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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 | DÉCEMBRE 2018 / JANVIER 2019
feature story
56
Is Canada losing the exploration game? The hurdles to increased exploration spending in Canada By Virginia Heffernan
62 The team at Harte Gold is taking a staged approach to bring its Sugar Zone operation to full production
68 Safety gear is getting smarter, giving miners an extra layer of protection underground
By Virginia Heffernan
By Robert Hiltz
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 5
CIM MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 • DÉCEMBRE 2018 / JANVIER 2019
in each issue
8 10 12
Editor’s letter President’s notes Chatter
tools of the trade
14
The best in new technology Compiled by Matthew Parizot
developments
16
IBM Canada and Goldcorp launch artificial intelligence tool for exploration By Kaaria Quash
28
Increasing state revenue from mining operations, updating project assessment rules and generating foreign investment among the changes to legislation around the world in 2018
19 46
54
obituaries
72
Five developments that will shape the year ahead for miners
Remembering CIM members who are no longer with us Compiled by Kaaria Quash
By Matthew Parizot
mining lore
we are mining
39
The distinguished gentlemen behind CIM’s slate of awards By Matthew Parizot
By Robert Hiltz
34
celebrating 120 years of CIM
90
Despite benefits of increased board diversity, appointing more women has been a “glacial” process in Canada, experts say By Jax Jacobsen
Shaaw Tláa, part of the prospectors group who kicked off the Yukon gold rush, is finally recognized for essential role in Canada’s mining history By Jordan Faries
columns
43
Rethinking waste management systems
contenu francophone
By Karen Chovan
the future of mining
46
The government uses BGC Engineering’s augmented reality software for community consultation for the Giant Mine Remediation project By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
48
Jameson Cell drives higher recovery at Glencore’s Mount Isa mine By Kylie Williams
Table des matières Lettre de l’éditeur Mot de la présidente
50
article de fond
50
76
Anne Johnson of Queen’s University argues that teaching intercultural competence to young engineers will improve communication with local communities By Sarah Treleaven
Nous publions progressivement sur notre site Internet les articles du CIM Magazine en version française. 6 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
74 74 75
Exploration : Le Canada est-il en train de perdre la partie ? Les obstacles à un financement plus substantiel de l’exploration au Canada Par Virginia Heffernan
82
L’équipe de la mine Harte Gold adopte une approche progressive pour mener son exploitation Sugar Zone jusqu’à la phase de pleine production Par Virginia Heffernan
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editor’s letter
An inventory of ideas
T
his fall the CIM Toronto branch and the CIM Management & Economics Society hosted their annual Rocks & Stocks event to tackle some thorny questions and lay out some hard truths. I was grateful both for the small part I got to play as panel moderator in the event, now in its fifth year, and for the great contributions from the presenters and the attendees in the one-day program. “You can call a mutual fund manager, but who do you phone when you have an equity offering? There is no one to call,” observed David Shaver of CIBC in his presentation on financing trends and the continuing shift toward passive investment options. Junior miners are still trying to figure out a work around for this new marketplace. In the meantime, he said, 2018 has been a slog for those trying to raise money as retail investors were besotted with cannabis stocks and crypto currencies. Louise Grondin of Agnico-Eagle and Cashel Meagher of HudBay Minerals brought the operator’s perspective to the task of managing the expectations of investors as well as community members. “Investors are now asking about sustainability,” said Grondin, but efforts directed at improving aggregate scores generated by environmental, social and governance reports cannot come at the expense of attending to the immediate and specific concerns of a community. In Nunavut, said Grondin, the focus is the caribou; in Mexico, it is water. Both she and Meagher emphasized the importance of flexibility. Becoming a slave to a timeline, said Meagher, can compel a company to pay for local buy-in, but that
This issue’s cover Illustration by Romain Lasser
approach can make meeting local expectations increasingly expensive. The centrepiece of the day was the stern lecture from York University professor of governance, law and ethics Richard Leblanc on the responsibilities that members of boards of directors must be ready to take on. “Management conduct risk is a major concern,” he highlighted as a particularly topical issue. He stressed the importance of succession planning so that a board confronted with the inexcusable behaviour of a senior executive is ready to respond. Mining’s cycles also present a unique challenge to the industry, he said. “CEOs are hesitant to make commitments during their tenure when they are not likely to be around to gain the benefit and praise.” In response, boards must give executives financial incentives that account for the longer time horizons for many mining projects. While the space here allows only for a sampling of the day’s events, the insights it provided will help feed the editorial mill for the year ahead.
Ryan Bergen, Editor-in-chief editor@cim.org @Ryan_CIM_Mag
Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen, rbergen@cim.org Executive editor Angela Hamlyn, ahamlyn@cim.org Managing editor Michele Beacom, mbeacom@cim.org Section editors Tom DiNardo, tdinardo@cim.org; Kelsey Rolfe, krolfe@cim.org Editorial intern Kaaria Quash, kquash@cim.org Contributors Karen Chovan, Jordan Faries, Virginia Heffernan, Robert Hiltz, Jax Jacobsen, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Matthew Parizot, Sarah Treleaven, Kylie Williams Editorial advisory board Mohammad Babaei Khorzhoughi, Vic Pakalnis, Steve Rusk, Nathan Stubina Translations Karen Rolland Layout and design Clò Communications Inc., www.clocommunications.com Published 8 times a year by: Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum 1250 – 3500 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West Westmount, QC H3Z 3C1 Tel.: 514.939.2710; Fax: 514.939.2714 www.cim.org; magazine@cim.org
Advertising sales Dovetail Communications Inc. Tel.: 905.886.6640; Fax: 905.886.6615; www.dvtail.com Senior Account Executives Janet Jeffery, jjeffery@dvtail.com, 905.707.3529 Christopher Forbes, cforbes@dvtail.com, 905.707.3516 Jacquie Rankin, jrankin@dvtail.com, 905.707.3525 Subscriptions Online version included in CIM Membership ($197/yr). Print version for institutions or agencies – Canada: $275/yr (AB, BC, MB, NT, NU, SK, YT add 5% GST; ON add 13% HST; QC add 5% GST + 9.975% PST; NB, NL, NS, PE add 15% HST). Print version for institutions or agencies – USA/International: US$325/yr. Online access to single copy: $50. Copyright©2018. All rights reserved. ISSN 1718-4177. Publications Mail No. 09786. Postage paid at CPA Saint-Laurent, QC. Dépôt légal: Bibliothèque nationale du Québec. The Institute, as a body, is not responsible for statements made or opinions advanced either in articles or in any discussion appearing in its publications.
Printed in Canada
8 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
president’s notes
Building the next generation of miners: a call to action
D “Education alone cannot ensure a job in one’s desired field.”
uring my term as CIM President, I have had the tremendous opportunity to speak with a range of individuals in the Canadian minerals and metals sector, from technical experts and seasoned professionals, to those new to our industry such as recent graduates and students. Many have expressed concern regarding the challenges facing the industry in recruiting the next generation of workers. Recently the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) released their annual Canadian Mining Labour Market Outlook, which projects hiring needs in the sector to reach approximately 97,450 workers over the next 10 years (2019 – 2029). Not only are industry retirements expected to increase, Canadian mines are becoming more data driven, necessitating an increase in more specially trained workers going forward. The increased demand for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-trained workers will require higher enrolment in STEM and mining, metallurgical and materials engineering programs in Canada. To help alleviate ongoing and increasing labour and skills gaps, MiHR recently launched Gearing Up – a wage subsidy program with the goal to create 850 new work-integrated learning opportunities in mining-related fields for post-secondary students. Funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Student Work Placement Program, Gearing Up provides mining employers a wage subsidy of 50 per cent to 70 per cent for creating work-integrated learning positions, such as co-ops, internships, field placements, applied projects, capstone projects or case competitions for post-secondary students enrolled in STEM or business programs. The value of work experience cannot be overstated; education alone cannot ensure a job in one’s desired field. This program will provide valuable experience to students and recent graduates, while providing dynamic, skilled and enthusiastic new workers for the Canadian mining sector. Help shape the next generation of Canada’s mining workforce. Step up and apply for a Gearing Up wage subsidy today at gearingup@mihr.ca.
Janice Zinck CIM President 10 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
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INNOVATION RUSH IN THE
OIL SANDS By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
CIM – Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum
ozens of emerging technologies for almost every facet of oil sands production could be paving the way for solutions to the most significant environmental and operational challenges faced today. In fact, according to a study by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI), these emerging technologies are establishing a foundation for the industry to reduce its operational costs by 40 per cent and its emissions by up to 80 per cent. There is an innovation rush in Alberta’s oil sands and the impacts could be far reaching.
D
An innovative environment “Most of us think of innovation in terms of technology but innovation can happen in lots of different ways,� said Dan Wicklum, chief executive of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), formed in 2012 by 10 oil companies that account for 90 per cent of oil sands production. “The COSIA model itself is probably one of the biggest innovations in the oil sector.� Instead of treating innovation as a means to gain a competitive advantage, the COSIA companies collaborate in developing new technologies to improve their environmental and operational performance, said Wicklum. They have already shared $1.4 billion worth of intellectual property for some 985 technologies and innovations. Two years ago, COSIA also launched the international US$20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE for CO2 emission-reduction technologies that can convert CO2 into usable products. “A good innovation system needs good people, good ideas and good funding, but it also needs the testing infrastructure,� said Wicklum. To this end, COSIA partnered with the federal and Alberta governments to create the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre (ACCTC) in Calgary, which opened in May. Built adjacent to the Shepard Energy Centre, which provides flue gas emissions from a natural gas-fired power plant, the new facility enables innovators with the capabilities to test, refine and scale-up technologies for commercialization that convert CO2 into usable products. In April, COSIA announced the 10 finalists for the Carbon XPRIZE. Each will receive a US$500,000 award to take their technologies to a commercialization-ready stage. Five of the finalists are focused on gas-based CO2 conversion and will be the ACCTC’s first tenants. (The teams focused on converting coal-based CO2 will go to Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center.) Using CO2, Carbicrete turns steel slag industrial waste into cement-free concrete, CERT creates value-added fuels and feedstocks, Newlight fabricates bioplastics, Carbon Upcycling Technologies builds graphitic nanoparticles and graphene derivatives, and C2CNT manufactures nanotubes. Along with the finalists in Wyoming, they will be scaling up their technologies for commercialization as they compete for one of the two $7.5 million grand prizes, which will be awarded in 2020.
Autonomous haul systems With oil sands haulage fleets as big as they are, the potential for automation is obvious, but its implementation has Opposite page: Komatsu has worked with Suncor since 2013 to adapt the OEM’s autonomous haulage systems to the Alberta oil sands. Courtesy of Komatsu
demanded creative thinking to contend with the difficult conditions in the region. For Komatsu, which has worked with Suncor since 2013 on adapting the OEM’s autonomous haulage systems (AHS) that it has rolled out in the Pilbara iron range of Western Australia, the oil sands posed unique challenges, namely the cold winters and the soft underfooting of the ore bodies. Winterizing and the development of a multi-trajectory system to prevent the trucks from damaging the roads resolved the challenges. Suncor is planning to add 150 AHS units at its oil sands mines over the next six years, starting with the North Steepbank mine. It is not the only oil sands mining company considering the new technology. Canadian Natural Resources is planning a small pilot project for 2019. Komatsu’s AHS combines autonomous trucks with manned support equipment and shovels. “We have five layers of safety to allow humans to interact with the autonomous trucks,� said Brian Yureskes, director of Komatsu’s business development for the oil sands. “Some of those are virtual layers of safety so the system is able to see and anticipate what humans are doing around the trucks. Some are physical layers such as lasers and radar. The final layer is that every single piece of equipment that is manned and operated in the area has a big red button that, when you push it, stops all the autonomous trucks.� According to Scott Schellenberg, senior manager of AHS for SMS Equipment, the Canadian distributor for Komatsu, the autonomous technology itself has increased safety. “Humans working around the autonomous haulers can see on their screens where the trucks are and know where they are headed versus with a human driving the truck,� he said.
The digital oil sands The oil sands are increasingly adopting machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, said Dinara Millington, vice-president of research at CERI. “I’m noticing it’s happening faster now that these technologies have been in the commercial space for a little while,� she said. Marty Reed, CEO of Evok Innovations, a partnership between Canada’s oil and gas companies and the BC Cleantech CEO Alliance, points to two innovative companies with technologies that have powerful benefits for the oil and gas sector as well as the oil sands. One is Kelvin, which has an artificial intelligence system that has been deployed in BP’s oil and gas fields in Wamsutter, Wyoming. There, hundreds of inexpensive sensors have been installed in the wells where they gather data that is transmitted via the cloud to powerful computers. These identify patterns and form predictions, which are used to create optimization tweaks that are sent back down to the controls in the field. “The days of one shift coming in and tweaking all the dials is going to go away,� said Reed. “Computers do it better.� The second company is Expeto, founded in Victoria, B.C., which offers a software-based solution that securely connects LTE devices. “If you can’t get that data up to the cloud, it doesn’t really do us any good,� said Reed. “Expeto is giving a platform to provide enterprises much greater control for all their internet devices. They’re working in oil and gas and mining.�
Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum
RE: BARRICK AND RANDGOLD AGREE TO MERGER (NOV ’18)
Mad respect for [Mark Bristow]. Well deserved promotion for the man. No one better to run the world's most premier gold – Shiv Sharma company.
@cim_mag
Canadian Institute of Mining
RE: HARD ROCK MINING ON THE ROCK (NOV ‘18)
I always read the “Mining Lore� series, and enjoyed Cecilia Keating’s November article about No. 1 and 2 Cdn Tunneling Co’s RCE at Gibraltar. – James B. Whyte, P.Geo
August • AoÝt 2018 | 47
RE: INNOVATION RUSH IN THE OIL SANDS (AUG ’18)
Interesting article. I think to reduce the diluent in the pipeline system by partial upgrading is really worth working on. I know this happens, but 30-40% is very high when you have constrained pipeline space. – Mark Myrehaug *** Enormous strides have been made to make this industry more efficient and environmentally friendly. – Darrin White *** Well, easy to see who will be the first workers to lose in this scenario. – Lorne Reid
RE: MCGILL MINING DEPARTMENT GETS $360,000 FROM ARCELORMITTAL MINING CANADA (NOV ’18)
Terrific! This research money will be a good investment. – Colin Morrish, @NomadicMiner
RE: REMEMBERING CANADA’S MINING DOYENNE (AUG ’16)
Smart, tough as nails and so very colourful. There are some great stories out there on [Viola MacMillan]. She was a dominating force in a male business in an era where that was almost unthinkable. – Stephen Stewart, @SteveStewartORE
RE: HOW CAN COMPANIES CONNECT DISPARATE DATA SILOS? (NOV ’18)
Automation is the way to move forward. Automation with an integrated lean manufacturing system concept of the value chain. – Jean Mundel Lufitha, @MLufitha
WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO CIM Magazine was in Tucson, Arizona in November to visit Caterpillar’s Tinaja Hills proving grounds. See our story on pg. 24 about Caterpillar’s new roster of heavy haulers.
24 likes cim_mag Caterpillar unveiled two new models to its line of large mining trucks with electric drives: the 326-tonne 796 AC, and the high-tonnage 798 AC heavy hauler, which carries up to 373 tonnes. â›?
12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
33 likes cim_mag Our Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen was in Tucson getting the skinny on Caterpillar’s new electric drive and autonomous-ready trucks – and had some fun posing with them, too. đ&#x;“ˇ
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tools of the trade
Caterpillar has announced the MD6200 Rotary Blasthole Drill, which it said is its smallest and most transportable rotary drill to date. The MD6200 is capable of rotary or down-the-hole drilling, and can angle itself between negative 15 and plus 30 degrees from inside the cab with no additional setup. Caterpillar has also included an ergonomic interior and optional upgrades such as heated seats for the drill operator. “[The MD6200 is] transportable with its mast on, so no extra permitting is needed to move it on public roads,” Caterpillar surface drill marketing manager Jason Anderson said in a presentation to media. “[It has a] heavy duty undercarriage that gives it durability to handle extra tramming.” The new drill’s electronics also offer a platform for automated controls, should the mine decide to prioritize remote control.
A sorter of a higher order Using X-ray ore sorting can help mineral processors achieve higher grades and reduce waste. TOMRA has released its new COM XRT 2.0 to increase mill productivity even further. The new version incorporates a number of design lessons learned from the original TOMRA COM XRT, and it possesses a faster belt speed – 3.5 metres per second vs. 2.7 before – and better X-ray penetration, which allows for sorting of larger material.“Having spent significant design efforts on lifetime of wear components and maintainability, downtimes are reduced and the total tonnes produced per year increased,” said TOMRA product manager Ines Hartwig. The company said the increased capacity can lower operator costs as well as energy, water and chemical usage in mills. The 2.0 can handle material between 100 and 125 millimetres, depending on the type.
Courtesy of Caterpillar
Courtesy of TOMRA
Small but sturdy
Bridgestone is expanding its range of tires by making its VSMS2 tire in a size suitable for underground mining vehicles. The VSMS2, now available in size 29.5R25, features a deeper tread pattern for protection, a radical casing design for extended life, and a tread wear indicator, according to the company. “The key with underground hard rock customers, or any mining customers, is that they are always looking for the best total cost of ownership and ways to improve productivity,” Bridgestone marketing director Rob Seibert said. “[The VSMS2 gives] the customer a better life-cycle cost and prevents unplanned downtime in the mine.” Bridgestone said the VSMS2 will bring a 30 per cent decrease in sidewall cuts and an overall performance improvement of five per cent. Compiled by Matthew Parizot 14 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
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Eight-year-old becomes miner for a day at Goldcorp’s Porcupine mines
Caterpillar expands offering of electric drive and autonomous-ready heavy haulers
The year in mining legislation changes around the world
Five developments that will shape the year ahead for miners
19
24
28
34
Developments IBM Canada and Goldcorp launch artificial intelligence tool for exploration Goldcorp will expand its use of Exploration with Watson to its Porcupine Gold Mines and other mine sites starting next year Goldcorp and IBM Canada have partnered up to create an artificial intelligence product that they say will improve predictability for gold mineralization. The platform, known as IBM Exploration with Watson, uses spatial analytics, machine learning and predictive models to help geologists find key information and develop geological extrapolations faster than traditional methods. “Timelines are short in mining and exploration. I am excited to see the improvements we can make with the data platform and gold mineralization predictions,” Maura Kolb, Goldcorp’s exploration manager at Red Lake, said in a statement. The program was developed with data from Goldcorp’s Red Lake mine, where IBM’s Watson has been in use for almost two years. Goldcorp and IBM completed the first phase of their partnership in March. Watson spent a year analyzing 80 years’ worth of data at Red Lake to help geologists determine areas worthy of further exploration work. Earlier this year, Goldcorp told CIM Magazine that processing data had become 97 per cent more efficient with the use of the Watson cognitive technology. 16 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Courtesy of Goldcorp
By Kaaria Quash
Exploration with Watson was developed with data from Goldcorp’s Red Lake mine, pictured, where IBM Watson has been in use for almost two years.
The second phase, completed in July, involved IBM working with geologists to increase the likelihood and predictability of finding gold through Watson. Currently, IBM Exploration with Watson is conducting “grassroots exploration” on areas within the Red Lake property that lack in data and may potentially host gold deposits.
Watson has reviewed Red Lake geologists’ drill targets and suggested its own based on its data analysis. Nine potential sites were identified by Watson, and three have already been drilled. The first one has yielded “the predicted mineralization at the expected depth,” Goldcorp said. “These tools can help us view data in totally new ways. We have already
begun to test the Watson targets from the predictive model through drilling, and results have been impressive so far,” said Kolb. According to IBM Global Business Services partner Mark Fawcett, Watson helps eliminate human bias. “[At] one of the drill targets, the folks at Red Lake publicly said they would never have drilled there, because of the way they had operated and just their thoughts about that specific area,” he said. “But through our Goldcorp/Watson model, we have predicted them, and the results have been pretty interesting.” Exploration with Watson could also have beneficial environmental impacts by reducing the amount of energy expended on exploration, Fawcett said. “By being more defined in terms of exploration and having better information, people are going to be more effective with their drilling,” said Fawcett. “If you have less drilling going into the drill holes that you’re doing, and you’re more certain of it, you’re going to do less but have a higher yield.” Exploration with Watson is an adaptation of the Watson technology for a mining-specific context. “IBM Watson has been used across the industrial sector globally, [but] this is the first time this made-in-Canada solution – IBM Exploration with Watson – has ever been used anywhere,” said IBM Canada spokesperson Lorraine Baldwin in an email. Goldcorp said it plans to use the technology in 2019 to first identify additional targets at Red Lake, and then across its other mine sites, starting with the Porcupine Gold Mines in Timmins. IBM also has plans to expand the uses of Exploration with Watson. “We are in conversation with other mining companies,” said Fawcett. “Goldcorp was one of the first, but we have every expectation that we’ll be able to use this with all minerals.” CIM
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Pan American to buy Tahoe in all-share US$1-billion deal Pan American Silver is acquiring all of Tahoe Resources’ outstanding shares in a deal worth US$1.067 billion, the companies announced Nov. 14. Pan American said the deal will create the largest publicly traded silver mining company by free float capitalization. “The new Pan American Silver will hold some of the most attractive silver assets in the world, boasting the largest silver reserves and indicated resources base globally,” Pan American president and CEO Michael Steinmann said in a conference call. Pan American’s TSX share price dropped more than $2 the morning the deal was announced to $16.63 from $18.71 at closing on Nov. 13. Tahoe shareholders will be able to receive US$3.40 per Tahoe share in cash, or 0.2403 Pan American shares for each Tahoe share they own. On top of the base purchase price, shareholders will also receive “contingent value rights” of 0.0497 Pan American
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December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 17
shares for each Tahoe share they own after the first commercial shipment of concentrate once Tahoe’s flagship Escobal silver mine in Guatemala restarts. The value rights have a 10year term. In addition to Escobal, Pan American, which operates six mines in Latin America, will also acquire a pair of gold mines in Peru, and the Bell Creek and Timmins West gold operations in Ontario, as well as exploration projects in the two countries. Steinmann said the structuring of the deal allows the two companies to share the risk for Escobal, “which is appropriate…for the high quality of Escobal.” With both the base purchase and the value rights, the deal represents a 62.8 per cent premium on Tahoe’s volume weighted average price for the 20day period that ended on Nov. 13. Operations at Tahoe’s Escobal have been halted since July 2017 when the
Supreme Court of Guatemala suspended the company’s mining licence pending the resolution of a lawsuit filed against Guatemala’s Ministry of Energy and Mines. The lawsuit, brought by anti-mining organization CALAS, alleged the ministry violated the Xinca Indigenous people’s right to consultation when it granted the mining licence to Tahoe’s Guatemalan subsidiary, Minera San Rafael. In early September, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court upheld the suspension until the ministry had completed consultations with the Xinca residents near the mine, in compliance with the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. Tahoe CEO Jim Voorhees said in mid-September the decision gives the company “a path forward to an Escobal restart.”
