CIM Magazine December 2017 - January 2018

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DECEMBER 2017 • JANUARY 2018 | DÉCEMBRE 2017 • JANVIER 2018

feature

48

How to save exploration The number of new mineral discoveries has been dropping for years. But emerging technology and creative thinking could be the ticket to the future of mining

By Virginia Heffernan

54 2020 vision

66 Sharper shooters

Continental Gold aims to bring its Buriticá project in Colombia to production in two years – an important milestone for the company and for its host country trying to attract mining development and shed its troubled reputation

Handheld mineral analysis exploration tools are evolving to be smaller, more precise, tougher, faster, and more connected than ever before

By Ryan Bergen

By Kylie Williams

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 5

CIM MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2017•JANUARY 2018 | DECEMBRE 2017•JANVIER 2018

in each issue

8 10 12

Editor’s letter President’s notes Chatter

tools of the trade

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The best in new technology Compiled by Rob Csernyik

developments

16

Indigenous groups win out against Yukon government in Peel Watershed Supreme Court decision

16

By Rob Csernyik

21

26

Liam Fitzgerald explains why PwC Canada sees more confidence in the junior mining sector and why cobalt had a big year

obituaries

By Rob Csernyik

mining lore

69

Compiled by Tom DiNardo

82

South American and African countries update mining tax laws in 2017, while other countries focus on environmental regulations

42

column It is time to blow up the idea that mine-to-mill optimization simply means more blasting

contenu francophone

70 71

By Kristy Duffy and Walter Valery of Hatch

72

The competing priorities along the way to development in the Ring of Fire

By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

42

Cordoba Minerals’ beekeeping initiative at its San Matias project gives locals a new employment opportunity

By Kylie Williams

46

Q&A: John Thompson talks about sustainability, Resources for Future Generations and kids these days

Table des matières Lettre de l’éditeur | Mot du président

article de fond

social responsibility

40

A successful Ontario graphite mine is forever submerged under Black Donald Lake

By Jen Glanville

By Elle Crosby

38

We remember those who have passed in 2017

60

Par Virginia Heffernan

77 retrospective

60

The Dome School of Mines On the eve of the closure of the Dome mine, CIM Magazine spoke with current and former employees about its place in mining history

L’innovation dans le domaine des sciences de la Terre permettra-t-elle d’inverser la tendance à la baisse des découvertes ?

Soutenue par Newmont Mining ainsi que par l’accord de paix récemment signé en Colombie, Continental Gold a commencé la construction à sa mine Buriticá Par Ryan Bergen

By Kelsey Rolfe

By Ryan Bergen

Nous publions progressivement sur notre site Internet les articles du CIM Magazine en version française.

6 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS, MINOVA HAS BEEN PROUDLY SERVING THE CANADIAN MINING INDUSTRY. Minova is known, globally, as an innovator of ground support solutions for the underground mining, construction, tunneling and civil engineering industries.

editor’s letter

Informed optimism ach year around the time that we are finalizing our Exploration issue, Major Drilling Group International lends a helpful hand by releasing its quarterly results. The TSX-listed company has rigs and drillers working around the world and so its report is a great snapshot of the general level of mineral exploration and a useful empirical antidote to the unfailing optimism of junior mining promoters.

“Exploration activity levels continue to increase in all regions,” wrote CEO Denis Laroque. “While revenue is up 10 per cent as compared to the same quarter last year, the volume of activity increased by more than 10 per cent.” Despite the uptick, the company still posted a loss.

In other words, the driller is getting busier, although it is still a buyer’s market for its services. A recent report from PwC Canada tells a similar story from a different perspective.

The market value of the top 100 junior miners on the TSX Venture has also moved upward, but as the report’s lead author Liam Fitzgerald relates in our conversation with him (pg. 21), junior companies have more money on hand to

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spend, but they are spending it conservatively. And, as Virginia Heffernan relates in the feature piece, “In search of answers” (pg. 48), explorers are also paying much closer attention to technologies such as artificial intelligence and image analysis tools that can help stretch those drilling dollars further by refining prospective targets.

Colombia, Major Drilling reports, is one area seeing a healthy increase in exploration activity. Continental Gold, subject of this issue’s project profile (pg. 54), is among its clients there. In addition to building the Buriticá mine in the province of Antioquia, the company is planning an extensive drilling campaign at the project to expand its reserves.

Continental and Cordoba Minerals, whose local economic development work we highlight in “A sweet solution to social responsibility” (pg. 42) are just two projects of many in the region eager to make the most of the improved security and policy environment in that country.

So, as we hunker down for the winter, there are promising signs of spring for the mining sector.

From everyone at CIM Magazine, I wish you the best for the year ahead.

Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen, rbergen@cim.org Executive editor Angela Hamlyn, ahamlyn@cim.org Managing editor Andrea Nichiporuk, anichiporuk@cim.org Section editors Tom DiNardo, tdinardo@cim.org; Kelsey Rolfe, krolfe@cim.org Copy editor Marilena Lucci, mlucci@cim.org Web content editor Maria Olaguera, molaguera@cim.org Contributing editor Eavan Moore, emoore@cim.org Associate editor Elle Crosby, ecrosby@cim.org Editorial intern Rob Csernyik Digitization technician Marie-Ève Lapierre, melapierre@cim.org Contributors Kristy Duffy, Jen Glanville, Virginia Heffernan, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Walter Valery, Kylie Williams Editorial advisory board Alicia Ferdinand, Mohammad Babaei Khorzhoughi, Vic Pakalnis, Steve Rusk, Nathan Stubina Translations Karen Rolland and Annick Vallée 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

Ryan Bergen, Editor-in-chief editor@cim.org @Ryan_CIM_Mag

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 Neal Young, nyoung@dvtail.com, 905.707.3525 Subscriptions Online version included in CIM Membership ($187/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.

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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.

adian Busines sM Can in

Printed in Canada 8 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

2017 CANADA’S

SAFEST EMPLOYERS

GOLD WINNER

president’s notes

Mining and Risk

“C-suite mining executives now require complex strategies to ensure that profitability and shareholder satisfaction is balanced with the ever-changing risks.”

Over the last two decades, the risks faced by mining companies have changed dramatically. The major reason for this has been the super-cycle between 2002 and 2015, when the demand for commodities rose and fell and the prices followed along. The result has been a shift in the mindset of C-suite executives.

Prior to the start of the super-cycle, executives were prudently managing capital and operating costs to produce profits. By the peak in 2008, demand for commodities, mainly from BRIC countries, had escalated, and prices had spiked to the point that projects previously considered uneconomic were restudied. At that time, an EY survey of top executives in mining indicated the top five risks in descending order were skills shortage, industry consolidation, infrastructure access, social licence to operate and climate change. By 2014, the mid-point of the super-cycle downturn as commodity demand receded, the top five risks changed. Productivity improvement, capital allocation priorities, social licence, regulatory risk (government partial nationalism, tax changes and increased royalties) and capital project cost control became the focus. During this period the drive was to get companies back to profitability. Of note is the presence of social licence to operate in both surveys, continuing to this day.

The most recent EY survey, focused on 2017 and 2018, ranks the five most important risks as digital effectiveness (e.g. the practical application of the industrial internet of things), competitive shareholders return, cybersecurity, new world commodities (e.g. lithium for energy storage) and regulatory risk. This final one has been a consistent concern for mining executives over the last decade. Two recent examples are Barrick Gold, through its majority ownership in Acacia Mining, which has experienced intervention in Tanzania. The government there banned concentrate exports over tax fraud allegations and demanded a larger stake in Acacia. The second is the state of Western Australia, where a recently-elected Labour government has proposed to increase royalties on the region’s 50 gold mines by about 50 per cent, despite an election manifesto opposing royalty increases.

Since 2016 commodity prices have risen and company performance has improved as capital prioritization and operating cost improvements return companies to profitability. But C-suite mining executives now require complex strategies to ensure that profitability and shareholder satisfaction is balanced with the everchanging risks.

Kenneth (Ken) G. Thomas CIM President

10 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

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RYAN BERGEN @Ryan_CIM_Mag

ANGELA HAMLYN @AngelaH_CIM

RE: WHY ARE THERE STILL SO FEW WOMEN IN MINING? (ONLINE EXCLUSIVE)

I am a retired metallurgist, chemist and materials engineer that worked more than 35 years as a failure analyst for the civilian side of the Navy. I spent years trying to get women involved in metallurgy and materials engineering – Nancey Maegerlein

ANDREA NICHIPORUK @Andrea_CIM_Mag

I worked in metallurgy /mining, and absolutely loved it! I encourage more women to do it simply because it is great work, and I don’t want anyone to miss out for never having considered it.

– Susan Lee

TOM DiNARDO @Tom_CIM_Mag

RE: CATERPILLAR ANNOUNCES NEW PROOF OF CONCEPT BATTERY-POWERED LHD (NOV ‘17)

KELSEY ROLFE @kelseyarolfe

Another good move for the mining industry! An electric drive LHD test unit to be used at a mine in 2018 –Samantha Espley , @sjesple

RE: RECONNECTING WITH EXPERIENCE CAN STRENGTHEN THE MINING SECTOR (MARCH/APRIL ‘17)

Instagram

FOLLOW US

Sounds like a great idea. Many of us retired, successful old mining personnel would still enjoy some part time involvement but don’t care to be full time consultants – Pettijohn Terry

TWITTER twitter.com/CIMorg/

FACEBOOK facebook.com/CIMMag/ facebook.com/CIM.ICM/ 9 likes

RE: SAFETY TRAINING LEVELS UP (NOV ‘17)

Great idea, just need some zombies to really make it popular.

– Marty Dilworth

MARIA OLAGUERA @Maria_CIM_Mag

Off we go. Ducking through the clouds on the way to Continental Gold’s Buritica mine.

CIM Magazine visited Continental Gold’s Buriticá mine in Antioquia, Colombia in October. Check out our profile on pg. 54 and follow us on Instagram @cim_mag for more field adventures and the mining stories you should be watching.

LINKEDIN linkedin.com/groups/40506/

INSTAGRAM instagram.com/cim_mag

YOUTUBE youtube.com/canadianinstituteofmining

LET’S TALK ERRATUM In our November 2017 issue we ran a Q&A with Integra Resources CEO George Salamis (pg.

28), which said the company had acquired Kinross Gold’s DeLamar mine “earlier this month.” The acquisition actually occurred in mid-September. We regret the error.

12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Want to sing our praises or read us the riot act? Email your comments to editor@cim.org and you could be featured on these pages.

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Courtesy of RCT

tools of the trade

Longer-life drill bits

Courtesy of Epiroc

RCT’s ControlMaster MTX1000 pendant remote gives elevated workers full control over their platform and reduces the risk of crushing and pinching incidents. The new remote is rechargeable and has a battery life of more than 16 hours. In addition, it is designed for universal use across all makes and models of equipment. “This can be customized to suit any type of machine regardless of age or whether the operating system is hydraulic or electrical,” said RCT automation and control product manager Brendon Cullen. The remote is compact and lighter than previous models due to small control design and the removing of some hardware. “Not only is it lighter, but the operators can now control the joysticks with their thumbs instead of their hands,” Cullen said. Operators use a deadman switch that must be held down to operate the remote. “It significantly reduces the risk of inadvertently activating a function that is not required or puts a stop to operations if something was to happen.” If needed, the cab operator can initiate a safety interlock control by applying the park brake, setting the vehicle in neutral and switching over to basket control. Once this is complete the cabin operator is unable to operate any functions with the remote. Another key safety feature is that in the case of an accident, the basket will not move back to its original position. Instead, the ControlMaster MTX1000 will shut down the machine right away.

Courtesy of Boart Longyear

Improved safety at hand

Boart Longyear’s new diamond drill bit offers the benefits of a diamond crown coupled with added lifespan over similar bits. The Green Bit features diamonds attached by a proprietary, patent-pending chemical bond process. Chris Lambert, product management leader at Boart Longyear, said this adherence is why the bit performs so well. “It’s a similar diamond size to the competitor’s product but the different bonding allows for the difference in penetration and life.” He added that in a comparison study the Boart Longyear Green Bits had twice the life and 20 per cent more penetration compared to other drill bits tested. The unique Razorcut ridges on the face of the 16-milimetre crown height improves balance and tracking in the hole when drilling starts. The bit’s tapered intermediate waterways also improve flushing and stop the accumulation of debris. While the industry standard for waterway area is around 15 per cent, the Green Bits have up to 30 per cent, meaning it is not necessary to press as hard to drill as with other bits. The Green Bit is Boart Longyear’s first in its new colour-coded line. According to Lambert the company will release other colour-coded models – for hard rock and for soft rock – over the coming months.

An electric alternative The new Boomer M2C Battery drill from Epiroc, the mining-focused subsidiary of Atlas Copco Group, is clean, efficient and has the same functionality as the diesel engine equivalent. Richard Riach, global senior project manager at Epiroc, said the battery-powered Boomer M2C provides a new option for mines that are constrained by available ventilation capacity, high ambient mine temperatures or limited electricity grid supply that make diesel equipment a poor choice. The drill rig will charge the battery while drilling so there is no need to stop for charging during tramming. “Through a power management system this re-charging can occur without increasing the net grid power supply levels for the machine in comparison to that of a diesel unit,” Riach said. As part of the drivetrain efficiency design, the system provides for bi-directional power. “In a down grade situation, gravity is utilized to overcome the rolling resistance and in some cases can be harnessed to provide power that can restore battery charge,” he said.

Compiled by Rob Csernyik 14 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Mine reclamation research project receives funding from Genome BC

Talking junior mining trends with PwC Canada’s Liam Fitzgerald

A review of mining legislation changes around the world in 2017

TSX-listed companies making scant progress appointing women to boards

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Developments Supreme Court rules out mining development in majority of Yukon watershed Indigenous groups win out against Yukon government in Peel Watershed Supreme Court decision

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed, in part, the appeal of three Indigenous groups and two conservation groups from Yukon Territory looking to protect the Peel Watershed from development.

In a unanimous decision released on Dec. 1, the Supreme Court justices agreed with the Nacho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations, the Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and the Yukon Conservation Society that the territorial government did not have authority under the agreed terms of the Peel Watershed land use plans to make sweeping changes to it in 2012.

Those changes, which First Nations strongly objected to, left 71 per cent of the watershed open for mineral exploration and the remaining 29 per cent protected. The original plan from late 2009 left 20 per cent of the watershed for mineral development and 80 per cent protected. The watershed covers 68,000 square kilometres – about 14 per cent of Yukon – in the northeast of the territory. There are about 9,000 mineral claims in the Peel Watershed region. The territorial government has estimated that $47 million has been spent on exploration there since 2002.

16 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Peter Mather/Protect the Peel

By Rob Csernyik

The Nacho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations have traditional territory in the 68,000square-kilometre Peel Watershed, pictured, which is located in the northwest part of the Yukon.

While the territorial government was authorized to make minor or partial changes, Canada’s top court found that what it aimed to do “[changed] the final recommended plan so significantly as to effectively reject it.”

In upholding a previous trial judge’s order, the Supreme Court nullified Yukon’s approval of the plan. Both parties will return to the stage of the land use plan approval process where the territorial government can approve,

modify or reject the final recommended plan as it applies to non-settlement land after consultation with First Nations. The Supreme Court set aside the trial judge’s order to return instead to an earlier stage of consultation.

The Nacho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations have traditional territory in the watershed. The land use planning process for the watershed began in 2004.

developments The Yukon Chamber of Mines responded to the decision stating it is “concerned with the trajectory of land withdrawals in Yukon.”

Beyond the Peel decision, mineral exploration has also been frustrated by two staking bans in Yukon’s southeast that were put in place in 2013 after an appeal court ruled the territorial government must consult with First Nations before granting mineral rights on Crown land.

In the Chamber of Mines’ statement, Samson Hartland, the chamber’s executive director said “successful land use plans are transparent, inclusive, holistic, flexible, adequately resourced and evidencebased by including socio-economic data such as mineral and exploration potential. Land withdrawals are not always being made based on sound evidence, at the conclusion of a robust policy process.” CIM With files from Kate Sheridan

BHP and Vale get extension on multibillion dollar Samarco claim settlement Samarco and its parent companies, BHP and Vale, received a 150-day extension from a Brazilian court to continue negotiating the settlement of two multi-billion dollar claims relating to the November 2015 Fundão tailings dam disaster.

The companies have until April 20, 2018 to determine a settlement for the US$47.6 billion and US$6.1 billion claims with Brazilian federal prosecutors, BHP said in a news release on November 21.

BHP also said that the three companies entered into an amended agreement with Brazil’s federal prosecutors’ office and the Minas Gerais state prosecutors’ office, which updates a preliminary agreement signed earlier this year.

The new agreement allows state prosecutors to become party to the original agreement and adds more community consultation. It also provides for new socioeconomic experts who will advise the federal prosecutors.

The tailings dam failure, which is Brazil’s largest-ever environmental disaster, killed 19 people, destroyed the village of Bento Rodrigues and polluted the Rio Doce basin.

When the preliminary agreement was signed last January, a final settlement with federal prosecutors was expected by the end of June. But on June 30 the companies received an extension to Oct. 30. At that time, BHP sent $250 million in financial support to Samarco to help with remediation.

BHP has not restarted the mine because of regulatory approvals and licenses that need to be obtained, and a restructuring of Samarco’s US$3-billion – Kelsey Rolfe debt.

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December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 17

Courtesy of Nevsun Resources

FROM THE WIRE TMAC Resources CEO Catharine Farrow retired from her position effective Dec. 31, just months after the company reached commercial production at its Hope Bay mine in Nunavut. Farrow also left her post as director of the company. Terry MacGibbon, TMAC’s executive chairman, immediately assumed Farrow’s responsibilities and worked with her to ensure an efficient transition, the company said.

Trevali Mining announced multiple new senior executive appointments in late November. Paul Keller, Trevali’s COO since 2011, has been appointed to the role of vice-president of major projects and technical support. Bryant Schwengler, previously general manager of the Caribou mine in New Brunswick, will take over as COO. In addition, the company welcomed Gerbrand Van Heerden, formerly the CFO at Rosh Pinah Zinc Corporation, as senior vice-president of business initiative and development.

Lion One Metals reported in midNovember that it had begun construction at its Tuvatu gold project in Fiji.

The earthworks are planned to be mostly complete in the second quarter of 2018. Tuvatu is modeled after other regional mines that feature low sulfidation, but high-grade epithermal gold deposits. The fully permitted, 385hectare site is located on the west coast of Fiji’s largest island Viti Levu, 25 kilometres from Nadi’s international airport.

David Prins was appointed Pretium Resources’ vice-president of operations in November. Prior to his appointment, he was the project director for Pretium’s Brucejack mine in northwestern British Columbia. Prins previously worked directly and indirectly with Placer Dome for a period of more than 16 years, including a decade at the Zaldivar mine in northern Chile. Following this, he was involved with numerous mining projects, primarily in Latin America.

18 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Three Eritrean refugees alleged in a lawsuit filed in British Columbia that government-owned construction firms used them as slaves during the construction of Nevsun's Bisha mine, pictured.

Nevsun’s bid to have human rights case moved to Eritrea dismissed by B.C. court The British Columbia Court of Appeal dismissed a claim from Nevsun Resources to have a human rights case against it moved to Eritrea, where the company operates.

The ruling, released Nov. 21, affirmed the B.C. Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling that the province had territorial jurisdiction over the case because the company is headquartered in Vancouver.

The case was brought by three Eritrean refugees who have alleged that government-owned construction firms used them as slaves during the construction of Nevsun’s Bisha copper-zinc mine. The lawsuit alleges the refugees were conscripted into the military under the Eritrean National Service Program and then deployed at the mine.

In an email to CIM Magazine from Nevsun’s investor relations department, the company said “there are contractual commitments in place that strictly prohibit the use of national service employees by Bisha’s contractors and subcontractors.”

Nevsun has denied the allegations, and argued in its appeal that Eritrea would be the most convenient forum for the case to be heard. The plaintiffs said there was a threat that the Eritrean system would not provide a fair process.

“Although the practical and logistical difficulties of trying these claims in British Columbia would be considerable, [the B.C. Supreme Court] judge did not err in finding a ‘real risk’ of corruption and unfairness in the Eritrean legal system,” Justice Mary Newbury wrote in her decision.

To date, six further actions have been filed against Nevsun with 58 additional claimants between them who "advance materially similar claims," said Nicholas Baker, a securities lawyer at Siskinds LLP who is on the legal team representing the three refugees.

The lawsuit alleges that Nevsun would have been aware of credible reports of governmental abuses, and that by entering a commercial relationship with Eritrea it facilitated forced labour.

Nevsun has a 60 per cent stake in Bisha, located 150 kilometres west of the East African country’s capital city Asmara, and the Eritrean government owns the other 40 per cent.

developments The case is one of three where Canadian courts have kept jurisdiction over allegations involving Canadian mining companies’ actions abroad.

Earlier this year the B.C. Court of Appeal reversed a B.C. Supreme Court decision and allowed Guatemalan protestors to proceed with their lawsuit against Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources in Canada. And in Ontario, three lawsuits against HudBay Minerals for a killing, a shooting injury and gang rapes in Guatemala are all proceeding to trial.

