CIM Magazine August 2011 by CIM-ICM Publications

CONTENTS|CONTENU CIM MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2011 | AOÛT 2011

NEWS 12 13

Earth and moon aligned at mining symposium Mining and aerospace efforts are key to one another’s development by G. Lanktree “A feel for the equipment” Laurentian students seize top prize at NASA’s Lunabotics competition by G. Lanktree

Peeling leaves behind a legacy of trust A look back at MAC president’s greatest achievements by T. Loree

Bralorne gold mine re-opens in British Columbia After a 40-year hiatus, the historic gold

Extracting gold without fuelling conflict New

camp is back in operation by P. Caulfield

World Gold Council standard sets its sights on “conflict-free” metal by P. Brent New Prosperity plans would save lake Taseko looks to federal government for approval by P. Braul

20 UPFRONT 20

Long-range troubleshooting Rugged video system connects specialists around the globe in real-time

The evolution of an operation A look back at

by R. Andrews

Rabbit Lake, the longest producing uranium operation in Saskatchewan by C. Edwards

Talking tailings Mine Closure conference comes to Alberta by D. Zlotnikov

FEATURE | ARTICLE VEDETTE LEADING BY EXAMPLE UN EXEMPLE À SUIVRE 26

A look at the best in the business and how their visions have powered the industry by Richard Andrews, Ryan Bergen, Peter Diekmeyer, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Eavan

The next generation of leadership CIM-Bedford Canadian Young Mining

Moore, Dan Zlotnikov

Leader Awards recipients by Correy Baldwin

L'imagination et la vivacité d'esprit au service de l'industrie

ON THE COVER | SUR LA COUVERTURE 30 40

An interview with David Garofalo, CEO of HudBay Minerals Une entrevue avec David Garofalo, chef de la direction de HudBay Minerals

26 4 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

COLUMNS 54 55 56 58 59 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 73 102

FEATURED PROJECT

CIM NEWS 74

CIM Conference & Exhibition 2011 / Congrès et Salon commercial de l’ICM 2011 A glance at

Recognizing industry’s finest / Hommage à la crème de l’industrie This year’s CIM awards

CMMF scholarships awarded Bright futures for

The power of imagination William Westgate

PROJET EN VEDETTE 44

this year’s conference / Un coup d’oeil sur l’événement

A new, cleaner era in a historic silver district Inheriting the legacy and exploring the future of Keno Hill Silver District by C. Baldwin

Supply Side by J. Baird Innovation by T. Hynes MAC Economic Commentary by P. Stothart Eye on Business by C. I. Kyer Aboriginal Perspectives by J. C. Reyes Standards by D. Mackintosh Metals Monitor by the Metals Economics Group staff Safety by H. Ednie Parlons en par P. Marcotte Women in Mining by H. Ednie Student Life by R. Cunningham HR Outlook by L. Forcellini Mining Lore by C. Baldwin Voices from Industry by J. Popowich

winners / Les lauréats des prix de l’ICM de cette année

Une nouvelle ère plus propre dans un ancien district argentifère Alexco Resource Corp. remet en production Keno Hill après plus de 20 ans d’inactivité

this year’s scholarship winners by C. Baldwin discusses CMIC’s role in the Canadian mining industry by A. Lopez-Pacheco

COMMODITY FOCUS 50

rousing speech at the CIM Conference & Exhibition 2011 by H. B. George

The mighty yellow metal Gold is on the rise; is the peak in sight? by D. Zlotnikov

All thanks to you Rex Murphy delivers another

Getting a fresh start / Un nouveau depart The revitalization of the CIM Environmental Society is underway / Revitalisation de la Société de l’environnment de l’ICM by H. B. George

HISTORY 92 95

The foundations of modern economic geology (Part 5) by R. J. Cathro Industrial minerals in history: ancient Egypt by F. Habashi

TECHNICAL SECTION 98

CIM Journal

IN EVERY ISSUE 6 8 10 82 87 100

Editor’s message President’s notes / Mot du président LinkedIn comments Welcoming new members Calendar Professional directory

commodity focus gold

THE MIGHTY YELLOW METAL by DAN ZLOTNIKOV

accounted for 2,000 tonnes and industrial use for another 500. But investment gold accounted for around 1,500 tonnes, over 37 per cent of the pie, drastically up from the historical trend of around 20 per cent of annual flow.

Is the peak in sight? Doubts about the health of the United States economy and the value of its dollar have helped drive investment demand for gold and its rise in value. At its current price, however, gold does not strike Nadler as a particularly sound investment. To explain, he points to the troubled economies of Europe. He suggests that Portugal may be pressured to sell off some of its gold reserves – and Portugal’s reserves are 82 per cent gold. t’s up. It’s down. It’s up. It’s down again. Volatility has been an inescapable part of the metals markets over the last few years. But in that time, gold has taken a pass on the roller coaster, catching a ride on the escalator instead. It’s up. It’s up again. It’s up some more!

Currently at more than US$1,550 per ounce, the price of gold has maintained its four-digit levels since September of 2009. This has led to some very unusual developments. Jon Nadler, senior analyst with bullion trader kitco.com, points out that, very recently, the Western jewelry sector has become a net supplier, rather than consumer, of gold. For the first time ever, he says, scrap supply generated by people swapping their jewelry for cash has outpaced the amount of gold used in the West in jewelrymaking. “When you look at the 1,400 tonnes of recycled gold that have flowed into the market, that’s the second largest annual supply of scrap ever,” Nadler explains. At the same time, jewelry consumption was down 20 per cent in 2009, near a 25-year low for the industry, and has not yet significantly recovered. With so many sellers, there must of course be buyers. Micheal George, the gold specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), says 2010 global jewelry production 50 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

“Ultimately, why do you have the gold in the basement to begin with?” Nadler asks. “It is for rainy-day type of purposes, and it’s raining pretty hard in parts of Europe right now,” he says. Another area of concern for Nadler is the gold exchange traded funds (ETFs). Combined, these hold over 2,000 tonnes of the metal. “This puts them up into the fifth or sixth place globally if they were a central bank,” he says. Central banks, Nadler continues, have the obligation to limit sales, but ETFs do not, “and I cannot at this point project what a 200- or 300-tonne outflow from ETFs might present price-wise to the market.”

Operating on a different schedule From the producers’ perspective, the current prices are welcome but don’t necessarily make a big difference for operations in the short term. George, at USGS, points out that it can take anywhere between 10 and 20 years from the time a discovery is made until a new mine begins producing gold. Today’s demand has certainly spurred a wave of exploration activity, but any projects that enter production in the next couple of years will likely be ones that have been in development since before the financial crisis.

commodity focus gold

higher material price stifles development of One such project is the Young-Davidson new applications of the metal or Mine in northern Ontario. Currently TOTAL ABOVE GROUND being built by Northgate drives more investment into STOCKS OF GOLD - 2010 (TONNES) finding viable alternatives for Minerals, the mine is slated to gold. enter production in 2012, OFFICIAL says Northgate’s director HOLDINGS With roughly 0.03 grams 29,000 of investor relations OTHER PRIVATE of gold used in a FABRICATION Keren Yun. With a INVESTMENT modern handheld 20,200 31,400 projected cash cost of device, “urban miners” $400 an ounce over a are finding value in 15-year mine life, the discarded hardware. mine is on track to be UNACCOUNTED Recycling firms in a financially robust, 3,600 Japan, for example, long-life operation. where phone users JEWELRY The company did 84,1000 typically replace their benefit from the high handsets every two gold price elsewhere, years, are producing says Yun. “If the gold hundreds of kilograms of price, and especially the gold from the unwanted copper price, weren’t as devices each month. As with strong, Kemess South, our longprimary producers, recyclers face Source: GFMS and World Gold Council time flagship operation, would have estimated 2010 calculations the challenge of securing the raw ended production sometime last year,” material. Naturally, a new generation of she says. “We were mining very low-grade ore prospectors bearing names like buymytronics.com and that was at one point considered waste, and we still casholdphone.com is developing to feed the demand. CIM managed to produce 12,000 ounces of gold this year.” On the other hand, the more marginal projects, as well as higher cost ones, will be under the microscope if gold does not maintain its current price level. For example, Northgate’s approach to its Australian operations might change should the price fall. The Stawell Mine, Yun explains, which is one of the deepest ramp-access-only underground mines in Australia, consumed $964 for every ounce extracted in 2010. “If the price of gold were to drop substantially, we would stop further development at the mine,” she says, “but we would continue to mine out our reserves and still make money.”

• MINING • MINERALS • METALS • MATERIALS mININg fOr sOcIeTy

M4S

Precious metal, practical applications It is also important to consider the industrial uses of gold, which account for as much as 15 per cent of the annual flow. Because of its high resistance to corrosion and good conductivity, gold has been the material of choice for modern electronics – everything from cell phones to laptops to televisions contains a minute amount of gold. Because the metal is also largely chemically and biologically nonreactive, it has been a favourite choice for medical applications. Most of gold’s industrial uses have one thing in common: the users have considered, and discarded, all other, less costly, options. Most of these industries will keep on using gold, regardless of price. Time will tell whether the

Gilded blinkers Lagophthalmos is a condition in which sufferers are unable to fully close their eyelids. The poor functioning of a facial nerve can cause the condition, as can an overly zealous eyelid lift. A common treatment involves implanting tiny gold weights into the eyelids, letting gravity help pull them shut.

August 2011 | 51

president’s notes Building a community with leadership expertise Now that we are finally well into summer and vacation time, our nearly universal shortage of skilled, dedicated people is all the more apparent. As one innovative way to help address this issue, CIM is rolling out its new Leadership Development Program to ensure that our industry is defined by leadership excellence in addition to technical excellence. In my experience, it is always a good idea to ask the opinion of CIM members before launching a new program. So, to begin, a survey was distributed to the CIM membership in October 2010. The survey sought members’ opinions in three areas: • What is currently happening with leadership development in members’ own organizations? • What skill sets are important for leaders? • What degree of interest is there in various CIM leadership initiatives? The results lend significant support to the design and delivery of a CIM Leadership Development Program. While some members had

experience with such programs in their own organizations, few saw these as helping them lead more effectively. Accountability emerged as the most critical skill set, and almost three-quarters of the respondents expressed a strong interest in participating in such programs offered by CIM. A comprehensive leadership development program for members from different organizations – involving a series of workshops and onthe-job assignments, assessments and support – generated the most interest. Therefore, the CIM program will operate in just this fashion. Unlike other programs, CIM’s will allow participants to develop their leadership within the context of the mining, minerals and materials industry, as well as develop a network of deep and sustainable relationships with both industry peers and senior industry executives. Details of the program and registration documents can be found on the CIM website under membership services (www.cim.org/cimleadership-development-program.cfm). We are currently accepting applications for sessions commencing in the fall. I believe this is a critical initiative for our industry and will enable us to truly cement our position as global industry leaders. Through this program, CIM has an opportunity to help individual members and member organizations become more successful through the development of leaders. I look forward to working with our first cohort this fall.

Chuck Edwards CIM President

Pour une communauté fondée sur l’expertise en leadership L’été est arrivé et les vacances aussi – enfin! Du coup, la pénurie de personnel qualifié et dévoué, quasi généralisée au sein de notre industrie, devient encore plus évidente. Voulant contribuer à résoudre ce problème par une solution novatrice, l’ICM met en œuvre un nouveau programme de perfectionnement du leadership visant à faire de l’excellence dans ce domaine une caractéristique de notre industrie, au même titre que l’excellence sur le plan technique. D’après mon expérience, il est toujours préférable de demander l’avis des membres de l’ICM avant de lancer un nouveau programme. C’est pourquoi l’ICM a commencé à envoyer un sondage à ses membres en octobre 2010, afin de connaître leurs opinions sur trois points : • Que font actuellement les organisations de nos membres en lien avec le perfectionnement du leadership? • Quelles compétences sont importantes pour les dirigeants? • Quel est l’intérêt suscité par diverses initiatives de l’ICM en matière de leadership? Les résultats de ce sondage ont joué un rôle important dans la conception et la réalisation du Programme de perfectionnement du leadership de l’ICM. Bien que certains membres aient vécu une expérience de perfectionnement du leadership au sein de leurs propres organisations, peu d’entre eux considèrent que ces programmes les aident à diriger plus efficacement. La responsabilisation s’est imposée comme la compétence la plus importante, et près des trois quarts des personnes interrogées ont indiqué qu’elles aimeraient beaucoup prendre part aux programmes proposés par l’ICM en lien avec le leadership. 8 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

C’est un programme de perfectionnement du leadership complet, destiné aux membres de différentes organisations et comportant une série d’ateliers et de formations en cours d’emploi, ainsi que des évaluations et un soutien, qui a généré le plus d’intérêt. Le Programme de perfectionnement du leadership fonctionnera donc exactement de cette manière. Contrairement à d’autres programmes en leadership, celui de l’ICM permettra aux participants de perfectionner leur leadership dans le contexte de l’industrie des mines, des minéraux et des matériaux, en plus de se construire un réseau de relations étroites et durables avec leurs pairs et de hauts dirigeants. Pour en savoir plus sur le programme et obtenir les documents d’inscription, veuillez consulter la section Services aux membres du site CIM.org (www.cim.org/cim-leadership-development-program.cfm) (en anglais seulement). Nous acceptons actuellement les demandes d’admission pour les séances qui débuteront à l’automne. Selon moi, cette initiative est essentielle pour notre industrie, car elle nous permettra de consolider véritablement notre position de chefs de file de l’industrie à l’échelle mondiale. Grâce à ce programme, l’ICM a l’occasion d’aider ses membres, qu’il s’agisse de personnes ou d’autres organisations, à tirer parti du perfectionnement de leurs dirigeants pour accroître leur prospérité. Je suis impatient de collaborer avec notre première cohorte cet automne. Chuck Edwards Président de l’ICM

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CIM gets LinkedIn

CIM’s LinkedIn group provides enlightening feedback CIM currently boasts over 2,000 members on LinkedIn. Join us today and get involved in the compelling dialogue. Below are a few of the myriad LinkedIn comments received daily in response to CIM Magazine’s editorial topics.

Is the skills shortage in mining a global issue? Canada is not alone, skills shortage a global issue in mining: May 2011, Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 68 I can comment on this issue as I attend mines in south America, Africa, Australia and Asia. yes, skill shortage is a global issue. I have been experiencing constant turnovers not only at the operational level but with manufacturers and service providers. I can tell you that in Australia alone, the major companies in iron ore, oil and gas have priority and use most of the available resources. there are a number of large projects coming out of western Australia that might end up suffering as the pool of knowledge and skills is not being replenished fast enough. If I remember correctly, the number of graduates in mining and metallurgy started decreasing in the late nineties and it was never a large number to begin with. All of a sudden, the industry has increased demand that is far exceeding the supply of graduates. this gap, which was created in the past, only causes new graduates to be forced into positions where previously only people with a minimum of five to 10 years of hands-on experience were allowed to take. Alberto Reyes, principal Mining engineer, gold Fields exploration, Inc, perth, Australia

welders, mechanics and even skilled apprentices are getting fewer as the baby boom generation gets older. It is harder to get the new generation to work in manufacturing mining equipment. desk jobs seem to be the trend. when we do train and the employee skill level rises, they leave for a dollar more or go work for the mines that we are trying to support with skilled workers. I’m starting to believe that business ethics are becoming extinct. Denis Rienguette, general Manager, Marcotte Mining Machinery services Inc, ontario, Canada

A patent-pending robotic system is underway – is it a safety breakthrough? A progress report on robotic cavity surveying Robots go where men fear to tread: May 2011, Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 34 It’s nice to see the mining industry experimenting with remote inspection and rescue-type technologies. the security industry has been at it a long time. the nuclear industry has many remote robotic procedures to inspect and repair Calandria vaults during their maintenance outages. Most of the major police departments have a suite of robots that can do many of these tasks. In fact, MdA (Canadarm) delivered five of them recently to the rCMp and many police services. Another example is moon and Mars rovers where a lot of this development is taking place. In mining, communication in long tunnels and rough terrain environments is always more of a challenge. there’s a lot of value in adding sensors for things like auto-return, auto communication recovery, collision detection, 3d sensing and visual odometry that can raise the chances of mission success. this effort seems to be at an early r&d stage; I hope it’s presented that way. when you send a very expensive robot system into an unknown environment, you want to have a high degree of confidence that it’s going to complete its mission; otherwise it won’t make much of a business case to make it into the mining mainstream. we all know [the attitude] in mining: “we tried that before and it didn’t work.”

the scenario is not the same all over the world. For us in nigeria, there exist skilled workers like me but the enabling environment to express my ability is not there. we do have, for instance, a beneficiation pilot plant at national Metallurgical development Center, but I cannot remember the last time someone was employed.

Roy Jakola, president, ses professionals, Aurora, Canada

Ojonimi Theophilus, Marketing/reservation executive, yelly travel nigeria Ltd, Abuja, nigeria

SCAN THE QR CODE wIth your sMArt phone to Be tAken dIreCtLy to CIM’s LInkedIn pAge.

10 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

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news Earth and moon aligned at mining symposium Interdisciplinary efforts key to outer space ventures By Graham Lanktree

Courtesy of NORCAT

Far from being worlds settling in April on $240 apart, the mining and million in cuts to the aerospace industries have agency. The CSA has not much to offer each other, fared any better either, said experts from both with its budget set to drop by 34 per cent in fields last month at the the following two years, Planetary and Terrestrial after peaking this year at Mining Sciences Sympo$424.6 million. sium (PTMSS) in Ottawa. “But there is some Although not an intugood news out there,” itive connection, scientists Larson said. “With these from NASA, the Canadian cuts, there are opportuSpace Agency (CSA) and nities for the external mining industry innocommunity to get much vators such as MDA more involved in our Corporation and Hatch missions.” gathered to bridge the gap, Boucher said now is exchanging ideas about Neptec’s Juno rover team discusses design prior to their technology demo at the symposium. the perfect time for new drill, wheel and automated mining technologies, and in technology development and potential major players in the mining industry to situ resource utilization (ISRU) on the suppliers. “A lot of networking goes on step up. “I predict that within 10 years moon or Mars. here and that’s really invaluable,” said somebody is going to come along and “There’s a lot of possibility for cross- Rob Mueller, chief of NASA’s surface say, ‘I need a fuelling depot on the pollination, since ISRU – the process of systems office. “It’s a great place to moon,’” he said. producing propellants or oxygen from exchange ideas and publish the work Dealing with and understanding the moon or Mars dirt – is really a space paradigm of long-term investment and that we do in our labs.” mining activity,” said conference all the steps involved in developing a Visiting from Finland’s Aalto Uniorganizer Dale Boucher, director of market are two major strengths that versity, researcher Eric Halbach mining firms have ingrained in their innovation at the Northern Centre for discussed the infrastructure of an autoAdvanced Technology (NORCAT). mated robotic earthmoving system that DNA. And these companies have the “The mining industry, in turn, can could be used on the Earth, the moon expertise to answer the questions learn a lot about miniaturization, or Mars. Delegates also talked about about beneficiating materials like automation and efficiency improvehow to optimize the structure of lunar rocks, sand and gravel that the aerorover wheels and the advantages of space industry is struggling with. ments from the space industry.” “Private industry, however, has not bucket wheel excavators. Boucher sees potential for the minyet really bought into the idea of Beyond the challenges of the sharp ing industry to use CSA and NASA actively mining for profit on the moon project funding as a research arm for and rugged qualities of lunar regolith, or Mars,” Boucher said. Yet space agenone hot topic at the meeting was the the development of new mining techcies, or commercial spaceflight nologies with applications here on need for economic incentives and enterprises, cannot send humans or exploration tax credits from the federal Earth. “Canadian companies build the robots on longer journeys without government to get large mining firms drill bits for the drill technologies doing a precursor mission to produce interested in the moon’ s minerals. “The that NORCAT has been developing oxygen for fuel or life support. aerospace industry has suffered in the through space agency contracts,” he According to Boucher, the problem said. “And they’ve improved their past few years,” said Bill Larson, a is that nobody really understands yet NASA ISRU expert, in an opening product development dramatically who the end user is going to be. address on the conference’ s first day. because of the stringent parameters “There’ s this concept that this has to For the better part of this year, NASA we impose.” happen,” he said. “The question is: With this in mind, the conference has been in limbo as the American govCIM When?” ernment haggled over its budget, promotes a mix between those driving 12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

news “A feel for the equipment” Laurentian students win moon mining competition

Eight Laurentian University engineering students seized the top prize in NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition last month, beating 36 teams from international universities – Ivy League schools among them – in a landslide win. Taking inspiration from the heavy machinery and mining industry around its school in Sudbury, the team’s winning teleoperated mining robot, or “lunabot,” managed to dig and transport a record 237.4 kilograms of simulated lunar regolith in under 15 minutes, more than 60 kilograms more than its closest competitor, at the six-day event at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May. “Really, the fact that this team did as well as they did is no mistake,” said Markus Timusk, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Laurentian and the team’s adviser. “They drew a lot on their local summer jobs. One of the students had worked at a company designing trailers for materials handling, so he had a feel for what a piece of equipment needs to do, and how to design it.” The robot’s speedy bucket chain, which gave it the edge over other designs, comes directly from mining, said team member Greg Lakanen. But if next year’s field of fourth-year mechanical engineering students wants to compete, they will need to have something new up their sleeve. Although pleased with the results of the two-year-old contest, the rules need to change for next year, said Rob Mueller, Lunabotics’ head judge and chief of NASA’s surface systems office. “Many of the contenders had a high parts count and created their own dust cloud as they dug,” he said. “On the moon, there’s no air, so there’s no cooling for the parts as they get covered in lunar regolith, which is an extremely good conductor.”

Courtesy of Laurentian University

By Graham Lanktree

The Laurentian University lunabot scooped up almost 240 kilograms of simulated lunar regolith – more than enough to claim victory in NASA’s Lunabotics mining competition in Florida in May.

Upcoming rule changes may include points for reducing dust lofting, robot mass and inclusion of mock radiators on the device, Mueller said. “But still, I want to make the rules as simple as we can to

maximize the possibility for creativity,” he explained. After all, he added, the first goal of the competition is to inspire students and to get them interested in continuing on in this field. CIM

August 2011 | 13

news Peeling leaves behind a legacy of trust Stronger Aboriginal ties and TSM among outgoing MAC president’s top achievements

Courtesy of MAC

By Thom Loree He may no longer be president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), but the name Gordon Peeling will remain synonymous with progress in the industry. Born in Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario, in 1947, Peeling spent the past 13.5 years lobbying tirelessly on such mining-related issues as trade, the economy, energy and environmental policy, tailings management, northern development and Aboriginal affairs. Peeling stepped down from MAC on April 30, and has since been succeeded by Pierre Gratton, former head of the Mining Association of British Columbia. “Gord built relationships of trust with a lot of Aboriginal leaders and organizations,” recalled CIM executive director

Jean Vavrek. “The way he made MAC receptive to the needs and wishes of Aboriginals through the Toward Sustainable Mining (TSM) Community of Interest Advisory Panel is definitely ‘best-practice,’ but it’s also courageous, and courage is something that exemplifies a lot of what Gord has done.” In 2009, both MAC and PDAC signed memoranda of understanding with the Assembly of First Nations to work together and help improve relations. As well, mining companies and First Nations have entered into hundreds of impact and benefit agreements across the country. Without these agreements, numerous projects would be unable to move forward. When Peeling joined MAC in 1997, only a few such agreements were in place, mostly between Aboriginal groups and diamond companies. “As a result of numerous land claims and court decisions over the past decade, the rights process has become much clearer,” said Peeling, who remains committed to strengthening relations with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples and continues to sit on the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. “Basically we’re operating on their land. It’s land that is increasingly identified as treaty-controlled, and in order to get access to it, we need to form partnerships with the First Nations, Métis and Inuit. That’s the new reality.”

A Parliamentary presence Under Peeling’s leadership, MAC won a Globe Industry Association Award for excellence in environmental performance, as well as two awards from Voluntary Challenge & Registry Inc. for achievement in climate change work. These plaudits reflect MAC’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy efficiency. In 2009, the Ottawa-based news weekly, The Hill Times, named Peeling one of Canada’s top 100 lobbyists. “Lobbying, to me, is an effective, fundamental way to influence public policy,” Peeling said. “Our strategy at MAC has been to lobby jointly with NGOs and other stakeholders and help them see the larger economic picture, while we are informed by their views and values. The important thing is to build broad support. This, in turn, leads to more robust policy outcomes and helps in the decision-making process.” Unarguably Peeling’s greatest achievement in building such support is the award-winning Toward Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative, which sets out performance indicators that MAC members are required to implement and report on annually. TSM developed earlier work further by placing the environment in a broader context of sustainability and adding a verification process. Indeed, under Peeling, MAC became the first – and so far only – national mining association to have a mandatory sustainability program that 14 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

includes third-party verification of its performance reporting. “We broke new ground on that,” Peeling conceded. Peeling’s success at the negotiating table is largely due to his “quiet, unflappable style,” according to Douglas Horswill, senior vice-president, sustainability and external affairs, with Teck Resources. “It’s a style that has earned him the respect of MAC members and those people he interacted with on MAC’s behalf. Under him, MAC became known for its ability and willingness to collaborate positively with all sorts of interest groups in pursuit of solutions to tricky problems. NGOs and governments alike called on Gordon for his input and advice.” Vavrek concurred. “He understands the value of respect, even when dealing with so-called opponents. He’s the ultimate professional in that sense. For me, he has been a model.” Collaboration, patience and respect are essential when entering into discussions with multiple stakeholders, said Peeling. “It’s a gratifying process, and you invariably end up with some good friends on all sides of the table.”

A legacy of good will When pressed to name his proudest accomplishment at MAC, Peeling concedes that the association has helped restore the public’s trust and faith in mining. “When I came in, terms like ‘sunset industry,’ ‘rust-belt’ and ‘old economy’ were being applied to mining,” he said. “Today, more than 13 years later, most Canadians and the politicians appreciate that mining is absolutely essential to the future of this country. They know that along with the oil and gas industry, mining helps determine the value of the Canadian dollar, and they know, too, that demand for metals is rising fast in the big-population economies like China and India, which augurs well for Canada.” This awareness is largely a reflection of TSM, which, through its Community of Interest Advisory Panel, has kept the industry aligned with public expectations. “Public values don’t stand still,” said Peeling, “and the industry can’t afford to lose touch with them. They’re the key to our social licence.” That social licence will be Peeling’s legacy, said Vavrek. “Simply put, Gord Peeling has gained the trust of civil society. He has done so by proving that the mining industry can take on hard issues and be collaborative – and that it can change.” As Pierre Gratton put it, “Thanks to Gord, Canada’s mining companies are being recognized worldwide for what they’re doing in the area of corporate social responsibility.” In addition to his ongoing participation in the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Peeling recently joined the board of Great Quest Metals, a Vancouver-based junior exploration company. He also sits on the global advisory board of Alexander Proudfoot, a management consulting group to the industry, and is a member of Inmet Mining Corporation’s External Stakeholder Advisory Panel. Other priorities include spending more time with his family, which includes Catherine, his wife of 36 years, their three children and one grandchild. CIM

MINING AND MET TALS ALS | ENERGY Conceptual and Feasibility Studies Reports NI 43-101 Technical ech Mine Planning and Design Plant Design and Simulation Project Management EPCM Projects Commissioning Assistance Process Optimization and Control

August 2011 | 15

news Bralorne gold mine re-opens in British Columbia Historic gold camp has potential for expansion

After a 40-year hiatus, the underground Bralorne Mine, the only pure-play gold mine in British Columbia, re-opened this year with the first gold pour in May. The commissioning of the mine by Bralorne Gold Mines Ltd. is the beginning of its re-development of a trio of past-producers that also includes the Pioneer and King mines and the exploration of the area separating them. The three mines occupy 2,500 hectares of property, with gaps of approximately four kilometres between each mine. They represent the largest historic gold producers in the Canadian Cordillera. Between 1928 and 1971, the three operations, located about 250 kilometres north of Vancouver, produced 4.15 million ounces of gold from 7.9 million tons of ore. It was the value, not the quantity, of gold that shut the mines in 1971 when the price of the metal was just US$35 an ounce. Currently, Bralorne will process 100 tonnes per day of ore at a refurbished mill nearby. Expansion of the mill is underway with a target of increasing to 250 tonnes per day by the end of 2013. The mine is expected to produce approximately 11,000 ounces gold with an approximate net value of $9.2 million in its first year of operation, based on a gold price of US$1,300. In addition to more than 50 direct jobs, the mine is expected to provide small business opportunities and service positions. New mining operations in British Columbia are a rarity, and their absence has been major concern for the province’s mining industry. Gavin Dirom, president and CEO of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia, said Bralorne may be a small mine, but is significant for what it represents to the province. “There are other deposits in BC that are not mined out, and the re-opening 16 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Courtesy of Bralorne Gold Mines Ltd.

