Environmental groups are aligning against a junior miner's controversial gold exploration program on disputed land in northwestern Ontario.
In a March 20 news release, Ecojustice wants the Ontario Securities Commission to investigate God's Lake Resources (GLR) for making “misleading statements in its public filings.”
The First Nation community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninnuwug is joining forces with Ecojustice, CPAWS-Wildlands League, Earthroots and MiningWatch Canada in opposing exploration on leases and claims held by the company.
The group said the company's documents suggest that it is making progress toward an agreement with KI, which Justin Duncan, a lawyer with Ecojustice, said is far from the truth since the community has placed a moratorium on all exploration on land it considers its sacred homeland.
Duncan said since the company has not “communicated this risk to their investors...we have asked the securities commission to investigate whether GLR has violated the Ontario Securities Act.”
Anna Baggio of CPAWS-Wildlands League said investors must be “fully informed” on what steps are being taken by government and the company on achieving First Nation's consent.
In early March, the province withdrew 28,181 square kilometres of land from exploration in the vicinity of KI First Nation, but left the claims of God's Lake Resources intact.
The disputed area where the company is working is 83 kilometres north of the remote village of 1,300 near a past producing mine.
The company is looking to hire protection for an upcoming drilling program, a move the group calls “potentially explosive.”
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