CIM Magazine November 2018 by CIM-ICM Publications

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NOVEMBER 2018 | NOVEMBRE 2018

feature story

Connecting disparate data silos The automation revolution has begun and data is flowing. The next step in the march toward the intelligent mine is to facilitate information sharing between systems. By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

52 A legacy project in progress Valeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic Superstack in Sudbury, Ont., will soon come down as part of the Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction project By Robert Hiltz

60 Canadian Mineral Processors Conference program

56 Mine security in the digital age With more mines being connected, how are they being protected? By Ian Ewing

November â&#x20AC;˘ Novembre 2018 | 5

CIM MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2018 • NOVEMBRE 2018

in each issue

8 10 12

Editor’s letter President’s notes Chatter

tools of the trade

The best in new technology Compiled by Matthew Parizot

developments

Barrick and Randgold agree to merger By Matthew Parizot

North American Palladium worker’s death ruled accidental By Matthew Parizot

Canadian Mining Hall of Fame names 2019 slate

16 19

celebrating 120 years of CIM

By Elle Crosby

By Kelsey Rolfe

mining lore

we are mining

Canadian miners in the First World War

Mentorship programs have their benefits, but shouldn’t be the only solution to mining’s diversity problem By Matthew Parizot

Canadian hard rock miners carried out critical tunnelling work at Gibraltar during the Second World War By Cecilia Keating

column

How Indigenous communities can make the most of the lull in the minerals market

contenu francophone

66 66 67 69

By Daniel Bland

upfront

CTTI uses simulations to help mining companies invest in mill liners both energy and financially efficient By Kylie Williams

Goldcorp trials new mining method at Musselwhite enabled by Orica’s WebGen wireless blasting system

Table des matières Lettre de l’éditeur Mot du président L’actualité Par Matthew Parizot

profil de projet

Un projet de réhabilitation en cours Par Robert Hiltz

By Ian Ewing

Q&A: Could in-situ mining replace traditional mining of certain metals? By Christopher Pollon

Nous publions progressivement sur notre site Internet les articles du CIM Magazine en version française. 6 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

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editor’s letter

Balance due

or the most part the bait on the phishing hooks have no allure. The millions of dollars belonging to some deposed royal in need of rescue are far too obvious. The notice of an unpaid invoice excited a flash of concern once, but was not alarming enough to prompt a click. The other day an alert warned me I was on the verge of going over my email limit. Credit to the phisher, it was a novel approach, but there are worse fates than a lapse in emails. I do not know what crafty social engineering will grab hold of some anxiety or exploit some desire of mine, vault past my skepticism and compel me to open the door to the bad guys. But the moment awaits. According to one cybersecurity expert we spoke to about how mining companies can guard against attacks on their increasingly network-connected operations (p.56), more than nine out of every ten data breaches originate from the sort of shotgun approaches listed above or more nuanced and targeted “spearphishing” attempts. In other words, network security really only becomes a technology problem after the breach has happened. We humans, equal parts intelligent and impulsive, are the biggest vulnerability. What if you and I were among the 14 million Facebook users who, it was recently revealed, had personal information, activity logs, and most recent searches among many other private details stolen? Sure, we can all see a poorly baited hook for what it is. But what about the line of attack

This issue’s cover The Superstack at Vale’s Copper Cliff smelter. Courtesy of Vale

an enterprising hacker could devise knowing that we are up at night and exactly what it is that keeps us awake? Rachel Tobac, who heads the internet security firm Social Proof Security, and whose job it is to reveal to companies what their vulnerabilities may be, says the best approach when your credentials are at stake is to act as though everyone is out to get you, but to be nice about it. A pose she describes as “polite paranoia”. Perhaps it could be advice that we Canadians are now uniquely positioned to follow, given our reputed disposition and the fact that cannabis is legal in this country. A more sober-minded take is that the bill has come due for all the ostensibly free network-enabled services we have gorged ourselves on, and the cost is that we must be on constant alert for when the information we have given away is turned against us.

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

Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen, rbergen@cim.org Executive editor Angela Hamlyn, ahamlyn@cim.org Managing editor Michele Beacom, mbeacom@cim.org Section editors Tom DiNardo, tdinardo@cim.org; Kelsey Rolfe, krolfe@cim.org Web content editor Maria Olaguera, molaguera@cim.org Editorial intern Matthew Parizot, mparizot@cim.org Contributors Daniel Bland, Elle Crosby, Ian Ewing, Robert Hiltz, Cecilia Keating, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Christopher Pollon, Kylie Williams Editorial advisory board Mohammad Babaei Khorzhoughi, Vic Pakalnis, Steve Rusk, Nathan Stubina Translations Karen Rolland and Cision Layout and design Clò Communications Inc., www.clocommunications.com Published 8 times a year by: Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum 1250 – 3500 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West Westmount, QC H3Z 3C1 Tel.: 514.939.2710; Fax: 514.939.2714 www.cim.org; magazine@cim.org

Advertising sales Dovetail Communications Inc. Tel.: 905.886.6640; Fax: 905.886.6615; www.dvtail.com Senior Account Executives Janet Jeffery, jjeffery@dvtail.com, 905.707.3529 Christopher Forbes, cforbes@dvtail.com, 905.707.3516 Jacquie Rankin, jrankin@dvtail.com, 905.707.3525 Subscriptions Online version included in CIM Membership ($197/yr). Print version for institutions or agencies – Canada: $275/yr (AB, BC, MB, NT, NU, SK, YT add 5% GST; ON add 13% HST; QC add 5% GST + 9.975% PST; NB, NL, NS, PE add 15% HST). Print version for institutions or agencies – USA/International: US$325/yr. Online access to single copy: $50. Copyright©2018. All rights reserved. ISSN 1718-4177. Publications Mail No. 09786. Postage paid at CPA Saint-Laurent, QC. Dépôt légal: Bibliothèque nationale du Québec. The Institute, as a body, is not responsible for statements made or opinions advanced either in articles or in any discussion appearing in its publications.

Printed in Canada

8 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

president’s notes

You are only as strong as your weakest link

“The way to manage the risk is to be prepared and be responsive, by improving controls and processes to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover from attacks.”

At CIM we take cybersecurity very seriously and recently underwent a cybersecurity assessment to identify possible risks. Subsequently we made improvements to fortify our IT infrastructure and systems. However, last month CIM members were informed that the third-party-hosted RFG2018 abstract submission database had been compromised by unauthorized users to obtain email addresses, usernames and passwords. Even though CIM’s systems were not affected, some member email addresses and passwords were made available publicly. CIM staff worked quickly to contain the situation and limit further repercussions. This event and other recent attacks on our mining sector stakeholders remind us of our vulnerability. Today, in an age where almost everything is online, digital and “smart,” the threat of a cyber attack is real and imminent. A recent study from EY found that 87 per cent of Canadian organizations have suffered at least one successful cyber breach. Nearly half (46 per cent) feel a future cyber attack is possible. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for companies to completely eliminate cybersecurity risks. The way to manage the risk is to be prepared and be responsive, by improving controls and processes to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover from attacks. As our sector continues to transition to full digitalization and autonomy, and the implementation of AI and machine learning become more widespread, the risk of cyber attack will only increase. In fact, the EY report revealed that last year 55 per cent of mining companies experienced at least one significant cybersecurity breach. It is critically important to routinely assess cybersecurity risks, no matter the size of your organization or the nature of the business. Actually, cybersecurity breaches tend to be more prevalent in small organizations with less sophisticated cybersecurity practices. While larger companies are often more susceptible through links with their smaller partners. When managing cybersecurity risk, it is important to examine all possible attack vectors and this includes third-party vendors. According to the 2017 Cybercrime report, by 2021 the global cost of cybersecurity breaches is expected to reach US$6 trillion, double the total for 2015. Cyber risks are business risks that can result in significant financial, operational and reputational damage. As a sector, we need to quickly learn, respond and adapt to this constantly evolving digital world.

Janice Zinck CIM President 10 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

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chatter Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum

RE: MINING COMPANIES ADOPT FLEXIBLE WORK POLICIES TO ACCOMMODATE NEW MOTHERS (SEPT/OCT ‘18)

“People are going to start demanding those things”

Good article. I would also like to hear more about parents who work in the mines (full time miners, support, trades, etc). – Jamie West @jamiewestndp

Mining companies adopt flexible work policies to accommodate new mothers By Sara King-Abadi

What’s important for parents returning to work is having options available to them, BHP’s Nancy Komperdo said.

It is great to hear that mining companies like @RioTinto, @bhp, @Goldcorp_Inc & @FortescueNews are implementing positive policies for families – Natalie Bussau @NatBussau

t wasn’t until she had her first child that Charlotte Sovis, a senior mining engineer with AMC Consultants based in Perth, Australia, realized why some people do not return to work after having children. “I didn’t know how to find a balance,” she said. The mother of two did not want to be away from her children from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week, and have to front the cost of childcare. After interviewing with multiple companies, she went with AMC because of the flexible schedule the company offered, even though she had more lucrative options. “I didn’t know that a company would be flexible enough to give me that opportunity,” said Sovis. “Honestly, at some point I felt like I would never go back to work.” Starting a family while maintaining a career can be a difficult decision, but there are ways that employers can help ameliorate that transition through workplace policy. Women say flexible work hours, communication with employees and having a diversity and inclusion policy in place are a strong start to keeping mothers in the workforce and calming the fear that starting a family may negatively impact their careers. Some mining companies have started making programs available. Most recently, Rio Tinto implemented a global minimum of 18 weeks’ paid parental leave last September, and BHP rolled out flexible work hours last year. Goldcorp also has flex hours, and Australian iron ore giant Fortescue Metals has a childcare facility in its Perth office, as well as paid parental leave and flexible work arrangements.

30 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 6

We need more women in mining and flexibility in the workplace is a must to achieve it. – Lauren Gallagher @LaurBGallagher

RE: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT MORE EXPLOSIVES (DEC ‘17/JAN ‘18)

Congrats Walter Valery for going with this amazing project that has helped mining process optimization a lot. – Fabrício Araújo da Silva

RE: TAILINGS TO THE RESCUE (AUGUST ‘18)

Huge field of growth. – Shiv Sharma

12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Valerie Wilson, a senior geologist at Roscoe Postle Associates and mother of two, has amicably been left off of travel rotation by her employers for now, with the promise that it will not affect her career. While she is still nursing her 20-monthold, being away from home for about one week every two months, like her colleagues who travel, would be difficult. Though Wilson admits that, as a geologist, not traveling regularly for work can be concerning. “In order to be the senior author [on technical reports], you have to go to sites,” she said, “so I’m not getting as much experience in the field.” She said her employer is supportive of her traveling more when she is able, and she feels confident that her career will not be affected. When a principal consultant with 13 years’ experience in mining decided to stay active in the industry after having her second child by taking contracts that involved working at remote sites for up to three weeks at a time, she was still breastfeeding. (Her name has been withheld from publication for reasons of privacy.) In order to ensure that she could keep nursing when she returned home, the consultant packed her breast pump for her work trips, and would covertly excuse herself to the washroom to go pump. “You want to make sure that you are getting the experience and staying active in your work life, but still make the choice of having kids,” said the consultant. “So, we know the challenges that we have to take on all the time, which I think are a little bit more complicated when you’re a woman than when you’re a man.” One of those differences is the expectation for women to juggle career and parenthood. For Wilson, the conversation around mothers in the workforce centres too much on the presumption that women should “have it all” and take on being a mother in the workplace. “Children are very distracting,” said Wilson. “To be asked to contribute intellectually to a workbased problem while having a child by your side, to be frank, I kind of think it’s ludicrous.” Though there is no right or wrong when it comes to balancing motherhood and career, Wilson said she believes that focusing on removing barriers, such as the price of childcare, the perception of women’s role in the workplace, and income inequality would only further benefit employers. “We’re very efficient, we are valuable for our own ideas, our education and our experience that we bring to a workplace,” said Wilson. “If we, as a society, commit to addressing those challenges, I feel like everybody will win.” What’s important is having options available to parents, said Nancy Komperdo, principal business integration with BHP, who recently took home the CIM-Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leaders Award and the Diversity and Inclusion Award at the CIM 2018 Convention. “If you don’t want to have your child come to your meetings and you don’t want that split, you don’t want to feel that you have that expectation to do it all either,” she said. “It’s also important to recognize that.” As a mother of two, Komperdo benefits from BHP’s flex time. “[My kids are] of the age where it’s not necessarily just