By Peter Caulfield

From left to right: John McCoach (president of the TSX.V); Gavin Dirom (president & CEO of AME BC); Matt Ball (COO of Bralorne, holding gold bar); Bill Kocken (president & CEO of Bralorne); David Wolfin (director and vicepresident of financing); Bill Glasier and Gary Robertson (directors of Bralorne)

of the mine will encourage other companies to re-visit historic mines,” he said. Tom Schroeter, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Fjordland Exploration Inc., and former senior regional geologist with the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, said the re-opening of Bralorne is another positive sign of the resurgence of mining in BC. “And it is part of the ongoing momentum of developing and opening mines in the province,” he said.

Bralorne vice-president of finance David Wolfin said his father, Lou Wolfin, Vancouver stock broker and company founder, began assembling claims in the area in the 1960s in order to put together a comprehensive land package. Wolfin’s big break came in 1992, when International Corona Resources Ltd. (owned by legendary mine promoter Murray Pezim) shifted its attention from Bralorne to the Eskay Creek property in northern BC and sold Wolfin the Bralorne property. He acquired full ownership in 2002. CIM

MOVING ON UP Eric Finlayson was appointed the new CEO of Riversdale Mining Limited and Rio Tinto’s country manager in Mozambique. Finlayson joined the Rio Tinto Group in 1989 and has been its head of exploration since early 2007; he previously held senior roles with Rio Tinto Exploration in Vancouver, London and Perth. He replaces CEO Steve Mallyon, who has been the managing director of Riversdale since 2008.

news Extracting gold without fuelling conflict New World Gold Council standard aims to ensure “conflict-free” metal By Paul Brent It is malleable, indestructible, increasingly valuable and ultimately hard to trace back to its point of origin. These well-known attributes of the shiny yellow metal have prompted the World Gold Council (WGC) to initiate a new program to combat “conflict gold” and provide end-users – and regulators – with the assurance that their gold did not fuel military conflict in a foreign land. The WGC and its gold-producing member companies and large refiners have created and are now “stress testing” a system to identify and show that newly mined gold was produced and refined without funding armed conflict, even if it is produced in countries experiencing some sort of warfare. “Even where that mine might be in a conflict area, you can produce gold in a way that doesn’t fuel conflicts,” said Terry Heymann, the London-based director of the WGC’s Strategic Development Group. “You can show that gold to have not contributed to conflict with chain of custody in place on the way to the refinery.” Getting to the point where a system is in place to be stress tested has taken a year, a reflection of just how many factors go into getting the gold out of the ground and into consumers’ hands. “The gold supply chain is very complicated and somewhat fragmented,” Heymann explained. “Because of the value of gold and the value per small units of gold, sometimes it is hard to track every shipment, particularly coming out of conflict areas.” The WGC’s system is designed to be applicable to armed conflicts globally and is a response to the requirements of section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Gold originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo gets special focus in the legislation. Heymann noted that there may be unintended consequences to the conflict-free initiatives.

“Dodd-Frank and the OECD (conflict gold) process(es) would actually be very challenging for artisanal miners, and that is something we recognize and see as difficult,” he said. Because the conflict-free system builds on existing record keeping carried out by mining companies, it is not expected to add much in the way of complexity or cost to gold production, Heymann added. Kinross Gold vice-president of corporate responsibility Ed Opitz, who worked on the development of the WGC’s conflict-free standards, said that while “conflict gold” is a tiny percentage of the gold produced annually (less than one per cent of global supply), and no WGC members operated in the Congo area, it needed to be addressed. “Although none of the WGC members currently produces

gold in the DRC, some have plans to do so in the near future and others currently operate in adjacent countries. In that sense, the WGC is addressing the question of what operators must do to ensure their operations do not contribute to such conflicts,” he said. Miners seem supportive of the measures and are poised to put them in place. “We’re certainly looking at helping with the development of these standards and how they can be applied to our operations,” said Dale Coffin, director of corporate communications with Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited. The WGC is now consulting with various stakeholders on the latest draft and will accept comments on the standard until September. CIM www.gold.org

August 2011 | 17

news New Prosperity plans would save lake Taseko pursues federal approval a second time By Peter Braul public findings of a federal panel created to review the project. The report from the panel, published in July 2010, found that the Taseko project, as proposed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;would result in significant adverse environmental effects on fish and fish habitat, on navigation, on the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes by First Nations and on cultural heritage. The Panel also concluded that the Project, in combination with past, present and reasonably foreseeable future projects, would result in a significant adverse cumulative effect on grizzly bears in Courtesy of TsilhqotĂŹn National Government

Brian Battison was shocked Tasekoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revised plan for the New Prosperity mine would not require Fish Lake, which is upstream from the proposed mine, to be drained. and disappointed last November when the federal government turned down Taseko Mines Ltd.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prosperity Mine plan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It took some time to digest,â&#x20AC;? said Battison, Tasekoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vice-president of corporate affairs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was several days for us to try to understand what the decision meant, and to carefully read the decision.â&#x20AC;? The Prosperity Mine site, which is said to contain the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seventh largest gold and copper with waste rock and replaced by another porphyry deposit, sits directly downlake for the community to access. stream from Fish Lake. Taseko had Environment Canada, in explaining proposed that the lake be drained, filled its decision, stated that it accepted the

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18 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

news the South Chilcotin region and on fish and fish habitat.” But Taseko had a backup plan. In the process of designing the mine, the company evaluated several options that did not involve draining the lake, but had settled on the less expensive option. “There were always ways to build the project differently, but there was only one way to do it that was economical at the time,” said Battison. Because consensus prices for both gold and copper are now significantly higher, plans that were not feasible before were brought to the forefront to address the government’s concerns. The new project description, which Taseko submitted June 6, would cost the company an additional $300 million. It would save the lake and reduce the area of environmental disturbance by 23 per cent. According to Battison, most of the extra funds would go towards trans-

portation, as tailings and waste rock would have to be moved elsewhere in order to avoid damage to Fish Lake. Under the new plan, the tailings dam will be moved two kilometres upstream from Fish River’s entrance to Fish Lake, where it was originally planned to go, and tailings will be pumped that distance for the entire 20-year life of the mine. The new plan would also have waste rock moved to the east, away from the lake. Battison said that many thought the lake was going to serve as a tailings pond, but that was never Taseko’s plan. And while many reports have said that the new plan would make Fish Lake inaccessible for 20 years, Battison said that is not true either. “That lake can be made accessible,” he said. “It can be designed in such a way to retain trees and foliage around it.” Despite Taseko’s attempts to resolve federal concerns, misunderstandings with First Nations could throw a wrench

into things. “Taseko was adamant… that the proposal featured in their [first] application was absolutely the only feasible/viable option,” said Grand Chief Steward Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “Now, Taseko is saying something that completely contradicts their earlier assertions.” On those grounds, First Nations have refused to consult with Taseko over the new plan, but whether their stonewalling tactics have any impact on the federal decision remains to be seen. The Supreme Court has ruled that First Nations have a treaty right to be honourably consulted, but do not hold veto power. However, a United Nations declaration that First Nations have the right to “free, prior and informed consent” appears to challenge that, since First Nations could refuse consent without consulting with anyone. When the federal review will be complete is difficult to say. CIM

August 2011 | 19

upfront TECHNOLOGY by Richard Andrews

Long-range troubleshooting Rugged video system connects experts and cuts downtime The main customers are mining, oil and gas and manufacturing companies in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Central and South America.

Designed for hard hat areas

Courtesy of Librestream.

“Most existing collaboration technology is aimed at people sitting at a desk or in the conference room,” Thacher explains. “That’s not what goes on in the mining industry. These are people out at difficult locations and they need special tools.” The company aims to save customers time and money by bringing the problem to the expert, rather than the other way around. By way of illustration, Thacher cites the case of a power system that broke down in a large open pit copper mine in South America. The problem threatened to The multi-function camera and communication device allows experts to diagnose problems and lead leave hundreds of workers standing idle, along repairs remotely. with a plant worth billions of dollars. Instead, experts in the U.S. used the Onsight system, via a hen a problem arises on site and expert support is satellite link, to diagnose the fault. Local technicians were in another hemisphere, it is not such a small coached to make vital repairs and were trained to reduce the world after all. Getting those expert boots on the possibility of a further recurrence. “Normally it would have taken three to four days, plus ground to provide the solution at the work site acclimatization time for a technical team to reach the takes time, especially in the modern global industry where remote mountain site,” says Thacher. “With Onsight, you the parts, resources and people for a mining operation are don’t have to worry about getting on an airplane and lossourced from around the world. The Onsight Video Collabing productivity. By cutting physical travel you also oration System was created to close that distance and cut reduce your company’s carbon footprint and lower risk expensive downtime, allowing technical specialists to be a exposure to employees. Some of the places where people little nearer to two places at once. are mining or drilling for oil are among the most hostile Created by Winnipeg high-tech company Librestream, locations on earth.” the system is based on a rugged, wireless camera device that Limiting the need to travel, along with its risks and costs, provides audiovisual links between experts, supervisors, consultants and field operators around the globe. That can have a big impact on the bottom line. According to the means an engineer sitting in a Toronto office could help a Librestream CEO, Onsight usually pays for itself in just two foreman on an oil rig in Mexico repair a piece of equipment, uses – or even less. step by step, in real time. And if a worker on the same rig were sick or injured, instant diagnosis could be available How it works from a medical specialist in a hospital in another distant city. Technically, the Onsight device is about the same size and Electrical engineer Kerry Thacher co-founded Libre- weight as a professional SLR camera. Three models have stream in 2003, after working with a large manufacturer of been designed for either indoor or outdoor use, as well rugged handheld computing equipment. While there, he potentially hazardous environments such as chemical prohad become frustrated by the communication difficulties cessing plants. The mobile device is fitted with a 10X optical with technical partners and suppliers in the U.S., Japan and zoom and a macro function that provides a clear, close-up Taiwan. “We thought there might be some better way to col- view of small components or circuitry. laborate over distance during development cycles, and An illuminator ring surrounding the lens allows use in low created the Onsight system to do that,” says Thacher. light, and external devices such as a microscope or borescope The system found a ready international market when pro- can be connected if additional visuals are needed. An expert duction began in 2007. Since then, Librestream has sold sitting at the desk with a computer can remotely control all thousands of mobile devices and the accompanying software. the camera and collaboration functions, and communicate

20 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

upfront TECHNOLOGY

with field staff at any location with access to a wireless, satellite or cellular network. All participants in the collaboration can perform two-way telestration, or onscreen drawing. For recordkeeping the system is equipped with bi-directional video recording and still-image capture. Additional participants from different locations can also be included if the session needs extra input. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is not your typical video camera,â&#x20AC;? says Thacher. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We worked hard to make our product go way beyond that. In fact, the main hardware development challenge was compressing all the extra functions in one hand-held device to provide high processing capacity with low power consumption.â&#x20AC;?

Picture the potential Thacher applied his experience in the development of mobile healthcare devices to the design of Onsight, and the technologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medical applications remain important to him. Apart from the systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industrial uses, he is particularly proud of its potential to save lives. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With Onsight, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m pleased to know that healthcare, medical diagnosis and emergency advice are now more accessible to remote communities,â&#x20AC;? says Thacher. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I remember the case

of a triplet in rural Nebraska who was born with a heart murmur. The closest pediatric cardiologist was 115 miles away and the local doctor could not be sure if the baby had a life threatening defect.â&#x20AC;? Specialist diagnosis was needed quickly to determine if the family could be kept together or whether the boy had to be rushed to a major hospital. An ultrasound machine was hooked up to Onsight and live streamed to the distant cardiologist who quickly confirmed the condition was not serious. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That diagnosis saved the family a lot of unnecessary disruption, fear and concern at a time when the parents were very vulnerable,â&#x20AC;? says Thacher. In another potentially harmful situation, Onsight was used in the test flights of a newly designed aircraft. During one flight, the pilot had to make a forced landing and luckily escaped unhurt. Onsight was set up to communicate between the team at the test site and the manufacturers, who were far away. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ability to diagnose the problem in the field enabled the aircraft engineers and designers to diagnose the issue more quickly and cheaply, using information based on real life conditions,â&#x20AC;? Thacher explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve taken teleconferencing to a new level,â&#x20AC;? he adds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And in the words of our company slogan: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;This changes everythingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.â&#x20AC;? CIM

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August 2011 | 21

upfront PROCESSING by Chuck Edwards

The evolution of an operation Tracing the history of uranium milling at Rabbit Lake

22 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Courtesy of Cameco Corp.

Courtesy of Cameco Corporation

The CCD underflow diaphragm pumps were a continual problem. The pumping system was first recommissioned with hydraulic drives, but eventually the diaphragm pumps were replaced with centrifugal pumps. There were also chronic difficulties with ore crushing. Eventually, crushing was abandoned altogether and the ore was instead broken with a hydraulic breaker and passed through a grizzly feeder. Modifications were made in 1977 to control the radium in the effluent, through barium chloride precipitation and pond settling of the radium/barium sulphate precipitates. Pressure sand filters were later installed when pond settling failed to produce a solid-free effluent. By the early 1980s, the Rabbit Lake mill was a successful, smoothrunning operation. The startup mill Rabbit Lake, owned by Cameco Corporation, is the longest producing uranium operation in Saskatchewan. feed rate was 60 tph (1,600 tpd), but by 1981, the average milling rate had he Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan has increased approximately 28 per cent to 77 tph (2,040 tpd). been one of the world’s premier uranium camps, yielding more than 700 million pounds of uranium Adjusting to a new ore oxide since milling operations first began in the area The Rabbit Lake ore body was scheduled to be mined in 1975. It occupies nearly one-third of the surface area of out by May 1984. Stockpiled ore would continue to prothe Saskatchewan Shield and famously hosts many high- vide mill feed until late 1985, at which point the mill feed grade uranium deposits. would switch to the much “dirtier” (higher arsenic conThe first uranium mill was Rabbit Lake, which came into tent) B-zone ore. The initial ore was “clean” (lower arsenic operation on June 10, 1975. The mill was operated by Gulf content) in comparison; however, even with this clean ore Minerals (Canada), which made several modifications dur- there was considerable crud build-up in the mill’s SX ing the first years of operation to solve problems and to mixer-settlers. increase production. Further changes were made by EldoRabbit Lake used ammonia for SX stripping. It ran tests rado Nuclear, which acquired Gulf Minerals (Canada) with the B-zone ore using the same process of ammonia in 1982. stripping, and found that crud formation was much higher. In addition, Rabbit Lake was now required by regulators to Initial refinements reduce the ammonia in its effluent by 97 per cent, from The autogenous (AG) mill in which the ore was crushed approximately 500 mg/L to a maximum of 15 mg/L. Either and ground was quickly converted to semi-autogenous a process to remove ammonia from the effluent would have grinding (SAG). As well, soon after startup, the urethane lin- to be installed, or they would have to change to a completely ers failed throughout the acid section of the mill, including ammonia-free process. the tailings line. Linings in the counter current decantation There were several options. Ammonium sulphate crystal(CCD) thickeners, solvent extraction (SX) mixer-settlers lization was to be used at the nearby Key Lake mill, but the and associated tanks were replaced with fiberglass, while the mill was not yet in operation, and there were doubts that the tailings line was replaced with high-density polyethylene process could effectively reduce ammonia levels. Sodium carbonate stripping was also not ideal, as it tended to precipitate piping.

upfront PROCESSING

uranium in the mixer-settlers and was operationally unproven. Sodium chloride stripping was effective but resulted in large amounts of sodium and chloride in the effluent. Rabbit Lake decided to convert the mill’s SX process to strong acid stripping, an unconventional though very effective process, and one that required only minimal process equipment modifications. The pregnant strip solution would also be fed to a hydrogen peroxide precipitation process to completely eliminate ammonia. In addition, a gypsum precipitation process was installed to bring the sulphate ion concentration down to a maximum of 30 g/L, above which hydrogen peroxide precipitation does not occur.

uranium and other contaminants in the final effluent. This was achieved through a high pH clarifier, commissioned in October 2006, and a low pH clarifier, commissioned in November 2009. In this improved process, low pH clarifier overflow undergoes high pH neutralization with slaked lime and ferric sulphate. The underflows of both the low and high pH clarifiers are combined with the final CCD underflow tailings and neutralized. The combined neutralized tailings are discharged into the in-pit TMF. High pH clarifier overflow goes through two further contaminant precipitation stages, each followed by a settling pond. After pressure sand filtration, the effluent is finally discharged into the environment. CIM

Tailings management and waste treatment

This article was adapted and edited by Correy Baldwin from a technical paper entitled “Uranium Milling in Northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin: Past, Present and Future” presented at the 2011 Canadian Mineral Processors Conference.

At the same time, Rabbit Lake designed and installed the world’s first pervious surround in-pit tailings management facility (TMF). With this system, raise water (water drained from the consolidating tailings) is collected and returned to the mill for reuse or treatment. In the Athabasca Basin, the in-pit TMF is still considered the state of the art for tailings management. These combined modifications produced a virtually ammonia-free effluent. Milling of the B-zone ore began, as planned, on November 13, 1985. A number of issues with waste treatment and SX were dealt with during the first few years of strong acid stripping operation. In waste treatment, the underflow density from the solution recovery thickener (SRT) was lower than desired, and the volume and nature of the solids exceeded the capacity of the tailings filtration plant. The SRT overflow also contained an excessive concentration of suspended solids. The tailings filtration plant was reconfigured to deal with these problems, and the SRT process was altered to clarify aqueous waste feed to the mine water treatment system. The problem in SX arose from the operation of the leaching process. Inadequate ore blending for arsenic grade led to spikes, and operators responded by increasing the addition of sodium chlorate to leaching. Occasionally, too much chlorate was added, and unreacted sodium chlorate passed through CCD and into the SX feed. Here, the sodium chlorate combined with the high sulphuric acid concentrations, degrading the tertiary amine to secondary amine. The solvent took on the colour and consistency of orange marmalade. In 1986, after several unsuccessful attempts to clean or rejuvenate the organic solvent, the entire organic inventory was removed from the mixer-settlers and burned. The fresh organic solvent was provided, heat exchangers to cool the pregnant organic installed, ore blending improved, and oxidation potential control throughout the leach circuit upgraded, resulting in a normally operating SX circuit. More recently, from 2000 to 2005, Rabbit Lake performed a process development campaign to reduce the level of

author Chuck Edwards is AMEC Americas’ director of metallurgy and CIM president.

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August 2011 | 23

upfront S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y by D a n Z l o t n i kov

Talking tailings

Courtesy of Suncor

Mine Closure conference comes to oil country

Pond 1 surface construction involved covering it with a layer of soil 50 centimetres deep. About 65,000 truckloads of soil were used.

o understand the life cycle of tailings, researchers at Syncrude Canada Ltd. established settling columns at the University of Alberta to learn how much time the mature fine tailings (MFT) produced by bitumen extraction from the oil sands would require to settle, thus allowing the water to be extracted. It now has been more than a quarter of a century since the experiment began and the results are still not clear-cut. Major challenges such as this facing the Canadian mining industry motivated Les Sawatsky, engineering division director at Golder Associates, to bring the Mine Closure 2011 conference to Alberta. As chairman of the event, Sawatsky, who has a background in water management, also ensured that one of the major topics of the conference will be the remediation of tailings ponds. “There is a great deal of mine closure research being conducted all over the world,” he says, “and Canadian mining companies should have better access to the findings, so that the results of research by others and successful practices at other mines can be applied to mines in Canada. Equally, there is a great deal of information and successes that Canadian mining companies can share with their counterparts elsewhere in the world,” he adds.

Tailings in the crosshairs Delegates and speakers at the conference will include the “who’s who” of the oil sands sector, including Jean-Michel Gires, president and CEO of Total E&P Canada. Total’s Joslyn operation is not set to go into operation for another six years, but reclamation is a critical issue for the company right now. “If you want to recreate lowlands and wetlands, and want them to be sustainable and ecologically productive,” says Gires, “you had better understand what you’re 24 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

after, so you can restore them correctly and progressively. This in-depth understanding of the issues, selection of the correct technologies and implementing them vigorously with enough knowledge is part of the challenge.” Alan Fair, who until recently was manager of research and development at Syncrude and is currently executive director of the newly created Oil Sands Tailings Consortium (OSTC), has kept an eye on the MFT inside Syncrude’s settling columns. He has seen the research into tailings management and reclamation unfold and appreciates the scale of the challenge. “At the end of the day, it’s not going to be one single solution to dealing with that tailing suspension,” he says. “It will be a suite of technologies, and developing these technologies will be part of my role as executive director of the OSTC.”

Up to the task Fortunately, some methods for settling the MFT already exist, such as Suncor Energy’s TRO tailings management process. In addition to the familiar step of mixing a chemical flocculent into the tailings, Suncor spreads the MFT in a thin layer on sand beaches, where the bulk of the water runs off or evaporates. The result is a trafficable material suitable for reclamation within a matter of weeks. Sean Wells, Suncor’s research engineering manager, has an office window that overlooks what used to be Pond 1. The view has certainly improved as the first tailings pond in oil sands history has been transformed into a surface solid enough to be actively revegetated and reclaimed and now bears the name Wapisiw Lookout. Reclamation of the area is far from complete, Wells hastens to add. The site will have to be monitored for plant and animal life recovery. “We’re in a phase now that’s going to last at least 10 years and will

upfront S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

include intensive monitoring and analysis of the land form to determine what, if anything else, needs to be done, which will help the regulators and the industry determine what is a successful trajectory for reclamation,” Wells concludes.

Reclamation: an open conversation As Suncor’s example illustrates, there is a strong need for dialogue among the oil sands operators as well as regulators when it comes to mine closure. Wells, a speaker at the upcoming conference, says that in his experience, operators view mine reclamation know-how not as a trade secret to be protected, but rather as an obligation they accepted to restore the land to a state that is equivalent, but different, than the original. The same notion of working towards a common goal underlies the formation of the OSTC, which counts all of the major surface mining oil sands players among its members: Total, Suncor, Syncrude, Teck Resources, Shell, CNRL and Imperial Oil. Fair says the seven member companies, already engaged in reclamation R&D, are going to collectively spend over $90 million on tailings reclamation this year. The OSTC’s mission is to coordinate these research efforts and to maximize the efficiency of the work, he adds. Increased exchange of expertise is sure to benefit companies such as Total, a relative newcomer to Athabasca’s oil

sands, but one with big plans. Gires says Total’s Joslyn Mine, scheduled to begin operations in 2017, is also planning for progressive reclamation, reaching its closure stage with 60 per cent of the disturbed area already remediated. In turn, Total will bring its own expertise to the conversation, including experience in Venezuela’s oil sands. Gires, who as vice-president of sustainable development and environment in 2009 saw Total take the top rank on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, is to speak at the conference about CSR as it relates to mine closure. Much work remains to be done when it comes to oil sands mine and tailings pond reclamation. Initiatives such as Mine Closure 2011, which will be held in Lake Louise in September, and the OSTC are clear indicators that the industry recognizes the need, and is facing it head-on. “The problems of oil sands tailings are unique,” says Sawatsky, “but solving unique problems is not new to the industry.” CIM

August 2011 | 25

Leading by example Ingenuity and imagination driving the industry

By Richard Andrews, Ryan Bergen, Peter Diekmeyer, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Eavan Moore, Dan Zlotnikov 26 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

industry leaders f you cannot grow it, then you have to mine it. The expression neatly makes the case for the continued success of a long-lived industry. It also suggests that mining is inevitable: as sure as the world turns and economies continue to grow, the industry will be carried along by momentum. The faith in demand is reassuring, but it does not capture the countless technical and social challenges that have to be met from the earliest exploration stages to mine closure to ensure the supply for that demand. It is the ingenuity and imagination of those in the industry, such as the people, and projects profiled here, that will furnish the resources.

I Courtesy of Cathy Wood

King of the Klondike Shawn Ryan, together with his wife and business partner Cathy Wood, owns 20 per cent of the Yukon’s gold claims and has been credited with starting the territory’s largest gold rush in a century. Has the good fortune meant he has hung up his boots? “No,” he tells CIM Magazine on a shaky cell phone connection from out in the field on a damp and long Yukon summer day, “we’re not done yet.” Initially, Ryan, an Ontario-born hunter and trapper, moved to the Yukon in 1991 to harvest wild gourmet mushrooms. He turned his attention to prospecting and has spent almost two decades looking for gold in the Yukon’s Klondike region near Dawson City. A string of discoveries led Underworld Resources Ltd. to its massive White Gold deposit in 2004. He is now president of Ryan Gold Corp., a mineral exploration company that has the backing of top financiers and geologists. With gold reaching record prices this year, Ryan is sitting on deposits potentially worth billions of dollars. He owns 35,000 claims, which he options off to other prospectors and junior mining companies, giving them access to his properties. He emphasizes he is not your 19th century gold prospector hoping to get lucky overnight. “The day of being a prospector coming out with a rock in your hand and getting a quick deal is pretty well over,” he says. “It’s all science now.” “Nobody believed there were these big gold deposits in the Yukon, but we persevered,” says Ryan. “I worked on some projects for five or six years.” In 2002, Ryan started his soil sampling programs using GPS; he believes a successful gold prospector needs a large data base “to get the big picture” before drilling starts. “Soil geochemistry is our primary exploration tool,” he explains. “Ten years ago, 300 or 400 soil samples were a

lot of soils for a company. We’re aiming for185,000 soils this summer. Our business is still in a rush to drill too quickly. It’s like playing pool. You have to set up your shots,” he adds. “We’ve already seen about a six-fold increase in staked claims in two years,” Ryan says. “In 2002, two million dollars was spent on exploration, and $250 million will be spent this year.” In recognition of his achievements, Ryan was named the 2010 Prospector of the Year by the BC/Yukon Chamber of Mines. This year, he received the Prospector’s & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Bill Dennis award for prospecting success with a Canadian discovery. Ryan gives much credit to his wife’s encouragement, research efforts and negotiation skills. “Cathy was my biggest supporter and partner,” he says. “She was the peoR. ANDREWS ple person and I was the bush person.”

Doing it right – from the ground on down Presented with a challenge, Noront Resources has shown itself willing to try novel solutions. The exploration company's polymetallic deposits in the Ring of Fire of Northern Ontario have already provided it with numerous opportunities for innovation, both technical and social.

Noront’s Esker camp in Ontario’s Ring of Fire August 2011 | 27

industry leaders

28 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

correct relationship at the onset. That's one of the reasons E. MOORE we've chosen this very upfront approach."

Provencher goes deep Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited’s flagship LaRonde site is one Canada’s largest gold mines. So when the company picked Christian Provencher to manage the site back in 2006, he instantly became a highly watched industry player. Provencher’s success at LaRonde and in overseeing its extension project, scheduled to begin full production this fall, only increased his visibility, and by mid-summer of this year, he was named Agnico-Eagle’s new director of operations, standards and performance. “The project will be completed on time, on schedule and on budget,” says the industry veteran. “But there were a lot of challenges.” Enlarging the LaRonde site meant, in effect, building a new mine within a mine, including a new kilometre-long shaft, which brings its total depth to an ear-popping 2.9 kilometres. “Finding contractors that were sufficiently staffed with employees that had the appropriate skill sets proved difficult,” says Provencher. “In the end, we decided to use our own people when possible, particularly with excavation work.” Another major challenge stemmed from rising input costs due to the commodities boom currently sweeping world markets, particularly in energy and steel. According to Provencher, Agnico-Eagle dealt with the problem by Shaft sinking at the LaRonde Mine

Courtesy of Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited

Some of that innovation was on display at the 2011 PDAC event in Toronto, where curious conference-goers visited Noront's booth to see the 3D ore body models it had commissioned for easy visualizing. Other bright ideas appear in the Eagle's Nest project description. For example, Noront's deposits are located under wetlands, rendering it difficult to find enough dry ground for a traditional milling circuit. The company instead plans to build an underground mill, as studies to date suggest that is a more cost-effective alternative than surface construction. Going underground has the added benefit of reducing the mine's environmental footprint and preserving the traditional lands of local Aboriginal communities. Noront's leadership has committed to responsible development from the start. CEO Wes Hanson points out that Aboriginal communities are struggling to survive, even with the available government support. Noront’s objective is to work with local communities to identify jobs and sustainable business opportunities that future development of the region will introduce, allowing the communities to benefit directly. Noront's first priority is working with stakeholders to assess their needs. "We want to develop a model program for community consultation," says Hanson. The company employs a First Nations advisory panel and meets often with the communities in the region. Noront has also gone the social media route, building a website with social networking functions in order to facilitate information sharing and dialogue. With the project still in the planning stages, Noront's power to act remains limited, but it aims to eventually support and encourage education among young people in the Ring of Fire. According to Hanson, feedback through these channels has been largely positive. The Marten Falls First Nation staged two blockades in 2010 and 2011 to protest a general lack of consultation in Ring of Fire exploration activities, but Noront was not named as a chief offender. Hanson reports that Noront received support from other First Nations communities, including individuals working for the company. Currently, 22 per cent of Noront’s workforce is self-identified First Nations. The incidents do illustrate the challenges of earning community trust, however. Hanson believes working with Aboriginal groups requires hard work. "People understand the environmental impact of mining," he explains, "and they have experienced previous mining operations that promised benefits, but left communities worse off, not better. There are many instances where First Nations felt ignored. They now have a sense of wariness and, as a result, have adopted a cautious approach focused on establishing the

industry leaders working with on-site engineers to make changes to the initial extension designs in order to reduce the amount of steel used. Provencher’s reward for his work at LaRonde will include a new role with increased responsibility, as well as the opportunity to travel to other Agnico-Eagle installations in Quebec, Finland and Mexico. He does not flinch for a moment at the prospect of being on the road for one or two weeks each month. “It’s a great opportunity that will give me a chance to pass on my knowledge to a lot of younger people at the company,” says Provencher. “Taking on this new ‘mentor’ P. DIEKMEYER role should be a lot of fun.”

