Experts fear these precious animals may already be extinct, less than 50 remain alive due to #goldmining and #palmoil. Help protect the enchanting Telefomin #Cuscus from disappearing forever when u #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-nv?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer
Environmental Impact of Gold Mining
Gold mining can bring severe pollution hazards, including:
• Water Pollution – Cyanide & mercury contamination threaten aquatic life & human health.
• Air Pollution – Dust and toxic fumes harm air quality & respiratory health.
• Soil Degradation – Heavy metals like mercury & arsenic poison the land, harming agriculture & wildlife.
• Biodiversity Loss – Destruction of natural habitats leads to extinction of vulnerable species.
• Health Risks – Exposure to toxic chemicals causes neurological damage, cancers, and more.
• Acid Mine Drainage – Harmful acids leak into water systems, causing long-term damage.
A stark reminder: The Cadia gold mine has been convicted of breaching dust limits five times between 2021-2023, with one test showing nearly 6x the allowable dust limit. Newmont Corporation has been fined $350,000 in penalties.
It’s time for stricter regulations and sustainable mining practices!
#goldmining #environmentalimpact #pollution #waterpollution #airpollution #soildegradation #biodiversity #healthrisks #sustainablemining #newmont #cadia #dustpollution #environmentaljustice #fines
_The Evening Post_, 4 December 1924:
A VERY OLD IDENTITY
Probably one of the oldest of Wellington’s old identities at present living is just now on a visit to the city in the person of Mr. C. #Whebby, who was six months old when he landed in #Wellington with his parents by the ship Clifton on 18th February, 1842. Mr. Whebby, who has been engaged in #goldmining all his life, has never been out of New Zealand. He was amongst the first at the Gabriel’s Gully and Dunstan’s rush at Otago in the 60’s, and was for many years on the Lyell (West Coast). He has many stirring recollections, including a narrow escape from Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and Sullivan, when these notorious Maungatapu #murderers were operating on the West Coast.… Burgess, Kelly, and Levy were subsequently tried, found guilty, and executed in Nelson Gaol, while Sullivan, who turned Queen’s evidence was reprieved.… about 15 murders were accounted for, while the exact number will probably never be known. For the last 35 years Mr. Whebby has been residing in Mahakipawa, which is expected to again become a big gold-producing district. During his visit to Wellington Mr. Whebby is the guest of his nephew, Mr. T. W. Twist, at Plimmerton.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19241204.2.135
A new study concludes that nearly all of the gold imported into the European Union from Brazil comes from Amazonian areas with a high risk of illegality.
That amounts to 1.5 metric tons of the precious metal in 2023, sourced from wildcat mines known as garimpos, which have a long history of illegality and opaqueness.
By Fernanda Wenzel
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/nearly-all-brazilian-gold-imported-by-eu-is-likely-illegal-report-says/
#Ghana hollows out #forests and green protections to advance #mining interests
Malavika Vyawahare
28 Aug 2024
via @mongabay
Key points:
- The Ghanaian government has significantly ramped up the approval of mining permits under legislation passed in late 2022, intensifying concerns about runaway environmental damage.
- The country is already the top #gold producer in #Africa, but much of the mining is done in #forest reserves and other #biodiverse #ecosystems.
- The government has long cracked down on artisanal illegal #GoldMiners, but activists say the real damage is being wrought by #industrial operations, both legal and illegal.
- A debt default in 2022 has seen #Ghana lean even more heavily on its gold to mitigate the crisis, prompting warnings that such a policy is neither #economically nor #environmentally #sustainable.
#ApampramaReserve #HeritageImperial #WaterIsLife #SaveTheForests #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism #C&GAleska #GoldMining #GSBA #LithiumMining #BodiForestReserve #IMFLoans #WorldBank #IMFLoanSharks
Activists ask for help combatting violence against #Nicaragua’s #Indigenous communities
Maxwell Radwin
29 Jul 2024
"Increasing violence in northern Nicaragua this year has displaced rural families and led to calls for more drastic action from the international community, which activists say hasn’t done enough to hold the #Ortega government accountable for human rights abuses.
