Cortez Gold Mine

United States of America
Placer Dome (Placer Dome was acquired by Barrick Gold Corp. in 2006)
CPP: $351 million (Barrick)[1]

The Cortez gold mine is located in the ancestral territory of the Western Shoshone indigenous people. The Shoshone argue that the mine, which was constructed without their free, prior and informed consent, violates their treaty rights.[2] In 2006, the United Nations called on the U.S. government to immediately cease the transfer of Shoshone land to multinational extractive companies, a practice that the UN argued could cause irreparable harm to indigenous communities.[3]


[1] CPP Investment Board Canadian Equity Holdings as of March 31, 2006. http://www.cppib.ca/files/PDF/Canadian_Equity_Holdings.pdf
[2] Fishel, Julie Ann. Report on Effects of Canadian Corporate Behavior on the Western Shoshone Peoples Located in the United States. Western Shoshone Defense Project. Submitted May 1, 2006 to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/info-ngos/canadacorps.pdf

[3] Press Release: Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination Concludes Sixty-Eighth Session. March 10, 2006.

http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/D85D881B5C5CF007C125712D007A1035?opendocument