Nova Scotians have a huge lawsuit hanging over their heads, but they can be forgiven for not dwelling on it in the summer of 2022, given the never-ending storm of crises swirling around them — COVID-19, the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, runaway inflation and disaster capitalism run amok, and disintegrating democracy around the world. Still, […]
The conservation officer shuffle: Houston government quietly moves inspection, enforcement and compliance officers out of Nova Scotia Environment and back to Natural Resources
There was no fanfare, not even a press release. But three months ago, Premier Tim Houston’s government quietly reversed a move made in 2016 by former Premier Stephen McNeil’s government that brought all the province’s conservation, inspection, enforcement, and compliance officers under one roof. According to Erin Lynch, spokesperson for Natural Resources and Renewables (DNRR), […]
Updated: Photos suggest that there is a tailings leak at Atlantic Gold’s Moose River gold mine
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 […]
Paper Excellence holds a media show and piles on the PR
Northern Pulp’s owner is working on a $350 million “complete transformation” for the mill in Pictou County, but doesn’t say whether any of that money will be public, or why Nova Scotians should trust them.
On the morning of July 15, Iris Communications’ Sean Lewis sent out a press release on behalf of Paper Excellence. It was chockablock with carefully calibrated and curated PR, informing us that Northern Pulp’s 54-year-old pulp mill in Pictou County was set to become “a “best-in-class operation” and “one of the world’s cleanest, most environmentally […]
A potent human carcinogen found in Lafarge Brookfield’s cement kiln dust is making its way onto Nova Scotia’s farm fields
The Halifax Examiner raised the issue about N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) with the two federal departments with mandates to protect the environment and ensure food safety. Here are their responses.
For background on this story, here are Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this three-part series. The Halifax Examiner has received responses from two federal departments involving the presence of a potent human carcinogen in Lafarge Brookfield’s cement kiln dust (CKD) — a product that is being sold as an agricultural soil amendment and is spread […]
Atlantic Gold’s imaginary conservation land
In 2008, Atlantic Gold was given provincial approval for the gigantic Touquoy open pit gold mine with the condition that within 4 years the company buy and give the province nearby land for conservation purposes. 13 years later, that condition is still unmet, and the province is making no real effort to enforce it.
Atlantic Gold has just announced that in “late spring/early summer 2021” it will be undertaking a new Class 1 Environmental Assessment for modifications to its open pit Touquoy gold mine in Moose River. Among other things, the company wants to expand its waste rock storage area that is already sky-high, prepare to store tailings in […]
Pieridae’s pipe dream
Pieridae Energy’s plans for a liquified natural gas plant in Nova Scotia sit in the sweet spot of an elaborate Rube Goldberg financing machine that requires Shell Oil offloading some aging gas wells in Alberta to a cash-strapped energy company living on the hope of sky-high gas costs in Germany years from now.
If the Halifax Examiner inbox is anything to go by, there is no shortage of critics of Pieridae Energy and its plans to pipe natural gas into Nova Scotia, build a $10-billion liquefied natural gas plant in Goldboro on the province’s Eastern Shore, and then ship the LNG to Germany, a project the Halifax Examiner […]
Atlantic Gold plans to mine “paradise”
Citizens near Beaver Dam and Moose River raise the alarm about the high environmental costs of open pit gold mines in eastern Nova Scotia, the province’s “sacrifice zone.”
Debbie Marlborough lives just 15 kilometres as the crow flies — 50 kilometres by road — from the giant crater, massive tailings pond, and mountains of waste rock at Atlantic Gold’s Touquoy open pit gold mine in Moose River. She’s never been able to make herself go and see it. Marlborough says that even though […]
Tall tales about Nova Scotia gold: investors should beware of Aurelius Minerals’ spin job
Aurelius Minerals bought the old Dufferin Gold Mine, and Aurelius is now telling potential investors the site "is permitted" and ready for mining. But a provincial permit was issued to the previous company nearly 27 years ago, and even that expired in 2017. No application has been made to transfer the permit to the new owner, and it likely wouldn't meet modern environmental standards in any event.
“Aurelius Minerals could end up following in the footsteps of Atlantic Gold, by proving up a multi-million ounce gold resource in Nova Scotia,” boasts the headline of a March 9 feature by Alastair Ford in the online Proactive Investors publication. The article begins: “We see the opportunity for a couple of million ounces of gold,” […]
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 […]