Canadian Institute of Mining

Equating having a family with being a career killer is a faulty approach for an employer to take, Goldcorp’s Anna Tudela said.

daycare and school drop-off, but there’s also all the extracurricular activities.” Policies that support diversity and inclusion are part of a larger change in workplace culture that will benefit companies in the long run, making teams more productive, said Komperdo. “Feeling that sense of inclusion and knowing that they’re welcome there and feeling that their ideas are appreciated and listened to and valued, [employees] are more productive for the company,” she said. “You’re actually going to have better productivity and you’re going to make more money.” Overall, Goldcorp’s Tudela said, it is important that a policy does exist, and that employees feel comfortable communicating their needs to their managers. “The more diverse that the team is, the better ideas a team comes up with, and the more efficient it is,” she said. “So by increasing the number of women in the mining industry, we are changing the way things are getting done.” CIM

We Are Mining

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Throughout 2018 CIM Magazine will feature the stories and experiences of women, Indigenous people and people of colour working in the mining industry. Do you have an idea for a story we should report? Reach out: krolfe@cim.org September/October • Septembre/Octobre 2018 | 31

Don't fathers also want flexible work policies? – Marilyn Spink, P.Eng @MarilynDSpink

RE: HISTORICAL SOCIETY ASKS MINERS TO HELP PRESERVE LANDMARK COBALT HEADFRAME (DEC ‘17/JAN ‘18)

I can’t imagine driving through Cobalt and not seeing this headframe. I, like so many others, have taken some memorable photos over the years in every different season. I remember trudging through snow and capturing photos with my husband Keith of many a headframe that now I understand are no longer there. – Glenys Lathem

RE: REVVING UP (FEB ‘18)

This shows promise. – ProcessWest @process_west

RE: REVVING UP (FEB ‘18)

Being given options is how Sovis said she was able to get back to work after a five-year break to focus on parenting. She now works full-time: two days a week from home, three at the office, and, for the time being, she is not travelling for work, which her manager is on board with. “If the person has potential and you know they can add value to your company, define their hours by productivity rather than by the number of hours that they are sitting in the office,” said Sovis. When Nicole Adshead-Bell, director of Cupel Advisory Corporation, spoke on the necessity of diversifying the workforce in the mining industry during the CIM 2018 Convention in May, she admitted that not having children of her own has been advantageous to her career. “When you look at studies about increasing women in the workforce, the biggest challenge they have is having children and that’s not going to change,” she said, adding that remote locations are a particular challenge in the industry when it comes to having children. Equating having a family with being a career killer is a faulty approach for an employer to take, according to Anna Tudela, vice-president of diversity, regulatory affairs and corporate secretary for Goldcorp. “Sooner or later, people are going to start demanding those things, and people are not going to work for companies that don’t have flexible times and accommodation for parental leave.”

@cim_mag

Courtesy of Anna Tudela

CIM – Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum

Courtesy of Nancy Komperdo

@CIMorg

The mining industry is increasingly leveraging machine learning to analyze huge amounts of data to better identify targets. – #DisruptMining @Disrupt_Mining

RE: MINING GOES MOBILE (FEB ‘18)

I can see more & more mobile phone applications/ technology are being utilized in the geoscience sector – Tien Rui Liew , @TienRui_Liew

RE: INDUSTRY LIMITED IN DRUG TESTING OPTIONS AS POT BECOMES LEGAL (AUGUST ’18)

This will be a big problem, we need to limit our liabilities and the only way is random drug testing – Barbara Courte Elinesky

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tools of the trade

Faster gas detection Exposure to toxic gases is something many mining operations are concerned with. With the new series of PAC gas detection devices, Dräger says it is aiming to ensure fast, accurate and easy-to-understand gas detection. With 22 different detectors measuring 33 different types of gases, mining operations will be able to pick the option that works best for each project. “One of the big improvements is the extended run time of the detector,” Dräger product support manager Jason Morton explained. “Some of the versions of the PAC series can actually run 24/7 for up to two years before the battery needs to be replaced. We’ve also extended the operating range for a number of the versions, which allows the device to operate in temperatures down to -40C.” A backlit display, 360-degree alarm signal and D-Light testing compliance signal ensure that miners are aware of potential gases in their vicinity.

Compiled by Matthew Parizot

14 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Courtesy of Hatch

The start of a new development project – opening a new mine or a new part of an existing mine – can be just as important as operating it. Hatch’s Operational Readiness Management System (ORMS) is helping projects get started the right way. The company says ORMS was designed to make the operational readiness process cheaper and more efficient. “The engineering company will provide you a race car, but if you don’t have the best pit crew and the best driver... you don’t win races,” said Vanessa Visman, Hatch’s operational readiness global director. “That’s kind of what we try and achieve through the design of OR.” ORMS uses a simple interface and Microsoft Azure cloud technology to facilitate collaboration between team members when readying a new project. Real-time, online dashboards are able to display data from the project to prevent making uninformed decisions. Visman said the company will continue to improve the platform, with a large update based on user feedback due early 2019.

Courtesy of Voith

Courtesy of Dräger

Fumble-free handoff

Expert alignment A misaligned conveyor belt is an avoidable mistake that wastes both time and money. Voith’s new BeltGenius ALignment EXpert (ALEX) system can ensure that the conveyor belts are fitted properly. Voith’s engineers mount ALEX’s 3D sensors to the belt, which pick up any misaligned idlers, garlands or specified idler tracks. ALEX then produces a report that makes specific recommendations on how to fix any pieces on the conveyor belt that are out of place, avoiding belt skewing or damage, material spillage and unexpected downtime. “We developed the BeltGenius line of products in conjunction with a mining company in Germany. This was developed not in a laboratory, but in real-life scenarios at an operating mine,” said Kyle Kluttz, Voith’s vicepresident of new business sales. “So in that sense the prototyping was proven through real application.” Voith said using ALEX can lead to a 20 per cent increase in the life of idlers as well as potential energy efficiency gains of more than 10 per cent due to friction losses.

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North American Palladium worker’s death ruled accidental

Barrick Gold to part with Chief Innovation Officer Michelle Ash

Natural resources minister says Canada will not appeal Trans Mountain decision

Canadian Mining Hall of Fame names 2019 slate

Developments Barrick and Randgold agree to merger The merger would create the largest gold company in the world Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources agreed to a share-for-share merger that would create the largest gold mining company in the world. If the merger is approved, the combined company – which will be referred to as New Barrick Group – will control five of the top 10 tierone gold mining operations in the world and will be the only company to control more than one. The companies defined a tier-one operation as a mine that has low costs and a long life. New Barrick Group will focus on developing its tier-one and strategic assets, while selling off its non-core assets “in a disciplined manner,” the companies said in the late September announcement. The five tier-one assets mentioned are the Cortez and Goldstrike mines in Nevada, Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali. Pueblo Viejo, as one of Barrick’s tierone operations, currently has an all-in sustaining cost of $590 to $620 per ounce. The mine started production in 2012 and is expected to have a 25-year life of mine. By comparison, Hemlo, Barrick’s sole Canadian mine, has an all-in sustaining cost of $975 to $1075 per ounce, and is expected to provide ore until 2019, with a potential extension to 2026. 16 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Courtesy of Randgold Resources

By Matthew Parizot

A truck loads ore at Randgold’s Gounkoto mine in Mali. Loulo-Gounkoto is listed as one of New Barrick Group’s “tier one assets.”

As part of the merger, Randgold shareholders will receive 6.1280 shares of New Barrick Group for each Randgold share they own. Barrick shareholders will have a 66.6 per cent ownership of New Barrick Group and Randgold shareholders will own 33.4 per cent. Randgold shareholders are also entitled to a dividend of two dollars per share, while Barrick shareholders will receive up to $0.14 per share dividend. Barrick has also agreed to pay Randgold a $300-million “break free payment” should certain circumstances occur, such as Barrick receiving a “competing proposal” — an offer that

concerns more than 15 per cent of a company’s assets. Under this new deal, Barrick executive chairman John L. Thornton would remain as executive chairman of New Barrick Group, and Randgold CEO Mark Bristow would become president and CEO. Randgold finance director and CFO Graham Shuttleworth will become the new senior executive vicepresident and CFO, while Barrick strategic matters senior executive vice president Kevin Thomson will retain his role at the new company. Twothirds of the new board of directors will be nominated by Barrick, and the

developments remaining third will be chosen by Randgold. “Barrick and Randgold are cut from a single cloth,” Thornton said in a conference call on Sept. 24. “[Mark Bristow] has said Randgold was modelled on Barrick as it existed in its early years under the leadership of Peter Munk and Bob Smith – the very culture we at Barrick have spent the past four and a half years attempting to recover. It is no accident then that I believe our two companies think and act in the same way.” Thornton praised Randgold’s “agility and swift-footedness,” while touting Barrick’s infrastructure, global reach and deep relationships with China. In a press release on the same day as the announcement, Barrick reported Chinese gold company Shandong Gold will purchase $300 million worth of Barrick shares. According to Bristow, the two companies have been in talks since 2015. In a press release, he said New Barrick

Group will employ a similar mine operation strategy to the one he used at Randgold but “on a larger scale.” For Charles Gibson, an analyst at Edison Investment Research, the merger can be seen as a victory for Randgold and its CEO. “Given that Randgold Resources was once described as, ‘Mark Bristow running around West Africa with a cheque book,’ the announcement of today’s nil premium merger between Randgold and Barrick to form the world’s largest gold miner in a little over 20 years from the former’s inception is a significant personal triumph for Randgold’s CEO and will leave a lot of other gold mining companies pondering ‘what if?’” Gibson said over email. Gibson praised Randgold’s “methodical approach of science and geology over the values of Goldman Sachs-style corporate capitalism.” Bristow has been a vocal critic of the short-term thinking that led many gold miners, Barrick

included, to write down the value of their assets by enormous sums when the price of gold fell from record heights in the early 2010s. “Despite its earlier rise to greatness, Barrick’s shares are approximately where Randgold’s were ten years ago, whereas Randgold’s are where Barrick’s were ten years ago,” Gibson wrote. The merger is dependent on the approval of both sets of shareholders, and is expected to close by the first quarter of 2019. CIM

Capstone puts Minto on hold due to falling copper price Capstone Mining is putting its Minto copper mine in central Yukon on temporary care and maintenance and laying off 200 employees, the company announced on October 11.

November • Novembre 2018 | 17

Courtesy of Capstone Mining

FROM THE WIRE Guyana Goldfields appointed Ron Stewart senior vice-president of technical services and corporate development and Lisa Zangari chief talent officer in September. Stewart has over 30 years of experience in the mining industry, previously serving as president and CEO of Beaufield Resources and Verena Minerals. Zangari has a lengthy history in human resources and mining, and founded Epic firm advisory executive Engagement. Osisko Metals co-founder Bob Wares, donated $5 million to McGill University’s Faculty of Science in September, with a focus on Earth and Planetary Sciences, the department he attended as a student. The gift will be put towards funding innovative earth science projects; recruiting students and funding field studies, postdoctoral fellowships and keynote speakers. In 2009, Osisko donated $4.1 million to the school to provide faculty research awards, student scholarships, and a field trip fund for the department. Including yearly support since 2009, Wares’ contributions to the school has now totalled over $10 million. Two new members will be joining the Nevada Copper executive team. Abraham Jonker was appointed CFO and Mark Wall was named chief commercial officer on Oct. 1. Jonker has been a member of the board since May 2017, and served as interim CEO of the company from February to May 2018. Wall was previously the senior vice-president and operations officer at Barrick Gold before moving on to Nevada Copper. Rio Tinto and its Japanese joint venture partners approved an investment of up to US$1.55 billion to sustain production at its Robe Valley and West Angelas operations in Western Australia, the company announced in October. Rio Tinto will contribute US$820 million. If the investments are approved by the Australian government, Rio Tinto expects 1,200 jobs to be created during the construction process, and the first ore to be produced in 2021. Once both projects are operational, the existing haul trucks will be retrofitted with Autonomous Haulage System technology.

18 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

An aerial view of the Minto mine from 2015.