By default Canada’s courts have jurisdiction over Canadianheadquartered companies regardless of where they operate, and companies must demonstrate why a foreign court is a better forum for a case against them. In the past, the courts have mostly agreed.

Baker said the ruling shows there is a "growing recognition that cases such as this should be heard in Canada and not the foreign courts. Where cases raise important questions about the conduct of Canadian companies, we believe those questions are properly assessed by Canadian courts."

Mining companies with operations abroad should not assume the recent trend means the "sky is going to fall," Baker added. "This is an exceptional case, and it is very fact specific.”

When the lawsuit was filed in 2014, Nevsun CEO Cliff Davis said in a statement that the company was confident the allegations were unfounded. “Based on various company-led and third-party audits, the Bisha mine has adhered at all times to international standards of governance, workplace conditions, and health and safety,” he said In 2014 Nevsun commissioned a human rights impact assessment at Bisha from LKL International Consulting Inc, which offered six recommendations, including that the company adopt and embed a clearer human rights policy in its Code of Ethics; conduct further human rights training at Bisha; and make clear that suppliers, contractors and subcontractors are expected to respect human rights.

– K. Rolfe

Mine reclamation research project receives funding from Genome BC A project by two Thompson Rivers University researchers to use genomic tools to find faster ways to return mine sites to self-sustaining ecosystems received $250,000 from Genome BC, the organization announced in late November.

Lauchlan Fraser, professor of biological sciences and the Canada Research Chair in Community and Ecosystem, and Jon Van Hamme, associate professor of microbiology, will conduct research at New Gold’s New Afton, Teck Resources’ Highland Valley Copper, Avino Silver and Gold Mines’ Bralorne and Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mines.

The researchers hope to better understand microbial communities in the soil and their role in ecosystem function by using genomic tools. It will expand on the work done by Paul Hebert, the director of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph, which uses DNA sequencing technology to identify invertebrate species collected at the New Afton mine, Fraser said.

“So we can use our genomic tools for meta-barcoding, taking soil and extracting DNA, amplifying it, sequencing it and determining what species are present,” he said. “Different microbial species have been linked with different functional roles, and so that’s sort of a first step to understanding the functional role of the microbial community.” The researchers will also be looking at sites that have been restored for things like soil characteristics, structure and development, and the microbes within the soil.

The plan is to create benchmarks for biodiversity so that they can monitor the sites over time to determine whether they are “following the right trajectory” towards restoring the area’s original biodiversity, Fraser said.

Catalina Lopez-Correa, Genome BC’s chief scientific officer and sectors

FROM THE WIRE Integra Resources announced plans for a $10-million 2018 exploration program at its DeLamar gold-silver project in late November. The program includes about 20,000 metres of drilling. Most of the company’s proposed drillholes are expected to pass through lower-grade mineralization nearer to the surface, an area that was not mined by NERCO and Kinross during the former open pit operation. The main objective of the drill program is to examine the down-dip and onstrike extensions to DeLamar’s historic highgrade veins that produced about 700,000 ounces of gold and 50 million ounces of silver between 1889 and 1914.

Sage Gold announced in November that about 476 ounces of gold were yielded from the first bulk sample mill run from its Clavos mine near Timmins, Ontario. The milled material was a combination of ore generated from the development of the mine as well as from past workings. The mine last produced in 2007. A definition drilling and exploration program continues to update and increase existing mineral resource estimates. Within 12 months, Sage has raised more than $14 million in capital, including financing Clavos to production.

Emerita Resources appointed Michael Timmins as CEO in November.

Timmins, who was also named to the board of directors, has more than 20 years of industry experience with Agnico Eagle and Placer Dome. While at Agnico he participated in the construction and commissioning of the company’s Kittila mine in Finland and led several acquisitions totalling over $3 billion in value. Most recently Timmins was the vice-president of corporate development at Agnico Eagle.

Timmins replaces Joaquin Merino, who will continue as president of Emerita and managing director of the company’s wholly owned Spanish subsidiary.

Compiled by Rob Csernyik

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 19

Courtesy of Lauchlan Fraser

vice-president, said the project appealed to Genome BC because of its focus on “soil bioremediation, ecosystems and bio-reclamation.”

Fraser said the four mine sites were chosen because of previous relationships. “I’ve been working with New Afton for more than five years now, and Highland Valley Copper we also have a long-term relationship with,” he said. He was involved with research at Mount Polley after its tailings dam breach to use genomic tools to understand the impact of the failure on the environment.

Bralorne is a newer partnership, he said.

“One of my objectives is reaching out to other mines and trying to increase our partners,” he said, “because with more mines, we… can get a better handle on how sites’ geography and geology may impact or influence these successional development patterns.”

The funding for the project came from Genome BC’s Sector Innovation

Thompson Rivers University researchers Lauchlan Fraser, pictured, and Jon Van Hamme hope to better understand soil microbial communities and their role in ecosystem function by using genomic tools.

Program (SIP) and will last for 18 months. Fraser said they began sampling work in June. Three other projects, from the forestry, agrifood and

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environmental sectors, also won funding under the program.

In order to be selected for SIP funding, projects must go through an external

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developments peer review committee, and compete against projects in multiple sectors that Genome BC has identified as areas of interest.

“Seven years ago we decided we wanted to make sure the mining sector was really getting a benefit from and learning from and using genomics,” said Lopez-Correa, “so it’s a priority for us and a promise.”

Lopez-Correa said that in comparison to other sectors, genomics applications in mining started late – about five to seven years ago – but are “developing very, very fast.” She said many of the majors, like Teck Resources and Goldcorp, are using

genomics to improve their “competitive advantage. It also helps them fulfill all the requirements they have in terms of bio-reclamation, remediation and green technologies.”

For smaller funding opportunities like the SIP, Genome BC receives funding from the provincial government.

For larger initiatives, which could give out as much as $10 million per project, it receives a third of the funds from the federal government, a third from the provincial government, and a third from the private sector. Since Genome BC was founded in 2000, it has funded 13 mining and energy projects and invested a total of $34.7 million.

Fraser said he has applied for NSERC’s Industrial Research Chair, which would allow him to continue the research for the next five years, and will learn in December if he received it. Teck’s Highland Valley Copper has pledged $200,000 in cash and $150,000 in in-kind support over five years if Fraser is named the Chair.

“The funding from Genome BC is an excellent starting point, but we need more research around monitoring and an 18-month window is not really a monitoring project,” he said. “But it does give us that pilot data to move – K. Rolfe forward.”

Q&A: Talking junior mining trends Liam Fitzgerald explains why PwC Canada sees more confidence in the junior mining sector and why cobalt had a big year

A turnaround is afoot, according to PwC Canada’s junior mining report. Released in November, the report found that investment in the junior sector has increased. That investment, however, has been selective, indicating that what the report describes as a “delicate recovery” may still face some hurdles.

The annual report analyzes Canada’s top 100 junior mining companies by market capitalization over a 12-month period and is designed to provide a glimpse of the sector’s overall health.

PwC Canada’s Canadian Mining Leader Liam Fitzgerald spoke with CIM Magazine about the state of junior mining in Canada, the theme that shaped last year’s investment activity and what to keep an eye on as we approach 2018.

CIM: What are some of the biggest changes you noticed compared to last year’s report?

Fitzgerald: Last year’s story was more about the increase in valuation because of the increase in gold prices during late 2015 and early 2016. Because of the

Courtesy of First Cobalt

By Rob Csernyik

The view of First Cobalt's Keeley-Frontier site. First Cobalt merged with Cobalt One and CobaltTech in late June.

Cobalt's value increased by 75 per cent in 2017 thanks to the "electric vehicle narrative," PwC Canada’s Canadian Mining Leader Liam Fitzgerald said.

high concentration of gold exposure on the TSX-Venture Exchange (TSX-V) there was a fairly remarkable increase in value.

This year’s report is more about a cash story. If you look at the cash balances overall, there’s a surge of more than 174 per cent. Average cash balances went to $16 million up from $10 million, but more important is the cash available.

About $2.5 billion was raised during the year through a combo of equity and debt. With only about $1.1 billion spent, it represents a remarkable year-over-year increase.

When you’re looking at confidence, valuation is one story but the real focus is that the cash started to flow, meaning money’s being spent. Just the level of activity in the industry has improved year over year.

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 21

developments CIM: How are junior mining investors embracing risk this year?

Fitzgerald: The Cobalt 27 Capital call raised $200 million in what many would consider to be a risky market.

They’ve created a niche market not actually mining the cobalt, but storing it. They’re also doing royalties and other alternative financing streams to give investors access to cobalt and people are buying into the narrative.

They raised $200 million based on narratives about electric vehicles and battery storage. Cobalt 27 went from nowhere last year to the top ten of our ranking.

Investors are taking more risks but are being fairly picky about what risks they take. They’re putting their money on the electric vehicle market because it’s growing rapidly. Putting it on a metal that traditionally wouldn’t garner a lot of interest but is now getting a lot of it.

They’re not putting a lot of money on HAILEYBURY

grassroots exploration, they are putting money on what they think is a big bet.

CIM: Were there any surprises in 2017?

Fitzgerald: The fact that cobalt was so successful this year – it increased in value by 75 per cent. But maybe it shouldn’t be surprising because of the success of the electric vehicle narrative.

In previous years raising $50 million was remarkable, and now you’ve got a cobalt company raising $200 million. I doubt anyone would have predicted that. It was probably one of the stories of the year.

Another thing to note is we actually had some initial public offerings this year. During the previous report period we had zero, but this time we had five.

They only raised $40 million collectively but at least we had them. We’re hoping in the next report that there are more – maybe adding another zero on the back of that number.

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CIM: Have there been a lot of shifts in the rankings since last year?

Fitzgerald: If you look at the top five year-over-year, there’s always a change.

Normally it’s like a graduation: you either move up to the TSX or get purchased.

Some companies are kind of holding water but still doing well in our rankings. We haven’t seen many rocket down the list unlike previous years where it’s happened. San Gold, which was at the top of our list several years ago is no longer in business. We’re not seeing that anymore, which is positive.

It gives you a bit of faith that we have a bit of momentum for the next couple of years.

CIM: Were there any trends that were negative or cause for concern?

Fitzgerald: A lot of the momentum in our previous report was from the VAL D’OR

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increase in gold prices. They were in the range of US$1,250 to US$1,300 per ounce.

Because there’s a lot of exposure to the gold market on the TSX-V, the gold prices influence it. And we only saw a modest increase in value of that market year-over-year.

I think a lot of investors and companies are cautious about projecting where the gold prices are going to go.

If they go to less than US$1,100, a lot of value might come off and the cash flow of gold companies may not be as readily available.

CIM: What are some of the big lessons that companies should be taking from the trends seen in 2017?

Fitzgerald: It’s the success of the narrative. Management teams that have been able to gather interest, get money

in their door and try and advance their projects have had defined stories.

Barkerville Gold Mines is a good example. They didn’t get a huge amount of money on the market but they got interest from Osisko Gold Royalties and Osisko Mining and enough cash to advance their projects.

It comes from a management team that worked very hard to come up with a narrative and had a good story to tell.

Another example is Leagold. They identified an asset they wanted – the Los Filos mine – and mapped out how they’ll put it in production. They raised $175 million to enable them to do that by creating a good narrative for the project.

CIM: What stories or trends are you watching out for in 2018?

Fitzgerald: The trends in cash flow, to make sure that companies continue to

spend their money prudently. They have $1.5 billion collectively to spend in 2018. How will that play out? Will they be prudent? Will they be able to fill their coffers? That’s going to be a key story to see how their cash flow goes.

Looking at the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, a lot of majors like Barrick and Agnico Eagle are putting small investments in the junior sector in order to fund their exploration programs. Will that pattern continue? We’ll also look for more aggressive activity in the M&A market.

It’s mostly friendly deals right now but perhaps we’ll see one company with two suitors, for example. This will also indicate a lot more confidence and strength in the market. CIM

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Playing by new rules South American and African countries update mining tax laws in 2017, while other countries focus on environmental regulations

By Elle Crosby

Brazil’s congress has proposed increasing royalties for metals such as iron, which Vale fears will compromise its’s competitiveness. Vale’s Brucutu mine, pictured, is the second-largest iron ore mine in Brazil.

Royalties, taxes and environmental protections were top of mind for legislators around the world in 2017 looking to amend or create mining laws, which came with mixed industry reception. As well, space mining took one giant leap forward in Luxembourg, and carbon emissions regulations a giant leap backward in the United States. Below is a recap of global regulation changes affecting miners.

SOUTH AMERICA Brazil’s president Michel Temer has been on the hot seat with both miners and environmentalists this year. In July, Temer proposed sweeping mining reforms, including basing mineral royalties on a sliding scale calculated using the mineral’s value at the time. Congressional committees approved most of the proposals made with the exception of the royalty prices. Congress increased mining royalties across the board but created a measure allowing small miners to pay less. Under the proposed changes, miners such as Vale will pay a four per cent rate on iron ore 26 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

and smaller companies will pay two per cent. Vale, the world’s top iron ore producer, said in a statement that congress’ model “affects our competitiveness especially in a moment of depressed prices, and also compromises the maintenance and operation of high-cost mines.”

Temer also proposed abolishing the protected status of a reserve in the Amazon forest that would allow it to be mined in August, which brought immediate backlash from environmentalists. The government revised the decree later that same week so that conservation and Indigenous-owned areas could not be mined, but a federal court suspended the measure altogether on August 30 because the change to the reserve’s status must be considered by congress, not the president.

Argentina’s federal government and the governors of 20 out of the country’s 23 provinces signed a mining deal in June that works towards harmonizing taxes and regulations to help spark investment in the sector. The

governments of Chubut, La Pampa, and La Rioja provinces did not attend the signing ceremony. Included in the legislation is a three per cent cap on royalties companies pay to provinces and a second provincial tax limited to 1.5 per cent that will be allocated to fund mining infrastructure.

Legislators in El Salvador passed a law banning the extraction of all metals in March. It is the first country to impose such a broad prohibition on the mining industry. The extraction of coal, salt and other non-metal resources is still legal. The use of cyanide and mercury for mining is also banned under the new law. The prohibition was supported widely across party lines. The aim of the new law is to protect the country’s fragile environment.

AFRICA Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s largest cobalt producer, the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced in June plans to reintroduce amendments to the country’s

developments mining codes that had been proposed in 2015 but shelved due to low commodity prices and intense industry opposition. Miners in the country strongly objected to the proposed tax hikes, which included increasing taxes on profits to 35 per cent from 30 per cent, increasing the government’s stake in new mining projects to ten per cent from five per cent and increasing royalties to 3.5 per cent from two per cent for copper and cobalt. While multinational mining companies are concerned that increasing taxes will discourage mining in the country, the amendments would not place the DRC outside of the normal range for the area.

The South African government amended an industry charter that raises the threshold for black ownership of mining companies to 30 per cent from 26 per cent, and the country’s Chamber of Mines has taken the government to court to fight it. While the change was announced in June, the country’s mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane agreed not to implement the charter until after the judicial review, which was scheduled to be heard in mid-December. The Chamber of Mines said it was not consulted over the revisions to the charter. “We will not sign this charter because it is not our charter,” Chamber of Mines CEO Roger Baxter said at a press conference in Johannesburg. The Chamber of Mines said it fears that the new rules will create regulatory uncertainty and discourage mining companies from operating in South Africa, the world’s top platinum producer.

John Magafuli, the president of Tanzania, instituted several changes to mining regulations this year, including a ban on gold and copper concentrates in March. Magafuli also raised royalties on gold, instated a fee on mineral exports and denied companies the ability to seek international arbitration.

country’s 41 mines in February. Lopez was dismissed in May and her replacement, Roy Cimatu, and Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte are planning to create new mining legislation for the top nickel-producing country in the world. Duterte has complained that miners are currently taxed too little and that there is not enough compensation

for the environmental damage the industry causes. In August, Philippine lawmakers filed a bill that will require miners to obtain legislative approval before beginning operations and would ban mining in watershed areas and exporting unprocessed ores.

Early in the year, the government of Indonesia passed legislation requiring

EUROPE AND ASIA Mining laws in the Philippines have been unstable since former Environment Secretary Regina Lopez ordered the closure of more than half of the December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 27

it to have a 51 per cent stake in any foreign miners operating in the country. The law also demands commitment from those companies to build local smelters to upgrade the minerals mined there within five years.

Luxembourg’s parliament passed a law in mid-July legalizing the possession of space resources by private companies and establishing the procedures for authorizing and supervising space exploration missions. The new law is the first of its kind in Europe and is part of the country’s SpaceResources initiative, which aims to support the development of innovative activities in the space industry.

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The Northwest Territories took the first steps this summer toward creating its own mining act. “We’re slowly evolving the legislation that we inherited from the federal government to make it our own, to make it ‘made in the North’,” said Nick Leeson, manager of legislation and legal affairs for the territorial government. Mining is one of the largest employers in the territory and makes up 25 per cent of its GDP, but current operations are nearing their ends and there has not been significant interest from exploration companies over the past several years. “We want this legislation to increase our competitiveness. Mining’s a foundational aspect of our economy up here. At the same time, we want to make sure we minimize any concerns on the environmental side as well as take care of community health and wellbeing, including respect for our First Nations partner governments that we work together with,” said Leeson. The territory is one of only two Canadian jurisdictions without its own mining act.

United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March mandating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conduct a review of the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP, unveiled by President Barack Obama in 2015, established emission guidelines in order to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants in an effort to combat global warming. Trump’s executive order encouraged agencies to review policies that put undue burden on the use of domestic energy resources. The National Mining Association welcomed the re-evaluation. “We have world class reserves of coal, and that’s one of the most affordable, reliable sources of electricity generation,” said association spokesperson Jamie Caswell. “Why would we want to leave that in the ground?” After reviewing the CPP, the EPA released a proposal to repeal the Obama-era plan in October.

In June the president withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to mitigate climate change. The country has the distinction of being the only country in the world not participating in the agreement.

And in December, Trump announced that the U.S. would cut by more than half the land protected in Utah by two wilderness national monuments. The decision followed a review the president ordered in April to identify which of the country’s 27 federally protected monuments should be resized in order to give more access for development. CIM

Courtesy of De Beers Canada

developments

De Beers Canada to close Victor diamond mine in 2019 De Beers Canada will close its Victor diamond mine in northern Ontario in the first quarter of 2019, the company announced in early November.

The company had previously said it hoped to extend the mine’s life, but De Beers Canada spokesman Tom Ormsby told CIM Magazine the company determined it would not be viable to keep it running.

“The factors were really economic,” Ormsby said. “We’ve been running various scenarios, conceptual studies and doing a lot of analytics on the kimberlite that’s there and what our costs are.

Victor just wasn’t going to give us the economic returns.”

It was also studying an expansion project to develop the nearby Tango deposit, which would give Victor another five or six years, but shelved it

The Victor mine opened in 2008 and has produced about seven million carats to date.

in February after failing to get support from the nearby Attawapiskat First Nation, whose community is located 90 kilometres east of Victor.

But Ormsby emphasized that even with support from the Nation, the

Tango expansion would not have been enough to keep the mine operating.

“We examined some of the other pipes on the property, and through that whole process Tango would have the best shot of any of them,” he said. “But

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 29

based on our fixed costs, Tango’s just not going to make it right now.�

The mine, which was Ontario’s first diamond mine, will operate at full production for the rest of its life, and will also process low-grade stockpiles in 2018 and through to the end of production. In 2016, it produced 596,000 carats.

After the open pit is depleted, demolition and environmental monitoring will take an expected three to five years, De Beers said. Progressive reclamation work, including planting more than 200,000 tree saplings and willow stakes, has been going on for years. “While we are focused on continuing to maintain production for the duration of operations, we are also planning responsibly for Victor mine’s closure,� De Beers Canada CEO Kim Truter said in a statement.

The mine opened in 2008, six months ahead of schedule, and has produced about seven million carats to

=

date, exceeding the company’s original projections that it would produce six million over its life.

There are roughly 450 employees at Victor, including full-time staff and contractors, Ormsby said. Some may end up at its Gahcho Kue mine in the Northwest Territories, and the company plans to help employees with the job transition. “This is an unbelievable workforce,� he said. “The mine has done everything it has been asked to do, it withstood two economic downturns. I’d be looking to scoop up this team.�

De Beers let employees know of the closure at a town hall on Oct. 31. “The meeting was tough,� Ormsby said. “It’s a great team and such a quality asset for us, one of best we have, that’s why it’s so heartbreaking.�

Earlier this year De Beers announced it had begun flooding its Snap Lake diamond mine in the Northwest Territories as part of its extended

Reduced Exposure

care and maintenance. The technically challenging mine failed to make a profit for the company since it opened the same year as Victor. It was put on care and maintenance in December 2015 and put up for sale in July 2016, but the company failed to find a buyer.

Last September De Beers opened its Gahcho Kue mine, which is expected to produce 54 million carats during its life. The mine, just below the Arctic Circle, has already increased the company’s carat production five-fold to 1.1 million carats in the third quarter of 2017, up from 0.2 million at the same – K. Rolfe time last year.

