Video of Tahltan blockade against Imperial Metals Red Chris Mine

Tahtlan blockade Imperial Metals’ Red Chris Mine

Tahtlan, members of Secwepemc delegation, and comrades from Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe Camp blockade Red Chris Mine site, Sept 29, 2014.

from Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe Camp, Sept 29, 2014

On Day 56 of the disaster we are burning. The sacred fire lit by the Secwepemc women on August 18th 2014 at the Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine site has spread, is spreading.

We spend the morning at the Klabona Keepers hunting blockade finalizing plans and then acting them out. It’s time. After our presentation and meeting on Imperial Metals Mount Polley mine, the Klabona Keepers, the Tahltan elders come to a consensus decision. Now is the time to mobilize.

Tahltan shut down northern B.C. drilling site

Tahltan Klabona Keepers during blockade of Fortune Minerals mine, 2013.

by Mark Hume, The Globe and Mail, Sept 9, 2014

After a summer of protests aimed at mining companies, members of the Tahltan Nation in northern B.C. say they have shut down an exploratory drilling operation by taking over the site.

“HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!!!” states a Monday night posting on the Facebook page for Tahltan elders. “The Klabona Keeper members are occupying a black hawk drill pad above Ealue Lake!!!”

The elders’ group, which is based in Iskut just south of Dease Lake, has staged several protests in the area in recent years blocking resource companies from working in a place known as the Sacred Headwaters. The region is highly valued by the Tahltan because it holds the headwaters of three important salmon rivers – the Stikine, Skeena and Nass.

Tahltan Blackhawk Drill Takeover

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/105731516″>Blackhawk Drill Takeover</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/beyondboarding”>BeyondBoarding</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

On the evening of September 8th, the Klabona Keepers, an organization of Tahltan elders and families from Iskut, British Columbia, occupied and shut down a Black Hawk Drill Pad. The drill pad is 4km east of highway 37, and one of seven different exploration sites.

Tahltan call for blockade of Imperial Metals mine in wake of Mt. Polley disaster

Tahltan Klabona Keepers during blockade of Fortune Minerals mine, 2013.

Water-use ban remains in effect until further testing, official says

By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun, August 8, 2014

LIKELY — A group of Tahltan First Nation elders is adding to the opposition of mining projects in British Columbia following the Mount Polley tailings-dam failure calling for a blockade today of the Red Chris mine project near Iskut in the far northwest.

Red Chris, a $500-million copper gold mine under construction, and the Mount Polley mine north are both owned by Imperial Metals Corp. and the elders, under the name the Klabona Keepers, issued an advisory calling for the action “in response to the (Mount Polley Mine) disaster and our serious concerns over (Red Chris Mine).

Mount Polley mine disaster a blow to First Nations cooperation on B.C. mines

Some of the devastation caused by Mount Polley tailings pond rupture.

By Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, August 6, 2014

The blow that the Mount Polley mine tailings-pond collapse has dealt to the confidence of B.C. First Nations in mine safety may be the biggest challenge facing the industry following the incident. Mine owner Imperial Metals Corp. experienced an immediate financial hit — its share price plummeted about 40 per cent on news of the failure and of the mine’s indefinite closure, slashing the market value of the company to $760 million from $1.26 billion before the spill.

Mining is a key pillar of Premier Christy Clark’s economic platform, and one new mine slated to be opened later this year is Imperial’s $500-million Red Chris copper-gold mine in B.C.’s remote northwest.

Tahltan First Nation bans mining company in dispute over coal mine

DEASE LAKE, B.C. — The Globe and Mail/The Canadian Press, April 1, 2014

A northern B.C. First Nation has banned a mining company from its lands as a bitter fight over a proposed coal mine escalates, again.

Tahltan Central Council president Annita McPhee says Fortune Minerals must not enter Tahltan Nation communities without permission from the Iskut and Tahltan bands.

Tahltan orders Fortune Minerals workers off site

Tahltan Elders protesting proposed Fortune Minerals coal mine in northwestern B.C.

CBC News/The Canadian Press,  Sept 24, 2013

Tahltan camp at sacred headwaters.

One day after Mines Minister Bill Bennett held a weekend visit at a First Nations protest site in northwestern B.C., 40 Tahltan members ordered workers at a nearby Fortune Minerals exploration camp to leave the area, considered sacred by aboriginals.

B.C. Mines minister to visit Tahltan blockade

Tahltan Elders protesting proposed coal mine in northwestern B.C.

CBC News, Sept 20, 2013

Mines Minister Bill Bennett is expected to visit the site of a First Nations protest in northwestern B.C. tomorrow, as members of the Tahltan Nation accuse the government of reneging on a land management deal covering the headwaters of the Nass, Skeena and Stikine rivers.

Tahltan shut down Fortune Minerals drill site

September 10, 2013

A drilling site run by Fortune Minerals is shut down by Tahltan, Sept 10, 2013.

According to the Klabona Keepers Facebook page, members of the Tahltan’s Iskut band have shut down a drilling site maintained by Fortune Minerals: