A Petition to Equinox Gold:

We, the undersigned, recognize the acute and critical crisis faced by the families living next to Equinox Gold's Aurizona mine in the Brazilian amazon. On March 25, 2021, the Lagoa do Pirocaua retention dam failed, contaminating drinking water for thousands of people downstream from the mine. Equinox Gold is violating the internationally recognized human right of access to clean drinking water by failing to attend to the demands of impacted communities.

We condemn the company’s failure to act and are concerned about the indifference of the Brazilian government towards the affected communities. We echo the following demands of the communities impacted by this Canadian mining company’s gold mine. 

We call on Equinox Gold to comprehensively address the violations of the rights of community members in Aurizona and: 

Fulfill its responsibilities to the impacted downstream communities and immediately restore their access to drinking water, including:  

• Providing immediate and adequate access to water to all residents, sourced from outside the community, and
• Immediately repair the damaged and contaminated infrastructure that continues to impact water quality in the area.  

Respect people’s right of access to information by:

• Making the results of ongoing water quality testing and monitoring available and free to the public,
• Releasing all technical reports that analyze the mine’s social and environmental impacts - including reports completed on the risks of future dam failures, 
•  Providing communities with access to independent technical advisory services, and  
• Funding a short, medium and long-term review of the human rights violations suffered by the impacted communities - to be carried out by an organization chosen by the families.

Repair damages to houses in the community caused by explosions at the mine site.

The Aurizona mine sits in an important part of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest already severely affected by deforestation and forest fires. Equinox’s negligence represents an immediate and acute threat to communities' overall health and well-being. It also represents a ticking time bomb for the broader health of the surrounding amazonian ecosystems and the peoples who depend on them.

The company must be held to account for its actions. For more information on the Aurizona mine and community members’ demand for clean water see here.