Cameco to suspend uranium production at McArthur River and Key Lake in 2018 Cameco announced Nov. 8 that due to continued uranium price weakness,

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developments production from its McArthur River mining and Key Lake milling operations in northern Saskatchewan will be temporarily suspended by the end of January 2018.

The workforce of 1,055 employees and contractors at both sites will be reduced temporarily by about 845.

The remainder will be retained to maintain the facilities in safe shutdown state. The suspension is expected to last for 10 months.

In addition, Cameco’s annual dividend in 2018 will be reduced by 80 per cent to $0.08 per common share – a reduction of $0.32 per common share on an annual basis.

“With the continued state of oversupply in the uranium market and no expectation of change on the immediate horizon, it does not make economic sense for us to continue producing at McArthur River and Key Lake when we are holding a large inventory or paying dividends out of

proportion with our earnings,” said Cameco’s president and CEO Tim Gitzel in a statement.

Earlier this year, Cameco announced plans to lay off 120 employees at McArthur River, Key Lake and Cigar Lake, making up about 10 per cent of its total workforce. That followed the shutdown of operations at its Rabbit Lake mine in April 2016, which cut roughly 500 jobs.

The company also had to contend with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) issuing a termination notice for a uranium supply contract in January, which would affect about 9.3 million pounds of stock through 2028, worth about $1.3 billion.

The suspension is a move that has been long-anticipated by analysts. “It should have happened three or four years ago,” said Rob Chang, head of Canadian metals and mining research at Cantor Fitzgerald. He said Cameco is one of the last uranium producers to

do a major cut, though the company has made cuts elsewhere in its business. These include previous supply reductions, avoiding sales into the weak spot market and streamlining operations and reducing costs.

Chang said the reason Cameco has suspended production is likely because it has amassed the inventory to do so.

In addition, the move puts the company in a stronger position to self-manage the refinancing of its $500 million debt maturity in 2019.

Since the March 2011 Fukushima incident, after which Japan shut its nuclear reactors, uranium prices have fallen by more than 70 per cent. Uranium, which is sold through privately negotiated contracts instead of in an open market, currently hovers in the US$20 per pound range. In early 2011 it was more than US$70 per pound.

The suspension is expected to remove about 13.7 million pounds of

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uranium from 2018 global forecasts Chang said, representing a nine per cent drop. During a Nov. 9 conference call, Gitzel said it is clear the market does not need additional uranium at this time.

“Behaving in a US$20 market the same way we did when uranium prices were much higher, in our opinion, is

neither rational nor sustainable,” Gitzel said.

Cameco expects to meet its customer commitments using inventory and other supply sources during the suspension.

Areva Resources Canada, which owns a minority share of the McArthur River and Key Lake operations – 30.2

per cent and 16.7 per cent, respectively – said in a Nov. 9 statement that the suspension will not affect uranium delivery to its customers.

According to Cameco’s website, McArthur River and Key Lake is the world’s largest high-grade uranium – Rob Csernyik operation.

TSX companies lag on board diversity, will not adopt targets: report Osler report shows Canada’s publicly traded companies, including miners, making scant progress on appointing women to boards

By Kelsey Rolfe

Canada’s publicly traded companies are making little progress on appointing more women to their boards of directors and C-Suites and are declining to implement formal diversity targets, according to a report from Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP released in late October.

The total percentage of board seats held by women was 14.5 per cent as of July 31, inching up from 13 per cent last year and 12 per cent in 2015. In executive officer positions women fared a little better, with companies reporting that an average of 15.2 per cent of their C-Suite positions were held by women – a number that has remained unchanged from the previous two years.

“We are making excruciatingly slow progress,” said Andrew MacDougall, a partner at Osler and an author of the report. “I think in part it is a fact that companies are not adding women to the boards at a rate that would be necessary to show substantive change in a shorter period of time.”

MacDougall cited a report from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) noting that in one year only a quarter of vacant board seats were filled by women. “You would need to substantially increase the proportion of women that are added to the board when those opportunities come up,” he said.

32 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

The report reviewed disclosure documents from 2015 to 2017 filed by all TSX-listed companies that are required to report on the representation of women on their boards and executive officer positions through National Instrument 58-101. For 2017, the report examined the disclosures of about 700 companies.

The mining sector, with 225 issuer companies as of September, makes up an outsized portion of TSX-listed companies, and MacDougall said its results lowered the average of all companies.

This year only nine per cent of directors on mining boards were women, a decrease from 13 per cent in 2016. The percentage of women in executive officer positions remained unchanged year to year, at 13 per cent.

However, MacDougall pointed out that the decreasing percentage of women on mining boards could be due to larger companies adding one woman to their boards and skewing the average – one new woman on a ten-member board, for example, would represent just 10 per cent of the

developments board. The average number of women on mining boards increased marginally but is still only at 0.75.

“I think the fact that we’re maintaining or somewhat increasing [representation of women] is a good sign, given the current economic climate of the mining industry,” said Nancy Komperdo, the president of Women in Mining Canada, adding that the recent decline in commodity prices had left many mining companies unable to dedicate resources to diversity initiatives.

Despite the lack of change in representation of women on boards and in management, companies have declined to set formalized targets to bring them closer to gender parity; of the companies that disclosed whether they had set targets, only 12 per cent had done so in 2017. For the majority that chose not to create such goals, the reasons included not wanting to “compromise the principles of meritocracy” and a

concern that the “best candidate” may not be selected.

“Adding a goal or a target is vitally important, because if you don’t have a goal or a target in mind you’re never going to reach it,” MacDougall said, adding that meritocracy was “too often used as a justification for non-action.

There are absolutely extremely wellqualified women candidates for director that would meet any meritocracy test.”

Komperdo pointed out that mining board appointments have “historically been based on experience in the industry,” but suggested companies consider looking beyond the typical “mining executives with 20 or 30 years’ experience” to people with experience in other industries like automotive, avionics or finance who could bring different perspectives. “We need to look outside the current group of people we all know,” she said.

Nearly half of companies, however, reported adopting a “written board diversity policy,” a marked increase from 34 per cent last year. The Canadian Securities Administrators has previously reported a correlation between companies having formalized diversity policies and increased numbers of women on their boards.

Deborah Rosati, the co-founder and CEO of Women Get On Board, a company that connects and promotes women to corporate boards, said those diversity policies are only effective if they are “truly embraced” by company leadership. “It is one thing to have a written policy,” she said in an email. “It is another thing to execute on it.”

Komperdo, though, said the policies were a positive step forward.

“When you’re actually publicly declaring [a policy] you’re putting yourself out there to shareholders and saying ‘this is important to us.’” She also

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noted that shareholders have begun to ask companies about policies on board and C-Suite representation.

The report did note that Canada’s largest companies, included on the S&P/TSX 60 Index, have continued to be “leaders in gender diversity,” with an average of 25.6 per cent women directors. Only two companies of the 56 companies in that category reported having no women on their boards, including Vancouver-based miner First Quantum Minerals, which has since appointed Kathleen Hogenson, CEO of Zone Oil and Gas, to its board.

MacDougall also noted that many companies went from having zero women on their boards to one. “Companies that are all-male are definitely in the minority,” he said.

There has been a greater push for diversity on boards and in C-Suites in the past few years, with the OSC adopting “Comply or Explain” securi-

34 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

ties law amendments in 2014 that required TSX-listed companies to disclose the number of women on boards and in executive officer positions and outline a policy for improving their gender imbalance or explain why they were not making the effort.

The federal government proposed amendments last fall that would require companies incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act to report yearly to shareholders on diversity among their directors and members of senior management, following a similar comply-or-explain model.

However, Comply or Explain has no penalties for not making improvements, unlike setting representation quotas. France, Germany, and Norway, among other countries, have implemented quotas and seen results much faster than countries with comply-orexplain models like the United Kingdom and Australia. CIM

AME to debut prospect generator and innovation “hubs” at 2018 Roundup The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) will feature two new experiences at its 2018 AME Roundup conference from Jan. 22 to 25 in Vancouver: a prospect generator hub and an innovation hub.

David Gale, chair of Roundup’s organizing committee, said the prospect generator hub fills a gap for investors by showcasing projects that fall between the prospectors’ tent and more advanced projects. “What we were lacking was something in the middle ground,” he said, adding that it gives companies looking to invest a chance to view a broad range of opportunities that are “ready off the shelf.”

There will be 18 different companies featured – six each on Monday and Tuesday and a final six on Wednesday

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developments Among the mid-tier miner’s initiatives have been turning former pits into lakes with fish and providing breast cancer screening to thousands of women in the region.

Consultant Lana Eagle received the Skookum Jim Award for her work creating dialogue between Indigenous communities and the mining industry.

Eagle, a member of the Whitecap Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan, volunteers on the board of the Association for Mineral Exploration and CIM’s council, and is a speaker, lecturer and role model for Indigenous youth.

The late Jean Descarreaux, who helped develop the Quebec mineral exploration sector, received the Special Achievement Award. Descarreaux cofounded the Quebec Prospectors’ Association (now the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association) and con-

vinced the provincial government to introduce flow-through financing for mineral exploration in Quebec.

Arizona Mining COO Donald Taylor was awarded the Thayer Lindsley Award for his discovery of the Taylor lead-zinc-silver deposit in 2014. The company’s 61-million-tonne deposit is expected to reach production in 2020.

Iamgold and Sumitomo Metal Mining won the Viola R. MacMillan Award for their joint venture Côté gold project. Sumitomo purchased a 30 per cent interest in Côté in June 2017 from Iamgold for US$195 million. When it enters production in 2021 the open-pit mine is expected to produce an average of 320,000 ounces of gold per year over a 17-year life.

The PDAC 2018 convention will take place in Toronto from March 4-7, – K. Rolfe 2018.

Courtesy of Charles Dumaresq

and Thursday. The new innovation hub will showcase 10 companies with cutting-edge ideas focusing on mineral exploration. “We’re trying to find better ways to explore and make that discovery,” Gale said.

The conference aims to build upon recent industry optimism and appetite for investment with its theme, “new generation of discovery.”

“This is the 35th year for Roundup, so lots of generations of explorers have come and gone,” Gale said. As the industry bounces back, he said, there are a lot of people entering mining for the first time. “We all sensed that there was something new unfolding,” he said.

In addition to the new hubs, other highlights include keynote speakers Barrick Gold president Kelvin Dushnisky and Osisko Gold Royalties – R. Csernyik CEO Sean Roosen.

PDAC reveals 2018 award winners The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada announced its slate of 2018 award winners in mid-November.

The awards, which will be presented at the PDAC 2018 convention on March 6, 2018, recognize “exceptional leaders in the mineral exploration and mining industry.” The PDAC Awards are now in their 40th year.

Vancouver-based NexGen Energy received the Bill Dennis Award for its discovery of the Arrow deposit in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin in 2014. Arrow is one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the world.

Geologist and former mining analyst Ted Reeve was given the Distinguished Service Award for his “invaluable” contributions to the PDAC convention. He chaired several sessions from 2002 to 2005 and more recently organized, suggested topics for and served on the selection committee of multiple convention events.

Golden Star Resources received the Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for the work it has done in the communities near its two gold mines in Ghana’s Ashanti gold belt.

Historical society asks miners to help preserve landmark Cobalt headframe The Cobalt Historical Society is calling on the mining community to help repair the roof of the Right of Way headframe, a regional landmark that was erected more than 110 years ago as part of a silver rush in the northeastern Ontario town. “It’s one of the last headframes standing in Cobalt,” said society board chair Maggie Wilson. “It’s become iconic. You can’t miss it when you come into town. It represents the town and it represents the heritage.”

The historical society raised around a quarter of its $37,000 goal as of late November, said Wilson.

The Right of Way headframe, located on the easement beside the town’s railway tracks, is one of the better preserved headframes in the town thanks to previous restoration work done on its wood interior by the historical society.

But the corrugated steel roof of the headframe has rusted through. “With the holes in the roof, water’s getting in and it’s threatening the interior,” Wilson said. “We really want to preserve the site as a whole because it deserves it.”

– K. Rolfe December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 37

column

It’s not just about more explosives

By Kristy Duffy and Walter Valery

he benefits of mine-to-mill optimization are well-recognized, including the potential for optimized blasting to improve downstream processing performance. Unfortunately, this has resulted in an over-simplification of the concept to the idea that simply increasing explosive consumption in a mine results in an optimization of mining and mineral processing. However, for holistic mine-to-mill optimization, blast intensity is not always increased, but rather adjusted to best suit the different ore types, circuit configuration, equipment, installed comminution power and the separation process.

It involves looking holistically at an operation from the mine to the processing plant rather than piecemeal by individual processes. The aim is to maximize production while minimizing the overall cost per tonne to increase profit in a sustainable manner. Every ore body and mining operation is different, so specific targets and objectives vary for each project. Understanding the ore body and the characteristics of the ore within allows the process to be tailored to suit the ore properties and key business drivers.

If done right, blasting can be the cheapest and most energy-efficient rock breaking stage. The fragmentation of the blasted material affects the throughput and energy consumption in downstream crushing and grinding operations. These, in turn, impact the performance of the subsequent separation processes.

Blast fragmentation is affected by the inherent structure and strength of the rock. Ore characterization and blasting audits are used to define ore domains based on rock structure and strength and calibrate a site-specific blast fragmentation model. This is used to optimize the blast design for each domain

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given the ore properties. The result is a set of blasting guidelines to provide the right amount of blasting energy for each domain. This generates consistent runof-mine (ROM) fragmentation with appropriate size distribution for the downstream processes.

Just as the size of blasted material affects crushing and grinding, the particle size and liberation from comminution strongly affects the performance of separation. It is important to understand the trade-off between the higher costs, energy consumption and possibly lower throughput of producing a finer grind size versus the improved liberation and recovery of the valuable component. This varies considerably for different ore types and breakage mechanisms.

Comprehensive sampling and ore characterization allows calibration of site-specific predictive mathematical models for blasting, comminution and separation. Together, these models indicate how the whole process will respond to different ore types and operating practices in the mine and the plant. These are used, together with historical operating data, power calculations and extensive industrial and consulting experience and databases, to highlight opportunities for improvement and evaluate alternative strategies.

The models can be combined with the mine plan to generate a production forecast and can be extended to develop geometallurgical models. This provides an understanding of ore variability and its effect on mining and processing over the life of mine. Capital equipment purchases can be predicted well in advance.

Long-term strategic planning is easier and more accurate and can be used to reduce risks and maximize profitability.

Many strategies for improving the efficiency and sustainability of mining operations are not new, but rather

involve novel application of existing technologies and tailored solutions based on understanding of the process and ore. There are great opportunities when we consider the whole flowsheet: higher intensity blasting, in-pit crushing and conveying using elevated highangle conveyors, and early waste rejection to minimize the amount of material needing transportation and treatment.

Also, efficient comminution technologies such as high-pressure grinding rolls, vertical roller mills and stirred mills, higher efficiency classification (such as fine screens), and coarser primary separation to minimize fine grinding. Taking the tailings into account, filtration and dry stacking can reduce water consumption and tailings footprint, eliminate the risk of dam failure and allow progressive rehabilitation.

To be successful, mine-to-mill projects require a structured methodology supported by extensive auditing, surveys and historical data analysis (for existing operations), as well as ore characterization, mathematical modelling and simulation. To ensure that the benefits are achieved and maintained, the recommended changes must be incorporated into managerial decisions, training and site-operating procedures.

There is a long list of successful mineto-mill optimization projects. For example, Antamina doubled throughput for hard ores with the existing equipment and installed power, therefore reducing the specific energy consumption. This approach has helped many operations significantly increase their production with little to no capital expenditure and has improved the economic viability of greenfield projects. Costs are cut, energy is saved and overall process efficiency improves. CIM Kristy-Ann Duffy is a senior processing consultant at Hatch, and Walter Valery, PhD, is global director of consulting and technology at Hatch.

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Noront Resources’ Esker Camp in the Ring of Fire

Rules of engagement The competing priorities along the way to development in the Ring of Fire

By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

he government of Ontario and nine Matawa First Nations in northern Ontario turned a reconciliatory page in April 2014. They signed the landmark Regional Framework Agreement, a historic new community-driven approach to resource development negotiations.

The agreement was focused on the Ring of Fire, a 5,000km2 mineral belt described by Premier Kathleen Wynne as one of Ontario’s biggest mineral opportunities in almost a century.

Rich with nickel, copper, platinum and one of the world’s largest chromite deposits, it is estimated to be worth some $60 billion. But development in the Ring of Fire had hit roadblock after roadblock in negotiations for close to a decade. Nevertheless, there was hope in the air on that historic day when the government and all nine First Nations, whose traditional territories would be affected by the development, signed the agreement.

Last August it seemed as if the approach was indeed paving the road to development. The government announced an agreement with three Matawa First Nations – Webequie, Marten Falls and Nibinamik – to build a $1 billion all-season transportation corridor proposed by the communities, which are currently accessible only by air and seasonal roads. The environmental assessment would begin in 2018. Construction on the new corridor that would connect the communities – and the Ring of Fire mining development – to existing provincial highways would start in 2019. The major impediment to mining development, which lacked the infrastructure to transport its ore to market, had finally been lifted.

Three days later, the chiefs of the Eabametoong and Neskantaga First Nations expressed their frustration at having been left out of the discussions. “The reality is that all the roads to the Ring of Fire traverse the territory of our Nations, and nothing is happening without the free, prior and informed consent of our First Nations,” said Neskantaga Chief Wayne Moonias in the press release.

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The government’s perspective The path of reconciliation is a complicated process, admitted Michael Gravelle, Ontario’s minister of northern development and mines. That said, the Ring of Fire remains a negotiation process “that is basically focused on working with the First Nations to move forward with things they’ve identified as being crucial for them to support this development.”

For example, the road proposals were developed by the three First Nations themselves. “It speaks to the unique quality of the Regional Framework Agreement,” said Gravelle. “This isn’t about Ontario driving the process. This is about First Nations driving the process.”

In regards to the concerns cited by the Eabametoong and Neskantaga Nations, Gravelle pointed to the government’s agreement with the three Matawa Nations as simply being one step in that process. “We will continue to work with all nine Nations,” he said. “There’s a joint jurisdictional working table that’s been set up with all nine Matawa Nations. We’re just working on the details of that and it will deal with issues such as road ownership, governance, permitting and land management.”

Additionally, the Ontario government remains committed to building capacity in the region, said Gravelle, citing the more than $111 million it has spent in Ring of Fire communities since 2011. “We’ve worked hard to prepare the communities for this potential development,” said Gravelle. “For example, more than 3,100 First Nations individuals have completed training programs to support employment.”

As well, in October 2017, the federal and provincial governments announced a $69.2-million investment in broadband infrastructure in the Ring of Fire region.

Not an easy road The reaction of the Neskantaga and Eabametoong Nations to the government’s August announcement had its roots in a May 2017 letter Premier Wynne sent to the nine First Nations

social responsibility chiefs expressing frustration and warning she was prepared to negotiate with individual First Nations if they could not come to an agreement. A few months later, it seemed the government had done just that. Nibinamik Chief Johnny Yellowhead and Webequie Chief Cornelius Wabasse quickly held a press conference to clarify their agreement was simply to conduct a study to identify an infrastructure corridor for their communities.

CIM Magazine contacted all nine Nations multiple times for comment but did not receive a response.

“A lot of what I see the government doing right now is divide and conquer among First Nations,” said Cheryl Chetkiewicz, a scientist who leads Wildlife Conservation Society Canada’s Ontario Far North program and focuses on research and tools to support regional and community-based environmental planning in the region. “As much as I think the Premier really cares about doing the right thing and helping communities and supporting their vision for the future, too often the work with First Nations is not fast enough within the political timeframe and we end up in the same situations [as in the past].”

The transportation infrastructure, said Chetkiewicz, has positives for remote communities, including reducing the costs of food and increasing opportunities for more services, but there are also potentially negative long-term ecological and social impacts. These include safety, given the risks inherent in ore-carrying trucks sharing roads with passenger cars, the ecological impact on the fish and wildlife, and water quality, as well as issues arising from making First Nations lands accessible to non-aboriginal people. “I don’t think that there’s been thoughtful discussions or research on the effects these roads will have on First Nations communities and what that might mean for the future of the fish and wildlife, and the people,” she said.

“The [First Nations] leadership have said we’re not against any development,” said David Paul Achneepineskum, CEO of the Matawa First Nations Management. “But we need resources to prepare.”

Each community has unique challenges, many of them dire. Neskantaga, for example, has been on a boil water advisory for 22 years, as has Marten Falls since 2005. While both communities will finally be getting new water treatment plants in the next few years, it has been a long embattled journey for them to get the government to agree to these projects.

In terms of training, despite some initiatives, neither the provincial nor federal governments have developed a comprehensive plan that addresses the stark realities the communities face, said Bob Rae, advisor to the Matawa Chiefs Tribal Council on the Ring of Fire.“It’s a negotiation that is still ongoing,” he said.