Tahoe chairman Kevin McArthur said on the conference call that the deal will “allow the new Pan American Silver to pursue new growth opportunities while we continue to make progress on the consultation with the Xinca group in Guatemala.” The new company will also pursue the expansion of Pan American’s La Colorada mine in Mexico, the company’s largest silver mine. Pan American reported in late October “wide zones of mineralization below the current production levels” and budgeted an additional US$2.5 million in exploration drilling for the rest of 2018. It also has planned a major drilling program in 2019. Pan American is also looking at developing its Navidad project in Argentina’s north-central Chubut province. Navidad is, according to Pan American, one of the largest undeveloped silver deposits in the world. – Kelsey Rolfe
Adding value. Delivering results. Integrated engineering and environmental solutions to help you achieve more.
18 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
developments
Eight-year-old becomes miner for a day at Goldcorp’s Porcupine mines Goldcorp becomes first mining company to be a wish grantor for Make-A-Wish Foundation At Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines in Timmins, it is company practice to call out “fire in the hole” in the 90 seconds before a blast is detonated. But on Oct. 26 the mine manager allowed an exception to the rule for eight-year-old Aliesha, whose enthusiastic cry of “dynamite!” went out over the radio at the Hollinger open-pit mine in the seconds before the blast went off. Aliesha visited Hollinger, Dome and Hoyle Pond in Timmins thanks to the Toronto and Central Ontario Make-AWish Foundation. The foundation asked her for three wishes, and her first pick was to visit a mine. “That’s the one thing everyone’s blown away by,” said her father, Dave. The family’s surname is not being published for reasons of privacy. “It’s been a little over three years now that she’s been fully obsessed with mining. The school projects that she does, somehow she makes them revolve around mining.” Dave said Aliesha is fascinated by science and loves collecting shiny rocks, and has a toy at home that allows her to grow her own crystals. Aliesha was diagnosed at age four with epilepsy and suffers from regular seizures. She regularly goes to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto for check-in appointments. She also has a severe apraxia of speech, and uses a portable speech device to help her talk. Mining company Sherritt International sponsored Aliesha’s wish, and Goldcorp was asked to be the wish grantor – making it the first time a mining company has ever granted a wish for the foundation. Bryan Neeley, Goldcorp’s sustainability manager for Porcupine Gold Mines, said the company got the call
Courtesy of Goldcorp
Kelsey Rolfe
Aliesha detonates a blast at Goldcorp’s Hollinger mine.
from Make-A-Wish about a month prior. “When we heard about the initiative and brought it up to our mine general manager, there was no way we weren’t going to make this happen,” he said. Aliesha’s day started with a limo ride from her family’s Bowmanville home to the Toronto airport for a flight to Timmins. She and her mother, Tiffany, went underground at Hoyle Pond, getting to use the cage elevator and take a trolley ride through the mine tunnels. Dave and Aliesha’s four-year-old sister Abigail joined them at Hollinger for lunch and the girls got bags of gifts, including gem kits and a Lego mining set. In the afternoon, Aliesha went with Lindsay Martin, a Hollinger employee, for an hour-long ride around the mine
in a haul truck to pick up and deposit ore. Then came the big finale. “Getting to detonate the [blast], that was probably the top of her day,” Dave said. Aliesha and Abigail were both outfitted with child-sized coveralls that were made by Sudbury, Ontario-based Covergalls and embroidered with their names. Founder Alicia Woods said she got a call from Make-A-Wish in the late summer. “They’d never worked on a wish like this before, so they weren’t sure where to start,” she said. Woods said Covergalls has been making mini coveralls for kids as part of its work with Dynamic Earth in Sudbury, and just needed to know what mine they were visiting so they could apply the right stripes to meet provincial regulations.
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 19
“To be able to participate in granting [Aliesha’s] wish was exciting for us,” she said. “I’ve never seen anybody more excited about the mining industry than her.” For safety reasons, Neeley said Goldcorp arranged to have two local paramedics on site all day.
He said making the day happen brought the whole mine community together. “It was heartwarming. Once people knew what we were doing, they wanted to jump in and make sure it was as special as it could be,” he said. “Anyone who interacted with [Aliesha] in the underground mine or at the pit
had big smiles, everyone was so proud to be able to be a part of this.” Dave said his family will remember the day for a long time. “I can’t even believe all the detail that Goldcorp and everyone else put in,” Dave said. “Everything was just so special.” CIM
Supreme Court to hear appeal of Quebec Innu case against Rio Tinto subsidiary
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20 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Canada’s Supreme Court will hear an appeal to two Quebec Innu communities’ years-long attempt to sue Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) for alleged violation of its aboriginal title. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is appealing a 2017 Quebec Court of Appeal decision that upheld a Quebec Superior Court ruling allowing the Innu of Uashat mak ManiUtenam and Matimekush-Lac John’s lawsuit against the IOC to proceed in Quebec, despite the allegations pertaining to territory that spans both Quebec and Labrador. The province will argue to the Supreme Court that Quebec has no authority to decide a case that involves jurisdiction outside of its province, and that the case should be split in half. The two communities, which are seeking $900 million in damages for grievances that include displacement and environmental damage, allege that IOC’s operations – including mines in Schefferville, Quebec, and Labrador City; a railway that cuts through northeastern Quebec and Labrador; and a deep-water port on the St. Lawrence River – fall within their traditional territory. In October 2016, the Quebec Superior Court dismissed a motion from Rio Tinto that asked the court to remove portions of the lawsuit that related to operations outside of Quebec. Justice Thomas M. Davis, citing the Supreme Court’s 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision that accorded the First
Courtesy of Rio Tinto
developments
The Quebec Innu communities’ lawsuit against Rio Tinto subsidiary IOC alleges that its existing mines, rail and port facilities, including its operations in Sept-Îles, Quebec (pictured), fall within their traditional territory.
Nation title to a large swath of land in central British Columbia, wrote in his decision that “Aboriginal rights were
exercised and are exercised to date without regard to provincial boundaries.”
Newfoundland and Labrador, which had intervened in the case, appealed to the Quebec Court of Appeals, which then rejected it. This is the second time the case against Rio Tinto has made its way to Canada’s highest court. In October 2015, the Supreme Court rejected the company’s attempts to have the lawsuit, and a separate one by multiple B.C. First Nations, dismissed. Though the Supreme Court did not rule on the challenges, it upheld the appellate court rulings from B.C. and Quebec. The cases were heard on the same day due to their similar nature. Rio Tinto had argued at the time that First Nations groups must sue the government to prove their aboriginal title rights before they could sue the company. The Supreme Court ruling set significant legal precedent by allowing Indigenous groups to sue companies directly for alleged title violations. – Kelsey Rolfe
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 21
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developments
Stornoway Diamond president and CEO Matt Manson is stepping down as of Jan. 1, and being replaced by Patrick Godin, the company’s COO. Manson, who has been with the company since 2005, was named president in 2007 and CEO in 2009. Manson oversaw the company as it constructed and began operating its flagship Renard mine – Quebec’s first diamond mine – and led the $946million project financing for it in 2014. Ebe Sherkus, chairman of Stornoway’s board, called Manson “the driving force behind the successful acquisition, financing and development of the Renard diamond mine. “His determination and energy have been the key ingredients in the corpo-
Courtesy of Stornoway Diamond/Flickr
Stornoway CEO Matt Manson steps down months after Renard finishes ramp-up
Stornoway’s outgoing CEO Matt Manson at the Renard mine opening in October 2016.
ration’s transition from junior explorer to mine developer and operator.” Godin joined Stornoway as COO in May 2010 and was appointed to the board in October 2011. He has been responsible for the construction and
development of Renard’s surface and underground mining operations. Prior to joining Stornoway, Godin was vice-president of project development for Quebec mining contractor GMining Services, where he managed
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development of Iamgold’s Essakane mine in Burkina Faso. “I am confident Pat has the leadership skills required to [realize Stornoway’s full potential], and I look forward to supporting him in his new duties,” Manson said. Godin said he was “pleased to be assuming the leadership of Stornoway” through the next stage of its development. “Working with our committed employees, partners and shareholders, our near-term focus will be on delivering further performance improvements, adding to our reserve base, and maximizing free cash flow generation.” The Renard mine began commercial production in December 2016, using ore mined from open pits before adding ore from underground operations in 2018. Stornoway’s third-quarter results, released in mid-November, reported that the company had completed the
ramp-up of its underground mine production and achieved a steady feed. It said it expected its produced and sold carats for 2018 to be “within the low end of range” for its guidance. Stornoway revised its production guidance in the first quarter to between 1.35 and 1.40 million carats, down from 1.6 million carats previously, due to the lower grade production ore and stockpiles it was processing that quarter. The company reported a net loss of $37.6 million in the third quarter, which Manson attributed to sales in July and September of diamonds recovered from the lower grade ore. But he noted that the carats and grade recoveries during the third quarter had improved by 47 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively, as the company mined higher grade ore. “We continue to see weakness in the diamond market, particularly in smaller and lower quality items,” he said. “However, the Renard mine is
now meeting or exceeding expectations in terms of tonnes mined, tonnes processed and carats recovered.” – Kaaria Quash
Caterpillar expands offering of electric drive and autonomous-ready heavy haulers Caterpillar unveiled two new models to add to its line of large mining trucks with electric drives: the 326tonne 796 AC and the high tonnage 798 AC heavy hauler, which can carry up to 373 tonnes. While the 796 is not yet in production, a pair of 798s have been at work for the last six months at a mine in Wyoming. Both models meet the strict Tier 4 emissions standards for particulate matter and nitrogen oxide that came into effect in Canada at the beginning of 2018.
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24 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
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Courtesy of Caterpillar
Caterpillar’s 798 AC mining truck at the company’s Arizona proving grounds near Tucson.
“The most important thing is for us to be able to give our customers options,” said product performance manager John Ingle at a product rollout for media at the company’s Tinaja Hills Demonstration and Training Center south of Tucson, Arizona on Nov. 8. Caterpillar did not offer any electric drive options until 2011, when it picked up the Unit Rig line of trucks with its acquisition of Bucyrus. That truck, since relaunched as the 794 AC, has been updated with entirely Cat-sourced parts, and was the inspiration for the two larger models. Key elements, such as the frame, chassis and mechanic-friendly modular design, were adapted to the larger trucks. The 798 AC model is lighter than the mechanical drive 797, but can match the payload of Cat’s largest hauler, the 797F, which is a fixture in Alberta’s oil sands operations. The 796 AC is meant to replace the 795 AC in jurisdictions such as Canada and the United States where emission standards are especially strict. Both trucks will be available in the spring of 2019. Other features on the new models include four corner, oilcooled disc brakes; dynamic braking and the ability to tweak the power output of the truck to ease its integration into the larger operating fleet. Cat also used the event to show off its expanding options of autonomous-ready haulers. Items such as anti-lock brake infrastructure, harnessing for additional wiring and mounting plates for the manufacturer’s Command for hauling system will be standard on the 181-tonne 789D as it currently is with the 793F, in response to demands from miners. “New greenfields projects all include an autonomous component for the large class trucks,” said Craig Watkins, the company’s mining technology commercial manager. A truck being outfitted for auto hauling is a truck not producing, which is a major cost to mine operators. Watkins said this autonomous-ready design can cut the time required to make the switch by half. The manufacturer will work its way through its roster of trucks from the highest capacity downward to incorporate these features into the production process.
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Currently, 793F trucks are running autonomously using the Command system at FMG operations in Western Australia and on a smaller scale at Teck Resources’ Highland Valley Copper in British Columbia, and 797F trucks are using the system at Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mine. According to Watkins, this technology is providing a 20 per cent productivity improvement due to factors such as the higher average operating speed and that there is no interruption to production during shift changes. – Ryan Bergen
B.C. revamps professional reliance, environmental assessment systems with new legislation British Columbia’s government introduced two pieces of legislation in
October and November to address its professional reliance system and environmental assessment process for resource projects. The Professional Governance Act (PGA) and new Environmental Assessment Act (EAA) will shake up the more than 15-year-old systems of resource project oversight and environmental evaluation in the province. Both bills are in their first reading at B.C.’s Legislative Assembly as of late November. The new EAA, tabled in early November, will replace legislation from 2002 and aims to prioritize Indigenous and public participation in the environmental assessment process. If passed, Indigenous groups will be included from the very beginning of a project’s review, and there will be additional comment periods. The Environmental Assessment Office will also get in touch with local communities earlier, and be able to supply funding to encourage more public comment.
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26 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Environment and climate change strategy minister George Heyman said in a statement that involving Indigenous perspectives up front will help projects move forward faster by hearing any concerns early on in the process, and will lead to less risk of acrimonious reviews. “We want to reduce the potential for the types of legal challenges we’ve too frequently seen in B.C.,” he said. “These have impacted our province’s economic development, eroded public trust, alienated Indigenous communities and left project proponents trying to navigate through a costly, time-consuming process.” Rob Stevens, the Association for Mineral Exploration’s vice-president of regulatory and technical policy, said the legislation’s prioritizing of Indigenous groups is consistent with what the mining sector is already doing. “The majority of our members are already out there engaging at the
developments exploration phase with Indigenous nations and communities, so I don’t think it’s adding a step that wasn’t already under way,” he said. Nalaine Morin, principal at ArrowBlade Consulting Services and a member of the Tahltan First Nation, said the new act is a positive step forward. “We always thought there was something missing because the process did not allow us to identify impacts and make decisions regarding those impacts,” she said. “Those decisions were always made for us and we never agreed with that.” The new EAA also expands the required elements of an environmental assessment to include the environmental, economic, social, cultural and health effects of a project, including its greenhouse gas emissions. It gives the Environmental Assessment Office increased compliance and enforcement powers, and the ability to audit approved projects to ensure the con-
ditions included in their assessments are reducing the identified adverse effects. The PGA, tabled in late October, aims to apply uniform standards and further government oversight to qualified professionals in the province’s resource extraction industries. It is based off the findings of a review of B.C.’s professional reliance system undertaken by University of Victoria environmental law professor Mark Haddock, at the NDPGreen coalition’s request. The report, released in July, recommended the government put a consistent definition of a “qualified person” into legislation, where before it was left to the discretion of the mine manager. If the act is passed, the government says it will “establish an office of the superintendent of professional governance” that will provide consistency and oversight to qualified persons in the various industries.
Previously, the professions covered by the act were overseen by several self-governing bodies, which include: BC Institute of Agrologists, Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of BC, College of Applied Biology, Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (EGBC) and the Association of BC Forest Professionals. Under the PGA, each of those regulators will be brought under the umbrella of the new office. “This legislation is about making sure we live up to our responsibilities to British Columbians in protecting our natural heritage for our kids and grandkids,” Heyman said in a statement. “This legislation ... symbolizes a recommitment to putting the public interest first when it comes to managing our natural resources.” When the findings from Haddock’s report were first released, there was some pushback from industry associations such as the Mining Association of
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ASI Mining received an investment from mining equipment company Epiroc on Oct. 30 to accelerate the growth of its autonomous mining platform. ASI plans to deliver its automation system to mining operations on a much larger scale by leveraging Epiroc’s worldwide distribution channels. The company hopes to address issues such as labour shortages, production levels and safety concerns with its autonomous platform.
achieve strong and consistent governance across all professional organizations to ensure responsible resource development.” The government also said that specific ministries will consider other recommendations made by the report, and that the current act may be broadened to include additional professions once the act is implemented. – Matthew Parizot and Kaaria Quash
Courtesy of First Quantum Minerals
FROM THE WIRE
British Columbia and Engineers and EGBC. This new legislation, however, has support from the EGBC, as well as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). “The professional reliance model plays a vital role in maintaining the competitiveness of B.C.,” CAPP Western Canada operations vice-president Brad Herald said in a statement. “We support the government’s effort to
Alderon Iron Ore filed its updated feasibility study for its Kami iron ore project in Labrador. The study, completed by BBA Inc. and released on Oct. 31, shows a net present value of $1.698 billion at an eight per cent discount rate, with a 24.6 per cent internal rate of return. The project also has proven and probable reserves of 517.2 million tonnes at a final product iron grade of 65.2 per cent. When operational, the mine will have an estimated life of 23 years. Barrick Gold shareholders have the approved” “overwhelmingly company’s proposed merger with Randgold, Barrick announced on Nov. 5. The shareholder vote resulted in an over 99 per cent approval for the merger, which would turn Barrick into the New Barrick Group, the largest gold miner in the world. “[This merger] marks an important step in our journey of taking Barrick ‘back to the future,’” Barrick executive chairman John L. Thorton said in a statement. “The combination of Barrick and Randgold will create the compelling gold investment.”
First Quantum Minerals' Sentinel mine in Zambia. The country has proposed raising the sliding scale of royalties to tackle its climbing debt load.
Rebalancing the scales Increasing state revenue from mining operations, updating project assessment rules and generating foreign investment were among the changes to legislation around the world in 2018 By Robert Hiltz
Niobay Metals appointed Jacquelin Gauthier its vice-president of geology in late November. Gauthier has more than 40 years’ experience in mining exploration and geology, and has held senior positions with companies including Kinross Gold, Bema Gold, Azimut Exploration and Noranda Inc. The company also reported an increase to its mineral resource estimate for its James Bay niobium project in Ontario. The project now has indicated resources of 26.1 million tonnes at a grade of 0.53 per cent niobium (Nb2O5) and inferred resources of 25.3 million tonnes at 0.51 per cent Nb2O5.
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Making countries more attractive to foreign investment, minority and Indigenous rights, and rebalancing the revenue scales between companies and countries factored prominently in mining legislation changes around the world in 2018. Below is a look at some of the regulation changes that affected miners this year.
Africa The Democratic Republic of Congo signed a new mining code into law in June that raised royalty rates on copper
to three per cent, up from 2.5 per cent, and on gold to 3.5 per cent, up from 2.5 per cent. Most significantly, the country declared cobalt a “strategic” mineral and tripled the royalty on it to 10 per cent, up from 3.5 per cent previously. The code was signed into law after removing a clause that would have given projects a 10-year exemption period, and instead came into force immediately. Quentin Markin, co-head of legal firm Stikeman Elliott’s mining division, said the lack of a phase-in period makes things difficult
developments for miners operating in the country. “The…changes had been in discussion and contemplated for a number of years, and there had been consultation. But then in the course of this year, the government went ahead with the changes relatively quickly and without much further discussion with the industry,” Markin said. “It’s difficult to operate your business in an environment where you don’t have stability and predictability.” In an effort to tackle its climbing debt load, Zambia’s government proposed raising royalty rates on extracted minerals. The country will raise the sliding scale of royalties by 1.5 percentage points. The scale currently is set for between four and six per cent. In addition, the copper royalty will increase to 10 per cent if the price of the base metal rises above US$7,500 per tonne. Clive Newall, the CEO of First Quantum Minerals, said his firm was not consulted before the changes. “We were disappointed but not surprised as the Zambian economy is in a parlous state and the [Government of the Republic of Zambia] always looks to the mining industry as a source of funds without consideration to the impact on long-term investment,” Newall said. “Sadly, the measures being introduced now cement Zambia’s position as an extreme outlier in its mining tax code. Nowhere globally is the mining tax regime more punitive and disincentivizing.” First Quantum, which the Zambian government hit with a roughly US$8-billion tax bill earlier this year, operates a mine and smelter within the country. Newall said the company will continue to lobby the government through the Chamber of Mines, alongside other mining companies in Zambia. The changes to South Africa’s mining charter are still under consultation. The government released a draft in September, which proposed changes including increasing the percentage of black ownership for new companies to 30 per cent while maintaining it at 26 per cent for existing companies; not requiring companies that at one time qualified under the ownership rules to
requalify if their black ownership drops; and eliminating a dividend requirement from previous drafts circulated by the previous government. Markin said he expects the announcement on the final changes to the charter next year, likely at the country’s annual Indaba mining conference in February. Zimbabwe relaxed its state-ownership laws this year, as the country’s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa looked to attract more foreign investment to his country. Previously, stateowned companies had to hold a majority of shares in any mining operation in the country. That was relaxed for everything but platinum and diamond mines, which still must have 51 per cent state ownership. Mnangagwa’s re-election after being appointed to replace deposed president Robert Mugabe means further relaxation of mining rules will likely take place. Ghana announced this year it would review its mining code, in an effort to bring in more revenue. Vicepresident Mahamudu Bawumia said despite owning 10 per cent of most of the country’s mines, Ghana had earned almost nothing in dividends since 2012, prompting the review. Ghana is one of the countries practicing socalled resource nationalism. “I think that the model is something that we’re seeing quiet frequently replicated in West Africa, where the ownership level is [set] between 10 and 20 per cent,” said John Wilkin, a Blakes law firm partner who focuses on mining. Wilkin said many West African jurisdictions require companies to have local representation, as part of a long-running pattern of nations looking to rebalance their relationship with international mining firms. The government of Tanzania made a sudden change this year when it passed regulations in January forcing mining companies to do business through local Tanzanian-owned banks and insurance companies, and hire Tanzanian lawyers. The rules also stipulate Tanzanians must have a five per cent equity stake in mining companies. Markin said the sudden changes, with-
Teck Resources announced the appointment of Andrew Milner as its senior vice president of innovation and technology. According to a Nov. 5 release, Milner has over 25 years of experience in “strategy development and delivery of technology production systems globally.” He was previously vice-president of technology production systems at BHP. Radisson Mining Resources appointed Sylvain Doire its environment and sustainable development manager in early November. Doire will be responsible for executing the environmental studies for Radisson’s flagship O’Brien project in Quebec’s Abitibi region. Doire was previously an environment inspector with Quebec’s environment ministry and the environment coordinator for Agnico’s Meadowbank and Medliadine projects. Equinox Gold COO David Laing retired following the company’s acquisition of the Mesquite gold mine in California and as construction at its Aurizona gold project in Brazil finishes up. Laing will remain in an advisory capacity to the company’s management team, and will be replaced by James Currie. Currie, the former COO of Pretium Resources, has consulted on Aurizona since June and has previously worked with Mesquite while COO of New Gold. Suncor CEO Steve Williams will retire in May 2019, the company said in late November. COO Mark Little was named president effective immediately, and will become CEO after Williams steps down. Williams joined Suncor in 2002 and was credited with leading the company through acquisitions and developing projects such as Fort Hills. Little joined Suncor in 2008, was involved in integrating Suncor and PetroCanada, and was appointed COO in 2017. Silvercrest announced the appointment of Hannes Portmann to its board of directors on Oct. 31. Portmann, who replaces the retiring George Sanders, previously served as president and CEO of New Gold. Silvercrest also said it was working on a preliminary economic assessment for its Las Chispas silver project in Sonora, Mexico. Compiled by Matthew Parizot and Kaaria Quash
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 29
out consultation with industry, may have negative consequences for the country’s mining sector. “The requirements that are coming into force there are so much more onerous than [those of] the current regime that people simply won’t invest,” Markin said. “You may in effect see divestiture of the jurisdiction.” In Mali, a new government came to power in September, as the country undergoes a review of its mining code. The changes have not yet been finalized or announced, but the country has been mulling over the elimination of a 30-year exemption that protects companies with projects in the country from changes to the fiscal framework, along with other changes. The government has said it may reduce that exemption to the lifespan of a mine. In October, Namibia got rid of its rules requiring companies applying for exploration licences to have black
ownership and management, in contrast to much of West Africa. The country had introduced the rules in 2015 to set aside five per cent of the country’s exploration licences for individual Namibians or companies wholly owned by Namibians, as well as require 20 per cent of the management of exploration companies to “historically disadvantaged” citizens. Namibia scrapped the rules to encourage investment in new development projects. Egypt’s government has promised to release an update to its mining code. In recent years, the country has been looking to increase foreign investment in the mining sector. Wilkin said that for the changes to attract that investment, a transparent and clear set of regulations with strong anti-corruption protections are necessary. The updated code should be “transparent, enforceable, and benchmarked against international standards,” Wilkin said.
