ERO Posting 19-6717:…

ERO Posting 19-6717: Amendments to the Mining Act: Recovery of Minerals and Decision-making Authorities considerably increases the risk to communities and the environment from mine wastes; provides unacceptable discretion to the Minister to determine if experimental waste recovery projects can go ahead and under what conditions and reduces the voversight on exploration projects.

Most significantly, neither the Recovery Act nor these proposed amendments have had opportunities for consultation and accommodation with First Nations as required under the United Declaration on the Rights on Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). These amendments, if passed, would increase conflict with Indigenous Peoples in Ontario, increase financial risk to taxpayers from the mineral industry, and will enable further destruction of the environment on which we all depend.¬

Mine closure matters more than the mine itself. Until this latest push for “critical minerals”, the industry itself talked about the need to “mine for closure”. All mines expand beyond their original footprint, affecting a larger and larger area.

Mining is a waste management industry with short-term benefits and long-term consequences. It is not sustainable, by definition: it depletes the very resource it depends upon. More than 99% of the rock it digs up and pulverizes becomes waste, often acid-generating and toxic. Most of the tailings are held behind dams made of waste rock in ponds that have to be managed in perpetuity. If the mine is an underground operation, some of the waste can be returned underground as paste backfill, but not all. With open pit mines, the enormous pits themselves are hazards, as they take decades to fill with water, which can also be toxic. As the hunger for metals increases, underground mines become open pits, with their concomitant environmental problems.

Many proposals for the recovery of metals from mine tailings are still experimental, and warrant careful environmental assessment and oversight before being scaled up and put into commercial production.

While Ontarians for a Just Accountable Strategy supports the re-mining of mine wastes to produce the metals we need, we do not support the changes to the Act and Regulations as proposed by the government.

Table of Contents of our brief (attached)
1. LACK OF CONSULTATION WITH FIRST NATIONS ABOUT THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.
2. CHANGE IN STATUTORY DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY
3. CHANGE IN STANDARD REQUIRED FOR RECLAMATION
4. CHANGES TO CLOSURE PLAN REQUIREMENTS
5. LAY THE NECESSARY GROUNDWORK FOR ANTICIPATED REGULATORY AMENDMENTS TO PART VII (REHABILITATION) OF THE ACT
6. REPLACE MINISTRY TECHNICAL REVIEW OF THE CLOSURE PLAN WITH REVIEW BY QUALIFIED PERSONS.
7. ALLOW FINANCIAL ASSURANCE REQUIREMENTS TO BE AMENDED WITHOUT A CLOSURE PLAN AMENDMENT; CODIFY THE PRACTICE OF PHASED FINANCIAL ASSURANCE; ALLOW PLEDGE OF ASSETS AS A SECURITY.
8. ALLOW THE MINISTER TO DEFER OR AMEND REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF THE CLOSURE PLAN, UPON REQUEST OF A PROPONENT
9. CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF “REHABILITATE” AND “PROTECTIVE MEASURES” TO ALLOW “ALTERNATE USES” POST-CLOSURE (SECTION 139)
CONCLUSION