The legacy of intergenerational trauma that communities face are from all accounts staggering. Residential schools, selfmedicating addictions, high suicide rates, and few mental health resources have a negative impact on the abilities of the communities to come together and make decisions, said Rae. “That’s an ongoing challenge,” he said. “I think the thing that’s hard for governments to fully appreciate is that these are

communities that are in crisis and encountering some very fundamental human problems. It’s not like a negotiation with a chamber of commerce. Governments have to use even more imagination and compassion in understanding how to respond to communities facing these crises.”

Commitment to the process The government of Ontario remains committed to maintaining “an open dialogue with First Nations in the region to ensure these communities can actively participate in the decision-making process,” said Gravelle. “We want to improve community social and economic development support, and resource-benefit sharing is also on the table for discussion.”

All the First Nations, including Webequie, Marten Falls and Nibinamik as well as Eabametoong and Neskantaga, have also reaffirmed their commitment to the Regional Framework.

“I certainly haven’t given up hope,” said Rae. “It’s a hope based on a reality that development can only happen with the support and approval of the First Nations. And there are going to have to be significant improvements to conditions on the reserves in order to allow people to be able to benefit from any development. It’s simply going to require a continued engagement and that at times can be frustrating but there’s no alternative to this.” CIM

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December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 41

Kylie Williams

Local subsistence farmer Jose Vincent Mejia from the village of San Juan in northern Colombia shows off bees making honey in one of his seven hives. Cordoba Minerals provided Jose with training, equipment, and the first three hives.

A sweet solution to social responsibility Cordoba Minerals’ beekeeping initiative at its San Matias project gives locals a new employment opportunity

By Kylie Williams

esus Maria Suarez looks like a typical mineral exploration project employee in his well-worn jeans and blue shirt, emblazoned with the company logo. In the mountainous jungle of northern Colombia, he is as well known to the local communities as the geologists and drillers working to delineate the high-grade copper-gold mineralization at Cordoba Minerals’ San Matias project.

But Suarez is not a mineral explorer or a driller. He is a professional beekeeper, hired by the Toronto-based mineral exploration company to teach beekeeping to the residents of San Matias, San Juan, and Alacran, three villages in the Department of Córdoba, 200 kilometres north of Medellín. Beekeeping and honey production are part of Cordoba Minerals’ extensive social program running in parallel with its advanced exploration activities.

“We never considered beekeeping until the company suggested it,” said local Everlides Pertuz (through a translator).

For the last five years, Pertuz and her family have managed 10 hives set in the forest about an hour’s walk from her modest home. “Before Cordoba came, we looked for gold in the rivers

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42 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

and it was a very hard life. Now we use the money to buy butter and coffee.”

Pertuz and her family now produce tens of litres of honey and earn more than US$350 per harvest selling it. They have plans to transform the honey into higher-value products, such as shampoo or lip-gloss, for sale in larger cities.

Earning and maintaining a social licence to operate in this region of Colombia is complex and challenging. For many Colombians, poverty and a bloody civil war between drug cartels is all they have ever known. More than 50 years of armed conflict almost ended in mid-2016 when the Colombian government and FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest guerilla group in the country) signed a historic peace accord, but it was rejected by voters. The country is inching closer to peace, but slowly.

Social services and basic infrastructure have been eroded over the last half century, particularly in rural areas. Most people have little or no education, limited employment options and no savings. For villagers around the San Matias project, work was a choice between subsistence farming and artisanal

social responsibility “One of the biggest mistakes is to send in the geologists first,” said Darney Ceballos, manager of sustainability and SH@W (Safety and Health at Work). “Geologists don’t always have the knowledge or the sensitivity.”

Building trust over two years involved numerous meetings with local leaders and famDon’t send in the geologists first ilies, discovering the values important to the Cordoba Minerals is exploring a large land communities. Through extensive consultation, ‘Cordoba Honey’ is organic and package surrounding the Alacran near-surface Cordoba learned that the communities needed produced by the local people living near Cordoba Minerals’ San Matias copper-gold deposit, mined for at least the last jobs and training, alternative means to earn an copper-gold project in northern 20 years by local artisanal miners. The comincome, as well as infrastructure, including Colombia. pany has delineated several known and new schools, roads and generators. areas of copper-gold mineralization. Currently In the five years since Cordoba first supthe company has four drills operating at the project and in July plied 21 local families with training, appropriate clothing and reported visible gold in one drill hole and a 42-metre intersec- materials for hives, the number of hives maintained by local tion of 0.92 per cent copper and 0.23 grams per tonne gold beekeepers has grown to 82 from 15 and hundreds of litres of (1.10 per cent copper equivalent from 18 metres) in another. quality honey have been produced each year. Cordoba has Cordoba was aware of the social and political situation committed to buy the honey from the farmers, unless they can when it took on the project in 2011. Two years before any sell for a higher price elsewhere, and to help find buyers for geologists set foot in the area, Cordoba sent in a social team, the honey. Elsewhere on the project, Cordoba is helping school despite the impressive geological potential of the area. Even as children and community members manage waste; building a junior exploration company, Cordoba recognized the impor- and staffing schools; repairing and maintaining roads; tance of investing in meaningful conversations with the com- installing water filters, generators and Wi-Fi; building dams munity. and bridges; and employing workers and helping artisanal Kylie Williams

mining. Scattered through the jungle surrounding the villages are illegal cocaine plantations and about 140 informal mining sites, worked by 195 traditional mining families. Mercury pollution is a significant environmental and health concern.

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 answer 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 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 Marcelo Godoy, Newmont Mining Corp., Denver; Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada; and Guy Desharnais, SGS Canada Inc., Canada • DATE February 12-16, 2018 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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INSTRUCTORS Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada and Ryan Goodfellow, McGill University, Canada • DATE September 2018 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 43

SUPPORT THE CANADIAN MINING GAMES ••••••••

AND HELP THE NEXT GENERATION OF MINERS TO

Encouraging students since 1898

miners to “formalize” (register with the government and improve working and environmental conditions).

Grassroots business development The key to initiating and maintaining social initiatives such as this is to earn their trust, said Suzette McFaul, managing director of SEF Canada Ltd., a Vancouver-based company that consults on corporate social responsibility projects to encourage and develop businesses and programs that community members will support.

“Look at what already exists in the community and provide the tools to turn them into economically viable, sustainable businesses.

“Traditionally, economic development has been a top-down approach, driven by outside experts or inside leadership,” she said.

“But communities often already have the knowledge and resources, what they require are the tools to take advantage of that.”

Fear of business failure, McFaul said, is the first barrier to overcome, and is common to entrepreneurs all over the world.

But with training from Suarez and his predecessor, and support from Cordoba, government grants and United Nations programs, the community overcame these fears. Ceballos has ambitious plans to expand the beekeeping initiative to 100 families in Cordoba’s area of influence.

McFaul and her colleagues at SEF Canada are working on similar projects in many countries, mainly in South America. In 2016, SEF Canada launched Clean Gold Community Solutions, a project inspired by the company’s experience in El Oro Province, Ecuador, introducing enterprise development and economic diversification to artisanal miners and their communities.

The aim is to educate and enable technological growth, providing environmentally friendly systems for gold processing, increasing artisanal miners’ benefit and profit from mining and protecting workers, their families and the environment at the same time.

“Eighty per cent of the businesses we’ve helped start are still in business after five years because we listen to the community and give them the tools and support to build sustainable businesses, rather than tell them what to do,” said McFaul.

The projects that succeed can be “literally anything,” she said, and are as diverse as the people themselves: a bug zoo for children, transportation services, baby food, a taco truck and even clothes for pet ferrets. McFaul warned mining and exploration companies not to go into economic development with a fixed idea to avoid investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a project that may sit dormant after only a few months.

Thoughtful, informed investment in economic development has benefited Cordoba in immeasurable ways. In other parts of Colombia, blockades and invasions by artisanal miners hold up projects. By recognizing the importance of building a solid foundation with the community, Cordoba has so far prevented such disruption and the project is advancing smoothly. Hundreds of locals are employed by the company in a range of capacities, or participating in projects like beekeeping.

“It has been a blessing,” said Maria Elena Ramos, Pertuz’s daughter. “As the project grows, there are more jobs for the men, social activity and small business for the women, and education for our children.” CIM

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Delivering a sustainable future John Thompson talks sustainability, Resources for Future Generations and kids these days

By Ryan Bergen

Courtesy of John Thompson

ohn Thompson has spent much of his career bridging the gap between industry and academia. After years working in exploration around the world, the geology PhD took the job as the director of the University of British Columbia’s Mineral Deposit Research Unit soon after it was first created in 1989. After seven years there, Thompson made the jump to Teck Resources as chief geoscientist and later vice-president for technology and development. One of his projects at Teck was to work with a team to develop more formal goals and structure for the miner’s sustainability efforts.

That experience inspired him to join the faculty of Cornell University as the World Family Professor in Environmental Balance for Human Sustainability.

His current role as chair of Resources for Future Generations (RFG 2018), a four-day interdisciplinary conference in Vancouver in June, is to create a way to span the divide between the resource sector and the broader public, and draw in a range of voices to discuss the technical, social and environmental challenges that must be addressed to sustain development in the future.

CIM Magazine spoke to Thompson on the progress the industry has made and the work left to be done.

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CIM: An important step on your current path was the work you did with Teck Resources on its sustainability strategy in 2010. What was your role?

Thompson: I was one of several senior people on the project, and someone who worked for me was the driver for it. It involved bringing in 30 people across the company, mostly 46 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

young people from different operations, different countries, to discuss what it was that the company should focus on from a sustainability perspective. Out of that came six initial sustainability goals for the company.

CIM: What did you take away from being a part of that process?

Thompson: Probably the best part was working with this group of people – they were very diverse, spanned the company, came from different operations and had different specialty skills – and discovering how much they cared. These were people that are absolutely part of Teck, and part of the mining business, but clearly had a strong desire to make the company better, to make mines more effective, to deal with the issues that we faced and to do it in a way that was long-lasting. It was just an amazing group of people, and they put a tremendous amount of effort into creating these goals. The goals were great, they were the right things to do and they have stood the test of time.

But it was that commitment from this group of people that was really the most exciting part of it.

CIM: Since that time how has the thinking around these issues evolved?

Thompson: I think the questions are still front and center and have probably intensified. Many people’s views of the mining industry are still on the whole skeptical, they still need to be convinced. And delivering on things like the sustainability goals in a real manner, not just window dressing, is critical to success. If you’re thinking about developing new operations and dealing with communities, you need to be able to

social responsibility demonstrate that you’re a serious and well-intentioned company. It hasn’t changed at all, it’s just going to get harder.

CIM: Where do you think the industry has made the greatest progress?

Thompson: I think it has made significant strides in its approach to engagement, the recognition that they need to understand communities of all sorts, Indigenous or nonIndigenous. Every company has seen what happens when that does not go well. Sometimes there is a minor hiccup, sometimes there is a delay and sometimes it is much worse. A change during the latter part of my career has been seeing social scientists introduced to mining companies as staff members, working alongside people from exploration to engineering, looking to understand communities – that is a big change, and overall a very positive one.

That’s on the people side. On the energy side, I see increasing progress on energy efficiency and the use of renewables.

Water is being recycled and used more effectively. We are always striving to improve, both because it makes economic sense and because it makes good sense from the social, political and environmental point of view. I think we’re on the right track.

CIM: With your teaching at Cornell, you spend more time than most speaking to that younger generation about these issues. What is your impression of their engagement with these topics?

Thompson: They are smart and can be quite worldly, but they know very little about the resource world, how it really works and how integral a part they, as consumers, play in it. It’s a bit of a revelation for them. They are often rather pessimistic about the future and problems such as climate change and pollution, and don’t immediately look for solutions.

What I like about the students is their enthusiasm – of course, these are all generalizations and I’m not painting all millennials and young people with a uniform brush. But they do engage and when they start understanding, they really get enthusiastic and they change their views. They don’t necessarily take my view, but they definitely change their view and they work hard to look at how the many issues of resource demand and development fit together, and how it all might work. It’s always a little bit daunting at the start of the year, because they tend to start from that same rather negative base, but there’s no question that they get it and start to do different things during the course, and that’s immensely satisfying. CIM

CIM: This brings us to your work on RFG 2018, which is meant to be an intersection for many different interests with a stake in the resource sector. What are your goals for this?

Thompson: The first is to bring people from the different sectors of energy, minerals and water under one roof. We all know that each sector does different things really well and each has some things that they find quite challenging. There may be opportunities to solve some of our own individual problems by listening to how those problems have been solved in other sectors.

The second goal is to connect the technical realm with the social one. Technical people can struggle a little to engage in those conversations and to understand the perspectives of governments, NGOs and Indigenous groups. We want to discuss how all of these fit together.

And the third is to emphasize the future generations. We have to draw them in, get them involved in the conference, get them fully engaged and inspire them to deal with the resource questions of the future: how we’re going to find resources, how we’re going to work with communities to develop them, and how we’re going to become more effective, responsible and ultimately sustainable in our business.

My ultimate goal is to create a bit of a stir. To actually have people outside of our industry see this effort focused on young people, focused on Indigenous people, and how we’ve incorporated them into the conference. I would like to get people to think, discuss and project an outward view of the world as opposed to being introspective.

Our industry has struggled so much to get people to pay attention to what we do in a positive way. If RFG 2018 makes that happen, then that’s a huge success for me.

December 2017 /January 2018 • DÊcembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 47

IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS

By Virginia Heffernan

Can innovative geoscience reverse the trend of declining discovery?

New mineral deposits are getting harder to find.

Luckily, geoscientists like a good challenge. By harnessing innovative technologies and thinking outside the box, the exploration sector is searching for new ways to find the mines of tomorrow.

Courtesy of TriStar Gold

T

Geologists at TriStar scope a hand-dug trench, known locally as “garimpo,” at the company’s Castelo de Sonhos gold project in Brazil.

he mineral discovery rate is falling precipitously worldwide. Until a decade ago, it was commonplace for 70 to 80 moderately sized discoveries to be made every year, according to research by Richard Schodde of MinEx Consulting in Australia. Now, the industry struggles to find a couple dozen deposits annually as the search moves under cover of barren rock or sediments.

The consequence is that the world inventory of major metals is depleting rapidly. “When you look out over the next 10-20 years, the projected discovery rate isn’t enough to keep the market in balance,” Schodde said in an e-mail accompanying his latest report on mineral exploration published in November. According to his research, nickel and zinc in particular could suffer shortages, while lead and gold should hold up for now. “Copper seems okay, but that is based on a fairly conservative forecast for future metal production, which ignores any massive up-tick in demand from electric cars.”

The pressing question for the industry, then, is what can be done about the discovery crisis? While access to exploration financing and policy tweaks play a role, the answer appears to lie in a combination of initiatives: better use of emerging technologies, increased data integration and collaboration, a stronger focus on grassroots exploration under cover, and a replenished labour pool.

Today, a lot of the discussion about discovery rates revolves around how computing power that did not exist 10 years ago could transform the business of mineral exploration under cover. Artificial intelligence (AI) is, for example, a promising tool for finding patterns in the mountains of data the industry produces, while cloud computing provides a way for geoscientists to move beyond their desktop computers to collaborate in real time from anywhere in the world.

Though some of these sophisticated technologies may be out of the reach of the junior companies responsible for most of the world’s discoveries, technology does have a role to play in making exploration more efficient for them, said Mo Srivastava, a geostatistician and vice-president of TriStar Gold, addressing the inaugural Progressive Mine Forum in Toronto last October. For example, TriStar avoids the expense of diamond drilling at its Castelo de Sonhos gold project in Brazil by using an optical televiewer, a relatively December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 49

new technology, to provide high-resolution images of reverse circulation holes that help guide exploration at the project.

Likewise, portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology (for more information see Sharper shooters, pg. 66) has become routine in field camps over the past decade, allowing geoscientists to narrow down exploration targets without the long wait for results from the lab. GroundTruth Exploration’s “Drones to Drills” method combines both of these technologies, and more, with remote-controlled rotary air blast (RAB) drilling to provide a low-cost, more effective means to explore. The resulting data gets uploaded to the cloud so that GroundTruth’s geoscientists and clients can work on it wherever they may be.

Data integration, sharing and collaboration

Courtesy of TriStar Gold

The ability to integrate data from the three main geoscience disciplines (geology, geochemistry and geophysics) is improving rapidly as advances in 3D modelling combine with the power of cloud computing to produce robust models of the subsurface that geoscientists can share in real time. Recent efforts to increase discovery rates by harnessing these new tools to explore under cover are beginning to pay off.

Barrick Gold, for example, discovered the semi-concealed Alturas deposit on the mature El Indio gold belt in northern Chile by combining geological mapping, remote sensing, magnetic surveys and geochronology datasets to generate targets AI and machine learning along the 150-kilometre belt. Further exploration within a 10A test of whether km2 vicinity of the top“educated” computers ranked epithermal target can help predict the next defined subtle anomalies big discovery is underwhich, when integrated way along the Red Lake into the geological model, gold belt in northern suggested a concealed tarOntario. Goldcorp is get. Further data integrafeeding IBM’s Watson 60 tion, including the results years of historical data of drill core scanning and including geophysical portable XRF, resulted in and geological surveys, the discovery and delindrillhole datasets, reports, eation of 6.8 million academic papers and ounces of Inferred conference proceedings Resources of gold at to teach Watson about Alturas. the geology of the area An optical televiewer, which provides a high-resolution view of reverse circulation drill holes, “One of the most siggenerated this 3D image from TriStar’s Castelo de Sonhos project. and which exploration nificant aspects of the distechniques work best. covery has been the The hope is that Watson will be able to churn through collaboration of a diverse group of geoscientists including field this vast amount of information, recognize patterns and geologists with the support of highly qualified technical spespit out a prospectivity analysis the company can use to cialists,” Simon Griffiths, chief geologist for Barrick’s South drive future exploration. “Once we have the data in place, America division, told his audience at Exploration 17. The we can apply some really clever technology including cog- conference, held in October, was the sixth of a series of meetnitive computing, machine learning and pattern recogni- ings held in Toronto every 10 years since 1967 to highlight tion,” Robin Fell, Goldcorp’s director of strategic the latest developments in mineral exploration technology. technology solutions, told the audience at the Progressive Major companies tend to be better at integrating data Mine Forum. “If the system understands your language and because they possess the financial and human resources to has a background in geology and ore deposits, then you’re tackle the challenge, and often massive amounts of their own essentially giving the power of 10,000 geologists to one historical data to draw upon. But some juniors are succeeding geologist.” with this approach too.

As is often the case, the oil industry is years ahead of the NexGen Energy, the 2018 winner of PDAC’s Bill Dennis mining industry in adopting AI technology. Woodside Energy Award for exploration and development success, used multiin Perth, Australia, for example, has already reduced the per- disciplinary exploration techniques in the Athabasca basin in centage of their geoscientists’ time spent reading and searching Saskatchewan to find Arrow, one of the world’s biggest undefor data to 20 per cent, down from 80 per cent, by using cog- veloped uranium deposits. The exploration team combined nitive computing to combine 30 years of expertise with vol- historical data publicly available from the province with umes of unstructured technical data, according to research by results from geological mapping, geochemical sampling and the IBM Institute of Business Value. geophysical surveys, then assigned each data layer a different But in the end, machines are merely powerful tools that weighting to prioritize targets. For example, historical drillcan augment but not replace the knowledge and intuition of holes with good geology, alteration, structure and radioactivity geoscientists, said TriStar’s Srivastava. “Computers have a huge received high priority weightings, while geochemical anomarole to play in organizing and marshalling datasets, but we lies from soil sampling received lesser ratings because the area have to make sure human reason gets in there too.” is so heavily glaciated. This methodical approach allowed 50 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Courtesy of Goldcorp

Drill core racks at Goldcorp’s Red Lake project in Ontario. The miner recently teamed up with IBM’s Watson cognitive technology to analyze 60 years of historical data in the hopes of finding future exploration prospects

3D space to pinpoint new targets. In mid-2017, Eldorado Gold purchased Integra Gold for $590 million on the strength of Lamaque’s growing resource base and exploration potential.

On a broader scale, PDAC hopes to increase the amount of geoscience data sharing in Canada with the introduction of exploration assessment guidelines – known as Exploration Assessment Digital Data Formats (EADDF) – that will provide a national standard for recording exploration information across various jurisdictions. “Assessment files become bigger and bigger every year but the data remains either on paper or as a PDF format. Compiling this information is very costly and Courtesy of NexGen Energy

NexGen to step out with confidence from the initial blind discovery because the team developed a good understanding of the controls on mineralization.

In 2015 Integra Gold made data sharing newsworthy by creating a $1-million contest for the best proposal to find more ore at its Lamaque gold project near Val-d’Or, Quebec, by using existing data. The junior opened Lamaque’s database to geoscientists, game designers and medical researchers worldwide, receiving 1,000 submissions from 65 countries. Quebec-based SGS Geostat won the prize for combining artificial intelligence, data analytics and virtual reality in an interactive

After the initial discovery at its Arrow project in Saskatchewan (above), NexGen Energy used a multidisciplinary approach in planning its step-out drilling.

