought they would win the bidding process with an offer in the neighbourhood of $2 billion, were not pleased by the outcome, according to a Canadian government source. Other bidders on the Aynak deposit were Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge, London-based Kazakhmys Consortium, and a subsidiary of Russia’s Basic Element Group.

Awarding the Aynak mine deal to the China Metallurgical Group may be a shrewd strategic move from the perspective of Canadian advisers. A considerable portion of the extraordinary Chinese bid is earmarked for constructing a 400-megawatt power plant to feed the mine and its smelters, the development of a nearby coal mine to feed the power plant, and construction of Afghanistan’s first railway, which will stretch from Western China through Tajikistan to the Aynak mine and on to Pakistan. The political and commercial risk of investing in Afghanistan makes it unlikely a private company would undertake an infrastructure project of the scale needed to develop the Aynak deposit. The American, Canadian, and British governments operate state-financed insurance schemes to protect investors from political risk in foreign investments, but they will not insure investments of this massive scale. Considering the high degree of influence American, Canadian, and British diplomats and military advisers have inside the Afghan government, it is conceivable that working out the deal with China Metallurgical Group could have been a deliberate strategy designed to shift the burden of infrastructure development to the Chinese state. Private companies from the NATO states can potentially benefit from the surplus capacity of the Chinese coal mine, power plant, and railway to service the many other mines and development sites yet to be sold.

Such a meshing of economic and geopolitical strategies fits with the strategic agenda outlined in the 2008 US National Defense Strategy (USNDS). It outlines America’s strategy to economically engage China and Russia, while still relying on the old Cold War era strategy of containment by NATO forces as a military backup. This latest strategic statement outlines how the US “will develop strategies across agencies, and internationally, to provide incentives for constructive behaviour while also dissuading them [China and Russia] from destabilizing actions.” Strategists in the NATO states are concerned with controlling the growth of Russia and China in Central Asia as these two emerging powers increase their level of mutual co-operation through the Shanghai Co-operation Organization and the Russia China Security Partnership. Allowing China to make a huge and extremely risky investment, for which success is entirely dependent on a continued NATO military occupation of Afghanistan on China’s border, may be a cunning tactic as part of the engagement-containment strategy outlined in the USNDS 2008.

Many Afghans—from cab drivers, shopkeepers and day labourers to intellectuals—told us they believe the privatization of Afghanistan’s resource wealth is one among many factors in the strategic geopolitical and economic calculus the leaders of the NATO states use to rationalize their war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s undeveloped resource wealth is no secret to Afghans, even if most Canadians outside the mining industry remain ignorant of the fact.

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Like many Afghans, Aziz is sceptical of an Afghan government controlled by warlords that was first established by military force and backed by American aid in 1992, and re-established by American and NATO forces in 2001. This government cannot survive without the support of foreign military forces. He doubts such an arrangement will protect Afghans from the destructive practices of foreign mining companies, whether these companies are based in the powerful NATO states or elsewhere. Among the many warlords prominent in Afghan politics and business are Rashid Dostum and Ismail Khan.

Since 2001, Dostum has held numerous influential positions in government and business including the office of Minister of Defence. Dostum is alleged by Human Rights Watch to have committed numerous war crimes since the 1980s, including while he led the Northern Alliance as the ground forces for the American-NATO invasion in 2001. Khan was a captain in the Afghanistan National Army when he led the Islamic revolution in Herat in March 1979. Khan’s Islamic revolutionary forces received covert support from the US during that year. Human Rights Watch alleges that Khan committed war crimes and crimes against humanity since first seizing power in 1979 and throughout his participation in the Northern Alliance. Khan was appointed Minister of Energy by Hamid Karzai in 2004.

Before the NATO states chose to support the Northern Alliance in 2001, Human Rights Watch, among other agencies, repeatedly warned that the Northern Alliance, as well as the Taliban, committed widespread and systematic crimes against humanity that included targeted civilian killings, indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas, summary executions, torture, rape and sexual abuse, and the use of child soldiers.

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As we soaked in the breathtaking view of the Bamiyan Valley, a man I’ll call Zahir joined our conversation. Alexander the Great’s army, he said, is believed to have occupied the valley for four years after sweeping through the Persian Empire. From here, Alexander moved south to invade India. The Greek legacy can be found in remnants of art and architecture still scattered about the valley. We could also see Shahr-e Zohak to the east.

In the 13th century, the grandson of Genghis Khan was killed there. The Khan set his army on a genocidal rampage through the valley in retaliation. We could see, carved into the cliffs north of Bamiyan, the two empty colossal niches that, until March 2001, had housed the largest Buddha statues in the world. The destruction of the Buddha statues is portrayed in the West as an act of religious fanaticism by the Taliban. According to Zahir, however, the destruction was a calculated act of cultural cleansing and ethnic subjugation of the Indigenous Hazara people. This deliberate process of ethnic subjugation began at least as early as the late 17th century when the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s army first defaced the East Asian facial features of the Buddha statues. Zahir suggests the Buddha statues were defaced because they resembled the features of local Hazaras, although this is a contentious theory.

At the base of the Bamiyan cliffs, we could see the ruins of the famous bazaar of Bamiyan destroyed during battles in the early 1990s between the Hazara Islamic Unity Party and the National Islamic United Front. The United Front became better known as the Northern Alliance when these forces were used as NATO’s ground troops to take Kabul, in 2001.

Both Aziz and Zahir told us they are fearful the historical subjugation of the Indigenous Hazara will continue and could intensify when mining companies move into Bamiyan. When empires compete over resources, ethnic groups are often enlisted as proxy forces in the fight for wealth.

The Hazara people, Zahir told us, like all the people of the almost two dozen distinct Indigenous ethnic groups scattered throughout Afghanistan, have a deep psychological attachment to their land. They know only too well the brutal history of invading armies that threatened their lives, their livelihoods, and their traditional claims to their land. During our travels, many Afghans, from all walks of life and different ethnic groups, told us they regard the current NATO occupation no differently than previous occupations by the Soviet military, the British military, or any of the other imperial armies that have invaded Afghanistan.

Leaders of the NATO states claim the current occupation of Afghanistan is different from previous imperial occupations. But the question remains as to how the current occupying forces will deal with Afghanistan’s natural resources: who will get access, who will benefit, and whose livelihoods and land will be sacrificed to mining? Recognizing the long global history of extractive industries—including the domestic and global practices of Canadian extractive industries—our two Afghan friends told us they are not hopeful that the Indigenous peoples who will be affected by mining development will be fairly compensated or that the environment will be adequately protected.

Michael Skinner is a researcher at the York Centre for International and Security Studies with the Afghanistan Canada Research Group (ACRG). In 2007, Skinner and his research partner Hamayon Rastgar travelled throughout Afghanistan, where they listened to Afghans from all walks of life who do not have a voice in the Western media.

Recent critiques of the NYT article have been written by Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic and by Paul Jay on The Real News Network.

Pushing the Debate

dawn — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:39:58 +0000

<cite>Noir Canada</cite>’s critical perspective

The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) attracts half of the total investments made by mining companies worldwide and is lauded by financial papers around the globe for its favourable 'business climate.'

In Canada, our savings, RRSPs, pension plans and other investments are calibrated to financial flows, particularly to those of the TSX.

But what is the real cost of a share listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange? What is the ecological, political and human cost that allows the balance sheet of mining companies listed on the TSX to satisfy their institutional investors, to whom we entrust our savings?

We wrote Noir Canada to highlight a number of troubling cases of exploitation in Africa by Canadian mining companies, and to probe the stories around influence peddling, arms trafficking, fiscal evasion, organized pillaging and environmental destruction. The book is based in part on reports published by a wide range of groups - from the UN Security Council to international NGOs - which are as methodologically credible in their research as they are damning. Noir Canada explores the key roles Canadian mining and oil companies have played in multiple conflicts that, between 1998 and 2003, have left more than four million victims in the African Great Lakes region.

Canadian companies active in Africa and elsewhere are not required to divulge information related to their exploration methods, except where it is in the shareholders' interest to do so. Ontario’s financial regulators have not mandated the TSX to implement rules that would require strict reporting requirements for exploration companies. Popular uprisings, armed conflicts, looting of resources and acts of environmental destruction currently fall neatly under the moniker of “external risks.”

Responding to public pressure, the Canadian government organized the “National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Canadian Extractive Industry Operating in Developing Countries,” initiating a series of consultations held across Canada in 2006. The consensus report that came out of the Roundtables, signed by experts, mining industry representatives and members of civil society, had some interesting recommendations (companies working overseas should comply with Canadian standards, for example), but they remain voluntary and not legally binding. The main watchdog within Canada was to be an “ombudsman,” who would gather data and information about complaints from communities around the world affected by Canadian mining companies. These minimal recommendations have yet to be adopted by the government of Canada.

