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Atlantic Gold’s parent company hints it may halt its Nova Scotia operation

After St Barbara Ltd issued a statement falsely blaming the province for permitting delays, its stock price fell by 14%.

June 25, 2022 By Joan Baxter

St Barbara Ltd, the Australian mining company that owns Atlantic Gold and Atlantic Mining NS, which operates the Touquoy open pit gold mine in Moose River, is in trouble. This week, St Barbara’s share prices crashed 14% “to a multi-year low,” after the company released a statement that warns of “near-term risk of disruption” at...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Australia, Beaver Dam, Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, CEAA, Craig Jetson, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, DFO, DNRR, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, environmental assessment, environmental charges, Fifteen-Mile Stream, Fisheries and Oceans, gold mine, Halifax Regional Municipality, IAAC, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, industrial approval, Moose River, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, NSECC, open pit gold mine, Papua New Guinea, Simberi, St Barbara Ltd, Steven Dean, tailings, tailings management facility, Touquoy

Up close and privileged: Nova Scotia’s “One Window” process gives mining execs seats at the table in the halls of power

March 19, 2022 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

On November 1, 2018, a year after Atlantic Gold produced its first gold bar at its Touquoy open pit mine in Moose River, 11 provincial public servants gathered for a two-hour meeting with four high-level representatives of the gold mining company. Two were with Nova Scotia Environment, six with Lands and Forestry, and three with […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, corporate capture, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (DNRR), Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, Energy and Mines, Environment Canada, environmental assessment, environmental charges, ESTMA reports, extractive industries, Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Fifteen Mile Stream mine, fines, FOIPOP, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy, gold mine, Guinea, Jim Millard, John Savage, Jonathan Porter, Judge Alana Murphy, Lands and Forestry, Mi’kmaq Conservation Group, mineral development, Mineral Resources Development Fund (MRDF), Mining One Window Process, Moose River, Moose River Road, Natural Resources Canada, Northern Pulp, Northern Timber, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Envrionment and Climate Change (NSECC), Office of L'nu Affairs, old growth forest, One Window process, one-stop-shop, open pit gold mine, Paper Excellence, Patricia Jreige, Public Accounts, public servants, regulatory capture, Sierra Leone, St Barbara Ltd, taxes, Touquoy gold mine, Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR)

Atlantic Gold sentenced to $250,000 fines and penalties after pleading guilty to federal and provincial environmental charges

February 11, 2022 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Provincial court judge Alana Murphy has sentenced Atlantic Mining NS, which does business in Nova Scotia as Atlantic Gold, to pay a total of $250,000 in fines and contributions for failing to comply with federal and provincial environmental regulations at and around its Touquoy open pit gold mine in Moose River, about an hour’s drive […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, David Cox, deleterious substances, Environment and Climate Change Canada, environmental charges, Fifteen-Mile Stream, Fisheries Act, gold mine, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, Jennifer Henderson, John Perkins, Judge Alana Murphy, Marian Fortune-Stone, Meryl Jones, Mi’kmaq Conservation Group, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), St Barbara Ltd, Touquoy open pit gold mine, Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR)

Anaconda joins the gold rush on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore

Part 2. Anaconda aims to avoid a federal impact assessment for its proposed open pit gold mine, but some say the whole regulatory process in Canada is “rigged”

February 11, 2022 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

Gold exploration and mining companies are lining up to get at Nova Scotia’s gold, as the province undergoes a fourth gold rush. In 2017, Atlantic Gold opened the province’s first-ever open pit gold mine in Moose River, with plans to open three more along the Eastern Shore, in what it described to potential investors as […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Abbé Jean-Louis LaLoutre, Anaconda Mining, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Aurelius Minerals, Barbara Markovits, Beaver Dam, Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012, Cape Breton Spectator, Class I environmenal assessment, Class II environmental assessment, clearcutting, Cochrane Hill, corporate capture, DDV Gold, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Donna Ashamock, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, environmental assessment, Fifteen-Mile Stream, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, gold mine, gold rush, Goldboro, Goldboro mine project, green economy, Health Canada, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), Iris Communications, Joel Bakan, John Perkins, Kevin Bullock, Kirby McVicar, Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO), lobbyist, Mainland Moose, Margaret Miller, Mary Campbell, Meguma Gold, Mi'kmaq, Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative, Mi’kmaw Ecological Knowledge, Mining Association of Canada, MiningWatch Canada, Moose River, Natural Resources Canada, Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries an Aquaculture, Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (NSECC), One WIndow Regulatory process, open pit gold mine, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), regulatory capture, Seamus O'Regan, St Barbara Ltd, Stephen McNeil, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), tailings, tailings facility, The Corporation, Touquoy gold mine, Ugo Lapointe, Vernon Pitts, watersheds, Western Mining Action Network