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 51

Courtesy of NexGen Energy

sharing and collaborating, said Ken Witherly, president of Condor Consulting, during Exploration 17’s panel discussion on integrating the geosciences.

“Once those silos are created, it’s difficult to get people to share information.

Their tendency is to pass on their contributions as if they were on a GM assembly line, but geoscience doesn’t work that way.” Witherly is on the board of the NSERC-CMIC Industrial Research Network, a consortium that seeks to use integrated geoscience to define the footprints of ore systems by vectoring from their distal margins to their high-grade cores. The network’s The Arrow deposit in the Athabasca basin earned NexGen the 2018 PDAC Bill Dennis award for success in ultimate goal is to develop new techexploration and development. nologies and methods that can be used time consuming,” said Charles Beaudry, chair of PDAC’s geo- to detect subtle targets under cover. science committee, who launched the EADDF guidelines at Industry-government-academic consortiums such as Exploration 17. “This is why PDAC is advocating for jurisdic- NSERC-CMIC Footprints can be an effective way to move the tions in Canada to require explorationists to submit their needle on technology because they put the weight of industry assessment data in a consistent digital format.” Australia has and government funding behind academic research. Another had similar guidelines in place for years. example is Metal Earth, a consortium led by Laurentian UniOne risk is that as exploration technology – particularly versity in Sudbury that seeks to understand how ore deposits geophysical techniques – becomes more specialized, geosci- are distributed in Precambrian rocks and why some areas have entists may retreat even further into their silos rather than rich mineral endowments while others are barren. The $104million program aims to help unlock new mineral riches in Canada’s Far North, which remains underexplored compared to the Precambrian terrain south of 60° N latitude where close to half of Canada’s gold and base metal mines lie.

Grassroots exploration under cover The exploration spending boom of 2006-2011, before the sector hit the latest doldrums, was characterized by spending on existing deposits. The hope was that higher commodity prices driven by strong growth in China could turn marginal deposits into economic ore bodies, allowing the sector to sidestep the risk of early stage exploration. Globally, the share of spending devoted to grassroots exploration dropped to 28 per cent in 2016 from 48 per cent in 2003 according to SNL Metals & Mining. Unsurprisingly, the number of fresh discoveries tumbled in tandem.

Tier 1 discoveries such as the Ekati diamond deposit in the Northwest Territories and the Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Labrador – both found in the 1990s – resulted not from perusing old drillhole datasets, but from methodical exploration in remote parts of Canada that had seen little exploration in the past. Although areas that have both mineral potential and outcrop are becoming scarcer, there is vast potential to discover new mineral systems obscured by cover.

The main obstacles to discovery are the expense and high failure rate of exploring blind.

The Deep Exploration Technologies (DET-CRC) research centre in Adelaide, Australia, another industry-governmentacademic collaboration, aims to address those obstacles by introducing a prospecting drill that can investigate covered mineral systems quickly and inexpensively. The RoXplorer, 52 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

the result of seven years of research, uses coiled-tube drilling instead of traditional drill rods to reduce costs and improve safety and expediency by eliminating the need for drill rod changes. Sensors on the drill string provide real-time information about the properties of the underlying rocks, allowing exploration managers to adjust their drilling program on the fly. DET-CRC is expected to offer RoXplorer to its industry partners for licencing following successful field trials earlier this year.

A bigger, better labour pool But no matter how much money and technology the industry throws at mineral exploration, discoveries cannot happen without expertise. A recent survey of the exploration sector by the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) suggests there has been a significant hollowing out of midcareer (aged 35-54) geoscientists, who are crucial for mentoring and transferring expertise to recent graduates. A majority of the 397 respondents to MiHR’s survey were either in the 15-34 or 55 and over age group, while the middle-age range was significantly underrepresented compared the rest of the mining labour force and Canadian workers in general.

The case for geochemists is especially dire. There has been a severe loss of middle management in the Association of Applied Geochemists, Peter Winterburn, industrial research chair at UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, told the Exploration 17 audience. About 50 per cent of geochemists are over 60, while only 13 per cent are under 40. And because most are contractors, data integration has fallen by the wayside. “Even in lean times, consultants are turning away work because there is more than they can handle. This points to a severe deficiency of geochemists in the industry.”

There have been some initiatives to encourage more students to pursue careers in mineral exploration while embracing a multidisciplinary approach. For example, the Frank Arnott Award presented at Exploration 17 awarded prizes in

the “apprentice” category for teams of undergraduates able to demonstrate innovation in data visualization and integration using one of five regional datasets. Team “On the Rocks” from the University of Adelaide won first place for its 3D projections and presentation of geoscientific data from the mineral rich Gawlor Craton in southcentral Australia.

But universities and colleges need consistent funding for geoscience training, including the more practical field schools, if they are expected to continue to supply the next generation of explorers. And companies must find a way to retain those recruits through inevitable commodity price swings, or they risk losing even more expertise at the crucial mid-career stage.

The declining rate of mineral discovery and the associated challenges of waning expertise and exploring under cover paint a bleak picture of the future of mining. But the mineral exploration sector is nimble and big discoveries such as Ekati have a way of turning the sector on its head, fuelling more exploration and making the industry attractive to prospective geoscientists. If new technology – be it IBM’s Watson, DETCRC’s prospecting drill or some as yet unknown technique – leads to a world-class discovery, sector players will be quick to try to replicate the success. The resulting investment could herald a new era of discovery under cover that, in turn, leads to the next generation of mines. CIM RELATED CONTENT CIM Technical Paper Library Drillhole placement subject to constraints for improved resource classification

By D. S. Silva, A. Jewbali, J. B. Boisvert and C. V. Deutsch

CIM on YouTube A quantitative approach to project assessment

By Mo Srivastava

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 53

The top of the deposit is at around 1,700 metres above sea level, with the plant site roughly 600 metres below in the Higabra Valley.

VISION

In the New Year, CONTINENTAL GOLD will pour concrete for the processing plant at its BURITICÁ project.

The operation will be built on the quality of the high-grade deposit and the strength of the recent peace accord in Colombia – what could be the foundation for a new generation of development there

By Ryan Bergen

T

here is plenty of gold in the green mountains of Colombia. That is not in doubt – mining activity has been traced back to before the arrival of the Spanish. But decades of political turmoil, entrenched resistance movements folded in with the influence of the illicit drug trade, have kept it from advancing beyond its place as the next great destination for major investment in gold projects.

Continental Gold stands a good chance of changing that with its Buriticá project on the Cauca Gold Belt in Colombia’s Antioquia province. In 2011, the company released the maiden resource estimate for Buriticá. The property, 60 kilometres north of Medellín, has two identified vein systems, the Yaraguá 54 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

and Veta Sur, which at that time had a Measured and Indicated Resource of 630,000 ounces of gold based on 1.1 million tonnes with an average grade of 17.8 grams per tonne. Continental’s stake in Colombia includes land around the Buriticá project as well as the Berlin mine, located further north of Medellín, which was operated by a Canadian company that extracted nearly half a million ounces between 1930 and 1946.

The company has since succeeded in turning that early estimate into a project that, based on a March 2016 feasibility study by JDS Mining and Energy, is expected to produce nearly 3.5 million ounces of gold and 6.4 million ounces of silver over a 14-year mine life. The results were impressive enough

project profile country inaccessible. Last November, the government signed a peace deal with the FARC, the most prominent of the resistance groups, which has since demobilized over 7,000 militia members.

The small hill-top town of Buriticá was tangled up in the conflict. The gold bearing veins nearby made it a hub of mining activity that helped fuel the illegal economy. One part of the larger effort to bring stability across the country has been to force illegal miners out. Though the process has been fitful – six security guards working for Continental died in July in a confrontation with trespassing miners – the area, which once swelled to twice its normal population of 7,000, is more like its quiet, former self. Since 2014, Continental has been working with miners who have roots in the area to formalize artisanal operations next to the Buriticá project. Currently the mine has a 30-tonne-per-day plant with which it can process the ore it purchases from the artisanal miners. The formalization process was helped along by a government program to end illegal mining across the country in the spring of 2016.

“That got us over a major hurdle,” said Continental CEO Ari Sussman. “Illegal mining is never going to be 100 per cent gone.” More than 200 mining tunnels have been found and closed off, some repeatedly. But, said Sussman, “now we are dealing with a significantly reduced amount of illegal miners.

There is a permanent security plan in place on a 24-hour basis by all three pillars of Colombian government.”

PEOPLE POWER

All photos by Ryan Bergen

to get the interest of Newmont Mining, who gave Continental a solid vote of confidence with a US$109-million investment last May. By late October, major earthworks for the plant site were underway in preparation for the first concrete to be poured early in the New Year.

The progress at Buriticá, however, is bound up in that of its host country, which has struggled to end a more than 50-year armed conflict. What began as a fight organized around political ideologies splintered into a mess of competing factions, many of them sustained by the drug trade, kidnapping and illegal mining. The conflict has killed an estimated 250,000 people, displaced seven million and left large parts of the

If progress within Colombia has given a boost to Continental, so too has the slowdown in mine development. The company has built a deep bench of experienced talent working on the project. Donald Gray, who has extensive experience in Latin America, took on the role of COO in 2015 after bringing the Escobal silver mine to production as vice-president of operations for Tahoe Resources. He was joined earlier this year

by Jon Graham, who became Continental’s vice-president of operations after three years as operations manager at Goldcorp’s Cerro Negro operation in Argentina and Tim Barnett, Buriticá’s project manager, fresh from the start-up of OceanaGold’s Haile mine in South Carolina. “Mines are complicated projects to build, so the more experience you can have, the better,” said Sussman. “The team we were able to assemble was one of the benefits of the bear market. And it’s a great project.”

Gray has also found that the timing of the project worked to Continental’s advantage. “When we started with procurement earlier this year, we saw both excellent delivery times and very competitive pricing. With time, we’re seeing delivery times tending to lengthen, but pricing has remained competitive,” he said. “We made the conscious decision to finalize purchase orders as early as possible, because we saw the potential for this longer lead-time trend.” Sandvik is providing the loaders, trucks, jumbos and bolters for the underground operation and is now working with Continental to train operators on site.

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 55

BURITICĂ

Proven and Probable Reserves 13.7 million tonnes at 8.4 grams/tonne gold and 24.3 g/t silver CAPEX US$389 million Annual production over 14 years Gold 253,000 oz | Silver 466,000 oz All-in-sustaining cash costs US$492/ounce of gold

56 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

project profile

Modular administration buildings (centre) will be disassembled and moved down the recently completed road to the plant site.

In putting the leadership together, the company has also been careful to include Colombians in upper management and on the board of directors. Continental’s president Mateo Restrepo is a Medellín native and the public face of the company in Colombia, and Leon Teicher, the company chairman, a dual Canadian-Colombian citizen and past-president and CEO of Cerrejon Coal, is one of three Colombians on the board of directors. It is a model that Sussman suggested would save many headaches for Canadian mining companies operating abroad. “When a foreign company comes into Canada and needs government support everyone gets their back up. Why should we expect it to be different in a developing country where they are not as used to having the same level of foreign investment?”

BENEATH THE SURFACE Gray noted that since the feasibility study, the mining team has optimized the design to limit the amount of preproduction development. “We adjusted the layout to allow our ventilation raises, ore passes and waste passes to be constructed much earlier, which takes pressure off some ramp development.” They have done similar work on the plant design to reduce the amount of earthworks required by shrinking the footprint of the plant. A six-kilometre road now connects the plant site to the existing transportation network.

The operation will mine two deposits, which are described in the feasibility study as part of “a porphyry related epithermal carbonate base metal gold narrow vein breccia system.” The majority of these two swarms of veins Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Old mine workings follow

the veins into the side of the hill; Continental is planning an extensive drilling campaign at the project in 2018; Mauricio Castañeda, Continental’s exploration VP, has worked on the project since 2009.

will be mined using the longhole open stoping method, with some cut and fill and shrinkage mining.

Production, set for 2020, will begin at 2,100 tonnes per day (tpd) and then increase by the third year to 3,000 tpd for the remaining 12 years. Moving the ore, waste and water will be made easier with the help of gravity because much of the reserve lies in the hillside above a valley where a tunnel – already developed – will be used to truck ore to the processing plant on the valley floor. Crushed and ground ore will go through gravity concentration, cyanide leaching and countercurrent decantation, and the gold and silver will then be removed from the solution using the Merrill-Crowe process before being refined into doré bars. Continental expects to recover 94 per cent of the gold and 60 per cent of the silver processed to produce 282,000 ounces of gold and 494,000 ounces of silver annually over the first five years.

About half the tailings will be dewatered and stacked in the valley with the other half delivered to a paste plant and then hoisted back up the hill on a Doppelmayr aerial tramway.

Rather than hire a single firm to take on everything from the engineering to the construction management, Continental is splitting the task. M3 Engineering is handling the engineering and procurement and Merit Consultants has responsibility for construction management. It is an approach that Gray has used in the past and one that he said he finds more responsive. “When the function of the construction manager is separated from the engineering and procurement, the work tends to be driven by field needs versus being managed according to the engineering schedule.

Regardless, whichever way you choose to manage a project, it’s critical that the owner is involved in making decisions, actively managing activities and ensuring the construction meets schedule and design objectives.”

The mine will need 900 workers once it begins producing, so the company has also been active in workforce trainDecember 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 57

ing, partnering with a government vocational training program to set up a trade school in the town of Buriticá. One course covers basic mining skills and hazard recognition and the second is focused on basic construction skills. “The other thing we’re doing is integrating this curriculum with our equipment training, for example training on loaders and trucks,” said Gray. They are also working with Sandvik on a training program located at the project site itself that Gray said has shown very encouraging results. “We are very confident that our workforce will achieve the competency level we need for development and operations.”

A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION For 2018, Sussman said that, in addition to the ongoing development of the mine, they plan to have a 100,000metre drilling campaign on the Buriticá property. The two deposits that make up the current reserve and are open at depth and along the strike will be the focus of 60,000 of those metres, with the remaining drilling targeting other prospects on the property. “We are eager to see just how many ounces of gold and silver we can discover in our intrusion-based gold system,” he explained to a group of analysts and investors visiting the Buriticá project in October. “We need to create as much value as possible.” CIM

Activity in and around Antioquia Gran Colombia Gold – Segovia

The mine produced 126,000 oz of gold in 2016 processing ore from artisanal miners and released a PEA for the project in September.

Red Eagle Mining – San Ramon The 1,200 tpd mine reached commercial production in April, but has since run into geotechnical issues.

Milling is expected to restart in early 2018.

Atico Mining – El Roble The underground operation produces copper and gold from a volcanic massive sulfide deposit.

It recently scaled up to 800 tpd from 650.

Metminco – Miraflores The feasibility study for the gold-silver project was completed in October, 2017.

Detailed engineering is set to begin in March for the 1,300 tpd underground operation.

January 22 - 25, 2018

A New Generation of Discovery Program and registration online at

roundup.amebc.ca.

58 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

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The mine near Timmins, Ontario has been a fixture on the Canadian mining scene for over a century. At the end of December miners there will work their last shift.

CIM Magazine’s Kelsey Rolfe reached out to Dome alumni to gather just some of the many stories from life at the long-lived mine

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he Hocevar family has worked at the Dome mine in the famous Timmins-Porcupine gold camp for nearly 70 years. Joseph joined up after emigrating from Slovenia in 1949, working as an underground miner, and was followed by his sons Edward, a maintenance supervisor, in 1981 and Bill, a mining engineer, in 1984. Edward will be the last Hocevar to work at Dome, which will close its doors and tunnels on Dec. 31.

The Hocevars are just one of many mining families that have long and deep ties to Dome. “There are families that have had multiple generations working at the mine from when it first opened,” said Bill Hocevar, who left Dome in 1992 and is now a business development superintendent at Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations. “It’s quite different from most places, where sometimes you see the discovery, development, mining and closure all within one generation.

“Dome is one of the exceptions. It had longevity.”

Dome was opened in 1910 and, but for a hiatus in the 2000s, has been mined continuously since. It is 107 years old – making it one of Canada’s longest operating gold mines. It produced an impressive 73 million tonnes of ore and 15 million ounces of gold in its lifespan. Its discovery and the two following ones that led to the Hollinger and McIntyre mines were the pillar operations that built the Timmins area.

But on New Year’s Eve, operations will come to an end at the underground mine. Goldcorp announced the decision in August, after extending Dome’s life by 18 months in July 2016.

“It’s always tough to know when to close a mine. However, in this case, we’ve made many attempts to keep it going. It just doesn’t make financial sense anymore,” Marc Lauzier, the mine’s general manager at Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM), told CIM Magazine. “We’ve been struggling to keep the mine going since roughly 2000. After 100 years of mining, we’re scraping to mine the remnant pillars and the remnant couple of areas that haven’t been mined out.”

While the underground has been effectively depleted, Dome may get yet another life. Goldcorp completed a pre-feasibility study for its Century project – further mining Dome’s old Super Pit and Pamour pit – in October. The company reported on Oct. 25 that it had converted 4.7 million ounces into Mineral Reserves at Century, increasing the Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of gold at Porcupine to 8.1 million ounces, up from 2.3 million last June. “We are working aggressively to bring Century to production in the next four to five years,” Lauzier said.

Ask anyone who has worked at Dome and they will tell you: its ore body is remarkable, both in size and complexity. It would, of course, take an impressive one to sustain 107 years of mining and then get ready to go another round.

“If you’re starting as a young geologist or a young engineer, you’re working in an ore body that’s basically coded in every ore reserves book around the world,” said Lauzier. “It’s a historical body. And it’s been so consistent over its 100-plus years of operation.”

The body’s complex geology meant that it had ore bodies in different dimensions and sizes, and you could chase a quartz vein from the underground workings above ground and all the way to the employee bus stop. Mining that kind of deposit required multiple methods, and everything from narrow vein mining to room and pillar to bulk and longhole mining was employed.

“This is what was totally unique about Dome. It’s very unusual to see such a wide number of mining methods being employed,” said Brian Robertson, CEO of Mexican Gold Corp and a former Dome employee from 1972 to 1990. Robertson started at the mine after graduating and worked his way up from mining engineer to general superintendent. “There’s generally one main method, maybe two. Most of the mines I’ve worked at have had one.”

But its ore body is just one reason Dome will occupy a special place in Canada’s mining history. Former employees of the mine recall it for its familial spirit, a place where multiple generations of families worked at the mine, and where people could spend their whole career, moving up through the ranks from miner to mine superintendent. It was a mine that, thanks to its geology, history and experienced workforce, was the training ground for many young engineers and geologists fresh out of university, and turned out an impressive number of mining CEOs. It was a place that has always kept one foot in the past and one in the future, allowing new technologies and processes to inform it but tradition to keep it grounded, modernizing in fits and starts over its long life.

Let’s go back in time to the Porcupine Gold Rush. In June 1909, one of two prospectors, Harry Preston or Jack Wilson, slipped on a rock and scraped off its moss covering. The stories vary on who actually did the slipping, but what they found is not disputed: a ledge of quartz covered with gold.

That ledge became the Dome mine. Preston and Wilson were followed soon after by prospecting partners Benny Hollinger and Alex Gilles, who discovered the Hollinger mine, and Alexander Olifant (known as Sandy McIntyre), who discovered the McIntyre mine. The “big three” mines brought more prospectors to the Porcupine camp, and led to the creation of the town of Timmins in 1912.

Dome began as an underground operation and was mined as such for decades. As the mine developed and the workforce grew, the owner company, Dome Mines Ltd., built houses for its employees at Dome Extension. The community had a school for employees’ children, a grocery store, recreational facilities, two ice rinks and an on-site doctor. “My girls went to school down there and we shopped down there,” recalled Irwin Parrish, a retired geologist. Parrish, 84, worked at Dome from 1959 to 1965. “It was a very close-knit community. On Halloween the mine security officers would dress up in costumes; instead of just walking around Dome Extension in uniform they chose to take part.”

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 61

Sitting by the bus stop, waiting to be found “We found a two- to three-foot wide quartz vein that no one knew was out there. It looked like barren or bull quartz but when we sampled it, it had a hell of a lot of gold in it. Much of the gold at Dome, when it was in quartz, was quartz with tourmaline, a black mineral. This had no tourmaline but it had a green mineral, mariposite. This turned out to be the 81 vein.

The 81 vein I think became one of the richest veins ever found at the mine, at least in the second half of the century, and it provided much of the gold in the ‘60s into the ‘70s. We actually followed it from the 12 level, it went down further underground and then up, we chased it through the surface and we sampled some outcrops around the old bus station – there was a bus that ran along the back road to Dome Extension and up to South Porcupine – and we found the remnants of this quartz vein and actually found some gold on surface. It had been there for 60 years and no one had ever noticed it. The waiting shack for the bus was actually built right next to what turned out to be the 81 vein. It was a very significant find at the time.”

– Irwin Parrish, geologist, Dome employee from “There was a push forward to modernize the operation 1959–1965 and introduce new technology,” Robertson said. Underground, the mine brought in drill jumbos and electric scoop trams – more than 40 years ahead of the curve – and micro scoops for narrow vein mining. The mining method changed 1987. “But things were done correctly. The mines were run to in an effort to increase production. The #8 shaft was sunk to a high standard.”

And while there could be some initial resistance to new a depth of 5,400 feet and the old mill – an all-wood structure dating back to 1929 – was torn down and rebuilt with new ideas, people were not completely unwilling to experiment. technology. “We used to kid that we took the mill out of the “We were always trying different things to find a better way, Stone Age and brought it into the modern era,” said more economical way, of mining,” Hocevar remembered.

Colquhoun, who spent a decade at the mine after graduating “They had a lot of narrow vein type deposits, so they were pretty much in the forefront of trying to develop different from college in 1977.

It may be a familiar refrain for anyone who has worked at methods to do that. It was a good place to learn what could Dome. There was always, employees remembered, some ten- work and what didn’t work.” sion between the traditional way of doing things, developed over decades, and new technologies and ideas.

“One of my earlier projects was to computerize mine records at all the mines,” remembered Joe Spiteri, a mining consultant and director who worked for Dome Mines Ltd. from 1979 to 1988, and completed a geology research project at Dome in 1978. “The response that came from lots of people at Dome was ‘What? Are you kidding? Computer? What the hell is that? You can’t possibly computerize that!’”

But as Paul Wright, vice-chairman of Eldorado Gold, pointed out, what could be perceived as stodginess could also be a benefit. “People nowadays would refer to [the culture] as excessive conservatism,” joked Wright, who joined Dome after graduating university in 1977, worked his way up To allow for the excavation of the Super Pit, a number of houses shown were demolished. The from a miner to the mine superintendent, and left in general manager's house, however, was spared and trucked to a new location.

62 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Courtesy of Ron Colquhoun

Many of the Dome’s early generations of workers were veterans of the two World Wars who came back to Timmins and settled their families, as well as former farmers. “The mining industry created jobs and livelihoods for those families,” said Lauzier, a Timmins native whose father was a geologist and father-in-law was a miner. “A lot of us came to mining not by chance but because our fathers and grandfathers had established themselves in Timmins for mining reasons. That’s why it’s not uncommon to see entire families who’ve worked at the mine.”

With the gold prices fixed at around $35/ounce in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the mine was “static” for a number of years, Robertson said. Ron Colquhoun, a former mill superintendent, added that for decades Dome had “very, very tight capital expenditures.”

But then, in August 1971, United States President Richard Nixon unhitched the U.S. dollar from the price of gold. Dome Mines, being Canada’s largest gold producer thanks to its ownership of the Red Lake mine, became a very profitable company when the gold price started moving up, and the Dome mine benefitted.

retrospective That duality was why former employees remember the mine as an ideal training ground. “It was a great experience for a young graduate,” Robertson said. “You couldn’t find a better place to work with people with that depth of knowledge.”

“Many of us who started at Dome referred to it as the Dome School of Mines,” Wright said, “because it’s there that you actually learned about mining in the truest sense.”

Courtesy of Goldcorp

In which case, Robert Perry was one of its most eminent professors.

Perry graduated from university in 1958 and immediately began working at Dome as a junior shift boss. As he remembers it, the going rate was $400 per month, and the six-room house in Dome Extension he was offered along with the job cost him $11 a month in rent. He and his wife Norma raised their three children at Dome Extension, and over a 37.5-year career he worked his way up the ladder to the general manager position before retiring in 1996.

During his time at Dome, Perry, now 86, made big changes to streamline the operation, including helping to cut the mine’s cost per ounce and reducing the size of the workforce, and championed new ways of thinking. “I think there certainly was an element of the old guard that said, this has worked for decades, we don’t need to change. But to his credit, Bob Perry was very open and supportive of new ideas,” Wright said.

And, along with Robertson, Perry was a driving force behind Dome’s Super Pit. The mine’s underground production was lowered because of problems with the #8 shaft and Robertson, then the mine superintendent, needed to fill the mill. “I needed another source of ore so I went back to the old glory hole where the original discovery was in 1910, and saw some mineralization,” he said. The open-pit expertise from the Placer Development side of Placer Dome, the mine’s new owner, also played a role in the pit’s development.

The Dome mine as it looks today

The gold bar challenge “We had a whole refinery and every bar of gold that we poured, it looked like a loaf of bread and it was stamped and numbered. I told people, if you could pick a piece of gold up with one hand you could keep it. Nobody could.”

– Bob Perry, retired general manager, Dome employee from 1958–1996

The plans for the Super Pit expanded to include Dome Extension, Perry said, after a drill program in the late ‘80s. “We found out there was ore under all those houses, so we decided we would tear the houses down and turn the ore into an open pit. So we tore all the houses down except for the one I lived in, which we moved about a half a mile down the road.” The house, which weighed three times as much as initially calculated, broke the first trailer that was supposed to move it.

CIM past-president Michael Winship later lived in the same house, which was reserved for Dome’s general manager, during the late 1990s. “This is anecdotal, but they got it jacked up onto massive trucks and then at some point it got stuck,” he said. “I heard a lot of the town people came out and it was kind of like a parade to have this house moved.”

“It was a beautiful home,” Perry recalled.

“The open pit was really what saved us for a long time,” Perry said. The Super Pit opened in 1994, and Dome ran both the pit and underground operations until June 2004. The underground workings closed until April 2006 due to economic conditions and, according to Lauzier, work shifted to open pit mining at another Porcupine property, Pamour, in June 2005. Later that year, Barrick Gold announced it was acquiring Placer Dome.

Placer’s Porcupine assets, as well as the Campbell mine and Musselwhite, were spun off to Goldcorp.

Work shifted back to the Dome underground in 2006 and has continued since. The infrastructure has aged and, noted Lauzier, “significant investment would be required to upgrade it. We’re having difficulty achieving productivities.”

When the mine closes, some of the employees will be re-trained and moved to other areas of PGM, and some will lose their jobs – a decision that is being handled through the collective agreement between Goldcorp and the employees’ union. The closure will affect 140 people, including employees and contractors. Goldcorp has been in touch with Service Canada and Ontario’s December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 63

Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, as well as College Boréal and Northern College in Timmins to set up information sessions for staff.

Over the years the sections of the underground workings that are no longer in use have been inspected and barricaded for safety, and some old tailings stems have been closed off. “I think they were fairly early pioneers in mine rehabilitation at Dome, because it was mined for so long and they had massive tailings ponds. They’ve done quite a good job at rehabilitating them,” Winship said.

The areas that are still open are being inspected by the operations, health and safety and environmental departments to make sure Goldcorp meets all its regulatory requirements, and

then will also be barricaded. Most of the equipment at Dome is small and old, so what is needed will be redistributed to other PGM mines, and what is not will be left underground, with the fuels and oils removed. The mill and the tailings area are still used by the other PGM operations, and will remain open.

“We’ll do whatever is required, whether that’s resloping, seeding, addressing any historical problems that may have been left behind,” Lauzier said. “Because we’re only closing the underground in this case, there’s not a lot of rehabilitation required right now.”

Courtesy of Michael Winship

The end of this year coincides with the end of Dome. For decades the whistle at the mine would blow when the New Year arrived, but the creation of the Super Pit in the 1990s saw the whistle removed. This year each of the mine’s employees will receive a small gift to thank them for their work, Lauzier said, but otherwise the last day at the mine will be a quiet affair. It will be the celebrations in Timmins, the town the mine put on the map, that will sound out Dome’s legacy. CIM

Dome was touched by fame when Shania Twain filmed parts of a CBS special at the site. Twain was raised in Timmins.

Never mind the “Producer” credit “It was a wintery day, I don’t know if it was January or February but the snow was lightly falling and I get a call from the gate house up in the office and they said, ‘There’s a request by Shania Twain and her film crew from CBS, they want to film a number of her singing on the mine site.’ I said, ‘Well you better put them on the phone and I’m going to do some negotiating here.’ Then I spoke to the producer and I said, ‘Why do you want to film on the mine site?’ He said, ‘We want to have a snowy mountain backdrop for her in this picture.’ Timmins generally is flat as a board but we had a big waste dump of rock and it was covered in snow, so it was like an artificial snow mountain. So I said, ‘Well okay we’re willing to let you do this shoot, on the condition that you’ll let me come down there and meet Shania and have my picture taken with her.’ So I go down in my mining gear and she’s doing her filming and then she came over and introduced herself and she was really friendly and chatty. She grew up in Timmins so that’s why they were filming the special there. So we had our picture taken and she put her arm around me. That was a good moment.”

– Michael Winship, former Dome general manager from 1998–1999 64 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

“To be an innovator is to be a trailblazer.

It’s a mindset” – Genanne Beck Retired civil engineer

Meet Genanne and the other inspiring women of innovation…

WOMEN OF

INNOVATION The Impact of Leading Engineers in Canada

Anne millar | Mary Wells

Published by

NEW BOOK AVAILABLE at cim.org

THANK YOU!

Dumas is proud to have been on site at the Dome Mine in Timmins, Ontario since 1982.

Over 35 years later and thousands of tonnes from the depths of the earth, we’ve reached the final chapter.

To the Dome Mine Crew, the Timmins community, and Goldcorp: Thank you for this opportunity, the lasting relationships, milestones achieved, and memories made along the way.

Sharper shooters Handheld and on-site geochemistry and mineral analysis tools are evolving to be faster, more precise and more connected than ever before

Courtesy of Olympus

By Kylie Williams

Tough, smart and well connected hand-held technology like Olympus’ new Vanta portable XRF offer geoscientists more informed decision-making in the field.

66 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

ust a decade ago, a handheld point-and-shoot x-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrument was considered a cool but rare toy to play with in the field on a remote greenfield exploration project. If held in place long enough, it would detect a small range of chemical elements in a handful of soil. Fast-forward ten years and the cool toy has evolved into an industry staple, with a variety of instruments and uses across the entire mining value chain.

Portable XRF (pXRF) tools have been joined by other miniaturized laboratory technologies, including portable x-ray diffraction (XRD) and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to name a few. Just like their laboratory-based cousins, these scientific instruments bounce an x-ray or laser beam off the atoms or crystals within a rock, soil or core sample to identify the elements and minerals it contains. Now able to detect a wider range of elements more precisely and identify elements and minerals in only a few seconds, these instruments are generating quality data in realtime to help make informed decisions in the field and on the mine site.

A new sector of specialists has grown around the use of these instruments and the treatment of the data they generate, and several global companies such as Olympus Scientific Solutions, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bureau Veritas and many smaller ones are racing to push these technologies to the limits. Ensuring the quality of the data collected, integrating the volumes of data generated by these tools with other geoscience data, and sharing the information securely through the cloud for real-time decision-making are priorities for the sector. New instruments and software packages are hitting the market every few months.

J

Courtesy of SciAps

geoscience Filling out the periodic table “Originally, portable XRF started as a straightforward exploration tool for regional soil surveys,” said Aaron Baensch, principal geologist of the international mining group at Olympus Scientific Solutions Americas (Analytical Instruments Division). “Ten years ago, the technology didn’t have the sensitivity to get down to single parts-per-million for a lot of elements, and it struggled with the light elements, like potassium and calcium, that we use for mapping alteration in mineral systems.”

At first, the lightest element by atomic weight on the periodic table that pXRF could accurately detect was titanium, number 22 on the periodic table. Now, all the major rock-forming light elements, including aluminum, silica, phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, calcium and magnesium, can be detected down to single parts-per-million (ppm). These elements are the majority constituents of most rocks and so are critical for their identification.

“These instruments have come down two orders of magnitude in sensitivity on the major transition elements,” said Baensch. “Copper, for example, was at 100 ppm a decade ago.

Then, a few years ago, we got it to 10 ppm, and now it’s at one ppm.”

One of the latest tools to hit the market is the Vanta Handheld XRF Analyzer, developed by Olympus. In addition to being able to analyze a sample faster than Olympus’ previous models and being more sensitive to a wider range of elements, said Baensch, it is built for “nasty environments” like the Pilbara desert in outback Australia or the frozen tundra north of Yellowknife. It is engineered to withstand a temperature range of -10 C to 50 C (with optional fan) and passes a military-standard drop test.

“We can find almost every deposit style, from epithermal gold right through to iron ore and bauxite, with these tools,” said Baensch. “We’re working across every commodity group, and now pXRF can be used across the whole value chain.”

But pXRF, the mainstay of handheld field technology for many years, now has some healthy competition. SciAps Inc., a Boston-based instrumentation company specializing in portable analytical instruments, introduced the world’s first handheld (HH) LIBS spectrometer in 2014 and released a new model in its LIBS Spectra Z-Series in 2016. The Z-300 HH LIBS can quantify elements that a pXRF cannot measure, such as lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon and sodium, and can zoom in for a smaller spot analysis to map the distribution of elements within a single mineral grain.

Andrew Somers, managing direcThe SciAps Z300 LIBS spectrometer in action tor of SciAps Australia and global at the face in an business director for geochemistry at underground mine.

SciAps Inc., explained that the LIBS is “quite a different creature” and not simply the next generation of XRF. He noted that “in addition to the lighter elemental suite possible with LIBS a key point of difference is the LIBS is spatially discrete by comparison to the portable XRF. We use a 50 micron laser spot in combination with the ability to raster using an internal X-Y stage to collect analytical data.”

As always, it comes down to choosing the right tool for the job. With its much smaller spot analysis diameter, a LIBS may be the right choice if a geologist wanted to look in detail at the contact between two minerals, zones of different chemical composition within a mineral or alteration around a small vein, said Somers. However, when looking at broad chemical alteration variations associated with mineralization, the larger sample size of a pXRF may be more useful. SciAps also offers pXRF and portable Raman systems.

Geologists are increasingly spoiled for choice when it comes to handheld analysis and the range of tools available, but there are certainly challenges.

Pros and cons “When a geologist takes a field-portable instrument in their hand, they become a laboratory,” said Britt Bluemel, geochemist at REFLEX, the Canadian distribution partner for Innov-X Technologies Canada, distributor for the Olympus range of portable tools. “Laboratories have certain responsibilities and are required to follow intense QA/QC protocols and quality checks. Individuals don’t often do this.”

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 67

Human error can be introduced at multiple places along the chain of custody, or paper trail, for each sample analyzed, said Bluemel, such as typing information into a spreadsheet or transferring between files. To minimize data handling, REFLEX has designed software to control the XRF instrument, decreasing the likelihood of human error during data collection.

“We’ve built in calibration settings to help the geologist be more like a laboratory,” said Bluemel. “For example, we can set up a custom QA/QC routine where the handheld analyzer will prompt the geologist to scan a blank every ten samples.”

Despite initial concerns, bricks and mortar commercial laboratories are still in business, even with the growth of handheld analysis technologies. Surprisingly, these instruments have created more work for laboratories, said Baensch. Now, only the “juiciest samples” are sent to the commercial laboratories for analysis.

“The labs were scared it was going to be disruptive to their business and take market share away, but what actually happened is the opposite,” said Baensch. “What we see now are customers using handheld and on-site instruments in the field to pre-screen samples and send the better samples back to the lab.”

This may be one of the biggest attractions for explorers and underground miners using these technologies: the ability to quickly have enough information available to make key decisions. If only the most promising samples are sent to the laboratory, they are analyzed quicker, and the information can be used to decide where to drill, how deep to drill, or even to stop drilling, saving time, money and resources in the field.

What’s next?

With the ability to collect more data in less time during a field program, reliable, large-scale and secure data manage-

ment becomes essential. Processing, integrating, mapping and visualizing anomalies in real time requires reliable communication between the sensor, a processor and a model. Companies are using cell phones and built-in wireless technologies to transfer information from the instrument to cloud-based storage systems, such as REFLEX’s HUB. The goal, said Bluemel, is to get the data to the geological model with as little human intervention as possible.

But when field programs are remote, internet communications may be slow or unreliable, so solutions for secure campbased quality control, storage and analytic capabilities also need to be developed. As with all internet traffic, security of the data is essential, especially with accurate metal assay numbers being collected on site and transmitted to a city-based office. Such data may be considered unpublished price-sensitive data, the custody of which must be carefully guarded and tracked to fulfill a company’s duties to the public market. New data management issues must be considered before these handhelds are used to blast every piece of rock on site, and this will likely be an area of ongoing research and development.

Once the data is captured and stored, it is not surprising that practitioners are turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning to add value. Automated analytics have a key role to play in helping to convert the huge volumes of data collected by handheld analyzers into knowledge, in real time.

“One of the biggest issues is data integration. How do you cross-correlate all of those data sets? There seems to be a lot of potential for machine learning,” said Somers. “Real time is only as fast as you can manage the data and pull it together.”

Field technologies have improved quickly and dramatically over the last decade and have certainly disrupted the way decisions are made in remote locations. Hurdles remain, but the sector is strong, competitive and focused. CIM

DO YOU WANT YOUR MESSAGE TO MOVE MOUNTAINS? Place Your Ad Here Janet Jeffery Senior Account Executive jjeffery@dvtail.com 905.707.3529

68 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Neal Young Senior Account Executive nyoung@dvtail.com 905.707.3525

obituaries

In Memoriam We remember those who have passed Compiled by Tom DiNardo

CIM is more than an organization – it is a community of people who share a common passion for the mining industry. At the end of each year, we at the institute take a moment to honour members of that community who have passed away. We would like to extend our condolences to friends and family of the deceased as we remember those who are no longer with us.

Peter H. Atkinson passed away in Sussex, New Brunswick, on Sept. 26, 2017. Peter is a past president of the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick branches of CIM, as well as the past president of the Nova Scotia Chamber of Mineral Resources. He was born in Vancouver in 1935 and graduated from the Montana School of Mines in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering. While earning his degree, Peter played football and hockey, and was reportedly known at the time as “The Uranium City Terror.” Peter joined CIM in 1971 and became a Life Member in 2004.

Robert Buchan died Aug. 10, 2016, at his home in Peterborough, Ontario, at the age of 84. A geologist, Robert moved to Sudbury in 1954 to work at Falconbridge Nickel Mines. He joined CIM in 1958 and became a Life Member in 1996.

Roy F. Hynd, age 61, passed away suddenly in China on June 8, 2017. Roy worked for forty years in the mining chemical import industry. He joined CIM in 1998.

Tor Jensen passed away on June 15, 2017. Tor graduated from Queen’s University in 1958 as a mining engineer. After working at several mining operations in Ontario and Quebec early in his career, Tor spent 25 years running his own company, Mining Financial Services. Tor joined CIM in 1959 and became a Life Member in 1998.

Ron McLean, a CIM member since 2013, passed away on March 8, 2015, in Delta, British Columbia.

Richard W. Norrad passed away April 5, 2015. He began working with LaHave Equipment of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, in 1959, where he eventually became president. After the sale of that company in 1991, he went on to start his own equipment business, Norquip Supply Ltd., with his son. Richard became a Life Member of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia in 2010 and was a CIM Life Member since 1968.

Paul S. Ogryzlo, age 73, passed away in Saskatoon on Nov. 28, 2017. Born in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Paul began a career in mineral exploration at the age of 17. He joined CIM in 1976 and became a Life Member in 2010.

Frank A. Perrino passed away Feb. 25, 2016. He joined CIM in 1966, becoming a Life Member in 2010.

Anthony J. Petrina, a member of CIM since 1968, passed away on March 27, 2017. Born in 1935, Anthony is best known for serving as CEO, president and vice-chairman of Placer Dome. He became a CIM Life Member in 2004.

Keith D. Phinney, age 70, passed away Feb. 11, 2017, in Halifax. Throughout his career he held senior positions at Montreal Engineering in Fredericton, CH2M Hill in Vancouver, and ADI & Associates in Halifax. Keith joined CIM in 1978.

Rudolf M. Rucker, a CIM member since 1961, passed away in March 2015. He was a Life Member since 1999.

Arthur E. Soregaroli passed away on Oct. 19, 2017, in Vancouver. Arthur was a highly respected geologist, as well as a devout CIM member and volunteer. In 2000, he won CIM’s A. O. Dufresne Exploration Achievement Award for exceptional contribution to mining exploration in Canada. Arthur joined CIM in 1967 and became a Life Member in 2001.

Robert A. Spencer passed away on Jan. 21, 2017, in Vernon, B.C. He joined CIM in 1949 and became a Life Member in 1988. After graduating from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Engineering in 1948, Robert was hired by Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company of Canada (later Cominco and now Teck Resources) where he worked for his entire career.

Robert left a generous donation of $20,000 to the CIM Foundation in his last will and testament.

We do our best to publish all the names of recently deceased CIM members and apologize if there are any we have missed. Please send notices to editor@cim.org.

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 69

SECTION francophone 71 Lettre de l’éditeur | Mot du président 72 L’innovation dans le domaine des sciences de la Terre permettra-t-elle d’inverser la tendance à la baisse des découvertes ?

