TORONTO - The world’s largest mining convention is well underway inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, but outside, a lively protest denouncing the companies for their alleged unethical roles with international excavation projects has taken shape.
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is expected to bring tens of thousands of representatives from the global mining industry to the city’s downtown core between Sunday and Wednesday.
There, attendees take in a variety of programming, courses and exhibits while learning about some of the major projects materializing across the globe. Geoscientists, executives, investors, financial brokers and mining professionals use the four days for deal-making, networking and education.
Last year, the convention drew 27,000 attendees from 135 countries and had an economic impact of about $63 million, according to PDAC spokesperson Scott Barber, based on research from Destination Toronto.
Meanwhile, dozens of members and supporters of the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network gathered outside the Toronto Stock Exchange on Adelaide Street West under the banner “Canadian Mining Kills, Destroys, Colonizes.”
Representatives from communities who feel impacted by Canadian mining around the world assembled to call out the industry’s role in ongoing colonial dispossession, military violence and the climate crisis on Sunday.
Prior to marching to the convention centre, several speakers voiced their concerns with proposed or ongoing projects in their homelands, including Cree land defender Clayton Thomas-Müller and Congolese refugees, as well as representatives from Palestinian Youth Movement, Tigray Advocacy Canada, Sudan Solidarity Collective and Wet’suwet’en First Nation.
Each speaker called for Canadian mining companies, including those gathered at PDAC, to be held accountable for allegedly profiting from war and conflict.
According to Mining Injustice spokesperson Miriam Shaftoe, the group eventually made its way to the convention centre where speakers and other protesters blocked the doorway at the Front Street entrance for roughly 30 minutes — preventing people from using the northside entrance and exit.
However, convention goers could still use the southside entrance, Shaftoe said. She noted that none of the protesters did any demonstrations inside and that Mining Injustice members dispersed from the area around 4 p.m.
Two of today’s marchers were Norway residents Beaska Niilas, a parliamentarian, and Ragnhild Marit Sarah, a Sami Indigenous woman and lawyer — both of whom flew into Toronto this week to denounce the PDAC convention.
They’re sounding the alarm over Blue Moon Metals, a Canadian mining company that is advancing on the Nussir copper-gold-silver and the Nye Sulitjelma Gruver (NSG) copper-zinc-gold-silver projects in the northern region of Norway. Zinc and copper are regarded as critical metals to the global economy and national security, the company said.
The Norwegian projects were acquired for $67.3 million USD by Blue Moon Metals just last week and the NSG build would be the first new copper mine in Norway in over 50 years.
Calling it the most controversial mining project in Scandinavia, Niilas argued that any investments into the project would be dangerous as the work would negatively impact the Indigenous land and the people who have occupied it for centuries.
“Companies have to know they’re investing in a project that’s going to violate Indigenous peoples’ and human rights,” he said. “That’s information they have to have. This [march] is an effort to try to inform people so they can make decisions based on that, and not propaganda from the Norwegian mining company — because that seems to be an issue with not telling the full picture.”
“We have the right to be [on that land],” Marit Sarah added. “The local affected Indigenous peoples haven’t given their consent to this.”
Niilas noted the land also holds key migration ground for reindeer. Their travel patterns and overall lifestyle are feared to be significantly impacted if and when the project breaks ground.
Marit Sarah alleged that Blue Moon Metals has put their foot through the door of a project it doesn’t fully understand to this point.
“We’re suspecting they haven’t gotten the full picture yet,” she said. “Three years ago, one of the main investors from the previous company gave up the project and saw it wasn’t a sustainable project, especially to Indigenous peoples’ rights and their effect on people — so they terminated the project.”
Meanwhile, Vancouver-based Aclara Resources — a mining company that develops rare earth minerals for green technologies — is in the early stages of a major project in Chile.
Called “Penco Module,” the project is focused on extracting rare earth oxides from ionic clay deposits in the Biobío region, near the city of Penco.
Valeria Sepulveda, a Penco resident who travelled to Toronto for Sunday’s demonstration, is outraged by the project as she claims a key watershed near her home community is now threatened.
Speaking to TorontoToday, she was joined by MiningWatch Canada coordinator Viviana Herrera — who provided Spanish to English translation.
“I’m very concerned about the impacts to water, because we have a special, spiritual connection to water,” Sepulveda said. “It’s necessary for the Canadian public to know what’s happening on the ground and what’s happening specifically in the community, and how this project is damaging the environment.”
What started as a pilot ten years ago, Penco Module failed to advance to later development stages as Aclara’s environmental permit was denied, according to Herrera. Despite this setback, the coordinator explained they’ve still witnessed considerable damage to the area.
“They’ve caused some deforestation in the area and have removed key plants that are essential for their livelihoods,” she said. “It’s taken a toll in the communities in terms of their mental health. Some of the activists have even been harassed by people related to the company.”
TorontoToday is awaiting replies from officials with Blue Moon Metals and Aclara Resources on their projects in Norway and Chile, respectively.
A spokesperson for PDAC was unavailable to provide a comment on the allegations that its members have been responsible for human rights abuses, environmental destruction, violence and colonization.
However, PDAC’s website states the organization has been an advocate for the industry to improve its social, environmental and health and safety performance — at home and abroad.
“We were the first industry association in the world to develop detailed guidance for companies on how to explore responsibly,” the organization said.
Readers can learn more about PDAC’s efforts in environmental stewardship by clicking here.
— with files from Gabe Oatley