Europe This year, Spain reached a deal with its coal mining sector to stop the extraction of the resource all together. The 10 pits in the country will be closed by 2019, with more than 1,000 miners being offered early retirement, or retraining in the green energy sector. The Spanish government made the move as part of its wide-reaching environmental protection agenda. Anne Drost, another mining lawyer at Blakes who also focuses on environmental issues, said she expects climate change to be a major issue in the extractive industry over the next decade. “I think that the whole issue of stranded assets, once companies start digging into their risk analysis, is going to be something we see more of,” Drost said.
North and South America Peru’s mining minister said in September the government was considering making tax refunds for mining
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developments companies permanent. The refund covers the country’s 18 per cent valueadded tax and has been in place for nearly 20 years, but currently must be renewed yearly. As the country goes through a sustained investment boom, the minister said his government hopes to give added stability by making the refund a permanent part of the tax code. In Canada, the federal government introduced legislation in February to create a new federal agency for evaluating resource and energy projects, and replace the National Energy Board with a new regulator. If Bill C-69, currently being reviewed by the senate, is passed, project reviews will expand to encompass environmental, health, social and economic impacts, the effects on Indigenous Peoples and a gender-based analysis. The Canadian Energy Regulator, the NEB’s replacement, will lose environmental assessment responsibilities but maintain
control over the regulation of pipelines and the traffic and tariffs associated with sending oil and gas through them. The federal government also started a watchdog organization to investigate human-rights abuse claims against Canadian companies operating overseas. The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) will be
PDAC announces 2019 award winners Peregrine Diamonds, Nemaska Lithium and NexGen Energy are among the winners of the PDAC 2019 awards. The awards, which will be presented at the PDAC 2019 convention on March 5, are given to “exceptional leaders in the mineral exploration and mining community.” Vancouver junior Peregrine Diamonds is the winner of PDAC’s Bill
able to start its own investigations and make public reports. (Co-operating with CORE’s predecessor was voluntary.) Markin said it was too early to say how effective the new organization is. “We’re still in the infancy,” he said. “We haven’t seen the impact and I think that’s largely a function of it still getting up and running.” CIM
Dennis Award for its discovery and development of the Chidliak diamond deposit on Nunavut’s Baffin Island. Chidliak was discovered in 2008, and exploration programs and studies carried out in the last 10 years have led to the discovery of 74 kimberlite pipes. Between the two pipes that have been the focus of Peregrine’s phase one development program, Chidliak has an inferred resource of 12.45 million tonnes at 1.78 carats per tonne (ct/t). De Beers Canada acquired Peregrine for $107 million earlier this year,
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December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 31
five years after walking away from an initial agreement that would have given the company exclusive rights to enter an earn-in and joint venture agreement for 50.1 per cent of Chidliak. De Beers CEO Kim Truter told CIM Magazine in July that Peregrine had done “excellent work” on the project since then, making it “increasingly obvious that this was the most attractive undeveloped diamond resource in Canada.” Avalon Advanced Materials president and CEO Donald Bubar will receive PDAC’s Distinguished Service Award for his work “raising awareness about the importance of engagement between companies and Indigenous communities, and encouraging participation by Indigenous peoples in the mineral industry.” Bubar was the inaugural chair of PDAC’s Aboriginal Affairs Committee, and during his tenure the association’s convention experienced “tremendous growth” in Indigenous
participation. He also developed a relationship with the Assembly of First Nations, and signed a memorandum of understanding between PDAC and the assembly. NexGen Energy was named the winner of the Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for its investment in community initiatives for education, health and economic development in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin, where the company has multiple projects. The programs “empower Saskatchewan’s youth through hands-on work experience, providing access to education, sport and employment opportunities,” PDAC said. The company is also an early adopter of centrifuge units and TECH directional drilling to reduce the environmental footprint of its exploration drilling. NexGen is now a two-time PDAC award winner; last year the company received the Bill Dennis Award for the
discovery of its Arrow project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposits. In early November NexGen reported the results of a new pre-feasibility study at Arrow that showed a 43 per cent increase in its indicated mineral resources – to 2.89 million tonnes of triuranium octoxide (U3O8), compared to 1.18 million tonnes of U3O8 in 2017. It also increased the average annual grade of the uranium by 79 per cent, to 3.09 per cent, up from 1.73 per cent previously. Respected geologist Gordon Maxwell is the winner of the Skookum Jim Award in acknowledgement of his more than 35-year career and his workplace health and safety advocacy. Maxwell, a member of the Sachigo Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario, has championed the Canadian Diamond Drilling Association’s Drilling Excellence Certification Program, to help establish a higher
Practical Global Solutions for the complete Mining Life Cycle
Geology Mining/Metallurgy Environmental/Permitting Engineering (Conceptual to Detailed Design) Procurement Construction Management & Commissioning Operational Improvement Maintenance Engineering Closure and Reclamation tetratech.com/mining 32 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
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developments standard of quality in the industry, and is a role model for youth and young Indigenous people. Cardinal Resources, an Australian junior that is traded on the TSX, will receive the Thayer Lindsley Award for its Namdini gold project in Ghana. Namdini has an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 193 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.1 grams per tonne gold as of March 2018. According to the company’s October pre-feasibility study, Namdini has a post-tax net present value of US$588 million with an internal rate of return of 38 per cent, using US$1,250 as the gold price. Nemaska Lithium is the winner of the Viola R. MacMillan Award for its Whabouchi lithium project in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec. Whabouchi, one of the largest spodumene deposits in North America, is expected to produce 213,000 tonnes of spodumene per year of 6.25 per cent (Li2O) spodumene concentrate, and
has a 33-year mine life. In May, Nemaska completed a $1-billion financing package for a lithium hydroxide and carbonate production facility and a spodumene mine. The company expects the mine and concentrator to begin production and sale of spodumene in the third quarter of 2019. – Kelsey Rolfe
Standards group publishes new battery electric vehicle guideline The newest guideline from the Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) offers more guidance on using battery electric vehicles (BEV) underground. The guideline, published in partnership with the Canadian Mining Innovation Council, expands on the first edition, released in April 2017, by cov-
ering recent BEV technological developments and incorporating suggestions from users of the previous edition. It has a new operations-focused section that covers topics such as requirements for emergency response, maintenance and training for operators. It includes material to assist people who are making the business case for BEV adoption within their operations. It also addresses recent developments in charging, e-stops, master disconnects and the use of dynamic braking, and has new considerations for extreme environments. GMG said the first edition came in response to an “urgent need for standardization” and as such contained “only the most critical information;” the new guideline is an attempt to add “valuable context” to the first edition. More than 100 industry experts helped to develop the new guideline.
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 33
Tom Guse, the infrastructure lead for mining projects at Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, called it a “great catalyst to bring the industry together to push the development of underground BEVs.” BEVs are rapidly gaining popularity in the industry as miners look to reduce ventilation costs and carbon emissions caused by diesel. “The health risks of diesel vehicles are consider-
able, especially underground,” said Heather Ednie, GMG’s managing director. “In fact, diesel emissions have been classified as a Group 1 carcinogenic by the World Health Organization.” Goldcorp recently received a $5million grant from the federal government to help it replace all the diesel-powered equipment it would need for its Borden mine with batterypowered vehicles. Vale Base Metals said
in May it was transitioning its Creighton deep zone to an electric vehicle fleet and designing its future greenfield operations as all-electric. And in Quebec, Nouveau Monde Graphite is planning its Matawinie graphite project to be the world’s first all-electric open pit mine. Last year equipment giant Caterpillar said it had developed a proof of concept battery electric LHD. – Kelsey Rolfe
Trend spotting Five developments that will shape the year ahead for miners By Matthew Parizot Courtesy of Agnico Eagle
What is the beginning of a new year without a few predictions for the months ahead? For a glimpse into the future of the industry, skip the crystal ball and ponder the trends that are gaining traction right now.
Tracing metals on blockchain Blockchain has moved beyond its origins in the cryptocurrency craze, and has demonstrated it can have value for multiple industries, including mining, where the technology has the potential to bring the buying and selling of precious metals into the digital age. In simple terms, blockchain acts as a secure digital ledger that records all transactions publicly and chronologically. Already some companies are beginning to explore blockchain as a means to facilitate purchases of metals and minerals. In January, De Beers launched Tracr, a digital platform for trading diamonds, and partnered with Alrosa on its pilot in late October. Goldcorp has similarly teamed up with Tradewind Markets, a private blockchain marketplace for buying and selling gold and silver backed by the Royal Canadian Mint. Lucara Diamond acquired Clara Diamond Solutions, a digital platform that uses blockchain to track diamonds through the supply chain, in February. The process for buying gold typically involves going through a bank or to an e-commerce site, where specific denominations of the metal can be pur34 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Agnico Eagle is conducting a feasibility study on using wind turbines to provide additional power to its Meliadine mine in Nunavut, which is part of a growing trend of renewable energy adoption in the mining sector.
chased and then shipped. Not the most flexible system. “What we proposed is something quite different,” Tradewind co-founder Fraser Buchan said. “Don’t worry about what the physical format is, your only concern is who’s holding the physical metal.” Blockchain also allows a higher degree of transparency, giving buyers and sellers more information about what belongs to whom. “You can get information on where it was poured, what date and who transported it,” Steve Lowe, Tradewind’s head of business development, said of the company’s in-development providence application. “Between the Royal Canadian Mint [where physical metals
traded on VaultChain are stored] and the mine, there’s a process of authentication, but ultimately the Mint will verify when it lands and which mine it came from.” While the cryptocurrency trend seems to be waning, it won’t be surprising to see more mining companies using blockchain technology in the future.
Increasing demand for supply chain transparency Ensuring an ethical and sustainable supply chain is becoming a more important goal for miners. In the last two years, end users such as Apple, Samsung, BMW and Daimler have launched initiatives to make sure the metals they use are ethically sourced,
developments often in response to shareholder demands. Most recently, BMW, Samsung and chemicals company BASF have committed to trying to improve working conditions for cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Nespresso has committed to buying “sustainable” aluminum from Rio Tinto for its coffee capsules. Companies like Rio Tinto, B2Gold, Barrick Gold and Agnico Eagle have put new systems in place or updated existing ones over the past two years to bring transparency and oversight to their supply chains. “We are active in chain-of-custody programmes that provide consumers with the assurance that their minerals such as diamonds and gold have been responsibly produced,” Rio Tinto said on its website. “Our customers want to know that our materials have been produced in responsible ways. They seek greater transparency about the miner-
als and metals we supply, which makes responsible supply chain practices critical to our license to operate.” In November, the International Council on Mining & Minerals announced that members of the organization would have to comply with the UN’s guidelines on human rights in business. With some of the biggest mining companies in the world focusing on supply chains, the rest of the industry will not be far behind.
More environmental regulations As the growing knowledge around climate change adds greater urgency to coordinate a response, strategies for reducing carbon emissions are a top priority in Canada and other countries. A swath of new environmental regulations are either in process or being considered and will require some big changes from the mining industry. Canada’s new carbon pricing plan has caused quite an uproar already –
both Ontario and Saskatchewan have launched constitutional challenges to the plan, and Alberta has threatened to pull out based on the fate of Trans Mountain – but major mining countries such as China have been toying with the idea as well. Chile became the first South American country to implement a carbon tax in 2015, and Argentina followed in 2017 with a pricing system that will come into effect on Jan. 1. According to the World Bank, as of September 46 countries and 25 subnational jurisdictions have implemented a price on carbon. Some companies – such as Hudbay, Teck Resources and Barrick – have set up internal carbon pricing plans already, and companies like Detour Gold and Yamana Gold have been following suit. According to BHP climate change lead Graham Winkelman, the push toward carbon taxes could be good for the industry.
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 35
“It’s challenging, but when we think of how a carbon price can potentially steer investment towards lower emissions outcomes, which over time will become cost effective, I think that’s a positive outcome for the industry, while at the same time contributing to addressing climate change. The mining industry has a real role to play in the solution,” Winkelman told CIM Magazine in 2017. In other upcoming environmental regulations, Canada is creating a federal impact assessment agency to replace its old environmental assessment laws and British Columbia is doing the same. Mining companies should expect more environmental regulation and a continued push to reduce carbon emissions worldwide in 2019.
Renewable energy and electric vehicle use expands Several companies are taking strides towards reducing the amount of emis-
36 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
sions produced at mining operations, and with electric vehicles and renewable energy sources becoming more economic and viable, more companies will likely follow suit. After a few years of trial and error, electric vehicle technology has advanced to the point that many miners are getting on board, and the number of orders for electric vehicles is climbing. Glencore, Vale and Goldcorp have begun preparing for all-electric vehicle fleets at future underground mine sites, and Quebec graphite miner Nouveau Monde Graphite is even planning an all-electric surface mine. John Mullally, Goldcorp’s vice-president of corporate affairs and energy, said the company’s Borden project in Ontario benefitted from “a number of converging factors that meant the timing was right” for going all-electric. “Firstly, the technology has advanced considerably in terms of batteries themselves, so that made it possible to
consider this type of operation. The other big factor is health and safety… [and] working conditions.” Outside of powering vehicles, renewable energy solutions present an opportunity to reduce emissions and increase efficiency. Wind and solar power projects to augment or even eliminate diesel usage in remote areas are becoming more common, like Agnico Eagle’s proposed wind project to provide additional power to its Meliadine mine, currently in the feasibility study stage, and Barrick and Antofagasta’s Zaldívar copper mine in Chile, which is scheduled to be powered 100 per cent by renewables in 2020. Hybrid energy solutions have also found an audience. The Saskatchewan Research Council’s (SRC) Hybrid Energy Container uses renewable sources, such as solar and wind, to cut the amount of diesel required at a site. While working to remediate the former Gunnar uranium mine in northern
developments Saskatchewan, SRC used these containers to cut costs on buying and transporting diesel. “It often happens in mining or exploration camps … where you’re hauling in barrels [of diesel] and the fewer you have to haul in the better,” SRC manager of development engineering Nathan Peter said. “And so … you are reducing your overall emissions, and you reduce your overall cost.”
African countries look to get more benefit from mining projects Across the African continent a wave of new mining code reforms threaten to have significant impacts on the profits of foreign-owned mining companies operating in these countries. Tanzania, for example, is making it compulsory for foreign-owned mining groups to offer shares to local and government companies; Ghana has begun to audit its entire mining industry to ensure compliance and the DRC is
increasing royalties on “strategic minerals” like cobalt and lithium. “It’s often because governments realize taxation was set too low during the liberalization of their mining and investment codes,” University of British Columbia associate professor Philippe Le Billon said. “This was justified by a need to attract initial investment, but with their extractive sectors maturing and prices increasing, governments want to raise those taxes.” While companies have protested these new changes – with Randgold even threaten ing to sue the DRC – experts say the objective is not necessarily to drive companies out. “My sense is not that this is a move towards renationaliz-
ing, or nationalizing the mining sectors,” says Ben Radley, a member of the Centre of Expertise for Mining Governance at the DRC’s Catholic University of Bukavu. “My sense is that it’s more of a move to try to exact more national benefit from that sector, which is pretty much run by multinationals.” CIM
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1919: A barman at work in the Granby mines, Phoenix, British Columbia, “where copper was king”. The Phoenix mine comprised both an underground mine and open pit mine. The operation maintained a completely unsupported “show stope” with dimensions of 80 feet high, 105 feet wide, and 400 feet long.
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 37
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Left to right: University of Adelaide professor Chelsea Liu; CEO of the Institute of Corporate Directors Rahul Bhardwaj; Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion senior director Cathy Gallagher-Louisy
The secret to fewer environmental lawsuits? A gender diverse board Despite benefits of increased board diversity, appointing more women has been a “glacial” process in Canada, experts say By Jax Jacobsen
A
n Australian researcher has identified a secret weapon for companies looking to limit their exposure to environmental lawsuits: appoint more women to the board. “Firms with greater female representation on their boards experience fewer environmental lawsuits,” Chelsea Liu from Australia’s Adelaide Business School at the University of Adelaide concluded in an academic paper released in August. She says it is the first study of its kind to show that firms with greater gender diversity are faced with fewer environmental legal challenges. Female directors on company boards could signal to investors that their firms are environmentally conscious, she added. The study examined 1,893 environmental lawsuits against S&P 1500 listed companies in the United States between 2000 and 2015 in an attempt to understand whether the gender makeup of company boards had an impact on companies’ environmental practices, for which lawsuits are counted as the most direct proxy for misconduct. The study found that
for every additional woman added to a company’s board, that company saw an average 1.5 per cent reduction in litigation risk. Liu has also adjusted for industry variations, and has concluded that “the significant relationship between board gender diversity and environmental lawsuits is not driven by industry variations.” Greater female representation may reduce environmentally unfriendly business practices because “female directors bring different perspectives in relation to managing environmental exposure.” The study posits that greater female board representation can disrupt existing relationships among directors and thus reduce complacency about policies, leading to better decision-making in managing environmental exposure. Though Liu found no evidence that increasing board gender diversity in the mining sector can drastically improve a firm’s environmental performance, other sectors with weak environmental records have benefitted from gender diversity. December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 39
In the transport, communications, electric and gas industry classification, which also experiences a higher than average number of environmental lawsuits, the paper noted that “board gender diversity is associated with fewer environmental lawsuits in that industry.” There are more benefits to increasing gender diversity on boards than diminishing risk of environmental lawsuits, said Rahul Bhardwaj, the CEO of the Toronto-based Institute of Corporate Directors. “One of the great threats to good [corporate] governance is groupthink,” he said, adding that boards composed of individuals with the same gender, educational backgrounds, and socioeconomic positions create risks for their companies by failing to consider other perspectives and adopt innovative approaches to challenges. Canada is making progress on this front, Bhardwaj said, though it still has substantial room for improvement. About 20.5 per cent of Canadian board seats are held by women, according to Deloitte’s 2017 Women in the Boardroom report. Deloitte found Canada to be ahead of the United States on this measure, but behind countries such as Israel and South Africa. But there is “momentum” with more and more companies accepting that gender diversity on boards is good, Bhardwaj said. While Canada has no country-wide gender quotas for board composition, there have been several initiatives by different governments to increase gender diversity. In 2015, the Ontario Securities Commission ordered companies to disclose annually the number of women on their boards and in executive positions, also known as the “comply or explain” rule. However, this measure has had a limited impact; according to one measure, the percentage of women on boards of Toronto Stock Exchange-listed companies increased by only three per cent, to 14 per cent over the three years since the measure was imposed. In January 2017, Alberta became the latest Canadian jurisdiction to impose a comply-or-explain rule, which applies to non-venture reporting issuers, or companies that are not listed on the TSX or other major marketplaces. In May, the federal government adopted amendments to the Canada Business Corporations Act that would require public companies incorporated under that statute to disclose diversity-related information to their shareholders on an annual basis. Though the regulations have yet to be adopted, they are expected to require disclosure of gender diversity on boards. Even with these measures in place and business leaders increasingly adopting the view that diversity is better for company performance, changes to board composition have been slow. The movement to more gender-diverse boards in Canada has been “glacial,” Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion senior director Cathy Gallagher-Louisy said. “It would take 85 more years to achieve parity at the current rate of change,” she added. 40 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
The mining sector is among the industries faring the worst, along with oil and gas, when it comes to even having a policy on expanding diversity within its board. The industry is also lagging at adopting term limits for board members, which Gallagher-Louisy maintains is one of the easier ways to attract more diverse candidates to boards. With term limits, seats on the board become open more frequently and increase the board’s opportunities to diversify, she said. Of companies operating in the mining, oil, and gas sectors, “half say they don’t have term limits and don’t intend to adopt them,” Gallagher-Louisy said. Toronto-based Kinross Gold said it adopted term limits in 2015. Board limits “balance the needs for fresh thinking with continuity,” Kinross’s manager of corporate communications, Samantha Sheffield, told CIM Magazine. “We have achieved our target of 33 per cent women board members, and have demonstrated our support for diversity by becoming a signatory to the 30% Club, an organization dedicated to improving board gender diversity.” But other mining companies have compelling reasons for maintaining boards without term limits. “Limits on tenure discount the value of experience and continuity of board members, and risk excluding potentially valuable members of the board as a result of an arbitrary determination,” said Virginia Morgan, Capstone Mining’s manager of investor relations and external communications. Of Capstone’s seven independent directors, one, or 14.3 per cent, is a woman. Teck Resources echoes Capstone’s focus on “continuity” as a reason for allowing board members to seek an unlimited number of terms. “A balance between long tenure, familiarity with the corporation’s business and long-term perspective on the industry and fresh perspective is essential for effective governance,” it said in its management proxy circular. But companies may be able to improve gender diversity even without adopting term limits for board members. Even with term limits, Teck has one of the highest percentage of women on its board in the sector. Of 13 independent board members, four, or 30.8 per cent, are women. This may be due to Teck’s specific requirements for board recruiters to consider gender diversity and other diversity criteria when putting forward candidates. CIM
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Rethinking waste management systems By Karen Chovan
T
he concept of lean manufacturing often evokes images of streamlined flow, process improvement and operational excellence. When it comes to optimizing efficiencies in mining, our primary focus has typically been on the product delivery chain; in other words, we have tried to maximize our front-end extraction and recovery rates at the lowest possible operating costs. However, the mining industry could further improve efficiencies if it applied the lean concept to waste management. The foundation of lean is value and the elimination of inefficiencies, and in order to create the greatest value in mining, we need to assess our entire system, and the shifts that occur over its lifecycle. There is a tendency in our industry to split the mining process into different components: the product delivery chain and each of the supporting systems, which allow the production in the first place. The latter includes: • Environmental baselines, impacts assessments, permitting and approvals processes • Stakeholder engagement and community agreement, and/or partnership developments • Project planning, design, development and commissioning • Common management systems: supply chain, human resources, safety and other processes • Water management • Waste-rock and tailings containment and management • Closure and reclamation, including post-closure maintenance and monitoring These support systems are absolutely necessary in the complex requirements of responsible mining, but our industry is going about it in the wrong way. We have been working hard at lowering our management risks by increasing external reviews, improving our containment systems and adding more monitoring capabilities, which is all very important for existing operations. But this is the opposite of lean because we are adding more to deliver the same value. Let’s face it, if these were not critical systems, they would most likely be considered non-value added activities under a lean lens, and would most likely be eliminated. Because these systems are unique for each development, they add significant time and cost to design and assess, and infrastructure costs and operating/managing resources can be substantial, not just through the development phase but well into the future post-operations. The fact is that significant potential value lies equally, if not more so, in the scope of these support systems and activities, as well as within the interdependencies between. Therefore, it only makes sense to optimize these systems too.