"For years, Indigenous communities on Nicaragua’s northern #Caribbean coast have suffered threats, kidnappings, torture and unlawful arrests while defending communal territory from #IllegalSettlements and #mining. This year appears to be as bad as ever, and residents say they are desperate for help.
"'Urgent measures must be taken to protect these communities,' said Gloria Monique de Mees, the OAS rapporteur on the rights of Afro-descendants and against racial discrimination. 'Failure to address the crisis will only embolden the Nicaraguan government to continue its repressive campaign.'
"Much of the violence is concentrated within the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (#RACCN), a jurisdiction communally governed and titled by Indigenous communities since the late 1980s. It’s home to #Miskitus, #Mayangnas, #Ulwa, #Ramas, #Creole and #Garífunas peoples, and contains mountain, #rainforest and coastal #ecosystems.
"The area has attracted non-Indigenous Nicaraguans, known locally as #colonos, looking to set up #farms, #logging operations and artisanal #mines. Massive #gold and #copper deposits have also created opportunities for multinational mining #corporations, with backing from the government.
"Indigenous communities say they’re worried about losing #AncestralLand as well as traditional farming, hunting and fishing practices as the forest is cleared and mines #pollute local streams and rivers."
via @verdantsquare
Alaska Tribes Appeal to International Body to Pause “Reckless” Canadian #Mining
Canada ordered the tribes be denied “participating #Nation status,” diminishing their say in the permitting process.
By Joaqlin Estus , #ICT
August 8, 2024
#Earthjustice and Re:wild join the 15 tribes that make up the commission in asking Canada to recognize the sovereign rights of Alaska tribes and consult them on all development decisions impacting their traditional territories.
Anchorage, Alaska — "A group of Southeast Alaska tribes requested on Aug. 1 that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights order a temporary pause on Canadian mining activity. They say 'reckless' mining activity violates their #HumanRights.
"That came after Canada’s Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship ordered on June 27 that the tribes be denied 'participating Nation status,'' which has the effect of diminishing their say in the permitting process.
"Lee Wagner, who is #Haida, #Tlingit and #Tsimshian, and the assistant executive director of the #Southeast =Alaska #Indigenous Transboundary Commission, said the 15 tribes in the commission did everything they could to prove their ties to Canadian lands where #GoldMining is proposed. They won a lawsuit at the Canadian Supreme Court saying tribes with traditional ties to territory within Canada qualify for participating #IndigenousNation status. That status would require agencies to consult with and accommodate them in the permitting process.
[...]
"[Lee Wagner] said the mines are for gold, a luxury, 'They’re not a necessity, but they’re going to be endangering a whole #ecosystem and biodiverse, cultural, old, traditional, beautiful area.'
"The commission said the #UnukRiver watershed, which supports #salmon and #eulachon runs, is at stake. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the eulachon run nearly disappeared and was shut down in 2005. In 2021 the fishery was opened again but harvest was restricted to one five-gallon bucket per household."
#FirstNations #Canada #Alaska #ReWild #CulturalGenocide #GoldMine #MiningWithoutConsent
#ProtectTheSacred #Ecocide #NativeAmericanNews #IndigenousNews #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism #Colonialism
#Kayapó #ForestDefenders Urge #UnitedNations to Help Halt Illegal #GoldMining in #Brazil
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 23, 2024
GENEVA -- "#Indigenous from Brazil urged the United Nations to join them and demand Brazil halt illegal gold mining, and its #mercury #contamination, now destroying the ancestral homelands of #Kayapó, #Yanomami and #Munduruku Peoples, during the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
"Doto Takak Ire, Mebêngôkre, said, 'The Kayapó are still warriors and we will always be defenders of the forests.'
"'We do not want any kind of #exploitation of #NaturalResources in our territories. We want the #Amazon protected, so that our children and all the children of the world can grow up healthy.'"
