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Atlantic Gold paid $0 in taxes in 2019

As the company is in court facing 32 charges of polluting the environment, the promised windfall in tax revenue is proving illusionary.

January 27, 2021 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

Atlantic Mining NS Inc., an affiliate of the St. Barbara company Atlantic Gold, which operates the Touquoy open pit gold mine at Moose River, has succeeded in delaying its day in court. Arraigned in Dartmouth Provincial Court, Atlantic Mining NS asked for and received an adjournment until March 15. In September 2020, Nova Scotia Environment […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Dartmouth Provincial Court, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Fifteen-Mile Stream, Fisheries Act, gold price, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, Krista Gillis, Mitchell Glawson, Moose River gold mine, Mooseland, Natural Resources Canada, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Prospectors and Developers of Canada Association (PDAC), royalties, Scraggy Lake, St. Barbara Limited, tax, Touquoy mine

Atlantic Gold is going to court

The St. Barbara Limited company is facing 32 environmental charges, even as more complaints roll in.

January 20, 2021 By Joan Baxter

Just over a month after the construction company contracted by Atlantic Gold to excavate clay for the tailings facility at its open pit gold mine at Moose River assured Krista Gillis of Mooseland that the excavation work wouldn’t cause any more sedimentation in a nearby brook, it has happened again. On Saturday, January 17, Gillis...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: Adele Poirier, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS Inc, carbon neutral, climate change, climate emergency, Dartmouth Provincial Court, DDV Gold, Dustin O’Leary, Environment Canada, Fifteen Mile Stream mine, Guysborough Journal, heavy rainfall, Kip Keen, Krista Gillis, Lake Charlotte, Moose River Consolidated Project, Moose River gold mine, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Rachel Boomer, rainfall records, S&P Global, Scraggy Lake, Seloam Brook, Ship Harbour Long Lake Wilderness Area, St. Barbara Limited, tailings management facility (TMF), Tangier Grand Lake Wilderness Area, Touquoy mine

Nova Scotia has laid charges for 32 environmental infractions against Atlantic Gold

Citizens raise concerns about environmental impacts of gold mining in Nova Scotia's moose country.

December 23, 2020 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Much attention is focused on Crown land in Digby County that is threatened by logging operations. And last week, nine people from Extinction Rebellion were arrested while trying to prevent contractors in the employ of the WestFor consortium from accessing the public forest and moose habitat slated for cutting. But in another part of the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: 15-Mile Stream, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Betty Belmore, biodiversity, Bob Bancroft, Caribou, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Dave Gunning, Deborah Bayer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF), Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, endangered species, erosion, Extinction Rebellion, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, James Millard, Krista Gillis, Mitchell Glawson, moose, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Moose River gold mine, Mooseland, Mooseland Road, Nature Nova Scotia, Northern Pulp, Northern Timber, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), proposed Beaver Dam mine, Rachel Boomer, salmon, Save Caribou group, Scraggy Lake, sedimentation, Sherbrooke, St. Barbara Limited, St. Mary's River, Touquoy mine, trout, Veronica Chisholm

Moose River betrayal

In 2008, the approval of the Moose River gold mine was conditioned on the mining company giving the province hundreds of acres of conservation land within four years; 12 years later, there's still no approved plan in place.

April 3, 2020 By Joan Baxter Leave a Comment

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. On March 31, the Australian company St. Barbara, which last year acquired Atlantic Gold with its open pit gold mine at Moose River and a project to open three more mines along Nova Scotia’s Eastern shore, sent investors a COVID-19 update. It stated: St Barbara’s […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Barbara Markovits, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, Ecology Action Centre (EAC), Health Protection Act, Marla MacInnis, Maryse Belanger, Minister Mark Parent, Moose River gold mine, pandemic, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Rachel Boomer, social distancing, St. Barbara Limited, Touquoy mine

Atlantic Gold is waging a propaganda blitz in Nova Scotia

March 25, 2020 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

By now, many people in Nova Scotia will have seen the Atlantic Gold ads on television, read words of self-praise from the company in newspaper opinion pieces, or received Atlantic Gold flyers in their mailboxes. For the past month or so, Atlantic Gold has been blanketing the province with its propaganda. As the Halifax Examiner […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Bruce Hudgins, Darrell Dexter, Dustin O’Leary, Historic Mine Tailings Management Plan, historic mines tailings sites, John Perkins, John Wightman, Maryse Belanger, Michael Parsons, mine tailings, Moose River gold mine, Rachel Boomer, Ronald Hawkes, Spur Resources, St. Barbara Limited, Steven Dean, Teck Resources, Touquoy mine, Wally Bucknell

Port Wallace Gamble: the real estate boom meets Nova Scotia’s toxic mine legacy

Part 1: The making of a toxic mess and the uncalculated costs of previous gold rushes.