The company was in talks to sell the mine to U.K.-based Pembridge Resources but the deal fell apart, leading Capstone to make its decision to stop production. In a press release, Capstone said Pembridge was “unsuccessful in completing the financing required to complete the transaction.” Capstone also said the price of copper was behind its decision. Copper has seen a fairly significant decline in price since the beginning of the summer, hitting a 13-month low of US$2.552 per pound on Aug. 15. Mining operations at Minto have stopped entirely, but milling will continue until the mine’s current ore stockpile has been depleted. A small crew of employees will remain at the mine to ensure its upkeep. The mine’s annual maintenance costs are expected to be around $5 million for 2018 and 2019, and $4 million for the years thereafter. The company said it is exploring other options in order to gain value from the mine, including sales talks with Pembridge and other companies. “The decision to put Minto on care and maintenance while we seek alternatives is to preserve and maximize its value,” Capstone president and CEO

Darren Pylot said in a statement. “The team will ensure Minto can be restarted efficiently and safely once the copper and equity markets improve. Minto has been an important part of Capstone’s history and we thank the team at Minto for their commitment and dedication.” Minto began commercial production in October 2007 at 1,800 tonnes per day and was Yukon’s only operating hard rock mine. – Matthew Parizot

All-female mine rescue team nabs People’s Choice award at international competition For Kari Lentowicz, the stand-out moment of this year’s International Mines Rescue Competition (IMRC) in Russia was when she injured her leg during the mine rescue relay race. “I was on the last leg of the relay, and I ended up getting hurt,” Lentowicz said. “My team came in and they finished that leg for me and my captain carried me across the finish line so we finished as a team.” The incident was symbolic of a competition that might not have resulted in many accolades for the

developments Despite not winning the actual contest, the experience of competing was much more rewarding for Lentowicz and the other Diamonds in the Rough, she said. “Everyone was supportive, every country. Russia accepted us with open arms, and it’s a country where it’s actually illegal for women to work underground,” Lentowicz said. “We were the first [all-female] team ever to perform work underground and they were nothing but receptive. So, with the People’s Choice award, it was great to be recognized for all that we were doing and that as women we were thoroughly accepted by our male counterparts at such an event.” The majority of the categories were dominated by Russian teams. The Kemerovo MRS team, which took first place overall, was first in four of the eight categories, and placed in the top three in two others. At the end of the competition, Kemerovo MRS and Rubana VMRT, both Russian teams, took the gold and silver medals, with the Komir team from Kazakstan taking bronze. The Diamonds in the Rough made their way to Russia thanks to a GoFundMe campaign, allowing them

Brandy Bloxom Photography

team, but was rich in team-building experience. “It was amazing, and we got a standing ovation while we did it,” Lentowicz said. While Canadian teams didn’t make it to the podium at this year’s IMRC, they were honoured with two special diploma prizes. The competition, which was held from Sept. 22 to 29, took place across different mines in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region north of Kazakstan. Twenty-five teams from 12 different countries – including China, Australia and India – participated in the events. The two Canadian teams in the competition, Tahoe Canada and Diamonds in the Rough – the team Lentowicz was a part of and the first ever all-female mining rescue team to enter the competition – failed to place in the top three for any of the contest’s eight categories, which included firefighting, first aid and the mine rescue relay race. Lentowicz’s team finished 15th overall. But the two teams didn’t leave empty-handed. Tahoe Canada was named the “fastest team” and the Diamonds in the Rough were given the People’s Choice award.

Engineering company Howden said on Sept. 24 that it acquired both Advanced Combustion Inc. (ACI) and Advanced Fan Systems (AFS) to add to its portfolio of products. ACI designs, manufactures and installs air heating equipment for the mining industry. AFS provides fan and ventilation systems for mines. Jinhee Magie and Peter Rockandel joined Lundin Mining’s management team on Oct. 1. Magie, formerly Lundin’s vice-president of finance, was appointed senior vice-president and CFO. Rockandel was appointed senior vice-president of corporate development and investor relations. Both Magie and Rockandel have more than 25 years of experience in the mining industry. Magie joined Lundin as director of finance in 2008, and has experience in acquisitions, divestitures, public company reporting and equity fundraising. Rockandel was managing director of investment banking at GMP Securities before joining Lundin. The Tax Court of Canada ruled in Cameco’s favour in a dispute with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regarding its offshore marketing structure and transfer pricing. According to a Sept. 26 press release, the court decided that “Cameco’s marketing and trading structure involving foreign subsidiaries and the related transfer pricing methodology used for certain intercompany uranium sale and purchase agreements are in full compliance with Canadian laws for the tax years in question.” The lawsuit could have resulted in a fine of up to $2.4 billion for the company. The CRA has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the decision. Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Sudbury INO) awarded the construction of a new internal shaft for the Onaping Depth project at its Craig mine in northeastern Ontario to Cementation Canada on Sept. 18. The shaft will be located 2,500 metres underground. Cementation said it will engineer and construct hoistrooms and the underground headframe, and re-arm a raise bore as a pilot raise for a portion of the final shaft excavation and construction. Compiled by Matthew Parizot

Canada’s Diamonds in the Rough, the first all-female mine rescue team, compete in the International Mines Rescue Competition in Russia. November • Novembre 2018 | 19

to participate without having to pay out-of-pocket. This won’t be the last that the IMRC has heard of the Diamonds in the Rough. Lentowicz said that she plans to compete again next year with new

additions to the team’s roster and even train a youth team for a similar competition held in Texas. “My hope is to… not just have the women that we had this time, but train more women so that they can compete,”

Lentowicz said. “One of the goals of our non-profit is to bring awareness to diversity and inclusion, and the reason we want to train women is because it gives their mine sites an opportunity to see how well women do.” – Matthew Parizot

North American Palladium worker’s death ruled accidental Coroner’s jury calls for company to increase brow visibility in inquest into worker’s death Courtesy of North American Palladium

By Matthew Parizot

The Lac des Iles mine is 90 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The death of North American Palladium employee Pascal Goulet was ruled accidental by a coroner’s inquest in mid-September. Goulet was killed at the company’s Lac des Iles mine near Thunder Bay, Ontario. After three days of deliberation, coroner Dr. Michael B. Wilson wrote in his verdict, released Sept. 14, that Goulet’s cause of death was “blunt force trauma to the head from a fallen rock.” Goulet was discovered dead on July 10, 2014, 825 metres underground 20 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

with a rock weighing as much as 500 pounds on his head. He was found outside his loader in a “no-go” zone past a safe-limit sign painted on the wall. Production supervisor Roger Thomas told the inquest that the only time a miner would be expected to leave his vehicle was if something had been broken. Evidence of a broken spray nozzle was found in the vicinity of the vehicle. The five members of the coroner’s jury offered nine recommendations

directed towards the provincial Mining Legislative Review Committee, the Ontario ministries of labour and community safety and correctional services and North American Palladium to prevent a similar incident from happening again. Creating “a subcommittee to develop a guideline for mining employers to use in order to determine the safe distance for workers to be located when working in a stope that has an open brow,” and creating regulations preventing workers from going

developments past a safe-limit line on foot without permission from an area supervisor are among the jury’s recommendations. The two recommendations specifically for North American Palladium called for the company to “ensure that medical staff are trained in critical stress management” and to “increase visibility of the brow with a one-metre wide visible paint strip across the brow.” Melanie Goulet, Pascal’s wife, said she agreed with the jury’s recommendations. “I think that all nine recommendations should be implemented,” she said in a statement. “And I hope to God that one of these recommendations can save somebody else’s life one day so no other family, no other children like my two beautiful daughters, have to live through what we’ve been living for the last four years.” United Steelworkers (USW), the union Goulet was a member of, were

also satisfied with the recommendations, but stressed that companies need to take steps to prevent accidents. “There needs to be mechanisms in place to do the pre-emptive things, not the post-mortem things,” USW spokesperson Herbert Daniher said in an interview. “Vigilance is going to be a deterrent, and being proactive is where you’re going to save lives.” USW will lobby the various agencies and the company to ensure the recommendations are implemented. “It’s not mandatory that they implement [them], but we’re going to do our best to make sure that they do,” Daniher said. In a Sept. 14 press release, North American Palladium president and CEO Jim Gallagher extended his condolences to the Goulet family. “We will always mourn the loss of one of our own,” he said. “None of our employees should ever go to work and not get home safely to their families.”

The company states that it will be carefully reviewing all the jury’s recommendations, and will focus on incorporating them into its actions in the future. According to data collected from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB), the number of no-lost-time injuries – when no time is lost from work except for the day of the injury – at Lac des Iles has risen since 2012, but time-lost injuries – where an injury results in time off, loss of wages or permanent disability – has fallen. Compared to the rest of the Ontario mining industry as a whole, Lac des Iles has dropped under the average amount of time-lost injuries since 2014. The WSIB puts the mine at 0.45 injuries per 100 employees, vs. 0.7 for the entire industry. WSIB also states that 20 employees have been killed in Ontario mines since 2011. CIM

November • Novembre 2018 | 21

IPI Photography

Barrick Gold to part with Chief Innovation Officer Michelle Ash Barrick Gold will be eliminating the position of Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) from its management team in a move to support decentralization efforts in its various mining operations. The position is currently held by Michelle Ash, who was appointed to the position in 2016. According to Barrick’s website, Ash “oversees the company’s strategy for long-term innovation,” driving productivity, optimizing research and development, and looking into alternative business models. In August 2017, Barrick also created the position of chief digital officer and appointed Sham Chotai, formerly the chief technical officer for GE’s water, power and transportation divisions. Chotai will remain in that role. The company told Reuters on Sept. 12 that it will keep working on innovation but that more decision-making power would be given to the operators at the mine sites. It has not made an official announcement about the changes. Barrick reported a $94-million net loss in its second quarter of 2018, and wrote in its report that it completed an “extensive review of all positions sitting above operations, reallocating roles where appropriate, eliminating those no longer required and closing a number of smaller offices.” The position of CIO was created at Barrick specifically for Ash. In a July 2017 profile, she made it clear to CIM Magazine that innovation was a multifaceted endeavour, encompassing digital, technical and financial aspects. “The company recognizes that if we continue to do the same things the same way, we will always get what we’ve always got,” Ash said at the time. “[And] that the industry fundamentally needs to change the way we go about doing things because the competition’s getting stronger.” Ash entertained ideas such as using Elon Musk’s Hyperloop high-speed 22 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Ash will stay with the company until the end of 2018.

transport to move material or integrating smart watches to monitor employees’ sleep patterns. She also pointed to Barrick spin-off business, AuTec, as an example of how the company could use its technology to advance the mining industry. Ash will stay with the company until the end of the year, Barrick spokesman Andy Lloyd told Reuters. – Matthew Parizot

Baffinland signs updated impact and benefits agreement with Inuit communities Increased funding for education and training for local Inuit communities are the focus of a new impact and benefits agreement (IBA) for Baffinland Iron Mines’ Mary River mine. Baffinland and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA), a non-profit society that represents 13 Inuit communities in the Qikiqtani region of Nunavut, announced the changes to the agree-

ment in early October, updating the one originally signed in 2013. Included among the changes are the construction of a $10-million regional training centre that will include heavy equipment training and housing for Inuit families, and can act as a shared space for the community of Pond Inlet; as well new opportunities for internships in non-mining company roles like human resources or finance. The agreement also includes more resources for community members to monitor the impact of the project on the environment, including several marine research vessels to be purchased over the next 12 years. “The signing of the Amended IBA represents another major step in our commitment to deliver on our promise to bring employment and training opportunities to the Qikiqtani region,” Baffinland president and CEO Brian Penney said in a statement. “It also reflects the strong relationship between Baffinland and QIA, as we continue to find new ways to work in partnership and understand how we can continue to move forward and make a real difference for all Nunavummiut.” While the deal includes several millions of dollars in increased funding, Stephen Williamson Bathory, special adviser to the president of QIA, said that Baffinland was willing to negotiate. “What we ended up finding out after the first few sessions was that there was very clear alignment on a lot of topics, as well as a clear will for the company to get over the hump of maybe being questioned as to their commitment to the agreement and their delivery of benefits,” Bathory said. “There was a strong will on both sides to not just negotiate this agreement but really start to enhance and deliver improved benefits.” Baffinland and the QIA also agreed to priority hiring for Inuit in all Baffin communities, new internship programs and increased resources to help retain hired employees and advance their careers. They also agreed on an eventual target goal of 50 per cent Inuit employees at the mine, a significant increase from the previous target of 25 per cent.