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/kayapo-forest-defenders-urge-united.html
#GrassyNarrows #FirstNation taking #Ontario to court over #MiningAct, lack of consultation on land claims
'These practices have to change,' #ChiefRudyTurtle tells news conference at Queen's Park
Sarah Law · CBC News · Posted: Jul 12, 2024
"A First Nation in northwestern Ontario is taking the province to court over its Mining Act, arguing the free-entry system violates its constitutional rights.
"#Asubpeeschoseewagong #Anishinabek, known as Grassy Narrows First Nation, has issued a notice of application in the Superior Court of Justice.
"The legal action says the province's Mining Act does not require prospectors to consult with First Nations before staking claims on their traditional lands. It argues this breaches the First Nation's treaty rights under Sec. 35 of the Constitution and goes against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [#UNDRIP].
"According to the notice of application obtained by CBC News, there are about 10,000 mining claims in Grassy Narrows's interim area of interest for mining, which covers more than 2,850 square kilometres — more than four times the size of Toronto.
"Grassy Narrows has had a long history of land defence efforts:
- In 2007, the First Nation declared a moratorium on #industrial activity in its territory until the Crown obtained its consent.
- In 2015, Grassy Narrows people voted against industrial #logging in its territory during a community referendum.
- In 2018, Grassy Narrows enacted a land declaration, which bans mining, staking and exploration activities without consent.
- In 2022, the First Nation marked 20 years of its blockade to prevent #ClearCut logging and mining from happening in its traditional territories.
"Grassy Narrows is one of many First Nations in the region speaking out against exploration activities:
- In April, the #Ojibways of #Onigaming issued a statement objecting to a proposed permit for the exploration of an aggregate pit located off Highway 71.
- In March, Cat Lake First Nation filed a court injunction to pause a #GoldMining company's construction of a temporary winter road leading to an exploration camp for a proposed #OpenPit mine.
- Last August, Kiashke Zaaging #Anishinaabek (#KZA), also known as #GullBay First Nation, issued a public notice to warn mining prospectors away from its traditional territory."
https://www.europesays.com/1277389/ Dangerous child labor in the Philippines | DW Documentary #ChildLabor #documentaries #Documentary #Documentary2023 #DW #DWDocumentary #FullDocumentary #germany #GoldMining #HumanRightsWatch #nuggets #Philippines
Pinos Altos was a gold mining town. Many of the buildings date back to the town’s mining boom; like the museum, the opera house, and the local saloon, all of which have been restored and loaded with local memorabilia and artifacts - https://explorationvacation.net/2015/03/like-a-ghost-town-pinos-altos-new-mexico/
Startups are raking in up to $85,000 per day by #recycling #gold and #copper from electronics thrown in the trash — #ewaste '#goldmining' efforts are expanding
Worldwide, there's a projected $55-$60 BILLION worth of #preciousmetals inside abandoned #circuitboards just waiting to be collected. Most e-waste doesn't get recycled at all, being left to rot in garages, landfills, and city streets. US only collects about 15% of the e-waste for recycling that its citizens create.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/startups-are-raking-in-up-to-dollar85000-per-day-by-recycling-gold-and-copper-from-electronics-thrown-in-the-trash-e-waste-gold-mining-efforts-are-expanding
This poor hostage taken a year ago to force some attention; but extractivism/settler colonialism in #WestPapua still hardly ever makes the news #coppermining #goldmining #Indonesia https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/7/new-zealand-calls-on-papua-rebels-to-release-pilot-kidnapped-a-year-ago
Earthworks: #Environmental Impacts of #GoldMining
Most consumers don’t know where the gold in their products comes from, or how it is mined. Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments. It pollutes water and land with mercury and cyanide, endangering the health of people and ecosystems. Producing gold for one wedding ring alone generates 20 tons of waste.
Poisoned Waters
Gold mining can have devastating effects on nearby water resources. Toxic mine waste contains as many as three dozen dangerous chemicals including:
arsenic
lead
mercury
petroleum byproducts
acids
cyanide
Mining companies around the world routinely dump toxic waste into rivers, lakes, streams and oceans – our research has shown 180 million tonnes of such waste annually. But even if they do not, such toxins often contaminate waterways when infrastructure such as tailings dams, which holds mine waste, fail.