This incentive-based approach gives special status to private companies, registered with or listed on the TSX, that operate overseas. Rather than demanding the companies follow laws as they do in Canada, they are cajoled, through subsidies and other advantages, to respect certain social, political and environmental practices, however minor. Canadian companies need not fear legal action for crimes committed overseas, particularly in dictatorships that are without functioning legal systems and are supported by Canada and other western powers.

Canada is a judicial paradise for the world’s mining and oil companies. Listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange is a way of seeking shelter in one of the more permissive stock exchanges in the world, while taking advantage of the reputation of the rule of law in Canada, all the while knowing that one is outside of state control and regulation when operating overseas.

This is how Canada subtly integrates itself into the global map of offshore banking, financial havens, free ports, and free-trade zones. Most of the world's mining companies keep their dollars in offshore accounts and take advantage of a legal framework in Canada that allows them to work all around the world under the Canadian flag without ever having to explain their actions to anybody.

The absolute necessity of public debate that the book Noir Canada raised this spring has resulted in the book becoming the object of two legal challenges for "defamation": a $6-million lawsuit launched by Barrick Gold in the Supreme Court of Quebec, and another by Banro, in Ontario, for $5 million. These Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) attempt to make critical questioning illegal, while violating the principles of free expression and the public right to information.

By the very questions that it asks, Noir Canada is testing Canadian democracy.

Alain Deneault is a member of the Collectif Ressources d’Afrique and co-author, along with Delphine Abadie and William Sacher, of Noir Canada, Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, Écosociété, 2008.

Translated by Dawn Paley.

Noir Canada

Coal Dust

Moira Peters — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:43:53 +0000

CoalDust.jpg

BC's New Gold Rush

dawn — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:51:45 +0000

Investment is risky in unceded land

PRINCE GEORGE, BRITISH COLUMBIA–The past few years have marked the arrival of a renewed gold rush in BC. Mining exploration in the province has soared as high metal prices entice prospectors and their backers with dreams of the next big find.

What often isn’t discussed is how this gold rush is one of the riskiest games on the stock market. The gamble is not just the inherent risk that no minerals will be found. Rather, it’s whether the next big find stands a chance to become a mine.

Many mining exploration companies downplay the risks and exaggerate the likelihood that their prospect will become an operating mine. This is most notable in the strained relations mining has with First Nations, who have land claims that cover nearly the entire province. It is also evident in the manner that companies predict the costs to build the mine.

The Galore Creek catastrophe

NovaGold Resources had what was self-promoted as one of the world’s largest deposits of gold and copper, located in unceded Tahltan lands in northwestern BC. The company had even negotiated a deal with the Tahltan, receiving the much-needed support from the Nation and subsequent environmental permits from BC and Canada.

Then, unexpectedly, everything fell apart.

In November 2007, company officials surprised investors when they announced a halt to mine construction, because a new feasibility study calculated a staggering $3 billion cost overrun. The project, now estimated to cost $5 billion to develop, became unfeasible, and it was shelved while the company retreated to determine its next move.

How is a $3 billion error possible? NovaGold’s shareholders think it isn’t. Over the past months, several class action lawsuits have been filed in New York State court. The company, listed on the American and Toronto Stock Exchanges (TSE) (AMEX: NG, TSX: NG), is alleged to have violated the US Securities Act “by issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements regarding the costs, progress and viability of its multi-billion dollar Galore Creek project.”

According to Schiffrin Barroway Topaz & Kessler, LLP, one of the firms filing suit, these “misleading statements” included NovaGold’s President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse’s response to Barrick Gold’s August 2006 hostile takeover attempt. Nieuwenhuyse at the time said that "at US$16, Novagold shares are better than money in the bank.” His reassurances to NovaGold’s shareholders about the viability of the Galore Creek project, and the now-discredited feasibility study this was based on, saw Barrick’s US$1.5 billion offer turned down.

Shareholders are not the only people who have realized that the soft underbelly of the mining industry is its need to sell itself to investors. The Northwest Mining Investor Report, a website sharing information on potential risks not divulged by the mining industry, is one example of an increased awareness of just how important the stock market is to a proposed mine.

“We want to provide an overview for would-be investors of the social and ecological implications of proposed mines in Northwest BC,” André Gagné, spokesperson for the Northwest Mining Investor Report, explained. “For example, there are eight proposed mining projects for the Stikine River area alone. Eight projects are not going to go ahead at once.”

The importance of First Nation support in BC is not lost on Gagné. “Right now, companies may not want to share information that might deter investors. We want to show which projects have or don’t have First Nations’ support and to link to media stories that highlight these. Investors might not realize a group of First Nation elders are blockading a road because of their concern for aboriginal title, rights, conservation and heritage,” he notes.

Project-by-project basis: a recipe for more conflict and investor risk

That BC has few, if any, regional mining or land use plans with First Nations means that companies not only run the risk of not finding enough mineral wealth under the ground, but they also risk not having the support of the people on the ground. The proposed project may be located in an environmentally sensitive area, or may affect a spiritually significant site, like the Tse Keh Nay’s Amazay Lake.

Investors, especially those based outside of this province, may be unaware that projects in BC are subject to challenges based on an increasingly long list of domestic Aboriginal case law and international agreements, like the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada embarrassingly opposed.

The UN declaration speaks directly to the issue of mining in First Nations lands through its promotion of the indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). FPIC is emerging as the minimum standard by which multinational corporations must operate; giving First Nations a veto over proposed developments they deem to be unsuitable.

Several major proposed projects currently find themselves in this situation, including Terrane Metals’ Mt. Milligan Mine (TSX: TRX.V) and Taseko’s Prosperity Project (TSX: TKO.V, AMEX: TGB), both listed on the TSE.

The copper-gold project on Shus Nadloh, the Nak’azdli traditional name for Mt. Milligan, is not a sure bet. In September, Chief Fred Sam stated, “The mining industry and a minister have claimed that working with First Nations support is important, so it is important to know we do not support this project. Even if the flawed review process were to approve the proposed mine on Nak’azdli traditional territory, the rulings of courts to date indicate it would not be allowed to proceed without Nak’azdli’s involvement and without our concerns being dealt with in a serious and conclusive manner.”

Regardless of this reality and Nak’azdli’s position, the project is being pushed through the contentious BC environmental assessment (EA) process. On September 4, Terrane’s EA application was accepted by the BC Environmental Assessment Office.

“Our water is our gold”

Taseko Mines’ proposed Prosperity copper-gold mine, located in Tsilhqot’in territory, is indicative of just how First Nation relations are being portrayed to investors. Taseko’s July news release announcing Prosperity’s acceptance in the BC environmental assessment process failed to mention the Tsilhqot’in or the fact that their consent is crucial.

Like the nixed Kemess North project and Amazay Lake, the controversial Prosperity project seeks to destroy Teztan Biny – a large, fish-bearing lake being proposed as the company’s tailings impoundment area.

Perhaps out of fear of the precedent set by the Kemess North Review Panel, which rejected the destruction of Amazay lake for a tailings dump, the BC government has announced a less rigorous process for Prosperity, known as a ‘comprehensive review,’ to the chagrin of the Tsilhqot’in.

The Tsilhqot’in Chiefs have indicated they oppose the project as long as Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) is slated for destruction. “I don’t think the Prosperity project is a go because it’s going to destroy clean water and we don’t have very much,” said Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Tsilhqot’in community of Xeni Gwet’in. “Just look at the Fraser River’s pollution and you can understand why. Our water is our gold. Teztan Biny is our spiritual homeland.”

In light of this opposition, investors in Taseko and Terrane Metals are playing Russian roulette with these mine proposals. Two decades of legal precedents are enough ammunition to support the Nak’azdli and the Tsilhqot’in positions that they must be intimately involved in all stages of a mine review if the mine has any chance of proceeding.

The government's and companies' refusal to admit that a mine proposal might be rejected because of First Nation opposition is likely what is driving these risky decisions and the under-reporting to investors. Reactions like those of NovaGold’s investors may not be farfetched if companies continue to deny the First Nation right to say ‘no.’ Educating investors about the tenuous land question in BC and its impact on their investments may be an increasingly powerful tool for First Nations seeking to protect their homelands.

J.P. Laplante is the Mining Co-ordinator for the Takla Lake First Nation. However, the statements expressed above are solely the opinion of the author.

Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), British Columbia

BC Gold Rush 2

The Land Provides What Mining Can't

dawn — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:14:21 +0000

KI leaders take their complaints to the United Nations

KITCHENUHMAYKOOSIB, ONTARIO–When Ontario imprisoned six of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation's leaders in March, Canada turned its back. In response, the Northwestern Ontarian First Nation, fighting to keep mining exploration off of their traditional land, is going over Canada’s head.