The new goal might be considered an ambitious milestone to reach. A May 2017 report from Nunatsiaq placed the Mary River Inuit employment rate at just 100 people, or 12.5 per cent of the workforce. Bathory cited the lack of a dedicated approach to training as one of the reasons why the employment rate was so low. “What we’ve learned collectively is the amount of effort it took to proactively implement [the agreement] is far greater than first perceived,” Bathory said. The new agreement aims to help combat some of those issues with funds to allow more accessible travel from the different Inuit communities to the mine and Inuit-specific HR and counselling, and the inclusion of a written guide in the IBA on how to properly implement the changes. “You see [operational procedures] for things like road maintenance, like blasting, like acid rock drainage management,” Bathory said. “We’ve just converted that thinking into [delivering] benefits. How do you train? How do you run procurement processes?” The IBA was originally signed in September 2013, and is renegotiated every three years. The final version of the updated agreement is expected to be officially signed in April 2019. – Matthew Parizot

Court injunction halts work at Taseko’s New Prosperity An injunction granted on behalf of the Tsilhqot’in Nation has stopped exploratory work at Taseko Mines’ New Prosperity project in south-central British Columbia. The B.C. Court of Appeal decision, released on Sept. 17, stops work until the court rules on the Tsilhqot’in’s appeal of a B.C. Supreme Court decision allowing Taseko to begin drilling at New Prosperity. That decision is expected to be heard on Nov. 21 and 22. In late August the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a petition from the Tsilqot’in to quash Taseko’s exploration permit for the project on the grounds that the province had not adequately consulted with First Nations before granting it. Justice Ward Branch wrote that he did not agree “the province’s decision fell outside the range of reasonable outcomes” and noted that there would be many more opportunities in the project pipeline for consultation. New Prosperity is located close to the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s declared title land, and two sites of cultural significance to the nation, Teztan Biny, also known as Fish Lake, and Nabas. After the Supreme Court ruling, Chief Joe Alphonse, the tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, said the nation would be “exhausting all options” to stop work from continuing at the site. Brian Battison, Taseko’s vice-president of corporate affairs, said the hurdles are the new normal for working in the province. “Sadly that’s just the new reality of trying to invest in British Columbia. That’s the process,” he said in an interview.

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Monarques to try a different approach at its Wasamac deposit Monarques Gold announced the initial parameters for a feasibility study at its Wasamac deposit in Val d’Or using a newer, cost-cutting method of ore extraction. According to a Sept. 25 press release, the feasibility study will be conducted using a top-down method of mining, rather than a more traditional bottomup method, and include a planned production of 6,000 tonnes per day. To accomplish this, Monarques will be using twin ramps to access the deposit, as well as the Rail-Veyor transport system that was first put to effective use in the Abitibi gold belt at Agnico Eagle’s Goldex mine, also in Val d’Or. The Rail-Veyor, an electricitypowered light-rail ore haulage system, uses a looping track and moving carts to transport ore from the deepest part of a mine to its unload point and back again – no trucks or manpower required. The rail system also allows the carts to navigate around tighter corners that a traditional system might struggle with. 24 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Courtesy of Monarques Gold

“Extraordinary effort is required if you want to advance a mine development project and create opportunities here in the province.” The Tsilhqot’in said in a release the injunction comes as a relief, but that the fight is far from over. “We continually have to go to court to protect our cultural and spiritual sites. These areas should be off the table for any kind of invasive development,” Alphonse said in a press release on Sept. 18. “While this injunction grants a temporary relief from extensive drilling and exploration work, we are still calling on the B.C. government to step in and put a full stop to this drilling permit.” Battison said the company will “wait and see the outcome of the appeal, and our intention is to proceed with the work if we’re able to do so.”

The Wasamac mine, shown here in 1984, was last operated in 1971.

Monarques said earlier in September that it would temporarily halt production at its Beaufor mine in Val d’Or, due to the low price of gold and the low grade of ore recently mined at the site, and focus on developing Wasamac instead. Wasamac was originally discovered in 1936, and includes three mining concessions and 12 mining claims over a 7.6-kilometre area. Monarques acquired the Wasamac deposit from Richmont Mines in October 2017, after purchasing the entire company. According to a prefeasibility study completed in January 2018, the deposit contains measured and indicated reserves of 29.86 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.70 grams per tonne (g/t). Mining operations between 1965 and 1971 processed 1.9 million tonnes of ore before the mine was shuttered for economic reasons. Monarques has recruited Canadian consulting engineering firm BBA to conduct the feasibility study for them. According to Monarques, the goal of the study is to put Wasamac into production at the lowest possible cost. “We are working hard to make Wasamac a success, both economically and for the local communities,” Monarques president and CEO Jean-Marc Lacoste said in a statement. “We want this project to fulfill the economic and environmental criteria and meet the

local communities’ requirements, and we are confident that with BBA’s help, we can achieve that goal.” The study is expected to be completed in December 2018. – Matthew Parizot

Lac des Iles’ mine expansion aims to double throughput A different mining method at Lac des Iles will allow North American Palladium to extend the mine’s life by one year, to 2027, and double throughput according to the company’s new feasibility study. The company’s previous feasibility study, from 2017, gave Lac des Iles a 9.5-year mine life. North American Palladium said in mid-September that it would expand its underground mine rather than push back the dormant Roby open pit. The strategy will allow the company to increase its annual underground production to more than 12,000 tonnes per day, up from 6,000 currently. The company also updated its Mineral Reserves for Lac des Iles. The mine now has Proven and Probable Reserves of 40,877,000 tonnes grading at 2.31 grams per tonne palladium (g/t), up from 38,524,000 tonnes at 2.25 g/t palladium in 2017.

developments North American Palladium said the success of its recent transition from long-hole stoping to a sublevel shrinkage (SLS) mining method at the bottom of the underground mine prompted it to commission an internal evaluation of the possibility of using similar techniques for all its near-surface resources, and the success of that evaluation resulted in the feasibility study. In a statement, North American Palladium president and CEO Jim Gallagher said that the company’s positive earnings in the last five quarters allowed it to access resources that were previously “sterilized” by Lac Des Iles’ open pit design. “This new approach will take full advantage of LDI’s large, lower-grade near-surface resources and allow for the mining of more resources at an improved grade than contemplated in the prior 2017 feasibility study,” Gallagher said. “The net result is improved operating margins, a longer

mine life and greater value creation for shareholders.” Recently North American Palladium recovered from a considerable low point by using alternative mining techniques like SLS and new digital technologies. In 2015, the company’s share price dropped so low that the New York Stock Exchange had to suspend trading of its shares, which resulted in a new majority owner and 13 per cent of employees being laid off. – Matthew Parizot

MGX Minerals brings rapid lithium extraction to Alberta’s oil patch Vancouver-based MGX Minerals is deploying its first rapid lithium extraction system to treat wastewater from oil production in central Alberta. Developed by PurLucid Treatment Solutions, a partially owned water

treatment subsidiary of MGX, the new extraction system allows for the filtration of oil from wastewater, also known as produced water, generated from underground water reservoirs that are pumped through oil wells. Fracking operations will have the highest concentration of lithium in the water. Once the oil, silica and alkaline minerals are removed from the wastewater, the lithium is recovered as lithium chloride, which is then sold to upgraders to allow for use in battery products and other industries. “We’re in the water treatment business, particularly for the petroleum industry and MGX was looking to develop a rapid extraction process for lithium from petroleum brine, which they call petrolithium,” PurLucid president and CEO Preston McEachern said. “They approached us for a water treatment solution so that they could run an evaporative process. We have a lot of experience with evaporators in

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the water treatment space and I said to him, ‘You know, there might be a better way to do this.’” Wastewater is produced plentifully alongside oil, but until now has been treated as a waste product, stored underground or placed in tanks to be disposed of later. MGX’s new extraction system has the potential to supply an in-demand resource while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact of Alberta’s oil sands by allowing oil companies to reuse the filtered wastewater. The process works for wastewater from gas production as well as natural brine and, according to McEachern, takes about six hours to complete. Jared Lazerson, president and CEO of MGX, claims that the water treatment solution could help reduce environmental footprints of oil wells up to 80 per cent by removing sitting basins of wastewater. The company currently has two petrolithium projects, one in Alberta and the other in Utah. “It’s certainly the most interesting thing that’s happened in the oil fields since they figured out how to increase their water recycling,” Lazerson said. “This is a major move to be able to decrease their environmental costs significantly.” While the amount of lithium recovered from wastewater is less than what

would be found in natural brine, the process takes advantage of an alternative resource that oil companies are willing to pay to have filtered and sent back for reuse, saving money on storage and transportation of moving the water in trucks. “It depends entirely on the concentration of lithium in the brine, and we’ve seen everything from near zero to several thousand ppm,” McEachern said. “On a petrolithium type project, there basically isn’t much more than 300 ppm. So, you’re basically talking about 300 grams per cubic metre of water.” While Lazerson said he anticipates the lithium extracted from the wastewater will not be massive — about 10 tonnes or $100,000 worth per year — the combination of the lithium and water treatment sides of the business make it an exciting prospect. “I think it’s a whiz-bang solution, and it really reflects a fundamental paradigm shift in technology,” Lazerson said. According to an MGX press release, the treatment system should be installed at a processing facility north of Edmonton by early November. Once completed, the facility will be able to receive wastewater from multiple clients in the area and will be able to process 750 barrels per day.

Beyond the potential of reclaiming lithium from wastewater, MGX hopes to test the technology in South America’s “Lithium triangle” — an area overlapping Chile, Bolivia and Argentina that contains 54 per cent of the world’s lithium resources. There the current prevailing method of lithium extraction is a lengthy process with a significant environmental footprint. Ponds of salt water or brine with lithium in solution sit in the sun to eventually evaporate to the point when the lithium can be efficiently extracted. These ponds can sit for over a year before they’ve evaporated enough to extract the lithium within. MGX is looking to bypass both the time and space required using its new extraction system. The company announced in August that it acquired a 50 per cent stake in Chilean Lithium Salars, a company that owned three prospective lithium projects in Chile. On September 27, MGX revealed that it had been granted approval by the Chilean National Geology and Mining Service to carry out a six-hole drill program at its Francisco Basin project, located 30 kilometres south of the Salar de Maricunga salt flats. The company intends to test its rapid extraction system in the region and to lend the technology to smaller lithium producers in exchange for a royalty fee. – Matthew Parizot

Liberals outline plans for Trans Mountain approval Natural resources minister says government will not appeal Trans Mountain court decision By Matthew Parizot

After a Federal Court of Appeal decision halted the federal Liberals’ plans to advance the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi outlined the government’s plans to address the issues identified by the court. In her Aug. 30 decision for the three-judge court, Justice Eleanor Dawson wrote that the National 26 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Energy Board (NEB) had made a “critical error” in not considering projectrelated tanker traffic in its review, and therefore it could not be relied upon when making a final decision. She also ruled that in the third phase of Indigenous consultation, the government’s duty to consult with First Nations was not “adequately discharged.”

Sohi announced in early October that the government would not appeal the decision, and would re-do the third phase of consultation with the Indigenous groups affected by the expansion project. Former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci will lead the government’s consultation team, which Sohi said would have double the capacity.

developments Sohi said Iacobucci’s experience with the Ring of Fire in Ontario and as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will benefit the process. “I want to be very clear that no relationship is more important to the [Government of Canada and] to Canada than the one with Indigenous peoples,” Sohi stated. “We committed to finding the best path forward with respect to the court’s ruling, and will set out our next steps on this shortly.” Five different First Nations groups were part of the original lawsuit challenging the pipeline expansion, claiming that the government had failed in its duty to consult with them before approving the project. In her decision, Justice Dawson wrote that the consultation process was limited to “listening and recording” the concerns of applicants rather than engaging in backand-forth negotiation. The government’s decision not to appeal came two weeks after Sohi’s mid-September announcement that that the government had instructed

the NEB to reconsider its recommendation for the pipeline expansion, this time taking into account the effects that increased marine shipping would have on the environment and at-risk wildlife such as the Southern Resident Killer Whale. Sohi said the government will be implementing the Oceans Protection Plan – a $1.5-billion investment in protecting Canada’s oceans and coastlines, and that the government will be appointing a special marine technical advisor to the NEB. The board will have 22 weeks to reconsider its recommendation before returning with its decision. “We are confident that with this plan, [it] will allow us to meet the high standards that Canadians expect when it comes to protecting the environment,” Sohi said at an Ottawa press conference. The government gave the board 155 days to finish its reconsideration of the pipeline expansion, with a final deadline of Feb. 22, 2019. On Oct. 12,

the NEB said it will hear oral traditional evidence from Indigenous intervenors as well as letters of comment submitted by the public. The board accepted 99 of 124 applications for intervenor status. “We truly believe the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project is an investment in Canada’s future,” Sohi said. “It must move forward in the right way.” But critics say that whether the government can actually get the pipeline project back on track is still an open question. “They’ve failed every time they’ve said this project was going to go ahead, and they’ve failed on every timeline they’ve announced, and they’ve failed on every measure,” Conservative natural resources critic Shannon Stubbs said at a press conference on Parliament Hill on Sept. 21. “Canadians are right to question whether or not the Liberals are actually committed to getting the Trans Mountain expansion built.” CIM

ArcelorMittal Mining Canada is giving McGill University $360,000 in funding over four years to support mining and materials science research and development work at the university’s Mining Department. The ArcelorMittal Mining and Mineral Processing Fund will support research projects focusing on technology and innovation ranging from mine to port, energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. “We’re clearly now in a world of change in mining and we wanted to ensure we had access to the latest developments,” ArcelorMittal CEO Pierre Lapointe said in an interview. “We also wanted to connect a local university with our research centres in Spain and France.”

