For immediate release—May 30, 2012

New Report Documents Mining in Manitoba Parks

Wilderness Committee calls on government to ban park mining and clean up the mess

WINNIPEG—The Wilderness Committee has released a new report designed to educate Manitobans about the impact mining is having on Manitoba's parks. The publication documents which parks have mining activity, the risks of allowing mining in parks, and the park destruction which is occurring right now.

"Manitobans get the shaft when it comes to provincial parks," said Eric Reder, Campaign Director for the Wilderness Committee. "Parks in Manitoba, unlike most jurisdictions in the world, are not protected, and mining is causing park destruction."

The Educational Report—Ban Mining in Manitoba Parks—includes original mapping of mining activity around the province, as well as new, first-hand investigative reports of park destruction from mining. The report specifically highlights the decommissioned Spruce Point Mine, operated by Hudbay Minerals in the 1980s, which is a messy scar on the land in Grass River Provincial Park.

"The eeriest thing I've ever seen in the Manitoba wilderness is the obviously toxic pond at the Spruce Point Mine site, which bubbles constantly and where no vegetation grows," said Reder.

The Educational Report lays out a solution to this problem: a series of actions which the Manitoba government can take to ban mining in parks. The Wilderness Committee is also calling on the Manitoba government to have the existing ecological destruction caused by mining in parks cleaned up.

Read the report here

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HD B-roll video footage of park mining destruction is available.

High resolution images of park mining destruction are available.

For more information, please contact Eric Reder, (204) 997–8584