Category: Wilderness Defence

Wilder­ness defence

Police Fire Water Cannons to Quell Protest as Baton-Wielding Shop Owners Threaten Reporters in Istanbul

15 July 2013 Police have fired water can­nons and tear gas to the sev­er­al thou­sand pro­test­ers gath­ered on Istanbul’s İstikl­al Avenue to protest a mid­night bill adopt­ed this week by the Par­lia­ment which curbed the super­vi­sion of the Cham­ber of Archi­tects and Engi­neers (TMMOB) i

15 July 2013 Police have fired water can­nons and tear gas to the sev­er­al thou­sand pro­test­ers gath­ered on Istanbul’s İstikl­al Avenue to protest a mid­night bill adopt­ed this week by the Par­lia­ment which curbed the super­vi­sion of the Cham­ber of Archi­tects and Engi­neers (TMMOB) in all urban projects, giv­ing full author­i­ty to the Envi­ron­ment and Urban Plan­ning Min­istry. Some shop own­ers also threat­en­ing­ly attacked with batons reporters an pro­test­ers chased the pro­test­ers into the side streets by the police.

Mem­bers of TMMOB, of whom many were among the most active lead­ers of the Tak­sim Sol­i­dar­i­ty Plat­form that ini­ti­at­ed the protests over the demo­li­tion of Gezi Park in Istan­bul, as well as many pro­test­ers, had joined the demon­stra­tion in Galatasaray Square that start­ed at 5:30 p.m.

How­ev­er, police did not allow the group to walk to Tak­sim Square after the Governor’s Office refused to grant per­mis­sion. Police demand­ed the pro­test­ers to end the demon­stra­tion after the state­ment, warn­ing them that a dis­per­sion by force would be car­ried out against them if they failed to do so. Most of the pro­test­ers dis­persed while the police chased them into the side streets, cut­ting off some of the pedes­tri­an entrances to the İstikl­al Avenue.

Shop own­ers with batons attack pro­test­ers, reporters

After scat­ter­ing, some of the pro­test­ers start­ed to regroup on the İstikl­al Avenue. Water can­non trucks and panz­ers were also dis­patched to the area. Live footage showed riot police using tear gas in the side streets, while reports said that they also fired rub­ber bul­lets to pro­test­ers.

Mean­while, a group of baton-wield­ing shop own­ers attacked pro­test­ers run­ning from the police. They also threat­ened reporters, try­ing to pre­vent them in vain from film­ing and tak­ing their pic­tures.

Police also detained pro­test­ers, includ­ing art schol­ar Osman Erden. Erden was seen bleed­ing from the mouth while he was tak­en into cus­tody.

‘No to crazy projects’

Ear­li­er, a spokesper­son for the group slammed the mid­night bill, say­ing the gov­ern­ment want­ed to “silence” archi­tects and engi­neers to pre­vent hur­dles in grandiose urban projects. “They don’t want us because we are against [Istanbul’s] third bridge, because we said no to Canal Istan­bul,” he said, refer­ring to the mas­sive-scale con­struc­tion works brand­ed as “crazy projects” by Prime Min­is­ter Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Dur­ing his speech, the crowd also chant­ed “no to the third bridge, no to canal Istan­bul, no to crazy projects,” hint­ing that the demands of the pro­test­ers could widen.

The spokesper­son also recalled that many mem­bers of the Tak­sim Sol­i­dar­i­ty Plat­form and oth­er civ­il groups were harassed and ill-treat­ed while in cus­tody, includ­ing Mücel­la Yapıcı, the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of TMMOB’s Istan­bul office.

“We won’t sur­ren­der,” he said.

Pro­test­ers were also seen hold­ing pic­tures of Ali İsm­ail Kork­mez, the fifth Gezi pro­test­er to have died, who passed away this week after suc­cumb­ing to his injuries, inflict­ed by assailants who beat him with sticks.

Ear­li­er, moth­ers whose chil­dren had been detained orga­nized a sit-in in GalatasaraySquare, call­ing for the end of arbi­trary deten­tions.

Gezi Park was opened on July 8 after being in police lock­down for more than three weeks. The open­ing of the park had caused inci­dents as police inter­vened once again against pro­test­ers, tak­ing into cus­tody 50 peo­ple, includ­ing a num­ber of NGO mem­bers.

Midnight Confiscation of Drilling Equipment at New Brunswick Anti-Fracking Protest

 

 

fra15 July 2013 Elsi­pog­tog First Nation, New Brunswick – ”We’ve tak­en it to the next lev­el,” said Grand Elder Ray Robin­son of last night’s events. “The bub­ble is about to burst, if it hasn’t already been burst.”

At approx­i­mate­ly 12 mid­night last night, locals began hear­ing boom­ing sounds char­ac­ter­is­tic of the South­west­ern Ener­gy (SWN) seis­mic test­ing trucks, or ‘thumpers,’ as well as oth­er less famil­iar indus­tri­al sounds near­by. After an online call-out express­ing con­cern that SWN might be attempt­ing to begin drilling under the cov­er of dark­ness, locals and camp mem­bers began to search for the source of the sounds.

Local Elsi­pog­tog war­rior Jason Okay recounts what fol­lowed: “We stopped to ask for direc­tions from a lady’s house that was near the sounds. We told her where we thought the sounds were, and she said ‘No way! That’s my [pri­vate­ly owned] land!’ We said ‘sor­ry ma’am, but your land’s get­ting drilled.’”

Camp mem­bers and locals entered the for­est on the woman’s prop­er­ty to find a crowd of RCMP offi­cers and pri­vate secu­ri­ty forces pro­tect­ing two SWN trucks. Pro­test­ers con­front­ed the RCMP, stat­ing that SWN was oper­at­ing on pri­vate prop­er­ty with­out con­sent and must leave imme­di­ate­ly.