77 Soutenue par Newmont Mining ainsi que par l’accord de paix récemment signé en Colombie, Par Virginia Heffernan

Continental Gold a commencé la construction à sa mine Buriticá Par Ryan Bergen

La version française intégrale du CIM Magazine est disponible en ligne : magazine.CIM.org/fr

lettre de l’éditeur

mot du président

Un optimisme informé

Les risques associés au secteur minier

Chaque année, au moment où nous finalisons notre édition consacrée à l’exploration, Major Drilling Group International nous prête main-forte en publiant ses résultats trimestriels. Cette société cotée à la bourse TSX a des appareils de forage en service aux quatre coins du monde ; ainsi, son rapport donne un aperçu intéressant du niveau général d’exploration minière et s’avère être un antidote empirique utile à l’optimisme inébranlable des promoteurs des petites sociétés minières. « Le niveau d’activités d’exploration continue d’augmenter, toutes régions confondues », écrivait Denis Laroque, chef de la direction de Major Drilling International Inc. « Si les revenus ont augmenté de 10 % par rapport à l’année dernière au même trimestre, le volume des activités connaît, quant à lui, une hausse encore plus marquée. » Malgré cette reprise, la société enregistre tout de même une perte.

En d’autres termes, l’offre en matière de forage est plus importante que la demande, créant un marché avantageux pour les acheteurs. Un rapport récent de PwC Canada relate une histoire similaire, mais exposée d’un point de vue différent. La valeur de marché des 100 petites sociétés minières cotées à la bourse de croissance TSX a aussi enregistré une hausse ; cependant, comme nous l’explique l’auteur principal du rapport Liam Fitzgerald dans un entretien (p. 21), si les petites sociétés minières ont davantage de fonds disponibles, elles choisissent de les dépenser prudemment. En outre, comme nous le relate Virginia Heffernan dans l’article de fond intitulé Comment protéger l’exploration minière ? (p. 72), les sociétés d’exploration accordent beaucoup plus d’attention aux technologies telles que l’intelligence artificielle (IA) et aux outils d’analyse d’images qui contribueront à utiliser à meilleur escient les fonds accordés au forage en affinant les cibles prometteuses.

La Colombie, lit-on dans le rapport de Major Drilling, enregistre une augmentation saine de ses activités d’exploration. Continental Gold, qui est au cœur du profil de projet de ce numéro (p. 77), fait partie de ses clients. Outre la construction de la mine Buriticá dans la province d’Antioquia, la société prévoit de mener une campagne de forage importante pour ce projet afin d’accroître ses réserves.

Continental et Cordoba Minerals, dont nous illustrons les travaux de développement économique au niveau local dans notre article A sweet solution to social responsibility (p. 42), sont deux des projets de la région qui s’efforcent d’exploiter au mieux l’amélioration du contexte politique et de sécurité du pays.

Ainsi, alors que nous nous préparons à affronter les longs mois d’hiver, le printemps montre déjà des signes prometteurs pour le secteur minier.

Toute l’équipe du CIM Magazine se joint à moi pour vous souhaiter de bonnes fêtes et une excellente nouvelle année.

Au cours des deux dernières décennies, les risques auxquels ont fait face les entreprises minières ont considérablement changé. La principale raison de ce changement a été le super cycle entre les années 2002 et 2015, lorsque la demande pour les matières premières a monté et chuté, et que les prix ont suivi dans le même sens. Il en a résulté un changement dans la mentalité des cadres supérieurs.

Avant le début du super cycle, les cadres géraient prudemment le capital et les coûts d’exploitation afin de produire des profits. Grâce au sommet atteint en 2008, la demande en matières premières, provenant surtout des pays du BRIC, a monté en flèche et les prix ont grimpé à un point tel que les projets qui étaient considérés comme étant non rentables auparavant ont été réétudiés. À ce moment, une étude d’Ernst and Young portant sur les cadres supérieurs du secteur minier a démontré que les cinq principaux risques étaient, par ordre décroissant, la pénurie de compétences, la consolidation de l’industrie, l’accès à l’infrastructure, le permis social d’exploitation et le changement de climat. Avant l’année 2014, à mi-chemin du ralentissement du super cycle alors que la demande en matières premières baissait, les cinq principaux risques ont changé. L’amélioration de la productivité, les priorités de l’allocation du capital, le permis social, le risque réglementaire (le nationalisme partiel du gouvernement, les changements fiscaux et les redevances accrues) et le contrôle des coûts du projet d’investissement sont devenus le point focal.

Au cours de cette période, la motivation était de permettre aux entreprises de retrouver leur rentabilité. Il convient de noter la présence du permis social d’exploitation, dans les deux études, qui se poursuit à ce jour.

La plus récente étude d’Ernst and Young, axée sur les années 2017 et 2018, classe les cinq plus importants risques comme étant les suivants : l’efficacité numérique (c.-à-d. l’application pratique de l’Internet des objets industriels), le rendement concurrentiel des actionnaires, la cybersécurité, les matières premières du Nouveau Monde (c.-à-d. le lithium pour le stockage d’énergie) et le risque réglementaire. Ce dernier a été une préoccupation constante chez les cadres du secteur minier au cours de la dernière décennie. Voici deux exemples récents. Le premier exemple est Barrick Gold qui, au cours de sa participation majoritaire chez Acacia Mining, a expérimenté une intervention en Tanzanie. Le gouvernement de ce pays a banni les exportations de concentrés pendant les allégations de fraude fiscale et a demandé d’avoir une plus grande part chez Acacia. Le deuxième exemple est l’état de l’Australie-Occidentale, où un gouvernement travailliste récemment élu a proposé d’augmenter les redevances des 50 mines d’or de la région d’environ 50 pour cent, malgré un manifeste électoral qui s’oppose à l’augmentation des redevances.

Depuis 2016, les prix des matières premières ont monté et le rendement des entreprises s’est amélioré alors que la priorisation du capital et les améliorations du coût d’exploitation ont amené les entreprises à retrouver leur rentabilité. Toutefois, les cadres supérieurs du secteur minier exigent dorénavant des stratégies complexes afin de s’assurer que la rentabilité et la satisfaction des actionnaires sont équilibrées avec les risques toujours changeants.

Ryan Bergen, Rédacteur en chef editor@cim.org @Ryan_CIM_Mag

Kenneth (Ken) G. Thomas Président de l’ICM

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 71

Avec l’aimable autorisation de Goldcorp

Un chevalement du projet Red Lake de Goldcorp en Ontario ; la société s’est récemment associée à la plateforme de technologie cognitive Watson d’IBM pour analyser 60 années de données historiques dans l’espoir de trouver de futures zones d’intérêt à explorer

Comment protéger l’exploration minière ?

Par Virginia Heffernan

La découverte de nouveaux gisements devient de plus en plus complexe. Heureusement, les géoscientifiques aiment se lancer des défis. En quête de nouvelles approches pour découvrir les mines de demain, le secteur de l’exploration minière exploite les technologies innovantes et adopte une manière de penser différente.

L

e taux de découverte de nouveaux gisements minéraux a fortement décliné à l’échelle mondiale. Une étude de Richard Schodde de MinEx Consulting en Australie montre qu’il y a dix ans encore, il n’était pas rare de faire entre 70 et 80 découvertes de taille moyenne chaque année. À l’heure actuelle, l’industrie a du mal à découvrir plus de quelques douzaines de gisements chaque année, et elle oriente maintenant ses recherches sur les gisements enfouis sous les morts-terrains, constitués de roches et de sédiments stériles.

Cette pénurie de découvertes se traduit par un épuisement rapide de la réserve mondiale de métaux importants. « Si l’on envisage les 10 à 20 prochaines années, le taux de découvertes prévues ne suffira pas à maintenir l’équilibre du marché », déclarait M. Schodde dans un courriel accompagnant son plus récent rapport consacré à l’exploration minière, publié en

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novembre dernier. D’après ses recherches, le nickel et le zinc en particulier pourraient connaître des pénuries, alors que le plomb et l’or devraient pour l’instant se maintenir. « Il semblerait que la situation reste stable pour le cuivre, bien que l’on se fonde sur des prévisions assez conservatrices de la production future de métaux, prévisions qui ne tiennent pas compte de la hausse importante de la demande pour les véhicules électriques, qu’il faut envisager. » Ainsi, la question la plus pressante pour l’industrie est de déterminer les mesures à prendre face à cette crise dans le domaine des découvertes. L’accès au financement de l’exploration et les modifications au niveau des politiques jouent certes un rôle, mais la réponse semble reposer sur un ensemble d’initiatives, à savoir une meilleure utilisation des technologies émergentes, l’amélioration de l’intégration des données et de la collaboration, une plus grande attention accordée aux

travaux d’exploration préliminaire, ainsi qu’un bassin de main-d’œuvre renfloué.

De nos jours, la plupart des débats sur les taux de découverte se tournent vers la puissance de calcul, qui n’existait pas il y a 10 ans et qui pourrait transformer le marché de l’exploration de gisements enfouis sous les morts-terrains. L’intelligence artificielle (IA) est, par exemple, un outil prometteur permettant de trouver des modèles parmi les montagnes de données que produit l’industrie ; le nuage informatique, quant à lui, permet aux géoscientifiques de s’éloigner de leurs ordinateurs pour collaborer en temps réel partout dans le monde.

Si certaines de ces technologies de pointe restent hors de portée pour les petites sociétés minières, qui sont à l’origine de la plupart des découvertes dans le monde, la technologie a tout de même un rôle à jouer en vue de rendre l’exploration plus efficace pour ces dernières, déclarait Mo Srivastava, géostatisticien et vice-président de TriStar Gold, lors du discours d’inauguration du Progressive Mine Forum qui s’est tenu à Toronto au mois d’octobre dernier. TriStar évite par exemple les dépenses liées au sondage au diamant dans son projet d’extraction d’or Castelo de Sonhos au Brésil en utilisant un imageur optique, une technologie relativement nouvelle, pour obtenir des images à haute résolution de trous forés à l’aide d’appareils à circulation inverse qui aident à guider l’exploration sur le site. En outre, la technologie portative d’analyse par fluorescence à rayons X (XRF, de l’anglais X-Ray fluorescence) est devenue relativement courante dans les campements au cours de la dernière décennie, permettant aux géoscientifiques de restreindre les objectifs de l’exploration tout en évitant les longs délais d’attente nécessaires pour obtenir les résultats du laboratoire. La méthode Drones to Drills développée par GroundTruth Exploration associe ces technologies, et d’autres, au forage rotatif à air comprimé télécommandé pour fournir des solutions à moindre coût et plus efficaces pour l’exploration. Les données obtenues sont téléchargées dans le nuage afin que les géoscientifiques de GroundTruth et leurs clients puissent y travailler, où qu’ils se trouvent.

IA et l’apprentissage machine Un essai est actuellement mené le long de la ceinture aurifère de Red Lake, au nord de l’Ontario, pour déterminer si les ordinateurs « informés » pourront prédire la prochaine grande découverte. Goldcorp transfère 60 années de données historiques vers la plateforme Watson d’IBM, notamment des levés géophysiques et géologiques, divers ensembles de données portant sur les trous de forage, des rapports, des ouvrages universitaires et des actes de conférences afin de renseigner Watson quant à la géologie de la région et aux techniques d’exploration qui engendrent les meilleurs résultats.

Les chercheurs espèrent que Watson sera en mesure d’ingérer cette grande quantité d’informations, de reconnaître les modèles et de générer une analyse potentielle que la société pourra utiliser pour mener de futures explorations. « Une fois les données intégrées, nous pouvons mettre en pratique des technologies vraiment ingénieuses, notamment l’informatique cognitive, l’apprentissage machine et la reconnaissance des formes », expliquait Robin Fell, directeur des solutions technologiques stratégiques de Goldcorp, au public lors du Pro-

gressive Mine Forum. « Si le système comprend ce langage et dispose des informations nécessaires quant à la géologie et aux gisements de minerais, ceci équivaut à donner à un seul géologue le pouvoir de 10 000 de ses homologues. » Comme c’est souvent le cas, l’industrie pétrolière est en avance de quelques années par rapport à l’industrie minière quant à l’adoption de la technologie de l’intelligence artificielle. Comme le montre une recherche effectuée par l’IBM Institute for Business Value, la société Woodside Energy à Perth, en Australie, a par exemple déjà réduit de 80 % à 20 % le temps que consacrent ses géoscientifiques à la lecture et la recherche de données en mettant à leur disposition des outils d’informatique cognitive leur permettant d’associer 30 années d’expertise à une quantité considérable de données techniques non structurées.

Quoi qu’il en soit, les machines restent de simples outils puissants qui peuvent améliorer, et non remplacer les connaissances et l’intuition des géoscientifiques, indiquait M. Srivastava de Tristar. « Les ordinateurs jouent certes un rôle important dans l’organisation et le tri de divers ensemble de données, mais nous devons nous assurer que la raison humaine y trouve également sa place. »

L’intégration, le partage et l’échange collaboratif de données La capacité à intégrer des données provenant des trois principales disciplines des sciences de la Terre (géologie, géochimie et géophysique) évolue rapidement alors que les progrès en modélisation tridimensionnelle (3D) associés à la puissance du nuage informatique produisent des modèles robustes de la sous-surface que les géoscientifiques peuvent partager en temps réel. Les efforts récemment déployés pour augmenter les taux de découverte en exploitant ces nouveaux outils afin de pouvoir mener des activités d’exploration de gisements enfouis sous les morts-terrains commencent à porter leurs fruits.

Barrick Gold, par exemple, a découvert le gisement Alturas semi-dissimulé sur la ceinture aurifère mature El Indio dans le nord du Chili en associant la cartographie géologique, la télédétection, les levés magnétiques et les ensembles de données géochronologiques afin de générer des cibles le long de cette ceinture de 150 kilomètres (km). Une exploration plus approfondie dans un périmètre d’environ 10 km2 autour de la cible épithermale la mieux classée a relevé de légères anomalies qui, lorsqu’on les intègre dans un modèle géologique, suggèrent une cible cachée. Une intégration plus poussée des données, et notamment des résultats du balayage des carottes de forage et de la technologie portative d’analyse par fluorescence à rayons X, a mené à la découverte et la délimitation de 6,8 millions d’onces de ressources présumées d’or à Alturas. « L’un des aspects les plus importants de la découverte a été la collaboration d’un groupe diversifié de géoscientifiques, dont des géologues de terrain appuyés par des spécialistes techniques hautement qualifiés », indiquait Simon Griffiths, géologue en chef de la section Amérique du Sud chez Barrick, à son public lors de la conférence Exploration 17. Cette conférence, qui a eu lieu au mois d’octobre dernier, était la sixième d’une série de réunions organisées à Toronto tous les 10 ans December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 73

Avec l’aimable autorisation de TriStar

depuis 1967 mettant en lumière les dernières avancées en de Lamaque. matière de technologie de l’exploration minière. À plus grande échelle, la PDAC espère augmenter la quanLes grandes sociétés minières excellent généralement en tité de partage de données géoscientifiques au Canada grâce à matière d’intégration de données car elles possèdent d’une l’introduction de lignes directrices dédiées à l’évaluation de part, les ressources financières et humaines nécessaires pour l’exploration, connues sous le nom de proposition de données relever ce défi et d’autre part, des quantités massives de leurs d’évaluation de l’exploration dans un format numérique propres données historiques sur lesquelles elles peuvent s’ap- (DEEFN), qui constitueront une norme nationale pour l’enpuyer. Cependant, quelques petites sociétés minières connais- registrement d’informations portant sur l’exploration dans sent également un grand succès avec cette approche. divers territoires. « Les fichiers d’évaluation sont de plus en La Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC, plus conséquents chaque année, mais les données sont encore l’association canadienne des prospecteurs et entrepreneurs) a consignées sur papier ou au format PDF. La compilation de décerné le prix Bill Dennis 2018 à NexGen Energy pour ses ces informations est un procédé très coûteux et qui requiert accomplissements dans le domaine de l’exploration et du beaucoup de temps », indiquait Charles Beaudry, président développement. Cette société a utilisé des techniques d’explo- du comité des sciences de la Terre de la PDAC, qui a présenté ration multidisciplinaires dans le bassin d’Athabasca en Sas- les lignes directrices DEEFN lors de la conférence Exploration katchewan pour découvrir Arrow, l’un des plus gros gisements 17. « C’est la raison pour laquelle la PDAC milite pour que les d’uranium non exploités au monde. L’équipe d’exploration a territoires du Canada exigent des explorateurs qu’ils soumetassocié des données historiques mises à la disposition du tent leurs données d’évaluation dans un format numérique public par la province à des résultats provenant de la carto- cohérent. » L’Australie dispose de lignes directrices similaires graphie géologique, de l’échantillonnage géochimique et des depuis des années. levées géophysiques, puis a attribué une pondération difféÀ mesure que la technologie d’exploration, et en particulier rente à chaque couche de données afin de prioriser les cibles. les techniques géophysiques, se spécialisent, l’un des risques Par exemple, les trous de est que les géoscientifiques forage historiques affise replient encore davanchant une géologie, une tage plutôt que de partaaltération, une structure ger et de collaborer, et une radioactivité satisindiquait Ken Witherly, faisantes ont reçu une président de Condor pondération prioritaire, Consulting, durant la alors que les anomalies table ronde dédiée à l’ingéochimiques provenant tégration des sciences de de l’échantillonnage des la Terre lors de la confésols ont reçu des notarence Exploration 17. tions inférieures du fait « Une fois ce repli créé, il que la région est forteest difficile d’inciter les ment englacée. Cette personnes à partager leurs approche méthodique a informations. Les géospermis à NexGen de se Une image graphique en 3D prise au projet Castelo de Sonhos de TriStar à l'aide d'un cientifiques auront plutôt démarquer tout en étant imageur optique tendance à transmettre confiante dès la découleurs contributions au verte à l’aveugle initiale, car l’équipe a acquis une bonne com- compte-gouttes et principalement à leurs homologues, mais préhension des contrôles de la minéralisation. les sciences de la Terre ne fonctionnent pas ainsi. » En 2015, Integra Gold a placé le partage des données au M. Witherly est membre du NSERC-CMIC Industrial Research cœur des médias en organisant un concours offrant un million Network (le réseau de recherche industrielle du CRSNGde dollars à l’équipe qui proposerait à la société la meilleure CCIM), un consortium qui cherche à utiliser les sciences de initiative pour découvrir davantage de minerai dans le cadre la Terre intégrées pour découvrir de nouveaux systèmes minédu projet aurifère Lamaque près de Val-d’Or au Québec, en ralisés en renforçant leur capacité à détecter les limites extéutilisant des données existantes. Cette petite société a donné rieures des carottes prélevées dans une minéralisation à haute l’accès à la base de données de Lamaque à des géoscienti- teneur, même s’ils sont très durs à trouver. L’objectif final du fiques, des concepteurs de jeu et des chercheurs du domaine réseau est de développer de nouvelles technologies et médical du monde entier ; elle a reçu 1 000 propositions de méthodes qui peuvent être utilisées pour découvrir des gise65 pays. C’est la société québécoise SGS Geostat qui a rem- ments difficiles à détecter à l’aide des méthodes traditionnelles. porté le prix ; elle avait associé l’intelligence artificielle, l’anaLes consortiums regroupant les mondes industriel, gouverlytique de données et la réalité virtuelle dans un espace nemental et universitaire tels que le programme NSERC-CMIC interactif en 3D pour identifier de nouvelles cibles. Au second Footprints sont un moyen efficace de s’adapter à une nouvelle semestre 2017, Eldorado Gold achetait Integra Gold pour la technologie car ils mettent l’accent sur le financement par l’insomme de 590 millions de dollars en s’appuyant sur la base dustrie et le gouvernement de la recherche universitaire. L’inide ressources et le potentiel d’exploration en pleine expansion tiative Metal Earth est un autre exemple. Ce consortium mené 74 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Avec l’aimable autorisation de Goldcorp

Des casiers de carottes de sondage au projet Red Lake de Goldcorp

par l’université Laurentienne à Sudbury cherche à comprendre la répartition des gisements de minerai dans les roches précambriennes et la raison pour laquelle certaines régions possèdent de riches ressources minières alors que d’autres en sont dépourvues. Ce projet de recherche d’une valeur de 104 millions de dollars vise à révéler de nouvelles richesses minières dans le Grand Nord canadien, lequel reste à ce jour sousexploré par rapport au terrain précambrien situé au sud de la latitude 60° N où se trouvent près de la moitié des mines de métaux communs et d’or du Canada.

L’exploration primaire des gisements enfouis sous les morts-terrains La hausse des dépenses consacrées à l’exploration entre 2006 et 2011, avant que le marasme économique n’affecte ce secteur, a été caractérisée par des dépenses sur des gisements existants. On espérait que la hausse des prix des matières premières résultant de la forte croissance en Chine permettrait de convertir des gisements marginaux en des gisements présentant un intérêt économique et aiderait le secteur à esquiver les risques liés à l’exploration préliminaire. D’après une étude de SNL Metals & Mining, le partage des dépenses consacrées à l’exploration primaire (ou exploration préliminaire) à l’échelle mondiale est passé de 48 % en 2003 à 28 % en 2016. Il n’est pas surprenant que le taux de découverte de nouveaux gisements ait chuté simultanément.