My earliest efforts to reduce waste started with sustainability, originally applied to existing operations well after the design of any systems were created. That means working within the design constraints of what already exists. This is the case for most improvement teams. Today we often hear about such sustainability initiatives There are across the industry: projects to great reduce energy use, GHG emissions and water use, and to opportunities improve water discharge quality for altering and air emissions at operations. our perception These efforts deserve recognition because they show that industry of our is taking action to be responsi“wastes” now. ble, and they raise the bar in performance for all players. Furthermore, most of these examples are in fact lowering the costs of operation and reducing the risks of longer-term potential impacts (i.e., future wastes). As such, these wins encourage the broader introduction of better technologies, designs and practices into new mining developments so we avoid recreating poor performing developments. This is a good start, but we have bigger opportunities. In the past decade, I have been invited to review and engage with major project teams to help create better systems by optimizing support processes from the start. In crosscutting lean and sustainability principles against lifecycle and systems thinking in projects, it is clear that we need to think beyond optimizing individual components within our developments. Instead, greater gains could come from altering foundational objectives to guide design and decision-making so our entire system is optimized from the start. In a 2017 survey by the Fraser Institute, 50 per cent of respondents indicated that permit approval timelines and uncertainties have increased over the past 10 years. And, based on U.S. case studies in 2015, SNL Metals & Mining suggested that up to half of a development’s value is lost due to the regulatory process, including the time and money to investigate potential impacts and iteratively propose solutions to address risks and concerns before final approval. Stakeholder engagement and partnership or collaborative agreements can take several years and often delay or negate the approval processes with regulators. There have been several examples of projects being denied approval to develop after millions of dollars have already been spent on the project investigations and designs. Often, these delays have to do with December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 43
some of our biggest risks: water management, waste management, and closure and reclamation. If we know that how we plan for and manage those waste management systems are causes of serious delays, we should start to look at how those can be optimized or eliminated while operating responsibly. We should push harder to look for alternative technologies and development strategies to better meet the wants and needs of our regulatory and community stakeholders. Thinking proactively about risk and waste mitigation strategies might help us discover that the cost of dewatering and stacking our waste materials is actually less than that of the combined dams, pump and treat systems, monitoring and massive reclamation efforts that are the trade-off. And if we did this, we might also be better prepared for the future of the resource industry, which will certainly include a circular economy and a growing demand for raw materials. In fact, there are great opportunities for altering our perception of our “wastes� now. Here again we can apply the lean concept to mining. Making the effort to see what else is in our wastes, we might
find additional products and the cost of segregating and shipping these elsewhere could offset the costs of storing and managing them on site. Doing so would remove potential risks, reduce an environmental footprint impact, and provide value to someone else. The data is there to look into it and globally there are organizations looking for materials of all kinds. We might also discover willing partners to collaborate with, determining paths forward that benefit all parties involved. This could remove a lot of barriers and/or repetitive work (more wastes) to get things right on the first try. In other words, we might be able to fast-track permitting and develop projects more quickly, helping us realize value sooner. A great opportunity exists if we are willing to change our default design strategies. If we stop dealing with waste after the fact and focus on lean systems design as early as possible, it could add enormous value at every stage of a project’s life, from pre-feasibility to post-operation. CIM
Karen Chovan is the principal of Enviro Integration Strategies.
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BGC Engineering’s Ada augmented reality software transforms complex engineering data and plans into 3D models that can be viewed through Microsoft HoloLens goggles.
Seeing is understanding The government uses BGC Engineering’s augmented reality software for community consultation for the Giant Mine Remediation Project By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
M
icrosoft released the HoloLens goggles, the world’s first commercialized mixed reality holographic computer, in March 2016. Less than a year later, Vancouver-based BGC Engineering had already developed an applied earth sciences software platform for the HoloLens that it calls Ada, which transforms complex engineering data and plans into 3D models. The HoloLens, which has the capabilities for both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), is one of those technologies where seeing makes people believers, Matthew Lato, a geotechnical engineer with BGC, told CIM Magazine in September 2017. People just have to look through the HoloLens and they are convinced of its potential, he said. At the time, Lato also said he believed Ada-enabled HoloLenses could become a powerful communication tool for community engagement and consultation. A year later, both of Lato’s predictions have proven to be correct. BGC has used Ada to help more than two dozen clients in transportation, utilities and mining. One of its most recent clients is Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), which is using the HoloLenses in its community consultations for the $900-million Giant Mine Remediation Project in Yellowknife. The HoloLens, it turns out, is a tremendous interpreter of engineering plans. It helps bridge the communication gap between engineers and the people in communities affected by those plans who simply do not know the language and mediums used by engineers. 46 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Despite the importance of community consultation and feedback to gain trust and buy-in, as well as efforts by engineers and experts to communicate their plans and data in everyday language, most people are not trained to read 2D maps or engineering drawings. Unlike engineers and technical experts, they cannot look at a topographical map on flat surfaces and digital screens and imagine it in a real-life context. Think of an Ada-empowered HoloLens as enabling the average person with the visualization processes of an engineer’s brain. In fact, at BGC, the processing and interpretation of data and plans into 3D models begins with collaboration between engineers and earth scientists. “We use a multidisciplinary team of engineers, geoscientists and geomatics experts working with developers to build the models,” said Cassandra Koenig, a hydrogeologist at BGC who helped put together the proposal for the Giant Mine Remediation Project.
Seeing is believing BGC’s involvement with the Giant Mine Remediation Project began last year when Chris MacInnis, then an engineering project manager at CIRNAC responsible for the mine’s underground stabilization and now acting director of the Giant Mine Remediation Project, went to a presentation at the ministry’s Ottawa offices. “It was about one of our other projects, the Faro Mine Remediation Project in the Yukon,” he said. “BGC was doing a bit of work on it and they invited
the future of mining some of the managers and directors to go in and see what they were doing. When I saw their demonstration of the HoloLens, I thought, ‘Wow, this is excellent. It’s a great tool.’ I just saw many advantages and applications.” Specifically, he envisioned the advantages of using Ada and the HoloLens in community consultations for the Giant Mine Remediation Project. The Giant mine is an abandoned gold mine within the city boundaries of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. It is only a couple of kilometres away from residential areas. In 1999, the federal government became the custodian of the mine and took charge of managing its environmental liabilities. The most daunting challenge it faced was to ensure that 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide, stored over decades by the mine operators in 14 sealed underground chambers and stopes some 80 to 250 feet (about 24 to 76 metres) beneath Giant’s surface, will not be released into the groundwater and pose risk to people, animals and plants. After evaluating all the options, CIRNAC’s Giant Mine Remediation Project has developed a technically complex plan that involves dry freezing a block around the stopes and chambers containing the arsenic to ensure it remains contained and in this way make it possible for the Giant mine site to be remediated. “We’ve always tried our best to bring the information to community stakeholders in a way that everyone can understand,” said MacInnis, “but it’s always a challenge.” One way to do this could be to take community members underground, but “it is a dangerous place that requires many health and safety protocols and personal protection,” said MacInnis. “The HoloLens is a way that we are able to turn the underground into a visual you can use in an office and somebody can explain all the areas underground in the virtual world and it is completely safe,” he said. “When we say stope complex C509, for example, well, people don’t really have an idea of where that is when they are seeing slide after slide. With the HoloLens, they can. It really brings it into layman’s terms so they can understand what we are trying to do and where we are going.”
blocking out the environment they are standing in, BGC is currently also building a virtual reality model for the Giant Mine Remediation Project community consultations that will take place in March, said Lato. “People will be able to put on the HoloLens and find themselves standing in the remediated site, looking at the landscape as it will be 30 years from now and listening to the birds chirping,” he said. As with most software platforms, Ada is a journey more than a destination and its capabilities continue to evolve and improve to include such things as animation. “We built another prototype for a different project that animates the path and speed of groundwater flow through the subsurface, as it would travel based on the permeability of the site’s geology,” said Koenig. The Giant Mine Remediation Project meetings were not only a case study for tech-enabled community consultation, but also further confirmation of the value of the technology. “When our design engineers put [the headsets] on, they went off into a corner and we lost them for 15 or 20 minutes,” said CIRNAC’s MacInnis. “They were actually talking with each other about design, which is fantastic as they were seeing things they can’t see themselves on plans and drawings on the desk. I certainly feel this kind of technology has a role to play, not only in stakeholder engagement, but in design in-and-of itself. It has tremendous applications in my mind.” CIM
Community consultations In September, the Giant Mine Remediation Project hosted a series of workshops in Yellowknife for community stakeholders. HoloLenses with Ada’s 3D models were made available to participants. The meetings were part of the regulatory consultations required before the project submits its “Type A” water licence application. “That’s the vehicle that will help us start the implementation of the final remediation in late 2020 or early 2021,” said MacInnis. “If people had questions and they couldn’t really formulate them or what part of the site they were talking about, they could put on the goggles and really hone in on exactly what they were referring to. Several people came up to me and said it’s a really cool thing to be able to see exactly what we were speaking about. They said it helped with visualization. Right there, that’s a huge positive for us.” While the current 3D models BGC has developed for the Giant Mine Remediation Project so far are all augmented reality, which allows the people to see the 3D models without December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 47
Courtesy of Glencore Technology
The Jameson Cell generates a stable, fine froth and a higher-grade concentrate than other cell types, according to Glencore Technology, therefore fewer cells are required to yield the same amount of concentrate.
Efficiency gains Jameson Cell drives higher recovery at Glencore’s Mount Isa mine By Kylie Williams
T
he 33 conventional flotation cells in the copper concentrator cleaner circuit at Mount Isa Mines (MIM) in Queensland, Australia, posed a structural risk in their last few years of operation for Glencore. “We had little opportunity to maintain it because it was essentially a full plant shut-down to access that equipment,” explained mine manager Mark Peterson, who has worked on the MIM copper concentrator for the past 18 years. So when it came time to replace the cells that had been operating continuously for 40 years, Glencore went with just five new cells, including three of the latest Jameson Cell models. “The Jameson Cells provided the opportunity to replace the old cells with modern technology, a smaller footprint and lower operating maintenance costs,” Peterson said. Due to the unique way each Jameson Cell generates a stable, fine froth, it yields a higher-grade concentrate, and more of it, than other cell types. Therefore, fewer Jameson Cells are required to produce the same amount of concentrate, saving physical space. 48 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Over the last 30 years, more than 350 Jameson Cells have been installed at operations in 30 countries. Having started out primarily for base metals and adopted early by coal operators, the Jameson Cell has since expanded to the flotation of zinc, nickel, lead, silver and platinum worldwide, and to a number of industrial and environmental applications.
Small but mighty bubbles The Jameson Cell was originally developed in the late 1980s when MIM commissioned Professor Graeme Jameson from the University of Newcastle to develop what became known as the Jameson Cell. The key was the downcomer, said Virginia Lawson, Jameson Cell technology manager at Glencore Technology, what was once MIM Technologies and is now a Glencore-owned company. “The downcomer is a novel way of bringing together slurry and air using a plunging jet that creates its own bubbles.” Rather than using a stirrer to mix and inject air into the base of the flotation tank, the Jameson Cell pumps slurry through a
the future of mining restricted opening called the slurry lens to create a drop in pressure that draws air in from the atmosphere to mix with the slurry. The process is like water running out of a tap into the kitchen sink and producing foam at the point where the flow hits the water accumulating in the sink. In a Jameson Cell, the resulting jet produced by the downcomer generates an even mix of slurry and air contained in fine bubbles, which more effectively recovers and floats the mineral particles. “There’s very little opportunity for particles to miss being slammed into a bubble and then recovered,” said Lawson. Recovering all the value in ore – no matter how tiny – is critical as ore grades decline and increasingly complex, fine-grained ore is sent for processing. The Australian coal industry quickly adopted the new technology and Jameson Cells have been the main method of flotation used to separate coal during the last stage in the coal wash for the past 20 years. “The very, very fine material that can’t be recovered through a gravity or screening system is recovered by flotation,” said Lawson. “That step was incredibly successful with the Jameson Cell able to recover fine coal very cheaply and very efficiently.”
Not so quick to catch on in Canada Jameson Cells are now installed at over 100 coal operations in Australia and at various base and precious metal operations around the world. The cell has also been used for industrial applications, including potash processing and oil sands operations in Canada. Despite this global success, there are currently no Jameson Cells at base metal or coal operations in Canada. “Canada has been slow to pick up on this technology,” said Lawson. “Probably because of the very first work at Kidd Creek.” Lawson said the very first cells were not as easy to operate and that while metallurgical results have always been good, the cells at Kidd Creek in the mid-1990s did not provide the results in all of the copper roughing and copper cleaning testing situations. Since then, even though the Mark I was a big improvement on conventional flotation, it still needed to be more robust, said Lawson. Glencore Technology has gone through four generations of advancements in the intervening 25 years. Advancements have included widening the diameter of the downcomer, automating flow and wash water flow control, and making the downcomer easier to service. The latest iteration, the Mark IV, was introduced in 2009. The Mark V is under development and due for release in 2019.
No complaints at Mount Isa Since commissioning in late 2015, the operation of the new circuit has improved both the grade of the concentrate and the recovery of the copper concentrator at Mount Isa. In parallel with several other process improvement initiatives, overall copper recovery has increased by 0.77 per cent since the new Jameson Cells were installed and residence time in the cleaner circuit has been reduced by 70 per cent.
“It is extremely difficult to quantify recovery improvement in this plant because there is a high degree of variability in the ore,” said Peterson. “We’ve incrementally improved our performance against model. To say that that was due to the Jameson Cell is difficult, but there are certainly stability improvements around the Jameson Cell, that’s for sure.” The Jameson Cell is designed such that an individual downcomer unit can be isolated for service or inspection without shutting the whole circuit down. Peterson and his team used 3D modelling to arrange the new cleaner circuit, consisting of one B5400/18 Jameson Cell cleaner/scalper, one B5400/18 Jameson Cell cleaner and three cleaner/scavengers (one B5400/18 Jameson Cell and two existing 100 m3 Wemcos), before the physical installation, which took about 12 months to complete. “In terms of commissioning, there weren’t a lot of hurdles,” said Peterson. “There were challenges in understanding the new maintenance, reagent and operational strategies, and some specific hurdles around some of the valves, but overall it’s a really simple retrofit.” Maintenance is much easier with the new cells, said Peterson. The older cells had “hundreds” of belts and motors and barrels, whereas the new cells have no moving parts and no external air supply, which keeps maintenance simple and low cost.
Direct scale-up Another feature that Peterson is pleased with is the scalability of the new Jameson Cell circuit. “It’s a modular system, quite compact in terms of footprint, and flexible in terms of tailoring the needs of the plant,” said Peterson. To increase the carry capacity – how many tonnes of concentrate a cell can recover in a square metre of a surface area – of older plants, many small cells were needed to recover the required mass of concentrate. “The Jameson Cell at Mount Isa is capable of recovering five and a half tonnes per hour per square metre of surface area,” said Lawson. “Most flotation systems are designed based on residence time. But the Jameson Cell is not residence-time dependent because it’s contact dependent. The contact is instantaneous, and that’s why it scales up directly.”
Glencore Technology sets its sights on South American copper operations Glencore Technology currently has new Jameson Cell installations going into copper, lead and zinc operations in Africa and Mexico and are seeing interest from copper mines in South America, where molybdenum is a particular challenge. “There are two particular benefits of [incorporating] the Jameson Cell into some copper operations,” said Lawson. “One is that they recover fine gold exceptionally well, and the other is that they recover molybdenum exceptionally well. We think the way forward in marketing the Jameson Cell is into areas where we know we can exceed the performance of other technologies.” CIM December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 49
Courtesy of Anne Johnson
Creating competence Anne Johnson of Queen’s University argues that teaching intercultural competence to young engineers will improve communication with local communities By Sarah Treleaven
I
f Anne Johnson – assistant professor in the Department of Mining at Queen’s University – has a singular passion, it is encouraging attitudes of humility and openness to learning about different cultures, or “intercultural competence,” among the undergraduate and graduate mining engineers she helps prepare for work and life beyond university. Johnson – who has degrees in art history and computing science, a master’s in tertiary education with a specialization in teaching sustainability to mining engineering students, and a PhD in mining engineering – teaches a fourth-year sustainability course at the university, but says “cultural agility” is integrated into the program by talking about the social and environmental implications of mining in engineering courses. She spoke with CIM Magazine about why this particular set of skills is so important and how adding them to the resumes of aspiring engineers can benefit the projects they work on.
students to hold off on judgment until they have heard and understood the perspectives of other people.
CIM: How is intercultural competence relevant to the world of engineering? Johnson: Intercultural competence is a suite of knowledge,
CIM: How do these potential conflicts play out with Indigenous community partners? Johnson: If I’m building a mine and I’ve done all my due
attitudes and skills – the whole package – across the intellectual learning domain. As engineering educators, we’re very good at helping our students develop knowledge and skills, but we’re less familiar with helping students develop attitudes that will serve them throughout their careers. Some might believe that shaping attitudes has to do with one’s political leanings or religious values, but it’s much different than that. The mining engineering department is concerned about recognizing that there is difference among people in how they approach the same problem. We have to encourage
diligence and I know my construction techniques are very good, I know my risk mitigation is very good, and statistically the likelihood of a tragedy occurring is infinitesimally low, I’m happy with that as an engineer. But the community where I’m trying to build this mine looks at the world very differently. They don’t look at the world through a lens of statistics; they look at an individual place. They need to have you understand how they look at that place and the harms you may be bringing. If you’re looking at the world in an intercultural way, you’ll understand that a statistical analysis is key to your work
50 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
CIM: Why is this an important skill to develop? Johnson: It’s important now because engineering disciplines function less as silos. Civil engineers do some things that geological engineers do or mining engineers do or chemical engineers do. When we work with disciplines outside engineering, from development studies or geology, we can run into even more problems communicating. And then when we work with communities that are culturally different from our own, we have the potential to misunderstand each other. We sometimes don’t even have the same vocabulary, ascribing different meaning to the same words, and our value systems may not be the same. So we can work with great effort and good intentions but at cross-purposes if we don’t have intercultural competence.
but that your partner will need the problem or project analyzed from a different perspective.
CIM: You juxtapose the idea of intercultural competence with a “mono-cultural mindset.” How can maintaining a mono-cultural mindset be detrimental to a mining project? Johnson: We’ve seen this in the recent failures of certain pipeline projects to be approved. A mono-cultural mindset is when you only see and interpret the world through your own eyes. Those of us who have had the privilege of being trained in the sciences and technology have a lot of skills that have served the world very well. We’ve built infrastructure that has improved standards of living and eliminated disease, and we can be very confident in our approach. But it’s not the only approach. And we run into difficulties if we restrict our vision only to a scientific, statistically based, regulatory frameworkbased approach to potential harms and how others perceive those harms.
CIM: What role does trust play in getting these projects approved? Johnson: There’s a lot of research that shows that trust is very important in how people perceive risk. Intercultural competence is critical in building trust because it’s hard to trust someone if you have the sense that they’re not making a genuine effort to hear your perspective. It’s something we can all, as humans, intuitively sense, and you can’t just use public relations to smooth it over. Social license is an ongoing process, a relationship, rather than a single permission.
CIM: What you’re describing requires a shift in thinking. A lot of the broader public understanding about things like building pipelines is very transactional – “we have a plan and we’ll give you money, so what’s the problem?” Do you find that a lot of students also share that perspective? Johnson: Mining is difficult because it does offer the ability for communities to really build their local economies in ways that are culturally affirming, including schools that support their young people and promote their language. But some communities might say “there isn’t a way for us to see this project as an appropriate fit for our culture.” And that’s something the industry has a hard time with. I’m working on a new pilot project to measure intercultural competence, including the ability to deal with difference, otherness, ambiguity, and I hope it will show us where mining students are in their abilities. We’re looking to add opportunities to the curriculum so students can see how their decisions are perceived and ensure they’re able to make adjustments that may be needed.
CIM: Can you give me an example of how intercultural competence has been woven into your curriculum? Johnson: In our very first mining course, we always take our students to Timmins, where we take them to a reclamation site December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 51
and introduce them to Indigenous elders. Martin Millen and Mary Boyden of the Anishanaabe Maamwaye Aki Kiigayewin Institute explain how Indigenous people see natural resources as spiritually important. Students learn about the water and the medicines that are extracted from plants in the area. They explain concerns that students might not recognize – like if there’s dust coming up from an open pit and it lands in the area where these medicines grow. Generally, we get a couple of students rolling their eyes at the idea that rocks have souls but most are very intrigued.