Accord­ing to Okay and oth­er camp sources, pro­test­ers were fol­lowed onto the site by a group of indi­vid­u­als iden­ti­fy­ing them­selves as UN inde­pen­dent observers, who pro­ceed­ed to talk with the RCMP. Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sion, it is report­ed that the “observers” con­vinced the RCMP to escort SWN offi­cials off the prop­er­ty, aban­don­ing the trucks. Elsi­pog­tog res­i­dents con­fis­cat­ed the trucks, tow­ing them onto the Elsi­pog­tog reserve where they are still being held.

Fol­low­ing the aban­don­ment of the site by SWN secu­ri­ty and the RCMP, locals went deep­er into the for­est and dis­cov­ered what are report­ed to be unmanned SWN drilling trucks. Upon inves­ti­gat­ing the sur­round­ing area, a series of large holes in the earth were dis­cov­ered. War­riors and pro­test­ers remain camped out in the area await­ing means to trans­port the equip­ment to the reserve.

“Every­thing should halt,” said Okay of the sig­nif­i­cance of last night’s con­fronta­tion. “SWN should real­ize we don’t want them here … [If we would­n’t have con­fis­cat­ed the equip­ment] they’d be drilling right now.”

Police remain camped out near the entrance to the site of the drills, block­ing any attempts by pro­test­ers to trans­port the equip­ment off-site. Unmarked police vehi­cles dot the high­way near the camp site, and SWN secu­ri­ty vehi­cles have been sight­ed dri­ving past the camp fre­quent­ly. A Glob­al News crew attempt­ed to set up with­out con­sent in front of the camp at approx­i­mate­ly 5:00am this morn­ing, but were evict­ed by camp mem­bers before film­ing began.

Ques­tions about UN observers

 Chief Aaron Sock of Elsi­pog­tog states that he con­tact­ed the UN last week­end to request UN obser­va­tion, in order to main­tain peace between the RCMP and locals due to recent secu­ri­ty con­cerns. Two indi­vid­u­als iden­ti­fied by them­selves and local lead­er­ship as UN Inde­pen­dent Observers have been present on camp for two days since, con­duct­ing inter­views with camp mem­bers, col­lect­ing infor­ma­tion, and last night, pro­vid­ing a medi­at­ing role in con­fronta­tions.

How­ev­er, upon con­tact­ing Wilton Lit­tlechild, Chair­per­son of the Unit­ed Nations Expert Mech­a­nism on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples (EMRIP), Lit­tlechild stat­ed that while he was con­tact­ed by Chief Sock in regards to secu­ri­ty con­cerns at the camp, he had not direct­ly deployed any observers as of yet.

Mean­while, a source in the office of the spokesper­son for the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the UN con­firmed to rabble.ca that there are cur­rent­ly no UN observers any­where in Cana­da.

Despite this lack of clear ver­i­fi­ca­tion, camp mem­bers and First Nations lead­er­ship hold that the indi­vid­u­als have a rela­tion­ship with the UN, point­ing to the RCMP’s respect for the observers’ role as medi­a­tors in last night’s con­fronta­tion as fur­ther evi­dence.

Update – 11:45pm EST: Upon fur­ther dis­cus­sion with local lead­er­ship and the indi­vid­u­als iden­ti­fied as ‘UN Inde­pen­dent Observers,’ it has been made clear that the term ‘Inde­pen­dent Observ­er’ was intend­ed to com­mu­ni­cate that the indi­vid­u­als were not direct­ly employed by the UN. They have been appoint­ed by local lead­er­ship to main­tain a peace­keep­ing role in the camp, and com­pile a report based on their obser­va­tions of the sit­u­a­tion to be inde­pen­dent­ly sub­mit­ted on behalf of the com­mu­ni­ty to the Expert Mech­a­nism on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples (which has been con­firmed by the UN via Wilton Lit­tlechild, Chair­per­son of EMPRIP). The titles of the indi­vid­u­als have been switched to ‘Peace­keep­ers’ to avoid future con­fu­sion.

Claire Stew­art-Kani­gan is a writer from Mon­tre­al cur­rent­ly report­ing from the anti-frack­ing protest camp. See her first dis­patch here. 

Pho­to: Jason Okay

Tasmanian Lockdown Halts Work at Mill

13 July 2013 Activists have vowed to con­tin­ue to tar­get tim­ber proces­sor Ta Ann Tas­ma­nia, after two peo­ple were arrest­ed for chain­ing them­selves to equip­ment at its Smith­ton mill yes­ter­day.

13 July 2013 Activists have vowed to con­tin­ue to tar­get tim­ber proces­sor Ta Ann Tas­ma­nia, after two peo­ple were arrest­ed for chain­ing them­selves to equip­ment at its Smith­ton mill yes­ter­day.

The protest was con­demned by the state gov­ern­ment and frus­trat­ed peak envi­ron­ment groups involved in the forestry peace process.

About 40 peo­ple, includ­ing mem­bers of the Aus­tralia Stu­dent Envi­ron­ment Net­work from across Aus­tralia, forced the mill to grind to a halt yes­ter­day.

Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokes­woman Miran­da Gib­son said the forestry leg­is­la­tion had failed to pro­tect Tasmania’s forests.

Although the leg­is­la­tion passed Par­lia­ment in April, the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil must still approve a pro­tec­tion order for more than 500,000 hectares of forests.

A dura­bil­i­ty report, assess­ing whether the forestry leg­is­la­tion is work­ing since it was passed in April this year, will form the basis of its delib­er­a­tions.

Ms Gib­son said it would be bet­ter off to “start again and find some­thing bet­ter”.

“This agree­ment isn’t going to work: what we still see is forests falling every day,” she said.

A joint state­ment from the three envi­ron­men­tal sig­na­to­ries to the forestry agree­ment described the protest as “uncalled for, unnec­es­sary and  counter to the cre­ation of new reserves in Tas­ma­nia”.

