The groundbreaking ceremony at Greenstone Gold Mines only came after years of engagement with the Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek (AZA) First Nation, the Aroland First Nation, the Ginoogaming First Nation, the Long Lake #58 First Nation, and members of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Courtesy of Greenstone Gold Mines

The Tahltan Nation’s involvement in mining began several thousand years ago with the extraction of obsidian from Mount Edziza, a 2,787 metre peak in a remote region of northwestern British Columbia. Since a small gold rush to the Stikine River in 1861 brought in both “modern” mining and smallpox devastation, resource extraction activity on Tahltan traditional territory ebbed and flowed, its costs to the land and its people often outweighing the benefits.