Canadian Mining Journal April 2013

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April 2013

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SAFETY GETS

HIGH PRIORITY Miners put “Safety First” in business plans

PLUS

100-year-old school continues to produce Canada’s best miners

3M and Peltor are trademarks of 3M. Used under license in Canada. Please recycle. Printed in Canada. © 2013, 3M. All rights reserved. 1302-00534

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CANADIAN Mining Journal

Departments 5 Editorial

This month Editor Russ Noble talks about Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) and how some parties in “questionable” parts of the world don’t follow the rules when it comes to signed agreements.

CONTENTS

6 Investing

Ned Goodman’s regular “Investing” column talks about certainties for 2013, including: inflation will go higher, yield of any kind will be the attraction and will be at higher and higher rates; and that the commodity supercycle is not over.

11 In My Mine(d)

This month Stephen McCrum, Vice-president, Western Canada, Randstad Canada, takes a look at opportunities for new mining graduates.

SAFETY AND MINING

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12 Law

Janet Howard, a partner in Toronto with Norton Rose, looks at why streaming deals provide an attractive alternative to equity and debt financing.

30 Company Profile

This month’s featured company is Boart Longyear.

34 Products

A look at the latest tools and other devices available in Canada for the mining industry.

36 CSR and Mining

Marketa Evans, Extractive Sector, CSR Counsellor, Government of Canada, says that risks pertain to all mining companies, regardless of size.

38 Unearthing Trends

Susan McGeachie, a member of Ernst & Young’s National Mining and Metals Team and the Toronto Market Leader for the firm’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services Practice looks at Sustainable Development and asks: “Is it a key issue for investors?”

Cover Story

High-speed hoisting systems serving deep mines require a precise vertical alignment to help ensure safety when transporting miners and materials.

18 Ice Highway

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April 2013

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SAFETY GETS

HIGH PRIORITY Miners put “Safety First” in business plans

PLUS

100-year-old school continues to produce Canada’s best miners Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40069240

ABOUT THE COVER This month’s cover clearly shows that working on a hoist shaft is as challenging and potentially dangerous as working below ground. Thanks to extreme safety measures taken by most crews, mining accidents are very rare in Canada. Photo

by Nancy Duquet-Harvey, AuRico Gold Inc. Young-Davidson.

Coming in May Energy will be the theme of the next issue of Canadian Mining Journal.

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The NWT’s famous “Ice Highway” is considered one of the safer roads in Canada thanks to constant maintenance and a close eye by on-road security personnel.

22 Mine-life Extended

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Safety helps lower costs and extends the life of Brunswick Mine in Bathurst, NB by three years.

24 Safe Miners

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Extensive safety training by mine staff helps reduce accident days and increases productivity at BC mine.

28 New Miners CANADIAN Mining Journal

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istoric Haileybury School of H Mines celebrates 100th Anniversary and continues to produce some of Canada’s best young miners.

For More Information

Please visit www.canadianminingjournal.com for regular updates on what's happening with Canadian mining companies and their personnel both here and abroad. A digital version of the magazine is also available at www.digital.canadianminingjournal.com

www.canadianminingjournal.com April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

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Editorial

CANADIAN Mining Journal April 2013 Vol. 134 — No. 3 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, Ontario M3B 2S9 Tel. (416) 442-5600 Fax (416) 510-5138 www.canadianminingjournal.com Editor Russell B. Noble 416 510-6742 rnoble@canadianminingjournal.com Field Editor Marilyn Scales 613 832-9087 mscales@canadianminingjournal.com Art Director Mark Ryan

Being held ransom by our own people

By Russell Noble

I

love it when a judge* uses the word “ransom” in a summation involving a Circulation Manager mining company because it just reinCindi Holder 416 442-5600, ext. 3544 forces what many miners have claimed for cholder@bizinfogroup.ca years about what it’s like to deal with some Publisher “shady” characters over mineral rights.

Robert Seagraves 416 510-6891 I say “shady” for sake of politeness rseagraves@canadianminingjournal.com because some of the other words I’ve Sales heard to describe certain parties involved Western Canada, Western U.S.A. Bonnie Rondeau with Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) 416-510-5245 aren’t printable. brondeau@canadianminingjournal.com Toll Free Canada: In any event, the business of mining is 1-800-268-7742 ext 6891 or 5245 getting tougher all the time thanks, in Toll Free USA: 1-800-387-0273 ext 6891 or 5245 part, to greed and so-called “agreements” Group Publisher that seem to change once projects start to Doug Donnelly show signs of prosperity.

President Vice-president It’s no secret that some governments in

Bruce Creighton Alex Papanou ‘questionable’ parts of the world where Established 1882 ‘unquestionable’ quantities of resources Canadian Mining Journal provides articles and information of practical use to those who work in the technical, administrative and supervisory aspects of are found, can run hot and cold when it exploration, mining and processing in the Canadian mineral exploration and mining industry. Canadian Mining Journal (ISSN 0008-4492) is published 10 comes to agreements and I think it’s times a year by Business Information Group L.P. BIG is located at 80 Valleybrook Dr., Toronto, criminal that many of them are still getON, M3B 2S9. Phone (416) 442-5600. ting away with changing the rules midLegal deposit: National Library, Ottawa. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved.

The contents of this magazine are protected by copyright and may be used only stream, years after signing original IBAs. for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use What’s even more infuriating is that is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain the permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information please contact Russell they seem proud of it!

Noble I know Canadian mining companies at 416-510-6742.

Subscriptions — Canada: $47.95 per year; $76.95 for two years. USA: US$60.95 are pretty much on their own once they per year. Foreign: US$72.95 per year. Single copies: Canada $10; USA and foreign: US$10. Canadian subscribers must add GST and Provincial tax where necessary. venture into offshore agreements but I GST registration # 809744071RT001. still think our government should have From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish something to say on the industry’s behalf your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Phone: 1-800-668-2374; Fax: 416-442-2191; E-mail: when other governments show such disprivacy officer@businessinformationgroup.ca; Mail to: Privacy Officer, respect for agreements with Canadian Business Information Group, 80 Valleybrook Dr., Toronto, ON, M3B 2S9.

Publications Mail Agreement #40069240. PAP Registration No. 11000. We mining companies. acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program towards our mailing costs. Return undeliverI often wonder how some of those offable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Dept., Canadian Mining Journal, 80 shore governments would feel if Ottawa Valleybrook Dr., Toronto, ON, M3B 2S9. E-mail: bigcirculation@bizinfogroup.ca changed its mind when it comes to Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement PM40069240. Please forward Forms 29B and 67B to 80,Valleybrook, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9. ‘humanitarian’ relief? After all, Canada Canadian Mining Journal, USPS 752-250. US office of publication: 2221 Niagara seems to always be “right there” when it Falls Blvd., Niagara Falls, NY 14304-5709. Periodicals Postage Paid at Niagara Falls, NY. US postmaster: Send address changes to Canadian Mining Journal, PO Box 1118, comes to helping those in distress, but it’s Niagara Falls NY 14304. “nowhere” when it comes to helping its We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Magazine Fund toward our editorial costs. own and that’s especially true when you see mining companies in trouble overseas.

Anyway, Canadian mining companies have fended for themselves for decades and will continue to do so for decades to Canadian Business Press Indexed by Canadian Business Periodicals Index Production Manager Print Production Manager

Steve Hofmann Phyllis Wright

come, but it would be nice to have a little back-up from time to time.

I know it’s easy for me to sit here in my Toronto office and talk about IBAs and foreign authorities, especially after writing “Nothing beats homemade ore” here a few months ago, but with all that’s going on right now and the way some Canadian miners are getting screwed offshore, domestic minerals look pretty good.

Mind you, and I refer back to the judge’s use of the word “ransom” in the first paragraph, things aren’t that rosy here either.

Look at the situation involving De Beers and a few disgruntled members of the First Nations (who are also ex-employees of De Beers) who periodically blocked the ice road to its Victor Diamond Mine in northern Ontario this past winter.

Because of the mine’s fly-in location, the 250 kilometre ice road is the company’s only way of transporting heavy equipment and supplies to the site and it was during those three or four critical winter months that a handful of ‘locals’ decided they didn’t want ‘outsiders’ crossing their land.

To hell with the IBAs between De Beers and The First Nations, barricades were put up and supplies were stopped. To De Beers’ credit, they respected the protesters and as time passed, the on-again/ off-again barricades didn’t have enough impact to seriously compromise De Beers’ 2013 business plan.

But they could have, and that’s what is most upsetting. It’s bad enough that our mining companies are being held “ransom” by foreigners, they’re also being threatened by some Canadians too! CMJ *Timmins, Ontario, Judge Robert Riopelle, (according to a report in the Timmins Daily Press) said recently that the barricading of the ice road (by members of the Attawapiskat First Nations) leading to De Beer’s $1 billion Victor Mine in Northern Ontario during the critical seasonal period when the company makes essential deliveries of supplies to the mine was done by “individuals with private financial interests, holding a large multinational corporation to ransom.... It smells of coercion.”

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

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Mining Matters Volume 134

April 2013

Diavik Diamond Mines’ gets its supplies Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., operator of the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories, has once again resupplied its mine by transporting approximately 3,500 loads of fuel, cement, and other supplies up the 2013 winter road.

The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road opened January 30 to initial light loads. As a result of the coldest winter in 20 years, opening-day ice thickness of 86 cm (34 inches) was the most ever and was 15 cm (6 inches) thicker than what would normally be expected. NUNA Logistics constructed and maintained the 385 km ice road and Det’on Cho Scarlet provided security. Det’on Cho Construction and subcontractor RTL constructed the 141 km secondary route from Gibbs Lake to Prosperous Lake.

Currently in its 32nd year of operations, the ice road is open for approximately 10 weeks each winter and is a joint venture managed by Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc., and De Beers Canada Inc.

Detour Gold’s President and CEO Gerald Panneton (left) and Pierre Beaudoin, Senior Vice-president Capital Projects, celebrate the company’s first gold pour at the Detour Lake Mine.