Courtesy of McGill University

McGill mining department gets $360,000 from ArcelorMittal Mining Canada

McGill Faculty of Engineering Dean Jim Nicell, ArcelorMittal Mining Canada head of public relations and government affairs Nicolas Dalmau, and Mining Department director Hani Mitri.

Lapointe said ArcelorMittal and McGill are in the process of determining which research projects will receive funding but hope to have a complete list by the end of the year, allowing them to begin work in the first quarter of 2019. Hani Mitri, the director of McGill’s Mining Department, said the partner-

ship could help to advance ArcelorMittal’s strategic goals and objectives. “We’re very prepared to work on targeted research projects” for the company, he said. “We understand the company’s need to push down operating costs.” Mitri also said the department might work on short-term November • Novembre 2018 | 27

iron ore mine in the North Shore region of Quebec and its rail and port operations in Port-Cartier. The funding will go toward faculty research, but Mitri said students would be able to benefit as research assistants.

“We want to also have students involved in the process as well,” Lapointe added. McGill’s mining school, which in 2021 will celebrate its 150th anniversary, is the oldest in Canada. – Kelsey Rolfe

All photos courtesy of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame

“troubleshooting” research projects for the company, like “finding efficient solutions to technical issues.” Some projects will be conducted at ArcelorMittal sites in Quebec, Lapointe said, like the company’s Mont-Wright

Kate Carmack

James M. Franklin

Canadian Mining Hall of Fame names 2019 slate A prolific mine developer, the discoverer of three critical gold deposits, and the long unrecognized fifth member of the “Klondike Discoverers” are among the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame’s (CMHF) 2019 inductees. The CMHF, which recognizes the industry’s outstanding achievers, added Kate Carmack, James M. Franklin, James W. Gill, Sandy Laird and Brian Meikle to its ranks. “Whether it was through historic discovery, groundbreaking research or delivering significant value to shareholders, each of these individuals made a profound impact on Canada’s mining industry and helped to shape it into the global leader it is today,” Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Chair Jon Baird said in a statement. Shaaw Tláa, a Tagish First Nation woman who took the name Kate Carmack when she married American prospector George Washington Carmack in 1887, is the third woman in the Hall’s 30-year history to receive the honour. Carmack was part of the “Klondike Discoverers,” a group made up of her husband, her brother Skookum Jim Mason, her nephew Dawson Charlie, and Canadian prospector Robert Hen28 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

James W. Gill

Sandy Laird

derson that was credited with the gold discovery that prompted the Klondike gold rush. The four men were named to the CMHF in 1999. Carmack’s contribution to the discovery has historically been left unmentioned, but Indigenous oral histories say she found the first nugget of gold. She also sewed and marketed mukluks and mittens to fellow prospectors to help support the group’s prospecting work. Carmack died in 1920. Franklin spent most of his 35-year career as a geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) studying the Canadian Shield’s history and mineral wealth. He is best known for his contributions to the geological understanding of volcanogenic massive sulfides, and his part in discovering modern massive sulfide deposits on the mid-ocean ridges off Canada’s west coast while he was director of GSC’s Seafloor Minerals Program. Franklin also established the “Bacon and Eggheads” forum while he was GSC’s chief scientist to help explain the importance of science to Canada’s economy to the federal government. Gill founded Aur Resources in 1981 with $250,000 in seed funding and a large piece of land in the Val d’Or mining camp. The company

Brian Meikle

made its Louvicourt copper-zinc discovery – at the time Canada’s largest base metals find since Kidd Creek – in 1989, and Gill’s guiding hand helped turn the deposit into a significant operation. Gill acquired and developed mines across the country and negotiated Aur’s $4.1-billion sale to Teck Resources in 2007. Laird spent 39 years with Placer Dome and Placer Development as a project developer with an enviable track record, turning at least 15 mineral deposits into profitable mines. He led the company’s project development group from 1988 to 1995, and later moved on to managing Placer Dome’s global operating and development subsidiaries. Laird is credited with being a key player in making Placer one of the world’s great mining companies before Barrick Gold acquired it. Meikle, who passed away in 2016, contributed to discovering and developing three major gold mines that helped to turn Barrick into a major industry player: Camflo in Quebec in the 1960s, the Mercur mine in Utah in the early 1980s, and Goldstrike in Nevada in 1986. Goldstrike eventually grew to have 60 million ounces of gold reserves and resources in multiple deposits, and made Barrick the world’s biggest gold miner. – Kelsey Rolfe

Photography by Angela McConnell

Courtesy of Patrick McAndless

Courtesy of Stephanie Saliba

Stephanie Saliba

Patrick McAndless

Holly Burton

“I don’t think that’s where the gap is” Mentorship programs have their benefits, but shouldn’t be the only solution to mining’s diversity problem By Matthew Parizot

hen Stephanie Saliba was in her second year of McGill University’s mining engineering co-op program, she joined the Promoting Opportunities for Women in Engineering (POWE) group to help mentor firstyear engineering students. While she says she joined the group in part because of the connections it offered, Saliba knows first-hand the benefits of having a mentor. “As an older student, I would give pointers and suggestions, encourage them, basically be there for [my mentee],” said Saliba, who has since graduated and now works in the industry. In her free time Saliba manages the MiningDiaries blog to dispel misconceptions of what it is like to work in mining. POWE is just one of many mentorship programs throughout the industry. The International Women in Resources Mentorship Programme supports women from around the world with coaching and mentorship. Goldcorp’s Creating Choices program aims to help women in their careers through training, development and mentorship, and has graduated over 1,800 women to date. More recently, Women in Mining and Women in Nuclear Saskatchewan (WIM/WiN-SK) received $163,000 from the 30 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

International Minerals Innovation Institute in February to fund its Mine Your Potential mentorship program, which connects women working in the industry with male and female “champions,” and encourages students to join the industry. “Our goal is to change the preconceptions women have of the mining industry,” WIM/WiN-SK chair Anne Gent said in February. “We also strive to retain and promote the women already in the mining industry to realize their full potential.” Notorious for its homogeneity, the mining industry is starting to talk openly about how to recruit and retain women and visible minorities. According to Statistics Canada, in 2011 women made up only 17 per cent of the mining workforce, despite accounting for 51 per cent of the population. First Nations, which represent four per cent of the Canadian workforce, made up six per cent of the mining industry. Mentorship programs have emerged as one of the most popular ways to bridge the gap. But diversity advocates say that they should not be the catch-all solution for a much larger issue. Saliba’s mentor Patrick McAndless, a professional mentor, uses his decades of experience in the industry to guide stu-

we are mining dents developing their future careers. He says mentorship can be an essential tool for bringing out the potential of students looking to enter the mining industry, as well as keeping them there. “I think the key is recognizing who needs the support,” said McAndless. “There’s going to be some that just are not going to say anything. They’re going to go through the engineering program...and just at the end say, ‘Okay... I am not comfortable here. I don’t think I’m going to have any opportunities’ [and lose] hope.” For those entering the industry, having a mentor can allow them to make connections quickly and provide assurance that there is someone they can turn to for advice if they need it. “It’s hard being the only woman in the room, but it’s a lot easier when you know that some of the people at the table are watching out for you and want what’s best for you,” said Veronica Knott, a University of British Columbia mining engineering student. Knott, a 2018 #DisruptMining judge who is currently interning with Goldcorp, said mentorship helped her succeed academically. She returns the favour by speaking to high school girls and reaching out to other women in engineering programs. The systemic barriers to entering and remaining in the industry, however, can be much bigger than what mentorship can fix, and addressing these issues in a workplace can mean taking a hard look at a company’s prevailing culture. Holly Burton, a leadership coach for women in maledominated industries and a former mining engineer, says mentorship is not enough to address a workplace culture that is not always accommodating to women. “There’s a lot of effort put into recruitment. Companies are quick to ask, ‘How do we hire better?’” Burton said. “And what we don’t see done as much, or as effectively, or even with as much focus is working on retaining the women that we already have in the industry. We’ve got a massive problem with that.” She points to a 2013 study from the journal Social Forces that illustrates this point. According to a study of working women, 15 per cent of professional women end up leaving their careers within 20 years. For women working in STEM fields, however, that number balloons to 60 per cent. Burton recalls several incidents back when she was a mining engineer that dissuaded her from continuing down her chosen career path. According to her, over the first six months at one job, the other engineers would frequently go on pit tours without telling her. When confronted, they said it was simply coincidence, and that she was being sensitive. “When something happens consistently over the course of six months to a year, it’s not really circumstance,” Burton said. “There’s always that message that’s being put forward to women: ‘Well, maybe it’s just you, maybe you’re just being too sensitive.’” Workplace harassment, maternity leave policies, and gender differences in performance evaluations are all obstacles that Burton says the women she coaches deal with, and men-

torship can only go so far when it comes to addressing these problems. “I don’t think that’s where the gap is honestly, and I usually say as much to companies,” she said. “I think mentoring is valuable and good and important and that they should do it, but it really can’t be the start and finish of diversity programming.” Similarly, First Nations groups have their own obstacles in acclimating to the mining industry that go beyond recruitment. Mining companies looking to dig near Indigenous communities often sign impact and benefits agreements (IBA), which can come with a preferential hiring practice for Indigenous workers. However, these positions are often contractual labour positions outside the skilled trades with little chance for promotion, which leads to poor worker retention. Andrew Hodgkins, a researcher and adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, studies the relationship between First Nations and resource extraction industries, and the results of these IBAs. Frequently, he said, the infrastructure is not in place for Indigenous workers to succeed. “It’s very hard to recruit, especially when you’re dealing with such a small pool of potential candidates that would be able to be hired on a long-term basis,” said Hodgkins. The lack of education to qualify for skilled trades is one of the biggest obstacles that Hodgkins cites in increasing Indigenous employment. There are, however, more effective ways mining companies can help improve those numbers. Hodgkins conducted a 2016 study into a corporatesponsored train-to-work program to integrate young Indigenous people into skilled trade positions at mines in Alberta’s oil sands, which included a month-long internship at a local mine. He found that long-term investment into the communities helped to break the employment barrier. “Having been in the region for a long time, and developing relationships with local communities, that longevity is a big part of the success of hiring people in that region,” he said. Inevitably, if one of these relationships lasts long enough, one will begin to see a culture of mentorship from those who came before. “The youth that I was following, they have mentors in their own communities, family members who have worked in the oil sands,” Hodgkins said. “They know a lot about what they’re getting themselves into, and that’s a significant component of that transition from the learning area to the work.” CIM

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We Are Mining Throughout 2018 CIM Magazine will feature the stories and experiences of women, Indigenous people and people of colour working in the mining industry. Do you have an idea for a story we should report? Reach out: krolfe@cim.org November • Novembre 2018 | 31

