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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

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...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House, Subscribers only 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 2 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

Gold fever is coming to Halifax

Mineral exploration companies have staked claims next to the Halifax and Dartmouth lakes that are the source of our drinking water

October 13, 2019 By Joan Baxter 8 Comments

Cover photo: Touquoy open pit gold mine at Moose River. Photo courtesy Raymond Plourde On October 17 and 18, mining industry representatives and between five and 10 government officials will gather at the Alt Hotel at the Halifax Airport for the province’s first-ever “gold show.” The gold show is being organized by the Mining Association […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Bennery Lake, Bruce Nunn, Conrad Brothers Limited, Department of Energy and Mines, EcoMatrix Incorporated, Gary Andrea, gold exploration, gold mining, Halifax Water, Ian Bliss, Intrinsik Corp, Joyce Richard, Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd., Lake Major, Lake Pockwock, Mayor Mike Savage, Meguma Gold Corp., mine tailings, Mineral Resources Act, Mineral Resources Development Fund, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Montague Mines, Moose River, Northern shield Resources, NovaROC, Osprey Gold Development Ltd., Reid Campbell, Seabourne Resources, St. Barbara Limited, Transition Metals, Trudi Rhynold, watersheds, Wood Canada Limited

Roughed up by the RCMP at a public meeting, John Perkins sues Atlantic Gold and the cops

August 13, 2019 By Jennifer Henderson 1 Comment

Sixty-eight-year-old John Perkins of Earltown is striking a blow for democracy after he says he was forcibly hauled out of a public meeting by an RCMP officer last May. Perkins held a news conference in Halifax yesterday to explain why he is filing a lawsuit against Atlantic Gold Corporation which hosted two information sessions on […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Gold information session, Brian Hebert, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Dustin O’Leary, East Coast Environmental Law Association (ECELAW), Ecology Action Centre (EAC), John Perkins, Justice Minister Mark Furey, Lisa Mitchell, Maryse Belanger, No Open Pit Excavation (NOPE), Police Act of Nova Scotia, Ray Plourde, RCMP Civilian Complaints Commissioner, RCMP officer Justin Greene, Scott Beaver, St. Barbara Limited, St. Mary’s River Association (SMRA), Steven Dean, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Terry Moser

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 2 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

Here’s your chance to speak on the Cornwallis issue

Morning File, Monday, June 3, 2019

June 3, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 2 Comments

News 1. Health care non-crisis “Last week’s ‘mutual’ firing of the province’s deputy health minister shows just how unwilling our premier is to acknowledge our healthcare crisis — let alone do something about it,” writes Stephen Kimber. Click here to read “Crisis? What crisis? Just a(nother) ‘new (lack of) direction’ for healthcare.” This article is […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Adam Perry, Alex Cooke, Atlantic Gold, Biocon conference, Chinas Ambassador to Canada, Erin MacInnis, gold mining, Innovation Hub of Nova Scotia, Jennifer Henderson, Joan Baxter, Lacewood bus terminal, Last Gamestore, Lu Shaye, Mary Campbell, Premier Stephen McNeil, St. Barbara Limited

St. Barbara still intends to acquire Atlantic Gold

The violent arrest of John Perkins has put the critical spotlight on gold mining on the Eastern Shore, but for the mining companies, operating in low-regulation and low-royalty Nova Scotia is, well, a gold mine.

June 3, 2019 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

St. Barbara Limited, the Australian gold mining company that recently announced it was acquiring Atlantic Gold in a $722 million dollar deal, seems to be unfazed by the RCMP’s violent arrest of a citizen last week at a public information session Atlantic Gold was hosting in Sherbrooke (covered by the Halifax Examiner here and here). […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Andrew Bell, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Gold and RCMP, Atlantic Gold information session, Ben Wilson, Bonnie Sutherland, David Brady, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, Extractive Industries Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), gold mining, John Perkins, Lee Millett, Lisa Croteau, Maryse Belanger, Mining Journal, Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, No Open Pit Excavation (NOPE), Nova Scotia Nature Trust, Paul Sobey, Pieridae Energy, Sobey family, St. Barbara Limited, Steven Dean, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Tony Woodfine

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

The Tideline is advertising-free and subscriber-supported. It’s also a very good deal at just $5 a month. Click here to support 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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