“It is dif­fi­cult to see the envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fit of this action giv­en that Ta Ann Tas­ma­nia sup­ports the pro­tec­tion of half a mil­lion hectares of new for­est reserves and the recent World Her­itage exten­sion,” the state­ment said.

The com­pa­ny said: “The protest is based on false claims about the Tas­man­ian For­est Agree­ment by rad­i­cal groups that have been out­side the process. Ta Ann Tas­ma­nia has com­mit­ted to only pur­chase tim­ber sourced from pro­duc­tion zones autho­rised by the for­est peace leg­is­la­tion.”

With­in hours of  envi­ron­men­tal activists storm­ing  Ta Ann at Smith­ton, pro-devel­op­ment group Unlock Tas­ma­nia had organ­ised a protest of its own – against the protest.

More than 100 peo­ple joined the march down Smithton’s main street to show their sup­port for the work­ers   at Ta Ann.

Spokesman and Lib­er­al can­di­date for Brad­don Joan Rylah said   fly-in activists had no place in Tas­ma­nia.

“Tas­ma­ni­ans have a stark choice between polit­i­cal groups using law-break­ing attacks or  sup­port­ing law-abid­ing groups who sup­port law-abid­ing com­pa­nies employ­ing Tas­man­ian peo­ple,” Mrs Rylah said.

Forest occupation in Belgium needs more people!

Since the first of Juli we have occu­pied a for­est in Wilrijk, south of Antwerp in Bel­gium. It looks like it won’t be a very long occu­pa­tion, because the own­er has already start­ed all the pro­ce­dures to kick us out and the police stops by at least once a day.

Since the first of Juli we have occu­pied a for­est in Wilrijk, south of Antwerp in Bel­gium. It looks like it won’t be a very long occu­pa­tion, because the own­er has already start­ed all the pro­ce­dures to kick us out and the police stops by at least once a day. We urgent­ly need more peo­ple (climbers and ground crew!) to help us occu­py this for­est and make it as hard as pos­si­ble for the police to evict us.


So if you can spare a few days to pro­tect the for­est with your pres­ence and help us build our walk­ways, plat­forms and kitchen, please stop by!

adress: fotografielaan 7
wilrijk
train to antwerp cen­tral
from roo­sevelt­plaats bus 500 to boom
get off close to the piz­za­hut (ask bus­driv­er)
walk to the piz­za­hut, go right, at the end of the road (cows) go right, first left, you’ll see the ban­ners
you can con­tact us at:  steungroep.groenoord@gmail.com
for more info: www.groenoord.be / face­book van ste­un­groep groeno­ord
0485507274

The area has been mapped as a for­est since 1771 and is an eco­log­i­cal­ly very valu­able oak for­est which is a habi­tat for lots of birds and endan­gered bat species. The for­est is a so called wrong­ly zoned for­est, it’s been zoned as an indus­tri­al area since 2005. Flan­ders (the dutch speak­ing part of Bel­gium) is the sec­ond poor­est region in Europe when it comes to forests, only 8 % of the land if for­est. About a third of those forests are wrong­ly zoned which means they are often threat­ened. Most of these forests are cut with­out any­one ever know­ing. So we are not just fight­ing for this spe­cif­ic for­est, we are fight­ing for a more just for­est pol­i­cy in Flan­ders.

The own­er wants to cut the for­est to build an office and stor­age space, but it is not clear if they have some­one to rent it yet. Their old part­ner end­ed the con­tract because the plans were delayed.

There’s heaps of emp­ty office build­ings in Flan­ders. With­in a minute’s walk from the for­est there’s 4 emp­ty build­ings that could be ren­o­vat­ed or bro­ken down to make space for a new build­ing. Yet they still want to cut the for­est.

Because they have nev­er done prop­er geo­log­i­cal stud­ies there’s big prob­lems with the water in the area. The water can’t go any­where so part of the for­est is often under water, which has killed a lot of the trees. Mea­sures need to be tak­en to ensure the sur­vival of the for­est.

When­ev­er cut­ting forests in Flan­ders, they talk about com­pen­sa­tion. Which is bull­shit. You can’t just cut a for­est here and plant a new one some­where else.

It is about time we realise that trees have an intrin­sic val­ue and stop think­ing only about mon­ey.

NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH

Help us defend the trees!

groeNo­ord / Groen­front! (Earth First!)

 

Wisconsin Mining Company Hires Paramilitary Guards

9 July 2013 Min­ing com­pa­ny Goge­bic Taconite has hired para­mil­i­tary guards from Ari­zona firm Bul­let­proof Secu­ri­ties Force fol­low­ing a protest at its explorato­ry mine site in Wisconsin’s Peno­kee Hills in which some minor van­dal­ism occurred.

From Pop­u­lar Resis­tance:

Peo­ple who live near the large taconite mine in Peno­kee Hills, WI are grow­ing con­cerned about the pres­ence of mil­i­tary-style armed guards. The mine is not active yet, but pro­posed with drilling and sam­pling tak­ing place….

Dear Neigh­bors — GTAC now has men in mil­i­tary fatigues with auto­mat­ic weapons in the Peno­kee Hills– lands that you have legal access to as they are in Man­aged For­est sta­tus. IS THIS THE KIND OF BUSINESS we want in our com­mu­ni­ty?

The pub­li­ca­tion of pho­tos of the guards, bear­ing auto­mat­ic rifles while dressed in com­bat fatigues and some­times even masked, has stirred up a firestorm in Wis­con­sin, and two state leg­is­la­tors have already asked the com­pa­ny to remove the armed guards, not­ing that the guards have no legal author­i­ty to use force.