Detour Gold pours first gold at Detour Lake Mine

Detour Gold Corporation recently poured its first four gold bars for approximately 2,000 ounces at its Detour Lake mine, located about 180 km from Cochrane in Northeastern Ontario. The Detour Lake open-pit mine is expected to produce an average of 657,000 ounces of gold annually over a period of 21.5 years.

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April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

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Investing

Facing economic reality after “Financial Botox” wears off

By Ned Goodman

T

he economic soothsayers appear to have abandoned using the “Great Moderation” and the “Goldilocks Economy” as descriptive economic systems. Instead, the financial world seems to have accepted “Botox Economics”.

Botox, of course, is a toxin commonly used to improve a person’s appearance.

However, the affect is only temporary and with sometimes significant negative side effects. As the global financial and excess debt crisis continues to roll along, it does so with “Financial Botox” as a flood of money from central banks and governments covering up previous unresolved and, perhaps, very serious problems. One cannot forget the famous Will Rogers’ statement: “If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?”

We are living today at a time where there does not seem to be a way out of the global monetary madness that exists. By continuing to up the monetary ante with the gamble of the US Federal Reserve policies to revive the US economy, we may be heading in a direction that will not be totally comfortable. Ben Bernanke tries to operate on the basis that his job is really easy. The use of zero interest rates and now unlimited Quantitative Easing, while easily understood, has already failed to deliver a better economic time for the US. By all measures we should expect to live with global slower growth and for a very long time. In a recent paper, “Debt Overhangs: Past and Present”, authors and economists Carmen Reinhart, Vincent 8 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff suggest that the US economy might not recover completely until 2030. The authors are working with the same background ideas that are our concern. The US and much of the rest of the developed world are now contending with unprecedented debt levels that have built up since the 1940‘s. they say that when “gross public debt” is excessive, as it is today, slower growth is existent for a “very long time”. “Excessive debt” is when “gross public debt” is in excess of 90% of gross domestic product, which is the current position of the US and many other countries. As is usual, the Rogoff et al paper concluded by looking back in time. The current situation is likely to be in the average of 23 years, thus 2030 or later. To the extent that emerging markets are not weighed down by excessive debt baggage, they have the best likelihood of growing their economies and have better investment opportunities than developed countries.

For those of you who have read the previous Annual Report messages of our company, Dundee Corporation, you will know that I have been concerned about a global currency war outbreak for some time. But in particular, my reference to James Rickards and his book, “”Currency Wars”, in last year’s review. Well today, one year later, we remain living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world and the evidence of currency wars is beginning to be very global evident. The use of excessive monetary stimuli and

artificial ultra low interest rates are creating the ultimate bubble in money itself.

Central banks – while quietly increasing their gold holdings – are also creating the money bubble. We now are in the biggest debt bubble in history. Country leaders know that each time that they face deflationary forces they require offsetting inflationary forces (monetary stimulus of some form); and they are required to become even more aggressive. The necessary avoidance of the deflationary waves that the world is facing is causing the incubation of the coming wave of future inflation. Most conventional economists do not really accept the lack of “demand pull” and the yet inflationary moves that will likely be felt.

We are headed into a transitional movement of a new monetary system which will be required for essential expenditures on energy, food, agriculture and personal and household care as well as defence. Ultimately, the world will require a new reserve currency to replace the US dollar in order to eliminate what will likely be an inflationary/deflationary crisis. This essentially refers to the rise in price of almost everything in conventional money and a simultaneous fall in terms of gold. The strategic framework behind this concept is based on the long wave of the Kondratieff cycle.

Keeping the global debt bubble inflated is taking trillion dollar deficits which are now supplemented by open-ended central bank money printing, not only in www.canadianminingjournal.com

Investing

Delivering Solutions in Solvent Management

Photo courtesy of Cameco

Ned Goodman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Dundee Corporation

the US but in most other developed countries as well. We are watching the creation of the ultimate financial bubble in money itself. Each monetary stimulus, be it in Euros or dollars or whatever, must be even more aggressive than the last. This is not a sustainable position. As investors we should be preparing for an explosion in an inflationary manner and a major currency crisis.

While most of the obvious outlook for the year 2013 carries uncertainty, there are three things of certainty for this writer:

• Yield of any kind will be the attraction and will be at higher and higher rates • The commodity super-cycle is not over Inflation is a certainty because without any other reasons, and there are many, it is a political and financial tool that allows for deleveraging of debt and payment of deficits. In addition, politicians very seldom get elected by causing deflation. Almost everyone likes inflation. If you are a government and inflate prices, then you keep people struggling and working hard to keep pace with inflation. The poorer the people are, the more likely they can be kept under control. In addition, inflation for rich people is taxable and deflation is less so. No government ever has an incentive to deflate, but has incentive in fact to inflate.

CMJ

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April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

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In My Mine(d)

A look at opportunities for new mining graduates

By Stephen McCrum

D

espite some recent headlines that suggest that the mining industry is “slowing down,” we, on the other hand, (as a recruitment firm) see continued strength and growth and steady competition for skilled employees both within Canada and globally.

Because of the anticipated loss of up to one-third of the sector’s workers to retirement over the next 10 years, today’s graduates are in a very advantageous position to step into highdemand, well-compensated roles.

While there are plenty of international opportunities right now, much of the momentum in the mining sector job market still remains right here in Canada.

For example, expanding gold mining projects in Ontario, new potash developments in Saskatchewan, and new operating facilities in New Brunswick, are the catalysts in recovering mining employment rates back to pre 2008 recession levels. The opportunities in Saskatchewan, alone, are especially strong for both new graduates and senior professionals for at least the next 10 years.

While Ontario and British Columbia still have the largest number of employees in the sector, and offer many opportunities for new entrants into the labour force, Saskatchewan and Quebec are not far behind and offer growing opportunities close to larger populations.

Along with high demand, the location of mining projects in more remote locations contributes to mining earnings out-pacing the national average by up to 25 per cent. But, financial incentives are just one part of the package that the industry’s employers need to put in place to attract and retain high-demand young professionals.

While we are seeing more programs to attract younger workers (under 29) and female workers, the mining sector still struggles to bridge this gap. Work-life balance programs, career progression opportunities and the potential for international/ global opportunities are key to the attraction and retention of these new employees.

And as for global opportunities, Canadian mining grads do not have to go that far from home, with the US mining sector still one of the biggest draws, and likely to increase as the US economy improves and demand for raw materials grows as a result.

While still strong, international demand in Australia and South America has slowed as compared to recent years. Although European requirements waned over the past few years due to

economic pressures, pent-up demand for materials and resources is enormous.

For those interested in the gold sector, China is currently the largest producer as well as the largest consumer of gold, with current consumption outpacing internal production.

This has implications for gold mining in both China and here at home.

CMJ Stephen McCrum is a staffing expert in the Engineering and Technical Division of Randstad Engineering (formerly ATS Reliance) of Toronto.

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April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

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Law

Considering a mineral stream?

Some terms to negotiate

By Janet Howard

S

treaming deals provide an attractive alternative to equity and debt financing in a challenging market. Advance stage mining companies are able to access a nondilutive source of capital, allowing management the opportunity to retain control over the company. There have been a number of recently announced streaming deals in the Canadian mining sector since last August.

The following describes certain terms to consider including in a streaming agreement to address a few potential issues.

Production shortfalls While delays in production can expose sellers of mineral streams to certain risks, the type of streaming agreement used and the manner in which delivered product is quantified, can mitigate exposure.

In a “fixed” contract, the seller agrees to sell the purchaser a fixed amount of product over the term. While pricing is usually more favourable in a fixed contract, the seller will be responsible for shortfalls in the event of a delay in production, requiring the seller to acquire product from another source in order to satisfy delivery requirements.

However, in a “percentage” contract, the seller agrees to sell the purchaser a percentage of product actually produced.

There is no obligation on the seller to make up for a shortfall in production.

Despite this benefit, the seller might be required to refund a portion of the upfront deposit in the event of reduction in expected production. Risks associated with such a clawback can be mitigated by reducing the percentage of guaranteed deliveries in the early years of production or negotiating a right for the seller to “buy back” a percentage of the stream, triggered upon a production shortfall.

12 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

Loss of future production Mineral streams can also detract from the value spent on exploration as future production is sold for a discount. Typical pricing terms require payment (expressed as a credit to a notional mineral account) of $400 per ounce of gold, $6.00 per ounce of silver, $200 per ounce of platinum and $100 per ounce of palladium.

However, for a base metals company, the ability to monetize non-core production to fund construction of a mine to produce core-assets may be worth the trade off. In addition, price adjustment clauses can be negotiated to require an increase in the price paid for deliveries following a specified term or amount of production.

ties might negatively impact the ability of certain sellers to engage in operations on its remaining properties. Similarly, requiring a “permitted” acquirer to possess certain attributes (e.g. to be publicly traded or domiciled in a certain jurisdiction) might restrict the seller’s ability to negotiate an alternate transaction in the face of an unsolicited bid. If a seller is particularly keen to minimize the impact of a streaming deal upon future M&A opportunities, the effect of transfer restrictions can be minimized by expressly carving out change of control transactions (e.g. plans of arrangements and take over bids) from the definition of “Transfer” used in the agreement.

Restricting future transfers and changes of control Streaming agreements typically impose restrictions on the seller’s ability to transfer the mining properties and complete change of control transactions. However, the terms of the agreement will allow for such business dealings in certain permitted circumstances. This allows the seller the opportunity to negotiate requirements it considers acceptable.

Sellers will typically agree to requirements that transferees and acquirers agree to be bound by the terms of the streaming agreement, to assume the same obligations the seller owes to the purchaser and grant the same charges and security over the assets serving as the collateral. However, the circumstances in which a transfer or change of control transaction is permitted will need to be tailored accordingly.

Requirements that all project assets be included in a transfer of mining proper-

Protecting commercially sensitive information There is an obvious need to protect against unauthorized disclosure of information provided about a mineral project to the purchaser of a stream. Sellers of a stream are required to deliver periodic reports and other information to the purchaser. At a minimum, this information will include an account of the minerals produced and can extend to include construction reports, development and operating plans, permitting schedules, reports concerning compliance with environmental permits, work plans, budgets, life of mine forecasts and advance copies of NI 43-101 technical reports.

