Ajax Mine Project

Executive Summary KGHM Ajax Mining Inc. proposes to construct, operate and decommission an open pit copper and gold mine adjacent to the southern limits of the City of Kamloops in British Columbia. The Ajax Mine Project would process up to 65,000 tonnes of ore per day over an operating mine life of up to 23 years. The Ajax Mine Project would have a footprint of approximately 1,700 hectares and would include an open pit, ore processing plant, tailings storage facility, mine rock storage facilities, and water and waste management systems. It would also include upgrades to an existing water intake on Kamloops Lake, a new 16 kilometre water line to transport water to the mine site, and a new 5.3 kilometre natural gas pipeline connecting with the Fortis pipeline near the community of Knutsford. A new 9 kilometre, 230 kilovolt transmission line would tie in with an existing BC Hydro power line near Knutsford to supply electricity to the Ajax Mine Project. The Inks Lake Interchange would be upgraded to provide direct access to the mine site from Highway 5 (Coquihalla Highway). The Ajax Mine Project was subject to review under both federal and provincial environmental assessment legislation, and a coordinated environmental assessment was carried out by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) and the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO). The Agency and EAO prepared a joint federal Comprehensive Study/provincial Assessment Report that meets the requirements of both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Act, and which will inform separate environmental assessment decisions on the Ajax Mine Project by federal and provincial ministers.

The mining industry continues to be at the forefront of colonial dispossession around the world. It controls information about its intrinsic costs and benefits, propagates myths about its contribution to the economy, shapes government policy and regulation, and deals ruthlessly with its opponents. Brimming with case studies, anecdotes, resources, and illustrations, Unearthing Justice exposes the mining process and its externalized impacts on the environment, Indigenous Peoples, communities, workers, and governments. But, most importantly, the book shows how people are fighting back. Whether it is to stop a mine before it starts, to get an abandoned mine cleaned up, to change Laws and policy, or to mount a campaign to influence investors, Unearthing Justice is an essential handbook for anyone trying to protect the places and people they love.

Why read this book? It’s not to learn about a unique life. Not to know what it is like to be an immigrant in Canada. Not what it is like to live with a heart disease and survive. Not to learn about the consequences of traumatic brain injury. Not to learn what life behind the Iron Curtain was like, or democracy should be. Not to learn survival skills or perseverance, or what to do when you find yourself helpless in the world you live in. Not how to believe in yourself and why, or how to succeed in difficult circumstances. Not to hopefully understand your grandparents better. How to become a better person? You should not read this for better understanding the world we live in. Not even to become keenly aware of your own vulnerable humanity, as you feel connected to another being. No. It’s for all of the above. Best to read it when you feel alone. You will.

States in mineral-rich jurisdictions must promote mining as a development industry just as they must protect people and environment from the worst excesses of extractivism. State Governance of Mining, Development and Sustainability explores how the State’s role in facilitating a developmental and sustainable mining industry has been defined. In doing so, this astute book considers the impact of the policies and laws of mineral-rich States themselves, multilateral international governance institutions, industry associations, and environmental justice advocates in the areas of property relations, mineral taxation, environmental management and mine closure.

For millennia, plants and their habitats have been fundamental to the lives of Indigenous Peoples - as sources of food and nutrition, medicines, and technological materials - and central to ceremonial traditions, spiritual beliefs, narratives, and language. While the First Peoples of Canada and other parts of the world have developed deep cultural understandings of plants and their environments, this knowledge is often underrecognized in debates about land rights and title, reconciliation, treaty negotiations, and traditional territories. Plants, People, and Places argues that the time is long past due to recognize and accommodate Indigenous Peoples' relationships with plants and their ecosystems. Essays in this volume, by leading voices in philosophy, Indigenous law, and environmental sustainability, consider the critical importance of botanical and ecological knowledge to land rights and related legal and government policy, planning, and decision making in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand. Analyzing specific cases in which Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights to the environment have been denied or restricted, this collection promotes future prosperity through more effective and just recognition of the historical use of and care for plants in Indigenous cultures. A timely book featuring Indigenous perspectives on reconciliation, environmental sustainability, and pathways toward ethnoecological restoration, Plants, People, and Places reveals how much there is to learn from the history of human relationships with nature.

This republished Special Issue highlights recent and emergent concepts and approaches to water governance that re-centers the political in relation to water-related decision making, use, and management. To do so at once is to focus on diverse ontologies, meanings and values of water, and related contestations regarding its use, or its importance for livelihoods, identity, or place-making. Building on insights from science and technology studies, feminist, and postcolonial approaches, we engage broadly with the ways that water-related decision making is often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning—and to what effect. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance.

In this issue we feature Junior Mining Recovery, Gold Sector Consolidating, Area Plays – Saskatchewan, Western USA and the Canadian Maritimes, Copper Demand to Increase, Conversations with Geologists – Ron Netolitzky Veteran geologist exploring Saskatchewan’s La Ronge Gold Belt and Ken Konkin unravelling the riddle of the Golden Triangle Rocks, Learn to use both fundamental & technical analysis, AMEBC fostering smooth relationship among explorers, government & First Nations, A World of Minerals for your Mobile Device and much more. Plus coverage on Bond Resources, Talisker Resources, Pure Gold Mining, Osisko Metals, Standard Lithium, Novo Resources, Endurance Gold, Mountain Boy, Evolution Mining, Aston Bay, Wolfden Resources, Etrion, Canadian Pipeline Projects and much more.