Courtesy of Cameco Corp.

A man with a longterm plan When Tim Gitzel was appointed CEO of Cameco in July of this year, he could not be blamed for wondering what he was getting into. The company’s stock price had just dropped by close to 40 per cent from its year-to-date high, in the wake of the Japanese earthquakes and tsunami and

the resulting damage to some of the country’s key nuclear facilities. As a result, the long-term viability of nuclear power plants was being increasingly questioned around the world. In addition, his appointment as vice-chair of the World Nuclear Association in March of this year meant that he also became a major public face of the industry itself. Yet none of this seems to bother the former lawyer and past president of the Saskatchewan Mining Association. “I had no hesitation in taking on the post, not even for one second,” says Gitzel. “I have been working my whole life in the industry and we have seen both good times and, now, a bit more challenging times.” Gitzel believes that rebuilding industry credibility starts with re-emphasizing fundamentals. “Energy demand is expected to double over the next 20 years and the power will have to come from somewhere,” he says. “Nuclear should be a big part of the picture. There are currently 437 working reactors around the world and another 92 scheduled to arrive by 2020. Yet while some countries, such as Germany, Italy and Switzerland, that were long cool on nuclear, have said they will phase it out; we will see how that plays out. Also, many other countries have either committed or recommitted to nuclear power use.” Gitzel believes that while it is still too early to assess lessons learned and the overall impact of the Japanese

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industry leaders nuclear power plant disasters, he points out that there were several unique geographical features at play, notably their location in potential earthquake and tsunami zones. Ironically, the recent cooling of market enthusiasm for nuclear power could create unexpected, though timely, opportunities for Cameco. The company has long had a policy of seeking out acquisitions. With asset prices in the nuclear space sagging, this may well be the perfect opporP. DIEKMEYER tunity for it to find good value out there.

Top gun Garofalo

In about 20 months from now, Vale’s new processing plant in Long Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, will begin producing high-quality nickel from nickel concentrate produced at the company’s mining operation at Voisey’s Bay. To convert the concentrate to refined product, the plant will use a hydrometallurgical process that Vale (and Inco before it) have developed, making it the first commercialscale acid leach-based nickel processing plant that does not require the traditional intermediate smelting process, which can emit sulphur dioxide and other impurities. The project is built on the applied knowledge and example of pre-existing gold, zinc and copper hydrometallurgical extraction techniques and the painstaking research and development required to move from laboratory and demonstration-scale test work to commercial-scale operation. When complete, the plant will have the capacity to produce 50,000 tonnes of finished nickel per year. Sam Marcuson, Vale’s vice-president of base metals technology development, has been involved in the project since 2005, before it was even certain that the processing plant would use the hydrometallurgical process. The ambition was there, he says, but the decision only came at the end of 2008, when the demonstration plant showed a fullscale plant was feasible. The conservative approach that took the project from the laboratory and mini-pilot plant test work to the demonstration scale proved to be the right course, says Marcuson. “We learned more things at each level, even though we did the previous steps quite well.” For pioneering work, that caution was important in mapping out the project. “You need to be quite certain and sure of

David Dorken/dwdorken.com

Refining the process step by step

hen David Garofalo moved into the head office of HudBay Minerals last summer to take the role of president, CEO and director, he took an armful of awards with him. His work over 12 years at Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited and eight years before that at Inmet Mining Corporation, earned him the title of Canada’s CFO of the Year by Financial Executives International Canada in 2009, as well as TopGun CFO by Brendan Wood International, and Best Investor Relations by a CFO by IR Magazine in 2009 and 2010. Garofalo has continued to set the mark for management, again earning recognition from IR Magazine. The latest addition to his collection is the 2011 Best Investor Relations by a CEO award.

Courtesy of Vale

CIM: You have earned a good share of recognition for the way you engage investors. What is it that you think you do that captures people’s attention? Garofalo: I have consistently engaged with investors,

Rendering of Long Harbour processing plant 30 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

analysts and salespeople, and I’ve been doing it for many

industry leaders

years in good times and bad. This discipline is important. HudBay’s 85 year history, she is heavily involved in Women Mining is inherently risky, and sometimes you have bad in Mining Canada, an organization focused on advancing news. When this happens, you can’t hide under your the interests of women in the minerals exploration and desk. You have to redouble mining sector. Also, given the your efforts, and face anaskills deficit in our business lysts and face investors and now, we have to think out of sometimes face their wrath. the box in terms of attracting That will earn you a lot of talent from less traditional respect. I learned that from geographies for Canadian Sean Boyd, my former boss companies, such as Eastern and sometimes you have at Agnico-Eagle, who is probEurope, Asia and Latin bad news. ably one of the best commuAmerica. nicators among mining CEOs When this happens, internationally. CIM: From a broader perspective,

Mining is inherently risky,

you can’t hide under your desk.

CIM: What do you think it takes to lead well in the mining industry today? Garofalo: I think you need clarity of vision and purpose. You have to have very stringent criteria for how you build your business. Mining is such a geographically diverse business that an organization risks spreading itself too thinly, in which case, it’s very difficult to execute on your growth objectives. The prime lesson is to really know what you’re good at and focus on opportunities and skills where you have a competitive advantage, and grow your business accordingly.

CIM: So when you are evaluating new talent what are you looking for? Garofalo: Whenever we hire highly skilled people, we try to evaluate whether the candidates might be able to run one of our business units someday or become an executive. Yes, we would like them to have strong technical skills, but also a sense for business. I like to see a willingness to understand where their weaknesses are on the business side and to address those through continuing education – which I’m more than happy to pay for. A good engineer who is willing to do an MBA, for example, is worth a lot more than a person who just wants to plot drawings for the rest of her life.

CIM: Does the industry need to increase the diversity of its workforce? Garofalo: We have come a long way in the mining business and at HudBay in particular. There is certainly much more diversity in our workforce. One of our most promising young engineers, Kim Proctor, is in charge of our $700 million Lalor project in Manitoba. In addition to being responsible for the largest construction program in

what do you think is the biggest challenge the mining industry is facing? Garofalo: All the near-surface

high-grade deposits have been found and it’s become far more challenging to replace what’s been pulled out of the ground. So across the sector, growth is very difficult to achieve, particularly for the senior companies that have very large reserve bases.

CIM: What’s the response? Garofalo: In 2011 at HudBay, we have, at $78 million, one of the largest grassroots exploration budgets in our history, and we are also drilling deeper in northern Manitoba than ever before, and exploring for – and discovering – precious metals in what has been traditionally perceived as a base metal camp. We’ve also invested in more than 15 junior companies for a total value of $140 million to further supplement and diversify our exploration focus.

CIM: What are the top challenges from a financial standpoint? Garofalo: A lot of jurisdictions don’t want mining, so getting large-scale deposits online very quickly has become an increasingly difficult proposition. It is more time-intensive and certainly more capital-intensive because of the finite pool of human resources and capital equipment. As well, a number of governments dealing with significant fiscal challenges are looking at the profitability in the mining sector and ways to increase their tax take. That would be a shortterm and short-sighted fix to their fiscal problems as it could have very severe long-term implications for the mining sector. Governments intent on increasing mining tax rates could end up pushing marginal projects out of the picture and that would ultimately shrink their long-term tax revenue bases. A. LOPEZ-PACHECO

August 2011 | 31

industry leaders

The safety standard Alberta’s Genesee coal mine, owned by Sherritt International and jointly operated with Capital Power, has an enviable record when it comes to safety. In its 23 years of operation, the mine can count zero lost-time injuries. In 10 of those years, the site won CIM’s J.T. Ryan Trophy for safety in the coal mines category. Its most recent award came for its performance in 2009, earning the mine crews yet another of their post-trophy lunchtime barbecues. The key to safety ultimately depends on a culture of care that has been valued and maintained by a succeeding generation of employees, a number of whom are children of current and past mine workers. General manager Chris Barclay says that while he and his co-workers share as much as they can with other sites, they still have much to learn themselves. “In all honesty, we

Workplace oases Resource industry firms among Canada’s top employers Each year, Canada’s Top 100 Employers competition recognizes leaders in HR practices. To compile the list, elements such as the look and feel of the workplace, employee communications and skills development opportunities are evaluated. These are the resource sector players who lead the field for 2011. AMEC • AGRIUM • CAMECO CORP. • CEMENTATION CANADA • ENBRIDGE • GOLDCORP • GOLDER ASSOCIATES • LEDCOR GROUP OF COMPANIES • NEXEN INC. • RESCAN ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES LTD. • SHELL CANADA LIMITED • SIEMENS CANADA LIMITED • STANTEC INC.

Canadastop100.com

32 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

are spending more time and effort in trying to learn and then implement some of the great things that are being done by other sites,” he explains. “Other Sherritt sites, the mining companies in Fort McMurray and the mine sites in the Elk Valley have much to offer in terms of unique safety programs and cultures that they have undertaken and implemented.” The mine also relies on knowledge transfer through CIM conferences, the Alberta Mine Safety Association and the Surface Mining Association for Research and Technology (SMART). “We are working hard at not being E. MOORE complacent,” says Barclay.

Reputation and performance If you ask Ross Gallinger what is the most important issue that the mining industry must focus on, he probably will not tell you. Not because he does not know the answer – Gallinger has a history of leadership roles in the sector – but because he does not believe any one area to be more important than another. This is a philosophy Gallinger brings to his newest post – that of executive director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). Gallinger’s previous position was that of senior vice-president for health, safety and sustainability with midtier gold producer IAMGOLD. When he joined the company five years ago, “there was no C-level position with regard to health, safety and sustainability,” he says. “There was no environmental policy, no sustainability policy, no health and safety policy.” Gallinger aided IAMGOLD in developing these policies, but equally vital was the creation of a clear end goal – a program that IAMGOLD named “Zero Harm.” Zero Harm, he says, was an effort to balance all aspects of what he terms a five-pillar approach to the business: resource management, financial strengths, production costs, reputation and last, but certainly not least, CSR. “If you’re juggling these five balls, you can’t concentrate on just one alone,” he adds. Courtesy of PDAC

yourself if you decide to go by a quicker route,” he explains. “You need to be working in pretty well-defined territory.” This story of success, built as it is on the hard work of an entire community of hydrometallurgists and other experts, does not have one hero. “The work was done in Mississauga and Newfoundland, but this didn’t pop into our heads here at Vale and Inco from nowhere; there are lots of people who are doing the same type of work,” says Marcuson. “However, we developed a particular application that we have in place in Long Harbour, which is hardly a trivial matter. When you are developing any of these processes, it is all the details that really count: What happens to the impurities? How do these particular systems work? Can I filter this material? Is the solid content reasonable? How do I recover these expensive reagents and re-use them? How do I improve the product quality? And, importantly, how does it all fit together. Sometimes people don’t understand that, yes, the big ideas count, but the R. BERGEN little ideas count a lot, too.”

industry leaders opportunities in assisting the sector in improving both D. ZLOTNIKOV reputation and performance.”

Navigating between the poles For 16 years, Julie Gelfand led a non-profit organization that existed to “protect and conserve wildlife and habitats.”

Reprinted with the permission of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin

Gallinger explains that the operators in the field “really need to know what the end result is going to look like. That’s really what Zero Harm is all about, filling that role. It’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.” The result was visible, both inside the company and across the industry as a whole. For the last year, IAMGOLD has been collecting awards for sustainable development and CSR excellence, including ones from CIM and PDAC itself. Moving into his new position with PDAC, Gallinger says he is planning to take a similarly holistic approach. He points to three challenges across the industry: identifying the resource, being able to economically mine the deposit, and maintaining social license to operate. To succeed, a company must not neglect any of the three. “Those are the three key aspects to the business, and the three key risks we as an organization will be working with the members to resolve, to understand, and to try and make improvements on,” Gallinger says. To this end, Gallinger says he is planning on delving into a range of issues in his new role at the PDAC. “Human resources challenges associated with the industry, access to land issues, Aboriginal affairs and advocacy – all are intriguing aspects and a huge opportunity for me to learn,” he says. “But I see huge

Now, she is part of one that aims to promote “the growth and development of Canada’s mining and mineral processing industry for the benefit of all Canadians.” The apparent

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industry leaders polar opposites might suggest that the long-time conservationist has lost her way, but in fact Gelfand continues to chart a sustainable course. In 2008, Gelfand joined the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) as its vice-president of sustainable development. The move made her responsible for implementing MAC’s Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative, which unites a wide range of stakeholders in establishing mine site protocols, which include crisis management planning, health and safety, community outreach and tailings management. Gelfand received a warm welcome at MAC, and most of her NGO colleagues support her role there. “There are people who don’t talk to me anymore, but most of them don’t think that way,” she says. “They think, ‘Oh, this is great, we have somebody with our values inside the industry now.’” In her work at MAC, Gelfand has built on 20 years of cooperation between MAC, Nature Canada and the sectors they represented in shaping federal land and wildlife

policy. “I always thought the mining industry was heading down the right path,” she says. “For me, the transition to MAC was about working with the companies who are out in the landscape and seeing what can be done to help them minimize their environmental impact and maximize their social benefit.” The mining industry has made a number of environmental achievements over the years, says Gelfand. She thinks TSM, conceived in the 1990s and launched in 2004, is its single best sustainable development initiative. Participation is mandatory for MAC members, and an advisory panel made up of a wide range of stakeholders allows for diverse input. Detailed performance indicators guide operations at the facility level, and each site’s score is published openly and independently verified every three years, making the process both transparent and, in the eyes of NGOs, credible. For Gelfand, even the most critical non-profits have a role to play. “The job of more radical groups is to raise awareness about problems,” she explains. “Then, more reasonable groups look at ways to help maintain economic viability while dealing with the issues.” When the need to innovate becomes clear, plenty of bright people within industry rise to the occasion, says Gelfand. But mining continues to lag in public perception. “In Canada, the industry needs to do a much better job at communicating how our lives are touched by mining,” she says. “There’s going to be more scrutiny over time, not less, E. MOORE from the NGO sector and the public.”

A sustainable pioneer

Courtesy of Jim Cooney

“If you are of a philosophical orientation, there is no better place to position yourself than inside a mining company,” declares Jim Cooney. In his 35 years in the mining industry, Cooney has demonstrated that mining can and should engage with fundamental philosophical and ethical issues. While working at Placer Dome in the 1990s, he encouraged the industry to embrace the concept of sustainability. He retired from Placer Dome as vice-president, international government affairs in 2006, and has continued to work with the extractive sector, currently as a senior associate with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. This year, he received CIM’s Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development. When Cooney first joined the industry, there was little tolerance for activities not directly related to the corporation’s business purpose. Sustainable development seemed

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34 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

incompatible with the extraction of an exhaustible resource. The 1990s saw breakthroughs in attitude. Cooperatively addressing sustainability meant taking control of one’s agenda, not turning it over to NGOs or becoming at odds with the corporate objective. “One of the most interesting moments,” Cooney remarks, “was when one of our mine engineers got up in a workshop and said, ‘I’m beginning to see how sustainable development not only can be helpful to us in managing social, environmental and political risk, but can also be a way that we can express our values. Within this concept, we can be who we are.’” Sustainable development both challenges and suits the goal-oriented engineering mindset, he says. To be effective, practitioners must suspend their vision of an end goal and focus instead on the process of engagement with diverse groups. But, unlike approaches based on human rights or corporate citizenship, the process ultimately produces measurable outcomes. What have been the outcomes so far? “There have been huge advances in relationships with indigenous peoples,” says Cooney. “And especially among leading companies, there are more instances of multi-stakeholder advisory committees on environmental issues.” The biggest challenge for sustainably minded companies, Cooney believes, is corporate integrity. “Companies not only need to have the right values hierarchies and longterm vision, but also have to actually make sure that it’s consistent throughout the company: not as compliance with policy, but as habits of thought.” In the near future, he predicts some previously sidelined issues will come to the fore. The precautionary principle, which states that even low-probability risks require some kind of action, appears more helpful in the wake of the BP oil spill and Fukushima Daiichi reactor meltdown. The notion of free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples has gained new power with its recent inclusion in Performance Standard Seven of the International Finance Corporation. “I think bridging the gulf between mining industrial activity and spiritual frames of reference is one of the challenges that we’re going to have to undertake,” says Cooney, adding E. MOORE that this is at least a few years in the future. August 2011 | 35

The next generation of leadership CIM-Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leader Awards recipents By Correy Baldwin

“T

he defining difference between companies is the talent they have,” says Russ Buckland, managing partner at Bedford Resources, an executive search firm. “And companies today, particularly in the mining sector, have to compete for that talent. Companies need to have a simple but straightforward answer to why a young leader should work for them. If not, they’re going to have trouble attracting the best talent.” As part of its commitment to attracting leadership talent, Bedford sponsors the CIM-Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leaders Awards. “We initiated the program to put a focus on leadership and leadership development in the mining industry by recognizing the best young leaders,” explains Buckland. “And also by recognizing young leaders we want to encourage young people to choose mining as their career.” The following four professionals are this year’s award winners.

David Anonychuk Commercial manager, cathodes, Xstrata Copper “I did a lot of different things that opened my eyes to the different facets of the business,” says David Anonychuk of his early career as a metallurgist. “That early operations experience gave me much more depth in terms of what I do today. It was a launch pad to the next level of commercial and strategy-related roles.” In 2002, he joined Noranda’s copper business, and when Xstrata acquired Falconbridge (formerly Noranda) in 2006 he took over Xstrata’s North American copper cathode sales. A year later he was overseeing their global copper cathode sales. “It was a big move and a big change,” says Anonychuk, who relocated to Dubai, UAE. “All of the major regions of consumption in the world, that’s where I go visit,” he adds. “You get to feel the ebb and 36 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

flow of the copper business globally. It’s a very dynamic market; copper’s always there in the background.” Anonychuk is also president of the Canadian Copper and Brass Development Association (CCBDA) and involved in the U.S. Copper Development Association (CDA). The associations promote the use of copper in such areas as alternative energy and energy efficiency, although Anonychuk is most eager to promote copper’s antimicrobial use. The CDA has pushed research that has recently shown that antimicrobial copper surfaces reduce hospital infection rates by 40.4 per cent. “It is rewarding to be able to work on those types of projects,” says Anonychuk. “We want to contribute to the industry, so we get involved. For me, it’s just being part of the industry, and it’s what we give back.”

Mark Eichhorn Lead process engineer, autoclave technology, Hatch Mark Eichhorn has become a much-valued team leader at Hatch since joining the engineering consultant firm’s non-ferrous process group in 1995. “My training as a chemical engineer, and starting work at Hatch under senior process engineers with chemical and metallurgical engineering backgrounds provided a powerful tool set for problem solving and innovating,” says Eichhorn. In 2002, he completed an MBA at the Rotman School of Management, and returned to Hatch, this time relocating to Australia. After a number of successful projects, Eichhorn returned to Canada in 2008 to lead the process team of Hatch’s Autoclave Technology Group. The Autoclave team is made up of over 80 engineers and designers. “It is a very accomplished multi-discipline team, so there is ample experience to learn from,” says

Eichhorn. “Many of our innovations are a result of putting our heads together solving problems.” It is a role that capitalizes on Eichhorn’s strengths in both team leadership and engineering. “We are encouraged to patent our ideas, develop engineering tools to improve our design process, and research important technical issues in more depth than a typical EPCM firm,” he says. The job comes with a variety of responsibilities, including human resource planning, proposals, and business development initiatives, explains Eichhorn. “In short, it’s a dream job for technically focused engineers with a business sense — and for those who do not mind some major multi-tasking.”

Chad Hiley Vice-president, human resources, Barrick Gold Corporation Chad Hiley first came to Barrick Gold as a consultant in 2001, offering his assistance as a chartered accountant with experience in mergers and acquisitions. The gold giant offered him the challenges he was looking for. “Once I moved to Barrick as an employee I held progressive roles in the company and took on several assignments,” he says. Hiley has held eight roles during his nine years at Barrick. “Each [of these] has played a role in my development, taught me something different about Barrick, and was rewarding in its own way,” he says. He has been praised for his work in developing a variety of programs and management systems, and mentoring young leaders, as well as his work on integration assignments — during the acquisition of Placer Dome he managed the integration of 9,000 employees on five continents. Hiley remains eager for new challenges. “In August, I will be moving to Santiago, Chile, on a two-year

developmental assignment as the deputy project director of Pascua Lama, one of our multiple billion dollar projects,” he says. “I really enjoy the challenge of working across different cultures [as well as] the challenge of balancing stakeholders’ interests. In most industries there is a customer focus, but in mining, maintaining our social license to operate and balancing the needs of our stakeholders is really interesting work.”

Ryan Montpellier Executive director, MiHR Even though Ryan Montpellier grew up in the mining town of Sudbury, Ontario, the mining industry was never in his sights. “I left because at the time I couldn’t see a career for myself in the mining sector,” he says. “It was not, unfortunately, an industry that was pushed very hard. I’ve spent the better part of my career trying to change that, encouraging people to select a career in mining.” As executive director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR), Montpellier is certainly well-positioned to deliver on that objective. Montpellier was recognized as a Distinguished Lecturer by CIM in 2006, and won the International Association of Business Communicators’ Gold Quill Award in 2007 for his work in addressing human resources issues in the Canadian mining industry. “The industry is facing a significant challenge when it comes to its labour market in attracting, recruiting and retaining youth into our industry,” he says. An aging work force, coupled with a boom in the sector, is creating what Montpellier calls a perfect storm. “Companies can’t solve this issue alone,” he says, which is where MiHR comes in. But, Montpellier adds, the real strength comes from the network of hundreds of industry volunteers. “The mining sector really comes together and addresses this collectively,” he says. “The collaboration is truly remarkable. I don’t think you’d see that in many other sectors.” CIM August 2011 | 37

Un exemple à suivre L’imagination et la vivacité d’esprit au service de l’industrie out nous vient du sol : soit des plantes, soit des mines. Ce dicton explique assez bien le succès constant de l’exploitation minière, une industrie très ancienne. Mais il souligne également son caractère inévitable : tant que le monde continuera à tourner et que les économies poursuivront leur croissance, cette industrie accompagnera l’aventure humaine. Ces perspectives de demande constante, pour rassurantes qu’elles soient, ne disent pourtant rien des innombrables défis techniques et sociaux qu’il faut relever des premières étapes de l’exploitation d’une mine jusqu’à sa fermeture, afin de garantir qu’il y ait une offre adéquate pour répondre aux besoins. C’est l’ingéniosité et l’imagination des gens qui assureront la disponibilité des ressources nécessaires, dans le cadre de projets comme ceux qui sont esquissés dans ce numéro.

Le roi du Klondike Shawn Ryan, en collaboration avec son épouse et partenaire d’affaires, Cathy Wood, détient 20 % des concessions aurifères du Yukon. Qui plus est, il serait l’instigateur de la plus importante ruée vers l’or menée sur le territoire depuis un siècle. Ce sort enviable l’a-t-il incité à accrocher ses patins? « Non, pas encore », a-t-il répondu à CIM Magazine, la voix rendue chevrotante par la connexion de son cellulaire. M. Ryan se trouvait alors sur le terrain, au Yukon, lors d’une longue et humide journée d’été. 38 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

M. Ryan est maintenant président de Ryan Gold Corp., société d’exploration minière bénéficiant du soutien de financiers et de géologues de premier plan. Le cours de l’or atteignant des sommets cette année, il est assis sur des gisements dont la valeur pourrait atteindre des milliards de dollars. Il détient 35 000 concessions qu’il accorde en option à d’autres prospecteurs et à de petites sociétés minières, leur donnant ainsi accès à ses propriétés. Il tient à préciser qu’il n’a rien du prospecteur d’or du 19e siècle qui fait fortune du jour au lendemain. « L’époque où un prospecteur pouvait se présenter avec une roche et

un exemple à suivre conclure un marché rapide est pour ainsi dire révolue », indique-t-il. « Aujourd’hui, tout est affaire de science. » M. Ryan, qui a lancé des programmes d’échantillonnage des sols par GPS en 2002, estime que pour réussir, un prospecteur d’or doit posséder une vaste base de données « pour obtenir une vue d’ensemble » de ses propriétés avant le commencement des travaux de forage. « La géochimie des sols est notre principal outil d’exploration », souligne-t-il. « Il y a dix ans, 300 ou 400 échantillons de sol représentaient une grande quantité pour une société. Or, nous visons 185 000 échantillons pour cet été. Notre industrie est toujours portée à forer trop rapidement. La prospection, c’est comme le billard : il faut prévoir ses coups. » M. Ryan ne tarit pas d’éloges à l’endroit de son épouse, qui l’a encouragé en plus de participer aux efforts de recherche et d’être une fine négociatrice. « Cathy est ma partenaire et la personne qui m’a le plus appuyé. Elle s’occupait des communications tandis que j’étais sur le terR. ANDREWS rain. »

Bien faire les choses dès le départ Face à un nouveau défi, Noront Resources est déterminée à mettre en application des solutions novatrices. Les gisements polymétalliques de cette société d’exploration, qui se trouvent dans le Cercle de feu du Nord de l’Ontario, lui ont déjà fourni plusieurs occasions d’innover sur les plans technique et social. Certaines de ces innovations ont été présentées au congrès 2011 de l’ACPE, à Toronto, où Noront a notamment éveillé la curiosité des participants en leur présentant des modèles tridimensionnels de corps minéralisés. La société avait commandé ces modèles pour faciliter la visualisation des corps en question. La description du projet Eagle’s Nest comporte d’autres idées intéressantes. Par exemple, étant donné que les gisements de Noront se trouvent sous des terres humides, il est difficile d’y trouver des sols suffisamment secs pour établir un circuit de broyage traditionnel. En lieu et place, la société prévoit construire une usine de concentration souterraine : les études menées à ce jour permettent en effet de conclure que cette solution est plus économique qu’une construction de surface. Qui plus est, une construction souterraine permet de réduire l’empreinte écologique de la mine et de préserver les terres ancestrales des communautés autochtones locales. Dès le départ, Noront a fait preuve de leadership en s’engageant à mettre ses gisements en valeur de façon responsable. Wes Hanson, chef de la direction, signale que les communautés autochtones ont peine à survivre, même avec le soutien du gouvernement. L’objectif de Noront est de collaborer avec les collectivités locales pour cibler les possibilités d’emploi et les occasions d’affaires durables rattachées à la mise en valeur future de la région, ce qui entraînera des retombées positives directes pour ces collectivités.