How Indigenous communities can make the most of the lull in the minerals market By Daniel Bland

s mining and resource extraction companies across the north continue to ride out a worldwide slump in commodity prices, there are several things remote First Nations close to large mineral deposits could be doing to maximize the benefits that will eventually come their way once mining operations begin in earnest. While there has been considerable attention paid to the labour market demands of the Ring of Fire’s mining projects, there has been much less attention paid to developing an employability profile of the residents of the remote reserves most people agree will supply much of the labour force needed to meet those demands. To be sure, accurate labour force information about remote aboriginal reserves is hard to come by. Although Statistics Canada conducts a monthly labour force survey in provinces and territories across the country, it does not include Canada’s on-reserve Aboriginal population. Much of the information that is available from other sources is outdated, unreliable or anecdotal. Certainly there are challenges in collecting labour force data on reserves, particularly in remote areas of the north. Travel is expensive, it can be difficult to recruit and train local people in data collection, respondents are frequently difficult to contact and so on. Real as they are, however, such considerations should not discourage First Nations from conducting their own labour force surveys and collecting their own data, particularly if they hope to take full advantage of the employment and business opportunities that will come their way once the mining sector rebounds and mining operations across the north re-commence. Our experience helping train members of the James Bay Cree First Nation for mining jobs suggests two things are particularly important to do in this regard. First, it is important to set up a skills, education and work experience inventory of working-age reserve residents. The more up-to-date and accurate information that can be gathered now about the labour force, the better the chances of tapping into training and employment opportunities in the future. Many semi-skilled and skilled mining jobs in the Ring of Fire, for example, will require formal education or vocational training. However many provincially recognized training programs have academic pre-requisites, frequently Grade 10 or 11 math or English. What that means in practice is that not everybody who wants to enroll in, say, an underground mining training program will be able to do so. But to know that for sure – and take steps to address it while there is time – reserve residents need the information. And the sooner,

the better. When in a year or 18 months there are half a dozen underground miner jobs at a local mine and people can be trained and work-ready only six months later, it will be too late. Without enough lead time, opportunities that may not come again will be missed. Start now. Second, it can save a lot of time if reserves carry out a preWithout liminary assessment of the basic enough workplace skills of their working-age residents. Experience has lead time, shown us that the most successopportunities ful training programs are the ones that tailor their technical that may not training as much as possible to come again the skill strengths and weaknesses of their participants. And will be to do that, trainers need to know the participants and what kind of missed. basic literacy and numeracy Start now. skills they possess. There are a variety of assessment tools available to do this, many of them now available online. Assessment scores will give individuals a realistic snapshot of where they stand in terms of the kind of real workplace skills that are needed on the job. And, perhaps more importantly, it will show them the skills gap between where they are now and where they need to be to fulfill the requirements of the mining job they are interested in. Once that assessment is done, they will have time to improve their skills and narrow or even close those gaps. Aboriginal communities, like non-Aboriginal communities, are diverse and different and there is no one-size-fits-all program template for training. A program that works well with one community in one part of the province or country cannot simply be replicated, taken out of the box and set up elsewhere with another community. But with up-to-date labour force information collected and workplace skills assessment data at hand, the people who design the training programs and work with the community when the time comes will have a solid foundation to build on. Time spent on these two tasks between now and then will be well spent. CIM Daniel Bland is coordinator of the Cree Employability Skills Development Partnership, a training to employment initiative of Cree Human Resources Development. An earlier version of this column first appeared on Policy Options.

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32 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

March 10–14, 2019 San Antonio, Texas, USA #TMSAnnualMeeting

Registration Now Open for TMS2019! More than 3,500 presentations are planned for TMS2019, but the conference is so much more than technical talks. Join us at TMS2019 for: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON MATERIALS ISSUES Special programming is planned by the German Materials Society (DGM) and the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS), bringing a world of knowledge to one location.

2019 TMS BLADESMITHING COMPETITION Educational, intriguing, and inspiring, the TMS Bladesmithing Competition, held every other year, draws students and professionals alike to this display in the TMS2019 exhibit hall.

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www.tms.org/TMS2019

Courtesy of Malcolm Powell

Customized comminution CTTI uses simulations to help mining companies invest in mill liners that are both energy and financially efficient By Kylie Williams

rinding mills perform a critical role in the productivity and efficiency of ore processing circuits. Effective and efficient comminution in AG (autogenous), SAG (semi-autogenous) or ball mills means higher volumes through the mill and a finer product, leading to improved recovery. A poorly designed mill liner, however, can reduce the efficiency of the entire process, particularly if the liner wears quickly or unevenly. With price tags up to $2 million per liner, together with the downtime required to install a new liner, frequent liner replacement is not a fiscally responsible option. “The importance of a mill liner is often overlooked,” said Malcolm Powell, a professorial research fellow at the University of Queensland, who has conducted applied surveying and site optimization studies on over 60 mineral processing plants worldwide and published more than 170 articles on sustainable comminution. “It is only seen as a wear component. You need to look at it as a wearing component that affects productivity. Do your homework and invest in the best solution available. You can’t outsource productivity.” Powell and Lawrence Nordell, president of Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. (CDI), joined forces in late 2017 to form Comminution & Transportation Technologies Inc. (CTTI) to help mining companies optimize the efficiency of their mills and to design custom solutions to maximize mill performance. Although the partnership is new, Nordell and Powell have spent decades studying, modelling, and optimizing how to grind rocks effectively. Both are frustrated by the incremental changes the industry has made over the last 30 years and the surprisingly low uptake of redesigning processes despite the advanced computational techniques available. 34 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Back to basics The liner inside of a mill housing serves two purposes. The first is to protect the drum so the mill does not wear out, and the second is to transfer energy from the rotary mill into the grinding medium, like the ore itself in an AG or SAG mill or the grinding balls in a ball mill. Typically, a new mill comes from the supplier complete with all the components, including the liner. Mine managers, said Powell, only start to think about the suitability of the liner and other consumable components after they start to wear and need to be replaced, and often forget the secondary purpose of the liner. “The two actually go hand-in-hand,” said Powell. “If I optimize the way I transfer energy using that liner into the grinding media, I reduce the stress on the liner and reduce the wear of both the liners and ball grinding media. If I do something that is the most efficient at pumping the energy into the grinding media, it actually reduces the stress on the liner. It’s a double win. It’s always assumed it’s either liner life or performance. No. They go together.”

The Discrete Element Method Nordell and Powell use the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to generate detailed simulations of the wear on the liners and the interactions between the steel balls and the rocks being crushed. Nordell first applied DEM modelling to mill liner wear on two AG mills at the Palabora copper mine in South Africa’s Limpopo Province in the mid-1990s. Initially, he had used DEM to design a solution to prevent excess belt damage on a conveyor chute at the site. “The chute project showed an increase in belt life by a factor of better than 10 times the two- to three-year wear life

mineral processing previously experienced,” said Nordell. Impressed with this A unified solution result, Nordell’s client at Palabora asked if the DEM concept Powell and Nordell are currently working with five minmight be applied to the AG mills and CDI developed a coming clients to find the best mill liner and circuit solutions to minution team to study the mills. suit the unique conditions at each site, rather than rushing to “DEM showed most mill designs were misunderstood on buy an off-the-shelf liner design. New mills, they say, often how comminution worked within the mill. CDI also devel- have inappropriate liners installed in them, and companies oped a new concept of wear mechanics using the same undergo many years of incremental improvement to find an DEM modelling tools,” said Nordell. After successfully optimum liner solution. Additionally, the significant energy applying the method to the AG mills at Palabora, CDI fur- draw at the conical ends of the mills are not appreciated, so ther developed the mathematical modelling tools and cre- their potential contribution to improved energy utilization is ated the Rocky software package of DEM codes, which overlooked. Nordell later sold to global industrial equipment company, Comminution is the most energy intensive process in Metso. almost all mines, using on average 36 per cent of the overall In 2000, CDI was awarded the contract to evaluate and energy consumed at a mine. If a liner costs between $1 milimprove the liners in the 40-foot diameter SAG mill – the lion and $2 million and lasts only three to six months, investbiggest mill in the world at the time – at the Cadia gold and ing in a custom solution is both energy and financially copper mine in New South Wales, Australia. Nordell’s DEM efficient. Powell’s message to mine managers is this: “Invest simulations showed that the shape of the traditional trape- wisely once and don’t spend 10 years frittering money away zoidal, angular lifters on the liner – designed to scoop the unnecessarily. Do your homework and find the best solution rocks and balls from the base of the mill, carry them up and available. It will pay you back in just a year.” drop them at the top of the cycle – created high stress points Nordell and Powell assess the mill’s current performance on the liner and wasted energy grinding the liner instead of requirements and what the company wants the mill to grinding the rock. He designed a liner with lifters that were achieve and use historic production data to set a baseline for curved on one side, similar in shape to a shark fin, that trans- performance. Then they use a laser scanner, like those used ferred more energy to the rocks and balls and prolonged the by surveyors, to survey the mill in 3D when the liner is life of the liner. The through-life stress caused by the mount- installed, and another two to three times during its life, to ing bolts was also modelled and modified to prevent liner build up a progressive wear profile. cracking. Nordell and Powell then work with the mining company’s It took a year to design, refine and install the new “Larry preferred liner supplier to engineer a solution to make the Liners” and new bolts to attach the liners to the mill. At first, liner last longer and transfer more energy through the liner a trial set of 12 liner rows were installed to replace existing to increase performance. “Mining companies need to invest worn liners at a scheduled change-out. After a few months, in the best possible liners for their mill,” said Powell. “We Cadia was convinced to replace all the liners in the mill. The take a systems approach and ask the mining company to custom liners Nordell designed remained in use for 15 years. invest in their own destiny.” CIM “When you get down to looking at the actual science, you need a tool such as LE partenaire pour une solution complète et innovante DEM modelling to assess the interacTHE partner for a complete and innovative solution tions between the rocks and the distribution of the particles from the original rock,” said Nordell, who has now used DEM to evaluate the performance of about 30 mills around the world. EXPERTISE WORLD-CLASS Powell presented one of his more DE CALIBRE EXPERTISE recent case studies at the 14th AusIMM INTERNATIONAL IN MINERAL Mill Operators’ Conference in August. EN TRAITEMENT PROCESSING At the Pustynnoye gold mine in KazaDE MINERAIS khstan, Powell and a team of liner specorem.qc.ca cialists, site personnel and liner suppliers worked together to increase FRAGMENTATION COMMINUTION mill liner life by around 50 per cent and SÉPARATION PHYSIQUE PHYSICAL SEPARATION FLOTTATION FLOTATION mill throughput by more than 20 per MÉTALLURGIE EXTRACTIVE EXTRACTIVE METALLURGY cent. The team used a design approach AGGLOMÉRATION PELLETIZING Partenaires financiers: Financial partners: to liner optimization that follows a logPROCÉDÉS THERMIQUES THERMAL PROCESSES CARACTÉRISATION CHARACTERIZATION ical path of initial design and step-wise MINÉRALOGIE MINERALOGY improvements based on liner wear monitoring. November • Novembre 2018 | 35

No wires, new ideas Goldcorp trials new mining method at Musselwhite enabled by Orica’s WebGen wireless blasting system Courtesy of Orica

By Ian Ewing

Left: a drift at Goldcorp’s Musselwhite mine loaded for blasting using traditional methods. Right: a drift at Musselwhite loaded for blasting with Orica’s WebGen wireless system.

n a set of trials at Musselwhite mine beginning in late 2016, Goldcorp tested a new mining method to reduce dilution in its production stopes with Orica’s WebGen 100 wireless detonators. “It’s a game changer for the long term,” said Holly Robinson, senior operations planner at Musselwhite. Musselwhite, located in northern Ontario, originally used a modified Avoca method in retreats without secondary access. In this method, panels are backfilled from the retreat end before some fill is removed (a void pull) to provide the void space for the next blast and to prevent the unconsolidated fill from mixing with newly blasted ore. But as the mine increased in depth and strike length in recent years, dilution began straying well above the 15 per cent range expected, and up to 30 per cent in some areas. Steve Piercey, the senior underground blasting specialist at Orica, had been working with Musselwhite even before the first production blast in 1997. He thought the company’s new WebGen system could help with the mine’s dilution problem. Orica had been developing its wireless blast initiation technology since 2009, decreasing the size of the detonator-primer assemblies and certifying its safety. What they needed was a real-life evaluation in a working mine.

Not exactly Wi-Fi The WebGen system, which Orica offers as a service rather than a product, uses an ultra-low frequency magnetic induction wave that can travel through water, air, rock, backfill and even bog, said Piercey. The magnetic induction wave is transmitted by an antenna at around 1,800 hertz, and received by 36 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

disposable receivers (DRXs) in each borehole. The portable four-lobe transmission antenna being used by Orica at Musselwhite has a range of around 300 metres, while another, more permanent 40-metre single-loop antenna has a range exceeding one kilometre. Each 51 mm-diameter, 320 mm-long DRX has a tri-axis antenna array to receive the signal, supporting any blasthole orientation. “There’s also all of the electronics inside the DRX for the communications and all of the deciphering,” said Piercey. The non-explosive DRX plugs in to a version of Orica’s i-kon III electronic detonator, with a unique connector for the DRX. The i-kon detonator then attaches to a pentolite booster for a total unit length of 490 mm. “It’s the same detonator that we would use in a wired system, with a different plug,” explained Piercey. Following the blast plan, each DRX is encoded with the Group ID for its blast, and each i-kon detonator with a delay time, just prior to being loaded into the blastholes. A standalone Code Management Computer (CMC) – a tablet wiped of other software – is uploaded with a CSV file from Orica’s blast design software. The CMC assigns the encrypted firing codes and delay timing into a preload blast file. A handheld encoder takes the data from the CMC and encodes each DRX and i-kon. Three separate codes make up the Group ID, and all three must be received from the transmitter to initiate a blast. First, a wake-up code activates the appropriate DRXs from sleep mode. “Any DRX with that common Group ID will wake up when they hear their wake-up call,” explained Piercey. “But a blast sleeping right next to it that you want to blast in four days’ time will have its own unique Group ID.” Next, the

Courtesy of Orica

mineral processing activated DRXs receive an arm code, which calibrates and synchronizes the units. Finally, following the mine central blasting protocol, the fire signal is sent, firing each detonator according to its programmed delay time. Other DRXs, having not received their wakeup code, remain dormant in their blastholes, ready for subsequent blasts. “For all of the wonderful things we were able to do with electronic blasting, we were still encumbered by wires,” said Piercey. “Now we have a truly commercial system that is 100 per cent wireless.”

Test the tech In the new method designed by Orica and trialled at Musselwhite, a temporary rib pillar (TRP) is left where the unconsolidated backfill meets the ore, holding the backfill in place until after the mass blast. Vitally, the TRP also minimizes sloughing from the hanging wall by reducing the exposed strike length. “The rib pillar literally makes the hydraulic radius of the opening smaller,” said Musselwhite chief engineer Billy Grace. “We take a stope that’s a size that we know would be very reasonable with dilution, and then the rib pillar keeps that opening stable until we’re done mucking it.” Once the mass blast is mucked, the TRP can be blasted using the wireless detonators, and the TRP ore mucked. The WebGen system, Grace said, is the key enabling technology. “If we didn’t have the wireless technology, we’d somehow have to connect the wire from that TRP on the far side of the mass blast all the way over to the retreat side. No matter how well you protect it, there’s always the risk that that wire would be severed.” Trying the technology at Musselwhite was “a no-brainer” for Orica, said Piercey. “We actually developed this TRP Avoca mining method with [the wireless detonator] using Musselwhite as the model mine back in 2010.” The blasting company made it easy for Musselwhite to agree, added Grace. “Orica actually has quite a strong project charter process that it went through, and a really great peer review process among its senior people. I think they were stacking the cards with Musselwhite,” he said. “We had high confidence going into everything we did with them.” In the first evaluations, Musselwhite saw a remarkable 93 per cent reduction in dilution. It also spent 33 per cent fewer days mucking, and mucked an average of 27 per cent more tonnes per day. Trucks even hauled 15 per cent more tonnage per load compared to trucks loaded at conventional stopes, due to better fragmentation. “We didn’t think it would improve as much as some of the case study areas proved,” admitted Robinson. The trial was so successful that Musselwhite immediately carried on

incorporating wireless blasting and the TRP Avoca method into its daily operations. “Probably half our blasts are associated with a wireless sequence at this point,” said Grace. “The improvements we saw [during the trial] haven’t started to creep back towards normal in these TRP stopes. They have been sustained as we continue to do more.”

All the possibilities The TRP Avoca method is not the only method enabled by wireless blasting, either. One option Musselwhite is looking at is loading multiple blasts with wireless detonators in advance, to eliminate the loading cycle. “We might take, say, 10 blasts and load them all with wireless detonators,” said Grace. “So we’d fire the first one, muck, fill, and then we’re immediately ready to fire again without going through the loading cycle. There’s a bit of upfront time investment, but once it’s set up, it allows a mining front to move quite quickly.” Other possibilities are temporary uphole rib pillars, to improve recovery along the upper plunge of Musselwhite ore zones, and a reverse throw retreat concept, using sequential blasts to throw muck to the drawpoint. “It has really changed the way we think about planning and what’s possible with longhole blasting at Musselwhite,” Grace said. “Ultimately, the WebGen system provides a way of loading something that you’re no longer going to have access to after taking your primary blast,” said Robinson. “It’s completely opened things up. We’re not just doing TRP; now that we have this tool in our toolbox, it’s getting applied in other ways.” Orica is already working on the next-generation WebGen 200, a smaller version. “If they can get the technology into a smaller package, you could remote load development faces,” said Robinson. “From a safety standpoint, this is a huge win for the industry as we will actually be able to remove people from the risks associated with working at development faces.” CIM November • Novembre 2018 | 37

Courtesy of Doris Hiam-Galvez

In-situ in sight Could in-situ mining replace traditional mining of certain metals? By Christopher Pollon

oris Hiam-Galvez, director of metals at Hatch, can envision a day when more mining is done without the need for haul trucks, waste rock or tailings storage. How? In-situ recovery (ISR), also known as insitu leaching, is a less invasive mining process that is routinely used for potash and uranium today, and could eventually be applied to some of the deep, hard rock ores hosting copper, gold and other minerals. As ISR technology and experience advance, so too does the prospect of more mining without the environmental and economic costs associated with big openpit mines.

CIM: What was the career path that led to your current position? Hiam-Galvez: I’m from Peru originally, and I completed a PhD in physical metallurgy in Belgium. I then went to the U.S. for my first job, where I worked developing new materials for the steel and automotive industries. I moved on to the aluminum industry as CTO for Novelis. I came to Canada and started working for Hatch as director of metals. I’ve been there for 12 years leading the expansion of the company around the world, in Australia, South America, and Europe. I started our ISR efforts while I was running Hatch Europe.

CIM: What is ISR and how is it different from openpit mining? Hiam-Galvez: Traditionally we mine by digging a big hole in the ground and separating the valuable minerals from the waste. With in-situ leaching, you are going where the mineralization is, you’re fragmenting the rock and trying to get the leaching solution to go into the mineralization and extract it as a leached solution. You don’t need to dig a big hole, but instead, dissolve the valuable minerals underground and 38 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

pump it to the surface. So it’s an alternative method to extract valuable minerals without physically mining the rock, something comparable to laparoscopic surgery where you don’t make a big wound or mess, just a tiny hole.

CIM: For which minerals is this recovery process currently applied? Hiam-Galvez: These technologies have been used for many years for potash and uranium because it is found in porous rock that is not very deep. ISR has also been used for shallow, highly fractured copper oxides, for example, at BHP Billiton’s San Manuel copper mine in Arizona. They produced copper for about five years.

CIM: What are the environmental benefits of this approach? Hiam-Galvez: When you do comminution, you have to bring everything up and out of the ground: the valuable mineralization of the rock and all the waste. Most of mining is just getting from a boulder to powder. With ISR, you take only what you need and you can then use smaller infrastructure above ground to finish, to recover the copper or valuable material. So you eliminate crushing, grinding and all the heavy equipment with minimal tailings and waste.

CIM: What are the future opportunities using this approach, and what are the challenges? Hiam-Galvez: ISR is not focused just on one mineral or metal, but copper is very abundant and the price is good, so there’s a lot of interest in applying it to copper right now. The big challenge is for ores hosted in unfractured rock deep underground, including copper sulfides, gold, and others. The challenge is that rock permeability and porosity have to be

mineral processing enhanced to expose the minerals to the leaching solution, and how you do it depends on the specific ore body characteristics and the mineralization.

CIM: So this is not a one-size-fits-all solution. How you do it will depend on the specific ore body. Hiam-Galvez: That’s correct. You have to develop an ISR process for each ore body to fit the physical characteristics. But there are flexibilities to its use, as well. For example, consider an open pit near the end of its life. It may not be economic to recover value from the walls of the existing infrastructure, but you can do ISR with minimal waste or tailings. So this can be applied to the walls of an existing mine. Also, if you already have an open pit and you are going underground, you are already deep down, so if you just go a little further underground, you can start with ISR. There are many different ways to apply this.

CIM: How do you prepare an unfractured ore body for ISR? Hiam-Galvez: You have to prepare the mineral to be liberated – the chemical solution needs to both access it and stay in contact for long enough to leach the valuable minerals. You need to drill some holes first, make some space to allow for rock expansion and permeability increase, and then break

down or fracture the rock. The most difficult questions are how much money do you want to spend in fracturing the rock and how much recovery are you willing to potentially lose? Those questions will be unique for each ore body, and a lot of tests have to be conducted in advance to determine the most economical solution.

CIM: So drilling and blasting are two separate steps in this process? Hiam-Galvez: Yes. There are many techniques in development, but from our experience, the most practical is directional drilling and confined blasting. Directional drilling was developed for the oil industry, so you can drill and go in any direction. Drilling gets you to the rock, but now you have to fragment it, and we have found that blasting works well and it is already commercially available. So to do this, you have to design how many holes you want to make, and how you are going to blast the rock.

CIM: What has the public response been to the insitu mining approach? Hiam-Galvez: Actually, the biggest obstacle right now is public perception that chemicals might leach out and appear somewhere else. We have technologies these days to monitor and provide proper containment of the solutions.

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November • Novembre 2018 | 39

CIM: Once the valuable minerals are liberated and brought to the surface, what happens then? Is there a lot of waste generated? Hiam-Galvez: The valuable metals are extracted using conventional technologies such as solvent extraction and electrowinning for copper or carbon columns for gold.

CIM: Tell me about the pilot test you just completed for ISR of copper sulfides in Poland. Hiam-Galvez: I’ve been overseeing a big strategic project with EU funding with 21 companies participating where we demonstrated bioleaching and ISR for copper sulfides for a KGHM mine in Poland. Our goal was to prove the concept of deep bioleaching of copper sulfide. It also involved the design and engineering of the pilot reactor to make it work. Hatch designed the reactor to work in a mine 1,000 metres deep. We

built it, operated it, trained the operators and ran it for months.

CIM: Does Canada have ore bodies that are amenable to ISR techniques in the future? Hiam-Galvez: We have a few potential ore bodies in Canada, and Hatch is well positioned to help clients take ISR technology from the laboratory to commercial scale and make it work. Our whole team is based in Canada!

CIM: In 20 years, where will we be with ISR? Hiam-Galvez: This approach is not for all ore bodies, but in 20 years I believe there will be commercial-scale applications in operation. Within five years, we’ll see ISR applications for copper oxides, which have more natural fractures, so it’s easier. Maybe even in the next two years. CIM

Tell us your story at

120.cim.org Group of miners at the Copper Cliff mine pit in Sudbury, 1933.

Our history in photos

40 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Intelligence 1S N9W

2019 April 28-May 1

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

DEADLINE: DECEMBER 14, 2018 CIM societies are joining forces to build the most innovative and relevant technical program by addressing industry priority topics.

INDUSTRY 4.0: AUTOMATION, DATA AND BEYOND Emerging trends and practices in the transformation to intelligent, connected mines

INDUSTRY NEEDS YOUR ABSTRACT. CONTRIBUTE TO ANY OF THESE 7 STREAMS:

For inspiration and details on all streams and sub-streams, visit convention.cim.org. Note: a selection of papers presented at CIM Convention 2019 will be available online through the cim.org Technical Paper Library.

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CIM celebrates

years

Canadian Miners in the First World War By Elle Crosby

hen Great Britain declared Indeed, life in the trenches is rather like a war with Germany in 1914, prospecting trip, having to do your own thousands of young Canadicooking and rustling for dry-wood, etc.; but ans left their families to fight overseas, of course one has to be on the qui vive for 125 of whom were CIM members. CIM snipers, and keep one’s head under cover. contributed to the effort by way of monetary and morale-boosting donations There were also the inevitable death (cigarettes, socks, etc.), but arguably its announcements in the Bulletin. The greatest contribution to its members on excerpt below is from a letter written by the front lines was the creation of a new Mr. L. Boultby Reynolds about the death section in the monthly Canadian Mining of George E. Revell: Institute Bulletin called “C.M.I. Members at the Front.” News of promotions, reloHe was knocked to pieces by a 12-inch cations, honours bestowed, injuries and shell … He and five others were hit and deaths of members fighting in the war buried in the earth … Out of the party of were enumerated in this new section, 18 in our section, eight were killed and which was read closely by members, three are missing. These are undoubtedly friends and family in Canada and overdead … If he had chosen his death, it seas. would have been as it was: in action on The section would publish the letters the field of battle amidst his comrades … sent in by members, all of which then- Lt.-Col. John J. Penhale organized the George had proven himself to be one of secretary H. Mortimer-Lamb responded Flanders Branch of CIM the best, working like a horse, cracking to. The correspondence staved off feeljokes under fire, always resourceful and ings of isolation the troops may have been experiencing and courageous. He died as some of the boys have not had the reminded them of the life they had waiting for them upon luck to do, painlessly and instantaneously. their return. Some soldiers used the opportunity to talk about their In the spring, the topic on most members’ minds was the experiences at war. Lt. G. Lewis Burland wrote in a letter pub- Annual General Meeting. Col. John J. Penhale wrote in a letter lished in the August 1917 Bulletin: “from somewhere in Belgium” that was published in the May 1915 Bulletin:

I have had a trying winter on Vimy Ridge, but, in general, I have been exceedingly fortunate, notwithstanding, mud, cold, lice, rats and “rum jars” – I name the horrors in order of merit … Should I be lucky enough to come through safely I shall never regret the opportunity I have had of working with our miners … the Canadians who had mined Hill 60 [at Messines] had every reason to be proud of their work … the Germans in the front lines have been given such a shaking that they imagine mines everywhere.