Protecting such information from public disclosure can be sought through a robust definition of “confidential information” with limited carve outs. The survival of the confidentiality provision beyond the expiration of the term or termination of the agreement and permitwww.canadianminingjournal.com

Law

ting the seller the right to seek equitable relief including pursuing an injunction are additional measures.

In summary A mineral stream provides an attractive financing alternative to access the funding required to advance construction and accelerate production and revenue generation.

CMJ

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| Mine Safety

STRAIGHT

UP

Photo by Nancy Duquet-Harvey

Early stage of hoist and headframe construction showing (close-up) of workers preparing re-bar for next stage of forming and pouring of concrete.

14 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013 www.canadianminingjournal.com

DOWN

&

High-speed hoists answer deep needs

Reamer head is in position, ready for its ascent to the surface.

Special Technical Report*

T

he use of low to medium capacity hoisting systems installed within raised shafts in deep mines is not new, but now two significant technical obstacles have been overcome to enable the concept of a higher capacity borehole hoisting system for both mine service and primary production (300 to 600 tonnes/ hr) to become a reality.

One essential requirement for a higher capacity borehole hoisting system is that it be truly vertical; within tight tolerances.

Massive payloads travelling at high speeds within a hoisting shaft would generate significant lateral accelerations due to excessive deviations, resulting in undesirable swaying and lateral dynamic forces.

Apart from causing undue wear to guides and shoes, such dynamic forces and swaying could soon damage conveyances, supports and shaft furnishings and most of all, could result in safety issues insofar as the entire system is concerned.

The second requirement is to provide sufficient space for larger, high-capacity conveyances to pass by one another safely while travelling in the shaft, while at the same time allowing the conveyance to be dimensioned appropriately for efficient handling of rock materials. The necessary cross sectional area requirements point to borehole diameters of the order of 5m to 6m.

The two enablers of a higher capacity, deep borehole hoisting system are: (i)the technology to drill vertical pilot holes with

high accuracy; and(ii)the realization of large diameter raise boring capabilities. In hard rock for longer raises up to 1,000m in a single leg.

What is Raise Boring?

As the words imply, Raise Boring is technically a method where a drilling machine working from above will drill a pilot hole (typ. up to 380mm dia.) down through rock to intersect a mine opening at depth, say 1000m; whereupon the pilot drill bit is removed and replaced with a large diameter reaming head (typ. up to 5m dia.).

The drilling machine now applies rotation and upwards thrust to the reamer through torque and tension in the drill rods, and commences excavation from the bottom up: rock cuttings fall by gravity to the bottom, from where the muck is continually removed. A pre-requisite for this method is for there to be access to both top and bottom locations.

What is Borehole Hoisting?

Borehole Hoisting is the use of hoisting plant to hoist rock, workers and materials or both, vertically through a borehole, Cementation’s raise boring setup for drilling a borehole hoisting system.

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

15

| Mine Safety between a mine level and surface or between two levels of an underground mine.

The borehole is part of an overall hoisting system that comprises: the hoisting plant (including the hoist, power supply, ropes, and sheaves); the headworks at the top of the raise (including the dumping and/or off-loading arrangements); the borehole including the conveyance guide system: the conveyances for service hoisting or for carrying the hoisted material; and the loading system at the bottom of the raise.

A borehole hoisting system can be configured for mine service, or primary production (rock and ore) hoisting, while still providing a ventilation function.

For operating efficiency, hoisting systems should be vertical, and consequently, these systems traditionally have had to be installed in blind sink shafts because of: the ability to ensure vertical alignment in excavation; or the ability to excavate large diameters required to accommodate the hoisting conveyances and conveyance guide system(s).

A variant on the traditional blind sink method, where mine access is available also at the bottom, has been to provide a nearcentral small diameter (typ. 2m to 3m) raise bored hole (or other raise excavation method), and then to sink at the larger diameter by slashing from the top-down using traditional sinking methods, except mucking out is achieved down the central raise.

This has advantages: mainly being faster

than blind sinking, but one that requires mobilizing for two phases of work; the initial raise bore and then the sinking set-up.

There is now a single-pass raise bore alternative. The evolution of larger diameter raise bore excavations together with increased pilot-hole drilling accuracy means that these boreholes can now be considered for hoisting applications.

Borehole hoisting is not a new concept: however, because of borehole size and drilling accuracy limitations, in the past it has typically been confined to small diameter boreholes for low capacity rock hoisting applications. Up to now there have been few, if any, primary mine production high-capacity borehole hoisting applications installed.

Raise Bore Drill Developments Early raise bore drills were primarily employed for the excavation of open raises such as ventilation and ore or waste pass raises. These raises were limited in diameter (typically 1.8 m) and length due to raise drill equipment limitations.

As raise drill equipment evolved for hard rock (>150 MPa), large diameter raise boring was typically considered to be 3 to 4m in diameter and 300+m in length.

Mine and ventilation engineers were challenged to design raise systems within these limitations or slashing and modifying to suit.

The raise boring of vertical raises/ shafts to be equipped for service or muck Cementation raise drillers inspecting the reamer head after being removed from the drilled raise.

hoisting was not generally considered because of the limitations in diameter, length and pilot hole verticality.

As the demand for longer, larger diameter raises developed, so too did the evolution of more powerful raise drills, and inhole hardware. These technical developments are today delivering boreholes larger than 6m in diameter and 1000m in length.

Borehole Ground Support The borehole reaming process generally results in a smooth, circular hole which receives no ground support during excavation, and, with limited perimeter disturbance to the rock usually requires minimal permanent ground support as compared to a drill and blast blind-sink methodology. The latter requires temporary support at the shaft bottom to protect miners working at the shaft bottom during the excavation followed closely by the permanent support which is usually in the form of a concrete lining.

Borehole permanent ground support systems can only be installed after completion of the excavation (reaming) process. The ground support would generally be installed from the top down using a temporary equipping stage suspended from winches located at the borehole collar. When required the complete range of ground support system alternatives are available: - full concrete lining; concrete rings; shotcrete or fiber-reinforced shotcrete; rockbolts and screen.

An advantage of a borehole over a blind sink excavation is that the installation of temporary support is not required i.e. only the permanent support system is installed on completion of reaming, and then within a period measurable in weeks. Postconstruction videos of raise walls are also possible to compare predicted and actual conditions. Selected wall support can be tailored to suit actual conditions and installed from the work stage, or can be provided by remotely spraying fiber-reinforced shotcrete.

Ground conditions need to be appropriate to allow the use of the raise bore method. The rock mass can be assessed using the widely accepted rock mass ratings, for example, (RMR) by Bieniawski (1989) and the Q method of Barton et al.

(1974) together with stability analyses such

16 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013 www.canadianminingjournal.com

Borehole Accuracy Requirements The vertical alignment accuracy of pilot holes for bored raises has vastly improved with the development of equipment such as MICON’s Rotary Vertical Drilling System (RVDS) utilized throughout the entire length of the pilot hole.

The verticality of the borehole is governed by the pilot hole and there are two deviation components in the accuracy of the pilot hole drilling process: corkscrew deviation; the spiraling travel of the pilot hole bit within an imaginary circle plotted around the pilot hole centre at the collar; and directional deviation; this is related to rock structure and is generally in one direction and usually beginning at some distance down the hole.

The corkscrew deviation results in side-to-side undulations in the circumference of the final borehole wall during the reaming process. These wall undulations will impact conveyance clearances when the hoisting system is installed in the borehole. They typically range in dimension from 190-380mm (a half to a full diameter of a the pilot hole bit) and the required conveyance clearances can be achieved by reaming the borehole with a hole diameter which includes an allowance to accommodate these undulations.

The directional deviation component impacts overall borehole alignment and is influenced by the length of the borehole.

Benefits of Borehole Hoisting There are several benefits derived from the borehole excavation of hoisting shafts or winzes compared to the more conventional blind-sink shaft excavation: safer excavation methodology as operating personnel are not exposed at shaft bottom to unsupported freshly blasted rock faces; excavation

methodology causes less disturbance to the surrounding rock; the installation of temporary support is not performed during excavation of the borehole i.e. only the permanent support is installed on completion of reaming; overall borehole excavation rate is faster than sinking rate; overall project time schedule can be significantly reduced because of ability to carry out concurrent work activities; reduced excavation costs; reduction in overall capital costs; reduced engineering requirements for excavation as compared to a blind-sink shaft; and long-term delivery/procurement items such as a permanent hoist can be removed from the critical path.

Conclusions Large diameter borehole hoisting systems for rock hoisting are a viable, practical alternative to conventional shaft hoisting systems which can offer benefits in both development and installation time as well as overall capital costs.

The deviations experienced in boreholes with today’s raise boring equipment are relatively small and vertical hoisting systems can be readily designed to accommodate this deviation. Borehole deviation is not an impediment to the installation and operating efficiency of vertical hoisting systems.

Raises for borehole hoisting systems such as these should be integrated into the mine planning process to exploit the opportunities for efficient ventilation services.

Where underground access is available and ground conditions are suitable, raise boring development for the installation of mine hoisting systems should be considered and evaluated against conventional shaft or winze options for individual projects based upon project specific criteria and parameters.

CMJ *This Special Report provided by Dennis G. Martin, Manager, Raise Boring, Roland Hunt, Discipline Specialist, Mining, and Alun Price Jones, Technical Director, Cementation Canada Inc., North Bay, Ontario

Part of an EPC borehole hoisting project carried out

by Cementation of North Bay. Main headframe contractor TESC of Sudbury.

Photo by Nancy Duquet-Harvey

as the method by McCracken and Stacey (1989). The RSR (raise bore stability ratio) used by McCracken and Stacey is a function of the raise bore diameter and the excavation service life; which in the case of borehole hoisting would be either the intended service life, or the short period prior to installing ground support. Where there may be specific concerns about wedge type block failures from the excavation walls, assessments of joint patterns using wedge analysis can be done.

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

17

| Safety Department Here

SAFETY RULES THE ROAD TO

DIAMOND MINES

By Northern Correspondent Bill Braden

C

all it another urban myth about the Arctic: driving a 50-tonne fuel tanker on a metre of cracking black ice over bone-chilling water is just about the scariest, dumbest thing you could ever do.

Not so, say veterans of the real thing — the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road. Emphatically, absolutely, not so.

Lured by the History Channel’s wildly successful Ice Road Truckers television series, viewers around the world have been “astonished,” says one reviewer, by its dramatization of the exploits of daring drivers turbocharged on money-lusting bravado.

“The road is probably the safest road in North America,” says Ron Near, Director of Operations for the iconic 420 kilometre Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road (TCWR) from Yellowknife to the NWT’s three big diamond mines.

“What was portrayed in that television series does not have a lot to do with how we manage and operate the TCWR.” Still, when the scale of the project is sized up, it does gives one pause: 600 kilometres in all, 80 per cent on ice; 8,000 round trips of about 800 kilometres each; 500 drivers. That’s 6.4 million kilometers driven in eight weeks in the dead of winter. Plus a month of construction work.

“While accidents are rare, when they have occurred they have been relatively minor, given the very slow speed of travel regulated on the road, proper security, and good training,” says the road’s website.

So just what makes it so safe and dependable? In short, decades of innovative experience, high-tech science, close cooperation, and a corporate culture that will not tolerate risk to the health and safety of its workers.

The ice road is the lifeline for the NWT’s three diamond mines; BHP Billiton’s Ekati, De Beers’ Snap Lake, and the Diavik Mine shown here.

Photo: Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.

Multi-layered safety Winter roads are essential to remote communities, resource and tourism camps that otherwise may have only summer/water resupply, or air transport that costs about eight times more than a truck. But there are differences between “winter” roads — built with packed snow almost entirely over frozen land, and “ice” roads built mostly on water.

The TCWR is more accurately an “ice” road, and it has evolved remarkably to meet its challenges. First built in 1982 to carry about 800 loads a year into the now-mothballed Lupin Mine, today it routinely sees ten times that number, and far greater volumes, in the same eight-week season to the Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake mines.

An anticipated 7,000 trucks will make the 800-kilometre round trip on the TCWR in the 2013 season.

Photo: Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.

18 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

www.canadianminingjournal.com

Flooding teams help build ice fast, and make spot repairs as needed.

Photo: TCWR Joint Venture.

Tim Tattrie, a professional technologist with a 28-year career in the Canadian military, who came to NUNA Logistics Ltd. two years ago, is now the Project Manager on the TCWR. Nuna has built and maintained the road since 1998, and is regarded as Canada’s premier ice road builder.

“It’s all a procedure where multiple levels of safety are employed,” he says, including the work of a year-round safety committee of contractors, carriers, regulators; and the client, the Joint Venture of the three mines that actually own the road licence and pay its $20 million a year price tag.

Tattrie says the real work starts with a team leadership workshop in November, and by early January, safety and site orientation for crews as well-equipped camps and shops are thawed out and readied at Dome Lake, Lockhart Lake and Lac de Gras.

First out, across the road’s 64 lakes, are GPS-guided helicopters acting as airborne scouts for Hägglunds amphibious vehicles, bucking through the snow to blaze the trail for the graders and ploughs that will follow.

They’re equipped with what Tattrie says is probably the key safety innovation in 30 years: the use of ground penetrating radar to “profile” ice thickness.

“It used to be that you’d pick a centre line, drill holes and measure thickness with a stick. The procedure we use now actually checks a continuous radar beam of thickness along the entire centre line.”

NUNA has fitted the suitcase-sized radar apparatus to a sled pulled behind the amphibious Hägglunds, tethered to an onboard computer that gives instant readings of the ice below.

EBA Engineering helped design safety parameters in the 1990s, and continues to consult and provide quality control on NUNA’s own testing methods throughout the trucking season. That starts in earnest with lighter loads heading north by late January; ideal ice

Det'on Cho Scarlet Security patrols the ice road 24/7 during its eight-week season.

Photo: Det'on Cho Scarlet Security

thickness is usually achieved by mid February. Warm sunlight thaws, and portages by late March signal the end of the season.

Natural ice builds slowly from below, so to get to full strength sooner (39 inches will support a 64,000 kg Super B tanker), crews are sent to “focus” flood thinner patches by pumping water onto the surface.

Pioneer ice road builders in Manitoba in the 1930s were the first do this when they noticed water gushing out of holes drilled by commercial fishermen.

Another innovation that has helped save equipment and perhaps lives are “stingers,” three-metre long metal pipes fixed to all four corners of snowcats, and to the rear of graders. It’s an idea imported from Saskatchewan by a former NUNA road superintendent, Ron LeBrun, in the early 1990s. Should a wheel or a track break through, the stinger is there to keep the vehicle from dropping all the way through the ice.

Each camp has an EMT (emergency medical technician) on duty 24 hours, and an ambulance. Helicopter or aircraft medi-vac, using the road as an airstrip, is readily available from Yellowknife.

Any vehicle that moves on the road has at least two radio systems and there is constant communication. It’s a far cry from the road’s earliest days when there was virtually no radio at all, recalls today’s road superintendent, Kirk Keller, who was among the crew to venture out from the Lupin Gold mine to build the very first road in 1982.

“You know the buddy system?” asks Keller. “Well there wasn’t no buddies back then,” he says of the early years when small fleets of ragtag equipment punched the very first road.

Security monitors 24/7 With the surge in diamond mine traffic by the mid 1990s, and the

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

19

| Safety need for stringent traffic control, a security system was designed to monitor infractions and serve as a back-up when drivers have problems. It’s now provided by the aboriginal-owned Det’on Cho Scarlet Security and managed by Paul Gamble.

He will hire almost 30 people for the 24/7 task, most of them retired police or military officers familiar with enforcement

procedures, well trained on the road’s rules and winter preparedness. Gamble says his team strives to minimize the catch-the-badguy approach, and fosters more of a support and assist approach among the drivers.

“We’re not hiding behind posts to catch them... we try to make it a team effort,” says Gamble, himself a retired RCMP officer The biggest threat is The Wave: the

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20 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

pulse of water pushed under the ice by the rig driving on top. Just as an ocean wave “breaks” on shore, an under-ice wave can burst through as it bounces off a shoreline or shallow reef, or when the opposing waves meet from two trucks. Aside from the immediate danger to the hapless trucker, they can take days to repair and become the weak link in the chain.

Two violation rules are in place to prevent this. The first is really slow speeds — 30 kph tops for fully loaded rigs on open ice, as low at 10 kph on shallow lakes. The second is spacing — keeping trucks at least 500 metres apart.

The penalties are equally stringent: even three kph over will earn a warning. A second fault, or five kph over, gets a fiveday suspension. Fifteen over and it’s an outright ban; even littering gets the same harsh sentence.

Every driver goes through an orientation on the 27-page handbook (see it online at: http://www.jvtcwinterroad.ca/ jvwr/) and when convoys of as many as four rigs leave the Nuna dispatch yard in Yellowknife every 20 minutes, they’re always led by a veteran driver who sets the pace and coaches the new guys through.

One more incentive to stick to the rules: cash bonuses paid to drivers who come through the season with clean records.

“Since we started this project, we’ve had a high buy-in for the safety rules especially from returning drivers,” says Ron Near, also a retired RCMP officer, who owned the first security service to patrol the road before becoming its current Director.

Big future for winter roads The mining industry in the NWT employs winter roads extensively. Properties now under development, such as Prairie Creek’s lead-zinc find and Avalon’s rare earth deposit in the south, need them. De Beers’ Gaucho Kue diamond deposit, the Seabridge Gold property and Tyee Gold’s Yellowknife project to the north use the existing TCWR, and Elgin Mining is hoping to re-open the Lupin gold mine.

In Ontario, De Beers’ Victor diamond mine near James Bay relies on a winter road, as do several exploration projects in the Ring of Fire region.

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has been building highways and winter roads across northwestern Canada since 1987. President Keith Byram says the Yukon’s extensive public highway system provides ready access to much of the mineral activity there, and the few roads that are occasionally built are on a much smaller scale than the TCWR. “Most of them are almost entirely on land,” says Byram, adding that the season can be short. And like this current winter, if there isn’t at least six inches of snow to satisfy environmental rules, the road won’t be built at all.

Exploration has been in high gear for some years in Yukon, and Byram expects that as deposits move closer to production, more winter roads will be built until permanent supply roads are established.

Tim Tattrie shares Byram’s predictions for a growing need for winter roads.

Bill Braden’s book.

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“I think there’s going to be huge requirements for winter roads and ice airstrips,” he forecasts.

CMJ Editor’s Note: Bill Braden has recently written a new book on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road.

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April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

21

| Mine Safety

DEADLY SERIOUS “ We’ve developed a culture that tries to ensure our people go home safe each and every day, each and every shift.”

Darren Parry, Director of Health & Safety, New Gold

By Correspondent David Godkin

C

ontrary to some mainstream media reports, many mining companies are deadly serious about mine safety. A case in point is the New Afton mine in B.C.’s central interior, operated since the 70s as an open-pit gold and copper operation and later converted to an underground block caving mine.

Since it acquired the property in 2000, New Gold has won innumerable awards for safety at New Afton; notably B.C.’s 2011 award as the safest Large Underground Mine for zero fatalities and the lowest lost-time accident frequency rate for more than 240,000 worker hours.

Interestingly, New Afton is also the only mine with staff sufficiently trained in professional fire and rescue standards to permit them to assist local fire, rescue and PEP services in the event of an emergency.

22 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

www.canadianminingjournal.com

Why New Gold focuses on safety should be self-evident: at the end of the day, reducing the number of days away due to injury or illness translates into a healthy bottom line. How they do it is another question altogether.