La priorité absolue de Noront est la suivante : travailler de concert avec les parties prenantes pour évaluer leurs besoins. « Nous voulons mettre au point un programme modèle en consultation communautaire », déclare M. Hanson. Un comité consultatif constitué de membres des Premières Nations est au service de la société, et cette dernière rencontre les collectivités de la région sur une base régulière. Noront tire également parti des médias sociaux : elle a construit un site Web doté de fonctionnalités de réseautage social pour faciliter le partage d’information et le dialogue. Le projet étant encore au stade de la planification, le pouvoir d’action de Noront est pour l’instant limité. Toutefois, la société vise éventuellement à promouvoir et à appuyer l’éducation chez les jeunes du Cercle de feu. De l’avis de M. Hanson, collaborer avec des groupes autochtones est un travail de tous les instants. « Ces gens sont conscients de l’incidence environnementale de l’exploitation minière », fait-il valoir. « Des activités minières se sont déjà déroulées sur leur territoire et, contrairement à ce qu’on leur avait fait miroiter au départ, elles ont eu une incidence néfaste. Les occasions où les Premières Nations se sont senties exclues abondent. Par conséquent, elles sont maintenant sur leurs gardes et adoptent une attitude prudente, cherchant à établir avec leurs vis-à-vis une bonne relation dès le départ. C’est l’une des raisons pour lesquelles nous avons opté pour cette démarche très E. MOORE ouverte. »

Provencher creuse profond LaRonde, le site-mère des Mines Agnico-Eagle, est une des mines d’or les plus importantes au Canada. Lorsque l’entreprise a nommé Christian Provencher à la tête du site en 2006, il est alors instantanément devenu un visage à surveiller au sein de l’industrie. Le succès de Provencher à LaRonde et sa coordination du projet d’extension du site – qui devrait débuter ses activités de production à l’automne – lui ont donné beaucoup de visibilité et c’est alors que, au milieu de cet été, il a été nommé le nouveau directeur des opérations, des standards et de la performance. « Le projet sera terminé à temps, selon les échéanciers et les budgets prévus », affirme le vétéran de l’industrie. « Mais nous avons rencontré beaucoup d’obstacles. » L’agrandissement du site LaRonde a nécessité la construction d’une nouvelle mine à l’intérieur d’une mine existante, ainsi que le creusement d’un puits d’un kilomètre. La profondeur de la mine est maintenant d’un étourdissant 2,9 kilomètres. « Il a été difficile de trouver des entrepreneurs qui auraient pu fournir suffisamment de travailleurs qualifiés pour exécuter de tels travaux », suggère Provencher. « Finalement, nous avons décidé d’utiliser notre propre main d’œuvre dans la mesure du possible, surtout pour les travaux d’excavation. » Le travail de Provencher au sein de la division LaRonde sera récompensé par un nouveau poste avec plus de responsabilités, ainsi que la chance de voyager là où August 2011 | 39

un exemple à suivre

Miser sur un plan à long terme Lorsque Tim Gitzel est entré en poste à titre de chef de la direction de Cameco, en juillet de cette année, il se demandait bien dans quelle aventure il venait de s’embarquer, ce dont on ne peut le blâmer. Le cours de l’action de la société venait de chuter – il était alors inférieur de près de 40 % à son sommet en cumul annuel – dans la foulée du séisme et du tsunami survenus au Japon ainsi que des dommages causés à certaines installations nucléaires névralgiques du pays. Résultat : la viabilité à long terme des centrales nucléaires était de plus en plus remise en question dans le monde. En outre, la nomination de M. Gitzel aux fonctions de vice-président de la World Nuclear Association, en mars de cette année, a fait de lui un important porte-parole de l’industrie. Or, rien de tout cela ne semble déranger cet ancien avocat et ex-président de la Saskatchewan Mining Association. « Je n’ai pas hésité à prendre le poste, pas même une seconde », raconte M. Gitzel. « J’ai travaillé dans cette industrie toute ma vie. Nous avons traversé des périodes prospères et d’autres plus difficiles, comme maintenant. » M. Gitzel estime que pour restaurer la crédibilité de l’industrie, il faut commencer par remettre certains principes fondamentaux à l’ordre du jour. « La demande d’énergie devrait doubler au cours des 20 prochaines années, et cette énergie devra bien provenir de quelque part », indique M. Gitzel. « Dans ce contexte, le nucléaire devrait jouer un rôle prépondérant. Il y a actuellement 437 réacteurs nucléaires dans le monde, et 92 autres devraient être construits d’ici 2020. Cela dit, certains pays historiquement favorables au nucléaire – l’Allemagne, l’Italie et la Suisse, notamment – ont déclaré qu’ils prévoyaient abandonner graduellement cette source d’énergie; nous verrons comment se passera la suite des choses. À l’inverse, de nombreux pays se sont engagés à recourir au nucléaire ou ont renouvelé leur engagement en ce sens. » Ironiquement, la récente perte d’engouement du marché pour l’énergie nucléaire pourrait créer pour Cameco des occasions d’affaires imprévues, mais fort à propos. La société met depuis longtemps en pratique une politique de recherche d’acquisitions. Avec le déclin du prix des actifs dans le monde du nucléaire, il pourrait s’agir du meilleur moment pour la société de trouver de la valeur sur le P. DIEKMEYER marché.

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La réputation et le rendement Si vous demandez à Ross Gallinger quelle est la plus importante problématique sur laquelle doit se pencher l’industrie minière, il ne vous le dira probablement pas. Pas parce qu’il ignore la réponse – M. Gallinger a occupé plusieurs postes de direction dans le secteur minier – mais bien parce qu’à son avis, aucun champ d’activité n’est plus important que les autres. M. Gallinger mettra cette philosophie en application dans le cadre de ses nouvelles fonctions, celles de directeur administratif de l’ACPE. Auparavant, M. Gallinger était vice-président principal, Santé, sécurité et développement durable, à IAMGOLD, producteur d’or intermédiaire. Or, quand il s’est joint à la société, il y a cinq ans, « il n’y avait aucun poste de cadre

David Garofalo, lauréat d’un prix TopGun

David Dorken/dwdorken.com

Agnico-Eagle a des installations, soit au Québec, en Finlande et au Mexique. L’idée de passer une ou deux semaines à l’étranger chaque mois ne lui déplait pas non plus. « C’est une occasion unique qui me permettra de partager mes connaissances avec beaucoup de jeunes dans la compagnie », dit-il. « Je pense que ce nouveau P. DIEKMEYER rôle de mentor me plaira énormément. »

orsque David Garofalo a déménagé au siège social de HudBay Minerals, l’été dernier, pour y occuper le poste de président, de chef de la direction et d’administrateur, ses boîtes débordaient de prix. Dans le cadre de ses fonctions à Inmet Mining Corporation puis à Mines Agnico-Eagle Limitée, qu’il a respectivement occupées pendant huit et douze ans, il a décroché le titre de directeur financier de l’année au Canada en 2009, décerné par Dirigeants financiers internationaux du Canada. Il a également obtenu le prix

un exemple à suivre supérieur dont les fonctions portaient sur la santé, la sécurité et le développement durable », raconte-t-il. « Il n’y avait ni politique environnementale, ni politique de durabilité, ni politique de santé et sécurité. » M. Gallinger a aidé IAMGOLD à élaborer ces politiques, sans pour autant négliger un objectif prioritaire : la création d’un programme qu’IAMGOLD a nommé « Zéro incident ». Comme l’indique M. Gallinger, ce programme vise à harmoniser tous les aspects d’une démarche de gestion en cinq temps : gestion des ressources, santé financière, coûts de production, réputation et – dernier élément mais non le moindre – responsabilité sociale d’entreprise. « En jonglant avec ces cinq balles, on ne peut se concentrer sur chacune d’elles individuellement », indique-t-il.

Comme le souligne M. Gallinger, les opérateurs sur le terrain « avaient vraiment besoin de savoir à quoi ressemblerait le résultat final. Or, Zéro incident remplit exactement ce rôle. C’est un peu comme rassembler tous les morceaux d’un casse-tête. » Dans le cadre de ses nouvelles fonctions à l’ACPE, M. Gallinger prévoit adopter une démarche holistique semblable. Il relève trois grands risques auxquels fait face l’industrie : repérer la ressource, être économiquement en mesure d’exploiter le gisement et obtenir un « permis social » d’exploitation. Pour réussir, une société ne doit négliger aucun de ces éléments. « Il s’agit des trois principaux volets de nos activités commerciales, de même que les trois principaux risques

TopGun CFO attribué par Brendan Wood International et le prix 2009 et 2010 des meilleures relations avec les investisseurs par un directeur financier, remis par IR Magazine. M. Garofalo a continué de s’illustrer dans le domaine de la gestion, ce qui lui a valu une nouvelle distinction d’IR Magazine : le prix 2011 des meilleures relations avec les investisseurs par un chef de la direction est sa dernière récompense en date.

confèrent un avantage concurrentiel, ce qui stimulera la croissance de votre entreprise.

ICM : Vous avez reçu plusieurs récompenses pour la façon dont vous communiquez avec les investisseurs. Que faitesvous pour capter l’attention des gens? M. Garofalo : J’ai toujours entretenu une bonne communication avec les investisseurs, les analystes et les représentants, dans les bonnes comme dans les mauvaises années. C’est important d’avoir cette discipline. L’industrie minière est foncièrement risquée et, parfois, on reçoit de mauvaises nouvelles. Lorsque ça arrive, je ne peux me cacher sous mon bureau. Je dois redoubler d’efforts, aller au-devant des analystes et des investisseurs, et parfois faire face à leur colère. Une telle attitude est gage de respect. C’est ce que m’a appris Sean Boyd, mon ancien patron à Agnico-Eagle, qui est probablement l’un des meilleurs communicateurs au monde parmi les chefs de la direction du secteur minier.

ICM : À votre avis, qu’est-ce que ça prend pour être un bon dirigeant dans l’industrie minière d’aujourd’hui? M. Garofalo : Je crois qu’il faut avoir une vision et des objectifs clairs. Il faut mener ses activités commerciales d’après des critères très stricts. L’industrie minière est si diversifiée géographiquement que le risque de s’éparpiller est grand. Lorsque ça se produit, il est très difficile pour une entreprise de réaliser ses objectifs de croissance. D’abord et avant tout, vous devez bien connaître vos points forts. Concentrez-vous ensuite sur les occasions d’affaires et les compétences qui vous

ICM : Quelles qualités recherchez-vous chez de nouveaux talents? M. Garofalo : Quand nous procédons au recrutement de personnel hautement qualifié, nous essayons d’évaluer si le candidat serait capable, un jour, de diriger l’une de nos unités fonctionnelles ou de devenir cadre supérieur. Nous cherchons des candidats qui ont de solides compétences techniques, évidemment, mais aussi le sens des affaires. J’aime qu’un employé souhaite connaître ses points faibles en gestion et qu’il cherche à y remédier par de la formation continue, que je me fais d’ailleurs un plaisir de payer. Un bon ingénieur qui est prêt à faire un MBA, par exemple, a beaucoup plus de valeur que quelqu’un qui souhaite tracer des dessins pour le reste de sa vie.

ICM : L’industrie doit-elle accroître la diversité de sa main-d’œuvre? M. Garofalo : L’industrie minière a fait beaucoup de chemin en ce sens, HudBay en particulier. Notre main-d’œuvre est assurément beaucoup plus diversifiée. L’une de nos jeunes ingénieures les plus prometteuses, Kim Proctor, est responsable de notre projet Lalor, au Manitoba, qui vaut 700 millions de dollars. En plus d’être en charge du plus important programme de construction entrepris à HudBay en 85 ans d’histoire, elle joue un rôle actif dans Women in Mining Canada, organisme qui se consacre à la défense des intérêts des femmes dans le secteur de l’exploration minérale et de l’exploitation minière. De plus, compte tenu du manque de personnel qualifié dans notre secteur d’activité en ce moment, nous devons trouver des solutions originales en matière d’embauche et attirer des talents provenant d’endroits où les sociétés canadiennes n’ont pas nécessairement l’habitude de recruter, par exemple l’Europe de l’Est, l’Asie et l’Amérique latine. A. LOPEZ-PACHECO

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un exemple à suivre que notre organisation visera à résoudre, à mieux comprendre et à améliorer en collaboration avec ses membres », conclut M. Gallinger. D. ZLOTNIKOV

Esquisse d’un parcours durable Conservationniste de longue date qui a dirigé l’organisme à but non-lucratif Nature Canada pendant 16 ans, Mme Gelfand joue un nouveau rôle en 2008 : Vice-présidente, développement durable, à l’Association minière du Canada (AMC). Elle est responsable de la mise en œuvre de l’initiative Vers une exploitation minière durable de l’AMC, qui réunit un large éventail d’intervenants pour l’établissement de protocoles de sites miniers qui comprennent notamment la planification de la gestion des situations d’urgence, la santé et la sécurité, l’extension des services à la communauté, et la gestion des résidus. Dans le cadre de son travail à l’AMC, Mme Gelfand a profité de son expérience de vingt ans de collaboration entre l’AMC, Nature Canada et les secteurs qu’ils représentent pour façonner la politique fédérale en matière de terrains et de faune. « J’ai toujours pensé que l’industrie minière était sur la bonne voie », dit-elle. « Pour moi, la transition vers l’AMC signifiait travailler avec les sociétés qui sont sur le terrain et voir ce qui peut être fait pour les aider à minimiser leur impact sur l’environnement et à maximiser les avantages sociaux qu’elles apportent. » Mme Gelfand a reçu un accueil chaleureux à l’AMC, et la plupart de ses collègues des ONG l’appuient dans le rôle qu’elle y joue. « Certains ne me parlent plus. Mais la plupart pensent autrement. Ils se disent, - Oh, c’est formidable, nous avons quelqu’un qui partage nos valeurs au sein de l’industrie maintenant. » Mme Gelfand estime que Vers une exploitation minière durable, conçue dans les années 90 et lancée en 2004, est la meilleure initiative de développement durable. La participation est obligatoire pour les membres de l’AMC; un comité consultatif assure la diversité des contributions. Des indicateurs de performance détaillés guident l’exploitation au niveau des installations. La note de chacun des sites est publiée ouvertement et une vérification indépendante a lieu tous les trois ans, ce qui rend le processus à la fois transparent et, aux yeux des ONG, crédible. Pour Mme Gelfand, même les ONG les plus critiques ont un rôle à jouer. « Le rôle des groupes les plus critiques est de sensibiliser aux problèmes. Ensuite, les groupes plus raisonnables cherchent à contribuer au maintien de la viabilité économique tout en s’occupant des enjeux. » Lorsque le besoin d’innover est clair, plein de gens brillants dans l’industrie saisissent l’opportunité, ajoute Mme Gelfand. Mais l’industrie minière continue à être en retard aux yeux du public. « Au Canada, l’industrie doit faire un bien meilleur travail pour communiquer comment nos vies sont affectées par les mines. Avec le temps, il y aura plus d’attention, et non pas moins, portée par le secteur des E. MOORE ONG et par le public. »

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Un pionnier durable « Si vous avez un penchant pour la philosophie, vous ne pouvez prendre une meilleure position qu’au sein d’une société minière », déclare Jim Cooney. Au cours de ses 35 années dans l’industrie minière, M. Cooney a démontré que les sociétés minières pouvaient et devraient s’occuper des enjeux philosophiques et éthiques. Alors qu’il travaillait chez Placer Dome dans les années 90, il a encouragé l’industrie à adopter le concept de durabilité. Il a quitté Placer Dome en 1986 alors qu’il était vice-président, affaires gouvernementales internationales, et a poursuivi son travail dans le secteur de l’extraction minière, actuellement à titre d’associé principal à la Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR). Cette année, il a reçu le Prix Syncrude pour l’excellence en développement durable. Lorsque M. Cooney s’est d’abord joint à l’industrie, la tolérance était faible pour les activités qui n’étaient pas directement liées aux objectifs d’affaires des sociétés. Le développement durable semblait incompatible avec l’extraction de ressources pouvant être épuisées. Les années 90 ont été témoin de l’émergence de nouvelles attitudes. Faire face à la durabilité de façon collaborative signifiait assumer le contrôle des objectifs de quelqu’un d’autre, et non pas les confier à des ONG ou être en désaccord avec les objectifs de l’entreprise. M. Cooney fait remarquer que « L’un des moments les plus intéressants, fut celui où un de nos ingénieurs miniers s’est levé lors d’un atelier et a dit, ‘Je commence à percevoir que le développement durable peut non seulement nous être utile pour gérer les risques sociaux, environnementaux et politiques, mais qu’il peut aussi être un instrument d’expression de nos valeurs. Ce concept nous permet d’être nousmêmes’. » Le développement durable présente un défi aux ingénieurs et s’adapte à leur approche orientée vers un objectif, ajoute-t-il. Pour être efficaces, les professionnels de notre secteur d’activité doivent mettre de côté leur vision du but final et se concentrer sur le processus de mobilisation de divers groupes. Mais, contrairement aux approches basées sur les droits de la personne ou la conscience sociale de l’entreprise, le processus produit ultimement des résultats mesurables. Quels ont été ces résultats jusqu’à maintenant? « Les relations avec les autochtones se sont beaucoup améliorées », indique M. Cooney. « Et particulièrement dans le cas des sociétés importantes, il y a un plus grand nombre de commissions consultatives multilatérales sur les questions environnementales. » M. Cooney estime que le défi le plus important pour les sociétés préoccupées par la durabilité est l’intégrité de la société. « Les sociétés doivent non seulement adopter la bonne hiérarchie des valeurs et la bonne vision à long terme, mais elles doivent aussi s’assurer de leur cohérence à travers l’entreprise : non pas en termes de conformité à une politique, mais plutôt en termes de façon E. MOORE de penser. » ICM

featured project

A new, cleaner era in a historic silver district by | Correy Baldwin

When Alexco Resource Corp. began commercial production at its Bellekeno silver mine on New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day 2011, they were also bringing the historic Keno Hill Silver District back into production after a period of over 20 years.

Richard Hartmier/ÂŠHartmier.com

featured project

Historically, Keno Hill is one of the largest silver-producing regions in Canada. The area, located 330 kilometres north of Whitehorse, Yukon, boomed in the 1920s. Between 1921 and 1988, it produced more than 217 million ounces (6,150 tonnes) of silver. By 1989, however, depressed silver prices had driven the district’s sole owner, United Keno Hill Mines, into receivership. “United Keno Hill’s assets were basically abandoned in the late 1980s,” explains Alexco CEO Clynt Nauman. “The property fell back to the custody of the Government of Canada for environmental care and maintenance, and it stayed that way through the early 2000s.” Eventually the government put the district’s assets up for sale in 2005, and in 2006, Alexco was selected as the preferred purchaser. The 243-square-kilometre land package includes 35 historic mine areas. One of these is the Bellekeno Mine, located two kilometres from Keno City and 15 kilometres from the old townsite of Elsa, which was the hub of activity when Keno Hill was in full operation.

technical issues to consider during the district closure planning process.” “The biggest concern is zinc in the water,” says Thrall. A number of the historic underground mines have flooded and are releasing water into the environment. Alexco is capturing the toxic water and treating it to remove the zinc so that it is non-toxic prior to reaching the receiving environment. Water treatment facilities have been upgraded, and there are now four water treatment plants on site. There are also the historic tailings to deal with. Old practices saw tailings in a slurry form dumped right into the environment, often with little containment. “The impact of the business, the footprint of the operation, is much less now,” says Nauman, comparing Bellekeno to earlier practices. Today, Bellekeno’s tailings are environmentally benign. “One of the unique things about the design at Keno Hill is our environmental features,” explains Thrall. “We actually filter and dry our tailings before they’re stored in the environment in an engineered-lined facility.”

Inheriting the environmental legacy

Extracting the resource

Seven decades of mining left behind a lot of infrastructure. “Keno Hill has access to all-weather roads that are government maintained,” says Nauman. “We’re on the power grid, which is of great significance to us. In some cases, we can use the underground workings that were left in place historically.” But Alexco acquired more than the Keno Hill property and infrastructure. The purchase also came with nearly a century’s worth of environmental liability. One of the primary conditions of the sale was that Alexco clean up and reclaim the area. Indeed, one of Alexco’s strongest assets in their bid for the property was their reputation in mine reclamation. The company was formed to both explore for precious metals and provide environmental management services. Prior to Alexco, Nauman operated Viceroy Minerals with Brad Thrall, now Alexco’s COO. Viceroy had a focus on minesite reclamation and water remediation, and twice won the Robert E. Leckie Award for Outstanding Mining Reclamation Practices from the Yukon government for its work at the Brewery Creek gold mine, 100 kilometres north of Keno Hill. “We had the skill set that Canada was looking for,” says Nauman about the Keno Hill purchase. “We had reclaimed mines; we had done it in the North and had received awards for that work; and we understood how to put protection of the environment together with developing a new mine and putting it into production.” Thrall explains the challenges. “We have a wide range of issues that we’re dealing with: water treatment from underground mine pools, the historic tailings, waste dumps, and the old townsite of Elsa, which has a number of old buildings and safety and human health hazards,” he says. “One of the challenges is not only the size of this district but the variety of

Bellekeno’s two main products are lead and zinc concentrates. The lead concentrate contains the majority of the

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featured project 1.

46 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

featured project silver, at 5,500 grams per tonne. The zinc concentrate contains 200 to 300 grams per tonne of silver. Bellekeno is Canada’s only primary silver-producing mine. Much of the world’s silver is produced as a byproduct at other operations, such as gold or copper mines, explains Thrall. “Grades of silver in those types of operations might only be in the few grams per tonne, compared to a thousand grams per tonne in the Keno District,” he says. “The Bellekeno Mine is one of the highest grade silver mines in the entire world,” Thrall adds. “We’re only mining 250 to 300 tonnes per day (tpd), but because these grades are so high, it doesn’t take many tonnes to make a significant production profile for silver.” In its first quarter, Bellekeno processed 18,050 tonnes of ore with average silver grades of 829 grams per tonne, producing 447,524 ounces (12.7 tonnes) of silver, 1,670.26 tonnes of lead, and 605.16 tonnes of zinc. Silver recovery was 93 per cent. Processing is done at a newly constructed conventional flotation mill with a capacity of 408 tpd. Average daily mill throughput during the first quarter was 200 tpd, although continued optimization to the mill have increased this beyond 250 tpd. Bellekeno expects to produce 2.8 million ounces (80 tonnes) of silver in its first year of full-scale production. The initial mine plan revealed an indicated resource of nine million ounces (255.58 tonnes) of silver, to be mined over an initial mine life of four years. This, however, is expected to increase. “There’s an active program underway of surface exploration, underground exploration at Bellekeno, as well as development of some of the old mines,” says Thrall, outlining the three phases of Alexco’s exploration development program. The third phase involves going underground at a number of the historic mines, rehabilitating the old underground workings, and drilling underground to define and upgrade additional resources.

Exploring for the future From June 2006 to the end of 2010, Alexco drilled 255 surface and underground holes totalling 32,400 metres in the Bellekeno Mine area, as well as a further 256 diamond drill holes totalling 57,350 metres in the larger Keno Hill Silver District. Last year alone saw 4,900 metres of underground diamond drilling at Bellekeno and 25,000 metres of additional surface drilling. Captions clockwise from top: 1. Inside the plant; 2. Alexco CEO Clynt Nauman; 3. Surface and underground drilling continue on the property; 4. The mine employs about 120 people; 5. The operation produces 250 to 300 tonnes of high-grade ore per day

The 2010 program produced particularly promising results at the historic Lucky Queen and Silver King mines, as well as the historic Onek Mine, located just 1.5 kilometres from the Bellekeno Mine and one kilometre from the mill. Alexco is investing $10 million in exploring these three sites in 2011, including 1,500 metres of underground rehabilitation and development and 5,000 metres of definition drilling. In total, the 2011 surface exploration program will involve drilling at least 15,000 metres. “We have many years of work ahead of us there,” says Nauman. “We have our first mine in production at the present time, and we’ll be looking at putting additional mines into production. There’s a huge amount of exploration work to be done.”

Reviving the neighbourhood This is good news for the local community. Bellekeno will employ approximately 120 people, and will locally invest more than $25 million annually for labour, materials and supplies. “About 14 per cent of our current workforce is First Nations,” says Nauman, “and we hire as many people as we can from the local communities.” But this is not the same Keno Hill that existed in the 1980s, he explains. “Keno Hill had several thriving communities, several hundred employees, and lots of support people and support businesses beyond that. The mining industry had great social and economic reach. Subsequent to 1988, though, virtually all those jobs and that entire economy dried up and disappeared.” Keno City has managed to maintain a sparse population. More numerous are the members of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation, on whose traditional territory Alexco is operating. Alexco and the Na-Cho Nyak Dun have entered into a Comprehensive Cooperation Benefits Agreement. “There’s a fairly comprehensive process so that Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation is well-informed of what’s going on in the district operationally and environmentally,” says Nauman. “There are also regular meetings that look ahead to services and supplies that are going to be required, as well as to try to come to some agreement as to how Na-Cho Nyak Dun can participate in the unfolding of that part of the business. One of the things we’re striving to do with the agreement is to create and build First Nation businesses that can initially provide services to us and then will hopefully spread beyond that,” he adds. “All of our work requires community consultation through the social-economic permitting and environmental assessment process,” says Nauman. “That process continues. We try to be as transparent as possible with what we’re doing.” CIM

Richard Hartmier/©Hartmier.com

August 2011 | 47

Cathie Archbould/Archbould.com

projet en vedette

Sous terre, à la mine Bellekeno, dans le district historique de Keno Hill

Une nouvelle ère plus propre dans un ancien district argentifère

Quand Alexco Resource Corp. a commencé la production commerciale à sa mine d’argent Bellekeno le Jour de l’An 2011, elle remettait aussi en production l’ancien district argentifère de Keno Hill après plus de 20 ans d’inactivité. Historiquement, Keno Hill est l’une des plus vastes régions productrices d’argent au Canada. L’essor de la région, située à 330 km au nord de Whitehorse, au Yukon, remonte aux années 1920. Entre 1921 et 1988, elle a produit plus de 217 millions d’onces (6 150 tonnes) d’argent. Cependant, en 1989, la baisse des prix de l’argent a entraîné la mise sous séquestre de United Keno Hill Mines, seule propriétaire du district. « Les actifs de Keno Hill ont été abandonnés à la fin des années 1980 », explique le chef de la direction d’Alexco, Clynt Nauman. « La propriété est retombée sous la garde du gouvernement du Canada pour la protection et l’entretien de l’environnement, situation qui s’est poursuivie jusqu’au début de l’an 2000. » Finalement, le gouvernement a mis les actifs 48 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

du district en vente en 2005 et, en 2006, Alexco a été retenue comme acheteur préféré. L’ensemble de terrains d’une superficie de 243 kilomètres carrés comprend 35 anciennes zones minières. L’une d’entre elles est la mine Bellekeno située à 2 km de Keno City et à 15 km de l’emplacement de l’ancienne ville d’Elsa, qui fut le centre des activités à l’époque où Keno Hill était pleinement exploitée.

L’héritage environnemental Sept décennies d’exploitation minière ont laissé derrière elles de nombreuses infrastructures. « Keno Hill est accessible par des routes praticables en tout temps dont l’entretien est assuré par le gouvernement », souligne Clynt Nauman. « Nous sommes branchés au réseau électrique, ce qui est capital pour nous. Dans certains cas, nous pouvons utiliser les anciens ouvrages souterrains laissés en place. »

projet en vedette Mais Alexco a acquis plus que la propriété Keno Hill et ses infrastructures. Cette acquisition comprenait aussi un passif environnemental d’un siècle. Et l’une des principales conditions de la vente était qu’Alexco nettoie le site et le remette en état. Bien sûr, la réputation d’Alexco en matière de restauration minière a constitué un atout majeur de son offre d’acquisition de la propriété. La société a été créée à la fois pour mener des activités d’exploration dans le secteur des métaux précieux et pour fournir des services de gestion environnementale. Avant de prendre les rênes d’Alexco, Clynt Nauman a dirigé Viceroy Minerals avec Brad Thrall, qui est maintenant chef de l’exploitation à Alexco. Viceroy concentrait ses activités sur la restauration des sites miniers et la décontamination de l’eau et a remporté à deux reprises le prix Robert E. Leckie pour l’excellence des travaux de remise en état de sites miniers décerné par le gouvernement du Yukon pour le travail accompli à la mine d’or Brewery Creek, à 100 km au nord de Keno Hill. « Nous avions toutes les compétences recherchées par le Canada », déclare Clynt Nauman à propos de l’acquisition de Keno Hill. « Nous avons restauré des sites miniers; nous l’avons fait dans le Nord et nous avons reçu des prix pour ce travail. En outre, nous avons compris comment concilier la protection de l’environnement, la mise en valeur d’une nouvelle mine et sa mise en production. » Brad Thrall explique les défis à relever : « Nous avons un large éventail de questions à régler : le traitement des eaux souterraines de la mine, les anciens stériles, les terrils et le site de l’ancienne ville d’Elsa sur lequel se trouvent de vieilles constructions, ainsi que les risques pour la sécurité et la santé humaine. L’une des difficultés est non seulement la taille de ce district, mais aussi la diversité des enjeux techniques à envisager pendant le processus de planification de la fermeture du district. » La présence de zinc dans l’eau est la question la plus préoccupante, selon Brad Thrall. Un certain nombre d’anciennes mines souterraines ont été inondées et déversent de l’eau dans l’environnement. Alexco récupère les eaux toxiques et les traite pour en enlever le zinc afin qu’elles soient non toxiques avant d’atteindre le milieu récepteur. Les installations de traitement de l’eau ont été modernisées et il y a maintenant quatre stations d’épuration sur le site. Il y a également les anciens stériles à traiter. Les anciennes pratiques consistaient à rejeter les stériles sous forme de boues directement dans l’environnement, souvent avec peu de dispositifs de confinement. « L’incidence des activités, l’empreinte des opérations est beaucoup moins importante aujourd’hui », déclare Clynt Nauman, si on compare Bellekeno aux pratiques plus anciennes. Aujourd’hui, les stériles de Bellekeno sont sans danger pour l’environnement. « L’une des caractéristiques uniques du concept utilisé à Keno Hill porte sur l’environnement », explique Brad Thrall.

« En fait, nous filtrons et nous asséchons nos stériles avant de les entreposer dans l’environnement sur un site de stockage en structures artificielles. »

Extraction de la ressource Les deux principaux produits de la mine Bellekeno sont le concentré de plomb et le concentré de zinc. Le concentré de plomb contient la plus grande proportion d’argent, soit 5 500 g/t alors que le concentré de zinc en contient de 200 g/t à 300 g/t. Bellekeno est la seule mine produisant principalement de l’argent au Canada. À l’échelle mondiale, la majeure partie de l’argent est produite en tant que sous-produit dans d’autres sites d’exploitation comme des mines d’or ou de cuivre par exemple, explique Brad Thrall. « Les teneurs en argent dans ces mines peuvent être de seulement quelques grammes par tonne, comparativement à un millier de grammes par tonne dans le district Keno », ajoute Brad Thrall. « La mine Bellekeno est l’une des mines d’argent qui affiche les teneurs argentifères les plus élevées au monde. Nous extrayons seulement de 250 à 300 tonnes par jour (t/j), mais les teneurs étant si élevées, il n’est pas nécessaire d’extraire de nombreuses tonnes pour obtenir un profil de production remarquable pour l’argent. » Au cours du premier trimestre de la mise en production de Bellekeno, on a traité 18 050 tonnes de minerai titrant 829 g/t, produisant 447 524 onces (12,7 t) d’argent, 1 670,26 t de plomb et 605,16 t de zinc. Le taux de récupération de l’argent a été de 93 %. Le minerai est traité par la technique traditionnelle de flottation dans une usine de construction récente d’une capacité de 408 t/j. Pendant le premier trimestre, une quantité moyenne de minerai de 200 t/j a été traitée, mais la poursuite de l’optimisation de l’usine a permis d’atteindre plus de 250 t/j. La mine Bellekeno devrait produire 2,8 millions d’onces (80 t) d’argent pendant sa première année de production à plein régime. Le plan minier initial mentionnait des ressources indiquées de 9 millions d’onces (255,58 t) d’argent à extraire sur une durée de vie initiale de la mine de quatre ans. Cette prévision devrait toutefois être revue à la hausse. « Un programme dynamique d’exploration de surface et d’exploration souterraine est en cours à Bellekeno, de même que de mise en valeur de certaines des anciennes mines », déclare Brad Thrall, en résumant les trois phases du programme d’exploration et de mise en valeur d’Alexco. La troisième phase comprend des activités souterraines dans un certain nombre d’anciennes mines, la remise en état d’anciens ouvrages souterrains ainsi que des forages souterrains pour définir et pour valoriser des ressources additionnelles. « De nombreuses années de travail en perspective », ajoute Clynt Nauman. « Nous avons actuellement notre première mine en production et nous espérons en mettre d’autres en production. Nous avons un énorme travail d’exploration à faire. » ICM August 2011 | 49

commodity focus gold

THE MIGHTY YELLOW METAL by DAN ZLOTNIKOV

commodity focus gold

• MINING • MINERALS • METALS • MATERIALS mININg fOr sOcIeTy

M4S

August 2011 | 51

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

“Attending the CIM Conference & Exhibition is an efficient and enjoyable way to learn about new industry trends and to keep abreast of leading technical expertise. You will meet a wide variety of people, establish new contacts with colleagues, and make new friends – some of whom, in my experience, will become friends for life.” – Chuck Edwards, CIM President 2011-2012

May 3 to 9, 2012 / 3 au 9 mai 2012 Shaw Conference Centre Edmonton, Alberta

“Participer au Congrès

et salon commercial de l’ICM constitue un moyen efficace et agréable de s’informer sur les nouvelles tendances de l’industrie et de se tenir au courant des savoir-faire techniques de premier plan. Vous rencontrerez des gens d’horizons divers, tisserez de nouveaux liens avec des collègues et vous vous ferez de nouveaux amis, dont certains, selon mon expérience, resteront vos amis pour la vie. »

Abstract submission: September 30 Soumission des résumés : le 30 septembre

– Chuck Edwards, président de l’ICM, 2011-2012

• •

Notice of acceptance: December 20 Avis d’acceptation : le 20 décembre

Submit your abstract today at • Soumettez votre résumé aujourd’hui à

www.cim.org/edmonton2012

DEMANDE DE COMMUNICATIONS PRELIMINARY TECHNICAL PROGRAM | PROGRAMME TECHNIQUE PRÉLIMINAIRE STREAMS HORAIRE

ENVIRONMENT, CLOSURE AND SUSTAINABILITY ENVIRONNEMENT, FERMETURE ET DURABILITÉ

PEOPLE, SOCIETY AND CSR VALUE POPULATION, SOCIÉTÉ, RSE ET VALEUR

MONDAY am•LUNDI matin 9:00 – 11:30 12:00 – 14:00 MONDAY pm•LUNDI après-midi

14:00 – 15:00

HARD ROCKS PROSPECTS TO PRODUCTS ROCHES DURES PERSPECTIVES DE PRODUCTION

SOFT ROCKS PROSPECTS TO PRODUCTS ROCHES TENDRES PERSPECTIVES DE PRODUCTION

Plenary Session / Session Plénière Lunch in the trade show / Dîner dans le salon commercial

Environment, closure and sustainability Environnement, fermeture et durabilité

People, society, CSR and value Population, société, RSE et valeur

15:00 – 15:20 15:20 – 16:30

OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE OPÉRATIONS ET MAINTENANCE

Operations and maintenance Opérations et maintenance

Hard rock prospects to products Perspectives de production des roches dures

Soft rock prospects to products Perspectives de production des roches tendres

Coffee Break / Pause-café Environment, closure and sustanability (open forum) Environnement, fermeture et durabilité (débat libre)

People, society, CSR and value (open forum) Population, société, RSE et valeur (débat libre)

Operations and maintenance Hard rock prospects to Soft rock prospects (open forum) products (open forum) to products (open forum) Opérations et maintenance Perspectives de production des Perspectives de production des (débat libre) roches dures (débat libre) roches tendres (débat libre)

TUESDAY am•MARDI matin 8:30 – 10:30

Northern (cold) mining Activité minière nordique (froid)

Mining in unfamiliar territory An autonomous future? Activité minière L’autonomie dans le futur? en territoire inconnu

10:30 – 10:45 10:45 – 12:15

Closure in mind Penser à la fermeture

Societies of the North Sociétés nordiques

Making assets last longer Faire durer les actifs plus longtemps

Rare earth metals Métaux des terres rares

800 years to go… (coal) Encore pour 800 ans… (charbon)

Lunch in the trade show / Dîner dans le salon commercial

Clean coal and CO2 sequestration Charbon propre et séquestration du carbone

CSR in developing countries RSE dans les pays en développement

15:30 – 15:45 15:45 – 17:15

Solid or solution (potash) Solide ou en solution (potasse)

Coffee Break / Pause-café

12:15 – 13:30 TUESDAY pm•MARDI après-midi 13:30 – 15:30

Iron ore Minerai de fer

Safer solutions Des solutions plus sécuritaires

Gold and all that glistens (what is not) L’or et tout ce qui brille (ou non)

The deeper you go… (diamonds) Plus vous allez en profondeur… (diamant)

How deep, so hot! Si profond, si chaud!

Soft challenges (laterite) mining Une exploitation posant de légers défis (latérite)

Coffee Break / Pause-café Next generation reclamation Remise en état de prochaine génération

The value proposition 10-year plan Le plan décennal d’une proposition de valeur

Tires that don’t tire? Des pneus qui résistent?

WEDNESDAY am•MERCREDI matin

8:30 – 10:00

Latest and greatest in ultra class mining tools Les tout derniers et excellents outils miniers d’une catégorie de qualité supérieure

10:00 – 10:30 10:30 – 12:00

Management and Finance Day Journée Gestion et finances

Coffee Break / Pause-café Open forum panel discussion Débat libre en groupes

12:00 – 14:00 WEDNESDAY pm•MERCREDI après-midi 14:00 – 17:00

Tools for operational improvements and lower maintenance Outils pour des améliorations opérationnelles et moins de maintenance Open forum panel discussion Débat libre en groupes

Management and Finance Day Journée Gestion et finances

Closing Lunch / Dîner de clôture Management and Finance Day Journée Gestion et finances

COLUMNS

| supply side

Mail versus email Choosing the right option A page for and about the supply side of the Canadian mining industry

Jon Baird A key goal in any marketing program is to communicate proactively with a target audience. In addition to advertising in print and online media, and the relatively expensive alternative of telephone or personal sales calls, direct communication by post or email is a choice that marketers have to make. The immediacy and low cost of email is appealing to many businesses these days, but there still is a place for direct mail. The media that you use should fit your brand. If you are selling high-end capital goods or consulting services, you may choose a different approach than if you are selling mining consumables. Marketers are always searching for the most cost-effective means of communicating and, well, email is cheap. However, some tests in the consumer field have revealed that when sales and return-on-investment are considered, postal delivery is the superior option. It certainly seems that more and more email is being used for customer relationship management, especially in situations where there is a pre-established relationship. To broaden their reach, marketers are opting for email blasts and, to this

end, are doing all they can to collect permission-based email addresses.

Things to consider Before choosing the medium, consider asking your clients if they have a preference as to how they wish to receive communications and at what frequency. Your marketing objective is also important to determine, as some messages may be better suited to one medium rather than another. Lists are another matter. If your firm has a robust customer relations management (CRM) database, you have correct postal and email addresses for both your existing and prospective clients. If it does not, you can purchase a list, but it may be difficult to acquire one tailored to your purposes. In this case, print or online advertising may be a more effective option. Budget is always a factor, but remember that whatever communications medium you choose, the message has to be well-crafted – do not scrimp on the message itself! Content, design and strategy are all critical elements to consider when beginning and sustaining the “customer conversation.” Regardless of which medium you choose, you should develop a regular format,

MOVING ON UP Aurizon Mines Ltd. has appointed George N. Paspalas as president and CEO and as a member of the company’s board of directors. David Hall will continue as president and CEO until August 15, 2011, and following Paspalas’s appointment, will continue to serve the company as chairman of the board. Paspalas brings 14 years of experience in senior management positions, most recently as the COO at Silver Standard Resources Inc. He has held senior management positions with Placer Dome Inc., including executive vice-president and senior vice-president projects – technical development, and as president and CEO of Placer Dome Africa.

54 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

content outline and publication schedule, and plan the year’s topics. In the rush to use email to market products or services in the past several years, organizations have learned that it is the ideal option for the instant communication of brief messages and sales confirmations, and as a response mechanism for clients. There is a growing desire for immediacy. Clients do not want to wait for further information, they want it now, either by emailing you or clicking through to your website. On the other hand, many peoples’ email is poorly managed, with inboxes overflowing. Think of how many emails you get personally, what you do with them and how many get caught in your spam filter. Today, much more direct mail arrives electronically compared to by post, which makes the latter an attractive option. How to break through the email clutter so that people read your message is a major challenge. Email, however, does not have the same impact as the physical delivery of a meaningful item in the post. CAMESE’s auditors have a bottle of port delivered to me every Christmas. It would be difficult to send that by email! CIM

author Jon Baird, managing director of CAMESE and the immediate past president of PDAC, is interested in collective approaches to enhancing the Canadian brand in the world of mining.

innovation | COLUMNS

Mining innovation news from academia Tom Hynes In recent years, there have been many declines (such as enrollment numbers and financial support) and very few advances in mining education across the country (with the notable exceptions of the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta). Professors, even from prestigious mining programs, have often found it difficult to obtain strong support for programs from their own institutions. This situation is certainly not unique to Canada; universities in other countries have also dealt with program closures and declining support for mining programs. Now, two new initiatives in mining education signal a positive change for our industry.

Recent developments Laurentian University has been closely associated with mining for the past 50 years, with active programs in geology, engineering, environmental sciences and business management. It is also connected to a number of university-linked organizations (such as CEMI and MIRARCO), which build on the university’s skills and capacity. Now, Laurentian is going one step further and creating a new School of Mines. The school will engage in work on exploration, mining, health, culture and the environment. It will focus on the scientific and technical research and skills development that the industry urgently needs, and will also place emphasis on the socioeconomic and management skills required by mining professionals.

A proposal has been made for an international minerals innovation and training institute in Saskatchewan. With help from others across the country, a group of dedicated professionals from the province have been working for the past few years to assess the situation, evaluate options and put forward realistic proposals for consideration. The steering committee, led by Karen Chad, vice-president of research at the University of Saskatchewan, and Engin Ôzberk, vice-president of innovation and technology development at Cameco, has concluded that Saskatchewan’s minerals industry is not as well-addressed as it should be in terms of training industry professionals and of associated R&D. Chad and Ôzberk see the training and research components as necessarily linked, and their program proposal therefore includes two central streams: developing and training highly qualified people (HQP); and conducting research, development and implementation support for the industry. The committee is looking to create a world-class institute, with a particular emphasis on the unique circumstances of Saskatchewan (such as its potash and uranium mining operations). It has already conducted a feasibility study and is currently developing a detailed business plan and funding proposal with input from government, industry and academia. I wish the committee great success with this endeavour. This initiative will undoubtedly help all of Saskatchewan reap the economic and social benefits of its

MOVING ON UP Argex Mining Inc. appointed Mazen Haddad to its board of directors. Most recently, Haddad was president of Township Capital Inc., a private company whose main role was to consult to the Palos Capital Pool, L.P. Before this, he served as chairman of SGI Properties Canada Fund LP and as vicepresident of SGI Capital Corp.

mining industry, and will contribute greatly to Canada’s ability and capacity to address the national mining research and HQP issues. For further information, contact Karen Chad at karen.chad@usask.ca.

Even more good news In addition to the developments mentioned above, we are seeing considerable signs of engagement by the Canadian academic community with CMIC and its programs. Exploration-related researchers are now meeting with CMIC’s Exploration Innovation Consortium industry partners to consider possible research projects to address the primary concerns that the industry has identified. The intent is to have research projects ready for funding consideration later this year. The other CMIC initiatives (mining, processing, energy, environmental stewardship and tailings) are not yet at this stage, but these programs are also advancing. We have also seen a strong upsurge in academic membership with CMIC in recent months. Current university members include: the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, Laurentian University, the University of Windsor, the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, McGill University, École Polytechnique, Laval University and Memorial University. We are very happy to have them as CMIC members, helping us address the innovation and HQP needs of Canada’s minerals and mining sector. CIM

author

Tom Hynes has worked in the uranium and base metals industries, and has been a provincial regulator and a federal government research manager. He is the executive director of the Canada Mining Innovation Council. August 2011 | 55

COLUMNS

| MAC economic commentary

Where our wealth comes from Paul Stothart

There are many definitions of the term “wealth.” From an economics perspective, wealth can be seen as the accumulation of all goods and services with monetary, exchangeable or productive value. Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, described wealth as "the annual produce of the land and labour of a society." In a similar vein, wealth refers to some accumulation of resources, whether abundant or not, while richness refers to an abundance of such resources. A wealthy or rich individual, community or nation thus has more resources than a poor or destitute one. An important source of wealth throughout Canadian history, arguably the most important source, has been our abundance of natural resources. In this sense, the level of wealth reflects our technological ability to discover, assess, extract, concentrate and process these resources into a useable form and to move them to users in an efficient manner. In the mining sphere, wealth is generated through highly sophisticated processes, including the conversion of rock into 99.99 per cent pure metal like copper or nickel. Such products are then valued and traded each day through global exchanges. The ability to create wealth has positioned the mining industry among the most strategic of Canadian industry sectors. Other factors contribute to the industry’s importance, for example, being the backbone of our stock exchanges, being a leading employer of Aboriginal Canadians and providing the core ingredients to clean energy technologies. Overall, though, it is the industry’s ability to create wealth for Canadians that is the most fundamental variable and from which all other benefits flow. In the past decade, the level of wealth created by the Canadian mining industry has become increasingly linked to the emergence of the Chinese 56 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

MINERAL PRICES 2000

2007

2008

2009

2010

May 2011

20002011 (%)

Aluminum ($/lb)

0.70

1.20

1.17

0.76

0.98

1.18

Copper ($/lb)

0.82

3.23

3.15

2.34

3.40

4.15

406

Gold ($/oz)

279

697

872

973

1225

1533

450

Uranium ($/lb)

8.29

98.81

63.17

47.00

48.00

57.50

594

Nickel ($/lb)

3.92

16.88

9.57

6.50

9.85

10.49

168

Zinc ($/lb)

0.51

1.47

0.85

0.75

0.98

1.02

100

economy. China has had virtually uninterrupted double-digit annual growth for a period covering three decades, predicated around building its infrastructure and becoming the “world’s manufacturer.” This growth, particularly in the past decade, has transformed China into the world’s leading driver of global mineral prices. Where the country consumed only five per cent of the world’s metals in the 1980s, it now consumes over 30 per cent. The appended table depicts the evolution of key world mineral prices over the past decade. As can be seen, the price of copper, for example, has risen from 82 cents per pound in 2000 to $4.15 at present – an increase of 406 per cent; nickel rose by 168 per cent and uranium by 594 per cent. Accumulated inflation in Canada or the United States during this period totalled around 25 per cent. In this sense, these mineral price increases are in the range of four to 25 times larger than inflation, depending on the commodity. Not shown on this table, although also a critically important mineral for Canada, is the world crude oil price, which has increased from the $30 per barrel range in 2000 to $100 at present – an increase that is 10 times that of inflation. While the United States remains the largest market for Canadian minerals,

the transactions are occurring at increasing global prices largely driven by China. The effect of these price increases is seen in many ways, including: • The growth in relevant company stock prices and in the values of pension funds holding these stocks. • An increase in corporate tax revenues and royalty payments flowing from the minerals industry to Canadian governments. • The relatively high wage levels paid to employees within the Canadian minerals industry (almost 50 per cent higher than average wages within the manufacturing sector, for example). • The benefits flowing from the sector through to the many thousand companies that supply goods and services, including important and visible companies such as CN and CP Rail. • The regional economic development seen in areas such as Fort McMurray and, more recently, the iron ore regions of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, and the metallurgical coal region in northeastern British Columbia. Indications are that many multibillion dollar scale mining investments will be seen in various Canadian regions in the decades to come.

As I detailed in an earlier column, the federal department of Natural Resources Canada has recently been examining value-chain and competitiveness aspects of the Canadian minerals and metals industry. One of their interesting findings has been that in copper value-chain analysis, Canadian operations show a strong comparative advantage in the earliest stages such as concentrate, refined copper, pipe and wire, and progressively less comparative advantage in the downstream stages of machine shops, semiconductors and generators. In terms of value-added per dollar revenue (or per employee), the greatest wealth is generated at the extraction to concentrate stage, with progressively lower levels of wealth generated from the smelting, semi-fabrication and fabrication stages. Thus, while Canadian policy-makers and businesses can certainly aim to undertake the greatest possible levels of valueadded within Canada, we should not overlook the fact that the greatest wealth is actually created at some of the earliest stages. And, as Adam Smith would note, our abundance of natural resources, together with the “skill and dexterity” with which we apply our labour, makes us all wealthier. CIM

author Paul Stothart is vice-president, economic affairs, at the Mining Association of Canada. He is responsible for advancing the industry’s interests regarding federal tax, trade, investment, transport and energy issues.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Milestone for Revett Minerals Revett Minerals has joined the U.S. broad-market Russell 3000 Index when Russell Investments recently reconstituted its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes. Russell indexes are commonly used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for investment strategies. Membership in the Russell 3000 means automatic inclusion in the large-cap Russell 1000® Index or small-cap Russell 2000® Index, as well as the appropriate growth and value style indexes. John Shanahan, president and CEO says, “Inclusion in the Russell indexes is another significant milestone for Revett Minerals and is valued recognition of our company’s position as a U.S.-based producer of silver and copper. This will further enhance our public profile as we continue to build market awareness in the U.S. and abroad.”

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August 2011 | 57

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| eye on business

The “who” that kicked it all off: the Fasken Brothers David and Alexander Fasken were key players in the development of the mining industry in Canada. The obituary prepared by Excelsior Life Insurance on the death of Alex in 1944 read: “David and Alex Fasken, in the late 1890s, were among the first to see the possibilities of mining development in Northern Ontario.”1 They participated in the development of silver mines in Cobalt, gold mines in Porcupine and base metal mines at Flin Flon, and helped fund exploration elsewhere. Their combination of business judgment, entrepreneurial energy, foresight, money-raising capabilities and legal expertise proved an important asset in the successful opening of Northern Ontario and other areas. Although they were lawyers and successive managing partners of the law firm that still bears their name, the brothers had a long-standing commitment to the Canadian mining industry. When David died in 1929, the Toronto Star ran the headline “David Fasken, Wealthy Mining Magnate Dies.” At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ontario government wanted to encourage settlement in the Clay Belt west of Lake Temiskaming and began to build the Ontario Northland Railway. In 1903, silver was discovered on the route and the Cobalt Silver Rush began. The Fasken brothers played a key role in the successful development of these prospects. When the discovery was made, David acted quickly, and with E. P. Earle of New York, formed the Nipissing Mining Company Limited to finance its development. They secured claims covering over 846 acres. By 1908, the provincial geologist reported that Cobalt was “not only the world’s largest producer of silver, but it absolutely controls the market for cobalt.” 1 Press

Courtesy of Fasken Martineau

C. Ian Kyer

Robert, Alexander and David Fasken

David served for years as Nipissing’s president and one of its directors, and by the time of his death, Nipissing was the largest silver-producing company in Canada. He was also a director and a substantial shareholder in La Rose Consolidated Mines and Trethewey Silver Cobalt Mine, each of which had mines at Cobalt. The development of Cobalt as a major mining centre in Canada may seem to have been inevitable, but it was not a smooth road to success. The commercial development of the discoveries required significant amounts of capital, and the location and development of sources of power and other utilities, including air transport, in what was then a remote and rugged locale. David Fasken proved to be important in securing both. The success of the Cobalt discovery spurred further exploration. In 1909, gold was discovered in the Timmins

release from Excelsior Life Insurance Company, September 1944.

58 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

area. This time it was Alex who led the way. He represented the syndicate that obtained the option to exploit the claims and took an active role in the management of the new company, Dome Mines Limited, which he incorporated. He was a director and later became its vice-president. When the story of Dome Mines was written, Alex was called one of the “dominant personalities in the company structure.” The brothers were key members of the syndicate that grubstaked the 1914-1915 exploration along the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. This would lead to the founding of the town of Flin Flon in 1927 by Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting (modern day HudBay) to exploit the large deposits of copper and zinc in the region. David was also part of the group of Canadian and American millionaires that formed the Canadian Mining Exploration Company, which in 1912 was said to have 400 properties under consideration. During David’s life, his younger brother Alex was his right-hand man. They worked together on many projects. On David Fasken’s retirement from business in 1919, Alex continued their many enterprises, including an involvement with Nipissing, of which he became president. Alex also helped found and incorporate the Ontario Mining Association. CIM

author

C. Ian Kyer, a former partner and now counsel to Fasken Martineau, holds a PhD in history and is a noted and highly respected IT lawyer and the founder of the Canadian IT Law Association.

aboriginal perspectives

| COLUMNS

Learning Together workshop: promoting good relationships Juan Carlos Reyes

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée

ant with over 40 years of Each year at the CIM experience in the mining Conference & Exhibition, industry. Panellists shared Learning Together hosts an some of their secrets for Aboriginal workshop, which achieving success in the minprovides an opportunity to erals industry, as well as the showcase the expertise and programs they have put in knowledge gained through place to increase member paryears of building case studticipation in the sector. ies, working with communiAlthough the examples ties and industry, and provided at this year’s session creating strong partnerships. are both inspiring and revealFormer National Chief ing, they are not the norm: Delbert Riley kicked off our the reality in most parts of workshop in his typically Learning Together workshop the country is much less entertaining style by conpromising. Because nearly tributing a lively history of Aboriginal treaty rights and how they importance of working with all the every community has a different set of community partners, which for him expectations, requirements and methwere developed, as well as his thoughts on what they truly mean for included establishing an agreement ods for negotiating, the chances are with a Métis community and to address good that the common experience of First Nations. Long before Canada concerns quickly and openly. Diligence most participants will be different became a country, First Nations entered into treaties with the British needs to be exercised so that all relevant from what was heard at our workshop. But that does not mean there is not government, and it is because of these Aboriginal communities and organizations in the region are consulted propvalue in highlighting these success stoearly alliances that Canada has proserly, and so that all partners understand ries. Our goal at Learning Together is pered. After all, it was Delbert’s ancestors, under the leadership of the iconic the complexities and costs associated to bridge the gap between the industry and Aboriginal communities, and a big Chief Pontiac, who defended against with these types of projects. To complete the day, we hosted a part of that goal involves educating British military occupation in what was known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, to roundtable discussion with leaders and sharing best practices. When comfrom the Quebec Cree communities munities understand the strategies secure the Great Lakes region for a and from the Yellowknives Dene. The that have worked for other communiprospective Canada. cultural and demographic mix of our ties, they get a much better view of Derek Teevan, vice-president Abopanellists set the stage for a healthy what might work for them. riginal and government affairs at diversity of opinions. From YelWe look forward to continuing to Detour Gold, then presented a case lowknife were Councillor Nuni support our communities in their study related to the company that has Sanspariel and Bill Plotner, a 20-yearefforts to create meaningful and longthe potential to be one of Ontario’s old mechanic apprentice working at term partnerships in the mining and largest gold developers. Detour’s newly CIM Rio Tinto. From the Quebec Cree comexploration industries. minted Impact Benefit Agreement was munities were Jack Blacksmith, presideveloped with three communities that dent of the Cree Mineral Exploration For more information visit www. all share traditional land usage, but that Board, and Robert Ottereyes, a consultlearning-together.ca. have very different cultural and governmental realities. The company has worked hard to ensure that First Nations remain meaningful partners in the development of traditional lands, an approach that has seen its fair share Juan Carlos Reyes is one of the founders of Learning Together of challenges. Because each community and has been its executive director since 2008. He has nearly was very different and had completely 15 years of mining and Aboriginal development expertise, and different expectations and approaches has worked tirelessly to promote economic development to negotiations, achieving consensus opportunities in the mining industry for Aboriginal communities. was not easy. Teevan stressed the

author

August 2011 | 59

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| standards

Let the discussion begin Are potash technical reports meeting the intent of NI 43-101? Dave Mackintosh The continued “potash rush” in Saskatchewan has resulted in several NI 43-101 technical reports from junior exploration projects, majors wishing to enter the potash industry and established mine operators. However, since the “Best Practice Guidelines” for potash have not been revisited since 2003, the rather broad guidelines are resulting in significant variation in how mineral resource and mineral reserve (MRMR) estimations are prepared and disclosed. The following discussion raises more questions than answers and is an attempt at stimulating further discussion of potash best practices that may result in a Potash Guideline useable by the SEC and CSA. In June 2010, a prominent Saskatchewan newspaper reported that one company had released a potash report “indicating X million tonnes of measured resource, X million tonnes of indicated resource and X million tonnes of inferred resource.” ACHIEVEMENTS

Goldcorp wins reclamation award Goldcorp is the recipient of the Tom Peters Memorial Mine Reclamation Award for its work on the Coniaurum property in Timmins, which operated from 1913 to 1961. The company earned this honour for cleaning up and transforming an old mine site and tailings area into a flourishing habitat for bears and bees. In 2002, Goldcorp's Porcupine Gold Mines began reclamation activities on the area. Work was carried out to stabilize existing erosion channels, depression areas were filled in and biosolids were applied and topped with wild seed mix. Erosion gullies were graded, dams were upgraded along with the sedimentation pond and the discharge channel was improved. The results of this environmental work have stabilized the site, stopped suspended solids from the tailings area entering the Porcupine River and promoted other uses of the property. The use of biosolids as a cover and wild grasses promoted a self-sustaining environment, which encouraged the growth of other natural grass, shrub and tree species. The company also works with the local Aboriginal community to promote applying traditional knowledge and practices to modern rehabilitation techniques. Wildlife has returned to the area and several black bears now reside and feed on the site. Since 2008, honey bees were established on the property to promote additional pollination and plant development. This in turn has spawned into a greater number of healthy bee colonies and a budding honey industry. The company has formed a partnership with a local apiculturist who is engaged in the raising and caring of bees for commercial and agricultural purposes. 60 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

In the same article, the paper stated “another junior mining company is developing a project which reportedly has X million tonnes of recoverable resource.” How does the investor make reasonable comparisons of value? Can the investor be confident that definitions are being applied consistently?

Prospects for economic extraction The CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves (CIM Standards) defines a mineral resource as having “reasonable prospects for economic extraction.” This does not implicitly state that one must apply an extraction rate, and many Qualified Persons (QPs) feel this is the job of the mining engineer at the prefeasibility stage and not part of a resource estimate. The majority of established mine operators, in particular PotashCorp, report an in-place tonnage for resources and apply an extraction rate only to reserves. Among the companies at the development stage, BHP Billiton reports an inplace tonnage resource for the Saturn project and states that extraction rates will be applied when reporting reserves. Potash One applies an extraction rate in their resource estimate. The majority of exploration-stage companies appear to apply extraction rates to resources. If an extraction rate is applied, what rate should a QP use? Published extraction rates for conventional Saskatchewan potash mines vary from a low of 23 per cent to a high of 33 per cent. An extraction rate has never been published for a Saskatchewan potash solution mine. At a minimum, most conventional Saskatchewan operating mines consider that portion of the deposit that has “reasonable prospects for economic extraction” has a minimum thickness, is of good grade and has sufficient salt cover. For solution mines, it must be thick, have high temperature and a lack of carnallite. The QP should provide information on the risks regarding the key assumptions of recoveries and energy costs from lower temperature solution mining prospects, safety and rehabilitation costs, etc. associated with deeper conventional mining prospects to assess reasonable prospects of economic extraction. As well, information should be provided on what must happen in the marketplace to make the prospect viable, such as reduced capacity as the easier deposits are mined out, increased demand and/or prices. Comparisons may be drawn between the low seam complexity of potash and some coal deposits. The CIM Standards refers to the 1989 GSC Paper 88-21, “A Standardized Coal Resource/Reserve Reporting System for Canada,” which states a “resource tonnage is always calculated on an in-place basis; that is, mining or other recovery factors are not applied.

standards | COLUMNS Radius of influence and extrapolation distances for resource categories A review of several technical reports shows that the “measured” category largely utilizes 3D seismic coverage and radius of influence (ROI) varying from 0.8 to 2.5 kilometres. The “indicated” ROI ranges from 1.6 to 2.5 kilometres, usually with 2D; however, the “inferred” category ranges from 3.2 to more than eight kilometres. GSC Paper 88-21 suggests that for relatively flat lying or gently dipping (0 to 5 degree) deposits where drill hole data can be correlated with confidence, the distance from the nearest data point for resources classified as measured be <0.8 kilometres, indicated 0.8 to 1.6 kilometres, and inferred 1.6 to 4.8 kilometres. It must be remembered that these guides were put forth prior to the widespread use of 3D seismic programs. Drill hole spacing from past exploration programs are often used as a guide to current programs. These exploration programs generally used drill hole spacing varying from two to four kilometres, with a few outliers at five to six kilometres. In general, the ROI should be great enough to outline a contiguous area and not produce “spotted dogs” or donuts in the measured and indicated categories. Where large ROIs have been used, the inferred category approaches 90 per cent of the total resource and only 10 per cent can be used to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. Where more modest ROIs have been used, the opposite is true with the measured and indicated categories making up almost 90 per cent of the resource, giving any engineering company charged with preparing scoping studies, prefeasibility and feasibility studies some confidence that they are working with defensible and meaningful estimates.

of deep conventional mining or the energy and water needs facing those attempting to mine lower temperature solution mine properties. It is hoped that this discussion will possibly raise some interest in developing updated best practices for potash. CIM The points raised in the article are solely the opinion of the writer.

author Dave Mackintosh, an independent geological consultant, is the author of numerous papers on potash rock mechanics, mining and geology, and is a Competent Person for the BHP Billiton potash project.

COMPLETE EVALUATION OF ALBERTA OIL SAND DEPOSITS Geological mapping and modelling of ore bodies and depositional environments Mining reserves/resources determination using NI 51-101 criteria Mining plan and scheduling of waste and ore grade material Extraction efficiency modelling with economic valuation of Bitumen produced Upgrader simulation for economic analysis of marketable quantities of Synthetic Crude Oil Other services in the oil sands include: Geological mapping and modelling Thermal modelling CSS HCSS and SAGD

DeGolyer and MacNaughton Canada Limited 1430, 311 - 6 Avenue SW Calgary, AB Canada T2P 3H2 Fax: 403.266.1887 e-mail: degoyercal@demac.com

In need of updating Regulators, report reviewers, investors and, for that matter, many engineering companies, appear unaware of the technical complexities August 2011 | 61

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| metals monitor

Strategies for copper reserves replacement The costs of finding and acquiring copper

Metals Economics Group

The staff of Metals Economics Group

Copper in reserves, resources and past production in major copper discoveries by country, 1999-2010 (total reserves, resources and past production of 229.1 million metric tonnes)

The Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) recent “Strategies for Copper Reserves Replacement: The Costs of Finding and Acquiring Copper” study concludes that between 2001 and 2010, the top 23 global copper producers (those that mined at least 145,000 metric tonnes of copper in 2010) replaced nearly 290 per cent of the copper they produced. Almost all of these companies have added enough reserves to keep ahead of production, maintaining strong pipelines of projects to ensure stable or increased copper production. The major copper producers increased their aggregate annual production by 26 per cent over the past 10 years to 11 million metric tonnes in 2010 – 68 per cent of world mine production. As of year end 2010, these companies also held sufficient reserves for 34 years of production at the 2010 rate. However, increasing production 62 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

has exacerbated their need to add reserves, and most major producers forecast further production increases in the coming years. Based on 2010 production, the major producers each need to replace an average of almost 480,000 metric tonnes of copper in reserves each year; and if their nearterm growth plans bear fruit, this could increase to almost 650,000 metric tonnes annually by 2016. Globally, 62 significant copper discoveries (defined as a deposit containing at least 500,000 metric tonnes of copper) have been reported so far in the 1999-2010 period, containing 229.1 million metric tonnes of copper in reserves, resources and past production. The Americas account for the greatest share of copper in these discoveries, which is not surprising given that the Americas have been the primary focus of discovery-oriented exploration spending.

Although the copper found in the 62 discoveries is slightly more than the industry has produced over the past decade, the economic viability of these deposits relies to a large extent on location, politics, capital and operating costs, and market conditions, which inevitably reduce the amount of resources that will reach production. Considering that just six per cent of copper in these discoveries has been upgraded to reserves so far, that many of the larger discoveries are low grade, and that almost half the copper in the discoveries is located in areas of medium or high political risk, the amount of copper available for production in the near term is likely far less than has been found. Only 10 of the 23 major producers have made significant copper discoveries since 1999; of the 62 discoveries made, 24 can be attributed to these 10 companies, accounting for 41 per cent

metals monitor | COLUMNS of the 229.1 million metric tonnes total in situ value found. Given that just six per cent of copper in the 62 discoveries has so far been converted to reserves, it is clear that we know the majors have added almost all of their exploration-derived reserves at existing mines and older projects, but very little of it through new discoveries. MEG’s Copper Reserves Replacement Strategies study addresses key growth strategy issues facing the copper mining industry and compares the relative costs per pound of discovering or acquiring copper in the ground. In addition to an industry-wide review of the copper pipeline, acquisition activity, copper exploration spending and major discovery successes, the study also provides a variety of metrics for measuring and comparing the relative costs of various growth strategies for the 23 largest copper miners and the industry as a whole. CIM For more information on how to obtain “Copper Reserves Replacement Strategies,” please visit www.metalseconomics.com, email sales@metalseconomics.com or call 902.429.2880.

Note: At the time of writing, no qualifying copper discoveries were reported in 2010; however, due to the time required to assess a large deposit, there may be qualifying discoveries attributable to 2010 in the future. Discoveries are not defined solely by grassroots exploration, but require additional late-stage spending to further expand and define a deposit beyond its initial resource estimate. To account for this, MEG defines discovery-oriented copper exploration as 100 per cent of grassroots spending plus 75 per cent of late-stage spending, which we feel best reflects the cost of finding and subsequently defining a major new discovery.

GIVING BACK

Northern connection The ATCO Group of Companies announced its involvement as a Legacy Sponsor of the 2012 Arctic Winter Games to be held March 410, 2012, in Whitehorse, Yukon. The company, including Yukon Electrical, will provide people, products and services to the event. ATCO is a co-sponsor of the 2012 Arctic Winter Games, opening and closing ceremonies, and the cultural showcase. Almost 2,000 athletes and cultural participants from Arctic nations will come to compete and display their talents in the world’s largest northern multi-sport and cultural event. The event celebrates athletic achievement, friendship, culture and teamwork between northern contingents, with participation from Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Northern Alberta, Nunavut, Nunavik, Greenland, Yamal and Sapmi.

The Power of Collaboration The Mining Industry Human Resources Council

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Visit www.MiHR.ca to access these studies

August 2011 | 63

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| safety

Merging cultures Quadra FNX zeroes in on safety Heather Ednie The harmonizing of different personalities, ideals, goals and processes in an organization is a colossal undertaking, especially when it comes to safety. “A dedicated focus on safety is essential post-merger and can be particularly challenging due to integration issues,” says Michael Winship, COO of Quadra FNX, who over the past year has helped orchestrate the unification of two distinct corporate cultures following the merger of Quadra Mining and FNX Mining in May 2010.

Creating and maintaining a strong safety program within the newly formed company started at the very top. The board of directors’ Emergency response training at Carlota Mine Environment, Health & Safety Committee, which includes the chair, past-chair and one while the other side followed an other director, met with the CEO to set explicit ‘zero harm’ set of values,” clear strategies. “Our board has sent a says Winship. “We opted to take on very strong message of expectations zero harm as the core value of our on health and safety,” Winship says. company.” “Paul Blythe, our president and CEO, Prior to the merger, the safety perhas made working safely as an inteformance at some of the sites was grated company a top priority.” already very strong. For example, the Winship set out to spread the mes- Sudbury operation had been accidentsage across all operations. He began free for 411 days and Sierra Gorda in by meeting with the general man- Chile had been accident-free for the agers of the company’s six projects to entire life of the project. However, discuss expectations. Together, they along with these hot spots of excelhad to determine the best approach lence, Winship says there were still to safety for the new company, as challenges in Chile and the United both Quadra and FNX had followed States that caused the company to take different methodologies. “Previously, action. “We had a meeting with all one side of the company had fol- safety professionals in the company lowed the idea that to have the right early on to share best practices,” Winto work, you had to work safely, ship recalls. “Throughout the year, we 64 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Brock D. Johnston

Choosing the best approach

held an additional two meetings, as we wanted to establish a set of values that would reflect our combined company. Now, we’re in the process of rolling out those values.”

The roll-out Once a strategy was defined, Winship took the lead and, over many site visits, set expectations with the general managers. “It has to be enforced during supervisor training and crew meetings,” he says. “Our general managers at the sites were very active in the roll-out. We do have safety professionals at each site as support, but it’s the line management that is accountable.” Although all operations must abide by the same core values and

Brock D. Johnston

safety | COLUMNS

At Carlota Mine, innovative safety programs are in place to maintain a strong safety culture.

share a number of common elements – such as safety metrics, a common reporting structure, communications and supervisory training and leadership – some latitude was allowed. Sites can adopt what safety systems fit their maturity and culture. A perfect example is the Carlota copper mine in Arizona, where two innovative safety programs are going the distance to maintain and improve a strong safety culture. Caught in the Act The “Caught in the Act” loss control tool was developed to recognize people for making a conscientious decision to work safely. The basic approach can be summarized by the “Soon, Certain and Positive” concept: recognizing individual behaviour right after it occurs (soon); ensuring the recognition is consistent (certain); and providing encouragement to continue the behaviour (positive). “At Carlota, we look for opportunities everyday to use this loss control tool and it’s amazing to look at our employees’ faces and the faces of contractors when we recognize their safe behaviour with a small gift of

appreciation,” says Kathy Binegar, senior HR representative. There are specific guidelines to be followed (at least two of the following four points are required, with the first one mandatory, while the fifth is a stand-alone): • Individuals are wearing appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment). • Individuals are following proper safe work procedures. • Work area is clean and orderly. • If using mobile equipment, a pre-op has been done and documented and the mobile equipment was found choked or wheels in a parking ditch with the parking brake set. • Someone provided a “safety hand,” such as conducting a safety huddle with others to stop a potential incident. The Safety League The Carlota Safety and Health League (CSHL) was formed to increase supervisory participation in safety inspections on site. The aim was to raise the number of supervisors attending group inspections, increase the number of eyes and insight at

those inspections, report safety inspection findings to the appropriate persons, and correct hazardous conditions. Inspection seasons were established, consisting of 10 inspections shared equally among the five teams. A score card and rules were created to determine a winning team each season, and teams chose names and mottos that reflected the Hawaiian culture: • Duke Kahanamoku: Safety – Ride the Wave • The Big Kahunas: Don’t Surf Past Safety • Los Paniolos (The Hawaiian Cowboys): A Safe Quitting Time for Work • The Islanders: Safety Makes Good Things Happen • Pele’s Pit Sludge Predators: Personal Investment – Maximum Results The reason for these names stemmed from a question employees were asked before the merger: “If you could come to work each day and feel like you were working in paradise, what would it be like?” One employee answered: “It would feel like being in Hawaii” – and it stuck. The results speak volumes. Working with people from different departments has given employees a greater understanding of the total operation. In turn, more potential hazards have been uncovered and addressed. By this past February, two inspection seasons were completed – resulting in more than 150 possible citable issues remedied – 200 safety suggestions were made, and 50 Caught in the Act citations were issued.

Making safety everyone’s business Allowing the various sites to help set their own safety systems has brought a much-needed energy to the effort. “It has been embraced at the sites – they like the ability to tailor their own plans and are all off and running,” Winship says. “You need to keep things fresh and bring energy in to get to zero. We’re definitely strengthening the focus across the company.” CIM August 2011 | 65

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| parlons en

Évaluation des vibrations et du bruit des équipements miniers Conséquences d’une exposition prolongée

L'exposition prolongée à des niveaux vibratoires ainsi qu’à des niveaux sonores élevés peut entraîner de nombreux troubles de santé. L’exposition aux vibrations est classée en deux catégories : les vibrations main-bras, où la main et le bras du travailleur sont exposés aux vibrations par l’opération Rétrocaveuse sur rails instrumentée pour mesurer les vibrations d’un outil ou d’une Chargeuse-navette d’une capacité de 9 verges cubes machine tenus par la main (par exemple l’utilisation d’une parmi une gamme d’équipements équipements à évaluer a été dressée. À partir de cette liste préliminaire, un foreuse à béquille), et les vibrations miniers, les différentes sources vibraquestionnaire destiné aux gestionglobales du corps, où les vibrations toires et sonores pouvant potentiellesont transmises par les pieds ou le ment avoir un effet néfaste sur la santé naires de mines québécoises a été postérieur à l’ensemble du corps par des travailleurs. Ce rapport découle élaboré afin d’obtenir une vue l’entremise de la colonne vertébrale d’un projet de recherche conjoint entre d’ensemble de l’inventaire des (par exemple lors de la conduite de l’IRSST et le Laboratoire des mines et équipements miniers utilisés au véhicules). Une exposition excessive des sciences minérales de CANMET à Québec. Finalement, le choix des équipements à évaluer et la planificaaux vibrations main-bras peut Val-d’Or, avec la participation finanentraîner la maladie des doigts blancs cière de l’Association minière du tion des mesures ont été établis en col(syndrome de Raynaud) et être un facQuébec (AMQ), par l’entremise du laboration avec la SOREDEM. Par la teur de risque pour le développement Groupe MISA et du ministère du suite, les chercheurs ont évalué un total de 28 équipements miniers réparde troubles musculo-squelettiques du Développement économique, de l’Insystème main-bras, tandis que l’exponovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE). tis dans huit mines souterraines Ce projet avait comme objectifs de québécoises. Les mesures ont surtout sition aux vibrations globales du corps déterminer quelles sont les différentes été effectuées pour les vibrations globpeut être associée à des problèmes de sources vibratoires et sonores des ales du corps, les problèmes liés aux lombalgie. Par ailleurs, l’exposition équipements miniers pour développer vibrations main-bras étant relativeprolongée des travailleurs à des des pistes de solutions ou des moyens ment bien documentés et associés à niveaux excessifs de bruit cause des l’opération des foreuses à béquille. de protection, d'informer et de sensiproblèmes de surdité. biliser les opérateurs miniers et leurs employeurs à la problématique du Études récentes : Résultats (de l’étude) bruit et des vibrations en milieu de traobjectifs et méthodologie Plusieurs des équipements évalués Le niveau vibratoire des équipements vail en produisant un document d’inont des niveaux de vibrations globales est la plupart du temps inconnu. Dans formation, puis d’aider la SOREDEM du corps suffisamment élevés pour certains cas, tout dépendant de la (Société de recherche et de développereprésenter un risque, à long terme, durée d’exposition quotidienne, la ment minier) à établir une liste de propour la santé des travailleurs. Les jets prioritaires visant à l'amélioration dose journalière de vibrations transtâches associées aux niveaux de vibrades conditions de travail sous terre. mises aux mineurs pourrait représentions globales du corps les plus élevés La sélection des équipements ter un risque pour leur santé. sont le marinage avec rétrocaveuse miniers à évaluer s’est effectuée en Un rapport récent de l’Institut de (sur rails et sur roues), la conduite de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en plusieurs étapes. Dans un premier certains véhicules dépourvus de sussécurité du travail (IRSST) identifie, temps, une liste préliminaire des pension, le forage sur échafaudage 66 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Sylvain Ouellette/LMSM-CANMET

Pierre Marcotte

parlons en | COLUMNS d’aluminium et l’opération des chargeuses-navettes. La performance des sièges à suspension des différents équipements a aussi été évaluée. Plusieurs sièges, notamment ceux d’un bon nombre de chargeusesnavettes, ont contribué à augmenter significativement les vibrations auxquelles est exposé l’opérateur. Par ailleurs, les équipements pneumatiques, tels que les rétrocaveuses et les foreuses pneumatiques, ont présenté les niveaux de bruit les plus élevés. En se basant sur les résultats obtenus dans les mines souterraines, plusieurs recommandations visant à réduire l’exposition des travailleurs miniers au bruit et aux vibrations, ainsi qu’à orienter de futurs travaux de recherche et développement ont été formulées : 1. Afin de réduire l’exposition des travailleurs au bruit, mettre au point un silencieux pour le dispositif d’échappement de l’air comprimé des rétrocaveuses (sur rails et sur roues) et des foreuses à béquille. 2. Sensibiliser les travailleurs à l’importance de porter leurs protecteurs auditifs. Leur fournir de l’information vulgarisée sur le port adéquat des protecteurs. Étudier la possibilité d’utiliser la double protection (bouchons + coquilles) lorsque les niveaux de bruit sont très élevés. 3. Limiter l’utilisation quotidienne des rétrocaveuses (sur rails et sur roues) par les travailleurs en favorisant des rotations sur les postes de travail. Utiliser le plus possible ces équipements en mode télécommandé pour limiter l’exposition des travailleurs aux vibrations globales du corps. 4. Installer des sièges à suspension adaptés à la dynamique du véhicule dans les chargeuses-navettes et les véhicules de service et de transport. Évaluer l’efficacité des sièges à suspension dans les véhicules qui en sont munis et les remplacer au besoin. 5. Améliorer la conception de la plateforme d’aluminium afin de minimiser l’exposition aux vibrations globales du corps lors de l’opération

de foreuses à béquille sur ce type de plateforme. Par ailleurs, en se basant sur les observations effectuées lors des visites dans les mines souterraines, les recommandations suivantes ont été formulées : 1. Favoriser l’utilisation de pneus avec chambre à air plutôt que de pneus pleins, pour diminuer l’exposition aux vibrations globales du corps.

2. Bien entretenir les rampes et les galeries afin de conserver une surface de roulement lisse. Pour plus d’informations, le rapport IRSST R-682 intitulé : « Évaluation des vibrations et du bruit des équipements miniers » peut être téléchargé sans frais en consultant le lien suivant : http://www.irsst.qc.ca/-publication-irsst-evaluation-des-vibrationsbruit-des-equipements-miniers-r-682.html

autEur

Pierre Marcotte a étudié en génie physique et en génie mécanique, et s’est spécialisé dans les domaines de l’acoustique et des vibrations. Depuis 2002, il est chercheur en bruit et vibrations à l'IRSST du Québec. Ses recherches portent surtout sur la réponse biodynamique du corps humain aux vibrations ainsi que sur l'évaluation et la réduction des vibrations main-bras et corps entier.

SYMPOSIUM 2011 • ROUYN-NORANDA SUR L’ENVIRONNEMENT ET LES MINES • MINES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

À METTRE IMMÉDIATEMENT À VOTRE AGENDA ROUYN-NORANDA, QUÉBEC, CANADA - LES 6, 7, 8 ET 9 NOVEMBRE 2011

Dimanche 6 novembre Cours intensif Lundi et mardi 7 et 8 novembre Programme technique portant sur : • • • •

Rejets de concentrateur Remblayage souterrain Roches stériles Politique et réglementation & Mines et société • Qualité des eaux • Restauration des sites • Nouvelles tendances Mardi 8 novembre Séance plénière Mercredi 9 novembre Visites de sites www.cim.org/Symposium2011

Chaire CRSNG Polytechnique - UQAT en environnement et gestion des rejets miniers

August 2011 | 67

COLUMNS

| women in mining

From quinine to quartz How a would-be nurse found her calling in mining

When it comes to a career in the mining industry, the opportunities are endless. A single skill set can take you in many different directions; being open to the plethora of options can lead to an interesting and unique path and, perhaps, a few wild rides along the way. Jane Werniuk’s career certainly falls under the category of unique. Agnico-Eagle’s senior geologist (technical reporting) began her professional life on a completely different page – in nursing. But, she discovered that this was not what life had in store for her. “After two years of doing well in the classroom, I got into the hospital setting and was the Since 2007, a team representing the Women in Mining Toronto Branch has participated in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer worst failure they’d ever (more recently called the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers), raising over $350,000 for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. The WIM team during the two-day, 60-kilometre walk in September 2010 (left to right): Cathy Fletcher, Birgit seen,” she admits candidly. Rameseder, Jane Werniuk, Kate Armstrong, Rosario Astuvilca and Stephanie Thomas. Missing: Catharine Shaw. “They told me to find something else to do – preferably something not involving short-term field and office contracts, in the Yukon. But an uncomfortable people. So, having been in nursing but no long-term work was available. encounter with a brown bear put an classes for two years, I decided to find In 1979, she had her eye on a summer end to her field work and contributed a field with guys in it.” field contract with the Geological to her decision to find a safer type of work. At that point, her long-term Her desire to get out of a female- Survey of Canada, for which she dominated sector, coupled with a life- needed to prove she was a student. “I goal was to work for a museum or in science broadcasting. long interest in going to the North applied to Carleton University for a After completing her degree in and an ongoing curiosity about the master’s program in the spring. When rocks in the Mazinaw Lake region of I returned at the end of the summer, I 1982, Werniuk moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to work in scientific southern Ontario, propelled her to was incensed to find out that Carediting for the Mines Branch – a job study geology at Queen’s University. leton had rejected me, but I fought it she loved. “I would have carried on “The 300-foot cliff in Bon Echo and promised to write a geology there, but I met a guy from Toronto Provincial Park was a really interest- department newsletter, so they let me [who would become her husband, ing geological formation near my in,” she says. Thus began the Geobull George Werniuk] and moved there to grandparent’s cottage,” she explains. weekly newsletter at Carleton. be with him,” she says. On the first “I always wanted to understand it. I day of their honeymoon, she interstill don’t, fully, but I have written Life-changing experiences viewed for a job at the Canadian MinWhile pursuing her master’s about it.” ing Journal (CMJ) – which she got – Once she graduated from Queen’s degree, Werniuk worked as a summer while George waited outside in the in 1977, Werniuk got a series of field geologist for Anaconda Canada 68 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Credit: Weekend to End Women’s Cancers

Heather Ednie

women in mining | COLUMNS parking lot. Werniuk ended up working at CMJ from 1986 to 1990, and returned (after having two children) as editor from 1997 to 2008. “I was always careful to promote good environmental and safety practices,” she says of her years publishing with CMJ. “I tried to go as far as I could to warn mining companies about the consequences of their actions.” In 2007, Werniuk was part of Women in Mining’s Toronto team participating in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. “A couple of us threw caution to the wind to raise a scary amount in donations; we wrote letters, we cajoled people, we published about it,” she recalls. “Supporting our team became the cool thing to do. During the final three weeks before the event, people were calling us up asking, ‘Is it too late to donate?’ For the record, it’s never too late.”

The nine-person team was the top fund-raiser that year, raising more than $200,000 in the $17.3-million event, and Werniuk says it was a life lesson for her. “It taught me that anyone can do anything, if they put their mind to it. You can do anything that makes sense if you choose to not put on the brakes. It’s what made me think I could become a geologist again.”

The next leg of the race Werniuk joined Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (AEM) in June 2009. “I was hired to compile NI 43-101 reports that must be filed whenever there’s an increase in reserves or we find a substantial new deposit,” she explains. “My editing and geological background makes me a good fit.” To date, Werniuk is pleased with AEM, which is high praise for the company’s performance records.

“I’m a skeptic,” she explains. “I’m the guy trying to make sure we’re doing all we say we do, the right way. And so far, my conclusion is that AEM is an honest company that tries to do the right thing with communications, environment and safety. I’m working here because I feel it’s a good company that is honest and open, but I keep my eyes open, and if I see something that shouldn’t be happening, I’ll be the first one complaining.” From her early career days of being dubbed a “field camp girl” and being told that her presence underground was something the men felt was bad luck, through to recent years with the WIM Toronto Branch demonstrating the powerful impact women can have, Werniuk has not only witnessed the incredible amount of opportunities available in this industry, she has lived them. CIM

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August 2011 | 69

COLUMNS

| student life

From cookies to the Congo How to talk to different age groups about mining and metals

As part of its outreach program, members of McGill’s Materials Engineering CIM Student Chapter visit elementary and high schools to teach students about how metals are extracted from the ground and end up in everyday products. Our motivation for starting such a program, which is kindly sponsored by MetChem Canada, is to educate and spark an interest in the younger generation that may fill future job opportunities in the metals extraction industry. While the industry may not have the most “glamorous” image, it offers strong career paths with numerous advantages, which are unbeknownst to most. Many of our own chapter members say the McGill University undergraduate students supervise St-Lambert elementary students as they extract their chocolate chip “ore” from the cookie “deposits.” extractive industry was not their initial choice for a career, but they shifted paths upon discoverwhen we were going to start mining tional mining companies and are ing this exciting sector. the moon. From there, questions came beginning to ask tough questions. One of the benefits of participating at us about mining the bottom of the Being aware of, and troubled by, in the outreach program is the oppor- ocean. At the elementary school level, “blood minerals” from the Democratic tunity to improve the way we commurocks are “cool” and dressing up in Republic of the Congo, where some nicate information about the industry mining interests are controlled by corcoveralls and a hard hat makes presento different audiences. By dispelling rupt militia groups, they want to know tations more entertaining. Also, breaksome of the negative perceptions what the connection is between these ing out bags of chocolate chip cookies about the sector, the image of our is always appreciated. The cookies are elements and the Canadian metals industry will become more personable extraction industry. They are also conused to demonstrate the difference and accessible. cerned about the environmental reperbetween ore (chocolate chips) and cussions of open pit mining and its gangue (the rest of the cookie). The Know your audience effect on wilderness areas. Informing crumbs they make are their “environTailoring your message to the age of mental damage” and they are held these older students about things like your audience is crucial to reaching responsible for their “tailings.” the measure in our legislature that them and making an impact. For safeguards the environment usually The key to talking to younger stuexample, elementary school children dents is making sure that they have a comes as a complete surprise. are naturally curious, have boundless good time, which will generate longIt is vital to recognize and directly imagination and ask surprising quesaddress students’ concerns. Today’s lasting positive, memories of the tions, so you need to be ready to field industry. generation of high school students all sorts of inquiries and keep the preshave grown up with the Internet, and High school students, however, are entation fun for the students. their access to information is astonisha much different audience. They are One time, after talking about where concerned with the social and enviing. They are active learners who are metals come from, a young boy asked ronmental responsibilities of internaquick to recognize faulty logic or weak 70 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Courtesy of Ryan Cunningham

Ryan Cunningham

0LQLQJ &RQWUDFWRUV DQG (QJLQHHUV explanations. Be honest with your facts and humble with the limits of your experience and knowledge. Challenge students with their very own questions. For example, if they are concerned with large companies treating the local and/or indigenous populations fairly, invite them to search for equitable solutions that add value for both parties. If they are concerned with environmental impacts, challenge them to find improved methods of mining, processing, reclamation, etc. If they are concerned about metals ending up in landfills, challenge them to create better designs in future products. High school students need to know what their options are and that a range of different skillsets are needed in the industry. They must be shown that there are positions and niches for them in the industry, even if they do not have â&#x20AC;&#x153;technicalâ&#x20AC;? skills.â&#x20AC;? It is our responsibility to transform the Ryan Cunningham is audience from currently pursuing â&#x20AC;&#x153;outsideâ&#x20AC;? critics his doctorate in to active particimineral processing pants â&#x20AC;&#x201C; educating at McGill University todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s youth is and works part time key to making as a junior process engineer at Metthis happen. CIM Chem Canada.

author

MOVING ON UP Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. appointed David Webb as senior vice-president â&#x20AC;&#x201C; global coal. Webb will provide strategic leadership and drive operational performance at the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coal operations in North America. Webb has over 30 years of experience as a mining engineer and senior manager in the coal and energy sectors. Prior to joining Cliffs, he was vice-president and general manager of Midwest operations for Patriot Coal Corp since 2007 and spent 25 years in various engineering and management roles at Freeman United Energy Corporation. He serves on the Illinois State Mining Board, as first vicechairman of the Kentucky Coal Association and as a development board member at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Teck Resources Limited appointed Greg Belland as the general manager of its Trail Operations. Before joining Teck, Belland worked for the National Research Council and Noranda Limited. He first joined Teck (then Cominco) in 1988 as a research engineer. In 1994, Belland left Teck, but returned in 1997 and has served in a variety of capacities at Trail Operations, including manager, commercial services, raw materials manager, operating manager and sales manager.

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SAFETY - FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS August 2011 | 71

COLUMNS

| HR outlook

Skilled labour on-demand with “Discover Barrick” New short-term assignment initiative shows promising results

The impending skills shortage facing the mining industry means it is now more important than ever to invest in our people. We are competing with other industries in Canada for talent and we need to send out a strong, consistent and positive message about careers in mining to position our companies as employers of choice. The following practice, submitted by Barrick Gold Corporation to MiHR Innovate, illustrates one way in which this company is addressing the challenges that today’s labour market presents in filling roles with experienced workers.

Courtesy of MiHR

Lindsay Forcellini

Short-term assignments foster personal and professional growth while avoiding excess costs to the organization or familial inconveniences for the employee.

A gold industry leader With 25 operating mines and a pipeline of large, long-life projects located across five continents, Barrick has implemented “Discover Barrick,” a new “short-term assignment” initiative in response to increased requests for on-demand skilled labour to support ongoing operations and project sites. The company’s approach has been driven primarily by critical site demand that cannot wait the customary three months often necessary to deploy assignees. Add to that the benefit to employees that comes from exposure to international travel, new and challenging assignments based on their critical skill set and the opportunity to build global networks, often while gaining invaluable experience in the developing world. Barrick also benefits from not losing an employee longer term and having to backfill the home country position had a traditional long-term assignment been used in its place. Beneficial to both parties, the short-term assignment allows personal and professional growth while avoiding excess costs to the organization (i.e. shipping/storage 72 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

of goods) or familial inconveniences (i.e. uprooting and relocating the whole family). Once it was decided that these types of assignments would be necessary going forward (based upon the successful completion of two rounds of shortterm assignments, equaling roughly 30 assignees in total), Barrick completed an exercise to determine if certain measures could be undertaken to reduce the lead time to deploy assignees. The result of this has been positive; weeks have been removed from the process and Barrick is better prepared to respond quickly to requests for immediate skills and assistance.

How it works Through Barrick’s internal job portal, “evergreen postings” (postings that have no end date) will be created in broad buckets of functional areas that contain the types of positions that are most often sought by the sites or projects for shortterm support. Once employees “apply” to an evergreen posting, demonstrating interest in a short-term assignment, and their experience and skills have been

vetted, they will begin preparing for an assignment: further discussions/review of the assignment package, conducting background checks, and updating passports and travel immunizations in order to be ready for when an opportunity becomes available. By completing these steps up front, the company has a pool of “ready-todeploy” short-term assignees to support the sites and projects in short order. Due to Barrick’s numerous operations and projects, the ever-tightening labour market and the general challenges faced in recruiting skilled, technical labour, in conjunction with the benefits and growth development this presents to Barrick’s employees, being able to respond quickly and efficiently to critical requests will help the company achieve its global objectives on many fronts. This initiative is new to Barrick, although the company has enjoyed success with its first round of shortterm assignees, from both an employee and an operational standpoint, evidenced by the desire expressed by more sites/projects and employees to participate in this program. It will continue to monitor the success of assignments and the demand by the operations to balance the supply and demand of internal assignees and, if necessary, will look to take this one step further and open it up to the market in an effort to have a pool of external assignees in the database. CIM

author Lindsay Forcellini is marketing and communications coordinator at MiHR.

Gold in our backyard: local labourers and Nova Scotia’s gold rush Correy Baldwin

W. Chase, photographer; courtesy of Nova Scotia Archives

ova Scotia is known for its coal, but its eastern shore has been a source of gold ever since a “rush” invigorated the province in the 1860s. The initial discoveries were made humbly enough, often by local farmers, some who had picked up the idea of prospecting from the California Gold Rush. One of these men was John Pulsifer, a farmer and amateur prospector from the town of Musquodoboit. Pulsifer suspected that there was gold along the Tangier River and in 1860, he explored the area, enlisting a Mi’kmaq guide named Joe Paul. Joe Paul had been to the area two years earlier in the company of Captain Champagne L’Estrange of the British Army, who was on a moosehunting trip. Whether or not the captain got a moose is unknown, but he did claim to have found gold – his discovery was not taken seriously and was all but forgotten by the time Pulsifer explored the area. On his expedition, the farmer found what he was looking for – gold-bearing quartz. Pulsifer staked a claim, although at first he, too, had trouble convincing not only local officials but potential financial backers as well. Then, in October, a local fisherman and farmer named Peter Mason came across gold on his own land near the Tangier Harbour. He was on the lookout for such a find, intrigued by the rumours of gold further up river. There was no denying this second discovery. The gold rush was on. Discoveries were not limited to Tangier. There was a flurry of discoveries across the eastern shore of Nova Scotia in 1861. When news of the Tangier gold reached Lawrencetown, just east of

John Gerrish Pulsiver, the discoverer of gold in quartz in Tangier (1860)

Halifax, a man named William Crook knew where he could find his own gold. Years earlier, as a young boy, he had found what he believed to be gold on his father’s land. He had shown it to his father, but the older man just scoffed at him and told him to pitch the rubbish away and get back to work. Now, Crook returned to the field where he had obeyed his father, and there indeed found gold. Not long after and further up the coast at Goldenville, near Sherbrooke, a farmer named Nelson Nickerson discovered gold on his land while making hay. He had visited Tangier earlier that summer and had learned to identify quartz. He returned to break open every intriguing rock he came across while working his land. The Nickerson family kept their discovery quiet and began to secretly break down the quartz. With so much

excitement in the air about gold, however, they could hardly keep the secret for long. Neighbours became suspicious and took to closely watching them. By October, the sound of Nickerson’s hammer had given him away, and Goldenville was enveloped in the gold rush. Unlike other gold rushes across North America, Nova Scotia’s discoveries were in an area that had long been settled. When the rush hit, local farmers, fishermen and other labourers picked up many of the claims. At one point, so many farmers had left their fields that the general public became concerned about the loss of agricultural productivity. All of this led to a large number of small operations, spreading financial backing thin. As well, a general lack of experience in mining led to inefficient and wasteful operations. Gold extraction was often done simply by hand, with picks and shovels. When the surface gold ran out, men lacked the capital to invest in larger scale mining, and many operations were abandoned. At the Ovens, near Lunenburg, for example, gold was found in the beach sand where it fell from the eroding cliffs above. But few could afford to mine the veins themselves and merely panned the beaches by hand until this easy gold ran out. By 1874, gold fever had ebbed. Thankfully this was not the end of Nova Scotia’s history with gold. It was not long before more experienced and better trained men reopened the gold mines, equipped with better machinery and methods, and more capital. Gold would continue to feed Nova Scotia’s economy throughout the next century. CIM August 2011 | 73

WRAP UP • RÉCAPITULATION

With a record-breaking 7,000-plus participants, an impressive eight-stream technical program and the largest exhibition in CIM’s history (almost 500 companies), the Montreal gathering did not disappoint. The event’s theme - Mines Without Borders - was evident everywhere, with more than a quarter of the exhibiting companies coming from outside of Canada and an impressive contingent of international delegates.

Avec plus de 7000 participants, un record, un programme technique à huit volets et le plus imposant Salon commercial de l’histoire de l’ICM (près de 500 entreprises), la rencontre à Montréal a été un franc succès. Le thème du congrès « Mines sans frontières » était évident partout; en effet, plus du quart des compagnies qui exposaient provenaient de l’extérieur du Canada et on pouvait voir un impressionnant contingent de délégués internationaux.

TO GET THE FULL SCOOP, CHECK OUT A DETAILED WRAP UP ON: POUR AVOIR TOUTE LA NOUVELLE, VOYEZ LA RÉCAPITULATION DÉTAILLÉE AU :

www.cim.org/montreal2011

SYMPOSIUM 2011 • ROUYN-NORANDA SUR L’ENVIRONNEMENT ET LES MINES • MINES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

RESERVE THE DATE IN YOUR AGENDA ROUYN-NORANDA, QUEBEC, CANADA — NOVEMBER 6 TO 9, 2011

The Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and the Canadian Institue of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), invite you to Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, Canada, to attend the Symposium 2011 on Mines and the Environment, from November 6 to 9, 2011. This Symposium is the result of collaboration between the Industrial NSERC Polytechnique-UQAT in Environment and Mine Wastes Management, the Unité de recherche et de service en technologie minérale (URSTM), the Association minière du Québec (AMQ), the Mine Environment Neutral Drainage (MEND) Program, the ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune du Québec (MRNF) and the industry. The objectives of the Symposium are to share recent knowledge and research developments and to discuss common practices to find solutions that reconcile profitability and environmental protection.

Sunday, November 6: Short course Monday and Tuesday, November 7 and 8: Technical program addressing the following subjects: • Tailings • Backfill • Waste Rocks • Policies and Regulations in Mining in Society • Contaminated Water • Site Restoration • New Trends

Tuesday, November 8: Plenary Wednesday, November 9: Site tours A trade show will also be held on November 7 and 8. Information will be available in the CIM Magazine. Also look on our web site for more details (accessible soon) at: www.cim.org/Symposium2011 For more information, please contact: Chantal Murphy (CIM): 1-800-667-1246

Chaire CRSNG Polytechnique - UQAT en environnement et gestion des rejets miniers

cim news Recognizing industry’s finest Hommage à la crème de l’industrie CIM is proud to offer a distinguished list of awards and honours that recognize excellence in the industry. As always, the nominations are numerous and choosing the winners from among many qualified and talented candidates is a challenging, but rewarding undertaking for the judges in each sector. The following is a list of this year’s winners. L’ICM est fier de présenter cette liste prestigieuse de prix et de distinctions qui récompensent l’excellence au sein de l’industrie. Comme toujours, les mises en candidature ont été nombreuses et la sélection des lauréats parmi de nombreux candidats doués et qualifiés a constitué pour les juges de chaque secteur d’activité une tâche difficile, mais gratifiante. Voici les lauréats de cette année.

• Canada Trophy for Select Mines | Trophée Canada pour les mines sélectionnées CGC Inc., Windsor Plant, Windsor, NS • Canada Trophy for Coal Mines | Trophée Canada pour les mines de charbon Teck Coal Limited, Coal Mountain, Sparwood, BC Mel W. Bartley Award | Prix Mel W. Bartley This award is presented by the CIM Thunder Bay Branch to a CIM branch demonstrating the most effective progress in reaching the aims and objectives of the Institute. Ce prix est remis par la section de Thunder Bay à une section de l’ICM ayant le plus progressé vers l’atteinte des cibles et des objectifs de l’Institut. • CIM Saskatoon Branch, Saskatoon, SK

2011 CIM award winners Lauréats des prix de l’ICM 2011

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée.

• Canada Trophy for Metal Mines | Trophée Canada pour les mines de métaux Vale, T-1 Mine, Thompson, MB Vale, Birchtree Mine, Thompson, MB

John T. Ryan Trophy winners

John T. Ryan Trophies | Trophées John T. Ryan These trophies are awarded by Mine Safety Appliances Canada Limited as a memorial to the founder of the company. The national awards are presented to the metalliferous mine, the select mine and the coal mine that in the previous year experienced the lowest reportable injury frequency per 200,000 hours worked in Canada. Ces trophées sont remis par la société Mine Safety Appliances Canada Limited en mémoire de son fondateur. Les trophées nationaux sont décernés à des mines (mine de métaux, mine sélectionnée et mine de charbon) qui affichent pour l’année précédente le plus faible taux d’accidents à déclaration obligatoire par période de travail de 200 000 heures au Canada.

Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development | Prix Syncrude pour l’excellence en développement durable This award recognizes extraordinary systems, programs or processes that have far-reaching and positive sustainability effects in all industry sectors across Canada. It acknowledges those individuals, communities, organizations, corporations or academics working to create economic wealth while mitigating environmental impacts and acting inclusively towards all segments of society. Ce prix souligne le caractère extraordinaire des systèmes, programmes ou processus qui ont des effets importants et positifs au chapitre du développement durable dans tous les secteurs de l’industrie au Canada. Le prix récompense les personnes, collectivités, organismes, entreprises et universitaires qui s’efforcent, par une démarche tenant compte de tous les segments de la société, de créer une richesse économique, tout en atténuant les impacts sur l’environnement. • James P. Cooney, Vancouver, BC • IAMGOLD Corporation, Toronto, ON CIM Distinguished Lecturers | Éminents conférenciers de l’ICM Distinguished Lecturers are chosen on the basis of their accomplishments in scientific, technical, management or educational activities related to the minerals industry, and speak at CIM branch meetings across the country.

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cim news Les éminents conférenciers sont choisis en fonction de leurs réalisations scientifiques, techniques, administratives ou pédagogiques en lien avec l’industrie minière. Ils prennent la parole à l’occasion des réunions des diverses sections de l’ICM d’un bout à l’autre du pays. Klaus Kacy, Westbank, BC • Barbara Kirby, Ottawa, ON • Bernhard Klein, Vancouver, BC • A. Hamid Mumin, Brandon, MB • Jim Utley, Vancouver, BC • William Westgate, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Ce prix récompense les contributions exceptionnelles d’un membre de l’Institut au développement de l’industrie et de l’ICM à l’échelle locale. • David G. C. Clarry, Toronto, ON Metal Mining Society Award | Prix de la Société de l’exploitation minière et des métaux This award was established to recognize outstanding achievement or contribution in the field of mining engineering. Ce prix a été créé dans le but de souligner une réalisation ou contribution exceptionnelle dans le domaine du génie minier. • Awarded to the Canadian companies and individuals involved in the successful rescue operation of the Chilean miners. • Il a été décerné aux sociétés et aux gens du Canada qui ont pris part aux opérations de secours des mineurs chiliens, lesquelles ont été couronnées de succès. Barlow Memorial Medal | Médaille commémorative Barlow This prize is given to the author of the best paper on economic geology, published by the Institute in any year. Ce prix est remis à l’auteur du meilleur article publié par l’Institut dans le domaine de la géologie économique au cours de l’année. • Michael D. Doggett, Vancouver, BC • Richard A. Leveille, Phoenix, AZ, USA

CIM-Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leaders Awards | Les Prix jeunes leaders canadiens du secteur miniers ICM-Bedford To encourage and accelerate the development of leadership in Canadian mining, this award recognizes the outstanding achievement and potential of young Canadian leaders 39 years of age and under, in various sectors of mining from around the world. Présenté dans le but d’encourager et de développer plus rapidement le leadership dans l’industrie minière au Canada, ce prix souligne les réalisations exceptionnelles et le potentiel remarquable de jeunes leaders canadiens de 39 ans et moins dans divers secteurs liés à l’exploitation minière sur la scène mondiale. David Anonychuk, Dubai, UAE • Mark A. Eichhorn, Oakville, ON • Chad S. Hiley, Toronto, ON • Ryan Montpellier, Kanata, ON District 3 Distinguished Service Award | Prix de district 3 pour services remarquables This award recognizes an Institute member for exceptional contributions to the development of the industry and CIM at the local level.

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McParland Memorial Award | Prix commémoratif McParland This award was established to recognize outstanding performance in the minerals industry in the field of mechanical, electrical or civil engineering design, general plant design, project engineering and/or management of mine plants. Ce prix a été créé afin de souligner des résultats exceptionnels dans l’industrie minière, plus précisément dans le domaine de la conception en génie mécanique, électrique ou civile, des études et plans d’installations, de l’ingénierie ou de la gestion d’installations minières. • George Delorme, Montreal, QC Robert Elver Mineral Economics Award | Prix d’économie des minéraux Robert Elver This award is given to a member of the Institute in good standing who has made a significant contribution in the mineral economics field in Canada. Ce prix est remis à un membre en règle de l’Institut en reconnaissance d’une contribution importante à l’économie des minéraux au Canada. • Pierre Lassonde, Toronto, ON Julian Boldy Memorial Award | Prix commémoratif Julian Boldy This award commemorates the outstanding contributions of the late Julian Boldy and recognizes exceptional service to the CIM Geological Society.

Ce prix qui commémore la contribution remarquable de feu Julian Boldy récompense les services exceptionnels rendus à la Société de la géologie de l’ICM. • Daniel Brisbin, Saskatoon, SK

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Coal Award | Prix du charbon This award honours the CIM members who have made outstanding contributions to the coal industry of Canada and who have also been long-standing, active participants in the CIM Coal and Industrial Minerals Society. Ce prix est remis aux membres de l’ICM qui ont contribué de façon notable à l’industrie du charbon au Canada et qui sont depuis longtemps actifs au sein de la Société du charbon et des minéraux industriels de l’ICM. • David Fawcett, Vancouver, BC J.C. Sproule Memorial Plaque | Plaque commémorative J.C. Sproule This plaque recognizes distinguished contributions to the exploration and development of Canada’s mineral resources in the northern regions. Cette plaque récompense une contribution exemplaire en ce qui a trait à l’exploration et à la mise en valeur des ressources minérales du Nord canadien. • Douglas Bryan, Coldstream, BC A. O. Dufresne Award | Prix A.O. Dufresne This award recognizes exceptional achievement or distinguished contributions to mining exploration in Canada. Ce prix récompense les réalisations et les contributions exceptionnelles en lien avec l’exploration minière au Canada. • David J. Copeland, Vancouver, BC Past Presidents’ Memorial Medal | Médaille commémorative des anciens présidents This award is presented to a person 45 years of age or younger, who, by his or her accomplishments, has set an outstanding example to young CIM members or youth contemplating a career in the minerals industry. Ce prix est décerné à une personne de moins de 45 ans dont les réalisations sont une remarquable source d’inspiration pour les jeunes membres de l’ICM et les jeunes qui envisagent de faire carrière dans l’industrie minière. • Steve Piercey, St. John’s, NL

51st Annual Conference of Metallurgists held with Pressure Hydrometallurgy 2012

Core programming includes:

Hydrometallurgy Corrosion Clean Metallurgical Processing Sustainability Issues in Mineral & Metal Extraction Sustainability through Mining

Organized by:

Members Award | Prix des membres PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Group sponsors this award, which is presented to one of the “unsung heroes” of the mining industry who has fully given time to several aspects of community service and support. Commandité par la société de conseil PricewaterhouseCoopers, ce prix est présenté à un « héros méconnu » de l’industrie minière qui a donné généreusement de son temps afin de servir et de soutenir la collectivité sous plusieurs rapports. • Gordon E. Morris, Edmonton, AB August 2011 | 79

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Selwyn G. Blaylock Medal | Médaille Selwyn G. Blaylock This medal is awarded for distinguished service to Canada through exceptional achievements in the field of mining, metallurgy or geology. Cette médaille est décernée à une personne ayant rendu des services remarquables au Canada grâce à ses réalisations exceptionnelles dans le domaine de l’exploitation minière, de la métallurgie ou de la géologie. • John W. Chisholm, Antigonish, NS Vale Medal | Médaille Vale This medal is presented as a mark of distinction and recognition for a meritorious and practical contribution of outstanding importance to the mining and metallurgical industry of Canada. Cette médaille est présentée afin de souligner et de récompenser une contribution pratique et méritoire qui revêt une importance exceptionnelle pour l’industrie minière et métallurgique du Canada. • Mackenzie I. Watson, Montreal, QC 80 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée.

To mark the Institute’s Diamond Jubilee in 1958, the CIM Council inaugurated the Fifty-Year Club to which members could be elected as a mark of distinction for their long service. Afin de souligner le jubilé de diamant de l’Institut en 1958, le conseil de l’ICM a créé le Club des cinquante ans afin de souligner les longues années de service des membres qui y sont élus. Charles Aird, Vancouver, BC • Brian E. Backler, Campbell River, BC • John F. Barker, Sudbury, ON • Arthur W. Brown, North Vancouver, BC • Robert Bryce, Val-d’Or, QC • Alfons Buzas, Bathurst, NB • J. Douglas Carnahan, Vancouver, BC • George E. Davies, North Vancouver, BC • Robert M. Giegerich, Amherstburg, ON • Timothy Godfrey, Calgary, AB • R. Michael Gray, Gravenhurst, ON • Peter W. Green, Kelowna, BC • Bernt Rag Honeth, Sandton, South Africa • Donald J. Hosking, New Liskeard, ON • Douglas F. Irving, Albuquerque, NM, USA • Edmond A. Justen, Montreal, QC • Wray Koepke, Brighton, ON • John A. Logan, Middle Musquodoboit, NS • Wilfred A. Lyons, Buenos Aires, Argentina • John Mullins, Toronto, ON • Robin A. J. T. Oram, Santa Barbara De Nexe, Portugal • Robert H. Richards, Toronto, ON • Rudolf M. Rucker, Nipissing, ON • Cory V. Sibbald, Vancouver, BC • Desh B. Sikka, Montreal, QC • Louis L. Sirois, Woodlawn, ON • Charles H. Smallwood, Elliot Lake, ON • Vernon E. Smith, Chilliwack, BC • Lawrence J. Stoddart, Kingston, ON • R. B. Stokes, West Vancouver, BC • Harvey L. Sweetman, Henderson, NV, USA • Richard M. Williams, Kanata, ON • W. M. Williams, Westmount, QC • Joseph E. Worthington, Evergreen, CO, USA • William V. Youdelis, Windsor, ON

CIM Distinguished Service Medal winner

CIM Distinguished Service Medal | Médaille ICM pour services remarquables This gold medal recognizes exceptional service to the Institute and the mineral industry that is not necessarily technical or scientific. Cette médaille d’or récompense des services exceptionnels rendus à l’ICM et à l’industrie minière qui ne sont pas nécessairement de nature technique ou scientifique. • Tim Grain Joseph, St. Albert, AB CIM Fellowships | Confrérie de l’ICM This honour recognizes members who have distinguished themselves through outstanding contributions to the mining, metallurgical and petroleum industries. A CIM Fellow may place “FCIM” after his or her name when deemed appropriate. Cette récompense est accordée aux membres qui se sont distingués par leurs contributions exceptionnelles à l’industrie minière, métallurgique et pétrolière. Un Compagnon de l’ICM peut accoler le titre « FCIM » à son nom s’il le juge utile. James F. Archibald, Kingston, ON • John D. Cairns, Saskatoon, SK • Glenn R. Clark, Cobourg, ON • Douglas Milne, Saskatoon, SK • Joseph P. Ringwald, Vancouver, BC • Torstein Utigard, Toronto, ON • Donald J. Worth, Toronto, ON • Janice Zinck, Ottawa, ON CIM Fellowship Award

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée.

Fifty-Year Club | Club des cinquante ans

NEW — Certification in Ore Reserve Risk and Mine Planning Optimization (in collaboration with AusIMM) Upcoming 2011 Seminars Spread over a period of four months, this four-week course is designed for busy mining professionals who wish to update their skills and knowledge base in modern modelling techniques for ore bodies and new risk-based optimization methodologies for strategic mine planning. Gain practical experience by applying the following hands-on concepts and technical methods: methods for modelling ore bodies; stochastic simulations, case studies and models of geological uncertainty; and demand-driven production scheduling and geological risk. Instructor: Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada • Dates: Week 1 – August 22-26, 2011; Week 2 – September 26-30, 2011; Week 3 – October 17-21, 2011; Week 4 – November 7-10, 2011 • City: Week 1 – Perth, Australia; Week 2-4 – Remote • Info: www.mcgill.ca/conted/prodep/ore

Strategic Risk Management in Mine Design: From Life-of-Mine to Global Optimization Learn how you can have a significant, positive impact on your company’s bottom line by utilizing strategic mine planning methodologies and software; improve your understanding of strategic mine planning and life-of-mine optimization concepts, as well as your understanding of the relationship of uncertainty and risk, and how to exploit uncertainty in order to maximize profitability. Note: The strategic mine planning software used is Whittle; an optional half-day skills refresher workshop on Whittle may be available. Instructors: Gelson Batista, MPX Energia, Brazil, and Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada • Date: September 21-23, 2011 • City: Toronto

An Introduction to Cutoff Grade Estimation: Theory and Practice in Open Pit and Underground Mines Cutoff grades are essential in determining the economic feasibility and mine life of a project. Learn how to solve most cutoff grade estimation problems by developing techniques and graphical analytical methods, about the relationship between cutoff grades and the design of pushbacks in open pit mines, and the optimization of block sizes in caving methods. Instructor: Jean-Michel Rendu, Executive Consultant, Snowden, Australia • Date: September 7-9, 2011 • City: Montreal

Geostatistical Mineral Resource/Ore Reserve Estimation and Meeting the New Regulatory Environment: Step by Step from Sampling to Grade Control Learn about the latest regulations on public reporting of resources/reserves through state-of-the-art statistical and geostatistical techniques, how to apply geostatistics to predict dilution and adapt reserve estimates to that predicted dilution, how geostatistics can help you categorize your resources in an objective manner, and how to understand principles of NI 43-101 and the SME Guide. Instructors: Marcelo Godoy, Golder Associates, Chile, Jean-Michel Rendu, Executive Consultant, Snowden, Australia, and Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada • Date: September 12-16, 2011 • City: Montreal

Mineral Project Evaluation Techniques and Applications: From Conventional Methods to Real Options Learn the basics of economic/financial evaluation techniques, as well as the practical implementation of these techniques to mineral project assessments, how to gain a practical understanding of economic/financial evaluation principles, and how to develop the skills necessary to apply these to support mineral project decisions. Instructor: Michel Bilodeau, McGill University, Canada • Date: October 24-27, 2011 • City: Montreal

cim news

| scholarship winners

CMMF scholarships awarded By Correy Baldwin In the last issue of CIM Magazine, we proudly introduced you to three McIntosh Engineering Scholarship recipients. Here, we feature the remaining university-level winners.

James Anderson – University of British Columbia, Okanagan James Anderson’s interest in mining began when he got a summer job at an open pit copper mine in the BC interior. Among other things, he was impressed with the level of safety at work. “Safety was constantly brought up and pushed more than I had ever seen before,” he says. “Not only do people go home safe, but the workers’ morale improves as they realize they are valuable to their employer.” Discouraged by the economic downturn, Anderson recently turned to engineering at the University of British Columbia, seeing it as a good

fit with his past work experience. “After a summer working as an engineering intern, I saw how the senior engineers directed projects, and that many of the managers were professional engineers themselves,” he adds. “I realized that this was a position where I could help make large-scale positive changes.” He is now working in the quality control department of Kiewit Infrastructure, a subcontractor for Imperial Oil, to facilitate turnover to the customer. “I am excited to be a part of the heavy construction industry that takes place in Canada,” he says.

Olivier Hamel – McGill University Olivier Hamel began an honours degree in physics at McGill University before switching to engineering. “Even though this field was interesting, I realized it would not likely give me access to

work opportunities that I would enjoy and find fulfilling,” he says. “Mining engineering is an impressive industry,” he adds. “Some mines are literally about moving mountains. Such a scale requires a lot of capital investment and therefore lots of organization and tight schedules. Also, the mining industry is a fundamental, if not the fundamental, industry in today’s economy.” Hamel is interested in uranium, mined oil sands (as opposed to in situ recovered oil), and hard rock metal mining. He is currently an intern/surveyor at Osisko Mining’s Canadian Malartic gold mine – his second internship in the Abitibi region. “I get to be in the open pit mine 10 hours a day and gain knowledge and experience on how things really happen in a mine,” he says. Internships also allow him to see engineers at work in all levels of the field. “This helps me understand how they work and communicate,” Hamel explains. “I get to see all the downstream consequences of a good or bad engineering decision on safety, efficiency and environmental issues.”