According to the UNEP there have been over 221 major tailings dam failures. These have killed hundreds of people around the world, displaced thousands and contaminated the drinking water of millions.
The resulting contaminated water is called acid mine drainage, a toxic cocktail uniquely destructive to aquatic life. According to one study: “The effects of AMD are so multifarious that community structure collapses rapidly and totally, even though very often no single pollutant on its own would have caused such a severe ecological impact.”
These same “multifarious impacts” also makes recovery from such wastes much more difficult.
This environmental damage ultimately affects us — in addition to drinking water contamination, AMD’s byproducts such as mercury and heavy metals work their way into the food chain and sicken people and animals for generations.
The Biggest Polluters:
The top four mines that dump tailings into bodies of water account for 86% of the 180 million tonnes dumped into bodies of water each year. Those mines are:
Freeport McMoRan and #RioTinto’s Grasberg mine in #WestPapua, #Indonesia, which accounts for approximately 80 million tonnes of tailings
Newmont Sumitomo Mining’s Batu Hijau mine in #Indonesia, which accounts for approximately 40 million tonnes
Ok Tedi Mining Ltd.’s Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea, which accounts for approximately 22 million tonnes
#CliffsMining Company’s Wabush/Scully mine in #LabradorCanada, which accounts for 13 million tonnes of tailings
Read more:
https://earthworks.org/issues/environmental-impacts-of-gold-mining/
#AmazonForests poisoned by #mercury from #GoldMining
Study finds unprecedented levels of #MercuryPollution
January 28, 2022
by Cheryl Walker
"Wake Forest faculty in the University’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, and its Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA) are part of an international team of researchers who have discovered that gold mining in the Amazon rainforest is causing exceptionally high levels of mercury pollution in the old-growth rainforest near the mining sites.
"The total mercury concentrations in a forested area in #Peru’s #LosAmigosConservationConcession were the highest ever recorded.
"The study, 'Amazon Forests Capture High Levels of Atmospheric Mercury Pollution From #ArtisanalGoldMining,' appears Jan. 28 in the journal Nature Communications. The research team was led by Jacqueline R. Gerson, as a Ph.D. student at Duke University.
“What this study found was that the wildest forests left on earth are capturing mercury released by artisanal mining, and at superfund-site levels,” said Miles Silman, Andrew Sabin Presidential Chair of Conservation Biology and Director of Wake Forest’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. 'The wildlife and humans that live within these wild forests are poisoned as well, with effects that we are just beginning to understand.'
"''This study reveals, for the first time, the mechanism of how mercury released into the air by gold mining contaminates #TropicalForests and forest #soils,' Fernandez said. “This atmospheric mercury, which is either deposited on to leaves or absorbed by leaves, eventually falls to the ground and gets incorporated into forest soils.'
"The region of #MadreDeDios is considered a global #biodiversity hotspot, but in recent decades has suffered an unprecedented #GoldRush. mining is doing irreversible damage to one of the world’s largest remaining pieces of #TropicalRainforest and threatening its survival. In the Madre de Dios region of Peru, east of the Andes Mountains, nearly 250,000 acres of rainforest, roughly the size of Dallas, Texas, have been razed and transformed into somewhere that looks like a desert pockmarked by tens of thousands of mercury contaminated mining ponds by illegal #GoldMining.
"Gold miners use toxic mercury to pull flakes of gold out of the river sediment. Then, they separate the gold from the mercury using open fire ovens. The heat melts the gold and turns the mercury to a toxic vapor.
"'People had a lot of ideas about where mercury might be going in these tropical landscapes, and they turned out to be wrong,' Silman said. 'The paper shows that mercury isn’t staying in the mining zone, but rather that trees are scrubbing mercury from the air and transferring it into forest #ecosystems, and into forest wildlife and peoples, where it moves up the food chain with unknown effects.'
