Things are looking less than golden for Australia’s St Barbara Ltd, but rather than accept responsibility, board chair Tim Netscher is pointing the finger at First Nations, Canadian regulators, and COVID-19 for the company’s woes. Those woes are not small ones. On Wednesday, St Barbara reported an annual net loss of over $144 million, largely...
Canadian regulators giving Australia’s St Barbara what it wants
First the province approved changes to the tailings facility at the company's Moose River gold mine. Now the federal government has given in to its request for a three-year extension on the environmental assessments for two open pit gold mines it plans for eastern Nova Scotia.
St Barbara Ltd, the Australian company that owns Atlantic Gold / Atlantic Mining NS, which operates the Touquoy open pit gold mine in Moose River and wants to open three more mines on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, seems to be having a run of extraordinarily good fortune when it comes to decisions by […]
Nova Scotia Environment minister approved Signal Gold’s open pit mine at Goldboro despite concerns and criticisms from scientists in his own department
This decision also exposes weaknesses in the assessment process for metal mines in Nova Scotia and Canada
On August 2, Nova Scotia’s Environment and Climate Change minister Tim Halman approved the proposal by Toronto’s Signal Gold for an open pit gold mine in Goldboro, on the province’s Eastern Shore. Signal Gold, which until recently was called Anaconda Mining (an anaconda is a giant snake that strangles its prey), plans to operate the […]
Grants for seniors, gold mining, the premier’s ‘friends,’ and more from Question Period
Starting September 1, seniors who live on less than $37,500 a year will be able to apply for a $750 non-taxable grant from the provincial government. Seniors and Long-term Care Minister Barbara Adams says between 60,000 and 70,000 Nova Scotians should be eligible for the grant. Unlike the previous senior care grant introduced last spring, […]
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%.
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 […]
Sacrificing wild Atlantic salmon for gold
A project that is undoing environmental damage from acid rain finds itself under threat from a gold mine proposed for Beaver Dam.
We’re standing on the snow-covered banks of the Killag River beside the lime doser, a white silo that has been calibrated with intricate controls to apply just the right amount of lime into the river every day. Edmund Halfyard, a biologist working with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association, tells me that the “right amount” — […]
Atlantic Gold’s lobbying blitz
The company is now in court on charges of harming the environment, regulators are casting a wary eye at its plans for future environmental protection, and investors are getting worried, so Atlantic Gold has hired a lobbyist to fast track federal approval of its Nova Scotia projects.
Last year it was a propaganda blitz. For several weeks in the spring of 2020, Atlantic Gold, which operates an open pit gold mine in Moose River in the Halifax Regional Municipality and wants to open three more along the Eastern Shore, bombarded people in Nova Scotia with its PR. Atlantic Gold’s owner, Australia’s St […]