CIM welcomes new members Acott, Gerry, Ontario Adendorff, Jaco, South Africa Aitaok, Jorgan, Nunavut Ajumogobia, Somiari, Alberta Aleshkov, Sergey, Russia Anguelov, Raytcho, British Columbia Arbi, Ali, British Columbia Ardito, Cynthia, USA Arko, Tara, Nunavut Baldwin, Jessica, Newfoundland and Labrador Barja Castellanos, Rebeca, British Columbia Barry, Ryan, Nunavut Beaune, Calen, Ontario Berlizov, Andrey, Ukraine Boadu, Richmond, Ghana Boldyrev, Valeriy, Russia Boley, Trey, USA Bowal, Curtis, Alberta Boytsov, Alexander, Russia

Bresser, Hugh, Australia Brisco, Margaux, Nunavut Bryant, Colin, Australia Buhlman, Nick, Ontario Campbell, John, Alberta Cash, Aileen, Ontario Cavasin, Alex, Ontario Chalmers, Mark S., Australia Chan, Wendy, China Chan, Ming Kit, China Chan, Sik Lap, China Chaudhari, Bhavesh, India Chaytor, Sandra, Newfoundland and Labrador Cheng, Tony, China Cherepanov, Andrey, Russia Chesney, Cindy, Ontario Cheung, Michael, British Columbia Chirchikbayev, Bakyt, Kazakhstan Cole-Rae, Kendall, Ontario De Windt, Bertrand, Ontario

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Del Mastro, Jonathan, Alberta D’Orazio, Rosanne, Nunavut Dunn, Hunter, Alberta Erskine, Dan, USA Fauconnier, Anne, France Ferraro, Jean-François, France Fisher, Scott, Ontario Freed, Rina, British Columbia Gabriel, Sophie, France Ganesan, Arjun, British Columbia Geslin, Wilfried, France Getz, Arnold, Australia Gingras Little, Kristopher, Ontario Girgis, Andre, Ontario Golovko, Valery, Russia Graham, Jim, USA Granchinho, Sophia, Nunavut Graves, Doug, USA Gubago, Moopi, Ontario Guimaraes, Flavio Marcio, British Columbia Gupta, Brijesh, India

Halliday, Matthew, Ontario Hames, Ben, British Columbia Han, Wei, British Columbia Harkema, Albert, Ontario Harris, Douglas, USA Hassani, Selemani, British Columbia Hein, Glen, Kazakhstan Hem, Priyadarshi, British Columbia Hisatani, Koichi, Japan Ho, Chin Choi, China Ho, Ivan, British Columbia Hockley, Daryl, British Columbia Hogg, LuVerne E.W., British Columbia Horner, Mark, Ontario Huan, George, British Columbia Hubbard, Martin, United Kingdom Hughes, Alan, Australia Ikure, Unyime Martin, Nigeria Indyk, Sergey, Russia Jaganathan, Satishkumar, USA

Johnson, Leif, USA Johnson, Anne, Ontario Khan, Nizam, Ontario Kirk, Patricia, USA Kriz, Petr, Czech Republic Kyle, John, USA Langille, Steve, Ontario Langton, Chris, Alberta Lau, Paul, China Ledoux, Luka, Ontario Lee, Haydn, China Lee-Sheriff, Janet, British Columbia Leuret, Theo, France Li, Wenjie, China Li, Xizhong, Alberta Li, Tianbai, Alberta Lickers, Samantha, Ontario Lingel, Ed, British Columbia Litke, Shauna, British Columbia Longo, Sue, Alberta Luminita Crisu, Tereza, British Columbia

scholarship winners Azougrou Bozon Koto – École Polytechnique de Montréal Azougrou Bozon Koto immigrated to Canada from Côte d’Ivoire in 2008 with a degree in energy engineering and experience working at the Ivorian Electricity Company. “I had decided to switch to finance or computer technology,” he says, “because in Africa, engineering degrees are not highly valued.” Koto entered a master’s program in information systems, but was not entirely confident with his choice. “After attending job fairs at École Polytechnique, I discovered that the industry that really offers the type of career with field work that I had always dreamed about was mining engineering.” Last summer, Koto worked at the Géant Dormant Mine in Abitibi, Quebec. “This summer they rehired me for an engineering internship, where I did surveying, drafting, ventilation and ground control,” he says. “It’s fascinating work; being kilometres below ground, using special machines, making ore extraction plans and then implementing these plans in the field,

Lyle, Glenn, Ontario Maley, Mark, Australia Maskokian, Siamak, Iran Mason, Peter, USA Mathema, Bruce N., Ontario McGladrey, Alexandra, British Columbia McPhee, Lindsey, Alberta Mensah Fynn, Anthony, Ghana Mikhaylenko, Mikhail, Russia Mokgosi, Emmanuel, Ontario Moodie, Kelly, Ontario Moodley, Kasuren, South Africa Morrison, Parker, Ontario Mushinski, Ken, USA Navratil, James, USA Neumann, Jessica, Ontario Nikbakhtan, Babak, Alberta Noor, Meskatun, Ontario Norris, Christopher, Ontario

Ohnemus, Joachim, Germany Okutsu, Misato, Ontario Paatero, Erkki, Finland Paju, Greg, Ontario Pandhari, Abhijit, British Columbia Parenteau, Jason, Alberta Pasco, Luis, Peru Peddada, Sharath, Ontario Perez-Ramirez, Javier, British Columbia Pitts, Michelle, Ontario Playter, Tiffany, Alberta Pohjolainen, Esa, Finland Qin, Shijia, British Columbia Regli, Andrea, Ontario Rodgers, Matthew, USA Rooney, Jodi, Alberta Roshanfekr, Ali, Northwest Territories Sabour, Sabry Abdel, USA Samuelson, James, USA Savytska, Margarita, Ukraine Schmidt, Roland, USA

doing rock engineering – all of these things intrigued me.” Koto plans to specialize in rock mechanics, rock support and dam construction for managing mining residues, and he has ambitious plans for the future. “I would like to join a research team to design and carry out the construction and installation or maintenance of mining sites,” he says. “And then, after 10 or 15 years of experience in mining, I’ll be able to set up a Canadian mining law company with some colleagues.”

Gustavo Marquez – McGill University “I wanted to study something technically challenging, exciting and that promised a fruitful career,” says Gustavo Marquez. The McGill mining engineering student is looking forward to working in what he calls a challenging and dynamic industry. “I want to make practical contributions as an engineer, especially in terms of the environmental and social aspects of mining projects,” he adds. “What I find particularly interesting about this industry is its sheer scale,

Schmidt, Sherry, Ontario Scott, Robert, Ontario Seifried, Helen, Alberta Seredkin, Maxim, Russia Shahwan, Moein, Newfoundland and Labrador Sheriff, William, British Columbia Shimoda, Tomoya, Australia Shkwarek, Meagan, Ontario Shtusa, Mikhail, Russia Shulga, Dmitry, Russia Skibsted, Brant, Alberta Soldatek, Steven, USA Spoelstra, Nico, South Africa Srigyan, Dipankar, Alberta St-Pierre, Sylvain, United Kingdom Sutton, Carson, Alberta Sze, Marco, China Tang, Mark, British Columbia

Tarkhanov, Aleksey, Russia Taylor, Lindsey, Ontario Tisdell, Dominic, Australia Tomlinson, Steele, British Columbia Trump, Daniel, USA Ubah, Chinedu, British Columbia Vekris, Evangellos, Ontario Vertefeuille, Erica, Ontario Viel, Marcel, Ontario Vincent-Lambert, Warren, Alberta Walter, John, Ontario Wasylik, Darrin, British Columbia Watson, Curtis, Ontario Wiley, Chris, USA Woolley, Richard, Alberta Workman, Lyall, USA Yoshie, Hiroshi, Alberta Yuan, Haoyue, British Columbia Zadeh, Sanaz Moghadar, British Columbia

| cim news

with mining projects and equipment, as well as the number of different roles involved, from miners to human resources to contractors to bankers,” Marquez shares. His interests lie in the technical aspects of the industry, although he also wants to explore the operations side and to be a part of mine startup projects around the world. Marquez is currently working for Encana as a student field engineer in northern Alberta. His previous work term was in the geomechanics laboratory of McGill University. “Co-op is an invaluable part of my education,” he says. “It has allowed me to learn about a different aspect of the mining industry and provided me with amazing practical, out-of-classroom experience.”

Douglas Vis – University of Alberta Douglas Vis knew very little about the mining industry before entering into mining engineering at the University of Alberta. “Initially, I questioned whether I had made a good personal and career decision, but the more I learned about the mining industry, the more excited I became about being involved in it,” he says. The topics that have particularly caught his interest include modern reclamation technologies and mine optimization. “Mining engineering covers a broad range of important subject matter and I am excited about what my future will hold in this industry,” he says. Vis is working at Suncor in the operations engineering department on an eight-month co-op term. “In my work, I have the opportunity to deal with a lot of data from Suncor’s mining operation and to learn how important optimization is to the mining process,” he says. “It has been a great experience so far and has reinforced my commitment to a career in the mining industry.” CIM August 2011 | 83

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| distinguished lecturers

The power of imagination William Westgate speaks about CMIC and the Canadian mining industry

Throughout his 22-year career at 3M, William Westgate has held numerous technical, sales and marketing positions, all focusing on the development of new businesses and building new customer communities. In 1998, he worked on an innovative business model that created business solutions for national market segments designed to drive new business to the company. Instead of creating proprietary products, the new Then CIM president Chris Twigge-Molecey (left) with William Westgate business model was based on building 3M solutions with cusefforts across Canada. It prioritizes tomers based on their specific requireresearch to address the full spectrum of ments. He is currently based in St. needs in mining-related activities that Paul, Minnesota, where he is the interwill help the industry realize the full national market development manager potential of integrated, collaborative for 3M’s Industrial Minerals Product and applied research. We really want to Division. empower our partners to maintain the Westgate, who graduated from leading position Canada’s mining Queen’s University with a master’s in industry has internationally, and to science (chemistry) in 1986, is a actually leapfrog other countries to speaker in this season’s CIM Distinbrand Canada as a responsible miner. guished Lecturers Series. He will be highlighting the role the Canada MinCIM: Why is innovation so critical for the ing Innovation Council (CMIC) can mining industry? play in driving innovation in the CanaWestgate: For our industry to develop dian mining industry. our potential and our knowledge, and to keep a leading position, innovation CIM: What role do you see the CMIC playis critical. It is one of the lynchpins for ing in driving innovation in Canada’s our success. For me, I think research is mining industry? the transformation of money into Westgate: I think we’re in a unique posiknowledge, and innovation and imagtion to build collaboration across the ination are the transformation of many silos, and to create and drive a knowledge into money. In order to united message, versus a fragmented achieve that transformation, you need one. CMIC works as an umbrella organopen collaboration. ization that can bring all the various players together to create a collaborative CIM: Many people would not consider environment. It has the support of such imagination to be a business and develkey industry players as CIM, MAC, opment skill, though. PDAC, CAMESE and NRCan, and Westgate: They don’t understand imagcoordinates research and development ination and what it can achieve. And 84 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée.

By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

you know someone doesn’t understand imagination when they describe it as a soft skill. It isn’t soft. If nurtured, imagination and intuition can be powerful skills. As I said, it’s what transforms research data into money.

CIM: Other than collaboration, what is needed to encourage innovation? Westgate: You need to create the right culture, environment, leadership and processes to promote innovation and creativity. We need to empower people, foster imagination and encourage diversity of thought. Homogeny is not conducive to innovation. When you ask people “How does one innovate?” often their first response is “research.” They think if they do research, they are innovating, but really it is the end point of commercialization and the transformation leading to it that’s key. And to do that, you need such things as imagination and having the permission to fail, not just from your company’s leaders but also from your peers. CIM: Why is the permission to fail important for innovation? Westgate: Out of great failures come great opportunities. If you never feel that there’s a chance you’ll fail, you’re not going to innovate because you’re worrying about the wrong things. Fail now, fail often: it’s a message people don’t want to hear because everyone wants to succeed, but it’s very rare you can really understand why you’ve succeeded. On the other hand, you always understand why you fail because you analyze the situation further and learn from it.

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All thanks to you

CIM: What are the potential costs/risks to the Canadian mining industry of not breaking down the silos? Westgate: Canada must break down the silos or we will continue to be highly fragmented and will not be able to realize our potential. CIM: In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge going forward? Westgate: Ultimately, the industry must overcome its internal differences and stakeholder interests to collaborate together. The sustainability and robustness of our initiative will demonstrate how effective we were in overcoming these differences. CIM: Why did you become involved with CMIC? Westgate: I see Canada making a leading difference in mining and I wanted to be a part of it through the Canada Mining Innovation Council. CMIC will co-ordinate collaborative research and development efforts across Canada to solve the real issues of the mining industry. In order to remain competitive, Canadian mining must align industry, academia and government resources to address its needs and challenges here and abroad. By focusing our talents and resources, we can make Canada a leader in safety, technology and environmental sustainability. Together, we must foster the ingenuity of our greatest natural resource – our people. CIM

By Hartley Butler George

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée.

CIM: Does innovation always begin with research & development? Westgate: Innovation doesn’t always have to be ground-changing. Dollars spent on research and development are a leading indicator for innovation. By working with your customers, for example, you’re going to understand how they are using your products, and you might learn they are using your products in ways you didn’t intend. That shows you there’s another market available to you, if you work on a new application or product based on that observation.

Rex Murphy takes the stage at the CIM Conference & Exhibition Closing Lunch

Veteran broadcaster Rex Murphy’s keynote speech at the CIM Conference & Exhibition 2011 Closing Lunch cited essayist Samuel Johnson’s maxim that “people often need to be reminded more than they need to be informed.” Murphy applauded the efforts of the mining community by reminding them that they were “responsible for underpinning all the great accomplishments of the modern world.” “The people engaged in the primary industries that keep this society going have no need to be carrying around some phantom weight of guilt or reluctance,” said Murphy. “Apology as a practice is not the route to progress. You should be taking deep confidence from what it is you have accomplished.” He recalled a story of a close friend who was affected by the collapse of the Newfoundland fisheries in the early 1990s, when 31,000 fishermen were left unemployed. He rebuilt his family’s life by moving to Fort McMurray, where the oil boom was beginning. He found a job, took courses, and landed a job inspecting mines that eventually led to work on a Nigerian oil rig. “When I hear the oil sands decried by the great liberated minds of either the environmental movement at its most strident or by the academics,” said Murphy, “I never hear the inventory of the other side, of all the good that has been done, of all the social misery that has not come to pass, of the lives that have been rescued by reasonable employment.” Murphy spoke about the importance of mining to the developed world: “If we are to maintain the advances that we have, to extend the wealth that we have, keep the security that we take for granted…all these things in some way or other begin at raw materials and at energy,” he said. Following Murphy’s speech, current CIM president Chuck Edwards thanked outgoing president Chris Twigge-Molecey for his hard work and commitment to CIM. Twigge-Molecey expressed what an honour it has been to serve as president, and assured the crowd that they were “in great hands going forward.” CIM To view a summary of Rex Murphy’s speech, visit our website: http://www.cim.org/montreal2011 August 2011 | 85

cim news

Getting a fresh start Revitalizing CIM’s Environmental Society By Hartley Butler George

86 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 6, No. 5

out doing that. We need to expand our network, advertise and build strong, stand-alone events to make the society as great as it can be.” The group hopes the society will improve the global presence of the Institute, highlighting its environmental efforts, and encourage participation in CIM activities. David Forrester, a core group member and senior mining

engineer at AECOM, believes the society “will be a new champion within CIM for increasing the development of knowledge and fellowship aspects of sustainability within the industry.” The society’s new mandate will promote the industry’s dialogue on responses to environmental and social responsibility challenges, emphasizing best practices, required research and

Un nouveau départ Revitalisation de la Société de l’environnement de l’ICM La Société de l’environnement de l’ICM (Institut canadien des mines, de la métallurgie et du pétrole) a connu des hauts et des bas. Depuis sa fondation en 1998, elle a eu de la difficulté à trouver sa place, et a frôlé l’élimination à maintes reprises. De nombreux éléments ont mené au déclin de la Société, notamment l’épuisement des bénévoles, l’absence d’une orientation clairement définie et l’isolation par rapport aux autres groupes environnementaux. Il y a un an, Chris Twigge-Molecey, alors président de l’ICM, a décidé d’insuffler une vie nouvelle à la Société en lui donnant un nouveau rôle prééminent au sein de l’ICM et du secteur. « Les enjeux environnementaux et sociaux sont essentiels pour le maintien de notre permis d’exploitation », a-t-il affirmé. « Ils ont une incidence sur toutes nos activités dans les secteurs minier, métallurgique et pétrolier. Il était insensé de ne pas compter d’activités environnementales viables au sein de l’ICM. » M. Twigge-Molecey a réuni un groupe diversifié de 20 personnes de l’ICM et du conseil consultatif d’Initiative Mines Vertes du gouvernement fédéral aptes à prendre la tête de ce projet, selon lui. Le groupe, auquel Chuck Edwards, le président actuel de l’ICM, a fourni des conseils de façon active, a été chargé de donner le coup d’envoi à la revitalisation de la Société. À l’heure actuelle, il n’y a pas d’association minière pancanadienne axée sur les enjeux environnementaux dans leur ensemble, pas de ressource où les professionnels du secteur peuvent établir des liens. « Le fait de jouer un rôle de fer de lance dans ce domaine est important pour montrer au public que l’industrie minière accorde de l’importance aux questions environnementales », a affirmé Janice Zinck, membre du groupe principal et responsable de la gestion des déchets miniers à LMSM-CANMET et ancienne présidente de la division environnementale de la Société de la métallurgie et des minéraux (MetSoc). MiHR

CIM’s Environmental Society has had its ups and downs. Since its founding in 1998, it has had difficulty finding its footing, coming close to extinction several times. Many elements led to the society’s decline, including volunteer fatigue, unclear focus and isolation from other environmental groups. A year ago, CIM’s then-president Chris Twigge-Molecey set out to breathe new life into the society by giving it a new leading role within CIM and the industry. “Environmental and social issues are key to our licence to operate,” he says. “They affect everything we do in the mining, metallurgy and petroleum sector. It made no sense not to have viable environmental activity in CIM.” Twigge-Molecey pulled together a diverse core group of 20 individuals from CIM and the Federal Green Mining Initiative Advisory Council that he believed could lead this project. The group, along with active input from Chuck Edwards, CIM’s current president, were tasked with kick-starting the revitalization. As it stands, there is no panCanadian mining association that focuses on environmental issues as a whole, and no “home” where professionals in the field can connect. “Taking leadership in this area is important for showing the public that mining is an industry that does look seriously at the environment,” says core group member Janice Zinck, manager of mine waste management at CANMET-MMSL and former chair of MetSoc’s environmental section. “The environment isn’t just an afterthought anymore in the industry; it is quite the opposite.” While revitalization efforts have been made in the past, Zinck believes this time will be different. “The key thing will be linking with other environmental associations and groups,” she explains. “We can’t survive with-

development activities; work with external organizations to discuss opportunities for joint conferences; put a greater focus on the environmental and social responsibility programs of the annual CIM Conference & Exhibition; strengthen the content in conferences hosted by other CIM societies, as appropriate; and publicize global conferences with strong mining/environmental content. In the future, it also hopes to add workshops and join forces with groups that are focused on corporate social responsibility. Currently, the core group is in the process of crystallizing long-term

actions. It has developed a charter and is working on a multi-tier action plan. The next steps will be to grow by engaging other parties, develop a strong business case and report recommendations for its revitalization to CIM Council in late summer 2011. Many obstacles lie ahead: attracting new members and engaging enthusiastic volunteers are among the challenges the group will face along the way; however the members remain enthusiastic. “It takes time for a small society to grow,” Zinck says. “You need fuel to build a fire.” CIM

« L’environnement n’est plus qu’une simple idée après coup pour l’industrie; c’est tout le contraire. » Bien que des efforts de revitalisation aient été déployés par le passé, Mme Zinck croit que cette fois sera différente. « Le facteur clé sera l’établissement de liens avec d’autres associations et groupes environnementaux », a-t-elle expliqué. « Nous ne pouvons pas survivre sans cela. Nous devons élargir notre réseau, nous faire connaître et organiser des événements autonomes qui permettront à la Société de concrétiser son plein potentiel. » Le groupe espère que la Société améliorera la présence mondiale de l’Institut, qu’elle mettra en valeur ses efforts environnementaux, et qu’elle promouvra la participation aux activités de l’ICM. David Forrester, membre du groupe principal et ingénieur minier principal à AECOM, est d’avis que la Société « sera un nouveau champion, au sein de l’ICM, qui renforcera l’acquisition de connaissances et la collaboration entre les groupes pour se pencher sur la question de la durabilité dans le secteur. » Le nouveau mandat de la Société consistera à promouvoir, au sein du secteur, un dialogue sur les réactions aux défis en matière de responsabilité environnementale et sociale, en mettant l’accent sur les pratiques exemplaires, la recherche requise et les activités de développement; à travailler avec des organismes externes pour discuter de possibilités de conférences communes; à se concentrer davantage sur les programmes environnementaux et sociaux du Congrès et Salon commercial annuel de l’ICM; à renforcer le contenu des conférences organisées par les autres sociétés de l’ICM, le cas échéant; et à publiciser les conférences mondiales comprenant un solide contenu minier/environnemental. Dans l’avenir, la Société espère aussi ajouter des ateliers et unir ses forces à celles de groupes axés sur la responsabilité sociale d’entreprise. À l’heure actuelle, le groupe principal finalise les détails relatifs aux actions à long terme. Il a élaboré une charte et il travaille à un plan d’action à plusieurs échelons. Les prochaines étapes consisteront à prendre de l’expansion en suscitant la participation d’autres parties, à dresser un solide dossier d’analyse et à présenter des recommandations pour la revitalisation de la Société à l’intention du conseil de l’ICM à la fin de l’été 2011. De nombreux obstacles se présentent : attirer de nouveaux membres et susciter l’engagement des bénévoles figurent parmi les défis que le groupe devra relever dans l’avenir; toutefois, les membres demeurent enthousiastes. « Il faut un certain temps pour qu’une petite société prenne de l’ampleur », a conclu Mme Zinck. « Le feu doit être nourri. » ICM

CALENDAR CALENDRIER CIM • ICM Northern Gateway Branch 6th Annual Golf Classic September 16-17 | Powassan, ON Contact: Bernie Robertson Email: bernie.robertson@kibl.com World Gold 2011 Conference October 2-5 | Montreal, QC Contact: Guy Deschenes Email: Guy.Deschenes@NRCanRNCan.gc.ca Safety & Reliability in Mining Resources Conference October 11-13 | Calgary, AB Contact: Lise Bujold Email: lbujold@cim.org Environment & Mining Symposium 2011 | Symposium sur l’environnement et les mines November 6-9 | Montreal, QC Contact: Chantal Murphy Email: cmurphy@cim.org

AROUND THE WORLD • AUTOUR DU MONDE U2011 Uranium Symposium & Tradeshow September 18-21 Casper Events Center Casper, Wyoming, USA www.u2011.org Slope Stability 2011: International Symposium on Rock Slope Stability in Open Pit Mining and Civil Engineering September 18-21 Sheraton Wall Centre Vancouver, BC www.slopestability2011.ca Mine Closure Conference 2011 September 18-21 The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Lake Louise, AB www.mineclosure2011.com

August 2011 | 87

CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW | November 6 to 9, 2011 | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Welcome to Saskatoon! On behalf of CIM’s Saskatoon Branch, Metal Mining Society, and Maintenance and Engineering Society, I welcome you to this year’s Maintenance Engineering/Mine Operators’ Conference (MEMO) at the TCU Place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, from November 6 to 9. This year’s conference theme – Back to Basics – highlights the lessons learned from weathering the recurring boom and bust cycles, and how we can use this knowledge to build a sustainable future and a solid foundation for technological, economic and social innovation. The technical presentations will include a mix of local, national and international best practices. A “must-see” will be the ever popular trade show where a large number of outdoor equipment will be on display. Saskatchewan’s mining history dates back to the homesteader’s era of the mid-19th century. Today, the province contributes to almost two-thirds of the world’s recoverable potash reserves, is the largest exporter of uranium, and is home to the head offices of the largest potash and uranium producers – PotashCorp and Cameco. Saskatoon’s central location makes it a gateway for the mining industry in central and northern Saskatchewan, where employees can travel by air to the northern mines and supply/service companies can easily transport goods through an excellent road system. The city’s proximity to the University of Saskatchewan gives mining companies another advantage: the ability to collaborate in research efforts and contract the Structural Sciences Laboratory to gain a better understanding of how we can improve mining processes.

Organizing Committee Conference Chair Doug Kramble

Technical Program Lucien Nel

Trade Show Fraser Markham Martin Bell

Field Trip Robert Carey

M4S Pam Schwann Jodi Ledding Sean Junor Kate Grapes Lucie Vincent

Sponsorship Les Yesnik

Administrator Tara Stratton

These are just a few of the reasons why Saskatoon was an obvious choice for a host city. Mark your calendar with MEMO 2011. We look forward to seeing you here!

Meeting Coordinator

Doug Kramble Conference chair

CIM Liaisons

www.cim.org/memo2011

Chantal Murphy

Lise Bujold Jean-Marc Demers

Technical Program The latest technologies, updates on current operations and strategies to increase your company’s bottom line will be featured in this year’s technical program. Go to www.cim.org/memo2011 to view the complete program.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7

STREAM

AM1 9:00-10:30

Maintenance & Reliability Plenary Session

Mining & Milling

PM2 15:30-17:00

Performance

Optimization

Asset Management

Mine Expansion

Processing

Process Improvements

Cost Effectiveness

Financing & Operating Costs

Cost/Risk Analysis

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8

PM1 14:00-15:00

Maintenance & Reliability

Fuel & Mobile Equipment

Data Management

Mining Case Studies

Shafts & Hoists

Mining & Milling

Sumps Pumps & Conveyors

Case Studies

Past/Future

Planning & Development

Safety I

Safety/ Environment

Safety II

Environment

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9

Economics & Resources

AM2 11:00-12:30

Maintenance & Reliability

Wear Corrosion & Vibration

New Developments

Electrical & Electronic Equipment

Mining & Milling

Rock Mechanics

Geotechnical

Ground Support

People & Productivity

Productivity

Motivation

Community Relations

Safety & Environment

Social Program Combining great food and drink, live entertainment and reminiscing with old friends makes for a stellar social program.

Opening Reception The MEMO Opening Reception is the official conference kick-off and a great opportunity to mingle and greet fellow conference participants while enjoying a buffet and local entertainment. Date: Sunday, November 6 | Time: 18:00 to 21:00 | Location: Trade Show | Price: Included in the conference fees

MEMO 2011 Gala The MEMO Gala is a social and networking event not to be missed! Enjoy a special evening of cocktails, music, local foods and entertainment with Double Vision Magic. Date: Monday, November 7 | Reception: 18:30 to 19:30 | Dinner: 19:30 to 22:00 | Location: Ballrooms, Sheraton Cavalier Saskatoon | Price: $125

Luncheon and Cocktail Receptions Grow your network of contacts at the lunch and cocktail receptions in the Trade Show. Date: Monday to Wednesday | Time: 12:30 to 14:00 and 16:30 to 18:00 | Price: Included in the conference fees

Scotch Tasting Night

Organized by:

Network with industry leaders while enjoying fine scotch and a beautiful jewelry display. J. Wheelock, a Canadian Ambassador for Macallan and Highland Park Distilleries, will provide his expertise in a sampling of six vintage scotches. The tastings will be accompanied by a selection of wines, premium beers and tasty canapés. This evening is a fundraiser for the Canadian Mining and Metallurgy Foundation (CMMF), which will contribute 50 per cent of the proceeds to the CIM Saskatoon Branch for its charitable projects. Participants will receive a partial receipt for income tax purposes. Space is limited, so reserve early if you do not want to miss out on this exciting event! Date: Tuesday, November 8 | Time: 18:00 to 20:30 | Price: $125

Closing Ceremony

Field Trips These one-day field trips will be held on Thursday, November 10. Places are limited – register early! Rabbit Lake

Cameco – Uranium Site Tour (McArthur River & Rabbit Lake) McArthur River is the world’s largest high-grade uranium mine. It is Cameco’s flagship operation, located in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan. The ore grade at McArthur River averages over 20 per cent U3O8, more than 100 times higher than the world average. The McArthur River deposit is located more than 500 metres below the surface at the juncture of the water-saturated Athabasca sandstone and basement rock. Because of this unique geology, Cameco uses a combination of non-entry mining techniques and ground freezing. Although both techniques are common in mining, neither had been used for uranium production before the McArthur River Mine. The Rabbit Lake operation, which opened in 1975, is the longest operating uranium production facility in North America and the second largest uranium mill in the world. Found in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan, Rabbit Lake currently has a maximum licensed capacity to mill 11 million pounds of uranium. Once the Cigar Lake mining project is back in production, Rabbit Lake mill is expected to process about half of the uranium mined, increasing the capacity to 16 million pounds. Time: 6:30 to 19:00 | Price: $600

PotashCorp – Potash Site Tour (Cory Division) The Cory Mine site is located six kilometres west of Saskatoon in central Saskatchewan. The tour will include a visit of the surface facilities (including the mill) and underground mine. The mill portion of the tour will include viewing the crushing and grinding circuits, Cory Mine desliming, flotation, drying, sizing, storage and loadout.

Fabrication Shop Tour Saskatoon fabrication and machine shops started assisting the mining industry since the first potash shafts were sunk in the 1960s, and since that time, the quality of work done at the Saskatoon fabrication shops has become world class. Many of the large-name worldwide equipment manufacturers and suppliers have teamed with local shops to fabricate, assemble and install their equipment. While touring the Saskatoon shops, visitors will see fabrication and assembly of components and equipment to be used in all areas of mining including: bore miner frame, track and gear reducer components, large oil sands gears and gear reducers, conveyor frames, chutes and drive arrangements, pump frames, piping and pump drive arrangements, tanks, pressure vessels, flotation machines, screens, bucket elevators and much more. Time: 7:00 to 14:30 | Price: $75

Participants will descend 3,200 feet below the surface. Once on the potash level, Jeeps will take them through drifts approximately 15 kilometres to the mining face where a bore miner is mining a fresh face. The tour will follow the return conveyors back to the loading station and skip loading facilities. Time: 7:00 to 14:30 | Price: $50

The Colonsay Mine and mill are located approximately 65 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon. They were built in the late 1960s and have been in operation since 1969. The facility produces muriate of potash (MOP) in two grades: granular and standard. Nearly 1.8 million tonnes of potash is mined at Colonsay each year with current plans to expand this output by 1.1 million tonnes. The site visit will include both an underground tour of the mine as well as a tour of the mill, exploring the various processes involved in potash production. Time: 7:00 to 16:30 | Price: $100

Mosaic – Potash Site Tour (Colonsay Division)

Trade Show The trade show will showcase the latest technologies, equipment and services for mine operators. It provides participants with the opportunity to renew established contacts and make new ones while exploring the booths.

M4S – The educational public show on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Materials

MEMO 2011 exhibitors, delegates and visitors are invited to take part in M4S. Interested in participating as an exhibitor? CIM welcomes your contribution.

Opening hours: Sunday, November 6 Monday, November 7 and Tuesday, November 8

Exhibitors

Normand Huberdeau / NH Photographes Ltée.

The M4S show is the perfect venue to educate the general public on the importance of mining and its impact on our daily lives. M4S allows visitors to “take a walk” through the mining cycle by visiting themed pavilions, from exploration to products and fabrication. It is a free interactive event where teachers, students and the general public experience the various stages of the mining cycle and learn about the wide range of exciting careers available in this industry. By highlighting the opportunities and dispelling the myths, we are helping to secure a robust future for the industry, for generations to come. Together, we can demonstrate the positive impact of our sector.

The general public is invited to visit M4S on Sunday, November 6, while teachers and students are scheduled to visit the following two days.

Silver

Gold

Diamond