Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap, and Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian readers! Before you start your long weekend, let us catch you up on the mining news from CIM Magazine and elsewhere that you may have missed. In this week’s headlines: the federal government says it won’t appeal the Trans Mountain ruling; Vale and BHP reach a final deal with Brazilian prosecutors over Samarco; and an all-female mine rescue team takes home the People’s Choice award at the International Mines Rescue Competition in Russia.

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Samarco and its parent companies Vale and BHP reached a final compensation deal on Tuesday with Brazilian prosecutors in Minas Gerais for the 2015 dam burst that killed 19, destroyed a village and polluted Brazil’s Rio Doce basin, Reuters reported. The financial details haven’t been disclosed yet, but the deal allows for the companies to begin compensation payments to relatives of the victims.

Canada’s federal government won’t appeal the Federal Court of Appeal decision that killed the approval of the Trans Mountain expansion, and tapped retired Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci to oversee Indigenous consultation going forward. Natural resources minister Amarjeet Sohi said at a press conference on Wednesday that the government will re-do the third phase of consultation with Indigenous groups. In Justice Eleanor Dawson’s decision for the three-judge court, she ruled that stage of the consultation process had not been “adequately discharged.”

The two Canadian teams that attended the International Mines Rescue Competition in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region north of Kazakstan didn’t make it to the podium, but they did come away with two special diploma prizes. Tahoe Canada was named the “fastest team,” and the Diamonds in the Rough – the first ever all-female mine rescue team to participate in the competition – nabbed the People’s Choice award.

ArcelorMittal Mining Canada is giving McGill University $360,000 in funding over four years to support mining and materials science research and development work at the university’s Mining Department. The fund will support research projects that focus on technology and innovation ranging from mine-to-port, energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. The company and the university hope to have a complete list of projects that will get funding by the end of the year, allowing the researchers to begin work in the first quarter of 2019.

Increased funding for education and training for local Inuit communities are the focus of a new impact benefit agreement for Baffinland Iron Mines’ Mary River mine. Baffinland and the Qikitani Inuit Association, a non-profit society representing 13 Inuit communities in the Qikiqtani region of Nunavut, announced the changes to the agreement on Wednesday. The agreement is an update on the one originally signed in 2013, and includes plans to construct a $10-million regional training centre, opportunities for internships in non-mining company roles, and more resources for community members to monitor the project’s environmental impact.

The CIM National office will be closed on Monday Oct. 8, and we wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving with your families. Gobble gobble!