Peru: police fire on Cajamarca protesters —again

8th July 2013 Nation­al Police troops in Peru’s Caja­mar­ca region opened fire July 6 on campesinos attempt­ing to attend the pub­lic pre­sen­ta­tion of an envi­ron­men­tal impact state­ment on the 

8th July 2013 Nation­al Police troops in Peru’s Caja­mar­ca region opened fire July 6 on campesinos attempt­ing to attend the pub­lic pre­sen­ta­tion of an envi­ron­men­tal impact state­ment on the Chadín II hydro-elec­tric project at the high­land town of Celendín, wit­ness­es said. Accord­ing to a state­ment from the group Tier­ra y Lib­er­tad, nine were wound­ed when the troops fired on the oppo­nents of the project who were try­ing to gain access to the pub­lic build­ing where the meet­ing was being held. Mar­le Libaque Tasil­la, a leader of the local ron­da, or peas­ant self-defense patrol, and an orga­niz­er for Tier­ra y Lib­er­tad, said that among the injured is the not­ed Peru­vian envi­ron­men­tal­ist Nicanor Alvara­do Car­ras­co.

The Chadín II project is con­ceived to speed the devel­op­ment of min­ing projects in Caja­mar­ca, and is slat­ed to pro­vide ener­gy to the Yana­cocha com­pa­ny which is devel­op­ing the con­tro­ver­sial Con­ga project. Thou­sands of local res­i­dents stand to be dis­placed by the Chadín II project, which would flood some 3,000 hectares along the Río Marañon, a major trib­u­tary of the Ama­zon. Protests against the hydro project were held in the affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties late last year. (Tier­ra y Lib­er­tad via Kaos en La Red, July 7; Noti­ci­asSER, Dec. 12)

The shoot­ing inci­dent occurred three days after Celendín held offi­cial com­mem­o­ra­tions for the five campesinos killed by Nation­al Police last July dur­ing protests against the Con­ga project. A spe­cial mass was held at Celendín’s church, fol­lowed by a pub­lic pro­ces­sion to the ceme­tery where the mar­tyrs lie bured. (Celendin Libre, July 4)

Hundreds Shut Down Chemical Supplier in NC Fracking Protest

9238329523_b11d5ad684_h 8 July 2013 UPDATE: Many have been a

9238329523_b11d5ad684_h 8 July 2013 UPDATE: Many have been arrest­ed at today’s action for blockad­ing chem­i­cal ship­ments and in attempt­ed lock­downs. One activist is still up in a tri­pod and being denied sup­port. Please sup­port them by send­ing dona­tions to the Croatan Earth First! legal fund here 

More pho­tos of the action here

First tri­pod sit­ter and oth­er activists block Momen­tive facil­i­ty gate as pro­test­ers occu­py tanker

By halting delivery of fracking proppants protesters hope to stall fracking efforts in North Carolina. See bottom of article for list of Momentive facilities worldwide, and take action! 

Mor­gan­ton, NC – On the edge of the west­ern moun­tain range, pro­test­ers with Croatan Earth First! are cur­rent­ly occu­py­ing an indus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty owned by Momen­tive and locat­ed at 114 Indus­tri­al Dri­ve.  North Car­olini­ans, who have been fight­ing to pre­vent hydraulic frac­tur­ing from com­ing to cen­tral North Car­oli­na are joined in this action by peo­ple from around the coun­try who also oppose shale gas extrac­tion nation­wide.  Momen­tive is one of the largest world­wide dis­trib­u­tors of “resin coat­ed prop­pants,”  a nec­es­sary com­po­nent for frack­ing.  Each frac­tur­ing stage requires approx­i­mate­ly 136 tonnes of prop­pants.   

 “We are here to send a mes­sage to the oil and gas indus­tries: we will not stand idly by as you destroy this land, or any oth­er, for your per­son­al prof­it. Respect exis­tence, or expect resis­tance,” said an Earth First! activist.

 

Second tripod blocking Momentive driveway

Sec­ond tri­pod block­ing Momen­tive dri­ve­way

The North Car­oli­na leg­is­la­ture plans to begin per­mit­ting frack sites as ear­ly as March 2015 in the Cum­nock Shale Basin locat­ed under­neath Lee, Moore, Chatham, and sur­round­ing coun­ties.  Frack­ing has been tied to water aquifer con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in Pavil­ion, Wyoming accord­ing to an EPA study and linked to high lev­els of methane in Penn­syl­va­nia water wells accord­ing to a study by Duke Uni­ver­si­ty.  Researchers with Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty found that frack­ing oper­a­tions nation­wide released mas­sive amounts of methane (a green­house gas) straight into the atmos­phere, and con­clud­ed that, if not curbed, would speed cli­mate change faster than car­bon emis­sions. 

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The NC leg­is­la­ture is nego­ti­at­ing on the pos­si­bil­i­ty of legal­iz­ing tox­ic waste­water injec­tion in state or trans­port­ing it else­where.  The process uses 1–8 mil­lion gal­lons of clean water each time a well is fracked.

  “We are under drought con­di­tions already, yet the oil and gas indus­try is allowed to pump mil­lions of gal­lons of water out of our streams.  This is dev­as­tat­ing life in our rivers and streams.  To make mat­ters worse they send this water back into the river­ways poi­soned with radioac­tive mate­ri­als,” said orga­niz­er Lydia Nick­les.  “Pre­serv­ing our waters is pre­serv­ing our lives and all life. We want an end to shale gas extrac­tion every­where.”     

Activists with the Earth First! Move­ment are call­ing on peo­ple nation­wide to resist frack­ing where they live and orga­nize sol­i­dar­i­ty actions. 

“Even if you don’t have a rig in your area to shut down, you can affect the indus­try.   Momen­tive and oth­er com­pa­nies that cre­ate prop­pants for the gas indus­try have facil­i­ties nation­wide as well as inter­na­tion­al­ly.  It’s time to dis­rupt the chain of sup­ply.  Go to www.frackindustry.org and orga­nize to take action now!” 