The community has made formal accusations of treaty violations and human rights charges against Canada for standing by while Ontario jailed Chief Donny Morris and his council for contempt when they stopped Platinex corporation workers at their airport. The case will be presented to the United Nations in February.

Morris doesn’t oppose development, but has strong objections to the Ministry of Natural Resources collecting specimens, and field helicopters buzzing above the countless lakes surrounding KI, in explicit contravention of the wishes of the community. He questions whether the industry has learned anything from his incarceration and the public outcry that allowed for his release.

“We didn’t go through this exercise, going to jail, for another company to test us again,” he said. “We’re not trying to block it, we’re trying to be a part of it. Give us that responsibility ourselves. We’ll work with any corporation, but let us make that choice. We don’t want bureaucrats in Toronto who have never been up here making decisions on our behalf.”

In the thick of the province’s consultations that promise to overhaul the 135-year-old Mining Act, which currently allows for open staking on Crown land, there has been no correspondence from Ontario. In fact, Morris asked to photocopy the 15-page First Nations consultation briefing released by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines because he had never read it.

Minister Michael Gravelle would deny those claims in a later interview.

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Morris is leaving town at six in the morning for three days at a hunting festival. The caribou are nearly gone, but the moose, deer, migratory birds, fish and other animals can still sustain a population where a can of soup costs $5 at the grocery store.

The water levels are rising, the weather is changing, and he has a difficult time explaining how he once saw seals on a paddle to Ontario’s shores of Hudson Bay.

Times are changing. When he became Chief, he never imagined how, in the middle of nowhere, he could be engaged in this kind of work. After two referenda opposed mining exploration, he had no choice but to go to jail.

“If it’s a different road they want, I’ll gladly take it, but I have to take the mandate of the community, eh?”

“When we were in jail, we went to the UN International Treaty Council,” he explains. “This is global now and that’s the route we decided to take. Not what you see across Canada, blockades and tires burning. That’s not the route to take in this day and age. It’s education.”

When Canada didn’t come to their aid in pressuring Ontario to release them, the KI-6 (the six jailed indigenous leaders) applied for funding to pay legal fees and were turned down. Defining Ontario as a successor state to Canada, Morris feels they were entitled to that defence by treaty right.

“I want to meet the Queen because we’re the Queen’s subjects. That’s the road I want to take. I want to tell the Queen that things aren’t going that well with what you promised us. We’re not doing that well with Ontario. Canada is sitting on the sidelines.”

Having gained international notoriety throughout the ordeal, Morris has been invited to Guatemala to share stories with indigenous peoples there and he hopes to address the United Nations when their concerns air this winter. These trips will depend on whether or he is able to obtain a passport, which has been declined twice.

Why Resist?

While the media roar surrounding KI has concentrated on the black and white questions of development – pro- and anti-mining, jobs and environment – the reasons for resistance have been silenced.

Samuel McKay is a band councilor and the spokesperson on the Platinex issue. McKay is one of a few who are reviving traditional spirituality and culture in the largely Christian community. His ideology on development reflects the balance needed to survive in this remote and ruthless climate. He wants development to be led by his people and the reason for this quickly becomes clear.

There is a barren flagpole overlooking a plaque in view of the lake where the 1929 treaty was signed. The treaty commissioner’s subsequent report read: “In view of the ...fact that the pushing back of the frontier is inevitable due to the spectacular interest and activity in the mining industry with its concomitant development, it was found necessary to extinguish the rights of those Indians resident north of the line AB.”

Walking out onto the peninsula, McKay slices the air with his forearms, revealing the checkerboard of ownership of their land, split before the treaty was signed between territory reclaimed from the church, plots owned by Bell Canada, Northern Stores, and regional carrier Bearskin Airlines. Some drums of waste are neatly gathered on the only private property around. Others are seemingly randomly placed throughout the tall grass leading into the woods and out into open water.

A creek runs to the lake from the former site of a float-plane refueling station where McKay worked as a teenager. He recalls fuel seeping into the ground and accuses the company of holding the lease on the land in order not to have to clean up the waste.

He says he has evidence that the Ministry of Natural Resources was dumping 45 gallon drums with PCBs and proof that it affected the community’s water supply. Environment Canada abandoned a weather station until they were pressured by the community to remove what they had left behind.

“We literally had to fight them to get them to clean up the land, and that’s Environment Canada!” he said. “That has been our experience with development. You wonder why this is the situation we’re in?”

The federal riding of Kenora, in which KI’s traditional territory falls, was identified in a 2006 federal report as having over 11,000 contaminated sites, the highest in the country. Morris’ own trap line crosses the Sherman Lake Mine site, a 400-foot-deep excavation abandoned without cleanup decades ago.

Their community members aren’t new to the mining life or to the boom and bust cycles of the economy it creates. Many of their families flew to Pickle Lake to work in the uranium-mining town that has been nearly abandoned after outliving the excavation. Many of those men continue to die from diseases commonly associated with mining.

When Platinex first came to the table, they were intent on having an open pit mine. To do so, they would have to drain two lakes that claw against these shores. As the community still relies on sustenance fishing, the payoff would have to be substantial to offset the damage to the community's ability to subsist.

He compares their situation with the Saugeen First Nation, who sold part of their land to a pulp and paper company 90 years ago. Today, their water is contaminated, there is no wild game, and no forest. The only way their people can survive, he explains, is through education and employment. Despite the dizzying scenes of past industrial ventures, whose removal costs would be substantial judging by the cost of flying a can of soup into KI, he insists that they are still in a position where their survival is best served by the land.

“We’re making the stand because we still have the water, the forest, the land, the fish and the animals. There are people in this community who live off of the land year around. Right now, we value this more than the minerals under the ground. We know that the mining industry is a boom and bust industry. It’s good for 30 years at the most... we want to use this for as long as possible.”

In the midst of KI’s struggle, AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine signed a Memorandum of Understanding that all First Nations were ready to go into business with industry. For McKay, it justified what he sees as trespassing without consent on their traditional land and undercut their right to self-determination. For now, the untouched wilderness surrounding the region’s ten partnered communities bears the fruit of their survival, and the negotiations with Platinex are off.

There are plans for development in KI, but the leadership insists that it be their priorities on their terms. In the next 20 years, they’re looking to eliminate the fuel generating station that powers their community in favour of hydroelectric generation. Ready to partner with any industry under conditions that achieve balance, the potential benefits must outweigh the costs.

“Really, we should thank Platinex for bringing this to the forefront,” McKay laughs. “It was going to have to happen eventually.”

Jon Thompson is a journalist, author, and media activist in Northwestern Ontario.

KI Solidarity March

Five of the KI6

A Mining Refugee in Canada

dawn — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:46:06 +0000

Can one country be the hero and the villain?

MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC–For some, Canada is a place to call home. For Enrique Rivera, it is a place where he's safe from thugs working on behalf of mining corporations.

Rivera fled to Canada to escape a Mexican mine's ever-expanding power and reach. A Canadian mining corporation owns that mine.

Rivera arrived in Montreal two years ago, demanding refugee status. Life for him in Canada is very different from his life in San Luis Potosi, his hometown in Mexico. Rivera washes dishes in Montreal. In Mexico, he was a lawyer.

"I cannot work as a lawyer here. I cannot even think about it. First of all, I have to learn the language and then I have to study Canadian and Quebec law. It will take me three or four years to be able to work as a lawyer here," he says.

Rivera has no family in Montreal. He misses the people he grew up with and the places he grew up in.

"I miss the food, the weather, my friends, the streets, my parents, my brothers and sisters, the gardens, the landscapes, my town. I miss the life that I had to leave behind and I wish to have it back again one day," he says.

****

Rivera's life changed when he started working as a lawyer and activist with Frente Amplio Opositor (FAO), known in Canada as the Broad Opposition Front. The FAO is a non-partisan grassroots organization that is trying to stop an open-pit cyanide-leached mine in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico. Canadian company New Gold owns the mine.

New Gold is the result of a recent merger between three companies, including the Canadian mining company Metallica Resources, which owned the mine before the merger.

Rivera was working with FAO when several men attacked him on April 4, 2006, striking him repeatedly on the head.

Witnesses report they heard his assailants shouting, "If you continue talking, you are going to die."

On May 1, 2007, Rivera was called to represent five students who had been detained in a protest against the mine. He learned then that the students had been tortured to obtain their signatures on a document meant to incriminate him.

Rivera was forced into hiding and escaped Mexico as quickly as he could. He is now seeking political asylum in Canada.

"I had to leave my country since Mexico politically prosecuted me because I was defending Cerro de San Pedro," says Rivera.