March 1, 2020 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

This is Part 1 of a three-part story about the toxic legacy from historic gold mines in Nova Scotia, which its citizens will be paying many millions of dollars to try to clean up, and how the contamination at just one of these sites — Montague Mines in HRM — is still affecting lives today, […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Alexander Heatherington, arsenic from mining, Atlantic Gold, Barry's Run, Canadian Extractive Industries Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Clayton Developments, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Damas Touquoy, Department of Energy and Mines (DEM), Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF), Francis Paul, gold mining, gold mining pollution, Goldenville, James Paul, John Drage, John Hartlen, John Pulsiver, Kerry Rowe, Lake Charles, Lake Loon, Linda Campbell, Lisa Jarrett, mercury, Michael Parsons, mine tailings, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Mitchell Brook, Montague Mines, Moose River gold mine, Nova Scotia Auditor General Michael Pickup, Nova Scotia Lands, Paul Paul, Raymond Plourde, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, St. Barbara Limited, Touquoy mine

Nova Scotia government doubles down on gold mining

October 25, 2019 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

There were moments during last week’s “Water Not Gold” rally outside the Alt Hotel at the Halifax airport where the “Gold Show” was in progress, when I was reminded of a video from 2011 during Occupy Wall Street. That footage shows protestors marching along Wall Street, calling out money barons, greed, and the neoliberal system […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Billy Lewis, Department of Energy and Mines (DEM), Donald James, East Coast Environmental Law, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, Ecology Action Centre, Energy Minister Derek Mombourqeuette, Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Gary Andrea, Gold Show, Jacinda Mack, Joan Kuyek, Jor Richman, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Moose River gold mine, Nova Scotia Prospectors Association, Perry MacKinnon, Peter Lund, Portia Clark, Ray Plourde, Sean Kirby, Sierra Club, St. Mary’s River Association, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia, Transition Metals Corp., Water Not Gold

Court papers reveal a previously unpublicized industrial accident at the Moose River Gold Mine

Morning File, Friday, August 23, 2019

August 23, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 8 Comments

News 1. Dartmouth lakes “On a hot steamy night more than 150 Dartmouth residents turned up at a ‘Save Our Lakes’ meeting hosted by Claudia Chender and Susan Leblanc, the representatives for Dartmouth South and Dartmouth North in the legislature,” reports Jennifer Henderson: Top among the concerns expressed at the Micmac Aquatic Club last night […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Bay Ferries, Chelsea Murray, David Patriquin, David Wilkins, gold mine effluent, Haley Ryan, Halifax Water, Holly McKenzie-Sutter, James Campbell, Jason Casey, Jim Bremner, Linden MacIntyre, Moose River gold mine, Peter McLaughlin, right whales, Scott Steel Erectors Inc, Spence Managed Forest, stabbing Pinecrest Drive, water restrictions Lake Major, Yarmouth ferry delay

After the gold rush

Nova Scotia is ignoring the toxic legacy of past mining manias while rushing headlong into the next

June 25, 2019 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

If learning from past mistakes were a government tradition in Nova Scotia, the current government would not be exhibiting all the symptoms of gold fever. But it is, and it looks like a raging bout of the affliction. In the past few years, it has amended legislation based on recommendations made by the industry’s cheerleader-in-chief, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, Province House Tagged With: 2012 Geological Survey of Canada, Adele Poirier, arsenic from mining, arsenic in well water, Arsenic Task Force, Atlantic Gold, Bruce Nunn, Christian West, Cooper Quinn, cyanide, Department of Energy and Mines, Donald James, Dustin O’Leary, Enfield, Gary Andrea, George O’Reilly, gold mining, gold rush, Gold Show, grants for mineral exploration, Historic Gold Mines Advisory Committee, historic mines tailings sites, IAMGOLD, Jacob Hanley, James Millard, John Wightman, Linda Campbell, Lisa Jarrett, Lori Blackburn, Magnum Resources, mercury, Mineral Resources Development Fund (MRDF), Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Mining Society of Nova Scotia, Montague Mines, Moose River gold mine, Osprey Gold, Perry MacKinnon, Prospectors and Developers Association Convention (PDAC), Prospectors Association of Nova Scotia, Rick Horne, Sean Kirby, St. Barbara Limited, tailings, tailings dams, Touquoy mine, Waverley

A lot of people in Halifax will be hungover at work on Thursday

Morning File, Tuesday, May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019 By Suzanne Rent 14 Comments

News 1. Gold “Here’s the deal,” writes Joan Baxter: On Wednesday, May 14, an Australian gold mining company called St. Barbara Limited, with one gold mine in Australia and a second one in Papua New Guinea, agreed to pay $722 million for Atlantic Gold Corporation, which operates one open pit gold mine in Nova Scotia, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alex Cameron, Angela MacIvor, Atlantic Gold, Brookfield Golf and Country Club, Catherine Dunphy, Charlene Boyce, employment in NS, freelancing, Jacques Vanasse, James Millard, job hunting, John Gallant, Justice David Farrar, living wage, Mayor Mike Savage, Moose River gold mine, Nova Institution for Women, NS prisons, Rebecca Thomas, Rodger Cuzner, Shelley Lawrence, Springhill Institution, statutory holidays, street checks, Todd Denton, Touquoy mine, toxic workplace, unemployment, Victoria Day

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

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.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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