CIM: Do you have any exercises that are particularly effective? Johnson: I work with my university’s Indigenous organization, which is called the Four Directions Centre, and I have long had an educator named Laura Marical come into my classes and provide something called cultural safety training – which was developed in the health care system to help doctors, nurses and other practitioners work more respectfully with their Indigenous patients. One of the activities we do is the KAIROS blanket exercise. The students are given small artifacts, and then they spread themselves out over blankets that represent North America at the time of European contact. I get in touch with my obnoxious European ancestors who arrived in the 1600s and I come in
announcing my God given right to the land. As the exercise goes on, I isolate them, I take their children and I bring disease. Students begin by laughing – it’s a bit of dress-up and it’s entertaining – but very quickly, it becomes quite solemn. Part of the exercise involves reading the thoughts of people who were subjected to these harms, it uses names and it talks about families, and I think that’s really powerful. We make it about individuals, and I think that’s a key way into intercultural competence.
CIM: How can these interventions make for better engineers? Johnson: Intercultural competence allows engineers to work better with each other and various stakeholders in order to draw out different ideas about potential solutions – whether it’s at home in a country that’s becoming more amazingly diverse or in different countries around the world. It opens eyes a little wider and gives you better situational awareness, which is the key argument for making it part of the engineer’s toolbox. It prepares you to accept input that you might not have thought of on your own. If there are better solutions, why on earth would we not want to be open to that? It’s clear that students know that mining has caused harm in the past but that it’s getting better and they want to be leaders and they want to be responsible. That gives me great hope. CIM
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Distinguished gentlemen By Matthew Parizot
very year, CIM bestows awards onto Canada’s mining visionaries and leaders. Many of the awards are named after influential figures from CIM’s 120-year history. The expanding list of winners of these awards connect the present to the past and carry on the spirits of these figures by continuing to advance their fields. The biographies of the gentlemen behind these awards mark the development of the industry in Canada and beyond.
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Born June 17, 1861, Alfred Ernest Barlow pursued a career in geology that took him across the country and back again. Barlow joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1883, where he would help to define some of Canada’s most prolific mining regions. Barlow was the first geologist to recognize the Huronian belt in Ontario as a mineral rich location, and he wrote the book on the nickel and copper deposits of Sudbury. He served as president of CIM from 1912 to 1914, a term cut short by his and his wife’s deaths following the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in the St. Laurence River on May 29, 1914. The Barlow Medal for Best Geological Paper was created in his honour, annually awarding a gold medal to those who publish the best paper on economic geology. Selwyn Gwillym Blaylock, born Feb. 18, 1879, got his start as a surveyor for Canadian Smelting Works in Trail, British Columbia. In time, Blaylock worked his way from a simple surveyor’s position to president of the company eventually known as Cominco. Beyond his talent in business, Blaylock was a skilled metallurgist. He was said to have been critical to the development of the electrolytic zinc process produced at Trail. However, it was his concern for the welfare of his employees, all the way down to the rural miners digging up ore, that truly earned him respect. Blaylock acted as president of CIM from 1934 to 1935, and received the Gold Medal of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy of Great Britain in 1944. The Selwyn Blaylock Canadian Mining Excellence Award was established a few years after his death on Nov. 19, 1945 to recognize exceptional achievements in the field of mining, metallurgy or geology. If any company has found success building mines in Quebec, it should probably be thanking Alphonse-Olivier Dufresne for leading the way. Born April 10, 1890, Dufresne dedicated his entire career to the development of the province’s mining 54 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
sector through his work at the Quebec Bureau of Mines, where he was eventually appointed minister. There, he would make significant changes to mining legislation and safety, and helped develop mining communities. Dufresne was equally devoted to educating future mining experts and improving the province’s mines. He established several university scholarship funds and founded the École des Mines at the University of Laval in 1934. He was named the first French-Canadian president of CIM in 1950. The A.O. Dufresne Exploration Achievement Award was established in 1977, awarding special contributions to mining exploration in Canada. Dufresne died June 7, 1989. When he was a child living on a farm near Grande Prairie, Alberta, John Campbell Sproule – born May 13, 1905 – occupied himself by exploring nature, either through hunting, trapping or prospecting. His love of nature lead him to pursue a career in geology, and he left home to get his bachelor’s degree at the University of Alberta and later his master’s and PhD at the University of Toronto. In 1931, Sproule worked as a field assistant on the Fort McMurray oil sands. There, he wrote one of his more influential papers, “Origin of the McMurray Oil Sands, Alberta,” which claimed that the oil in the sands originated from the underlying paleozoic rock – an unpopular deduction at the time that began to be accepted later on. Sproule eventually joined Imperial Oil, where he worked his way up to chief advisory geologist for International Petroleum Company, then an Imperial subsidiary. He served as CIM president from 1959 to 1960. When delivering a lecture on May 21, 1970, about the geology of the Canadian Arctic, Sproule suffered a sudden heart attack and died a short while after. The J.C. Sproule Northern Exploration Award was created in 1974 in his honour. A resident of northern Ontario for most of his life, Mel W. Bartley, born in 1910, would eventually go on to have a major impact both in mining and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. After graduating with a PhD from the University of Toronto, Bartley held important positions at several mining and exploration companies: chief geologist and engineer for Steep Rock Iron Mines, exploration manager for Cliffs of Canada and principal emeritus of Lakehead University, to name a few.
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CIM celebrates As president of CIM from 1975 to 1976, he created the concept of District and Divisional technical meetings at CIM. The Mel W. Bartley Outstanding Branch Award was created in 1977, before his death in 1986. Growing up in the mining town of Noranda in the Abitibi region of Quebec, Donald J. McParland – born 1929 – eventually left to get his degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto, partially paying his tuition through his winnings in poker games. After graduating, McParland joined Rio Algom and was recruited to lead the Churchill Falls power plant project, the second largest plant in Canada. He accepted the position of vice-president of Brinco – though he did not know much about electrical engineering at the time – and eventually became president and CEO. McParland was one of the founders of the MechanicalElectric Division of CIM. He was touring the country as a distinguished lecturer for CIM when a plane crash in Labrador City ended his life on Nov. 11, 1969. The McParland Memorial Award for Maintenance, Engineering and Reliability was established soon after, in 1972. Known for his contributions to the advancement of mine safety, John T. Ryan’s passion for improving the safety of mine workers was borne of tragedy. On March 26, 1912, Ryan was working as an engineer at the Jed mine in West Virginia. A methane gas leak caused an explosion in the mine, killing 80 workers. This inspired Ryan to start Mine Safety Appliances (MSA), a company devoted to creating new and improved safety equipment for miners. His company would recruit one of America’s most famous inventors, Thomas Edison, who helped to create the electric cap lamp, which resulted in likely hundreds of lives being saved. For his commitment to mining safety, in 1941 CIM created the John T. Ryan Trophy, which is given out every year by MSA Canada to the mine sites with the lowest injury rates. Born in Toronto in 1934, Robert Elver is celebrated as one of Canada’s foremost mineral economists. After graduating from the University of Toronto, Elver joined the Mineral Resources Division of the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, where he would spend his entire career. Elver was instrumental in bringing Canadian involvement to international metals committees, such as OECD and Economic Commission for Europe, especially in steel. He enhanced mineral development domestically as well, and was instrumental in reviewing mining public policy in the 1970s. His death on July 16, 1979, following a brief illness, lead to the creation of the Robert Elver Mineral Economics Award, which honours a CIM member who has made significant contributions to the field of mineral economics in Canada.
years
before immigrating to Canada in 1956. After being recruited by Falconbridge Group, Boldy went on to discover the Delbridge deposit in Noranda. He later joined Freeport Minerals as a geologist, discovering the Reed Lake deposit in Manitoba, before eventually joining Placer Development. Boldy was very well known for his published papers, which earned him great acclaim across the industry. One of his most famous papers analyzing Precambrian volcanogenic ore deposits, “(Un)Certain Exploration Facts from Figures,” would earn him the Barlow Award for economic geology. Boldy passed away at the age of 53, on Jan. 22, 1985. In memoriam, the Julian Boldy Geological Society Service Award was created the following year. CIM
Call for nominations Join CIM in its tradition of recognizing and celebrating accomplished individuals and organizations. Do you know a CIM member who deserves recognition? Visit www.cim.org/awards to find out about each award and its criteria. Nominations close January 25, 2019.
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Born in Calcutta, India, on May 28, 1931, Julian Boldy received his education at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 55
IS CANADA LOSING THE
exploration game? The hurdles to increased exploration spending in Canada
Global exploration spending is increasing, but Canada’s share of the spending pie has declined over the past decade. So what can the country do to reassure investors and coax more of that money to the Great White North? By Virginia Heffernan Illustrations by Romain Lasser
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anada’s status as the hands-down favourite destination for exploration investment is eroding as mineral deposits become more difficult to access, competition for capital broadens, and regulatory uncertainty continues to irk potential investors. Over the past decade, Canada’s share of global exploration spending for non-ferrous minerals slipped from 20.5 per cent in 2008 to less than 14 per cent in 2017 before inching back to 15 per cent in 2018, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, which bases its analysis on private sector spending intentions. Although Canada remains a narrow favourite among individual countries, S&P treats it as a region “for the purpose of continental-scale comparisons.” As such, it has dropped to third place behind Latin America and the “Rest of the World” (mostly Europe and Asia) from second place in 2008. There is a lot at stake for the country. The mineral exploration and mining industry employs nearly 630,000 in Canada and directly and indirectly contributes more than three per cent to the country’s gross domestic product. Mineral exports account for about 19 per cent of Canada’s total domestic exports, while Toronto’s TSX and TSX-V capture 51 per cent of all global mining financing transactions. The country is a world leader in legal, engineering, geological, equipment and financial expertise. December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 57
In order to maintain this exceptional status, Canada must continue to attract explorers willing to risk capital to find the next generation of mineral deposits. Providing better access to the far north, ensuring regulatory certainty, and supporting research and innovation may be the most obvious means to that end, according to industry watchers. The explanation for Canada’s shrinking piece of the exploration spending pie is complicated, said Glenn Mullan, president of PDAC, the advocate for Canada’s mineral exploration and development community. But there are a few factors that stand out. Lack of infrastructure means that otherwise robust and well-delineated deposits in the north have been effectively stranded while many more remain unexplored. Competition, including from dozens of African countries that view investment in the mineral sector as key to prosperity, is spreading available capital thin. And regulatory uncertainty adds an extra layer of chance to the already risky business of mineral exploration. The mining industry can, however, count a recent win on the regulatory front. The government of Canada in late November committed to a five-year renewal of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC), designed to help companies raise equity funds for exploration in Canada. Every year, PDAC has lobbied the federal government to renew the METC for a minimum of three years without knowing if, or for how long, the credit will be renewed. The government introduced the 15 per cent tax credit in 2000 and has consistently offered single year renewals. “We are pleased that the government has heard our concerns about Canada’s waning competitiveness and adopted our recommendation,” said Lisa McDonald, PDAC’s interim executive director and COO, in a press release. “Renewal of the METC for five years will help to provide greater certainty and boost confidence for investors, and signals government’s appreciation of the importance of our junior exploration sector.” The decline in exploration market share, which still leaves Canada in a leading position with about 15 per cent of global spending, is less dramatic when 58 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Most attractive jurisdictions in the world* Finland Saskatchewan Nevada Republic of Ireland Western Australia Quebec Ontario Chile Arizona Alaska
Canadian jurisdictions, ranked* 2
Saskatchewan 6
Quebec 7
Ontario 11
Newfoundland & Labrador 13
Yukon 18
Manitoba 20
British Columbia 21
Northwest Territories 26
Nunavut 30
New Brunswick 49
Alberta 56
Nova Scotia *According to the Fraser Institute’s 2017 Investment Attractiveness Index
you take into account government spending estimates (rather than company budgets) and bulk mineral exploration, said Richard Schodde of MinEx Consulting in Australia. But he said he agrees that Canada’s juniors – a large driver of exploration spending in the country – have struggled to raise capital of late. “A big feature of Canada’s exploration scene is its very large pool of junior explorers, much bigger than many other jurisdictions around the world. Their ability to raise money is highly sensitive to the overall economic business cycle – and commodity prices in particular. It’s great on the way up, but it’s tough on the way down.” According to S&P, there are 1,651 companies in the world actively exploring – which is down by a third from 2012 levels, when global exploration spending peaked – while gold has lost about 25 per cent of its value. Copper averaged at US$3.61 per pound in 2012 but was trading below US$3 in 2018. Geopolitical factors beyond Canada’s control may also be restricting investment, said Schodde. U.S. President Trump’s trade sanction rhetoric has put an added damper on metal prices this year. Include China in the equation and it becomes clear that not only Canada but other established mining jurisdictions are falling behind in the competition for capital. According to Schodde, China spent more on domestic exploration in 2013 than Australia and Canada combined. Because exploration in China is mostly carried out by the state, S&P’s analysis tends to under-report what is happening there. Some Canadian provinces and territories are faring better than others. Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec still rank among the top 10 most attractive jurisdictions in the world, according to the Fraser Institute’s 2017 survey of mining companies, an attempt to assess how mineral endowments and public policy factors affect exploration investment. Newfoundland and Labrador takes the 11th spot out of 91 jurisdictions included in the survey. Quebec, in particular, has made substantial efforts to keep explorers satisfied. For example, the province is spending about $1.3 billion on infrastructure and
Latin America saw the most non-ferrous exploration spending in 2018 with about US$2.7 billion, or 28.4 per cent of the total global exploration budget of US$9.6 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
other projects by 2020 in the hopes of attracting $22 billion in private-sector investment in the north, including from mineral explorers and developers. It is working. “Quebec is open for business when it comes to exploration,” said Tony Makuch, President and CEO of Kirkland Lake Gold, which owns shares in several junior mining companies active in the Abitibi gold belt of northwestern Quebec, such as Osisko Mining, Metanor Resources, and Bonterra Resources. “There is a lot more clarity around responsibilities towards local communities and better incentives than in other provinces.” On the other hand, Makuch is increasingly frustrated with exploration in Ontario, where Kirkland Lake operates the Macassa, Holt and Taylor gold mines. He said changes to Ontario’s Mining Act and lack of clarity around how to forge agreements with Indigenous communities is driving explorers out of the province. “Look at the Ring of Fire [an expansive metal-rich area in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario discovered a decade ago that is stranded by both lack of infrastructure and politics] – is it getting explored? Is it getting developed? We need clearer rules and a better idea of what communities want.” Other provinces are also losing their appeal as attractive places to invest exploration dollars. Alberta has slipped from 4th place to 49th place, Manitoba from 8th to 18th place, and
New Brunswick from 6th to 30th place in the Fraser Institute survey over the past decade. Despite attractive geology, British Columbia has been shut out of the top 10 jurisdictions for years because of regulatory uncertainty and concerns regarding disputed land claims. Agnico Eagle Mines and Hudbay Minerals – both of which once spent most of their multi-million dollar exploration budgets in Canada, but have spread spending among several countries in recent years – either did not respond to queries (Agnico) or declined to comment (HudBay) for this story. But Agnico Eagle CEO Sean Boyd put in a plug for Nunavut, ranked 26th in the Fraser Institute survey, at The Northern Miner’s Progressive Mines Forum in October. “Nunavut is one of those rare places from a mining perspective – it has great mineral potential and you can actually get things done,” said Boyd, whose company has pledged $5 million to build a university in the territory where it operates the Meadowbank gold mine and is developing the nearby Meliadine project for start-up next year. “As Canadians, we should be championing places like Nunavut because it is going to be a huge value generator for this country for some time.” As for Kirkland Lake Gold, it will spend the bulk of its $7590 million exploration budget in Australia this year, where the company owns the Fosterville and Cosmo gold mines. The spending shift to Australia is not an intentional snub of December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 59
“We need to up our game in terms of northern access. There is a general recognition that there is a gap there we should be addressing.” – G. Mullan
Canada, said Makuch, but more related to the stage of the company’s projects (Macassa is moving from surface to underground exploration) and the natural end to a $16-million exploration push in Canada financed by flow-through funding raised in 2016. But he said Canada could benefit from Australia’s clearer rules around community engagement and its ability to sustain investor interest in exploration. “Canada is not as friendly toward new discoveries as people tend to think. In Australia, the rules are better defined and there is support for exploration. The investment community is willing to put money into resources and take a long-term approach.” Alarmed by the declining competitiveness of Canada’s mineral industry, PDAC and other members of the Canadian Mineral Industry Federation (CMIF) presented a brief to the 75th Energy and Mines Ministers’ conference in Iqaluit in August suggesting reasons for the decline and proposing some solutions. The following factors are particularly relevant to exploration.
Far north infrastructure Deposits are being abandoned, or remaining unexplored, in the north because it is difficult and expensive to access them. As accessible mineral deposits in historic camps such as Val d’Or, Kirkland Lake and Flin Flon are mined out, explo60 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
ration must logically move farther north. But lack of infrastructure makes development uneconomic. “PDAC’s 2016 report, ‘Unlocking Northern Resource Potential: The Role of Infrastructure,’ showed there are around 146 undeveloped projects in the three territories, or over 75 per cent of identified significant deposits that are pretty much stranded or orphaned. They have been well explored and delineated and some even have feasibility studies, but infrastructure is the main impediment for advancing them to development,” said Mullan. The Canadian government has taken steps to address the shortfall through programs such as a bilateral agreement with Nunavut that will provide more than $566 million over the next decade to infrastructure projects in the territory. Another initiative called the National Trade Corridors Fund will dedicate up to $400 million for transportation initiatives in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Transport Canada is calling for proposals for more roads, airports, ports and bridges through the program. Still, Canada lags well behind Europe and Asia in developing its northern regions. “We only need to look at other Nordic countries to see what comparable regions are doing with infrastructure,” said Mullan. “We need to up our game in terms of northern access. There is a general recognition that there is a gap there we should be addressing.”
Regulatory uncertainty The CMIF brief highlights specifics such as the way mining projects are treated under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (currently under revision), but the CMIF’s overriding concern is that uncertainty around the review and implementation of policy and legislation at both the federal and provincial levels is discouraging investment. The federation urged mines ministers to ensure that Canada’s regulatory regimes are “effective, efficient, predictable and balanced” in order to bolster Canada’s reputation as a safe place to invest. Streamlining provincial and federal regulations, for instance, would provide clarity and efficiency. “Some other jurisdictions, such as Australia, have done a better job than us in coordinating their national, state and municipal governments,” said Mullan. “In Canada, we still have a lot of room for improvement.” The Crown’s duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous groups on mineral projects is exacerbating the uncertainty because there is such a patchwork of policies depending on the jurisdiction. The CMIF said it would like to see governments increase their social investment in Indigenous communities, such as for housing and water, implement government resource revenue sharing with communities, and address some of the challenges that have arisen as a result of the duty to consult.
Competition Jurisdictions around the world are recognizing the value of early stage exploration and devising new ways to attract investors. Botswana, for example, recently launched an online geoscience data portal that allows anyone to search for all the available geoscience data within a selected geographic area. Australia, Canada’s main competitor with a 13.8 per cent share of non-ferrous exploration spending in 2018, according to S&P, has increased its incentives for grassroots exploration. A new tax incentive scheme introduced this year allows greenfield exploration programs to distribute tax losses as a credit to Australian resident shareholders. And a few states offer up to a 50 per cent refund for innovative exploration drilling projects.
Land withdrawal and geoscience funding Land use legislation – such as Ontario’s Far North Act, which will protect a large area of provincial land in the north from development – often fails to consider mineral
potential. PDAC is advocating for a more balanced approach to land withdrawal that incorporates geoscience and mineral resource assessment into land management decisions. “No one disputes that there are areas that need to be protected, but geoscience should always be part of that decision-making process,” said Mullan. Canada used to be a world leader in funding geoscience research, such as geological mapping in underexplored areas, but its standing has dropped considerably over the past decade. The CMIF brief calls for increased funding for the Geological Survey of Canada, particularly for work in the far north, and incentives for testing new exploration technologies and techniques. Once again, Australia is leading. The country recently launched a $218 million research organization (MinEx CRC) to develop mineral discovery technologies for hidden deposits and boost drilling productivity with simultaneous data collection. The CRC is also launching a National Drilling Initiative (NDI), the first collaboration of government geological surveys, researchers and industry in the world to drill for mineral deposits in under-explored areas. The metrics for Canada are not all gloomy, however. The latest numbers from S&P suggest that budgets earmarked for Canada may be on the rise again, increasing by 31 per cent to US$1.44 billion in 2018. And when companies do choose to explore here, they can expect a decent bang for their buck. Schodde’s research shows that the return on investment for exploration in Canada is as good, if not better, than in Australia or the United States, who are Canada’s two main competitors for exploration spending. “My personal view is that the federal and provincial governments do a good job of supporting the industry through tax incentives and a strong R&D base,” said Schodde. “Notwithstanding this, Canada still has some inherent challenges – namely the lack of infrastructure in the far north coupled with the challenges of exploring under progressively deeper cover in the more established districts in the south.” If governments at both levels were to adopt even some of the CMIF’s suggestions to the mines ministers this year, such as building northern infrastructure, investing in geological and drilling research and improving regulatory certainty, Canada could regain its global reputation as the strong favourite for exploration investment and secure a brighter future for the domestic industry as a whole. CIM December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 61
Sweet success
The road to production was a long one, but it was not enough to sour Harte Gold on its Sugar Zone project By Virginia Heffernan
rom early financing to final permitting, nothing about advancing the Sugar Zone project in northern Ontario to production has been easy or expedient. So the opening of the mine in October – the province’s first high-grade gold mine in a decade – was especially poignant for Harte Gold’s management and employees. The operation near White River is expected to produce less than 50,000 ounces in 2019 but annual production will grow to 75,000 ounces by 2020 and average 106,000 ounces from then on as throughput expands. By mid-November, mill
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62 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
throughput had reached the initial target of 575 tonnes per day (tpd) and Harte expected it would reach commercial production and complete the tailings management facility and paste fill plant by the end of 2018. Harte and former partner Corona Gold began exploring Sugar Zone 20 years ago, just after the Bre-X scandal decimated the junior mining market. They spent a decade outlining an NI 43-101 compliant, high-grade resource of almost one million tonnes grading about 10 grams per tonne (gpt) gold. But the project had trouble gaining traction.
project profile
Courtesy of Harte Gold
The Sugar Zone mine is located just northeast of White River in northwestern Ontario.
In 2009, Stephen G. Roman – son of the late mining legend and Denison Mines founder Stephen B. Roman – took over management of Harte and began getting the company’s financial house in order. In March of 2010, Harte was given approval to buy the Corona’s 51 per cent stake in the Sugar Zone property. By early 2011, the company had enough funds to begin a 10,000-metre drilling campaign, and in May the next year, with gold surging above US$1,600 an ounce, Harte released preliminary economic assessment for the project. It proposed a 750-tpd operation that would produce 66,000 ounces annually over six years.