"It has been a very tough and sad experience for me. What hurts the most is to be forced to leave it all because you did your duty as a human being and for following what your professional ethics dictate," he says. "To know that authorities in your country want to destroy you to protect corporate interests and that a transnational company can corrupt in such a way the institutions that are supposed to protect the law is what hurts the most. Fortunately I come from a family that is used to fighting for social justice and to protect human dignity and that makes it less tough on me."

Rivera misses Mexico immensely, but, "Given the violence and the human rights violations that are now prevalent in Mexico," he says, "I cannot think of going back."

Rivera's problems began when he got involved in the fight to protect Cerro de San Pedro in San Luis Potosi.

****

Cerro de San Pedro (translated as Saint Peter's Mount) was founded in 1592. It was the site of the first strikes of gold and silver in the area and its mines gave rise to the city of San Luis Potosí, now the state capital.

The Mount was the founding site for the town and is a symbol on the state's coat of arms. In September 1993, the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History [INAH] recognized the history of the region by declaring it an ecologically protected area. INAH even recognized the lack of water in the area as a fundamental problem and noted the need to protect it from heavy pollution and over-consumption. The town is one signature away from becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The missing signature belongs to the Governor of the state of San Luis Potosi, whose reluctance to sign has been attributed to political alliances and collusion with the mining company.

Now Cerro de San Pedro is literally half gone - blasted away by dynamite - and the region is embroiled in one of Mexico's most important legal, social and environmental conflicts.

****

In 1993, Cerro de San Pedro and the surrounding region was accorded legal environmental protection due to its ecological fragility. The region is semi-arid and the local aquifer is already overburdened. Metallica's own environmental impact assessment recognizes the possibility of water contamination by cyanide and certain heavy metals.

Metallica Resources' environmental impact assessment acknowledges air pollution caused by the mine. Tons of dust resulting from the daily explosions mix with the chemical explosive TNT and approximately eight million litres of the water and cyanide combination (cyandric acid) evaporates into the air daily. This deadly mix lingers not only in the Cerro de San Pedro community, but also reaches the capital city of San Luis Potosi, which is fewer than 12km away and home to more than one million people.

****

In 1996, Baltazar Reyes, mayor of San Pedro, was gunned down. His son and successor Oscar Laredo publicly announced that high-ranking officials threatened to shoot him as well, unless he signed the permit that would allow the mine to operate. He had no choice but to sign.

Rivera says that Metallica (now New Gold) has used several tactics to scare off opposition to the mine.

"They weave webs with local government, with mass media, with enterprises, with some locals who [sic] they hire to physically attack any opposition," says Rivera.

This year, Mario Martinez Ramos, another activist who has been fighting to stop the mine in Cerro de San Pedro, was also beaten up. As a hydraulic engineer, Martinez Ramos had been very vocal about the long-term repercussions the mine's operations will have on the aquifer, such as water depletion and cyanide pollution.

Martínez Ramos says he was insulted and attacked by members of the Marquez family, a family whose members work for the mining company and who are known for their scare and bullying tactics. At the time of the attack, they were armed with machetes and guns.

The husband of the new mayor of Cerro de San Pedro attacked several townspeople this year - including a pregnant woman - by charging his van into a crowd during a demonstration against the mine.

Nobody has been charged for any of the attacks. Rivera believes that, like in his case, nobody will ever be charged.

Metallica Resources - now New Gold - has also been operating without several permits by using injunctions whenever they lose a case in court regarding their status.

"I am sure they are colluded. From the moment that the Environment Secretary disregarded the order of a judge which stated that the mine shouldn't work and gave a ‘permit’ that is clearly illegal, the collusion between Metallica and the PAN’s government became evident," says Rivera.

Rivera says corporations like New Gold take advantage of weak institutions and exacerbate the corruption that is rampant in countries like Mexico.

"These companies are very powerful. They have allies in all government structures. The difference will have to come from a grassroots movement and with the help and participation of Canadian civil society," he says.

While he awaits an answer regarding his refugee claim, Rivera has been trying to create awareness about the actions of Canadian mining corporations in the south.

"It is important to get Canadian civil society involved in these problems to stop these predatory enterprises," he says. "If we allow states and corporations to be the only ones involved in these issues, there will be no advances and projects like the Metallica one will continue to mushroom throughout the world."

Verónica Islas is from Mexico and has seen first hand the destruction of Cerro de San Pedro. She is currently completing a Masters degree in Public Policy and Public Administration at Concordia University.

Enrique Rivera II

Issue #55: State of Mine

dru — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:37:15 +0000

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World Bank Poster Child Gets Naughty

Tim McSorley — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Politicians and protesters show their true mettle in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES–Julián Rooney, Vice-President of Bajo la Alumbrera, Argentina's largest gold and copper mine, was charged this past summer with crimes against the environment. The charges – the result of 10 years of action by community organizations – stemmed from four proven toxic spills, and a dozen formal complaints filed for pollution.

This is the first time in Latin America that this form of legal action has been taken against a mining company executive for crimes against the environment. Journalist David Mordersbach wrote that the charges alone sent 'shockwaves' through the Argentinean mining community.

The charges against Rooney represent a small victory, but opponents of unchecked mining development in Argentina still face many hurdles in reforming the country's mining sector. Argentina's by-the-book effectuation of the World Bank economic policies pushed throughout the world in the '80s and '90s the vast amount of unexplored land with high mining potential, and the high commodity prices make it a prime destination for multinational mining companies.

During the 1990s, under the leadership of neo-liberal President Carlos Menem, with the active participation of Angel Maza – then National Secretary of Mining – and with governors of the relatively poor but mineral-rich provinces of San Juan, Catamarca and Tucumán, the government revamped national mining policies.

The resulting legislation, instituted in 1993, prohibited the state from exploiting the country's mineral resources (effectively forcing privatization in the mining sector), guaranteed investors tax stability for 30 years, granted 100 per cent deduction of exploration costs from income taxes, and capped the maximum royalty payment to the government at three per cent.

In 2001, a decade of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies at the hand of Menem led Argentina to economic collapse. Some of the results include the devaluing of the peso to a third of its previous worth and unemployment rates skyrocketing to over 20 per cent, up from 16.4 per cent before the crisis. Interestingly, the province affected most by unemployment – at 25.5 per cent – was Catamarca, currently a mining leader in the country.

The collapse was beneficial to mining investors, as the newly devalued peso meant doing business in Argentina became much cheaper than it had been, while their earnings, tallied up in dollars, were not affected.

The mining policies of the centre-left government of Néstor Kirchner, who was in office from 2003 to 2007, strongly supported mining investment and activity in the country.

Building on the 1993 Mining Law, Kirchner launched a “Mining Plan” in 2004 to strengthen mining investment and activity in Argentina. Among other issues, the Mining Plan set the stage to ensure a secure environment for mining investments and sought to create opportunities for market development at national and international levels.

The current National Secretary of Mining deems the Mining Law and Mining Plan responsible for the impressive upsurge in mining investment over the last decade.

Mining investments in the country stood at over $2 billion by 2007, a massive increase over the $220 million invested in 2003.

With six projects currently in production, 10 under construction and well over 200 in exploration, the last decade has seen Argentina take a leap from being a small player in the mining world to becoming a stronghold for the transnational mining industry. Ninety per cent of mining concessions in Argentina are held by transnationals.

****

The changes in mining policies in the 1990s were followed by the creation of several junior mining companies in Canada that focus either exclusively or mostly on mining ventures in Argentina.

These include Mirasol Resources, Argentex Mining Corporation, and Yamiri Gold and Energy Inc. Concerning gold mining in particular, more than 80 per cent of mining companies currently exploring in Argentina are based out of Canada.

At least seven projects from Canadian corporations are at an advanced exploration stage or under construction. Two such sites are expected to be among the world's largest mines.

Barrick Gold's controversial Pascua Lama project proposes mining an area that straddles the mountainous border between Argentina and Chile, a region covered by glaciers in a World Biosphere Reserve granted legal protection by UNESCO.

Yamana Gold Inc's Agua Rica, a gold mine projected to be three times larger than Alumbrera – currently Argentina's biggest mining site – is situated only 34 kilometres from the existing giant.

Alumbrera, going into its 13th year, is among the 10 largest copper projects in the world and is also a significant gold producer. Alumbrera is 50 per cent owned by Swiss company Xstrata; the other half of the ownership is shared between Goldcorp and Yamana Gold.

The Alumbrera project alone means Catamarca accounts for 80 per cent of Argentina's metal exports.

In addition, Barrick and Yamiri Gold and Energy Inc are in the exploration stage of the controversial Famatina project in La Rioja province.

Barrick, the world's largest gold-mining company, owns the entirety of the Veladero project (located within the same World Biosphere Reserve as the Pascua Lama development) in the nearby province of San Juan.

****

Angel Maza, National Secretary of Mining during Menem's first term in office in the early 1990s, eventually returned to his home province of La Rioja, where he was elected governor. During his three terms in office, he pushed hard for the development of the mining sector.