Momentive’s world­wide head­quar­ters are locat­ed in Colum­bus, Ohio and oth­er loca­tions can be found online at:  http://www.momentive.com/locations_home.aspx?id=293

A mes­sage from Croatan Earth First!:  “We are act­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with and take inspi­ra­tion from the coura­geous many who have been stand­ing togeth­er to take action in the North Car­oli­na cap­i­tal dur­ing Moral Mon­days, and we encour­age every­one to con­tin­ue to show our col­lec­tive pow­er, act­ing up against the repres­sive cor­po­rate and leg­isla­tive pow­ers for the lib­er­a­tion of all and the integri­ty of land, water and air.”

 

Croatan Earth First! encourages others to follow this example and take action against fracking and proppant manufacturing facilities. Find a location near you:

Momentive Worldwide Locations

Amer­i­c­as

Brazil

Cotia
Par­que Alexan­dre 502Cotia, SP06714–285 Brazil
Curiti­ba
 Rua Cyro Cor­rea Pereira,2525 – CICCuriti­ba, PR81450–090 Brazil
Itat­i­ba
Rodovia Engen­heiro Con­stan­cio Cin­tra Km 78,5
Dis­tri­to Indus­tri­al Alfre­do Rela
Itat­i­ba, Brazil
13255–846
Mon­tene­gro
 RS 124, esquina com via 2Mon­tene­groBrazil
Paulinia
 Fazen­da São Fran­cis­cos/n° CP 921,Paulinia, Sao Paulo13140–000 Brazil
 

Cana­da

Cal­gary
633 6th Avenue, SW, #400Cal­gary, ABT2P 2Y5 Cana­da
Edmon­ton
12621 156th St NWEdmon­ton, ABT5V 1E1 Cana­da
St-Romuald
675 Per­reaultSt-Romuald, QuébecG6W 7Z9 Cana­da
Stur­geon
305 Park RdFort Saskatchewan, ABCana­da

Colom­bia

Cali
Calle 154  #1–25Cali, Yum­boColom­bia

Mex­i­co

Mex­i­co
 Aveni­da Juarez No. 40
Int.206
Col. ExHa­cien­da San­ta Mon­i­ca
EDM 54050, Mex­i­co

Unit­ed States

Alaba­ma

Demopo­lis, AL
1700 Lock & Dam RoadDemopo­lis, AL36732 USA

Arkansas

Batesville, AR
2120 N. St Louis StBatesville, AR 72501
Hope, AR
185 North Indus­tri­al Dri­veHope, AR71801 USA

Cal­i­for­nia

Chi­no, CA
 4045 Cheyenne Court
Chi­no, CA
91710 USA
Fre­mont, CA
41100 Boyce RoadFre­mont, CA94538 USA

Flori­da

Lake­land, FL
2525 South Combee RoadLake­land, FL33801 USA
New Smyr­na Beach, FL
703 South Street 
New Smyr­na Beach, FL
32168–5867 USA

Geor­gia

Colum­bus, GA
6906 Dix­ie StreetColum­bus, GA31907 USA
Colum­bus, GA
1201 10th AvenueColum­bus, GA31901 USA

Illi­nois

Argo, IL
8600 West 71st StreetBed­ford Park, IL60501 USA
Ore­gon, IL
1449 Devil’s Back­bone RoadOre­gon, IL61061 USA
West­mont, IL
630 Oak­mont LaneWest­mont, IL60559 USA
 

Indi­ana

Gar­rett, IN
 500 North Tay­lor Road
Gar­rett, IN
46738–1846 USA

Ken­tucky

Louisville, KY
1800 Mei­dinger Tow­erLouisville,  KY 40216
Louisville, KY
6200 Camp­ground RoadLouisville, KY40216 USA
Louisville, KY(2)
6210 Camp­ground RoadLouisville, KY40216
 

Louisiana

Alexan­dria, LA
 3901 Sug­ar House RoadAlexan­dria, LA71302 USA
Baton Rouge, LA
 18167 East Petro­le­um Dri­veBaton Rouge, LA70809 USA
Geis­mar, LA
9288 Hwy. 75Geis­mar, LA70734 USA
Gon­za­les, LA
 9288 Hwy. 75 Riv­er RoadGeis­mar, LA70734 USA
Nor­co, LA
16122 Riv­er RoadWest Site Admin Bldg.Nor­co, LA70079 USA
 

Mon­tana

Mis­soula, MT
3670 Grant Creek RoadMis­soula, MT59808 USA

New York

More­au, NY
64 Far­nan RoadSouth Glens Falls, NY12803 USA
Tar­ry­town, NY
 769 Old Saw Mill Riv­er Road
Tar­ry­town, NY
10591 USA
Water­ford, NY
 260 Hud­son Riv­er Road
Water­ford, NY
12188 USA
 

North Car­oli­na

Acme, NC
 333 Neils Eddy RoadRiegel­wood, NC28456 USA
Char­lotte
 1950 Con­ti­nen­tal Boule­vard
Char­lotte, NC
28273 USA
Fayet­teville, NC
1411 Indus­tri­al Dri­veFayet­teville, NC28301 USA
High Point, NC
1717 Ward StreetHigh Point, NC27260 USA
Huntersville
 9930 Kincey Avenue
Huntersville, NC
28078–6468 USA
Lenoir, NC
Miller Hill RoadLenoir, NC28645 USA
Mor­gan­ton, NC
114 Indus­tri­al Blvd.Mor­gan­ton, NC28655 USA
Reigel­wood, NC
333 Neils Eddy RoadReigel­wood, NC 28456

