- Frontera NorteSur: 'Canadian Mining Companies at Odds with Many in Mexico':
"If many locals have their way, Canada's Mexican gold rush won't extend to the southern tip of Baja California. Planned for a site within the Sierra de la Laguna biosphere, the Paredones Amarillos gold mine is awaiting approval of a land use permit from federal authorities that could pave the way for the extraction an estimated 1.2 million ounces of gold over a period of 9.3 years. But plans for the open pit mine proposed by Canadian-owned Vista Gold Corporation are sparking opposition from environmentalists and residents...The Paredones Amarillo controversy is among the latest ones to arise from the aggressive expansion of Canadian mining companies in Mexico. Already dominating foreign investment in the country's fast-growing mining sector, 200 Canadian companies are reportedly scouring 400 places in the Mexican Republic for possible new mines." [MexiData.info]
- Werbowski's 'Canada: the Practices of Corporate Mining':
"Mining, in order to be profitable, must be done on the cheap and in places where labour laws and environmental standards are far below Canadian standards. The methods used to extract the earth’s wealth use toxic chemicals (arsenic, mercury, cyanide) and by means of “heap leaching”; a process which uses huge amount of chemically laced water which then separates the worthless mineral ore waste from the coveted precious gold or silver dug from the ground...These practises are...quite unpopular among local communities. When resistance is unremitting, then the companies (often in complicity with the local authorities) resort to more sinister methods to clear the land. They hire armed goons, and with the help of the “security forces,” they displace the “trouble makers” in order to make room for an open pit mine. Or worse, they contract hit men to do away with local mining activists opposed to their activities...Over the years, this gives both the Canadian-based mining operations and the host country, the quasi status of a pariah or rogue state in the rest of the developing world." [More at Dissident Voice]