Under his political tutelage, Yamiri, a provincially owned company, underwent a series of fraudulent changes to become a private entity, which allowed it to maintain its legal entitlement to continue work in the province.

Vancouver-based TelcoPlus acquired control of Yamiri S.A. in 2005, buying just under 80 per cent of the company's shares. TelcoPlus then changed its name to Yamiri Gold and Energy, and began trading under that name on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Earlier that year, Yamiri SA signed a controversial agreement with Barrick Gold. The deal grants the latter exclusive rights to exploration of the highly coveted gold and silver Famatina project. This agreement was helped along by Maza's visit to Barrick's Canadian headquarters in 2006.

The close links to Barrick Gold and accusations of Maza holding 41 per cent of the shares of Yamiri S.A. before the involvement of TelcoPlus were instrumental in igniting the public outrage that helped lead to his impeachment in early 2007. Argentina's current Secretary of Mining, Jorge Mayoral, from the mining-rich province of San Juan, also owns a considerable volume of shares in three mining companies active in Argentina.

Public servants’ financial engagements with private mining companies violate Argentina’s Law of Public Ethics, but the country's anti-corruption agency deems this acceptable so long as Mayoral refrains from intervening in the affairs of the companies.

****

During the 2001 economic collapse, when all bank accounts were frozen, street riots finally resulted in the resignation of then-president Fernando de la Rúa. When a highly controversial pulp mill in Uruguay that drains into one of Argentina's main rivers was proposed, Argentine protests brought the issue before international courts and gained the world's attention. Argentines have a tradition of standing up and speaking out when their interests are affected. Mining, and particularly Canadian mining, have not been an exception.

In response to frequent protests, governors of La Rioja and San Juan drew up policies that penalize public protests against mining with imprisonment and which prevent social organizations from giving talks about mining in schools.

In some cases, local action and the need for increased state benefits have led to higher taxation of and legislated protection against destructive mining practices.

In December of 2007, the government of Kirchner modified some export tax breaks for mining companies, changes that companies are attempting to evade by claiming they contribute otherwise to society through education and social programs in the areas where they operate, and through royalties.

In 2003, a well-organized group of concerned residents in the town of Esquel in Patagonia held a public consultation, during which 81 per cent of the population expressed opposition to the proposed Cordón Esquel open-pit gold mine, currently owned by Yamana Gold.

These actions led to the provincial governments declaring a mining moratorium in parts of the province until 2009.

With the increase of mining activities over the past five years, other forms of community organizing have led to changes in the provincial legislatures of Jujuy, La Rioja and San Juan.

Most recently, in September and early October, the provincial legislatures in Córdoba and then San Luis also passed bans on open-pit mining.

The conditions might still be ripe for extensive mining in Argentina, but so long as communities are organized – and they increasingly are – social and environmental challenges will continue to expose realities that corporations and governments would gladly do without.

M. Olimpia Boido, BA, MA, a specialist on political intercultural relations, has been following mining developments as they pertain to Canadian corporations in Latin America.

Esquel from above

Mural in Esquel

While Mineral Resources Boomed, Canada Partied

dawn — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:59:23 +0000

...and lost manufacturing jobs, narrowed economic base

TORONTO, ONTARIO–We’ve all heard the story about the poor guy who won the lottery. He didn’t manage his new wealth very well: spending like a drunken sailor, giving it away to friends, sinking into debt. In the end, he said that winning the lottery was the worst thing that ever happened to him.

Canada is blessed with incredible resource and mineral wealth. For a country, it’s kind of like winning the lottery. What could be better than to find out that the stuff buried beneath our feet is worth untold billions or even trillions of dollars on inflated global commodity markets?

And that’s what it's felt like in the last few years. The global commodities boom began in earnest around 2003. And Canada was right in there, partying hard.

During the last five years, global prices for minerals and other resource commodities have soared, even while mining sector employees faced a decline in real wages. Profits of Canadian mining companies, petroleum giants, and other resource firms expanded to untold levels.

New investment and employment opportunities were created in some resource communities. Even governments rode a fiscal wave of new revenues thanks to the commodities boom – using their share of resource profits to finance new initiatives (including expensive corporate tax cuts, which disproportionately benefited the resource companies whose profits were already sky-high).

At the same time as the resource boom rolled on, however, there were some important, little-noticed structural changes occurring deeper down in Canada’s economy. We became significantly more dependent on the production and export of largely unprocessed natural resources (minerals, agricultural products, and especially energy) to pay our way in the economy, and in world trade. For example, unprocessed or barely processed resources now account for about 60 per cent of all our merchandise exports. Value-added merchandise (for which we process, manufacture, and add value to our resources) make up only 40 per cent. That’s a dramatic change from just 2000, when those ratios were reversed (value-added products were 60 per cent of our exports, and resources 40 per cent).

Directly and indirectly, therefore, the resource boom substantially narrowed Canada’s economic base.

Manufacturing has withered away, shedding over 400,000 jobs, hammered by the inflated value of our currency (which soared in line with oil prices and other commodity values). Other non-resource industries were also hurt by the overvalued loonie, including tourism and exportable services (like business services and transportation). Indeed, according to Statistics Canada data, our services trade deficit is now the worst ever. And excluding minerals and petroleum, Canada went from a $17 billion trade surplus in 2002, to a deficit that will exceed $30 billion this year. Unfortunately, it seems, we relied on the “easy” money provided by record commodity prices to subsidize the erosion of our trade performance in other, higher-technology industries.

Productivity was another casualty of the commodities boom. Productivity in the mining and energy sectors has declined (as companies chase increasingly marginal and hence expensive deposits), and the destruction of high-productivity manufacturing jobs has also hurt productivity badly. Statistics Canada reported recently that national productivity is now lower than it was at the beginning of January 2006 – ironically, when Stephen Harper’s petroleum-friendly government came to power. The commodities boom has thus been associated with the longest sustained productivity slide in our postwar history.

There have certainly been some trickle-down benefits from the resource boom. New jobs and incomes in mining and resource communities have been much-appreciated. Mining unions like the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) have fought hard to ensure that resource workers get a decent share of the unprecedented wealth they are producing, and in some cases we made significant forward progress during the boom. Across the resource industry as a whole, however, the distribution of the windfall gains resulting from the commodities bubble was anything but fair.

The accompanying table summarizes the changes in several measures of corporate profitability and wages in the mining and petroleum industries in Canada during the boom. Corporate revenues soared, thanks to record global prices for oil and minerals. Operating profits more than doubled in the oil industry, and more than quadrupled in mining. Measured as a return on shareholders’ equity, profit rates more than doubled.

Wages grew, yes – but not dramatically. Average hourly wages are up just five per cent in mining, and 15 per cent in petroleum. And the high cost of living in booming resource communities has eaten up those gains. Incredibly, in the mining sector average real wages (adjusted for rising consumer prices) have actually declined by seven per cent since 2002 – a period of unprecedented corporate profitability.

To be sure, Canada is blessed with abundant resource wealth. But we have clear choices regarding how to make the most of that wealth. We don’t want to end up like that poor fellow who now wishes he’d never won the lottery. In recent years we’ve had a helter-skelter approach to managing the boom, throwing caution to the wind; companies fell over each other to extract and export as much resource wealth as they could, while the getting was good.

We even allowed foreign companies to grab much of the pie. Canada is the only major petroleum- and mineral-exporting country in the world that imposes virtually no limits on foreign ownership of our non-renewable resource base. No wonder, then, that foreigners came rushing in for a piece of this super-profitable action. Over $200 billion in new foreign investment flowed into Canada during 2006 and 2007 alone (almost all of it to take over existing companies, rather than building new ones – and most of it in the resource sector). This inflow of hot foreign money accentuated the unsustainable run-up in the loonie, which did so much damage to the rest of our economy.

In short, during this boom, big money flowed fast and furious – for a while. But now the commodities bubble has clearly burst, and the boom is coming to an end. Global financial instability and the prospect of a recession in the US and other countries has suddenly knocked the stuffing out of resource prices (and our dollar). It turned out that putting all our eggs in the resource basket, and not worrying about extracting maximum value-added from those resources, may not have been the best economic strategy for the long-term, after all.

Did we make the most of our non-renewable wealth? Or were we obsessed with short-term profits, ignoring the state of our true fundamentals: our technology, our productivity, and our capacity to add value to our resources through our work and our ingenuity?

A better approach is to use our resource wealth carefully, as a strategic asset. Foster resource development, yes – but with strings attached. We should require the use of Canadian-made inputs and services to mining, and the made-in-Canada downstream processing and manufacturing of our own resources. Attaching performance requirements to foreign takeovers (regarding Canadian value-added commitments) would also help. Our currency should be deliberately managed (through lower interest rates and restrictions on foreign investment) to prevent a resource boom from squeezing out other valuable export industries. There should also be binding mechanisms through which mining companies are regulated to ensure that they are not abusing workers or the environment.