Ohio

Colum­bus, OH
 180 East Broad  StreetColum­bus, OH43215 USA
Gahan­na, OH
630 Mor­ri­son Rd, Suite 300Gahan­na, OH43232 USA
Newark, OH
 611 O’Neill Dri­ve SE
Hebron, OH
43025–9680 USA
Rich­mond Heights, OH
 24400 High­land Road
Rich­mond Heights, OH
44143–2503 USA
Strongsville, OH
 22557 West Lunn Road
Strongsville, OH
44149–4871 USA
Tole­do, OH
 4243 South AvenueTole­do, OH43615 USA
Willough­by, OH
 4901 Camp­bell Road
Willough­by, OH
44094–3366 USA
 

Okla­homa

Okla­homa City, OK
4601 S. MacArthurOkla­homa City, OK73179 USA

Ore­gon

LaGrande, OR
62575 Ore­gon Hwy 82Island City, OR97850 USA
Port­land, OR
10915 N. Lom­bardPort­land, OR97203 USA
Spring­field, OR
470 South Sec­ond StreetSpring­field, OR97477 USA
Spring­field, OR
610 South Sec­ond StreetSpring­field, OR97477 USA
Spring­field, OR(2)
155 West “A” A‑1Spring­field, OR 97477
 

Penn­syl­va­nia

Mount Jew­ett, PA
253 Bor­den Dri­veMount Jew­ett, PA16740 USA

South Car­oli­na

Roe­buck, SC
200 Rail­road StreetRoe­buck, SC29376 USA

Texas

Bay­town, TX
8450 West Bay RoadBay­town, TX77520 USA
Brady, TX
45 Acfrac Rd. & Old Mason RoadBrady, TX76825 USA
Cle­burne, TX
3202 Wind­mill RoadCle­burne, TX76033 USA
Deer Park, TX
5900 High­way 225Deer Park, TX77536 USA
Diboll, TX
100 W. Bor­den Dri­veDiboll, TX75941 USA
Hous­ton, TX
12650 Direc­tors Dr, Suite 100Stafford, TX77477 USA
Hous­ton, TX
15366 Park RowHous­ton, TX77084 USA
Longview, TX
10 Robert Wil­son RoadLongview, TX75602–4886 USA

Wash­ing­ton

Belle­vue, WA
 520 112th Ave NE, Suite 220Belle­vue, WA98004 USA

West Vir­ginia

Sis­tersville, WV
3500 South State Route 2
Friend­ly, WV
26146–9750 USA

Wis­con­sin

She­boy­gan, WI
 2522 South 24th StreetShe­boy­gan, WI53081 USA

 

Asia Pacif­ic

Aus­tralia

Brim­bank
 Gate 3 – 765 Bal­larat Road
Deer Park, VIC
3023
Aus­tralia
Bris­bane
194 Paringa RdGib­son Island, Murar­rie, QLD4172 Aus­tralia
Somers­by
3 War­ringah CloseSomers­by, NSW2250 Aus­tralia
 

Chi­na

Nan­tong
Nan­tong Eco­nom­ic Tech Devel­op­ment ParkNan­tong, Chi­na
Shang­hai
No. 227 Lib­ing Road
Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Pudong
Shang­hai 201203
Chi­na

India

Ban­ga­lore
 The Mil­lenia, Tow­er B, 4th Floor, Mur­phy Road, Ulsoor
Ban­ga­lore – 560008
India

Japan

Kobe
Kobe Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Cen­ter, North5–5‑2 Mina­to­ji­ma Minami­machi,Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyo­go650‑0047
Kozu­ki
Kozu­ki580–39 Aza Koseno-uchiKuza­ki-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyo­go679‑5641
Ohta
 Ohta133, Nishi-shin­machiOhta, Gun­ma373‑8505
Japan
Tokyo
Akasa­ka Park Build­ing5–2‑20, Akasa­kaMina­to-ku, Tokyo107‑6109Japan

Korea

Seoul
Gu-Plaza Bldg, 8th Fl,63–14,  Sin­su DongSEOUL, 121–854, KOREA
Ulsan
580–3, Hwasan-ri, Onsan-eup, Ulju-gunUlsan,Korea

Malaysia

Sg. Petani
Petani Sdn Bhd (370808‑K)C 22 Susur Lencon­gan Timur Kanan, Kawasan Perindus­tri­an Cen­dana Sun­gai Petani0800 Malaysia

New Zealand

Horn­by
135 ‑147 Water­loo Road – Horn­by
Christchurch, Can­ter­bury
8042
New Zealand
Mountview
165 Totara Street
Mt. Maun­ganui
3118
New Zealand

Sin­ga­pore

Sin­ga­pore
100 Beach Road#20–01/02 Shaw Tow­erSin­ga­pore 189702

Tai­wan

Taipei
11F‑1, No. 171 Sung Der RoadTaipei11085 Tai­wan

Thai­land

Bangkok
3195/6, Vibulthani Tow­er 11st Floor, Rama IV RoadKlong­ton, Klong­toeyBangkok10110 Thai­land
Ray­ong
 1/2 M00 4 Asia Indus­tri­al Estate
Ray­ong
21130 Thai­land
Samut­sako­rn
84/2 Moo 4, Tam­bol Bang­torad Rama II Road, km 41Samut­sako­rn7400 Thai­land
 

 

Europe, Mid­dle East and Africa

Bel­gium

Lou­vain
Avenue Jean Mon­net 1Ottig­nies Lou­vain-la-Neuve,1348 Bel­gium
Zwi­jn­drecht
 Haven 1053 Nieuwe Weg 1
2070 Zwi­jn­drecht
Bel­gium

Czech Repub­lic

Par­du­bice
Are­al Uma53354 Par­du­bice SemtínCzech Repub­lic
Prague
 Luz­na 716/2
16000 Prague 6
Czech Repub­lic
Sokolov
Tovární c.p. 209335601 SokolovCzech Repub­lic
 

