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In the Quebec context, although the Bureau d’audiences publiques en environnement (BAPE) (Bureau of Environmental Public Hearings) is highly regarded as an institution for citizen participation (Gauthier & Simard, 2011), its effectiveness is curiously lacking in the case of the mining industry, where, despite some cases of strong citizen opposition, to date, no development project has been turned down by the government (Deneault & Sacher, 2012). This article takes a critical look at the conditions for citizen participation with regard to the review of mining projects in Quebec, particularly in remote regions, by analyzing the citizen mobilization sparked by the 2017 announcement of the Authier Lithium project by Sayona Québec Inc. (SQI) mining company in Abitibi.