This primer is the first in a series of articles on the international mining sector, its many links to Vancouver, and how our struggles for social justice in the metropolis are inseparably linked to the indigenous land defenders fighting dispossession, assimilation, and the mega-mines that level mountains and pollute the home waters. Upcoming articles will address legislation that privileges the mining industry, diplomatic support for projects lacking consent by local peoples, and the people’s movements that are demanding transformation over marginal change.
Vancouver as headquarters of the world’s mining industry
The vast majority of the world’s mining and mineral exploration companies are headquartered in Canada. Eighty percent of the world’s mineral exploration companies call Vancouver home, and of the roughly 1400 mining-sector companies raising capital on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and Venture Exchange (TSXV), over half of them register their corporate headquarters in Vancouver.
Some of these companies operate in Canada. Diamonds near Yellowknife, coal in the Kootenays, oil in Fort McMurray, and gold in the Yukon, BC, Nunavut, and Quebec. With BC’s free entry system of claiming the subsoil, addressed in more detail below, vast swaths of the province are nominally under exploration.
And taking advantage of unrestricted diplomatic support in their adventures abroad, most Vancouver-based mining companies operate in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In his book Imperial Canada Inc. (2012, Talonbooks), Alain Deneault explains that most of the world’s extractive companies are headquartered in Canada because (1) loosely regulated stock exchanges have encouraged speculation, (2) generous tax incentives are in place for mining/exploration companies, (3) the reputation of mining companies takes priority over the free speech of critics, journalists, and academics, (4) domestically, federal and provincial authorities act as public relations and enablers of mining and oil & gas projects, rather than as regulators in the public interest (5) internationally, Canadian diplomats are marshalled on behalf of the private sector, enacting “economic diplomacy” with no regard for the behavior of the companies, and (6) there is no mechanism for victims of companies’ crimes abroad to seek justice in Canadian courts.
Transnational mining
After the years of violence, dispossession, and genocide in Guatemala, Canadian transnationals ignore indigenous peoples’ own claims to the land and visions of development. The miners successfully maneuver lucrative gold, silver, and nickel projects around mechanisms of political accountability and ignore local courts.
Currently, Canadian and Guatemalan investigators are evaluating Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources’ responsibility in ordering mining security to fire on protesting local farmers outside the gates of the Escobal Mine in San Rafael las Flores. The BC Supreme Court has refused to hear the case, though, denying justice to the seven men shot (tahoeontrial.net).
Elsewhere in Guatemala, Goldcorp’s highly contested Marlin Mine are poisoning the water and fracturing adobe homes, while grassroots groups like the San Miguel Defense Front (FREDEMI) and Plurijur lawyers are taking the case to international courts (plurijur.blogspot.ca).
At the entrance to Radius Gold’s (now US-based KCA’s) illegally operating El Tambor Mine, the iconic La Puya resistance has sustained a years-long peaceful opposition.
And Toronto-based HudBay is currently being sued in Ontario’s Supreme Court for its complicity in shootings, murder, and gang rapes of Q’eqchi’ indigenous Mayan people who refuse to be dispossessed of their land.
From Mexico to Chile to Papua New Guinea to Eritrea, communities testifying to similar crimes by Canadian miners face steep challenges in their quest for justice, either at home or in Canadian courts.
The 2014 Mount Polley tailings dam disaster
Abroad, to communities confronted with a proposed mine, project proponents conjure white-washed images of Canadian mining expertise, and grossly misrepresent the benefits and costs to local people.
In unceded Secwepemc territory in BC, Vancouver’s Imperial Metals has been operating the Mount Polley mine. Containing heavy metals at toxic concentrations, mine waste -- called “tailings” -- was dumped for years into an improperly constructed storage facility.
Predictably, after years of irresponsible management, in 2014 this storage facility burst, releasing a flood of toxic water and heavy metal-laden sludge, estimated at 25 million cubic meters (enough to bury 500 soccer fields ten metres deep), to salmon-bearing creeks and lakes. Eighteen months after the mining disaster, there are yet no arrests, no fines, and no litigation.
Although most of the material has remained where it spilled, provincial regulators have allowed Imperial Metals to resume production and to discharge mine effluent to the aquatic environment, and also to proceed with the highly-contested Red Chris Mine, in Tahltan territory in northern BC.
Systemic problems in Canadian mining codes
From Canada’s beginnings as a resource extraction colony, its provinces’ mining codes give undue priority to resource extraction activities above all other land uses. For example, while only 13% of BC is considered off-limits to mining, it is given top priority in the rest of the province. Under the existing “free entry” system – a vestige of bygone values of conquering the supposedly empty lands of the west – mineral rights are obtained by simply claiming them, and can be accessed and mined whether or not the surface rights holders give consent.
Such legislation enables mining companies to access the subsoil beneath First Nations,’ privately owned, and municipally-controlled land in a way that they would be unable to access in other countries. Though cracks in this system are being made, provincial legislation does not even require that First Nations give their free, prior, and informed consent to a proposed project. Miners enjoy great privilege in Canada, access and protections that they are keen to carve out for themselves in other countries as well.
To do so, they’re pushing federal agencies and trade missions to lobby resource-rich countries’ governments to retool their extractive sector legislation to reflect the privilege they receive here. Recently, the UBC & SFU-based Canadian International Resources Development Institute (CIRDI), was funded over $40M by the federal government with the mandate of advising governments on mining policy, legislation, and regulatory implementation ultimately beneficial to Canadian transnational miners. Founded in 2013 and partnered with mining companies and industry associations, it’s already at work in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mongolia, Ethiopia, and elsewhere.
What is being done and What is to be done
Canadian civil society and students at the host universities already hail CIRDI as a significant federally-funded boon for the mining companies, at the cost of the voices, well-being, and inclusion of those directly affected by mega-projects. The website stoptheinstitute.ca hosts critical information on CIRDI, and advocates for its complete overhaul or closure.
Since Vancouver is the world headquarters of the mining and mineral exploration industries, we, here, have a great responsibility to those directly affected by these companies’ projects. Civil society organizations are rallying for both technical and substantive transformation. And most directly, First Nations are challenging these extractive projects: asserting their role as stewards and protectors of the land, and occupying their traditional unceded territory.
Look for the upcoming articles in this series on mining to explore how to support the front-lines stewards of the land and how you can take action toward mining reform in BC.
*Sam Stime recently finished his graduate studies in environmental engineering at the University of British Columbia. During the last couple of years while a student, he has been working with the collective of students from SFU and UBC on the campaign to close the extractive industries institute hosted at the universities.
Back to Article Listing