Fin­land

Puhos
Teol­lisu­ustie 20 BPuhos,FIN-82430 Fin­land

France

La Rochette
 41 Rue Corot
77000 La Rochette
France
Ribé­court
704, rue Pierre et Marie Curie60772 Ribé­courtFrance
Rouen
 3 et 5 Rue Bar­bet76250 Déville-les-Rouen,France
 

Ger­many

Duis­burg
Varzin­er Str. 4947138 Duis­burgGer­many
Frie­len­dorf
Glock­en­rain 234621 Frie­len­dorfGer­many
Geesthacht
 Bor­sigstraße 1–7
21502 Geesthacht
Ger­many
Iser­lohn-Let­mathe
Gen­naer Str. 2–458642 Iser­lohnGer­many
Leu­na
Am Haupt­tor, Bau 610106237 Leu­naGer­many
Lev­erkusen
 Chempark, Build­ing V 7
51368 Lev­erkusen
Ger­many
Stuttgart
Fritz Mueller Str. 114Esslin­gen am Neckar,D‑73730Ger­many
Wes­sel­ing, Ger­many
Bruh­ler Strasse 1450389 Wes­sel­ingGer­many

Italy

Sant Albano
Via Moroz­zo, 2712040 Sant Albano Stu­raItaly
Sol­bi­ate Olona
Via Mazz­i­ni, 104I‑21058 Sol­bi­ate Olona, VAItaly
Ter­moli
 Zona Indus­tri­ale, Calle Poste 79CP 79 86039 Ter­moli (CB)
Italy
 

Nether­lands

Cham­ber of Com­merce Num­ber 2429476

Bergen op Zoom
Plas­tic­slaan 1, 4612 PX
Bergen op Zoom
The Nether­lands
Moerdijk, Nether­lands
Chemieweg 254782SJ Moerdijk,The Nether­lands
Per­nis
Von­delin­gen­weg 601Har­bour no. 31903196 KK Hoogvli­et Rt, Per­nisThe Nether­lands
Rot­ter­dam
Seat­tleweg 173195 ND Rot­ter­dam, Port­parkThe Nether­lands
Rot­ter­dam, Botlek
Chemies­traat 303197 KB Rot­ter­dam, BotlekThe Nether­lands
 

Poland

Warza­wa
 Odd­zial w Polsce ul. Smolen­skiego 4/10
01 – 698 Warza­wa
Poland

Rus­sia

Moscow
 Ulit­sa Smol­naya 24 D125445 MoscowRus­sia

South Africa

South Africa
 10 Quark Cres­cent, Lin­bro Busi­ness Park, Sand­ton
2065 South Africa, Merid­i­an Com­mer­cial Tow­er
South Africa

Spain

Asua
Camino de San­groniz num 848150 Sondi­ka (Viz­caya)Spain
Bar­bas­tro
Pol.  Indus­tri­al Valle del Cina22300 Bar­bas­tro (Huesca)Spain
Lan­tarón
Pol. Ind. De Lantero cp 121301213 Lan­tarón (Ala­va)Spain
 

Turkey

Turkey
Beykoz, Kavacik Mahalle­si Cavus­basi Cad­de­si Yayabey
Sok­a­gi no. 12, c/o South­ern Chem­i­cals (Pty)
Turkey

UK

Bar­ry
Sul­ly Moors RoadSul­ly Penarth, South Glam­or­ganCF64 5YU Unit­ed King­dom
Chan­dlers Ford
School LaneChan­dlers FordUnit­ed King­dom
Clay­ton
Ash­ton New RoadClay­ton, Man­ches­terM11 4AT Unit­ed King­dom
Cowie
Sta­tion RoadCowie, Stir­lingFK7 7BQ Unit­ed King­dom
Lostock
 5, Cran­field Road, Lostock Indus­tri­al Estate, Lostock
Bolton BL 64QD
Unit­ed King­dom
Peter­lee
North West Indus­tri­al EstatePeter­lee, Co. DurhamSR8 2HR Unit­ed King­dom
Stan­low, Unit­ed King­dom
Stan­low Mfg Com­plexEllesmere PortCH65 4HB Unit­ed King­dom
 

Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates

Dubai
 PO Box 17193Jebel AliDubai

 

Protest halts Newmont Gold work in NZ

7 July 2013 Pro­test­ers have occu­pied a min­ing explo­ration site on con­ser­va­tion land in the Coro­man­del Penin­su­la.

7 July 2013 Pro­test­ers have occu­pied a min­ing explo­ration site on con­ser­va­tion land in the Coro­man­del Penin­su­la.

The protest, in the Paraki­wai Val­ley near Whanga­ma­ta, stopped work at the site dur­ing the week­end.

Coro­man­del Watch­dog spokes­woman Renee Annan said about 10 pro­test­ers asked work­ers to turn the drilling rig off on Sat­ur­day morn­ing and the two groups had remained in a calm stand off since.

New­mont Gold exec­u­tives flew in by heli­copter and told the pro­test­ers they were tres­pass­ing, Ms Annan told NZ Newswire.

How­ev­er, there was no sign of police get­ting involved yet, she said.

The area should have been includ­ed in Sched­ule Four Con­ser­va­tion land when the park was cre­at­ed, she said.

It was home to the crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered Archey’s frog species, and oth­er rare species such as Helms but­ter­fly and Coro­man­del brown kiwi.

Ms Annan said that while the drilling was only explorato­ry, it should still be banned from con­ser­va­tion land.

The group would give New­mont the infor­ma­tion it need­ed to decide whether or not to mine.

“Any kind of min­ing is total­ly inap­pro­pri­ate in this area.”

New­mont could not be con­tact­ed for com­ment.

Activists Withdraw from Rig after 30-hour Occupation

7 July 2013 Anti-min­ing activists have with­drawn from a camp out on a Coro­man­del Penin­su­la gold drilling rig after occu­py­ing the site over 30 hours.