"The study also reveals how these contaminated soils serve as a repository for this deposited mercury, preventing. or at least slowing, its transfer into rivers and lakes where it is transformed into a more toxic form of mercury, #Methylmercury, and contaminate aquatic food webs."
https://news.wfu.edu/2022/01/28/amazon-forests-poisoned-by-mercury-from-gold-mining/
[video] #Quechan Elder Urges Solidarity in Face of #Mining Efforts
#SMPGold’s #OroCruz Project Threatens #SacredLands, #PrestonArrowWeed Says
by Juan Valencia on October 9, 2023
"IMPERIAL COUNTY — Imagine Jerusalem burning. Imagine Mecca, Bethlehem — any of these cities important to the history and faith of their respective religions — being destroyed, disrespectfully invaded, and irrevocably altered for the sake of exploration, extraction, and #mining.
T"hough these are far-fetched and horrific developments to the imagination, 83-year-old Preston Arrow-Weed — the Quechan tribal elder, cultural bearer, singer of the old songs, as well as author, actor and playwright — today paints a similarly bleak picture regarding the threats being made to his holy place of worship.
"This place is located here in the desert outskirts of #ImperialCounty and in the neighboring #YumaCounty.
"Southern Empire Resources Corp. (SMP Gold) is a company based out of British Columbia, Canada, which for years now has been attempting to mine for gold within these Imperial County areas, specifically the #CargoMuchacho and #IndianPass regions, in a project of mineral exploration for the purposes of extracting gold that they are calling the Oro Cruz Project.
"'We firmly believe that Oro Cruz has exploration potential for more than a million ounces,' states SMP Gold’s project mission on its website. 'We’ll explore the property using modern geological theory and high tech methods of exploration, and see what we can do.'
"For millennia, the Indian Pass area in eastern Imperial County, where SMP Gold plans to drill and disturb the habitat, has held religious and historical significance for the Quechan Tribe. The area contains sleeping circles, #geoglyphs and pottery shards left behind by the tribe’s ancestors, to name some #artifacts."
Read more:
https://calexicochronicle.com/2023/10/09/quechan-elder-urges-solidarity-in-face-of-mining-efforts/
#OroCruz Project
Jan 4, 2024
"The #QuechanTribalCouncil would like to inform the membership on the concern with #SMPGoldCorp. who submitted an Exploration Plan of Operation to the Bureau of Land Management, (BLM) on September 28, 2020. In the Oro Cruz Exploration Project Environmental Assessment/Mitigated Negative Declaration (“EA/MND”), DOI-BLM-CA-D070-2022-0012-EA, Finding of No Significant Impact (“FONSI”), Decision Record and Plan of Operations, Jennifer Whyte, Field Manager for the El Centro Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) issued the Decision of Record on September 1, 2023.
"The Tribe received the notice of the final decision on August 31, 2023. When a project is introduced, BLM’s process is to notify the #Quechan Cultural Committee to inform them of the of the proposed project and they will conduct their due diligence and correspond with BLM on any concerns and also meet with the Tribal Council on the concerns of any cultural significance with the project and a meeting is set-up with the Tribal Council and BLM to go over those concerns. The Quechan Tribal Council is following the process outlining BLM’s disregard of their own process when approving a project.
"The BLM failed to meaningfully consult with the Tribe as required by BLM and Department of Interior (“#DOI”) policies as well as the National Historic Preservation Act (“#NHPA”). The location of the Oro Cruz Project is part of a cultural, religious, and spiritual landscape that is directly tied to our origin stories, traditions, ceremonies, and cultural patrimony of our people.
"On September 13, 2023, the Imperial County Planning Commission, the lead agency for this Project under the California Environmental Quality Act, held a hearing regarding approval of the EA/MND. The Quechan Tribal Council (President Joaquin, Council Members Mc Gee, Smith, Medart, White and Koteen) as well as members of the tribe raised concerns about the impact of the Project on tribal cultural resources. The Tribal Council members stated the government-to-government consultation was inadequate. The Commission stayed determination of the matter until proper consultation between BLM and the Tribe could occur.