Canada partied hard while the commodities boom lasted. Now we’re likely to be stuck with a national hangover, reflected in our backsliding on productivity and non-resource exports, and the plunging value of Canada’s resource-heavy stock market. Let’s see if we can learn our lesson. Next time global commodities markets catch fire, let’s be a little more careful and deliberate about jumping into the flames. Let’s use our fortunate legacy of resource wealth to build a more diversified, value-added economy – one that can prosper long after the resources are gone.

Jim Stanford is economist with the Canadian Auto Workers, and an economics columnist for the Globe and Mail. He is author of the new book, Economics for Everyone.

Nickel

Cinderella

Moira Peters — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:13:15 +0000

Mining Cartoon.jpg

Media Avoids the Dirt

dawn — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:43:48 +0000

Mining companies get an easy ride in Canadian press

MONTREAL, QUEBEC–From developing on fresh-water-providing glaciers in the Andes, to invading First Nations lands in Ontario, to blowing off the tops of mountains in Virginia, mining maintains one of the poorest records for environmental and social policies of nearly any industry.

“Forestry can be incredibly destructive for the environment, to the ecosystem, however if it is done properly...the forestry industry can be a nice example of a regenerative, natural resource-based industry that preserves land and ecosystems and also produces economic benefits and jobs,” says Toby Heaps, Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Knights magazine. “Mining– not so much in its present form,” he continues, adding that while practices can vary widely between companies, the last 30 years has shown the mining industry as both environmentally and socially destructive.

While Canadian companies lead the way in the mining industry, with almost 10,000 projects worldwide, mining activists say that lack of coverage in the mainstream media means many Canadians remain ignorant of Canada's role in the global mining market.

“I think people aren’t really aware of the scale of the industry; that Canada’s mining sector is so active in so many parts of the world,” says Ian Thomson, Corporate Social Responsibility Program Co-ordinator for Kairos, a Canadian ecumenical social justice organization. “Little is written [about mining development] unless it becomes a total disaster, so then you may get an article when there are family members who are murdered, or there is a huge spill of tailings or other toxic chemicals that impact a huge river system. It’s only when it reaches this horrendous scale that the media seems to think to pay attention.”

Beyond a lack of reporting, Thomson also sees an underlying lack of analysis when it comes to journalists covering the industry. “I think that what’s missing is there is a pattern here—that this isn’t just one or two isolated cases, but is the case where it’s just a heavily under-regulated industry,” he explains. “A report was issued by the UN earlier this year, saying the problem is that there is this governance gap, where companies operate as multinationals but are regulated at a national level and that’s what leads to these conflicts and these violations.”

A quick search through Canadian news database Proquest, which archives articles from all major English language dailies in Canada, seems to back up Thomson’s statements. While a search for articles on mining over the past year brings up over 6,000 pieces, a search for "mining and environment" brings up just under 300; similar results are achieved with "mining and community" or "mining and sustainable development." Overwhelmingly, the articles focus purely on economics, rather than the impact of the industry.

Heaps and Thomson both point to growing cuts in foreign and investigative journalism for this lack of coverage. Over the last decade, media consolidation and the quest for higher profits have resulted in closures of foreign bureaus. CanWest Global, Canada’s largest media conglomerate, maintains only two foreign newspaper bureaus, down from eight, when the chain was still owned by Southam. Tighter deadlines in order to meet the demands of the internet has also contributed to increased pressure on journalists, says Thomson, and less coverage of stories outside large urban areas, where mining operations are located.

But it isn’t just news media that has helped obscure the impacts of the mining industry; advertising has played significant role as well. Like many industries, mining has jumped on the corporate social responsibility bandwagon, attempting to reform their image through advertising campaigns vaunting their belief in a greener, cleaner and more equitable world. While some of the advertisements may be legitimate, it is difficult to distinguish which are real and which are simply window-dressing.

One company that has attempted to reform its image over the last 10 years is aluminum giant Alcan (Rio Tinto Alcan, since it was acquired by fellow mining giant Rio Tinto last year). In the past, Alcan has been heavily criticized for its operations in central India, initiating huge bauxite mines without public consultation or environmental precautions. Concerns persist over its plans to expand hydroelectricity production for smelters in Iceland and the company has also been embroiled in a messy dispute over the future of its operations in Kitimat, B.C., where labour officials claim that the company is not meeting its promised levels of job creation.

Throughout the fall, the company ran a massive publicity campaign in Alcan’s home province of Quebec. Featuring crystal-clear water, bright green forests and fields and a blue sky that you wish you could fly away into, the advert focuses on everything—sponsoring paralympians, research and technology, and job creation—except its environmental impact. It does state, in soothing tones as a lone deer trots across the screen, that it "produces respect for the environment," but it in no way quantifies how or what it does to minimize its environmental impact.

"If an ad has a little girl running through a field, but also gives numbers on its accomplishments, that’s fine,” says Heaps. “[But] if the purpose or the effects of that ad is to slow down progress [towards sustainability] in that company or give them a decoy for people who want to accelerate the progress [towards sustainability] of the company, then that’s a problem. Those are the key questions you need to ask yourself: what was the intent of the company with this ad, and was it to accelerate its move towards being more sustainable, or was it to slow it down or turn it back?”

Consumers are becoming more wary of these advertising campaigns. Recently, advertising watchdogs in Canada, such as the Canadian Standards Association and the Competition Bureau—and in Britain, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)—have seen an upsurge in complaints about misleading ‘green’ advertisements, resulting in the Canadian government adopting stronger rules on green labeling and terminology, and the ASA taking more and more companies to task.

But Thomson also warns that we cannot rely too much on the government to address the situation. He points to another story that has seen little coverage in Canada—the government’s complicity in mining activities.

“On many of the overseas trips [Prime Minister] Harper has taken, he has made sure to find the time to meet with mining executives,” says Thomson, adding that such meetings provide legitimacy to companies that are attempting to skirt social and environmentAL relations. In 2007, Harper met with Barrick Gold executives in Chile at the same time that residents of Pascua Lama were raising serious concerns about Barrick’s undertakings in their region; Harper refused their request for a meeting, entering Barrick's office through the back door. On other occasions, Canadian ambassadors, including Guatemala and the Philippines, have maneuvered in favour of mining companies facing difficulties in obtaining permits or facing criticism for the actions.

For now, both Heaps and Thomson say that Canadians will need to look outside the mainstream press to find out what Canadian mining companies are up to.

“What we need to see is renewed investment and commitment to investigative journalism, to work a story over the long term,” says Heaps. “That’s the only way to cover something like this.”

Tim McSorley is Media Analysis Editor at The Dominion.

Media Avoids the Dirt

Peru's Farmers Demand Healthy Land

dawn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:56:08 +0000

Criminalization of anti-mining dissent strengthens resolve

LIMA, PERU–In Peru’s northern Piura region, in a high-altitude valley surrounded by forests and clouds, sits the village of Ayabaca. The streets of the village are narrow and crooked; most houses are made of adobe and covered with brown tiles. Ayabaca’s farmers’ market offers a large variety of fruits and vegetables grown in the fertile fields surrounding the community.

Underneath this productive land lie enormous copper deposits. In 2003, the Ministry of Energy and Mines announced that large territories belonging to indigenous farmer communities in Ayabaca and the neighbouring town of Huancabamba were open for mineral exploration.

Shortly after the announcement, Río Blanco Copper, a subsidiary of Chinese company Zijin Mining Group, completed its exploration activities and is now ready to convert the area into one of the major mining extraction projects in Peru. Adjacent mining concessions are managed by subsidiaries of mining giants Newmont and Vale who are planning to initiate exploration activities shortly.

Mario Tabra, a school teacher from Ayabaca, has been one of the leaders in the resistance to the Rio Blanco mine.

“It started in 2003 with the illegal presence of the mining company within the territory of the farmer community of Yanta,” Tabra says. In order to acquire farmer-community land in Peru, two-thirds of the community members need to agree with the change of ownership. This permission was never given to the mining company. “We reacted by filing an official complaint against Río Blanco for usurpation of land, but it never received any attention. Hence, we increased our resistance and organized two marches to the mining camp, which were both met by brutal force from the private security company contracted by Río Blanco.”

The clash resulted in two deaths among the protesters. The pro-government media has since initiated what opponents to the mine consider a smear campaign against the farmers, calling them "communists" and "anti-development activists."

“We are not anti-mining; we just don’t think it’s a viable economic option for Ayabaca, given that our local agriculture has comparative advantage compared to other regions in Peru," says Tabra.