Bringing the house down…

New Gold blasted its first undercut for the starter raise at the New Afton mine in June 2011 and its first bell three months later. Since then the number of bells has risen to 60. “By drawing underneath,” says mine general manager Kurt Keskimaki, “we allow the rock above us to collapse down into the draw bells and we extract it with scoops.” The mine’s draw points and extraction drifts are heavily reinforced, with fiber shotcrete, split set bolts, cable bolts, screen and wire straps providing ground support along with two steel brow sets. Since commissioning its gyratory crusher in January, the mill has also reached nameplate capacity of 11,000 mt/d (or 4 million mt/y) making it, Keskimaki says proudly, “the largest underground hard rock mine in Canada.”

By the time New Afton reaches the end of its 14-year mine life, he adds, it will have produced an average of 85,000 ounces of gold and 75 million pounds of copper per year. To get there it uses conventional crushing, grinding, and concentration processes, including gravity concentration and differential flotation. Virtually everything was built from the ground up from Day One, including the concentrator, SAG mill, tailings facility – all of it supported underground by a fleet of Cat scoops, three 45 tonne Cat haul trucks, three Atlas Copco 50 tonne haul trucks and computerized two-boom electro-hydraulic drilling jumbos.

Key to a block caving operation is having enough foot print to completely collapse a mine stope without destabilizing the rest of the mine. To do that 600 meters underground, says Keskimaki, you breach right through to the surface “because if it doesn’t collapse, it’s dangerous.” That entails controlling the air gap “to eliminate the risk of air blast” and the risk to workers travelling in and out of the mine. “You can’t have connecting conduits to your active cave area.”

To predict subsidence, New Afton staff employ an underground seismic monitor

ing system which enables them to listen for rock break. Added to this are time domain reflectometer cables which fail as the rock breaks and show up as two readable curves: magenta which represents existing conditions and green which represents worst case safety scenario. Meantime, prisms measure subsidence at the mine’s surface and an annual fly over tells engineers if adjustments are required in a draw to ensure the cave is performing as designed.

“You also have to put your infrastructure in at an adequate distance away from where the cave will breach the surface as

well as your underground access ways,” says Keskimaki. “In our case it’s a conveyor that has to have an adequate offset from the actual cave.”

It’s all about attitude…

“Access” means access by human beings as well as machine. Whether it’s mill piping or simply changing lights, workers have to get there safely and do the job without risk to life or limb. Especially crucial at New Afton, says Keskimaki, is a liner system that facilitates replacement of old liners with new. “You want to set up your sag

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April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

23

| Mine Safety

and ball mill so that you have a liner handling system that doesn’t force the guys to manually lift and position really heavy liners.” Ditto for other equipment purchases, says the mine’s health and safety manager Kevin Mihalicz.

“We’ve really been getting away from hand-held drills, providing cabbed in units that are air conditioned and that

have user-friendly controls in them and the ability to adjust seats.”

Forget these things and the risks become readily apparent at first aid stations, adds New Gold’s Director of Occupational Health & Safety Darren Parry. For one thing, as workers get older, incidents of repetitive strain and musculoskeletal injury increase. So in addition

to pre-employment screening to assess a new hire’s fitness for duty, the company provides on-going training and support for existing employees.

“One thing we do very well is offer health and fitness plans, including gym memberships. In addition to having the right equipment to do the job we try to ensure people are healthy and are trained correctly in how to lift and move.”

It all begins, of course, with having the right people with the right attitude on the job. For decades the mining industry has been accused of tacitly accepting a “systemic macho culture” in which workers accept inordinate risk as part of their work day. Not at New Afton, says Keskimaki. A good example is during ground support where staff shotcrete in cycle, i.e. wetting down, mucking out, followed by fibre shotcrete, all done with safety top-of-mind.

“We don’t even go under fibre shotcrete reinforced ground until the bolts are in it…

Basically you can lose your job if you ever work under unsupported ground. We don’t like risk taking mentality here at New Afton.”

More than 80 per cent of the 500 people who work at New Afton are local hires, most of whom were unacquainted with mining or milling operations at the start of the project. A six week miner trainee program helped to fill that knowledge gap, with ongoing mentorship and on site trainers to ensure both safety and skill levels were up to snuff. “We’ve worked

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with the B.C. Aboriginal Mine Training Association as well,” says Keskimaki.

“Twenty three per cent of our workforce is Aboriginal and it’s been very successful.”

Part of that success, he adds, is due to the use of the latest in training technology.

“We own a Cat simulator trailer that the Aboriginal Mine Training Association also sponsored. It helped to bring people up to speed doing things the right way.”

Better safe than sorry…

All of this is good, of course, but the real litmus test is how you handle truly dangerous situations on the job. Among a miner’s greatest fears are hang-ups, those large boulders above the miner’s head and beyond the capacity of the scoop bucket.

Not to worry at New Afton, says Keskimaki. There, a secondary MacLean rock drill makes short work of just about any large rock obstructing a draw point.

“Then we can load it from under the safety and security of the draw bell and blast it apart at shift change. We also have

a Cat scoop that has a very large hydraulic impact breaker on it and often we can reduce the size of those rocks during shift as well, without putting anyone at risk.”

It’s that kind of attention to mitigating risk safety above and below ground that has won New Gold its kudos for mine safety. It also helps to have suppliers who understand both your safety and production needs. Sandvik Mining, for example, supplies much of New Afton’s underground drilling equipment, notably a mechanized bolter. Not only is it more productive than hand bolters, says global account director Bob Onucki, its “simple robust design makes it safer and cleaner.”

“When you’re working underground you’re very restricted in where you can go…so one of the products we’re really proud of is our fully mechanized bolter.”

Darren Parry acknowledges some companies don’t take the same approach to safety that New Gold does and that, as a result, people continue to get hurt on job sites. At the same time, there’s no single

bullet-proof solution to lowering the risk, only “effective leadership, good programs and appropriate resources.” Learn to identify highest risk activities at every location, he advises. Hire people specially trained in risk assessment. Submit those assessments to third-party audits.

“We also avoid substituting good engineering with policy or procedures when addressing risk. Instead we engineer it out because that ensures the greatest amount of safety. We purchase state-of-the-art equipment that reduces risk to employees and cuts down on the amount of physical exertion on certain jobs.”

“Yup, it’s all about attitude. But not just yours. Consider your investors’ attitude if rumors of unsafe operations start floating around. Will they still invest? Or how about your insurer’s attitude? Hurt people on a regular basis, and you’re going to affect your bottom line because your insurance premiums will go through the roof. So that’s another business reason you don’t hurt people,” says Parry. CMJ

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

25

| Site Safety

WINNING WAYS SAFETY EXTENDS LIFE OF BRUNSWICK MINE

By Field Editor Marilyn Scales

F

ile this under “nice work if you can get it.” A mine manager takes a two-year posting to close a mine in his home province and be close to family, and then his safety efforts helped lower costs to the point that the mine stays open an extra three years.

That’s exactly what happened to Xstrata Zinc’s Greg Ashe when he accepted the general manager’s job to close the 49-yearold Brunswick zinc-lead mine near Bathurst, NB. After almost a half century of mining, the Brunswick mine will shut down this spring. When the mine closes it will have extracted more than 136 million tonnes of ore from the No.12 orebody, 13 million tonnes from its No.6 open pit, and processed another 200,000 tonnes of custom mill feed. Brunswick’s concentrator processed approximately 150 million tonnes of ore and transitioned through five major changes in ownership: Brunswick Mining and Smelting Corporation, Noranda, Falconbridge, Xstrata and finally Glencore Xstrata.

Ashe went to the Brunswick mine fresh from developing Xstrata’s Nickel Rim South mine near Sudbury, ON. What he found when he got there was a workforce of 1,000 employees facing the loss of their jobs in the medium term.

The challenge was how to keep the employees safe, engaged and productive while navigating through the ‘noise’ of the upcoming closure.

A look at the safety numbers over the last 25 years revealed room for improvement, said Ashe. The number of recordable injuries dropped, but the number of serious injuries was not falling as fast as total injuries. Also of concern was that improvement in recordable injuries had stalled between 1999 and 2008.

Then two serious accidents in 2009 provided the “wake up call” needed to renew the push for zero harm. A driller suffered bruised ribs in September when his safety belt caught on a rotating drill head of his production drill. Only a month later, an equipment operator was struck in the face after a sump pump hose caught on the cab of his vehicle and snapped like a rubber band. Either could have resulted in a fatality.

As part of Brunswick’s moral licence to operate, Ashe knew that improvements in health and safety were required. Mine leadership committed to re-energize efforts to break through the 26 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

injury plateau and at the same time proactively address the challenges Brunswick was facing in safely closing the mine after almost 50 years of operation. Ashe pushed for a re-launch of Brunswick’s safety vision and values.

“We had to articulate a safety vision and paint a clear picture for our people as to what our safety values were and what it meant. The vision was to close the Brunswick mine without another serious injury so that everybody could walk away with their health and with a sense of pride for a job well done. We made sure everyone knew what is important and valuable. And we rebranded the message with signage, stickers, recognition, and a continuous celebration of safety success stories,” he said.

In 2009, Brunswick Mine leadership began a partnership with Behavioral Science Technology Inc (BST) to help develop the mine’s strategy for safety excellence. The goal was to create an organizational culture of sustainable change where safety is valued. BST provided a customized strategy of change, tools for evaluation and coaching plus workshops and training.

As a first step, the mine undertook BST’s cultural diagnostic that would identify the mine’s unique safety strengths and weaknesses. In 2009, a survey (called an “organizational culture diagnostic instrument”) of all employees and their attitudes toward safety was revealing. Results showed a strong culture overall with especially strong organizational scores; mine employees tended to have high levels of trust in management and a good relationship with their co-workers. Most measurements were at or near the upper quartile, but deficiencies were also revealed.

Specifically relating to safety, Brunswick’s “value for safety” and “upward communication about safety” ratings were lower than average. At the same time, managers and hourly workers were reluctant to approach each other about safety issues – a significant vulnerability in an operating environment experiencing the huge changes of closing. An area ripe for improvement had been identified.

“In my experience the safest mines are the most productive and most efficient,” said Ashe to explain the added benefits of a zero harm approach. “There is better employee morale, and it spills over into other areas such as lower absenteeism, increased productivity, and lower operating costs.” www.canadianminingjournal.com

The benefits of higher productivity and lower costs are directly attributable to an improved safety culture which allowed Brunswick to profitably mine lower grade material and postpone the closing by three years.

Changing the culture or a core value at an operation is not accomplished simply because the boss says so. The transformation is the result of the collective efforts of everybody on site.

Armed with the results from BST’s safety climate and cultural diagnostic tool, everyone committed to creating a culture of safety excellence that would last the life of the mine. The goal, as Ashe put it, was that, “Everybody would leave the site with their heads held high, with pride for a job well done, with their health, and without serious injuries.”

Mine leaders determined that the safety transformation needed to begin with them. Safety leadership development, including individual action plans, would form the core of the effort. It would start at the top and cascade down through every layer of leadership – from general manager and superintendents down through second line supervisors and all front line supervisors. Great safety leadership, they believed, would benefit the mine not just in safety but also in communication, employee relations and productivity.

FRONT LINE SUPERS LEAD CHANGE First, employees with many years of hands-on experience in safety were given new roles as Sustainable Development (SD) officers. These SD officers were hand-picked not only for their experience but also for their strong communication skills and the respect they earned among their peers. This credibility was crucial in their new role, which would deal solely with safety.

They would go to every shop floor and workplace to coach and advise others in safety matters. This change meant that the major players in the execution of the strategy were the front line supervisors. Their observations and the success and guidance feedback they provided to employees was key to the new program.

Although skeptical at first, even union leaders became strong advocates of the new safety culture.

The BST program began with workshops that encompassed the ideas of leading with safety, credibility, vision, communication, structured feedback and recognition. Front line and second line supervisors were included to make sure everyone was on the same page in terms of vocabulary and concepts. There were also coaching sessions and tips on how to advise their peers.

Years prior, Brunswick had initiated a safety program called TAD (task assignment discussion). TAD was a system to encourage both supervisors and employees to talk and think safety. It encouraged the thought process toward safety and focused on correcting actions and/or conditions prior to performing a task.

However, TAD needed to be expanded.

As the BST program started to gain momentum, Brunswick decided to combine the TAD system with the new BST program so one would complement the other, which resulted in the introduction of TAD+. This revamped application relies on observations and conversations initiated by supervisors who then deliver success and guidance feedback on the spot. TAD+ is a means of approaching others with “continuous upward communication.”

Supervisors approach employees to perform observations and provide real time performance feedback. They use the TAD+ card as a means of having an informal discussion with their coworkers about the task at hand. As they review the items on the card, they strive to reinforce the way in which the task is being performed correctly, and it also helps them to identify barriers and at-risk activities that could hinder performing the work in a safe manner.

“Our employees do 90 to 95% of things really well,” noted Ashe. “The card is simply used to start a structured conversation about what they did right, and for the remaining 5 to 10% it is a guidance tool used to help point out risks they might not have previously noticed. The card is not used as a means of disciplinary action – quite the reverse – it is a ‘no blame’, ‘no name’ program. The data from these cards is collected and analyzed to produce a proactive action plan aimed at reducing risk and exposures.”

As mine leaders worked on supporting safety, communicating more effectively, and building a better safety culture, TAD+ engaged the miners in identifying and addressing exposures as they occurred. TAD+ resulted in such dramatic improvements to safety that the process was expanded to include staff functions such as administration, finance and procurement.

The result of implementing the BST and TAD+ approach was immediate and quantifiable. Typically, in the first year of working with BST, a workplace can expect a 24% improvement in reportable injury frequency (RIF); at Brunswick the improvement was 28%. In the second year, a workplace can expect to make a further 32% improvement; Brunswick made a 67% reduction. In the first three years of using this approach to safety, RIFs went from 1.0 in 2009, down to 0.7 in 2010, and down again in 2011 to 0.33. From 200812, recordable injuries have been reduced by 62% and lost time injuries have been reduced by 60%.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION To cap this remarkable achievement, the Brunswick mine was the 2011 winner of the national John T. Ryan Award for metal mines, presented by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. Says general manager, Greg Ashe, “We’re very proud of our employees for their hard work and dedication in building a world class mining operation with world class safety practices.”

Nor was that the only award. The Brunswick mine was the 2012 WorkSafe NB Award winner presented by the province of New Brunswick for its outstanding commitment to safe work practices and creation of a safe workplace. The largest benefit of this is a reduction in workers compensation premiums – from $1.83 million in 2009 to an estimated $1.25 in 2012.

“Day in and day out our employees on the floor have a sense of pride,” said Ashe. “As the operation winds down, everyone can leave with their heads held high knowing there were no lifealtering injuries as the mine was closed.”

Five years from now all the buildings will have been demolished, the tailings area covered, and a water treatment plant established. The Brunswick mine will pass into history, but its employees will have superior safety skills to take to their next jobs.

CMJ April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

27

| Education & Training

THE

HAILEYBURY SCHOOL OF MINING 100 YEARS OF PRODUCING CANADA’S BEST MINERS

In addition to also becoming a popular retirement and recreational destination, the town has maintained its status as a judicial seat and site of a provincial court for the Ontario Provincial Police.

A new city hall (built in 2007) houses the city’s municipal and various other department offices and is appropriately located in the town’s business section, adjacent to Lake Temiskaming.

Also located in the community is the Haileybury School of Chemistry class 1955

By Russell Noble Mines (HSM), the internationally know institution that has been aileybury is a small Northeastern Ontario town located training and educating some of the world’s best miners and techon the west shore of Lake Temiskaming, approximately nicians for more than a century.

Founded in 1912 as a vision of local high school principal, 150 kilometres north of North Bay and about 250 kilomeAsbury Wilson, the Haileybury School of Mines was born out of tres south of Timmins.

It’s a quiet town, about 10 kilometres off the beaten path of the need to meet the ever-increasing demand for technically Ontario’s Highway 11 and like many other mining communities in trained miners for the legendary silver camp in Cobalt, eight the area, it became an even ‘quieter’ place in 1962, when Highway kilometres to the south.

Silver was discovered in 1903, and the community quickly 11 was realigned and moved farther west to better serve the mining became world famous for its riches, far exceeding Klondike gold industry north in the Timmins area and beyond.

Places like Cobalt, Haileybury, and New Liskeard became towns. According to a “100th Anniversary” article in The somewhat isolated thanks to the “new” Highway 11 route that Temiskaming Speaker (a local newspaper published in New once went straight through the heart of those downtowns and Liskeard), Cobalt became known as the “Cradle supplied a steady flow of traffic and customers for the gas sta- of Canadian Mining.” tions, restaurants and motels along the way.

Surveying class 1961 Understandably, however (with the new highway diversion), small businesses eventually started to suffer and today, many of the once-busy towns east of the “new” route are hurting and in some cases, have almost “Gone out of Business.”

The Town of Haileybury (amalgamated into the City of Temiskaming Shores in 2004), however, is a survivor and its 4,500 residents still proudly call the picturesque hillside town ‘home’ as they continue to work at various commercial, government and institutional jobs to maintain a stable environment with a healthy local economy.

H

28 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

www.canadianminingjournal.com

With more than 100 mines scattered throughout the region at the peak of the rush, investors, managers, and engineers quickly recognized the sudden need to find individuals who could offer expertise, not only in typical mining methods but also in milling, metallurgy, surveying, and engineering aspects of mining.

The Haileybury School of Mines filled that need and now more than 100 years later it’s still providing highly trained technicians that continue to be in demand by mining companies across Canada, and throughout the world.

Under the direction of Northern College professors, about 75 students are currently working towards a Mining Engineering Technician diploma. In its present online, modular format, students take more than 30 courses (including a field school component) to compete the two-year diploma. Their studies include everything from mineralogy and geology, to mineral processing and mining physics, to surface and underground mining techniques, to communications and naturally, occupational health and safety where the basic causes of accidents and/or injuries are studied.

Program Co-ordinator Brian Dobbs says that when the students leave, they’re well equipped to handle just about any aspect of working in or around a mine and he credits much of the success of the school’s graduates to a very pertinent program, plus a curriculum that goes beyond “chalk and talk.”

“Unlike some certificate courses that focus mainly on theory, students at HSM get their hands dirty, and just about everything else,” says Professor Dobbs. “We believe there’s nothing more educational than first-hand experience and when it comes to mining, that initial taste of reality quickly determines who is cut out for that way of life, or not.”

As already mentioned, the diploma program at HSM is well respected by potential employers in the mining industry and it’s been designed so that students can continue working in an actual mine setting while taking certain courses online.

Again, this gets back to Professor Dobbs’ “chalk and talk” theory where he believes that an academic course of this nature works better when the students are given an opportunity to practise what they learn in a classroom or from a text book.

Perhaps one of the things that sets HSM apart from some other mining schools is that its training programs focus on specific “in demand” skills.

Through input from equipment manufacturers, mining companies and associations alike, Professor Dobbs says the school keeps in touch with what the industry needs in terms of tomorrow’s mining technicians and through the industry’s input, HSM is able to design a curriculum that is good for everyone.

“By knowing exactly what the industry needs and expects from our student not only helps the students get out into the business world, but it also keeps our instructors fresh and up-to-date with the latest in technology so they, too, remain enthusiastic about mining.”

The Haileybury School of Mines is a school like few others. Its name may tell you where it’s located, and what it’s all about, but what sets the school apart from others is the “feeling of family” between students and teachers alike.

“Open door” is a term often used to describe a business policy but at the Haileybury School of Mines, it’s a way of life and everyone at the school is proud to be associated with an institution that has “opened doors” for so many over the past 100 years. CMJ

Haileybury School of Mines Campus today.

Mineral processing class

Students’ lab work

Mine rescue training

Driller during underground training

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

29

| Company Profile – Boart Longyear

A bundle of drill rods (called “Molten Spaghetti”) is removed from a “pit” furnace to be cooled to ambient temperature before going through a straightening inspection.

Two 40-year veterans, Brian Tremblay (left) and Norman Pigeau work on a surface rig drill head at Boart Longyear’s North Bay plant.

Hot s Rod

Machining a custom rod end.

HEAT-TREATING METHOD HELPS ENSURE STRENGTH AND SAFETY DURING DRILLING OPERATIONS

By Russell Noble

T

here’s no official record of how many holes have been punched into Canada’s landscape, but when it comes to knowing who did much of the exploration and development drilling, the name Boart Longyear often comes up.

In fact, the company has been drilling mining and exploration holes in almost every part of Canada for more than 18 years

now. From the frozen Arctic, to swamps, bogs and the flat lands of the Prairies, to the rugged coastal and mountain regions, Boart Longyear has been almost everywhere helping the mining industry find and develop new mineral deposits.

In addition to providing equipment and contract drilling services here in Canada and more than 40 other countries, the company also sends its products to

30 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013 www.canadianminingjournal.com

Robotic coring rod cell at North Bay operation.

about 100 countries around the world where harsher environments, and sometimes ‘less friendly’ surroundings, put their equipment to new and often severe tests.

It’s these kinds of conditions, however, that have made Boart Longyear’s equipment what it is today. Field reports and performance ratings are vital and the company says that feedback from drill sites play a big part in the design of new products.

In fact, performance is what the company’s reputation is based on and while its Mississauga and North Bay operations have only been in Canada since 1995, the name “Longyear” dates back to 1886 when Edmund J. Longyear, a mining engineer from the first graduating class at the Michigan School of Mines, drilled the first diamond core hole in northern Minnesota.

Since then, advances in equipment technology and drilling techniques have naturally evolved as mining grew in popularity and became recognized as a profitable and full-fledged industry.

Over the years, and through until 1970 when Robert Longyear passed away (he was the last in a generation of family owners) the company was run by its Board of Directors.

In 1974, however, the Board decided to sell the company to South Africa’s Boart International, a company dating back to the 1930s when the drilling industry saw great improvements in diamond drilling technology, including the use of industrial-quality diamonds mined in Africa, called “Boarts.”

The financial support from Boart International, combined with Longyear’s technical expertise, resulted in a perfect blend to create Boart Longyear, now one of the larger and more powerful drilling organizations in the world.

Since the initial Boart Longyear merger, the company has gone through a number of ownership and managerial changes but the one thing that has remained constant is the variety and quality of the products it produces.

While based in Salt Lake City, Utah,

A surface drill rig transmission gets close attention from North Bay technician Brian Tremblay.

Boart Longyear’s Canadian operations are (as mentioned earlier) located in Mississauga and North Bay where more than 300 employees work as an integral part in the company’s manufacturing team.

From Mississauga, Plant Manager Shakeel Khalfan says there are about 75 employees working at the facility, 13 in the office and another 62 in the plant.

From the street, the facility has outstanding “curb appeal” thanks to extensive landscaping and modern architecture while at the back of the 66,000 sq foot building there’s a full-blown manufacturing operation including shipping and loading docks, welding and machining shops, painting and finishing bays, plus a network of huge machines that work in unison to fabricate drill rods and connectors.

Quality inspection by Jim Commanda, another 40-year veteran with Boart Longyear in North Bay.

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

31

| Company Profile – Boart Longyear

THE PEOPLE

“Drills are only as good as the rods that go together to make them. In other words, they’re somewhat like links in a chain. If a single rod fails, the entire drilling system fails and for this reason, each and every section of rod goes through a rigorous set of inspections,” says Khalfan.

From the moment the raw rods are offloaded from the trucks coming in from BLY’s supply base, each and every section (multiple cut lengths up to 24-foot sections) is tagged and stacked accordingly.

While most of the rod material arrive damage free, Khalfan says that regardless of what appears to be a “strong and straight” piece of steel, “what comes in the door is far from the product that goes out.”

All rod material has straight-cut ends that need to be fabricated with “male/ female” connectors. Through a series of steps involving heating, forging and machining customized end connectors.

Post fabrication, each rod is heat treated to engineered paramaters giving the rod the Boart Longyear’s Mississauga, Ontario, office and factory. Above are just a few of the people who make the operation run smoothly.

32 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

structure and integrity required by the customer for the drilling application specified.

Khalfan says there are multiple “pit” furnaces built into the floor at the back of the plant. Each furnace is capable of its own set of process paramaters and can handle multiple diameter and rod length configurations at a time.

Following full immersion into the furnace for a specified time and temperature, the rods, (affectionately called “Molten Spaghetti”) are cooled to ambient temperature before being moved to an inspection are where they are “eye balled” by highly skilled workers who literally do a visual inspection.

“It may look like an unscientific way of checking for slight bends or other curves in the rods but believe me, it’s not because the human eye can often see things that electronic sensors can’t,” says Khalfan.

As each rod goes through a straightening inspection, a worker looks down the length of each piece and slowly rotates it by hand. Should a bend or other defection be detected, the rod is either removed or “bent back to true” by using a hand-controlled hydraulic press.

Like many of the work stations in the plant, the “straightener” is manned by workers with many years of experience.

In fact, Khalfan says that many of the ‘stawww.canadianminingjournal.com

Boart Longyear’s North Bay, Ontario, office and factory.

tions’ are operated by long-time Boart Longyear employees, some reaching 46 years of experience on the manufacturing floor.

“People,” says Khalfan, “are one of the best things about our company because they all have a sense of pride in what they make. From our receptionist, to the guys at the back working the furnaces, to everyone in between, there seems to be a team feeling; especially when something “personal” happens. Birthdays, anniversaries, babies being born, or deaths in a family, it doesn’t matter; every occasion is recognized and that’s what makes this place work.”

Just like the Mississauga operation, the North Bay operations [plant], located just steps from Lake Nipissing, is equally a “team effort” with a “family” atmosphere where more than 230 employees manufacture products for the Minerals & Exploration sector.

With more than 2,000 active part numbers, the North Bay operation, which started initial production in the 1930s, remains in most part at the same site today.

State-of-the-art robotics’ manufacturing is located in a second building nearby but as Plant Manager Derek Donofrio says, the heart of the North Bay operation where the majority of employees are located remains at the original site.

“Original,” he says, “only to the point that the building is located at the same Main Street address as in the 1930s but there have been five additions and extensions made over the years and now the entire operation is going through probably its most dramatic changes ever.”

Based on tradition, Boart Longyear has always kept pace with technology when it

comes to manufacturing coring rods and casing (1.25 million units annually) wireline (1 million components annually) and surface drill rig components, and now, Donofrio says the company is going one step further by helping ensure its on-floor systems work on an “as needed” basis.

“By systematically assuring that every employee has what they need, where and when they need it (no sooner, no later), we can streamline our flow of information, our flow of materials and ultimately, our flow of product.

“With Phase I of the Boart Longyear Operating System (BLY OS) well underway and more than a dozen pieces of manufacturing equipment already repositioned on the shop floor over the last four months, Phase I “flow” is expected to be completed by mid year, but probably sooner.”

While it’s not unusual for manufacturers to move equipment around on the shop floor, the Boart Longyear move is somewhat unique in that the workers are

playing an instrumental role in saying “where” the machines go – a fundamental principle of the BLY OS. “Beginning last summer we invited all employees to get involved with the shop layout by holding planning sessions where they were given a “blank” factory floor plan, along with scaled cut-outs of the individual pieces of equipment, even work-benches and asked them what worked best for them.

“Not only did we ask them to focus on ease of operation and convenience, we emphasized “safety” and encouraged them to come forward with any issues involving their work areas and not to be shy about asking for changes and additions to make their jobs safer.”

Donofrio says the company is very pleased with the suggestions the employees have come forward with and he says that by giving everyone “a say” in their work environment has resulted in many positive, and safe, ideas for North Bay’s new “flow” system.

CMJ

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| Products SATELLITE SYSTEM Internet connections at remote mining and exploration sites are as valued and welcomed as warm food and a dry shelter. In other words, they help make the working environment more livable but more than that, they also make it safer and more productive.

Keeping in touch with the ‘outside world,’ so to speak, is increasingly important in today’s fast-paced mining industry and maintaining contact between people on site and head offices is essential to help ensure that the line of communications is always open.

Because most mining and exploration sites are in ‘remote’ areas, far from conventional modes of communication, a reliable internet service becomes an important part of doing business.

However, finding a network capable of handling massive amounts of data can sometimes be difficult, but Galaxy Broadband Communications now has a broadband communications service that offers coverage to most mining regions of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Starting in May 2013, Galaxy will also offer this same service across Northern Ontario, Quebec and Labrador.

Based out of Edmonton, AB and Mississauga, Ontario, Galaxy says its Skydata Ka Band enterprise service is an affordable technology that operates on a smaller dish size for more convenient set up in remote areas.

As already mentioned, one of the more important features of the Ka Band is the amount of data that can be packed into the signal. Coupled with

a powerful spot beam, the Ka Band has the capability to deliver more bits of data and thanks to its rugged dish design, it can also work through most weather conditions to maintain connection.

For more information contact: www.galaxybroadband.ca

EAR PROTECTION Sensear’s SP2 Smart Ear Plug is used by some of the world’s leading mining companies. The SP2 delivers high noise two-way radio communication, industrial hearing protection and situational awareness all from one device.

The SP2’s rugged yet lightweight design means it is perfect for use in confined spaces, and integrates seamlessly with respirators and other PPE equipment as there is no requirement for a boom microphone.

Features of the device include: Face-to-face communication; two-way radio communication without need for a boom microphone; protection against impact, intermittent and continuous noise; 360° situational awareness; maximum noise exposure of 82dB; and a built-in rechargeable battery.

For more information contact: alex.cook@sensear.com

SAFETY MESSAGES SAFETY GLOVES Hands are two of the more complex parts of the body, but they’re also among the most used tools in the workplace.

Without them, it’s extremely difficult to do even the simplest of tasks like writing, using a spoon or picking up a piece of paper.

The most common causes of hand injuries involve being careless, reckless or simply not paying attention. Once a hand injury has taken place, a lot is required to regain full function. Even what appears to be a minor injury can have an impact on the range of motion, dexterity, grip and the ability to complete even the most basic tasks.