Bumps in the road But the road to production was winding and ridden with potholes. Financing to advance the project became increasingly challenging as gold descended from a 2011 high of US$1,900 per ounce and shares of Harte Gold fell in tandem. By the fall of 2015, however, Harte was able to begin a 70,000-
tonne bulk sampling program at Sugar Zone, which the company trucked to Barrick’s Hemlo operation 60 kilometres to the west for processing, and secure a gold loan for up to US$6 million. The activity attracted the attention of UK-based private equity firm Appian Capital. “We really turned a corner when Appian came to visit in 2016 and liked the look of the orebody, then made a proposal to do a financing for us. That initial $25 million is what really accelerated our whole program, allowing us to do more drilling and development and attract some market attention,” said Roman, Harte’s chairman, president and CEO. “Appian liked our idea of moving the project quickly to production and didn’t worry about us completing a bankable feasibility study.” 2018 was another pivotal year for the project. Based on an aggressive exploration program in 2017, Harte tripled resources at the deposit from 500,000 ounces to 1.5 million ounces (2.6 million tonnes grading 8.52 gpt gold indicated and 3.6 million tonnes, grading 6.59 gpt gold inferred). A preDecember 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 63
PROJECT SPECS Mineral Resource Estimate* Indicated 2,6 MT 8.52 g/t
714,000 oz gold
Inferred 3,6 MT 6.59 g/t
760,800 oz gold
The company plans to release an updated resource estimate in early 2019.
First gold pour Oct. 15, 2018 General manager Steve Ball Phase 1 – 2018 Mining rate: 540 tpd Phase 2 – 2020** Mining rate: 800 tpd Production: 75,000 oz/yr Phase 3 – 2021** Mining rate: 1,400 tpd Production: 106,000 oz/yr *as of Feb. 2018 **Projections based on May 2018 PEA
64 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
project profile liminary economic assessment (PEA) indicated Sugar Zone has a net present value of $244 million and a 42 per cent internal rate of return (post-tax) at a gold price of US$1,250 per ounce and a life-of-mine capital cost of $280 million, including $176 million for underground development. The junior also completed a debt financing package for up to US$70 million with Appian and Sprott Private Resource Lending. When Harte secured its final operating permits in September 2018, the company moved quickly to achieve commercial production before year-end. Sudbury-based Technica Mining, responsible for extracting the bulk sample in 2015, had extended the underground ramp and developed the initial stopes and vent raises. Redpath Canada won the contract for commercial mining for the next two years, while Halyard built the paste plant and concentrator, including gravity recovery and flotation, to recover 90 per cent of the gold. But getting the green light from government took years, said Roman, and required multiple permits, many of which were delayed. In the end, Harte decided to limit throughput to Opposite page: (top) The portal to the mine; (bottom) Gold that is not recovered in the gravity circuit at the mine is trucked as a concentrate for further processing at the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Courtesy of Harte Gold
under 600 tpd so the company could get the mine up and running on provincial permits alone, as well as generate some cash flow before expanding the operation.
Expansion plans According to the PEA by P&E Mining Consultants, development will be phased starting at 540 tpd, increasing to 800 tpd in 2020 and jumping to 1,400 tpd by 2021 as resources in the nearby Middle Zone are incorporated into the mine plan. The gravity circuit allows most of the gold to be processed into doré bars on site, but the sulfide concentrates from flotation require processing elsewhere for now. “We have to ship the concentrate to a third party (Glencore’s Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec), so we want to get a (federal) permit to expand to 1,400 tpd and add a cyanide circuit,” said Roman. “But if we had tried to do that from day one, the process would have taken more than five years.” Securing impact and benefits agreements (IBAs) with First Nations groups in the area also dragged on. “The government has opened a Pandora’s box and there are no rules for us to follow,” said Roman about the industry’s obligations to Indigenous groups. “The structure needs to be updated with some
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Geostatistical Mineral Resource Estimation and Meeting the New Regulatory Environment: Step by Step from Sampling to Grade Control This course is designed according to the latest regulations on public reporting of Mineral Resources. It aims at showing how state-of-the-art statistical and geostatistical techniques help answering the requirements of those regulations in an objective and reproducible manner. A particular emphasis is put on understanding sampling and estimation errors and how to assign levels of estimation confidence through the application of resource classification fundamentals. In addition to a solid introduction to mining geostatistics this course provides a comprehensive overview of industry’s best practices in the broader field of Mineral Resource estimation. INSTRUCTORS Georges Verly, Wood, Canada and Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada • DATE September 2019 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Cash Flow Evaluations for Mineral Projects The purpose of the course is to familiarize the participant with the form and content of discounted cash flow evaluations as they are used in the mineral industry for studies and projects. The course focuses on several aspects of mineral project evaluations: the data and calculations required for a mineral project cash flow, the assessment of the viability (economics) of a mining project, and risk assessment. INSTRUCTOR Lawrence Devon Smith, Lawrence, Devon, Smith & Associates, Canada • DATE November 2019 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 65
sort of guideline to reflect what companies and First Nations are trying to achieve. Put a time limit on it so that contractors and employees are not standing by.” In May 2018 Harte signed an IBA with the Pic Mobert First Nation that provides a four per cent net profits interest as well as options to purchase 500,000 common shares of Harte at $0.40 for a period of five years. The company has a separate agreement with the Pic River Nation to provide environmental monitoring. Sugar Zone has a mine life of 11 years and employs about 200 people from the nearby communities of White River, Hornepayne, Matheson and Wawa. The company has built temporary housing with a central kitchen in White River and buses those employees to and from the site 25 kilometres to the northeast. Harte has chosen to use longitudinal longhole retreat stoping at a total operating cost of $128 per tonne processed. The company is targeting the lower grade Sugar Zone North and South ramp stopes first before reaching the higher grade stopes below, so the average diluted grade over the first 18 months of production will be 5.5 gpt. Sugar Zone is a mesothermal gold deposit located in a shear zone within the Dayohessarah greenstone belt. Gold is associated with silica-sulfide-potassic alteration and occurs in quartz veins and stringers predominantly associ-
ated with porphyry sills, contact zones and mafic metavolcanics. Harte will release a new resource estimate for Sugar Zone early next year and will continue exploration to extend known zones of mineralization and look for new pockets along the 83,850-hectare land package that straddles the belt. The company has recently started drilling about 1,500 metres below surface – 500 metres below Sugar Zone’s current inferred resources – to test continuity of mineralization down dip. Roman likens the geology of Sugar Zone to the Hemlo deposit and other deposits in the western Abitibi, where operators started mining mineralized shoots at surface before finding higher grade ore much deeper underground. “It’s expensive to drill deep holes, but we’ll see what we can do to minimize the cost by using downhole [induced polarization] and structural geology.” Sugar Zone will provide a much-needed economic boost to northern Ontario and has the potential to expand significantly in the coming years, but its path to development required exceptional levels of perseverance. When Harte finally opened the mine on Oct. 24, 2018, Premier Doug Ford called the event a “signal to the world that Ontario is open for business,” but for Roman it is just one hard-won milestone on the road to bringing the project to its full potential. CIM
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Safety gear gets smarter An array of sensors and technologies is giving miners a virtual shield to protect them underground
Courtesy of Newtrax
By Robert Hiltz
Increased precision of underground location tracking is just one improvement to the technology protecting workers underground.
I
t is an adage in an underground mine that the softest thing in the mine is the miner. A dark maze, covered by untold tonnes of rock, hundreds of metres below the surface, and travelled by heavy steel machinery, the underground environment can be a dangerous one. And as vigilant and careful as one can be, there is a limit to what a human being can do. Which is where technology comes in, to help close the gap towards an injury-free workplace and give the soft-skinned miner an even better chance of coming home safe and sound at the end of a shift. Advances in communications and digital technologies have given vendors new ways to improve underground safety, through smarter personal protective equipment, more limited and better controlled interactions between workers and machines, as well as greater insight into behaviour beneath the surface.
Smart wear, smarter detection Northern Light Technologies, based in Toronto, will be releasing a new line of Internet of Things (IoT)-equipped headlamps that will offer higher resolution personnel tracking and a number of other features in the second quarter of 2019. The Vigilance line will use low-energy Bluetooth tracking, which offers better location accuracy than RFID trackers and uses less battery power, the company’s president Heidi Levitt said. It will come with an app-style interface, and offer a cap-mounted camera. “We’ve built in the camera, so a miner can take a picture of an incident or a piece of machinery that failed and can quickly send that up [to the surface] over the Wi-Fi network,” Levitt said. 68 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
safety She said the Vigilance lamps were designed not to be a special product, signed out for occasional use, but rather everyday lamps for all workers. One way to do this, she said, was by making the new lamps modular, so companies can customize what goes into the lamps they purchase. It will also enable text messaging over a mine’s Wi-Fi network and can be powered by an IoT-capable processor, she said, which will give it wider functionality and expandability down the road. Initially the lamp will include sensors to measure speed and direction, with the company planning to add further sensors in the future to measure humidity and air pressure, she said. “We can start to look at stress and fatigue due to the environment they’re working in.” Also in the new year, Jannatec Technologies will roll out a new generation of smart hard hats. Depending on needs and budgets, the hat can be equipped with a video camera, Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth capabilities as well as a collision avoidance option. The complete set up also includes a display and keypad that can be worn on the user’s wrist. Much of the technology is integrated into the brim of the hat, which can be snapped on and off and add other features as needed. This modular aspect was essential to the design, explained Mark Burnett, an account manager with Jannatec, as was the effort to make it work well with legacy systems. “We wanted to keep it as agnostic as possible. We don’t want the users to have to change their existing infrastructure.” The difference in weight compared to a standard hard hat he said, is negligible. Protecting miners with their head gear is not the only area where technology is improving safety. Newtrax is developing a suite of products that will provide proximity detection not just between miners and equipment, but miners and their location in relation to a machine, according to product manager Patrice Corneau. “In many cases, simply knowing the proximity of a worker may be inadequate. To provide the most effective protection, it would be advantageous to know the worker’s exact location relative to specific parts of the machine,” Corneau said. “To lay the foundation for measuring [this], Newtrax is developing a new generation of collision avoidance systems.” The company already has a general proximity alert system available that gives an operator a notification if they are approaching a miner or another piece of equipment in their general vicinity. The collision avoidance system will take things to another level, giving more precise warnings to an operator. For example, instead of just warning a driver there’s a miner nearby, it will be able to say there is a miner to the vehicle’s front-left. Those systems will use a combination of Chirp sensors and ultra-wideband (UWB) location tracking. The Chirp sensors are used to detect proximity at beyond 10 metres with an accuracy of about one metre, and the UWB is accurate to about 10 centimetres when objects are closer than 20 metres.
It is by combining these sensors in an array placed on the equipment that gives the system full sightline around the machine. This also gives them the ability to collect reams of data, which Newtrax hopes to use to perfect its algorithms to provide equipment operators with timely warnings, without drawing their attention away from actually running their machine. “The collected data allows us to track objects and develop an effective strategy to avoid or mitigate the impact of collisions through impaired visibility or loss of control,” he said. “You would not want your operator to change focus to look at a screen in order to interpret the information and then take action,” Corneau said. “The ability to present simple notifications so that the operator remains focused and alert will certainly be the result of complex computations.” There is a delicate balancing act, he said, in making sure the technology gives the operator enough notifications for them to respond, before the system takes over entirely.
Remove the worker, remove the risk Dowling, Ontario-based Hard-Line offers a number of technologies meant for underground heavy equipment that allow remote operation in addition to proximity and collision detection. It has two systems for operators working underground within sight of their equipment. Brow Alert and Prox work in tandem to keep scoop operators protected. Brow Alert, released in 2017, gives an operator a signal when they are approaching the edge of the safe zone, letting them exit the machine and switch over to radio-controlled operation. If the operator attempts to push past the “yellow zone” toward the brow, the system will shut down the scoop. The system relies on RFID tags mounted on the back of the drift that mark the yellow and red zones, which communicate with the tag reader mounted next to the scoop operator. Prox comes into play when a miner disembarks from the machine and switches to radio-controlled operation. It sounds an alert if the operator gets too close to a remote-operated machine, and shuts it down completely if the miner comes inside a defined danger zone. But, Hard-Line’s broader focus is on taking the operator out of the mine altogether. “Teleremote operation is the ultimate solution for ensuring that operators remain out of harm’s way by removing the need for them to be underground at all. Our clients are using this technology to operate an array of equipment from hundreds of miles away from site,” Hard-Line vice-president of business development Felicia Brunelle said. “Safety risks associated with working underground and the downtime between shifts and blast cycles are reduced.” The technology continues to gain traction, said Hard-Line’s senior vice-president of technology Ryan Siggelkow, as more mine operators begin to recognize the advantage of a remote workforce and the easy transition between shifts. “People are now accepting the technology as proven rather than a science project,” he said. December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 69
Trend tracking With all of the items now connected and generating data, there is also the opportunity to improve practices while personnel continue to work underground. This is where SHYFT Inc’s LOCATE software comes in, said Trang Tran-Valade, the company’s president. “It is engineered to be vendor-agnostic, allowing for seamless integration with most leading tagging solutions,” TranValade said. “Location data transmitted by real-time location systems can be pulled into a single web-based, centralized interface where information is presented to mine personnel in an intuitive format.” The system is accessible on a mobile device and uses a Microsoft platform to offer a way to analyze mine productivity and worker patterns, but it goes beyond into safety analysis. “For example, mine rescue teams can reduce evacuation time and focus efforts in key areas such as last known location of mine personnel,” she said. “Data collected allows for better understanding of personnel movement history, vehicle patterns, historical emergency and evacuation patterns, such as average time to move to a safe zone, total evacuation time, and total number evacuated,” Tran-Valade said. The technology will not stop here. The evolution of underground safety technology continues, as communications infrastructure within mines is upgraded and refined.
Tran-Valade said she predicts the increase of available data will give mines a much better picture of how their operations are working. “I expect that within the next 10 years every mine will be collecting and harnessing data…to enhance health and safety as well as operational efficiency,” she said. For Corneau, the increasing implementation of proximity sensors and the data they collect will give safety systems a better view of how the machines operate around each other, and around miners. “What I see is the incoming deployment of the sensor array to a large number of fleet vehicles that will provide advanced situational awareness to the operator. These systems will be the base for collecting data about vehicle-to-vehicle interaction and vehicle-to-personnel interaction,” he said. The more that data is collected, the more the system will be able to be perfected. Hard-Line’s Brunelle said she sees more companies adopting more teleremote technologies, pulling more miners out of the underground environment. “We’re confident that automated teleremote operation will continue to be the direction in mining technologies, working towards a fully integrated solution to mining remotely,” she said. While miners may still be the softest thing in the mine, today an array of sensors and technologies are giving them a virtual shield to protect them underground. CIM
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obituaries
In memoriam Compiled by Kaaria Quash
At the end of each year, CIM Magazine remembers those CIM members we have lost. We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. Though they are no longer with us, their work and accomplishments live on.
Peter H. Atkinson passed away at the age of 82 on Sept. 26, 2017. During his career as a mining engineer, Peter served as general manager of the Potash Company of America (PCA) mine in Penobsquis, New Brunswick, and later as a consultant in Atlantic Canada. He was a former president of both the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick branches of CIM and a past president of the Nova Scotia Chamber of Mineral Resources. He joined CIM in 1971, and became a Life Member in 2004. Roland Bergman passed away on March 27, 2018, at the age of 89. A pyrometallurgist by trade, Roland enjoyed a long career in metallurgy at Falconbridge and served as a member of the technical advisory team at Jaguar Nickel Inc. since 2005. Roland joined CIM in 1966, and became a Life Member in 1997. Mac (Malcolm N.) Brodie passed away in January 2018 at the age of 91. In 1998, Mac received the D. McParland Memorial Medal in recognition of his vast experience in the application of electrical engineering in the design of mineral processing plants. Mac joined CIM in 1971 and became a Life Member in 1999. William Hendry passed away on Aug. 1, 2017, at 79 years old. William joined CIM in 1962 and became a Life Member in 1995. Raymond Hoffman passed away on Aug. 8, 2018, at the age of 85. Raymond was a metallurgical engineer for Falconbridge Nickel Mines. He joined CIM in 1957 and became a Life Member in 1996. Howard L. Jackman passed away on Feb. 9, 2018. He joined CIM in 1972 and became a Life Member in 2010. Bill James passed away on Sept. 4, 2018, at the age of 89 in Oakville, Ontario. Bill served as CEO of Falconbridge in the 1980s. During his tenure, Bill flew to Zimbabwe to confront Prime Minister Robert Mugabe after miners at Falconbridge’s gold mine were under fire from rebels. Mugabe ceded and provided the miners with food and security. Bill was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2002. He joined CIM in 1969 and became a Life Member in 1999. AndrÊ Leclerc passed away on Feb. 17, 2018. He joined CIM in 1964 and became a Life Member in 1996. Andrew Lyon, a CIM member since 2012, passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 5, 2017. 72 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8
Ken Major passed away on Feb. 21, 2018. He was the director of silver mining company Great Panther Silver Ltd. During his 40-year career in the mining industry, Ken was the recipient of many awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Mineral Processors society. He joined CIM in 1976 and became a Life Member in 2015. Michael Osoko passed away on Jan. 10, 2018, a few months shy of his 90th birthday. Michael joined CIM in 1952 and became a Life Member in 1990. Rimas Pakalnis, a CIM member since 1987, passed away on Oct. 18, 2018. A mining engineering professor at UBC, he worked in 169 mining companies across all continents during his lifetime, and was named a Fellow of Engineers Canada. James (Jim) A. Robertson passed away July 17, 2018, at the age of 83. Jim worked as a field geologist for the Ontario government in the Department of Mines. He joined CIM in 1967 and became a Life Member in 2002. Donald G. Schell passed away at the age of 87 on April 12, 2017. Don joined the federal government and worked at the Federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources until his retirement in 1992. He joined CIM in 1954 and became a Life Member in 1994. David Thornham passed away on Dec. 4, 2017. He joined CIM in 1971 and became a Life Member in 2010. George Vooro passed away peacefully on Feb. 23, 2017, in Victoria, B.C. He started his career in 1948 at Campbell Red Lake mine in Ontario and retired in 1998 as President and CEO of Hillsborough Resources Limited, based in Vancouver. He joined CIM in 1968 and became a Life Member in 1998. David Wortman passed away on Aug. 17, 2017. David spent 20 years in engineering and mining operations, and 20 years with Wright Engineers of Vancouver, where he did mine design and evaluation. He became a CIM member in 1972 and became a Life Member in 2001. Peter Young passed away at the age of 86 on Aug. 26, 2017. A former president of CIM from 1983 to 1984, Peter joined CIM in 1956 and became a Life Member in 1994. We do our best to publish all the names of recently deceased CIM members and apologize if there are any we may have missed. Please send notices to editor@cim.org.
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DISTINGUISHED LECTURERS
ARNFINN PRUGGER
MARILYN D. SPINK
Ph.D., Geophysicist
P.Eng., Manager, Engineering, DMC Mining Services
2018-2019 THE PROGRAM The CIM Distinguished Lecturers program started in 1968 and has continuously provided a line up of individuals who have shared their knowledge with the mining community for almost five decades.
D. CHAD LEPOUDRE
MARY A. WELLS
P.Eng., Vice President, Geoenvironmental Services, SNC-Lavalin
Ph.D., FEC, FCAE, P.Eng., Dean College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Guelph
DOMINIC FRAGOMENI
PETER M. D. BRADSHAW
P.Eng., Vice President, Expert Process Solutions (a Glencore Company)
Ph.D., P.Eng., Chairman, FPX Nickel Corp Founder of Bradshaw Research Initiative for Mineral and Mining (BRIMM), University of British Columbia (UBC)
GLENN LYLE
SIRI C. GENIK
P.Eng., Director, Health, Safety and Risk Management, MIRARCO
Founder and Principal, Bridge
Every year, the lecturers are elected by their peers through the CIM Awards program and hold the title for a complete season (September to June). CIM is privileged to count more than 260 of the industry’s finest as its lecturers. Because the motto “once a lecturer, always a lecturer” defines our pride and dedication in ensuring that the learning curve is endless, a complete list of past lecturers is available at www.cim.org where you can benefit from the ever-growing pool of expertise that the program has to offer.
HOW IT WORKS The Distinguished Lecturers program is offered to 41 CIM Branches, 10 Technical Societies and 12 Student Chapters. Universities can also request a lecture. CIM National defrays the cost of air travel while the requesting body covers local expenses (accommodation, transportation, etc.) For more information, contact: Dist_lecturer@cim.org | 514.939.2710 ext: 1344 To book a Distinguished Lecturer visit: www.cim.org/en/Services/Distinguished-Lecturers
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lettre de l’éditeur
SECTION
FRANCOPHONE DÉCEMBRE 2018 / JANVIER 2019
74 Lettre de l’éditeur 75 Mot de la présidente 82 L’équipe de la mine Harte Gold adopte une approche progressive pour mener son exploitation Sugar Zone jusqu’à la phase de pleine production Par Virginia Heffernan article de fond
76 Exploration : Le Canada est-il en train de perdre la partie ? Les obstacles à un financement plus substantiel de l’exploration au Canada Par Virginia Heffernan
Nous publions progressivement sur notre site Internet les articles du CIM Magazine en version française.
