Advocacy group and supporters stage pre-meeting protest against potential vote
CBRM council potentially voting on a proposed land sale to copper mine firm Nova Copper prompted a protest outside city hall Tuesday in Sydney. IAN NATHANSON/CAPE BRETON POSTSYDNEY, N.S. — An agenda item on the potential sale of residential land to a copper mining firm was withdrawn from Tuesday night's Cape Breton Regional Municipality council meeting
MacNeil said she immediately reached to her contacts and people who signed the group’s petition stating that “Coxheath is not open for business” to let them know a vote was potentially going happen and that they needed to voice their concerns. “We’re still concerned,” added MacInnis. “We just wanted to make sure of that. And that’s why we’re here.”
Historically, copper was first discovered in Coxheath in 1875, according to a Geological Survey of Canada report on the Sydney coal fields released that year. The area was mined sporadically from the late 1870s until the Great Depression forced operations to halt in 1930.