Some of the world's largest mining companies are now active in Peru, as well as a host of junior exploration companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Peru’s controversial President Alan García, who has become a key force for neoliberalism in South America, is working hard to make the country an attractive place for foreign investors. Peru and the US ratified a free-trade agreement in December 2007 and Canada concluded free-trade negotiations with Peru in May 2008.

This new political climate and rise in interest from the world’s top mining companies has generated serious and sometimes bloody conflicts with the land-based indigenous and campesino (peasant farmer) populations who rely on the land to live.

Water is a primary concern for Tabra. The mountains around Ayabaca are the upper part of two drainage basins, generating rivers that flow to the lower areas in the Piura and Cajamarca regions. "Large-scale open-pit mining will require so much water that all agricultural activities in the valleys below will be severely affected," he says.

An expert in Peru’s pre-Columbian culture, Tabra has a home that doubles as Ayabaca’s archeological museum. “The area around Ayabaca has several pre-Columbian offering sites. Combined with the many artifacts and petroglyphs encountered over the years, we determined that this area has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years. Surely we will not permit the destruction of the land on which our ancestors have worked for thousands of years.”

Re-evaluating the action strategy

After the violent clash with mine security, campesino leaders fighting the mine realized they needed to change tactics.

With the help of various solidarity organizations, they called for a consulta vecinal in which the inhabitants of the region would be able to vote for or against the Rio Blanco project.

Ignoring the central government’s appeal to boycott the consulta, two-thirds of Ayabacans cast their vote in the referendum. Of those who voted, 97 per cent rejected any mining activity within their territory.

"The consulta showed the entire world that we are peaceful people who are not willing to give up our agriculture for a project that might bring short-term economic growth but a lot of destruction in the long run," says Tabra. "And furthermore, the Defensoría del Pueblo [the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsman] also affirmed on several occasions that the consulta is legal and that we, as native inhabitants of this region, should participate in any decision that will directly affect our communities.”

Anti-mining, anti-development?

Tabra’s participation in organizing the referendum has not gone unnoticed; along with 34 other local leaders and supportive activists involved in the consulta, he now faces allegations of various crimes, including terrorism, crimes against humanity and coercion.

“The charges have been presented by an obscure campesino organization, including former community members who now work for Río Blanco Copper," he says. "The accusations are so vague...they don’t even indicate how we are in any way connected to those acts other than the fact that we participate in the anti-mining opposition.”

Magdiel Carrión is a member of the Yanta farmer community, as well as President of the Provincial Federation of Farmer Communities of Ayabaca. Confronted by the exploration activities on the mountain opposite his house, Carrión led Yanta’s resistance to the Rio Blanco project and managed to increase awareness in surrounding communities of the far-reaching impacts of large-scale mining. As a consequence, he has received 16 charges of criminal activity. He has not yet been convicted of any of the charges.

“These allegations are politically motivated by those who fear the success of the anti-mining movement in Ayabaca,” Carrión says. “It’s a strategy of the state and the corporate interests, aiming to silence our resistance.”

However, Carrión doesn’t think that this strategy will be successful. “The pro-mining groups think that the accumulation of criminal charges will lead to the preventive sentencing of the leaders, which, in turn, will discourage our communities from exercising their civil rights and deter a debate on matters of public interest. Indeed, eventually we might go to jail, but I feel as if the exact opposite is happening, because this criminalization of our movement has provoked widespread anger among the communities. Already, younger generations are stepping up and telling me that they will continue the struggle in defence of our territory. Truly, I believe the mining company’s strategy will never work here in Ayabaca, because these people don’t comprehend our identity, our ancestral relationship with our land, which is what gives us strength.”

Sander Otten works for the Belgian NGO Broederlijk Delen in Lima, Perú.

March in Ayabaca

Student in Peru

Mining the Truth

dawn — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:07:28 +0000

A Canadian judge rules on indigenous land in Patagonia

MIDDLE MESA, ARGENTINA–"We always said no. We always said no. Why is it so difficult for them to understand us?" asks 75-year-old Victornio Cuel, born and raised in the town of Gan Gan, in the heart of Patagonia. He is speaking of the opposition to the Navidad project: an open-pit operation only 40 kilometres from Gan Gan, owned by the Canadian mining firm Aquiline Resources.

Victorino Cual is a Tehuelche elder. The Cual family has lived in the area since 1902; official documents prove their title to 15 leagues (over 66,000 acres) of land. Today the Cual family survives on only three of their original 15 leagues, insufficient for sustainably raising animals, the main source of income for residents of the town of Gan Gan.

The Navidad project has been advancing over indigenous lands, violating the national laws and international treaties that require previously informed consent of any project affecting native persons and their livelihoods. Mining of the lead deposit, with reserves worth $10 billion, is opposed by the indigenous people due to the negative consequences of lead – on the environment as well as human health – and for its tremendous use of water.

The co-ordinator of the Water Observatory of the National University of Patagonia, Lino Pizzolón, has studied water quality for decades, and has travelled throughout the steppe of Río Negro and Chubut many times. "There is not the quantity of water in the Plateau that the mega mining operations need,” he explains.

“For now,” he warns, “they will pump it from where it is, they will dry out the wells, the mallines [flooded meadows] and wetlands where livestock range, in a huge area of land. Mining activities will compete destructively with the livestock-pastoral activities, increase the depopulation of the lands and the desertification and cause large-scale relocation of people into the slum villages around the cities in the coast.”

The manager of the Navidad project, Guillermo Salvatierra, recognizes that Aquiline still has not carried out in-depth investigations into the availability of underground water in the region (despite five years of work in the area), but assures, "We comply with all of the studies that the province requires of us. They have never objected to anything."

****

Off Provincial Route 4, which connects Gan Gan to the town of Gastre, a 1,200-year-old chenque, or cemetery, was until recently located at the heart of the future open-pit mine. Local communities and social organizations accuse Canadian mining company Inversiones Mineras Argentinas Explorations (IMA) of entering indigenous territory and desecrating the sacred space.

"The existence of ancient graves is irrefutable proof of traditional occupation and pre-existing indigenous presence. The company knew that a cemetery in the mining operation zone would halt the activity. This is why they pressured hurriedly, maneuvering with trickery and pressure to get this potential obstacle out of the way," explains lawyer Eduardo Hualpa, member of the National Pastoral Indigenous Group (ENDEPA) and specialist in indigenous law.

These actions were carried out with active participation of provincial officials and scientists of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), violating the Argentine Constitution and international laws which require indigenous consent.

"The interests of all parties were harmonized – the indigenous peoples, the Secretary of Culture, the archaeologists and the company," said archaeologist Julieta Gómez Otero, the scientist responsible for the removal and relocation of the ancient burial grounds, speaking at a conference of archaeologists held in Catamarca in July 2007.

Now, a year later, Otero has other feelings. After receiving many accusations, she recognizes that it was "a bitter situation," and says that she wasn't aware of communities who were opposed to the relocation. She explains that she did not recommend the relocation of the graves, but the chenque was in danger and this is why she removed it.

****
In a ruling made by Canadian judge Mary Marvyn Koenigsberg, the title Navidad project was transferred from IMA to another Canadian mining company, Aquiline Resources, in July 2006.

The mining deposits in question do not belong to either company, according to Article 99 of the provincial constitution, but are the "original and eminent domain" of the people of Chubut. In August 2005, the Superior Court of Justice of Río Negro ordered the provincial government to protect the rights of the indigenous communities who were threatened by the activities of foreign mining companies in their lands. The Argentine judges affirmed that the mining project was advancing "without observing the constitutional, legal and international norms, which exist to protect indigenous communities, their resources and the environment; that they should be informed, consulted, have participation in the management of their resources and respected with regards to ethnic, social and cultural heritage."

Nevertheless, the Argentine mining deposits were transferred by a Canadian judge from one Canadian company to another (the result of Aquiline's suing IMA for violating a confidentiality clause). To this day, neither provincial Mining and Geology authorities nor any Argentine government official has commented on the case.

Koenigsberg's ruling, issued in Canada, was complied with immediately.

Aquiline Resources has taken control of some 500,000 hectares in Patagonia. In contrast, the Mapuche and Tehuelche peoples of both provinces have been struggling for decades for the titles to the lands they have inhabited for 10,000 years.

****

Chubut Governor Mario Das Neves, who has positioned himself for a run at the presidency in 2011, spoke on June 25, 2008 at the Canadian embassy in Buenos Aires. Canada is home to the majority of the mining companies active in Patagonia.

"I believe that the Navidad project is a fantastic experience,” affirmed Das Neves, betraying the sentiments of his constituants. “You all can rest easy, knowing that in my province we are not at all prejudiced against mining activity, that we are careful and we want you to know that when someone invests, we are not going to change the rules of the game.”

