Mining
Illegal mining in the Pan Amazon: an ecological disaster for floodplains and local communities
Floodplains are extraordinarily productive because they are the interface between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are remarkably diverse because they integrate a mosaic of lakes, marshes, palm swamps and inundated forests, which create the complex food webs that support fish populations. Floodplain habitats are socially and economically vital because tens of thousands of families depend […]
Read MoreNew FPIC guide designed to help protect Indigenous rights as mineral mining booms
More than eight years after the Mariana dam disaster, Indigenous Krenak people remain scarred by the memories of one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. Living on the banks of the Doce River for generations, the Krenak peoples were among the most impacted by the rupture of the Fundão iron mine […]
Read MoreLithium Companies Fight Over Water in the Arid Great Basin
Over the past few decades, the United States has imported most of its lithium from Chile and Argentina, but there’s one major domestic source of the mineral—Nevada. Clayton Valley, a remote basin in the nation’s driest state, is home to the Silver Peak mine, where lithium is extracted in gridded ponds that turn neon blue […]
Read MoreMore Federal Money to Speed Repair of Historic Mining Harms in Pennsylvania
In Luzerne County, in northeast Pennsylvania, the Nanticoke Creek is dry most of the time because unless there’s a major storm, any water that flows into it disappears into underground voids created by coal mines that operated there for decades until the 1960s. The creek has long been a target for restoration by Earth Conservancy, […]
Read MoreThe Global Mining Boom Puts African Great Apes at Greater Risk Than Previously Known
Africa’s great apes—from gorillas to chimpanzees and bonobos—are under far greater threat than scientists previously realized, a new study suggests. While primatologists and conservationists have long tracked great ape populations and the human activities that negatively impact them—from poaching to expanding agriculture and oil drilling—there has historically been a dearth of information on the location […]
Read MoreDeep-sea mining’s future still murky as negotiations end on mixed note
Deep-sea mining could begin in international waters as early as next year, yet policymakers are still disputing how to govern such activities. Between March 18 and 29, representatives from the 36 member states of the council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-affiliated regulator of deep-sea mining activities in international waters, met for talks […]
Read MoreLocals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations
MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities […]
Read MoreIndigenous Filipinos fight to protect biodiverse mountains from mining
NARRA, Philippines — At the foothills of the Victoria-Anepahan Mountains in the Philippines’ Palawan province, the Indigenous Tagbanua have lived with the rhythms of nature for generations. They rely on the lush landscape for everything they need, from food and water to nontimber products. But their forest and way of life are under threat as […]
Read MoreIn Liberia, a former mining activist gets the bully pulpit
It’s been about a decade since Foday Fahnbulleh was arrested. Along with other students and workers from his home in Bong Mines about an hour’s drive north of Monrovia, he’d been staging protests at the gates of a Chinese mining company. China Union, they said, wasn’t living up to the promises it had made in […]
Read MoreBid to mitigate gold mine’s impact on orangutans hit by stonewalling, data secrecy
JAKARTA — A conservation task force trying to help an Indonesian mine operator minimize its impact on the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s most threatened great ape, says it was the company’s rush to rubber-stamp the process that led to the end of the agreement in 2022. But Agincourt Resources, the operator of the Martabe gold […]
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