Mining Watch Canada – A new study concludes that “the mining waste facility design is business-as-usual, using the same facility design and water cover approach used at the failed Mt. Polley Mine”.

Using recent government data, the delegation estimates the total liability for contaminated mining sites across Canada to be well above 10.0 billion dollars, a figure it estimates can easily triple or quadruple once the true costs for site clean-up and risks from spills and failures are considered. The delegation also draws on recent studies to highlight a 60% increase in rates of catastrophic failures and large mining spills worldwide over the last two decades. Researchers predict this trend will continue to worsen due to ever larger mining waste facilities, poor economics of many mines, decreasing ore quality, and inadequate mining oversight. In Canada, the delegation reports over 20 mining spills in the last decade alone (2008-2017), including 6 that released more than 1 million litres of contaminated wastes in nearby rivers, lakes and soils