74 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Un stock d’idées
C
et automne, la section de Toronto et la société de la gestion et de l’économie de l’ICM ont organisé leur événement annuel Rocks & Stocks pour aborder des questions épineuses et exposer quelques dures réalités. Je suis ravi d’avoir pu contribuer à la cinquième édition de cet événement en tant que modérateur du débat, et ai grandement apprécié les contributions exceptionnelles des intervenants et des participants au programme de cette journée. « On peut appeler un gestionnaire de fonds commun de placement, mais que fait-on lorsqu’on reçoit une offre publique d’actions ? Personne ne répond à l’appel », déclarait David Shaver de la banque canadienne impériale de commerce (CIBC) dans sa présentation sur les tendances financières et l’évolution constante vers des options de gestion passive de portefeuille. Les petites sociétés minières tentent encore de trouver une solution au problème que pose ce nouveau marché. Pendant ce temps, expliquait-il, l’année 2018 a été laborieuse pour les personnes cherchant à recueillir des fonds dans un contexte où les investisseurs particuliers étaient plongés dans la stupéfaction générale provoquée par le cours du cannabis à la bourse et les cryptomonnaies. Louise Grondin d’Agnico Eagle et Cashel Meagher de HudBay Minerals ont donné leur point de vue en tant qu’exploitants quant à la difficile gestion des attentes des investisseurs et des membres de la communauté. « La durabilité fait désormais partie des considérations des investisseurs », indiquait Mme Grondin ; toutefois, on ne peut se permettre de déployer des efforts pour améliorer les cotes globales générées par les rapports environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance au détriment des préoccupations immédiates et spécifiques d’une communauté. Au Nunavut, expliquait Mme Grondin, le caribou est au cœur des préoccupations des communautés ; au Mexique, c’est l’eau qui revêt la plus haute importance. Mme Grondin et M. Meagher insistaient tous deux sur l’importance de la flexibilité. Se rendre esclave d’un calendrier, expliquait M. Meagher, peut contraindre une société à payer pour un soutien local ; cependant, cette approche peut se révéler extrêmement coûteuse si l’on tente de répondre aux attentes de la communauté locale. Le point fort de cette journée reste indéniablement la remontrance sévère de Richard Leblanc, professeur en gouvernance, droit et éthique à l’université de York, quant aux responsabilités que doivent accepter de prendre les membres des conseils d’administration. « Les risques auxquels s’exposent les dirigeants en fonction de leur conduite constituent une préoccupation majeure », une question qu’il considérait particulièrement d’actualité. Il insistait sur l’importance du plan de relève de manière à ce qu’un conseil confronté au comportement impardonnable d’un dirigeant ou d’une dirigeante puisse réagir promptement. Les cycles de l’exploitation minière, ajoutait-il, posent aussi un grand problème à l’industrie. « Les directeurs généraux hésitent à s’engager durant leur mandat lorsqu’ils savent qu’ils ne seront sans doute plus là pour tirer profit d’une situation et en recevoir les éloges. » En retour, les conseils doivent donner aux dirigeants des motivations financières qui tiennent compte des échéances plus lointaines de nombreux projets miniers. Si l’espace dont nous disposons ici ne nous permet pas de détailler tous les points forts de cette journée, les perspectives qu’elle nous a données contribueront indéniablement à alimenter le moulin de la rédaction pour l’année à venir. Ryan Bergen, Rédacteur en chef editor@cim.org @Ryan_CIM_Mag
mot de la présidente
Former la prochaine génération de mineurs : un appel à l’action « L’éducation ne suffira pas à elle seule à garantir un emploi dans un domaine de prédilection. »
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urant mon mandat en tant que présidente de l’ICM, j’ai eu le grand privilège de m’entretenir avec tout un éventail de personnes travaillant dans le secteur canadien des minéraux et des métaux, depuis des experts techniques et des professionnels qualifiés jusqu’aux nouvelles recrues de notre industrie, notamment des étudiants et des nouveaux diplômés. Nombre d’entre eux ont exprimé leur inquiétude quant aux difficultés que rencontre l’industrie en termes de recrutement de la prochaine génération de travailleurs. Dernièrement, le conseil des ressources humaines de l’industrie minière (RHiM) a publié son rapport annuel Aperçu du marché du travail dans l’industrie minière au Canada 2019, selon lequel l’industrie devrait avoir besoin d’embaucher environ 97 450 travailleurs au cours des dix années à venir (de 2019 à 2029). Le nombre de départs à la retraite devrait augmenter ; par ailleurs, les données occupent une place de plus en plus déterminante dans les mines canadiennes, aussi le besoin de travailleurs qualifiés est voué à augmenter à l’avenir. La demande croissante de personnes ayant des compétences dans les disciplines des sciences, des technologies, de l’ingénierie et des mathématiques (STIM) engendrera une augmentation des inscriptions dans ces disciplines ainsi que dans les programmes de génie des mines, de la métallurgie et des matériaux au Canada. Afin de réduire l’écart entre la demande constante et croissante de main-d’œuvre et le manque de qualifications, le RHiM a récemment lancé l’initiative Équiper la relève, un programme de subvention salariale visant à créer 850 nouvelles offres de formation intégrée au travail dans des domaines relatifs à l’exploitation minière à l’intention des étudiants de niveau postsecondaire. Partiellement financée par le programme de stages pratiques pour étudiants du gouvernement du Canada, l’initiative Équiper la relève propose aux employeurs du secteur minier une subvention salariale de 50 à 70 % afin de créer des postes de formation intégrée au travail, par exemple des programmes d’alternance travail-études, des stages et stages pratiques, des projets appliqués, des projets de fin d’études ou des concours fondés sur des études de cas en faveur des étudiants de niveau postsecondaire inscrits à des programmes spécialisés dans les STIM et la gestion. Il ne faut en aucun cas sous-estimer la valeur de l’expérience professionnelle ; l’éducation ne suffira pas à elle seule à garantir un emploi dans un domaine de prédilection. Ce programme offrira aux étudiants et aux nouveaux diplômés une expérience sans pareille, tout en ouvrant la porte du secteur minier canadien à de nouveaux travailleurs dynamiques, qualifiés et enthousiastes. Aidez-nous à façonner la prochaine génération de travailleurs du secteur minier au Canada. N’hésitez plus et envoyez dès aujourd’hui votre demande de subvention salariale au titre de l’initiative Équiper la relève à gearingup@mihr.ca.
Janice Zinck Présidente de l’ICM
December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 75
exploration
LE CANADA EST-IL EN TRAIN DE PERDRE LA PARTIE ? Les obstacles à un financement plus substantiel de l’exploration au Canada Par Virginia Heffernan Illustrations par Romain Lasser
Si les dépenses consacrées au domaine de l’exploration à l’échelle internationale augmentent, la part du Canada a bien
chuté au cours des dix dernières années. Quelles options s’offrent donc au pays des grands froids pour rassurer les investisseurs et les inciter à injecter au Canada une partie de leur budget consacré à l’exploration ?
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ans un contexte où les gisements deviennent de plus en plus difficiles à atteindre, où s’intensifie la concurrence pour les capitaux et où l’incertitude réglementaire continue de contrarier les investisseurs potentiels, le Canada perd peu à peu du terrain en tant que « destination incontestablement préférée » pour l’investissement dans l’exploration. D’après S&P Global Market Intelligence, qui fonde son analyse sur les intentions d’investissement du secteur privé, la part du Canada dans les dépenses internationales consacrées à l’exploration des minerais non ferreux est passée de 20,5 % en 2008 à moins de 14 % en 2017, avant de remonter à 15 % en 2018. Si on le compare à tout autre pays pris individuellement, le Canada reste en tête de liste ; cependant, S&P le traite comme une région « aux fins de comparaisons à l’échelle continentale ». Ainsi, il perd la deuxième place qu’il occupait en 2008 et arrive désormais en troisième place derrière l’Amérique latine et le reste du monde (principalement l’Europe et l’Asie). Les enjeux sont considérables pour le pays. L’industrie de l’exploration et de l’exploitation minières emploie près de 630 000 personnes au Canada et contribue, directement et indirectement, à plus de 3 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB) du pays. La part des minerais dans les exportations de produits nationaux du Canada représente 19 % du marché, et la Bourse de Toronto (TSX) ainsi que la bourse de croissance TSX captent 51 % des opérations de financement de l’exploitation minière au niveau international. Le Canada est un chef de file mondial dont l’expertise légale, technique, géologique, financière et en matière d’équipement n’est plus à prouver. Afin de préserver ce statut exceptionnel, le Canada doit continuer à attirer des sociétés d’exploration prêtes à prendre des risques avec leurs capitaux pour découvrir la prochaine
génération de gisements minéraux. Le moyen le plus évident d’y parvenir, d’après les observateurs de l’industrie, est de faciliter l’accès au grand Nord, de garantir une certitude réglementaire et de soutenir la recherche et l’innovation. On peut difficilement expliquer la raison pour laquelle la part de dépenses consacrées à l’exploration accordée au Canada diminue d’année en année, déclarait Glenn Mullan, président de la Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC, l’association canadienne des prospecteurs et entrepreneurs), un fervent défenseur de la communauté de l’exploration et du développement miniers au Canada. Cependant, quelques facteurs ressortent clairement. L’absence d’une infrastructure adaptée implique que des gisements robustes et bien délimités dans le Nord ont été abandonnés et que d’autres restent inexplorés. La concurrence, notamment de dizaines de pays africains qui considèrent l’investissement dans le secteur minier comme la clef de voûte d’une économie prospère, éparpille les capitaux. Par ailleurs, l’incertitude réglementaire vient ajouter une couche supplémentaire de risques dans le domaine de l’exploration minière, déjà très hasardeux. Une récente victoire sur le front de la réglementation vient cependant redorer le statut de l’industrie minière. De fait, le gouvernement du Canada s’est engagé fin novembre à renouveler pour une période de cinq ans le crédit d’impôt pour l’exploration minière (CIEM), un mécanisme visant à aider les sociétés d’exploration à recueillir de nouveaux capitaux propres au Canada. Chaque année, la PDAC faisait pression sur le gouvernement fédéral pour qu’il renouvelle le CIEM pour une durée minimum de trois ans, sans même savoir si le crédit allait être renouvelé ni pour combien de temps il le serait. Le gouvernement a introduit ce crédit d’impôt de 15 % en 2000, et proposait invariablement des renouvellements d’une année depuis cette date. December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 77
« Nous sommes ravis que le gouvernement ait entendu nos préoccupations concernant le déclin de la concurrence du Canada et ait adopté nos recommandations », déclarait dans un communiqué de presse Lisa McDonald, directrice exécutive intérimaire et directrice de l’exploitation à la PDAC. « Le renouvellement du CIEM pour cinq années contribuera à offrir une plus grande certitude et à renforcer la confiance de nos investisseurs ; en outre, cela montre bien que notre gouvernement reconnaît l’importance de notre secteur de petites sociétés d’exploration. » Le Canada reste en tête du classement avec environ 15 % des dépenses à l’échelle internationale et ce, malgré le déclin observé dans la part du marché de l’exploration. La situation paraît toutefois moins dramatique si l’on prend en compte les estimations de dépenses gouvernementales (plutôt que les budgets des sociétés) et l’exploration minière dans son ensemble, déclarait Richard Schodde de MinEx Consulting en Australie. Cependant, il était d’accord sur le fait que les petites sociétés minières du Canada, un moteur important des dépenses consacrées à l’exploration dans le pays, avaient du mal à recueillir le capital nécessaire ces derniers temps. « Une caractéristique importante du milieu de l’exploration au Canada est le réservoir très vaste de petites sociétés d’exploration, bien plus important que dans d’autres régions du monde. La capacité de ces petites sociétés à récolter des fonds est extrêmement sensible au cycle économique global, particulièrement en ce qui concerne le prix des produits de base. Les cycles haussiers leur sont très favorables, mais les cycles baissiers leur réservent des périodes très difficiles. » D’après S&P, 1 651 sociétés dans le monde mènent des activités d’exploration ; cela représente un tiers de moins qu’en 2012, époque à laquelle l’exploration était à son apogée, alors que l’or avait perdu environ 25 % de sa valeur. Le cours du cuivre se situait en moyenne à 3,61 dollars américains la livre en 2012, mais se vendait à moins de 3 dollars américains en 2018. Des facteurs géopolitiques indépendants de la volonté du Canada pourraient aussi restreindre les investissements, indiquait M. Schodde. Aux États-Unis, le discours du président Donald Trump sur les sanctions commerciales a eu un effet négatif sur les prix des métaux cette année. Ajoutez la Chine à cette équation et il apparaît clairement que le Canada n’est pas le seul concerné ; bien d’autres régions minières établies se retrouvent également à la traîne dans la concurrence en matière d’accès aux capitaux. D’après M. Schodde, la Chine a dépensé davantage dans l’exploration nationale en 2013 que l’Australie et le Canada réunis. Parce que l’exploration est majoritairement une affaire d’État en Chine, l’analyse de S&P a tendance à sous-communiquer la réalité du pays. Certains territoires et provinces canadiens affichent de bien meilleurs résultats que d’autres. Selon l’enquête 2017 de l’institut Fraser auprès des sociétés minières (une tentative d’évaluer la façon dont les richesses minérales et les facteurs de politique publique affectent l’investissement dans l’exploration), la Saskatchewan, l’Ontario et le Québec se placent parmi les 10 territoires les plus attrayants au monde. La province de 78 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador occupe la 11e place sur les 91 territoires inclus dans l’enquête. Le Québec en particulier a fait des efforts considérables pour satisfaire les investisseurs. Par exemple, la province prévoit d’investir, d’ici 2020, environ 1,3 milliard de dollars dans l’infrastructure et d’autres projets dans l’espoir d’attirer un investissement de 22 milliards de dollars du secteur privé dans le Nord, notamment de la part de sociétés d’exploration et de développement miniers. Cette stratégie semble bien fonctionner. « Lorsqu’il s’agit d’exploration, les portes du Québec sont grandes ouvertes », déclarait Tony Makuch, président et chef de la direction de Kirkland Lake Gold, qui détient des participations dans plusieurs petites sociétés minières opérant dans la ceinture aurifère de l’Abitibi dans le nord-ouest du Québec, notamment Osisko Mining, Metanor Resources et Bonterra Resources. « Les responsabilités envers les communautés locales sont bien plus claires et les incitations bien plus convaincantes que dans d’autres provinces. » D’autre part, M. Makuch se dit de plus en plus irrité par le statut de l’exploration en Ontario, où Kirkland Lake exploite les mines d’or Macassa, Holt et Taylor. D’après lui, les changements apportés à la loi sur les mines de l’Ontario et le manque de clarté concernant l’aboutissement à des accords avec les communautés autochtones incitent les sociétés d’exploration à quitter la province. « Prenons par exemple le cercle de feu [une vaste zone riche en métaux située dans les basses-terres de la baie James en Ontario, découverte il y a une dizaine d’années et accablée par un manque notoire d’infrastructure et de politique] ; explore-t-on cette région ? La développe-t-on ? Nous avons besoin de règles plus claires et surtout de mieux comprendre ce que désirent les communautés. » D’autres provinces perdent leur attrait pour les investisseurs souhaitant placer leur argent dans l’exploration. En l’espace de dix années, l’Alberta est passée de la 4e à la 49e place, le Manitoba de la 8e à la 18e place et le Nouveau-Brunswick de la 6e à la 30e place dans l’enquête de l’institut Fraser auprès des sociétés minières. Malgré une géologie intéressante, la Colombie-Britannique a également été exclue des 10 provinces les plus attrayantes ces dernières années en raison de l’incertitude réglementaire qui y règne et des préoccupations entourant des revendications territoriales litigieuses. Agnico Eagle et Hudbay Minerals, deux sociétés qui ont consacré la majeure partie de leurs budgets de plusieurs millions de dollars à l’exploration au Canada, mais qui se sont également tournées vers d’autres pays ces dernières années, n’ont pas répondu à nos questions (Agnico) pour cet article ou ont refusé d’y répondre (Hudbay). Lors du forum Progressive Mines organisé par l’hebdomadaire The Northern Miner en octobre, le président et chef de la direction d’Agnico Eagle Sean Boyd a toutefois fait l’éloge du Nunavut, qui occupe la 26e place dans l’enquête de l’institut Fraser. « Du point de vue de l’exploitation minière, le Nunavut est l’une des rares régions qui présente un immense potentiel minier et où le contexte général permet d’y faire avancer les choses », déclarait M. Boyd, dont la société s’est engagée à investir 5 millions de dollars dans la construction
D’après S&P Global Market Intelligence, c’est en Amérique latine qu’ont été enregistrées en 2018 les dépenses les plus élevées dans l’exploration des minerais non ferreux, avec environ 2,7 milliards de dollars américains.
d’une université dans le territoire où elle exploite la mine d’or Meadowbank, et où elle développe le projet voisin Meliadine pour un lancement prévu l’année prochaine. « En tant que Canadiennes et Canadiens, nous devrions soutenir des régions telles que le Nunavut, car ce sont elles qui généreront une véritable valeur pour le pays pour un certain temps. » Quant à Kirkland Lake Gold, la société investira cette année la majeure partie de son budget consacré à l’exploration de 75 à 90 millions de dollars en Australie, où elle détient les mines d’or Fosterville et Cosmo. Le fait de rediriger les investissements vers l’Australie n’est pas un rejet intentionnel du Canada, expliquait M. Makuch ; cette démarche est davantage liée à l’avancement des projets de la société (Macassa passe de l’exploration de surface à l’exploration souterraine), et au terme naturel d’une campagne d’exploration soutenue par un financement accréditif d’une valeur de 16 millions de dollars au Canada obtenu en 2016. Il ajoutait cependant que le Canada aurait des leçons à tirer de l’Australie concernant ses règles plus claires en matière de participation de la communauté et sa capacité à préserver l’intérêt des investisseurs dans l’exploration. « Le Canada n’est pas aussi ouvert aux nouvelles découvertes que ce que l’on pourrait penser. En Australie, les règles sont plus clairement définies et le pays soutient l’exploration. La communauté de
l’investissement est disposée à injecter de l’argent dans les ressources et à adopter une approche à long terme. » Alarmés par la compétitivité décadente de l’industrie minière au Canada, la PDAC et d’autres membres de la fédération de l’industrie minérale canadienne (FIMC) ont présenté un dossier lors de la 75e conférence des ministres de l’énergie et des mines (CMEM) qui s’est tenue en août dernier à Iqaluit, suggérant des raisons possibles à ce déclin et proposant des solutions. Les facteurs suivants sont particulièrement pertinents pour l’exploration.
Infrastructure dans le grand Nord Les gisements dans le nord du pays sont abandonnés ou inexplorés car il est à la fois difficile et coûteux d’y accéder. Après épuisement des gisements minéraux accessibles dans des camps miniers historiques tels que Val-d’Or, Kirkland Lake et Flin Flon, l’exploration doit logiquement se poursuivre plus au nord. Malheureusement, l’absence d’une infrastructure appropriée rend le développement dans ces régions peu rentable. « Le rapport de la PDAC intitulé Unlocking Northern Resource Potential: The Role of Infrastructure (libérer le potentiel des ressources dans le Nord - De l’importance de l’infrastructure) indiquait qu’environ 146 projets restent non développés dans trois territoires, et que plus de 75 % des gisements December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 79
« Nous devons améliorer l’accès aux régions du nord du pays. Il est évident que c’est un problème auquel nous devons accorder plus d’importance. » – G. Mullan
importants identifiés sont abandonnés ou inexploités. S’ils ont été bien explorés et délimités, et si certains ont même généré des études de faisabilité, l’infrastructure reste le principal obstacle à l’avancement de ces projets jusqu’à la phase de développement », expliquait M. Mullan. Le gouvernement canadien a pris des mesures afin de faire face à ce déclin en créant des programmes tels qu’un accord bilatéral avec le Nunavut qui injectera dans les dix années à venir plus de 566 millions de dollars dans des projets d’infrastructure dans le territoire. Une autre initiative, le Fonds national des corridors commerciaux (FNCC), consacrera jusqu’à 400 millions de dollars aux infrastructures de transport du Yukon, des Territoires du Nord-Ouest et du Nunavut. Au titre de ce programme, Transports Canada émet un appel à propositions pour la construction de davantage de routes d’accès, d’aéroports, de ports et de ponts. Pourtant, le Canada est toujours à la traîne par rapport à l’Europe et l’Asie en matière de développement de ces régions les plus au nord. « Il nous suffit de regarder les pays nordiques pour constater ce que font des régions similaires en termes d’infrastructure », indiquait M. Mullan. « Nous devons améliorer l’accès aux régions du nord du pays. Il est évident que c’est un problème auquel nous devons accorder plus d’importance. » 80 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Incertitude réglementaire Le dossier de la FIMC souligne des éléments spécifiques tels que la façon dont les projets miniers sont abordés au titre de la loi canadienne sur l’évaluation environnementale, 2012 (LCEE, en cours de révision). Cependant, la préoccupation majeure de la FIMC est que l’incertitude planant autour de l’examen et de la mise en œuvre de la politique et la législation aux niveaux provincial et fédéral dissuade les investissements. La fédération encourage les ministres des mines à s’assurer que les régimes réglementaires du Canada sont « efficaces, performants, prévisibles et équilibrés » afin de préserver la réputation du Canada en tant que lieu sûr pour investir. La rationalisation des réglementations provinciales et fédérales, par exemple, permettrait d’obtenir une certaine clarté et efficacité. « D’autres territoires miniers, comme l’Australie par exemple, ont mieux réussi que le Canada à coordonner leurs administrations municipales, nationales et d’États fédérés », déclarait M. Mullan. « Nous avons encore beaucoup à faire au Canada. » Parce que les politiques sont tellement disparates en fonction du territoire, l’obligation de la Couronne de consulter et de prendre des mesures d’adaptation envers les groupes autochtones quant aux projets miniers exacerbe l’incertitude. La FIMC souhaiterait voir les gouvernements augmenter leur
investissement socialement responsable envers les communautés autochtones, par exemple en termes de logement et d’accès à l’eau potable, mettre en place un système de partage des recettes issues de l’exploitation des ressources avec les communautés et aborder certaines des difficultés qui sont apparues en raison de l’obligation de consulter.
Concurrence Les territoires miniers du monde entier sont conscients de l’importance de l’étape préliminaire de la prospection et mettent en œuvre de nouvelles stratégies pour attirer les investisseurs. Le Botswana, par exemple, a récemment lancé un portail numérique de données sur les sciences de la Terre qui permet à quiconque se connecte à ce portail de chercher toutes les données relatives au domaine des sciences de la Terre disponibles au sein de la zone géographique sélectionnée. D’après S&P, l’Australie, principal concurrent du Canada avec sa part de 13,8 % de dépenses consacrées à l’exploration des minéraux non ferreux en 2018, a renforcé ses incitations en faveur de l’exploration préliminaire. Un nouveau programme d’incitation fiscale créé cette année autorise les programmes d’exploration de zones vierges à distribuer les pertes fiscales sous forme de crédit aux actionnaires résidents australiens. En outre, quelques États proposent un remboursement allant jusqu’à 50 % aux projets de forage d’exploration innovants.
