VANCOUVER, B.C., Dec. 12, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A group of Canadians and Mexicans demonstrated peacefully in front of the corporate offices of Almaden Minerals to protest its mining exploration project in the municipality of Ixtacamaxtitlán, Puebla, Mexico.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/da773483-19e4-4508-97cc-759ac023c630
Carrying banners and distributing leaflets that read “Almaden Minerals is destroying our habitat” and “Almaden Minerals: a business that endangers the lives and water of thousands of people,” the protesters informed passers-by and warned investors about the company’s human rights and legal violations in Mexico, as well as securities complaints against it in the U.S. and Canada.
“We ask investors to stop investing in Almaden Minerals’ mining project because their money is at risk. The company has lied by not telling them about our resistance to the project, the legal actions that we have taken to defend our communities, and the securities complaints we’ve filed before the U.S. and British Columbia securities commissions,” said Ignacia Serrano, community member from Ixtacamaxtitlán. Notably the company’s stock performance recently hit its lowest point in the past five years.
The protest marked the end of a week-long, cross-country delegation of four community leaders from the affected region – Ignacia Serrano, Alejandro Marreros, Francisca Zamora, and Ignacio Carmona, accompanied by the Latin American not-for-profit organization PODER – who held meetings in Canada with government officials and politicians from Global Affairs, International Trade, and parliamentary committees, as well as mining investors, trade unions, indigenous communities, and the news media.
This delegation shared findings from Mexico’s first ever community-led Human Rights Impact Assessment, which outlines the devastation and threats to the region’s water supply, ecosystem, and residents’ health should the Ixtaca Project move forward, as well as legal and regulatory violations by the company in Mexico, in addition to material misrepresentations of facts to investors.
About PODER
PODER is a regional not-for-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to improving corporate transparency and accountability in Latin America from a human rights perspective and strengthening civil society stakeholders of corporations as long-term accountability guarantors. www.projectpoder.org
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