Recognizing People. Inspiring Greatness.
No Dirty Gold
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Monday, March 14, 2011
No Dirty Gold As a business, Rideau understands that corporate citizenship is an important part of its bottom line. As part of our CSR, we signed on to the Golden Rules of the No Dirty Gold Campaign back in 2009. Today, we are proud to be active among its members.The No Dirty Gold campaign is a movement to which gold retailers and manufacturers commit in order to support socially and environmentally responsible gold mining projects. As a leading signatory, Rideau understands the mining industry’s large environmental impact; metal mining is responsible for about one quarter of all toxic waste emissions in the USA every year.
It recently came to our attention that an open-pit gold and copper mining project could take place in British Columbia, Canada, without the consent of the local Aboriginal population. We quickly took action to make sure that this alarming project, named “Prosperity Mine”, would continue to be denied exploitation permits from the federal government.
The "Prosperity" project represents a potential egregious violation of the Golden Rules for responsible mining. For one, the project lacks the free prior and informed consent of the affected community; indeed, the Tsilhqot’in Nation and others strongly oppose the mine. The project would also dump waste directly into a lake, completely destroying it and its fisheries. Such a practice would be clearly against the Golden Rule to not dump mine wastes into the ocean, rivers, or lakes.
This is an important case and an important time for accountability within the mining industry. As a leading signatory to the Golden Rules, Rideau is publically opposing the Prosperity mine and on February 23, 2011 sent the following correspondence to the Federal (The Honourable Peter Kent) and B.C. Provincial (The Honourable Murray Coell) Ministers of the Environment to express our concerns and our objections to this project.
Honourable Ministers,
It has recently come to our attention that the development of the "Prosperity" mine in British Columbia might be put on the table again. We have learned of the concerns of First Nations and others over the plans for the development of the mine. We endorse your previous decision to deny the permit for the mine’s development.
Rideau Recognition Solutions is committed to producing jewellery and medals that are issued from sustainable mining projects. We adhere to the No Dirty Gold commitment, and we consistently seek to source our own metals responsibly. We believe that responsible mining practices must include respecting the rights of First Nations to grant or withhold their consent to mine, and protecting lakes, rivers, and the ocean from mine waste. We share the First Nations’ concerns over the destructive impacts that the planned “Prosperity” mine would have, including on the Teztan Biny (Fish Lake).
Because of the impacts that the mine would have and the failure to obtain the consent of affected communities, we believe that the decision to deny a permit for the planned mine was appropriate.
We hope that you will continue to deny the development permit for “Prosperity” mine, if only to defend the interests of the First Nations’ human and environmental rights.
We share the concerns of the Tsilhqot’in Nation and demand that the “Prosperity” mine project not take place unless it respects human and environmental rights of local populations, present and future. At Rideau, we believe in corporate social responsibility at all business levels.
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