The project of the Canadian mining company Lincoln Gold Mining near Saint-Élie-de-Caxton is giving rise to growing mobilization in the RCM of Maskinongé, where the environmental benefits of electric vehicles do not weigh heavily against the local attachment to landscapes and water bodies.
This week, all residents of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton will receive documents by mail for them to sign a formal notice against Vancouver Lincoln Gold Mining.
The goal is to send the president of the company boxes containing hundreds, explains Gilbert Guérin, one of the instigators of the citizen committee “Dig not in my Caxton”.
“We hope to collect 850 by the end of the month,” he said. This retiree from the Ministry of Culture recalls that in 2011, the population of Saint-Élie succeeded in convincing another mining company – Fancamp Exploration – to turn around.
In April, the daily Le Nouvelliste created quite a commotion by revealing that Lincoln Gold Mining had got hold of 82 exploration titles (“claims”) underground in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton and its two neighbours, Saint-Mathieu -du-Parc and Saint-Boniface, the equivalent of 48 km2.
The Vancouver-based company said it was preparing an exploration plan with the aim of eventually operating a nickel, copper or cobalt mine there.
Although inexpensive (less than $100 each), claims give their owners exclusive mineral exploration rights over which municipalities have no control.
When the mayor calls prospectors to buy back their claims
In Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, the opponents are not at their first action. In the spring, the mayor, Charline Plante, approached two owners of exploration titles in Saint-Élie to offer to buy them back. And it worked. Technically, cities do not have the right to buy mining titles, so these were acquired by a local non-profit organization (NPO).
The operation financed by the local artist Fred Pellerin made it possible to convince two owners and to get their hands on 43 claims. “I negotiated the purchase and forwarded the information to the organization Développement Saint-Élie, which bought the claims, and Fred Pellerin advanced the money,” says Mayor Plante.
“I said to myself that the worst thing that could happen was to have a refusal, she says. I explained to them that there would never be social acceptability. Surprisingly, they were “happy,” she said. “One even offered to come and have a coffee in Saint-Élie! The two sellers, including a geologist, had no short-term project in the region “but they could have sold their claims to Lincoln Gold Mining”, points out Ms.me Plant.
From then on, there are only six “claims” left in the subsoil of the municipality – all under the control of Lincoln Gold Mining. The others are mainly in Saint-Boniface and in Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc just next door.
In Saint-Boniface, more than half of the territory is affected by claims from LGM and others. Water is going to be our next challenge as a society. With the size of the territory [du Québec]they can’t make me believe that there is no other place where there is [des minéraux pour fabriquer des batteries].
But the threat remains according to Mme Plant. “Even if we protect ourselves in Saint-Élie, we are not immune to contamination [des cours d’eau] because they are digging 15 kilometers from us. »
The environment seems to be a cardinal value in Muskellunge. “From the plain of Lake Saint-Pierre to the Mauricie National Park, no other region offers such a varied panorama, where agriculture, forestry, vacationing and conservation are harmoniously intertwined”, can we read on the site of the MRC.
However, the subsoil contains cobalt and nickel, metals used in the manufacture of electric car batteries, a highly valued sector in the fight against climate change.
This does not justify digging there, believes the acting mayor of Saint-Boniface, André Boucher. “We don’t want it to become like Thetford Mines,” he sums up.
“In Saint-Boniface, more than half of the territory is affected by claims from LGM and others,” said Jocelyn Mélançon, a municipal councilor also involved in the file. “Water is going to be our next challenge as a society,” he also says. With the size of the territory [du Québec]they can’t make me believe that there is no other place where there is [des minéraux pour fabriquer des batteries]. »
Local moratorium on exploration titles
The third municipality targeted by the mine — Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc — is also part of this movement. Homeland of series author Amos Daragon, Bryan Perro, Saint-Mathieu is also renowned for its immense outdoor role-playing site with a medieval flavor, the Duchy of Bicolline.
“The environment for us is a priority,” says the mayor, Claude Mayrand, who does not see why we would “massacre the environment” to “manufacture batteries”.
“We have 83 lakes on our territory, and the majority are healthy. We do a lot of ecotourism, we have a protected area project and we are close to La Mauricie Park. »
In Saint-Mathieu, 38 exploration titles are at stake. The mayor intends to contact the company directly to advise it that it is not welcome. He claims to have 99% of the population behind him.
The duty also attempted to speak to Lincoln Gold Mining spokespersons for this story, a request that went unanswered.
The company called the future mine the “Shawinigan Project”. On its website, it lists it as one of its three priority projects, along with two others, in California and Nevada.
Meanwhile, the Quebec government’s game plan remains to be clarified. In addition to the Mauricie, other regions, such as the Outaouais, have mobilized against mining projects related to the battery sector. In two years, the number of mining titles acquired in Québec has increased by 65%.
In May, the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, imposed a moratorium on new mining titles in the RCM of Maskinongé until she claims a status of “territories incompatible with mining activity” (TIAM ), an approach aimed at defining an area where any project would be prohibited from the outset.
It will then be up to the government to accept or not. The elected officials of the region must meet the minister in August to discuss it.
In spring, Mme Blanchette Vezina had refused to accede to Québec solidaire’s request to impose a more extensive moratorium on the claims. “It would be dangerous to make a moratorium, because it would send a message that Quebec is slowing down the decarbonization of the economy,” she said.