Canada: Juggernaut Exploration to cease operations and leave Nuxalk territory

FRIENDS OF MININGWATCH 16 August 2021, 4.33pm EDT

Source: Nuxalk Nation

(Bella Coola, BC) On behalf of Nuxalk Administration, the elected Chief and Council support the Nuxalk Stataltmc (ancestral governance) in their eviction of unauthorized mining in Nuxalkulmc (Nuxalk territory). Mining company Juggernaut Explorations must immediately cease its operations, remove their equipment, return the core samples, and leave the area.

“Juggernaut Explorations does not have Nuxalk consent to operate in our territory,” said elected Chief Samuel Schooner. “As Chief and Council, we support the actions of our Stataltmc, who have issued an eviction order to the company.”

Juggernaut Explorations, a Vancouver-based mining exploration company, has been conducting test drilling on two sites in Nuxalk territory for the past several weeks. They are looking for gold and other precious metals and are breaking Nuxalk law.

“We understand the risks of industrial resource extraction in our territory, especially mining,” said Schooner. “Any type of mining operation is extremely dangerous to the wellbeing of our territory and our people.

“One only need to look at the Mt. Polley Mine disaster of 2014 in our neighbouring territory of the Secwepemc to see the devastation mining can cause. We are united with our ancestral leadership and do not support any mining operation in Nuxalk territory.”

The Nuxalk Nation has never ceded rights and title to its territory, nor has it entered into any treaty negotiations with the Canadian government.

Nuxalk Stataltmc have appointed Nuskmata (Jacinda Mack), who has both Nuxalk and Secwepemc ancestry, to speak on their behalf regarding this issue. She has extensive experience in community advocacy regarding mining and was instrumental in the response to the Mt. Polley Mine tailings breach in 2014, when more than 26 million litres of tailings effluent containing toxic copper and gold mining waste flowed into Quesnel Lake.

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