A weeklong uprising in Peru’s Moquegua region has placed strain on copper supplies worldwide.
The unrest began as a small protest over how little in the way of mining profits was being used to help residents of the region, but quickly swelled to 20,000 people blocking major highways and railways, including a border crossing into Chile. [...]

US President George W. Bush and Republican presidential nominee John McCain have both called for Congress to lift laws that banning oil drilling of the coast of the US.
In a recent speech, Bush also pushed other expansions of petroleum infrastructure including drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, building more oil refineries and mining for [...]

Your assistance is needed to stop coal expansion and support resisters on Black Mesa in the Four Corners region of the USA, traditional territory of the Dine’ (Navajo) and Hopi nations.
1. Traditional Dine’ elder and resister Pauline Whitesinger was informed on May 20 that her construction of a ceremonial structure known as a hogon is [...]

An article from Reuters draws attention to one of the system’s most recent attempts to extend its (ultimately doomed) existence as long as possible: getting around oil shortages by transforming coal into liquid fuel on a massive scale.
Coal-to-liquid (CTL) technology was developed approximately 100 years ago, but has only ever been used by Nazi Germany [...]

The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) has condemned the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues’ (PFII) rejection of calls for a moratorium on fossil fuel extraction on indigenous land. Instead of opposing the burning of fossil fuels, the PFII endorsed the practice by lending its support to carbon trading schemes.
During the meeting of the PFII, indigenous [...]

Fifty Chilean activists protested against Barrick Gold’s infamous planned Pascua Lama mine on May 8. Protesters carried giant bags of ice to symbolize the glaciers that are being destroyed by the project, dressed in black bags to commemorate the 15 people who have died as a result of the mine, and spray-painted the company’s office [...]

The influential Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has formally declared its opposition to the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Central to the declaration is CONAIE’s opposition to large-scale mining and to the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA). The confederation emphasized that it is not part of the right-wing opposition.
CONAIE accused [...]

Upside Down World has a good article on Ecuador’s near-total mining freeze that we recommend anyone interested in South American mining issues should read. The gist of it is that on April 15, Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly passed a law canceling 88 percent of mining concessions in the country, including all large metal mines.
The Assembly has [...]

On Thursday May 8, a coalition of indigenous, environmental and community groups in the Panamanian province of Chiriquí blocked both lanes of the Panamerican Highway in protest of open-pit mining and dams. Of particular concern to locals are plans for dams along the Garcés, Gariché, Chiriquí Viejo and Escarria rivers, but the protesters were overtly [...]

The vulnerability of major industrial materials to even short-term disruptions is highlighted by an article on the woes of Codelco Copper, the world’s largest copper producer. A two-week strike at three mines in Chile has reduced the company’s output by 41 percent (19,000 tons), costing it $100 million as of April 29.
Copper prices reached record [...]