As Eldorado Gold holds its annual shareholders’ meeting in Vancouver today, Canadians may ask themselves why the company’s plans to mine gold in northern Greece are meeting such strong resistance from residents and even some local authorities. There are really only two problems: what the company is planning to do, and how it is going about doing it.

Two Australian research organizations recently released a review of the economic assessments of Australian coal projects and found that the proponent-generated reviews greatly overstated the benefits and understated the costs of the projects. The economic assessments were used to add social importance to the projects and overshadow serious environmental concerns while pushing the projects towards approval.

MiningWatch Canada is a founding member and supporter of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine (translated as the Better Mining Coalition with a clever pun -- “mine’ also means face or apperance in French).

 For over five years now the Coalition has been pushing an agenda of mining reforms in Quebec. Thanks to their hard work raising issues, building grassroots political support and putting forward coherent policy proposals  things are shifting dramatically in Quebec putting industry on the defensive. Unfortunately, as with many things, there has been little news of these developments in the media outside of Quebec.

The Canadian government’s big announcement for this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association conference (PDAC) wasn’t the automatic renewal of tax credits for “flow-through” shares -- a $100 million dollar a year subsidy for exploration companies -- or even a creative new way of diverting international development aid money to support Canadian mining projects in the developing world. No, it was a pair of investment agreements, one with Cameroon and one with Zambia.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Secwepemc territory in south-central B.C. I was invited the Neskonlith Band to speak with them about the Ruddock Creek project, a proposed lead and zinc mine in the headwaters of the Adams River. The proponent, Imperial Metals and MiningWatch have a certain history as we successfully took the federal government to court over the lack of an adequate environmental assessment of Imperial’s controversial Red Chris project.

On February 13, The Globe and Mail’s editorial board weighed in on the important issue of rapes by security guards at Barrick’s mine in Papua New Guinea (“Give due credit to Barrick Gold”). Remarkably, The Globe determined that the deal Barrick is offering women who were raped and gang raped by employees of its Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea “seems fair.” In return for such things as “counselling, access to micro-credit and medical care” Barrick requires of a rape victim that “she will not pursue or participate in any legal action” against the company “in or outside of PNG.”

If you follow mining in Canada you’ve certainly heard about the much hyped “Ring of Fire” or McFauld’s Lake area of northern Ontario. This area on the boundary of the Hudson Bay lowlands and boreal shield is Oji-cree and Cree territory. It is also where Cliffs Natural Resources and Noront Resources are proposing the first of what could be many mining projects in the remote and relatively pristine area.

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Nerd alert: Discussion of tedious yet vital regulatory procedure ahead.

Yesterday the federal Review Panel examining the New Prosperity Gold Copper Mine Project issued a notice to proponent Taseko Mines that the company's environmental impact statement (EIS) is deficient in 50 different ways. This determination follows a scathing review of an earlier draft in July and an initial indication at the end of November that the Panel was not satisfied with how Taseko dealt with cumulative environmental effects.

Living next to a mine can really be the pits.

Even in established and historic mining areas, local communities are being challenged with new bigger-than-ever projects and mine expansions that threaten their health, quality of life and properties. Three such communities that have been making news lately are Malartic, Quebec; Keno City, Yukon; and Timmins, Ontario.