7 July 2013 Anti-min­ing activists have with­drawn from a camp out on a Coro­man­del Penin­su­la gold drilling rig after occu­py­ing the site over 30 hours.

Coro­man­del Watch­dog activists had camped out on the New­mont drilling rig in Paraki­wai Val­ley, near Whanga­ma­ta, pre­vent­ing it from oper­at­ing.

Watch­dog spokes­woman Renee Annan said the group had with­drawn after achiev­ing its goal of shut­ting down oper­a­tions for more than 30 hours.

“We have achieved our pur­pose, which was to high­light that this area should nev­er be mined.

“We camped for two days on the drilling rig in the remote for­est because we want to pro­tect the envi­ron­ment and the endan­gered species in this for­est,” Miss Annan said.

The area is not pro­tect­ed by Sched­ule Four in the Crown Min­er­als Act, some­thing Ms Annan called “an acci­dent of his­to­ry”.

Sched­ule Four lists high­est val­ue con­ser­va­tion lands that are not allowed to be mined.

“We will con­tin­ue to take peace­ful action against Newmont’s attempts to drill for gold in the For­est Park, a For­est Park which is the habi­tat of the rarest frog in the world.

“New­mont have flown in more secu­ri­ty guards this after­noon to pro­tect New­mont when real­ly they should be help­ing us pro­tect the envi­ron­ment,” Ms Annan said.

The group was joined by 30 local res­i­dents today who were sup­port­ive of the protest.

New­mont also oper­ates Martha Mine in Wai­hi.

Honduras: Anti-Mining Activists Report Death Threats

5 July 2013 Mem­bers of com­mu­ni­ties oppos­ing open-pit min­ing in the north­ern Hon­duran depart­ment of Atlán­ti­da have received death threats because of their activitism, accord­ing to a June 7 com­mu­niqué issued by the

5 July 2013 Mem­bers of com­mu­ni­ties oppos­ing open-pit min­ing in the north­ern Hon­duran depart­ment of Atlán­ti­da have received death threats because of their activitism, accord­ing to a June 7 com­mu­niqué issued by the Broad Move­ment for Dig­ni­ty and Jus­tice (MADJ) and the Atlán­ti­da Envi­ron­men­tal­ist Move­ment (MAA). The groups said police agents in the ser­vice of Lenir Pérez, own­er of the Alutech met­al com­pa­ny, assault­ed mem­bers of the Nue­va Esper­an­za com­mu­ni­ty on June 3, intim­i­dat­ing them and mak­ing death threats. On June 6 the res­i­dents received addi­tion­al death threats from a group of “heav­i­ly armed men” oper­at­ing in the area with the sup­port of the nation­al police, the com­mu­niqué charged. The groups blamed Tela munic­i­pal­i­ty may­or David Zac­caro, who “instead of sup­port­ing the com­mu­ni­ties has made com­mon cause with the mine own­ers, espe­cial­ly Lenir Pérez…who is car­ry­ing out vio­lence and pro­vok­ing the com­mu­ni­ties.”

In a sep­a­rate state­ment, a Catholic group, the Caret­ian Mis­sion­ar­ies, charged on June 10 that “alleged minework­ers” had made threats by text mes­sage on Jan. 28 to Father César Espinoza, a priest who oppos­es the min­ing, and to nuns in the group. The MADJ and the MAA asked for nation­al and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions to write to Human Rights Min­is­ter Ana Pine­da (apineda@sjdh.gob.hn), Direc­tor of Pro­tec­tion for Human Rights Defend­ers Rodil Vazquez (rvasquez@sjdh.gob.hn), May­or Zac­caro (alcaldiadetela@yahoo.com) and oth­er offi­cials to ask the gov­ern­ment to end the repres­sion and the threats. (Religión Dig­i­tal (Madrid) 6/15/13; Adi­tal (Brazil) 6/25/13)

Mean­while, vio­lence con­tin­ues against campesinos demand­ing land in north­ern Hon­duras’ Low­er Aguán Val­ley. On the morn­ing of May 30 gun­men on a motor­cy­cle shot campesino leader Mar­vin Arturo Trochez Zúñi­ga and his son Dar­win Alexan­der Trochez dead while they were drink­ing cof­fee in their res­i­dence in La Cei­ba, Atlántida’s depart­men­tal cap­i­tal. Mar­vin Trochez’s wife was seri­ous­ly injured. The dou­ble mur­der brings the num­ber of campesinos killed in the dis­pute since Jan­u­ary 2010 to 104, accord­ing to the North Amer­i­can group Rights Watch.

Mar­vin Trochez was active in the Campesino Move­ment of Nation­al Recla­ma­tion (MCRN). He was a lead­ing fig­ure in the June 2011 occu­pa­tion of the Paso Aguán estate, which is man­aged by cook­ing oil mag­nate Miguel Facussé Barjum’s Grupo Dinant com­pa­ny; at least five peo­ple, includ­ing four secu­ri­ty guards, were killed in a vio­lent con­fronta­tion there on Aug. 14, 2011 [see Update #1093]. A year lat­er, on Aug. 9, 2012, Mar­vin Trochez’s old­est son, also named Mar­vin, was killed on the estate along with anoth­er campesino iden­ti­fied only as “Car­los.” Three more MCRN mem­bers, Orlan­do Cam­pos, Rey­nal­do Rivera Paz and José Omar Rivera Paz, were shot dead on Nov. 3 [see Update #1151]. Fear­ing for his own life, Mar­vin Trochez began car­ry­ing a hand­gun, but this led to his arrest for ille­gal weapons pos­ses­sion. He even­tu­al­ly went into hid­ing with his fam­i­ly in La Cei­ba, where he had rel­a­tives. (La Haine (Spain) 6/5/13 from Movimien­to Unifi­ca­do Campesino del Aguán (MUCA); Rights Action press release 6/6/13 via Scoop (New Zealand))