"On September 29, 2023, the Tribal Council submitted a request for review and a stay of the Oro Cruz Exploration Project Environmental Assessment/Mitigated Negative Declaration (“EA/MND”) DOI-BLM-CA-D070-2022-EA, Finding of No Significant Impact (“FONSI”), Decision of Record and a Plan of Operations. The request was submitted to Karen Mouritsen, California State Director, Bureau of Land Management, California State Office.
"On October 25, 2023, the Planning Commission once again held a hearing regarding approval of the EA/MND. Members of the tribe as well as a Council Member (Gloria McGee) were again in attendance to comment on the impact of the Project. The Tribal Council member publicly stated the government-to-government consultation had not taken place and read a letter from President Joaquin into the record requesting they continue consideration of the Project until such consultation could be undertaken, the Planning Commission stayed determination of the matter a second time.
"On November 3, 2023, the Quechan Tribal Council had our first government-to-government consultation concerning the Oro Cruz Exploration project with the Bureau of Land Management. At that meeting, BLM El Centro Field Office Associate Field Manager Carrie Sahagun acknowledged that BLM’s previous meetings with the Tribe’s Cultural Committee did not constitute government-to-government consultation and committed to continuing consultation meetings/discussions with the Tribe. Ms. Sahagun also informed the Tribe that BLM State Director Karen Mouritsen was still considering the request that the Tribe filed on September 29, 2023, for review of the El Centro Field Office’s decision to approve the Project.
"The Tribe received no further updates until November 21, 2023, when Director Mouritsen California State Director, Bureau of Land Management, California State Office sent a letter declining the Tribe’s request for State Director review and stay of the decision to approve the Project. In doing so, Director Mouritsen did not address any of the Tribe’s substantive arguments as to why a stay was necessary but instead summarily concluded that sufficient consultation with the tribe regarding the Project has taken place. The Quechan Tribal Council filed a Notice of Appeal and Petition for Stay with the Interior Board of Land Appeals (“IBLA”) for the Tribe to preserve its appeal rights. This is the final step in the process to stop the project through the Bureau of Land Management.
"On December 13, 2023, Vice-President Hall and Donald Salcedo, Tribal Administrator attended the Planning Committee’s hearing where the Oro Cruz Project was on the agenda yet again. The meeting was also attended by tribal members who commented on their opposition to the project. Vice-President Hall read a letter from President Joaquin and entered it into the record. The Planning Committee stayed determination of the matter for a third time.
"On December 18, 2023, the Tribe filed a Notice of Appeal and Petition for Stay with the Bureau of Land Management in accordance with federal regulations, the appeal will then be transmitted by BLM to the Interior Board of Land Appeals, (“IBLA”).
"The Tribe is currently waiting for the decision of our Notice of Appeal and Petition for Stay from the Interior Board of Land Appeals (“IBLA”). If our Notice of Appeal and Petition for Stay is denied by IBLA, the Tribe will then take legal action and file a suit against the Bureau of Land Management. It is unfortunate that this will occur, but the Tribe holds this issue vital to protect our lands for the past, present and future. We would also engage our membership to submit testimonials of opposition as well by relaying the importance of the land to for protection for our people traditionally, spiritually and for generations to come.
"We will continue to update you when there are significant changes regarding this issue.
Thank you.
Quechan Tribal Council"
#Kwanamii Spirit Run: #Quechan Running to Save #SacredLand from #GoldMining
The Kwanamii Spirit Run honors today the resilient pride of the Quechan, as they run to #OroCruz for no gold mining
By Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, #CensoredNews
January 27, 2024
"The Oro Cruz #GoldMine is projected to begin mining on our Sacred Land. This will result in digging huge open pits, which would forever destroy our #ArchaeologicalSites, contaminate water and contribute to the destruction of our vital #ecosystems. #Cyanide and #mercury are regularly released into the #environment." -- Quechan.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/01/kwanamii-spirit-run-quechan-running-to.html
#News: How the twin menaces of #goldmining and #agribusiness threaten a sacred way of life for #Indigenous Wixárika people in #Mexico #BoycottGold #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife https://theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/16/drought-and-peyote-the-deadly-struggle-for-mexicos-water