New protected status for Tatamagouche water supply means an end to mineral exploration, mining in the watershed

Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia "delighted" with the decision from the province, but says work continues to stop five other large-scale gold mining projects that are ongoing or planned for Nova Scotia.

January 25, 2022 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

It took close to two years, and a change of government, but the province has now approved protection of the French River watershed, which provides Tatamagouche with its water. According to the press release today from Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change: Environment and Climate Change Minister Tim Halman designated the French River watershed as […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Anaconda Mining, Atlantic Gold. St Barbara Ltd, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Department of Energy and Mines, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Don James, Earltown, Fifteen-Mile Stream, FOIPOP, French River watershed, gold, gold exploration, gold mining, Goldboro, John Perkins, Mi’kmaq Grassroots Grandmothers, Michael Gregory, Michelle Boudreau, Mining Asssociation of Nova Scotia (MANS), Moose River, Municipality of the County of Colchester, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, protected status, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Tatamagouche, Warwick Mountain Gold, water supply, Wentworth

Millbrook First Nation to Atlantic Gold and government regulators: “We oppose the Beaver Dam mine project”

January 21, 2022 By Joan Baxter Leave a Comment

Millbrook First Nation Chief Bob Gloade knows that his band has no veto power over a new open pit gold mine planned for Beaver Dam, just a stone’s throw from a Millbrook satellite community in Halifax Regional Municipality, but he is hoping the project can be stopped through consultation. That way, he says, there will […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Annapolis Properties, arsenic, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Beaver Dam gold mine, Chief Bob Gloade, Citadel Hill, Cochrane Hill, Cole Harbour, consultation, Craig Hudson, D.D.V. Gold, deer, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, ecological grief, Environmental Racism, Fifteen-Mile Stream, fishing, food security, foraging, gathering, Gerald Gloade, gold mine, harbesting rights, hunting, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), Indigenous rights, Indigenous Services Canada, James Millard, meat, Mi'kmaq, Millbrook First Nation, Moose River, open pit gold mine, poultry, protein, Sheet Harbour, St Barbara Ltd, Touquoy open pit gold mine, Truro, wild game

Housing: party for a few, crisis for the rest

Morning File, Wednesday, January 5, 2022

January 5, 2022 By Philip Moscovitch 5 Comments

News 1. Woman claims in lawsuit she was repeatedly sexually abused by cops while in protection from sexual trafficking as a teen Zane Woodford reports on a lawsuit by a woman who claims she was sexually abused as a teen by officers from the Halifax police and the RCMP. The woman, identified only as “X.Y.,” […]

Filed Under: Featured, Morning File, PRICED OUT Tagged With: Alana Murphy, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia, Barbara Darby, Beaver Dam, Blue Christmas, Brian Johnston, Burnside jail, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang, Cochrane Hill, COVID-19, David Levin, East Coast Prison Justice Society, Graceland, Halifax Regional Police, Jennifer Henderson, lawsuit, Matt Wickham, Melaleuca, Michael Dull, Moose River, Nova Scotia Environment Act, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, Premier Tim Houston, RCMP, Reverend Bruce R.E. Sheasby, Reverend Elvis, Ryan White, sexual assault, St Barbara Ltd, Sullivan House, Tim Bousquet, Tim Halman, Touquoy, Wade Marriott, X.Y., Your Grace Land, Zane Woodford

Expansion of gold mining on the Eastern Shore meeting with stiff resistance

The public and Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia have until December 16 to comment on this latest round, but in a letter from June, Millbrook First Nation said they "do not support" the mine on the Eastern Shore.

