Ecuador court gives green light for Silvercorp, Salazar’s El Domo project
The ruling removes the last major obstacle for the $250 million project, located 150 km northeast of Guayaquil.
Surface coal mining on Cape Breton Island, on the East Coast of Canada, has been under a moratorium for the last six years, but a report due out next month could revive a dormant industry in what was once an important coal-mining hub.
The Halifax Chronicle Herald reports that government and university scientists are working on a study of Pioneer Coal Ltd.’s surface coal mine, which was granted a 7-year permit to operate despite the moratorium on 13 coal projects and, according to the Herald, strident opposition from local residents:
…the company was told it could begin mining 1.6 million tonnes of coal from close to the surface of the former Prince mine near Point Aconi, the last operating underground mine in Nova Scotia. It closed in 2001 when the federal government got out of the mining business, ending a way of life in eastern Cape Breton.
Motivated by the rise in coal prices, in 2003 the province of Nova Scotia put out a call for proposals to restart exploring and developing the Sydney Coalfield, which is the largest coal resource in Eastern Canada, The Herald reported.
The Cape Breton economy was driven by coal throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and up to World War Two it was the largest private employer in Canada, according to Wikipedia. The island has two major coal fields, the Sydney Coal Field in the southeastern part of the island and the smaller Inverness Coal Field in the west part.
