The report titled, Dirty Dozen 2023: B.C.’s top polluting and risky mines, names the province’s free-entry system for mineral staking as the 12th case. The free-entry system allows companies and individuals to explore for minerals without consulting or seeking consent of First Nations or private property owners. The province currently uses an online system which allows anyone to make a mineral claim in an area of land, giving them exclusive rights to the minerals in that spot.
Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation just finished presenting their legal challenge against the automatic granting of claims in their territory to B.C.’s Supreme Court. This practice goes against their laws, the Crown’s duty to consult and B.C.’s commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the First Nations argue. This is the first case to test B.C.’s 2019 declaration act; a decision will likely take months.
“B.C. has argued their archaic colonial mineral tenure system is consistent with the Canadian Constitution and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is not honourable. This is not reconciliation,” Gitxaała Sm’ooygit Nees Hiwaas (Matthew Hill) told The Narwhal.
The abandoned Yellow Giant mine on Lax k’naga dzol (Banks Island) is listed among the dirty dozen and is in Gitxaała territory. Exploration of Lax k’naga dzol started in the 1960’s, without the consent of Gitxaała. Eventually, Yellow Giant mine was built. In 2015 it spilled hundreds of thousands of litres of toxic waste, causing contamination to the community’s food sources and approximately $2 million in cleanup liabilities. The company went bankrupt and, according to Gitxaała’s written submissions, “the site remains unremediated more than seven years later.”
Source: B.C.’s most ‘polluting and risky’ mines revealed | The Narwhal
