World Environment Day

Equinox Gold is committed to preventing or mitigating the effect of our activities on habitat and species loss and we actively promote conservation of local biodiversity. We give special consideration to fragile ecosystems, local threatened species and critical habitat. We are committed to progressive site reclamation and our closure plans focus on agreed end land uses in consultation with local regulators and communities.

At all of our mines, our biodiversity management plan includes monitoring and reclamation of habitats for local protected species. Before we disturb the land we conduct biodiversity impact assessments to understand our site’s characteristics, allowing our local teams to ensure that native fauna and significant floral elements are identified and relocated during clearing procedures. 

Equinox Gold’s Castle Mountain Mine has entered into an agreement with the Desert Research Institute (DRI) to establish a collaborative long-term program to advance and analyze the success of Joshua tree seedling ecology, germination, transplantation, and survivorship.

This partnership’s goals are to: determine the viability of different seed cohorts after long-term storage, establish seed propagation methods for Joshua trees, germinate tree seedlings in a controlled setting, monitor the survival and growth rate using selected seed cohorts, and evaluate Joshua tree survivorship over a long-term basis to determine best practices moving forward.

Continued research is imperative to the long-term conservation and survival of Joshua trees, and one of the most important but least understood components is germination, emergence, and establishment. Equinox Gold is excited to be working with DRI to help protect Joshua trees, which are an integral component of the desert ecosystem and one of the most iconic symbols of the American desert.