Les découvertes de premier niveau telles que le gisement de diamants Ekati dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest (T.N.O) et le gisement de nickel de la baie de Voisey au Labrador, tous deux découverts dans les années 1990, ne résultent pas d’une étude attentive des anciens ensembles de données sur les trous de forage, mais plutôt d’une exploration méthodique dans des régions isolées du Canada qui n’avaient pas fait l’objet d’explorations approfondies par le passé. Si les régions pré-

sentant un potentiel minier intéressant et des affleurements se font rares, la possibilité de découvrir de nouveaux systèmes de minéraux dissimulés sous les morts-terrains reste importante. Les principaux obstacles à ces découvertes sont les dépenses et le taux d’échec élevé de l’exploration à l’aveugle.

Le Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DET-CRC, le centre de recherche coopérative dans le domaine des technologies d’exploration profonde) situé à Adélaïde en Australie, est une autre collaboration entre les mondes industriel, gouvernemental et universitaire. L’objectif du centre est de surmonter ces obstacles en introduisant un forage de prospection qui peut explorer rapidement et à faible coût les systèmes de minéraux recouverts. La foreuse RoXplorer, le fruit de sept années de recherche, repose sur la technologie de forage à tubes spiralés et non sur les traditionnelles tiges de forage ; ceci permet de réduire les coûts, ainsi que d’augmenter la sécurité et la rapidité car il n’est plus nécessaire de changer les tiges de forage. Les capteurs installés sur le train de tiges transmettent en temps réel les informations relatives aux propriétés des roches sous-jacentes, permettant aux directeurs de l’exploration d’adapter leur programme de forage au fur et à mesure. Le DET-CRC devrait proposer à ses partenaires industriels l’homologation de RoXplorer après les essais fructueux effectués sur le terrain en début d’année.

Un bassin de main-d’œuvre plus important et plus qualifié Quelles que soient les dépenses engagées et les technologies utilisées par l’industrie pour l’exploration minière, les découvertes ne se font pas sans expertise. Une enquête récente dédiée au secteur de l’exploration menée par le conseil des ressources humaines de l’industrie minière (RHiM) montre le manque cruel de géoscientifiques en milieu de carrière (âgés de 35 à 54 ans) qui met en péril le secteur ; sans eux, personne December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 75

ne peut encadrer et transmettre l’expertise nécessaire aux nouveaux diplômés. La majorité des 397 personnes interrogées dans le cadre de l’enquête du RHiM étaient âgées de 15 à 34 ans ou de 55 ans et plus ; les personnes appartenant au groupe d’âge moyen étaient nettement sous-représentées en comparaison du reste de la main-d’œuvre de l’industrie minière et des travailleurs canadiens en général.

Le cas des géochimistes est particulièrement désastreux.

Comme l’expliquait Peter Winterburn, président de la recherche industrielle au sein du département des sciences de la Terre, de la mer et de l’atmosphère de l’université de la Colombie-Britannique (UBC), lors de la conférence Exploration 17, une grande partie des cadres intermédiaires de l’Association of Applied Geochemists (AEG, l’association des géochimistes appliqués) s’est désistée. Environ 50 % des géochimistes sont âgés de plus de 60 ans, et seulement 13 % d’entre eux sont âgés de moins de 40 ans. La plupart étant entrepreneurs, ils laissent l’intégration des données de côté. « Même en période de crise, les conseillers refusent du travail car ils ne peuvent pas l’assumer ; ceci montre bien la pénurie importante de géochimistes dans l’industrie. » Quelques initiatives ont été mises en place afin d’encourager les étudiants à poursuivre des carrières dans le domaine de l’exploration minière tout en adoptant une approche multidisciplinaire. Par exemple, le prix Frank Arnott présenté lors de la conférence Exploration 17 a été attribué à la catégorie des « apprentis » à des équipes de diplômés de premier cycle qui étaient en mesure de démontrer l’innovation en matière de visualisation et d’intégration de données en utilisant l’un des cinq ensembles de données régionales. L’équipe On the Rocks de l’université d’Adélaïde a décroché la première place pour

ses projections en 3D et la présentation des données géoscientifiques de Gawlor Craton, une région riche en minéraux du centre-sud de l’Australie.

Toutefois, s’ils doivent continuer de former la prochaine génération d’explorateurs, les universités et les établissements d’enseignement supérieur ont besoin d’un financement constant pour la formation en sciences de la Terre, et notamment pour des stages de pratique sur le terrain. Les sociétés doivent en outre trouver un moyen de retenir ces recrues malgré les revirements inévitables au niveau des prix des matières premières, ou elles risqueraient de perdre l’expertise accumulée à l’étape cruciale du milieu de carrière.

Le taux décroissant des découvertes minières et les enjeux associés au déclin de l’expertise et à l’exploration de gisements enfouis sous les morts-terrains dressent un portrait sombre de l’avenir de l’industrie minière. Toutefois, le secteur de l’exploration minière est plein de ressources, et les grandes découvertes telles que le gisement Ekati ont la capacité de faire rebondir le secteur et d’encourager l’exploration en renforçant l’attrait de l’industrie pour les futurs géoscientifiques. Qu’il s’agisse de la plateforme Watson d’IBM, de la méthode de forage de prospection de DET-CRC ou d’une technique encore inconnue, si les nouvelles technologies aboutissent à une découverte de classe mondiale, les acteurs du secteur ne manqueront pas d’essayer de réitérer cet accomplissement. L’investissement qui en découlera pourrait annoncer une nouvelle ère de découvertes résultant de l’exploration de gisements enfouis sous les morts-terrains, laquelle mènera à son tour à la prochaine génération de mines. ICM

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Janet Jeffery Responsable principale des publicités jjeffery@dvtail.com 905.707.3529

76 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

Neal Young Responsable principale des publicités nyoung@dvtail.com 905.707.3525

Ryan Bergen

VISION A` L’HORIZON Par Ryan Bergen Mauricio Castañeda, vice-président à l’exploration de Continental, travaille sur ce projet depuis 2009.

Au début de l’année 2018, CONTINENTAL GOLD coulera la première dalle de béton de l’usine de traitement de son projet Buriticá. L’exploitation reposera sur la qualité de son gisement à haute teneur ainsi que sur la solidité du récent accord de paix signé en Colombie, qui pourrait jeter les fondements d’une nouvelle vague de développement dans le pays.

L

es montagnes vertes de Colombie regorgent d’or. Cela ne fait aucun doute, l’activité minière dans cette région remonte à une période antérieure à l’arrivée des Espagnols. Cependant, des décennies d’instabilité politique, des mouvements de résistance enracinés ainsi que l’influence du trafic de drogues ont empêché la Colombie d’aller de l’avant et de devenir la prochaine grande destination pour des investissements considérables dans des projets aurifères.

Continental Gold devrait changer la donne grâce à son projet Buriticá, situé dans la ceinture aurifère de Cauca. En 2011, la société publiait les premières estimations des ressources de ce projet. La propriété, située à 60 kilomètres (km) au nord de Medellín, compte deux réseaux identifiés de filons, le Yaragua et le Veta Sur ; à la date de publication, le site affichait des

ressources mesurées et indiquées de 630 000 onces d’or sur la base d’une production de 1,1 million de tonnes (Mt), à une teneur moyenne de 17,8 grammes par tonne (g/t). Les intérêts de Continental en Colombie comprennent des terres autour du projet Buriticá ainsi que la mine Berlin, située plus au nord de Medellín, laquelle était exploitée par une société canadienne qui en a extrait près d’un million d’onces entre 1930 et 1946.

La société est depuis parvenue à transformer cette estimation en un projet qui, selon l’étude de faisabilité de mars 2016 réalisée par JDS Mining and Energy, devrait produire près de 3,5 millions d’onces d’or et 6,4 millions d’onces d’argent sur une durée de vie estimée à 14 ans. Les résultats étaient suffisamment impressionnants pour attirer l’attention de Newmont Mining, qui a accordé toute sa confiance à Continental en December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 77

investissant la somme de 109 millions $ en mai dernier. À la fin du mois d’octobre, des travaux de terrassement importants ont été lancés dans l’espoir de couler la première dalle de béton au début de l’année 2018.

Les progrès réalisés à Buriticá sont cependant étroitement liés à ceux accomplis par son pays d’accueil, qui a lutté pendant de longues années pour mettre fin à un conflit armé de plus de 50 ans. Ce qui avait commencé comme une lutte organisée autour d’idéologies politiques a dégénéré en une série de factions adverses dont la plupart survivaient grâce au trafic de drogues, aux enlèvements et aux activités minières illégales.

Quelque 250 000 personnes ont trouvé la mort, 7 millions ont été déplacées et de grandes parties du pays restent à ce jour inaccessibles. En novembre dernier, le gouvernement a signé un accord de paix avec les FARC (les forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie), l’un des groupes de résistance les plus influents du pays, qui a depuis démobilisé plus de 7 000 membres de la milice.

La petite ville de Buriticá, située sur une colline, s’est retrouvée au milieu du conflit. Les filons riches en or à proximité de la ville en ont fait un carrefour de l’activité minière, qui a contribué à faire prospérer l’économie illégale. Une partie des efforts déployés pour encourager la stabilité du pays consistait à faire partir de force les mineurs travaillant dans l’illégalité.

Cette démarche ne s’est pas faite sans accrocs ; en effet, six agents de sécurité travaillant pour Continental ont trouvé la mort au mois de juillet après une confrontation avec des mineurs entrés sans permission. Aujourd’hui pourtant, cette région qui atteignait le double de sa population de 7 000 habitants à l’époque a retrouvé son calme et le rythme de vie qu’elle avait auparavant. Depuis 2014, Continental travaille avec des mineurs ayant leurs racines dans la région dans la perspective d’officialiser les exploitations minières artisanales à proximité du projet Buriticá. Actuellement, la mine est équipée d’une usine pouvant traiter 30 tonnes de minerai par jour, laquelle lui permet de gérer le minerai qu’elle achète aux mineurs artisanaux. Le processus d’officialisation a été appuyé par un programme du gouvernement visant à mettre fin à l’exploitation minière illégale dans le pays, lancé au printemps 2016. « Cela nous a aidé à surmonter un obstacle de taille », déclarait Ari Sussman, chef de la direction de Continental. « L’exploitation minière illégale ne disparaîtra jamais totalement. » Plus de 200 tunnels miniers ont été découverts et clôturés, certains à plusieurs reprises. Cependant, indiquait M. Sussman, « nous avons affaire à un nombre considérablement inférieur de mineurs en situation irrégulière. Un plan de sécurité permanent, fonctionnant 24 heures sur 24, est assuré par les trois piliers du gouvernement colombien. »

LE POUVOIR DU PEUPLE Si les progrès accomplis au sein du pays ont assurément aidé Continental, le ralentissement en termes de développement des mines a également eu son influence. La société a affecté une réserve de personnes hautement qualifiées au projet. Après avoir lancé la production à la mine d’argent Escobal en tant que vice78 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

président des activités pour Tahoe Resources, Donald Gray, qui a une grande expérience en Amérique latine, a été nommé en 2015 au poste de directeur de l’exploitation. Au début de l’année, Jon Graham l’a rejoint au poste de vice-président des activités de Continental après trois années en tant que directeur de l’exploitation à la mine Cerro Negro de Goldcorp en Argentine, suivi de Tim Barnett, directeur de projet à Buriticá, juste après le lancement de la mine Haile d’OceanaGold en Caroline du Sud. « Les mines sont des projets complexes à développer, aussi l’expérience dans ce domaine est précieuse », indiquait M. Sussman. « L’équipe que nous avons créée est l’un des avantages du marché baissier. En outre, c’est un grand projet. » M. Gray précisait également que le calendrier d’exécution du projet a œuvré en faveur de Continental. « Lorsque nous avons commencé l’approvisionnement cette année, nous avons constaté d’excellents délais de livraison et des tarifs très compétitifs. Au fil du temps, nous observons une augmentation des délais de livraison, mais les tarifs restent très concurrentiels », indiquait-il. « Nous avons pris la décision volontaire de finaliser les bons de commande dès que possible, car nous avions envisagé cette hausse des délais d’approvisionnement. » Sandvik fournit les chargeuses, les camions, les jumbos et les boulonneuses pour l’exploitation souterraine et travaille maintenant avec Continental à la formation des exploitants sur le site.

Lors de la création de l’équipe de direction, la société a bien pris soin d’inclure des Colombiens à la haute direction et au sein du conseil d’administration. Mateo Restrepo, président de Continental, est originaire de Medellín et est le représentant public de la société en Colombie. Leon Teicher, qui a la double nationalité canadienne/colombienne, est président du conseil d’administration de la société et est l’ancien président et chef de la direction de Cerrejon Coal ; il fait partie des trois Colombiens qui siègent au conseil d’administration. C’est un modèle qui, selon M. Sussman, évitera de nombreux mots de tête aux sociétés minières canadiennes pour leurs activités à l’étranger.« Lorsqu’une société étrangère vient s’implanter au Canada et a besoin du soutien du gouvernement, on observe une opposition généralisée. Pourquoi s’attendre à un traitement différent dans un pays en développement qui n’est pas autant habitué à un même niveau d’investissement étranger ? »

SOUS LA SURFACE M. Gray déclarait que depuis l’étude de faisabilité, l’équipe de l’exploitation minière a optimisé la conception afin de limiter le développement en phase de pré-production. « Nous avons adapté la conception de manière à ce que nos montages pour l’aérage ainsi que nos cheminées à minerais et à stériles soient construites plus tôt, ce qui réduit la pression pour le développement des descenderies. » Des travaux similaires ont été menés au niveau de la conception de l’usine pour réduire les travaux de terrassement nécessaires en diminuant l’empreinte de l’usine. Une route de 6 km relie désormais le site de l’usine au réseau de transport existant.

Le site procédera à l’exploitation de deux gisements. La majeure partie de ces deux essaims de filons sera exploitée à

profil de projet l’aide de la méthode d’exploitation en chambre vide par longs trous, associée à des méthodes de déblais et remblais et d’abattage par chambres-magasins.

La production, qui devrait commencer en 2020, débutera à 2 100 tonnes par jour (t/j) et augmentera progressivement à compter de la troisième année pour atteindre 3 000 t/j pour les 12 années restantes. La gravité facilitera le déplacement des minerais, des stériles et de l’eau, car la plupart des réserves se trouvent à flanc de coteau au-dessus d’une vallée où un tunnel, déjà creusé, servira à transporter le minerai vers l’usine de traitement dans le fond de vallée. Les minerais broyés et concassés seront soumis à la concentration gravimétrique, la lixiviation par cyanuration et la décantation à contre-courant ; l’or et l’argent seront ensuite retirés de la solution à l’aide du procédé Merrill-Crowe avant d’être affinés en lingots. Continental espère pouvoir récupérer 94 % de l’or et 60 % de l’argent traités pour produire 282 000 onces d’or et 494 000 onces d’argent chaque année durant les cinq premières années.

Environ la moitié des résidus seront dénoyés et entassés dans la vallée, et l’autre moitié sera envoyée à une usine de remblai en pâte, puis de nouveau hissée vers la colline à l’aide d’un tramway aérien Doppelmayr.

Plutôt que de faire appel à une seule et unique société pour l’intégralité de la gestion, des études techniques à la construction, Continental a préféré répartir les tâches. M3 Engineering se charge des études techniques et de l’approvisionnement, et Merit Consultants est responsable de la gestion de la construction. C’est une approche que M. Gray a déjà adoptée dans le passé, et qu’il trouve plus adaptée. « Lorsque la fonction d’un directeur des travaux est séparée des études techniques et de l’approvisionnement, les travaux sont davantage axés sur les besoins sur le terrain et non pas nécessairement gérés conformément au calendrier technique. Quoi qu’il en soit, quelle que soit la manière dont on gère un projet, le propriétaire doit absolument prendre part au processus décisionnel, gérer activement

les activités et s’assurer que la construction respecte les objectifs établis en termes de calendrier et de conception. » Une fois que la production commencera, la mine aura besoin de 900 travailleurs ; ainsi, la société a activement participé à la formation de la main-d’œuvre, en partenariat avec un programme gouvernemental de formation professionnelle dans l’objectif de créer une école de métiers dans la ville de Buriticá. L’un des cours porte sur les techniques minières fondamentales ainsi que sur la reconnaissance des risques dans ce métier ; l’autre est axé sur les techniques fondamentales de la construction. « Nous nous efforçons également d’intégrer ce programme dans notre formation sur les équipements, par exemple en proposant une formation sur les chargeuses et les camions », indiquait M. Gray. L’équipe collabore par ailleurs avec Sandvik dans le cadre d’un programme de formation dispensé sur le site du projet ; d’après M. Gray, les résultats se sont montrés très prometteurs. « Nous sommes convaincus que notre main-d’œuvre atteindra le niveau de compétences requis pour le développement et l’exploitation. » /

/

RESOLUTION POUR LA NOUVELLE ANNEE Pour l’année 2018, M. Sussman indiquait qu’outre le développement actuel de la mine, la société prévoit de mener une campagne de forage de 100 000 mètres sur la propriété de Buriticá. Les deux gisements qui constituent la réserve actuelle et sont ouverts en profondeur et parallèlement à la direction seront au cœur de cette campagne de forage sur 60 000 mètres ; les 40 000 mètres de forage restant cibleront d’autres zones productives possibles sur la propriété. « Nous sommes curieux de voir combien d’onces d’or et d’argent nous allons découvrir dans notre système aurifère associé à des intrusions », expliquait-il à un groupe d’analystes et d’investisseurs en visite sur le site du projet Buriticá en octobre dernier. « Nous devons, autant que possible, créer de la valeur. » ICM

December 2017 /January 2018 • Décembre 2017 /Janvier 2018 | 79

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MINING LORE Graphite’s sterling history in eastern Ontario

By Jen Glanville

B

Harry Hinchley. Library and Archives Canada, PA-094774

efore the 1867 construction of the road that led deep The mine faced significant obstacles before it could enjoy into the Black Donald Mountains, located about 120 the success of the new mill. A shaft constructed too close to the kilometres west of Ottawa, the untamed region was con- lake bottom gave way in 1902, and resulted in significant sidered wild by settler society. Eventuflooding of the primary shaft. Despite ally the growth of immigrant efforts to pump out the water, the populations in the Ottawa area forced mine remained closed until 1906. a westward expansion of Opeongo After the Black Donald Graphite Road and soon Irish, Poles and GerCompany leased the property in mans settled the region.

1906, a new shaft was installed and John Moore was one of the first the refinery was renovated. With the European settlers of the mountainous addition of an on-site refining process, frontier. He was offered a plot of land far more workers were needed and a near Whitefish Lake. One day in new village, known simply as Black 1889, while strolling on his property, Donald Mines, was born. he slipped on a rocky outcrop and In the lead-up to the First World made a life-changing discovery. A War the demand for industrial lubrisampling of the brittle dark rock concants skyrocketed. Black Donald was firmed Moore had uncovered a considered to have the best products graphite deposit. in the industry, and the mine was Graphite was much needed in the quickly pushed to capacity to keep up. industrialized 19th century. The minAt the end of the war a fire broke eral is heat-resistant, making it an out in the town, destroying the mill. ideal lubricant for motors and a good Instead of folding, however, the comliner in crucibles containing molten pany built a new, more efficient mill steel. The demand for graphite, comthat used the “callow” method, which The interior of the Black Donald mine shaft, located under bined with the purity of the deposit Whitefish Lake. Both the mine and the lake were consumed used flotation to separate materials. on Moore’s property, made the discov- by the larger Black Donald Lake in 1967.

The end of the war in 1918 meant ery incredibly valuable. The nearest less demand for graphite, and the graphite deposit was five to six per cent pure, whereas Moore’s labour force was cut in half. By 1938 the mine operated for discovery was 65 to 84 per cent pure. only half the year with 15 employees, compared to 118 at its In 1895, a group of men who later formed the Ontario peak.

Graphite Company bought the land and the mineral and surThe 1940s brought a new mine owner, Frobisher Exploface rights for $42,000. They sunk shafts under Whitefish rations Limited, and a new war, which led to the short-term Lake, following a massive vein. Although the deposit was rich, revival of the mine and the town. But again, the end of the producing 100 tonnes of refined graphite and 200 tonnes of Second World War caused demand for graphite to wane. As crude graphite in the first year alone, there was no mill on site. well, a number of setbacks challenged the miners at Black The modest operation required only 15 miners, and the ore Donald. Two fires broke out – one in 1946 and the other in was processed in Ottawa.

1950 – destroying the hoist room, power house and the mill’s In 1902, the graphite industry experienced a significant interior. Additional shafts collapsed as well until finally, on development. Mills shifted from the “wet” method of pro- Nov. 22, 1950, the entire mine collapsed. Operations contincessing ore, which required crushing, screening and washing ued on a reduced scale, until every last pound of graphite was to produce flakes, to the “dry” method, which crushed and processed. On March 5, 1954, the company closed and the dried the ore prior to putting it through millstone for pro- remaining 22 workers were sent home for the last time. cessing. This development improved processing efficiency In 1967, Ontario Hydro constructed a large dam on the and made having a mill on site economically feasible. A mill Madawaska River near the site of Black Donald. The waters of was constructed at Whitefish Lake, and Black Donald Whitefish Lake flooded 8,500 hectares and swallowed all became self-sufficient. traces of the once-bustling town and its namesake mine. CIM 82 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 12, No. 8

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