On 20 October 2025, a Canadian Press report quoted Charles Hookimaw, the former lands and resources director for Attawapiskat First Nation, as warning that parent company Anglo American “turned a blind eye” while its De Beers unit ran the Victor diamond mine with little regard for Cree treaty rights. The grievance lands squarely on the desk of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, who must decide whether Anglo American’s proposed US$70 billion merger with Teck Resources delivers a “net benefit” under the Investment Canada Act. Timing matters for trust.
Victor Mine’s Disputed Closure Track
The open-pit Victor operation, 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat, produced from 2008 until 2019 and is now in closure, yet regulatory files show that rehabilitation remains incomplete and contested. One Ontario decision amended an Environmental Compliance Approval in 2022 to allow passive drainage from a kimberlite containment pond into North Granny Creek, easing chloride limits while demanding new effluent monitoring for the watercourse, according to the provincial registry. Community leaders say benefits bypassed residents. “Despite repeated efforts to engage in a respectful dialogue, Anglo American turned a blind eye, allowing its subsidiary to operate in an irresponsible manner on our traditional territory,” Hookimaw wrote.
One short haul road remains. A 2020 closure-plan amendment for the nearby Victor Resource Extension zone adds capping of drill holes and seeding of overburden piles, but still lists demolition waste to be handled on-site rather than removed, the filing shows, highlighting the long tail of environmental obligations the First Nation must police almost alone through the Mining Act bulletin.
Merger Review Raises Sovereignty Questions
Under the modernised Investment Canada Act, which since March 2024 empowers Ottawa to impose binding undertakings on strategic transactions, the Anglo-Teck deal cannot close until Joly confirms a net benefit that incorporates Indigenous participation, as outlined in the department’s own guidance. One long process looms.
Opponents argue that past behaviour at Victor signals future risk in a combined copper-coal-diamonds portfolio stretching from British Columbia to Botswana. Anglo American vice-president Marcelo Esquivel countered that the merged company will foster “a recognition of the importance of respecting Indigenous and community rights,” a pledge carried in the same Canadian Press dispatch. Words travel fast.
Policy Options For Closure Oversight
Ottawa could make the merger conditional on a transparent remediation bond, a community-led monitoring board and accelerated landfill removal, moves that would align with Ontario’s duty-to-consult framework and demonstrate tangible net benefit beyond jobs or taxes. One big guarantee would help.
For Attawapiskat, the precedent matters: if the Victor mine’s remaining liabilities are finally secured by the parent rather than its Canadian subsidiary, other Indigenous communities hosting critical-mineral projects may gain leverage to insist on similar upstream guarantees, de-risking future federal infrastructure outlays such as winter road upgrades or power-line extensions. Long memories shape capital flows.