The Attawapiskat First Nation has raised concern about the new landfill that global diamond miner De Beers, a unit of diversified major Anglo American, plans to build at the Victor mine site in the James Bay Lowlands of Canada.

The new landfill, for which De Beers is seeking approval from the Ontario government, will be filled up with mine demolition waste. The mine is in closure phase, having operated from 2005 to 2019.

The new landfill will be in a place that has been of critical cultural, spiritual and subsistence importance to the Kattawapiskak Cree People for thousands of years, the First Nation says in a statement.

"We don't want another Juukan Gorge disaster in our traditional territory," says Attawapiskat First Nation council member, Jack Linklater. "We don't believe that Anglo American and the Republic of Botswana want to allow De Beers staff to create a giant mine landfill in our Traditional Territory."

The government of Botswana owns a 15% shareholding in De Beers.

Juukan Gorge was an Indigenous sacred site, thousands of years old, blasted by miner Rio Tinto in Australia. The incident led to the CEO of Rio Tinto and other senior executives resigning in September last year, and Rio Tinto's chairperson stepping down in March this year.

The Attawapiskat leadership has also taken issue with the way De Beers is seeking Ontario approval for the new landfill.

“De Beers has applied for 97 000 m³ of landfill volume, which is just shy of the 100 000 m³ threshold which would trigger a comprehensive environmental assessment under Ontario law. This level gets the landfill under the legal radar, but does not mean it would be any less threatening," says Attawapiskat First Nation council member Sylvia Koostachin-Metatawabin.

The First Nation argues that De Beers should pay for transporting the demolition waste out of Attawapiskat territory, where much of it could be reused and recycled and not left in vulnerable wetlands, threatening destruction of millenia-old cultural sites.