The 120 Canadian businessmen present applauded and smiled with satisfaction, according to an account written by Aquiline itself, which published a chronicle of the cocktail event on its website.

Darío Aranda is a journalist and frequent contributor to Página 12, a newspaper based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Luis Manuel Claps is a journalist and editor of the Mines & Communities Website now living in Cuenca, Ecuador.

A Spanish version of this article was published in Pagina 12.

Assembly

The Nuclear Push

dawn — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:24:40 +0000

Mining lobby wants uranium ban lifted

HANTS COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA–As the global demand for energy increases and resources dwindle, a collusion of provincial government and extractive industry officials are pushing to establish a uranium mining industry in rural Nova Scotia through a "voluntary planning” process.

The Mining Association of Nova Scotia (TMANS), whose board of directors represents a variety of mining companies, has been promoting an end to the 1982 moratorium on uranium mining in the province.

"By having a moratorium in place, we are blind," Gordon Dickie, then-President of TMANS, said in April. "We are blinded in terms of not being able to acquire information that would be useful to where we build our houses and where we draw our water."

Dickie's comment assumes that eventually the moratorium will be lifted and the uranium will be mined, something that environmental groups are fighting against due to safety concerns about mining radioactive ore.

During uranium exploration, toxins are released, posing serious risks to local ecosystems and communities. According to MiningWatch Canada, uranium is generally mined in open pits or through "in situ" leaching, a process that pumps an acidic or alkaline solution into the ground. These processes' ramifications include the contamination of groundwater, the dispersal of radioactive dust, and the release of radioactive gas.

Despite the health and environmental risks, however, skyrocketing oil prices have made nuclear power – and thus, uranium mining – increasingly attractive. The World Nuclear Association website shows that Canada is the number one exporter of uranium in the world. In 2004, Canada’s uranium production was about 30 per cent of total world figures, a value of approximately $800 million.

Companies such as Capella Resources are banking on a lift of the moratorium while conducting explorations in areas of Nova Scotia with known uranium deposits.

Exploration Underway

Millet Brook lies in the central rocky interior that runs the length of mainland Nova Scotia, in Hants County. It is here that the province's highest amount of uranium was discovered three decades ago, and also where popular resistance helped precipitate movement towards the 1982 moratorium.

The moratorium stipulates that mineral exploration must cease when uranium is detected in concentrations higher than 100 parts per million (ppm), in order to protect those areas from any mineral development that would release the uranium deposits. Millet Brook has the highest concentration of uranium in Nova Scotia, well over 100 ppm. But Capella Resources has a special permit from the Nova Scotia government that allows it to explore without releasing the results of their sampling. This enables them to continue to do bulk sampling in West Hants, all around Millet Brook.

Bulk sampling entails the removal of large amounts of overburden – the earth and rock that lie above the uranium. In this case, the mining takes place in an ecosystem that supports endangered species such as the mainland moose and the common nighthawk.

Some citizens see the permit as a breach of the moratorium. Donna Smyth and Gillian Thomas, anti-uranium activists with Citizen Action to Protect the Environment (CAPE) based in Wolfville, NS, see this breach as a threat to local ecosystems, including the watershed in West Hants.

The watershed in West Hants is not categorized as a municipal watershed and thus is not protected by provincial regulations. "In provincial regulations, 'watershed' means water supply area in a business sense, for municipal populations, not in the ecological sense of 'everywhere the water flows,'" says Smyth. Development in West Hants would mean diverting the Avon River watershed from its natural flow to instead be used for the development.

The Future of Natural Resources

Voluntary Planning (VP), an arms-length agency of the Nova Scotia government, was formed to gather public input and influence government decision-making concerning natural resources in the province. However, its website also states that the government is "in no way beholden to act on all or any of Voluntary Planning's recommendations.”

In turn, VP created the Natural Resources Citizen Engagement Committee. The Committee is made up of eight members, appointed by the Board of Voluntary Planning. Amongst the eight, three have an affiliation with nuclear power or uranium mining. One of them, David Duncan, was the person who, decades ago, discovered the uranium deposit in Millet Brook. Between May 12 and June 17, the Committee held "citizen engagement" events throughout the province.

According to Angela Giles of the Atlantic Chapter of the Council of Canadians, "There were several problems with the Voluntary Planning sessions themselves. Many people complained that there was little public advertising and most seemed to have heard about the sessions through word of mouth.

"The outline of the session was that the first half was dedicated for a 'go-around' for each person around the circle to introduce themselves and comment about one or all of the four topics [biodiversity, parks, forests, and mining] ... The second half was to break away into smaller groups based on the four topics. These issues should have had separate meetings. Many people (myself included) felt unfulfilled by the opportunity Voluntary Planning provided, given that I had only two minutes to express my concerns during the three-hour session.”

Jamie Simpson, who works with Halifax’s Ecology Action Centre, said that at the meeting in Pugwash there was a strong presence of industry representatives among the crowd of 55 people, making it appear that industry's opinions on mining – as well as forestry – were the opinions of the community. Simpson said that at the break-out session on mining, all the attendees were mining industry representatives, skewing the discussion.

As the meetings progressed, concerned participants began to develop an understanding of how to take control of the process and spread the word themselves to create a strong presence at the sessions.

Now that the Citizen Engagement sessions have been completed and the written submissions are in, the next step is for the Citizen Engagement Committee to work with Volunteer Planning staff to produce a final report on the process. The report will then be passed on to an "independent" expert panel that will produce their own report for the provincial government. Finally, the department will write its strategy based on the submissions from the first two phases, projected for 2010.

David Parker is the News Coordinator at CKDU 88.1 fm campus-community radio in Halifax.

Asaf Rashid is Campaigns Coordinator at the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG) and a Halifax-based organizer against the Atlantica free trade zone.

Angela Day is a writer, gardener and youth worker, currently pursuing a Masters degree in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Warning Sign

Copper Ore, Silver Screen

dawn — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:47:08 +0000

<cite>Under Rich Earth</cite>

TORONTO–Under Rich Earth (Bajo Suelos Ricos), which world-premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, is a documentary about the very small town of Junin in the Intag valley in Ecuador. It is also a film about the very large – and Canadian – mining company (Ascendant Copper) that wants to move into the valley and build a mine.

The film documents Ascendant sending hired thugs to threaten and intimidate the anti-mining townspeople, while the government in the capital city of Quito responds sluggishly, and the Chairman of the company leaves phone messages saying that nothing is wrong and that the majority of the local people fully support the project.

Which turns out to be at least partially true.

The town of Chalguayaco Alto, down the road from Junin, is pro-mine – and this difference leads to some heated violence and animosity between the two towns. Two journalists from French Press Agency (AFP) were held in Chalguayaco Alto, along with representatives from the regional council of Cotacachi. Director Malcolm Rogge says: "The risk of physical harm was very real and I took all precautions necessary to preserve my security while getting as much of the story as I could."

In addition, Ascendant Copper, while they granted an interview with General Manager Francisco Veintimilla, refused to allow on-camera interviews with the CEO or Chairman of the company.

Given these circumstances, it's more or less understandable if the film feels a little bit one-sided at times.

The filmmakers were obviously incredibly close to their subjects, so much so that they were entrusted with recordings of local radio broadcasts and camcorder footage of some of the illegal attacks on mine protesters, as well as photographic evidence.

Incorporating this material into the movie is a great technique for corroborating the Junin people’s story of what happened there, and documenting the actions of the armed paramilitaries who were sent into the area to intimidate those against the mine. The use of this “found” material, however, also serves to further embed the eye of the film in the community of Junin, and distances the audience further from the pro-mine perspective.

The limited perspective available to the filmmakers contrasts with the 'objective observer' tone of the film.

"I think it would have been difficult for any non-Ecuadorian journalist with a camera to maintain the perception of neutrality during that time," said Rogge.

It might have been helpful if the viewer had some idea of this and the reasons behind it (American filmmakers, and European and North American human rights observers, had been in the anti-mining community the previous year). As it was, questions about how the filmmakers discovered this story, found these people and gained their trust so completely are left largely unanswered by the film itself.

Questions of perspective aside, what’s incredible about the movie – other than the cinematography itself and intimate access into people’s lives – is the structural device Rogge uses.

He starts the film with camcorder footage of an armed shoot-out between pro- and anti-mining factions, then moves back in time to fill in the story up to that point, and then forward past it. This cyclic structure lends momentum and drive to the film, which helps provide a clear sense of narrative while simultaneously presenting the different events and accounts of events in the film.

But most remarkable of all is the outcome of the documented struggle: the mining is disallowed, setting a historical precedent, helping to shape Ecuador’s national policy and inspiring other communities to fight against global mining companies.

For once, the people triumph, and the film – which belongs so deeply to these people – is a triumph too.

Matthew J. Trafford works with deaf college students and writes in Toronto.

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