Taking the time to avoid hand injuries is definitely time well spent. The first step involves hazard assessment. And that means: Identifying the hazard; eliminating it; providing proper hand protection for the job; and training all employees and making them well aware of all potential hazards.

For more information contact: www.mechanixwear.ca 34 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

SafetyWhips continues to provide mine sites with innovative safety products. Its new (VIDM) provides equipment operators another option for communicating with safety and support personnel.

Utilizing an External Display and an Internal Operator Display, equipment drivers and operators can select a coded message to display to surrounding personnel specific equipment status or changes.

Critical information is no longer dependent on radio contact.

Operators can easily communicate visual safety and operational messages to other operators, drivers and maintenance personnel.

For more information contact: www.safetywhips.com

www.canadianminingjournal.com

TRACKING SYSTEM

SAFETY LAMPS The new Genesis cap lamp from Northern Light Technologies (NLT) is the first cordless lamp to house a tracking tag within the all-in-one, ergonomic enclosure.

Tracking tags help mine operators improve their planning and communication with staff, monitor various key elements of mine operations, enhance their data collection and operate mines more safely.

Housing the tracking tag within the cap lamp prevents the loss of tracking tags. Genesis also offers convenience for mine operators by accommodating six different standard RFID and Wi-Fi tracking tags, all of which are powered by a high-capacity battery.

For more information contact: www.nltinc.com.

Absolute Trac is a Calgary based telematics solutions company that is designing hardware and software platforms with safety in mind, The company offers a complete and comprehensive work-alone and journey management solution for today’s businesses.

The solution is comprised of three main elements. The tracking device itself, the Central Asset Management System (CAMS) which handles all message traffic, and lastly the WorkAlone software platform.

The solution focuses on integrating these elements to receive feeds from all types of devices, integrate them into CAMS, and then send the messages to the WorkAlone software platform to allow for WorkAlone and Journey Management monitoring using the widest possible set of field tools and devices.

For more information contact: www.absolutetrac.com

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

35

CSR and Mining

Risks pertain to all, regardless of size

By Marketa D. Evans

C

orporate Social Responsibility featured prominently again at this year’s PDAC Convention. But isn’t CSR just for the “big guys?” How useful is it, really, for the junior and exploration sectors? We know from a recent survey that of those companies not currently engaged in CSR activities, key barriers include size (too small) or capacity (too limited).

The PDAC Convention offered a number of important and practical insights into these questions, particularly for companies operating in emerging markets, or in the developing world.

Let’s start with some insights from the finance world. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is part of the World Bank, but it is the part that lends to the private sector. I was surprised to learn that IFC offers equity finance to junior mining

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Marketa Evans is the Government of Canada’s Extractive Sector CSR Counsellor. The CSR Counsellor is a special advisor to the Minister of International Trade. The Counsellor has no policy-making role and does not represent Government of Canada policy positions.

companies. Taking a risk-based approach, the IFC has distilled years of learning about what it takes to be successful in these kinds of markets, into a set of performance standards. The standards are ‘risk management tools’ – and outcomes based. As a lender or investor, the IFC wants to know that management is aware of material issues in the operating context. In IFC’s view, any size company must understand the context in order to make sound management decisions – a very practical issue that helps clients assess and understand their own business.

At the IFC session I attended, IFC speakers made it clear that not all the standards would apply to all companies – a junior would apply only those elements of the standards appropriate to scale. Typically, we were told, performance standards onethrough-four apply to a smaller company or to exploration.

In practical terms, that might mean a relatively simple health and environment and social policy framework. And it is not expensive to kick the tires on this, even if you are not planning on approaching the IFC for financing. If you want to better understand your risks, and think about mitigation, the IFC has produced quite a lot of free guidance for each standard. The guidelines reflect ‘good industry practice’ – not best practice – good practice driven by industry itself.

Later, I went to a session on what the majors and bankers expect as the project moves up the line. According to these experts, what successful exploration now requires is engagement with communities, helping them better understand both the risks and benefits of the project, even at exploration. This helps manage expectations, and reduce fears that people have of unknown or anticipated impacts.

According to one of the speakers, you can’t really decouple social and environmental issues – many social concerns are actually grounded in environmental issues. And to address that, dialogue with communities is critical.

The clear message from all was that capacity must be scaled to risks; but that those risks need to be understood before the questions of capacity can be answered. Many smaller companies will have smaller risks. Indeed, much CSR work can be inexpensive – a respectful, ongoing conversation with the local communities, an open-door policy on disclosure of environmental impacts, ensuring people have constructive ways to voice any concerns or address any rumours directly with the company. Risk assessments against standards can help even the smaller companies understand the issues and ensure the risks they are taking on are manageable. CMJ www.canadianminingjournal.com

PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY

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Advertisers Index 3M Canada.......................................... 2...........www.3M.ca/mining www.ca/ppe Atlas Copco......................................... 23.................................. www.atlascopco.ca Bestech .............................................. 11.....................................www.bestech.com B.I.D. Canada...................................... 37............................www.bidcanadaltd.com Cementation........................................ 20................................www.cementation.ca CITIC HIC Australia Pty Ltd............... 4..................................... www.citic-hic.com Control System International........... 24.............................www.controlsystem.ca Dundee Capital Markets................... 40......................... www.dundeewealth.com Eco Waste Solutions......................... 37............................ www.ecosolutions.com Gem Steel Edmonton Ltd.................. 35...................................www.gemsteel.com GEA Westfalia Separator.................. 9............................................. www.gea.com Golder Associates............................. 13........................................www.golder.com

Power projects need people power www.valard.com

Grieve................................................... 36................................www.grievecorp.com Luff Industries...................................... 7.............................www.luffindustries.com Mechanix Wear................................... 6...................................www.mechanix.com Metso Minerals.................................. 39........................................ www.metso.com Motion Industries Inc........................ 10.....................www.motionIndustries.com Showa Best Glove............................. 25......................www.showabestglove.com Sommers Motor Generator Sale............................... 33............................www.sommersgen.com Sprung Instant Structures Inc......... 21......................... www.sprung.com/mining SRK Canada......................................... 7...............................................www.srk.com Valard................................................... 37........................................www.valard.com Westeel................................................ 13.....................................www.westeel.com

No matter how large or complex your mine’s power needs are, Valard has the resources to deliver a successful outcome. From engineering and procurement to construction and maintenance – get in touch with us for a simple, cost-effective solution.

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Canada’s Largest Power Line Workforce Extensive Bonding Capacity Competitive Project Financing

April 2013 • Canadian Mining Journal |

37

Unearthing Trends

Sustainable development: a key issue for investors?

Susan McGeachie is a member of Ernst & Young’s National Mining and Metals team and the Toronto Market Leader for the firm’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice.

By Susan McGeachie

I

t’s no secret to mining and metals companies that sustainability makes good business sense. Over the last several years there has been a distinct focus on sustainability in the sector, with the majority of attention on stakeholder and community relations.

We know that sustainable development impacts the bottom line and helps organizations maintain a social licence to operate in communities around the world.

What many companies don’t necessarily realize, or don’t spend enough time emphasizing, is that sustainability efforts attract investors — existing and new.

But attracting the attention of investors through increased investment in and management of sustainable development initiatives has always been a nebulous undertaking for many companies in the mining and metals industry. The reason?

The primary reporting framework used today to monitor and disclose sustainability-related performance metrics focuses largely on the reporting needs of stakeholders outside the investor community.

How we got here It’s been 13 years since a group of mining CEOs met in conjunction with the World Economic Forum to discuss the disconnect between mining practices and societal values. The eventual outcome of that meeting was the game-changing report, Breaking New Ground: Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development, from the International Institute for Environmental Development (IIED). It highlighted the shared understanding of development between mining executives and commu38 | Canadian Mining Journal • April 2013

nity groups and really set a new way of thinking in motion across the industry.

Now, over a decade later, the IIED reports a marked improvement in the understanding of sustainable development.

There’s still work to be done, of course, but the industry has come a long way. One of the biggest missed opportunities many point to is still the lack of communication to stakeholders on companies’ sustainability efforts, targeted to the specific information needs of each stakeholder. And in an environment where economic uncertainty is driving greater risk aversion among investors, this is exactly the group you want to be engaging.

Investors weigh in Investor interest — and concern — in sustainable development increased around the same period that mining and metals companies began paying more attention to the issue. Investors together formed a global network of investment professionals, the Principles for Responsible Investment, to help signatories (now numbering over 1,100) incorporate sustainability into investment decision-making and ownership practices.

In response to this heightened investor interest, national regulators began to take action. Denmark and South Africa require publicly listed companies to integrate sustainability information in their corporate reporting, and the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan have similar requirements under consideration.

The primary concern of many of these investors continues to revolve around return on investment. Which begs the

question: how, and to what extent, are climate change, water resources, biodiversity, corruption and community relations material for investors?

Efforts to address the materiality gap between disclosure of these issues in regulated filings and investors’ interest in them have been undertaken by many national securities regulators, including the Canadian Securities Administrators and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, both of which issued environmental reporting guidance for continuous disclosure documents in 2010.

Now what?

Clearly demonstrating the value of corporate sustainability efforts to new and potential investors is a crucial step in facilitating longer-term discussions and enabling enhanced value-add projects.

The importance of sustainability issues to investors is already widespread and will only increase.

Companies that invest in telling this story can shape their investor base to attract longer-term views that support these investments. But to get there, executives need to identify, prioritize and strategically manage the sustainability factors most relevant to investor decision-making, and develop a framework for articulating the financial value of these investments. By doing so, mining and metals companies can mitigate the effects of capital constraints by attracting a broader investment base.

Sustainable development isn’t only about corporate responsibility — it’s about growth.

CMJ www.canadianminingjournal.com

A solid balance

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We are Dundee Capital Markets and we offer you a full service investment dealer whose principal business includes investment banking, institutional sales and trading, private client advisory, and investment management. We have the capital to assist the development of large - or small - scale resource ventures and the experience to spot good potential much earlier than others. We are looking for smart investments, big and small, in the global resource sector and have the resource industry expertise and the balance sheet to help your company when you need it most.

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