Terres inaliénables et financement en faveur des sciences de la Terre La législation en matière d’utilisation des terres, comme la loi sur le Grand Nord de l’Ontario qui protégera du développement une grande partie des terres provinciales dans le Nord, oublie souvent de prendre en compte leur potentiel minier. La PDAC préconise l’adoption d’une approche plus équilibrée aux terres inaliénables qui intègre une évaluation des ressources minérales et géoscientifiques dans les décisions relatives à l’aménagement du territoire. « Personne ne conteste que certaines régions doivent être protégées, mais les données géoscientifiques devraient toujours être prises en compte dans le processus décisionnel », expliquait M. Mullan. Le Canada était autrefois un chef de file mondial en termes de financement de la recherche dans le domaine des sciences de la Terre, par exemple pour la cartographie géologique des régions sous-explorées ; depuis une dizaine d’années cependant, sa réputation a bien décliné. Le dossier de la FIMC
appelle à un financement accru de la Commission géologique du Canada, notamment pour des travaux menés dans le grand Nord, et à des mesures incitatives pour mettre à l’essai les nouvelles technologies et techniques d’exploration. De nouveau, l’Australie mène le bal. Le pays a récemment créé MinEx CRC, un organisme de recherche estimé à 218 millions de dollars dont l’objectif est de développer des technologies de découverte de gisements miniers cachés et d’encourager la productivité des activités de forage en procédant à la collecte simultanée de données. Le CRC lance également la National Drilling Initiative (NDI, l’initiative nationale dédiée au forage), la première collaboration au monde réunissant commissions géologiques gouvernementales, chercheurs et industrie dans l’objectif de forer à la recherche de gisements minéraux dans des régions sousexplorées. Le tableau n’est cependant pas si noir pour le Canada. Les dernières données fournies par S&P suggèrent que les budgets réservés au Canada pourraient bien remonter la pente ; en 2018, ils ont effectivement augmenté de 31 % pour atteindre 1,44 milliard de dollars américains. Et lorsque les sociétés décident de prospecter sur notre territoire, elles savent qu’elles en auront pour leur argent. La recherche de M. Schodde indique que le rendement du capital investi pour l’exploration au Canada est aussi bon, sinon meilleur qu’en Australie ou aux États-Unis, les deux plus grands concurrents du Canada en matière de dépenses consacrées à l’exploration. « Mon point de vue personnel est que les gouvernements provinciaux et fédéral ont raison de soutenir l’industrie en lui proposant des incitations fiscales et une forte base de recherche et développement (R&D) », indiquait M. Schodde. « Malgré tout, le Canada connaît encore certaines difficultés inhérentes au pays, à savoir une infrastructure absente dans le grand Nord assortie de difficultés liées à l’exploration sous un terrain de recouvrement qui devient progressivement plus profond dans des districts établis du sud du pays. » Si les gouvernements à tous les niveaux devaient adopter ne serait-ce que certaines des suggestions faites par la FIMC aux ministres des mines cette année, concernant par exemple la construction d’une infrastructure dans le Nord, l’investissement dans la recherche sur les ressources géologiques et de forage et l’amélioration de la certitude réglementaire, le Canada pourrait redorer sa réputation mondiale en tant que lieu de prédilection pour l’investissement dans le domaine de l’exploration et assurer un avenir plus brillant à l’ensemble de ce secteur d’activité national. ICM December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 81
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La mine Sugar Zone est située au nord-est de White River, dans le nord-ouest de l'Ontario.
Avec l'aimable autorisation de Harte Gold
franc succes
Il aura fallu beaucoup de temps au projet Sugar Zone de Harte Gold pour atteindre la phase de production, mais les difficultés rencontrées n’auront pas eu raison de la patience de l’équipe Par Virginia Heffernan
u financement initial à l’attribution de permis, rien n’aura été simple dans le cheminement jusqu’à la phase de production du projet Sugar Zone, situé dans le nord de l’Ontario. Ainsi, l’ouverture des portes de la mine (la première mine d’or à haute teneur de la province) en octobre dernier a été particulièrement émouvante pour la direction et les employés de Harte Gold. L’exploitation, qui se trouve près de White River, devrait produire moins de 50 000 onces en 2019, mais la production annuelle augmentera progressivement pour atteindre 75 000 onces d’ici 2020 et 106 000 onces en moyenne à partir de là, à mesure qu’augmente la capacité de production. Minovembre, l’objectif initial de production était atteint, avec une capacité de traitement de 575 tonnes par jour (t/j), et Harte espérait atteindre la production commerciale et terminer son
D
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installation de gestion des résidus et son usine de remblai en pâte d’ici fin 2018. Harte et son ancien partenaire Corona Gold ont commencé l’exploration à Sugar Zone il y a 20 ans, juste après le scandale de la mine d’or Bre-X qui a décimé le marché des petites sociétés minières. Ensemble, ces deux sociétés ont passé une décennie à définir une ressource à haute teneur conforme à la norme internationale NI 43-101 de près d’un million de tonnes affichant une teneur d’environ 10 grammes par tonnes (g/t) d’or. Le projet a pourtant eu du mal à prendre son envol. En 2009, Stephen G. Roman (fils du fondateur de Denison Mines et personnalité de l’industrie minière Stephen B. Roman) a pris les rênes de Harte et a commencé à remettre de l’ordre dans les activités financières de la société. En mars 2010, Harte obtenait l’approbation pour racheter la part
Avec l'aimable autorisation de Harte Gold
profil de projet de 51 % de Corona dans la propriété Sugar Zone. Début 2011, la société disposait de fonds suffisants pour amorcer une campagne de forage de 10 000 mètres. En mai l’année suivante, le cours de l’or atteignait des sommets à 1 600 dollars américains l’once, et Harte publiait sa première évaluation économique pour le projet ; elle proposait une exploitation traitant 750 tonnes par jour qui produirait 66 000 onces par an sur six ans.
Accidents de parcours La voie vers la production s’est toutefois révélée houleuse et parsemée d’embûches. Il devenait de plus en plus difficile d’obtenir le financement nécessaire à l’avancement du projet. De son niveau record à 1 900 dollars américains l’once en 2011, le cours de l’or commençait à dégringoler, entraînant l’effondrement simultané des actions de Harte Gold. À l’automne 2015, Harte lançait cependant un programme d’échantillonnage massif de 70 000 tonnes de substances minérales à Sugar Zone, que la société a transportées par camion pour leur traitement à l’exploitation Hemlo de Barrick à 60 kilomètres (km) à l’ouest ; elle obtenait également un prêt d’or allant jusqu’à 6 millions de dollars américains. Cette activité a attiré l’attention de la société de capital-investissement britannique Appian Capital. « Notre société a vraiment passé un tournant lorsque Appian nous a rendu visite en 2016 ; elle trouvait intéressante notre façon de chercher le corps minéralisé, et nous a fait une proposition de financement. Ce sont les 25 millions de dollars que nous a prêtés Appian initialement qui ont véritablement contribué à l’essor de notre programme ; ils nous ont permis d’intensifier le forage et le développement et d’attirer l’attention du marché », expliquait M. Roman, président et chef de la direction de Harte. « Appian aimait notre idée de parvenir rapidement à la phase de production du projet et n’était pas uniquement axée sur la réalisation par notre équipe d’une étude de faisabilité négociable en banque. » 2018 marquait une autre année importante pour le projet. Un programme d’exploration agressif lancé en 2017 a permis à Harte de tripler ces ressources au gisement de 500 000 onces à 1,5 million d’onces (2,6 millions de tonnes à une teneur de 8,52 g/t d’or en ressources indiquées, et 3,6 millions de tonnes à une teneur de 6,59 g/t d’or en ressources présumées). Une évaluation économique préliminaire (EEP) indiquait que Sugar Zone présente une valeur actualisée nette de 244 millions de dollars et un taux de rentabilité interne de 42 % (après déduction des impôts) pour un prix de l’or à 1 250 dollars américains l’once, et un coût en capital sur la durée de vie de la mine de 280 millions de dollars, dont 176 millions de dollars destinés au développement souterrain. Cette petite société minière a également obtenu un financement par emprunt de 70 millions de dollars américains auprès d’Appian et de Sprott Resource Lending. Lorsque Harte a obtenu ses derniers permis d’exploitation en septembre 2018, la société a tout mis en œuvre pour atteindre rapidement la production commerciale avant la fin de l’année. La société Technica Mining de Sudbury, qui s’occu-
L’or qui n’est pas récupéré dans le circuit de traitement par gravité à la mine est transporté par camion sous forme de concentré à la fonderie Horne à Rouyn-Noranda, au Québec, pour son traitement ultérieur.
pait de l’extraction des échantillons industriels en 2015, a développé la descenderie souterraine ainsi que les premiers chantiers et monteries de ventilation. Redpath Canada a obtenu le contrat d’exploitation minière commerciale pour les deux années à venir ; la société Halyard a quant à elle construit l’usine de remblai en pâte et le concentrateur, qui inclut des fonctionnalités de récupération par gravité et de flottation, afin de récupérer 90 % de l’or. Pour obtenir le feu vert du gouvernement, expliquait M. Roman, il aura cependant fallu des années de patience ainsi que de nombreux permis, dont beaucoup ont été retardés. Harte a finalement décidé de limiter sa capacité de traitement à moins de 600 tonnes par jour, de manière à ce que la mine devienne opérationnelle avec des permis provinciaux uniquement, tout en générant un flux net de trésorerie avant de développer l’exploitation.
, Projets d agrandissement D’après l’EEP réalisée par P&E Mining Consultants, le développement sera progressif ; il commencera par 540 tonnes par jour (t/j) pour augmenter à 800 t/j en 2020 et atteindre 1 400 t/j d’ici 2021 à mesure que les ressources du chantier Middle Zone sont intégrées dans le plan de mine. Le circuit par gravité permet de transformer la majeure partie de l’or en lingots d’or sur place, mais les concentrés de sulfure obtenus par flottation doivent actuellement être traités sur un autre site. « Nous devons envoyer le concentré à un tiers (la fonderie Horne de Glencore à Rouyn-Noranda, au Québec), aussi nous souhaitons obtenir un permis (fédéral) pour mener notre production jusqu’à 1 400 t/j et ajouter un circuit de December 2018 / January 2019 • Décembre 2018 / Janvier 2019 | 83
Notre histoire en photos
Racontez-nous votre histoire sur
120.cim.org/fr 1919: Un barman au travail aux mines Granby, à Phoenix, en Colombie-Britannique, « où le cuivre était roi ». La mine Phoenix comprenait une mine souterraine et une mine à ciel ouvert. La mine a maintenu une chambre de type « chantier d’extraction » de 80 pieds de haut, 105 pieds de large et 400 pieds de long.
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lixiviation par cyanuration », déclarait M. Roman. « Si toutefois nous avions essayé de procéder ainsi dès le début, il nous aurait fallu plus de cinq années pour y parvenir. » La conclusion d’une entente sur les répercussions et avantages (ERA) avec les groupes de Premières Nations dans la région a également pris beaucoup de temps. « Le gouvernement a ouvert la boîte de Pandore et ne nous donne aucune règle à suivre », expliquait M. Roman quant aux obligations de l’industrie envers les groupes autochtones. « La structure doit être remise à jour et inclure des lignes directrices qui refléteront ce que les sociétés et les Premières Nations s’efforcent d’atteindre. Il convient d’y intégrer une échéance de manière à ce que les entrepreneurs et les employés ne restent pas là à ne rien faire. » En mai 2018, Harte a signé une ERA avec la Première Nation de Pic Mobert qui propose une participation aux bénéfices nets de 4 % et donne la possibilité d’acheter 500 000 actions ordinaires de Harte au prix de 0,40 dollar pour une période de cinq ans. Le suivi environnemental fait l’objet d’une entente distincte de la société avec la Première Nation de Pic River. La durée de vie de Sugar Zone est de 11 ans ; la mine emploie environ 200 personnes des communautés environnantes de White River, Hornepayne, Matheson et Wawa. La société a construit des logements temporaires dotés d’une cuisine centrale à White River, et met à disposition de ses employés un service de transport par bus au départ et à destination du site minier, situé à 25 kilomètres au nord-est. Harte a choisi d’utiliser la méthode d’exploitation rabattante à longs trous par retrait longitudinal pour un coût d’exploitation total de 128 dollars par tonne traitée. La société souhaite exploiter en premier lieu les chantiers des descenderies Nord et Sud de Sugar Zone à plus faible teneur avant d’atteindre les chantiers à plus haute teneur situés plus bas, de manière à ce que la teneur diluée les 18 premiers mois de la production soit de 5,5 g/t. Sugar Zone est un gisement aurifère mésothermal situé dans la zone de cisaillement au sein de la ceinture de roches vertes de Dayohessarah. L’or est associé à une altération de silice/sulfure/potasse, et apparaît dans les filons et filonnets de quartz associés de manière prédominante à des filons-couches de porphyre, des zones de contact et des métavolcanites mafiques. Au début de l’année prochaine, Harte publiera une nouvelle estimation des ressources pour Sugar Zone et continuera l’exploration afin d’accroître les zones connues de minéralisation et de trouver de nouvelles poches le long de l’enveloppe foncière de 83 850 hectares, à cheval sur la ceinture. La société a récemment commencé à forer à environ 1 500 mètres en dessous de la surface (soit 500 mètres plus bas que pour les ressources présumées actuelles de Sugar Zone) pour tester la continuité de la minéralisation en aval-pendage. M. Roman compare la géologie de Sugar Zone au gisement Hemlo et à d’autres gisements de l’ouest de l’Abitibi, où les exploitants commençaient l’extraction de colonnes minéralisées en surface avant de trouver du minerai à plus haute teneur bien plus profond. « Le forage de trous profonds est très coûteux, mais nous nous efforcerons de minimiser les coûts en utilisant la [polarisation provoquée (ou induite)] en fond de trous et la géologie structurale. » Sugar Zone donnera au nord de l’Ontario une impulsion économique dont la région a grand besoin, et a le potentiel de se développer considérablement dans les années à venir ; cependant, la voie vers le développement requiert une persévérance exceptionnelle. Lorsque Harte a finalement ouvert ses portes le 24 octobre 2018, le Premier ministre Doug Ford a déclaré qu’il s’agissait d’un « signe au monde entier que l’Ontario est ouvert aux affaires ». Pour M. Roman, ceci ne constitue toutefois qu’une étape durement remportée en vue de libérer le plein potentiel du projet. ICM
technical abstracts
CIM Journal Abstracts from CIM Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1
Enhanced flotation of platinum mineral fines through feed cavitation A. Singh, Gold Ore (Pty) Ltd., Benoni, South Africa
Flotation of fine (< 10 m) minerals is a challenge exacerbated by the emerging practice of fine grinding flotation feed to better liberate targeted minerals; however, the ability of conventional flotation cells to float liberated fines remains questionable. The Gold Ore solution using Mach reactors was tested at Mintek, South Africa, and showed an ~180% increase in the Kelsall kfast factor, a projected recovery improvement of 4% for the Mach-reactor case, and final concentrate grade twice that of conventional flotation. Theory, pilot plant results, and key aspects of plant design, supplemented by operational plant observations after commissioning, are discussed.
Stemming zone fragmentation analysis of optimized blasting with top-column air decks E. Kabwe, School of Civil, Environmental & Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia; W. Banda, School of Mines, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia
Trial application of air decks on a production shot improved fragmentation (32% reduction in x50). Empirical fragmentation models and digital image processing software were used to estimate fragment size distribution of the blasted muck pile. The x20, x50, and x80 passing fractions, and top size were 42, 265, 683, and 1,455 mm, respectively. Air-deck application reduced explosives load in blastholes, lowering total charging cost by US$20/hole (15% decrease) and the powder factor to an average of 0.86 kg/m3 (12% decrease). Blast results were 443,624 t of blasted material from the block (90% of total muck pile) was smaller than 900 mm.
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technical abstracts
CIM Journal Abstracts from CIM Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2
Retrofit of Agrium’s special standard surge bin improves reliability, safety, and life cycle cost T. Holmes, Jenike & Johanson Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada; S. Davison, Agrium Inc., Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada (presently with Indigenous Services Canada)
A surge bin at Agrium’s Vanscoy potash operations has been plagued with flow, wear, and corrosion issues since being built in 1967. The culprits? The bin’s carbon-steel construction, geometry, and the resultant funnel-flow pattern are the root causes. An investigation and cost analysis indicated that hopper redesign and retrofit would increase production and reduce maintenance and capital costs. The retrofitted bin provides safer, more reliable operation and has a much longer predicted working life. Using this example, the authors describe bulk-solids-flow theory and highlight the importance of customizing bulk-material-handling-system design using appropriate flow properties to improve reliability, safety, and cost effectiveness.
Cost-saving strategies in mine ventilation Euler De Souza, Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Underground operation ventilation energy requirements constitute a significant portion of mine energy consumption (40– 50%) and total energy costs (25–40%). In general, mine ventilation systems are energy inefficient; the author has found several systems that operate at efficiencies below 65%. This paper presents how engineering design principles can improve the performance and efficiency of ventilation appliances, resulting in reduced power consumption and operating costs. Case studies demonstrate that, by retrofitting ventilation appliances using proper engineering concepts, systems will operate at efficiencies well above common operating efficiencies, resulting in a drastic reduction in costs and base electrical and energy loads.
Gaining insights into mentorship initiatives in the Canadian mining industry T. Nyabeze and S. Espley, Vale, Ontario, Canada; D. Beneteau, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Many mentorship programs are available to Canadian mining industry employees. Some are company-led initiatives, whereas others are provided through educational institutions or nonprofit organizations. In 2016, a national survey was launched to gain insight into perceptions of what mentorship is, learn about available programs, and collate experiences with formal and informal mentorship opportunities. This paper outlines survey findings and delivers recommendations to industry for consideration in employee mentorship programs. In addition, mining industry leaders share their mentor/mentee perspectives. The intent of this paper is to bring awareness of best practices that can help employees grow and develop in their profession.
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technical abstracts Rare earth recovery from uranium plant raffinate and operation of a rare earth separation pilot plant B. Zhao, Y. Tang, and J. Zhang, Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rare earth elements (REEs) have many key applications in traditional and advanced technologies. A shortage of several critical REEs is expected due to the discrepancy between the availability of REEs from REE deposits and the REE demand from the market. REE recovery and separation from secondary resources such as uranium wastes and recycled materials might help balance the shortfall in a cost-effective way. This paper presents data concerning the recovery of heavy REEs (HREEs) from uranium raffinate. It also discusses the design, commissioning, and operation of a solvent extraction pilot plant for the separation of REEs.
Cost of occupational injuries and diseases in the mining industry in Quebec M. Lebeau and P. Duguay, Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
The cost of occupational injuries and diseases in the mining industry in Quebec was estimated for the period of 2010 to 2012. The method used takes into account the financial and human costs assumed by employers, workers, and the community. To better direct research and prevention toward issues with the most significant consequences, the results are presented in various ranking tables, which stakeholders might find useful.
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of molten matte A. Moreau, A. Hamel, P. Bouchard, and M. Sabsabi, National Research Council of Canada, Boucherville, Quebec, Canada
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic emission spectroscopy technique suitable for in-situ and in-line measurements during pyrometallurgy. A mobile prototype system was developed to measure elemental compositions of molten metals. An inert gas flows through a tube with one end immersed in molten metal and the gas bubbles out below the melt surface. The LIBS measurement is made through the tube and onto the bubble’s surface. This avoids measuring surface contaminants and slag. This paper presents the simultaneous measurement of Cu, Ni, Fe, Co, and S concentrations in molten matte at 1,125°C.
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MINING LORE Klondike Kate By Jordan Faries
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90 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 8
Courtesy of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame
haaw Tláa – also known as Kate would send the Northwest into a Carmack – was an often overlooked frenzy. but essential part of the prospecting The prospectors, who would group that kicked off the historic shortly be joined by scores of Klondike Gold Rush. Carmack was the other gold-seekers, set up shop rumoured discoverer of the first nugget immediately. And yet, while they of Yukon gold and became, for a time, knew they were bringing in the wealthiest Indigenous woman in wealth beyond their wildest America, but was nearly forgotten by the dreams, the gold was not easy to industry she had a central role in launchimmediately convert into money, ing. food or supplies. It was there that Carmack was nominated to the CanaKate’s contributions proved dian Mining Hall of Fame (CMHF) in invaluable. She baked bread and October, almost two decades after the sewed mittens and moccasins to four male members of her prospecting sell to other miners – bringing in party that made the discovery were recimmediate income – and used her ognized. The induction, which places traditional knowledge to help the her on equal footing with the other four group live off the land and survive and acknowledges her as “instrumental” what could have been a deadly to the expedition’s success, comes as first winter. researchers aim to correct a trend of After a few years, the family 100 years after her death, Shaaw Tláa has underrepresentation of the contributions Nearly collected close to a million dollars come to be recognized for her instrumental role in of Indigenous women to Canada’s min- the discovery that led to the Klondike Gold Rush. in gold from their claims, launching history. ing them into a life of luxury. In Deb Vanasse’s 2016 book, Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack Now wealthy, George and Kate Carmack travelled to Seattle, and the Klondike Race for Gold, Carmack is described as an with plans to buy a yacht and sail to Paris. However, things “exceptional and complex woman” who has come to represent quickly deteriorated. There were stories of the Carmacks leadthe spirit of the historically excluded yet essential Indigenous ing an early 20th century version of a rock-star lifestyle in the women in Canada’s unruly West. United States, including reportedly flinging gold coins from the Shaaw Tláa, a member of the Tagish First Nation, was born roof of a hotel as a crowd scrambled below to collect as much in 1862. In the 1880s, after the man she had married and their as they could. Kate struggled to adjust, and turned to alcohol. child died from influenza, she and two family members – her The couple’s marriage fell apart, and George eventually left brother Skookum Jim, and nephew Dawson Charlie – joined Kate for a prostitute, prompting Kate to return home. She filed forces with white prospector George Carmack, and formed a for divorce and for her share of the wealth the pair had made group that packed, hunted and prospected together around together. However, because she lacked marriage papers, the the Forty Mile region of Yukon. Shaaw Tláa and George Car- court failed to recognize the Carmacks’ union, denying Kate mack were married within the first year, and she changed her both the divorce and the share of the riches that would come name to Kate. with it. To add insult to injury, George took their daughter In 1896, the group followed a suggestion by fellow with him to the United States. prospector Robert Henderson and explored Bonanza Creek, In 1920, Kate died during a flu epidemic while living quioff the Klondike River. That August they struck gold, and lots etly in a cabin in Yukon. of it. In 1988, George Carmack, Skookum Jim, Dawson Charlie They staked the claim in George’s name, apparently believ- and Robert Henderson were recognized by the Prospectors’ ing it would be more likely to be recognized under the name Hall of Fame for the discovery that started the largest and most of the group’s only white member, though it is unknown who famous gold rush in Canadian history, and ultimately brought actually discovered the first gold nugget. Some say it was more than 100,000 prospectors to the area. The CMHF folSkookum Jim, some claim it was George. According to Yukon lowed suit in 1999. Kate, meanwhile, has finally received the legend, it may have been Kate herself who, while she was recognition she deserved, as this year she became the third washing dishes in a stream, first noticed the mineral gleam that woman to be inducted to the CMHF. CIM
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