November 26, 2021 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia (AMNS) looks bound and determined to mine paradise, blast a giant hole deep into the earth at Beaver Dam in a rural part of the Halifax Regional Municipality just over an hour’s drive from downtown Dartmouth, and extract 56 million tonnes of material from the bowels of this small province between 2023 […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: acid rain, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia (AMNS), Australia, Barbara Markovits, Beaver Dam, Beaver Lake Reserve, British Columbia Supreme Court, Chief Robert Gloade, climate change, climate crisis, Cochrane Hill, Community LIaison Committee, Crown land, D.D.V. Gold, Darrell Dexter, Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR), diesel fuel, Duff Montgomerie, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, Environmental Impact Statement, Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Fenwick Towers, Fifteen-Mile Stream, First nations, fuel tax rebate, gold mine, greenhouse gase (GHG), Halifax, Halifax Regional Municipality, Highway 224, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), James Millard, Jim Kuipers, Killag River, land disturbance, lime, Lloyd Hines, Management and Solutions Environmental Science (MSES), Mark Parent, Mi'kmaq, Millbrook Chief and Council, Millbrook First Nation, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Montano School of Mines, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Mooseland Road, NDP government, Northern Pulp, Northern Timber, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (NSECC), Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA), open pit gold mine, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Public Works, rmiddiond, Sheet Harbour Reserve, Simone Ryder-Burbidge, soil organic carbon, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary's River, tax revenues, Touquoy gold mine, Wiidjaja family

Atlantic Gold agrees to a tentative plea deal that would have the company pay $120,000 to the Nova Scotia Salmon Association to atone for breaking environmental rules, but ‘no deal,’ says the Salmon Association

October 26, 2021 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

The Crown prosecutor handling the environmental prosecution against Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia, an affiliate of Atlantic Gold, has reached a tentative plea deal with the company. The deal: Atlantic Gold pays a $5,000 fine to the government, and makes a $120,000 donation to the Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA). But NSSA won’t agree to it, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Atlantic Mining NS, Atlantic salmon, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Fifteen-Mile Stream, Fisheries Act, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, Mike Bardsley, Mike Crosby, Moose River gold mine, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, St Barbara, St. Mary's River, Touquoy open pit gold mine

Updated: Photos suggest that there is a tailings leak at Atlantic Gold’s Moose River gold mine

August 29, 2021 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

Latest update: On Monday morning (Aug. 30), we published an update (below) with a statement from Dustin O’Leary, spokesperson for Atlantic Gold and Atlantic Mining NS, subsidiaries of the Australian company St Barbara that owns the open pit Touquoy gold mine in Moose River, HRM. O’Leary stated that “there is no leak of any kind […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: acid mining drainage, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Dustin O’Leary, environmental charges, Fifteen-Mile Stream, French River watershed, French Rivert watershed, Joan Kuyek, John Perkins, Kitco, leak, Meryl Jones, MiningWatch Canada, minister of environment and climate change, Moose River gold mine, Mount Polley, No Open Pit Excavation (NOPE), Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Rachel Boomer, Scott Beaver, Sherbrooke, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary’s River Association, Steven Emerman, tailings dam leak, tailings facility, Tatamagouche, Tim Houson, Touquoy gold mine, Tracy Barron, Vladimir Basov, Warwick Mountain

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PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

A young white woman with dark hair and a purple shirt lies on a large rock at dusk, looking up at the sky and playing her banjolele.

Episode 85 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Logan Robins (writer/director/composer) and Katherine Norris (star/composer) of the Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company are on the show this week ahead of their provincial tour of HIPPOPOSTUMOUS, Robins’ musical exploration of invasive species, colonization, environmentalism, and history. Hear how Pablo Escobar’s personal hippos have invaded and are ruining a section of Colombia, why Robins was intrigued to make a show about it, and all the places you can catch it this July. Plus Norris cracks out the banjolele to perform one of the show’s songs. And the new jam from Beauts!

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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