In a letter published in the June 1916 Bulletin, Wm. Pickles compares regular mining life with war life:

I have been hoping that each Canadian mail would bring me some news of the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mining Institute, but no such luck. Funny isn’t it, that one should think of such a thing at such a time … In fact I must confess to a sort of homesick feeling that week.

The following year, Col. Penhale took it upon himself to form a new CIM Branch located in Flanders, the site that would later become a memorial for soldiers lost in the First World War and the setting of Lt.-Col. John McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Fields.” The May 2016 Bulletin published November • Novembre 2018 | 43

I am sorry to say that the Germans received word of our intended spread, and at about five o’clock of the evening in question they started a little rumpus at one or two points in front of us that required the personal attention of Lt.-Col. Billy King, Capt. A. W. Davis, Lt. A. B. Ritchie and one or two others and they were “unavoidably detained” and so missed the dinner … We were deprived of the company of Brig.-Gen. R. G. Edwards Leckie, C.M.G. due to his having been wounded a few days before … Lt.-Col. R. Brutinel of the Motor Machine Gun Brigade gave a most interesting discourse on certain geological phenomena observed in the excavations made between the Swiss border and Nieuport, to the North. It will be a fine addition to the technical literature … “Drill Ye Tarriers” [the C.M.I. anthem] was rendered by Capt. Neil Macdonald … Many incidents and stories of the Sessions at home were told and for a few hours we lived, happily, in the past. The sad moment of the evening came when our minds were carried back in memory of the many splendid fellows who had given their lives in this frightful war, as we silently honoured the toast of “Absent Friends.”

Others in different locations had similar ideas. Maj. T. C. Irving joked in a letter in the July 2016 Bulletin: We see a lot of members of the C.M.I. now as the three Tunnelling Companies are all out here, and if Col. Penhale took it into his head to call another meeting in the vicinity of Ypres he would have no difficulty in getting a quorum on very short notice. The Flanders Branch Annual General Meeting printed menu

a humorous exchange between Mortimer-Lamb and Penhale about the Branch’s legitimacy: Mortimer-Lamb: … As section 54 of the By-laws provides that Branches cannot be established without the authorization of the Council, the Secretary was instructed to communicate immediately with Col. Penhale, call his attention to this regulation, and demand that he return to Canada forthwith to be disciplined … Penhale: My dear Lamb, … I will admit at once that the request that I return home in order to explain, appealed very strongly to me. I would gladly submit to any inquisition I could possibly be subjected to, if it came at the end of a journey Home … I am afraid you will have to accept the Flanders Branch as it stands, until such time as some of us are able to attend before the Council.

Col. Penhale and the other members of the “Flanders Branch” held their own Annual General Meeting that year, complete with a dinner, printed menu, guest speakers and discussion papers. 44 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

Many members were extremely grateful for the connection with home that the Bulletin afforded them. Lt. G. Lewis Burland wrote in a letter published in the August 1917 Bulletin: In particular I express gratitude for the way in which the C.M.I has looked after our comfort and kept us in touch with one another through the Bulletin … I also express appreciation of the fact that the profession has backed up the Canadian Army in every possible way … Permit me to wish that the après la guerre meeting of the C.M.I. will be the most successful in history.

By the time the fighting stopped in November 1918, 11 CIM members had died in battle, among the thousands of Canadians killed in action. Those members off in Europe who made it through the hostilities also enjoyed a little extra serendipity as they slowly made their way back home. Lt. W. F. Gowans wrote from St. Genois, Belgium, in the March 1919 Bulletin: The Division (3rd) has to be clear of France by February 7th. We shall have about four weeks in England, and then home to the land of the Maple. We are due to get there some time in March, so you had better provide a few extra chairs at the next Annual Meeting.” CIM

VIRTUAL FIBER

LICENSED BACKHAUL

HOW CAN COMPANIES CONNECT DISPARATE

The automation revolution has begun and data is ﬂowing. The next step in the march toward the INTELLIGENT MINE is to facilitate information sharing between systems. By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

ith automation initiatives well on their way, some major mining companies have embarked on the next step in the transformation of mining. “The intelligent mine” is a vision for an operation that can leverage new artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning algorithms that sift through all its automation and systems data to find patterns that identify opportunities for optimization, efficiencies, preventive maintenance, problem solving, safer and more environmentally sustainable operations, and more informed and strategic business decisions. It is a mine in which data from one piece of automated equipment or process is seamlessly analyzed against data from other automated systems upstream and downstream. In other words, it is a highly integrated and automated mine from pit to port and sensor to boardroom that is constantly learning from itself, adapting and improving. The path to the intelligent mine has not yet been paved and companies are only just beginning to figure out what it will look like, but there is some consensus. It will require data integration and breaking down the silos that have arisen from the rollout of a series of discrete technologies, which made each roll out manageable on its own, but does not establish a clear path to higher level integration. And all agree it is a path best travelled one step at a time with good partners.

The disconnect Automation has largely been introduced into mining operations one area at a time, whether it is haul trucks and drills with proprietary onboard systems at the mine site by various manufacturers or instrumentation and automated equipment at the processing plant. “The industry has a good degree of

automation, but it’s in silos,” said Fabio Mielli, market development manager for mining, cement and heavy industry at Rockwell Automation. “They have a lot of pockets of automation in such things as their fleet, material handling processing, rail systems and shipments but you don’t have the connection between the data. Many are still using Excel or other such tools to move information from one side to the other.” Others still have multiple legacy software applications and databases from the days when these were created as standalones. “It’s a major challenge when you have many different software systems,” said Mielli. “Collecting something from an automation system, even an older one, is still easier than when you have applications from different software from all kinds of vendors, maybe 15 or 20 years old. Then you have a major challenge because you have to simplify the infrastructure in order to collect the data.” This is an issue Anglo American has had to tackle in its plans to move toward full integration and intelligence. “We need to make sure that we have enough reliable sensors to be able to capture relevant data and integrate it with other legacy data systems. This part is the most challenging, because many of these systems were built separately, over time, and have different access methods,” said Arun Narayanan, Anglo American’s group head of data analytics. “The integration challenge is at the heart of our data analytics program. It makes sense to look at it iteratively to best determine how we can update and sustain the reliability of these data systems over time.” Anglo American is prepared to face the challenges to achieve integration because it has already experienced success with its data analytics program. For example, it has used advanced analytics in its marketing division to help change November • Novembre 2018 | 47

Courtesy of Metso

Last year, Metso partnered with Rockwell Automation to build an industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform and service that remotely connects, monitors and performs predictive and optimization analytics for its crushers and vibrating screens at the mining operations of its customers.

the way it was responding to certain commodity markets, said you are going to use more energy but that is coming from Narayanan. “Similarly, we’ve had measurable successes in dis- a different system.” covery and geosciences, in terms of better understanding our As well, the data cannot simply be from sensors and autoore bodies and predicting behaviour through our processing mated technology. “For example, say you’re operating a haul plants,” he said. “We will be truck 365 days a year,” said Carl using this in a live production Brackpool, product manager and Many of these systems were innovation lead at Hexagon Mining environment onsite by mid2019, and have other projects built separately, over time, and a research associate at the Colthat implement predictive mainorado School of Mines. “Predictive and have different access analytics would say let’s also take tenance workflows.” Now, the company sees, “a environmental data, how many peomethods ple operate the truck, when is payday, role for machine learning to help – A. Narayanan and the road conditions and it might us in mission-critical areas such as improving safety and sustainfind that there is an event pattern, say ability,” said Narayanan. “To a flat tire the day after payday on a achieve the full benefit, we need to look one step beyond indi- particular part of the road when it’s very windy. Then on such vidual value chain components to fully integrating the entire days, you just have to remind your operators to drive more value chain – albeit digitally. That is a promise that the future slowly when they hit that particular part of the road.” holds for us.” For this reason, Anglo American is implementing what is known as a data lake, which is essentially one gigantic pool of From information silos to data lakes every bit of data in the organization, including enterprise To fully realize the intelligent mine, artificial intelligence resource planning (ERP) data, environmental data, sale force needs to analyze data not merely within systems but also data, process control and automation data. The lake allows the between and across them. “It’s not just aggregating infor- company’s systems to access all available data as it needs it. mation, it’s also about making the connection and having information in context at the right time and how it relates Integrated analysis from one system to the other,” said Mielli. “Energy is one Only two years ago, hardware and software interoperability system and production is another system but they are – the ability of one system to communicate with another – related, for example. If you want to increase production, was a major obstacle as manufacturers fiercely guarded their 48 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

proprietary systems. Today an increasing number of suppliers to the industry, from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to ERP providers, are jumping on the interoperability and data analytics bandwagon. On the ERP side, SAP Industries has created a suite of offerings to help increase interconnectivity in a mine and data analytics. The SAP Digital Transformation Framework is built on a methodology around what the company describes as the “digital core,” which supports real-time transactions and analytics and connects the supply chain, customer experience, supplier collaboration and workforce engagement, said Peter Maier, the company’s co-president. The SAP S/4HANA platform provides real-time access to resource availability and project assignments, as well as real-time outlook into maintenance planning. SAP’s cloudbased Leonardo technology enables easier collection and visualization of data. “By bringing SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo technologies together as the digital core of a company, this creates a more flexible and intelligent mining enterprise,” said Maier. On the OEM side, Caterpillar’s MineStar suite of technologies is designed to integrate with business management and ERP systems, long-term, medium-term and short-term planning technologies as well as site operation controls and fleet equipment management. The company has also beaten interoperability issues in autonomous drilling with a bolt-on system it developed for ArcelorMittal’s Mont-Wright mine in Quebec that can be used on all drills, regardless of its manufacturer. Hexagon Mining, which provides information and automation technologies that connect people and processes across surveying, design, fleet management, production optimization and collision avoidance, has an “orchestration of layers that talk to all types of software that we own and we’ve even opened a number of those to our competitors’ data,” said Brackpool. The company is committed to the vision of collaboration and breaking down silos across providers and even industries to help build the intelligent mine of the future. “We don’t want to be the ones that are defensive and be highly proprietary where only our data can work with our systems,” said Brackpool. “We offer an application program interface (API) for someone else’s planning software to be injected into our underground software suite.” An API is a web-based set of requirements and rules that, if followed, open access to other systems or programs. APIs are what allow different applications and platforms to talk to each other. “I’m a real believer that APIs are a great fast-track solution for mining,” said Penny Stewart, Petra Data Science’s managing director. “There is a lot of great software out there that is working in silos but this is where APIs could enable them to integrate more efficiently.”

Integrating control systems As an organization specialized in industrial automation and data technology, Rockwell provides a combination of sensor and software products that can build a bridge between software systems, including ERP and control sysNovember • Novembre 2018 | 49

Courtesy of Mesto

Metso can collect vast amounts of data from a large amount of sensors within equipment enabled with its IoT platform at 1-second resolution or higher.

tems. “We are unique in this combination of control systems integration solutions as a strategy,” said Mielli. The company’s FactoryTalk Analytics platform gathers data from control systems, digesting the data in different formats and delivering it in a dashboard. “It’s a collection of different applications,” he said. “So you have data coming from the control systems, supervision and a historian, and this layer gets the data from all the subsystems, digests the data and delivers information in context.” Last year, Metso partnered with Rockwell Automation to build an industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform and service that remotely connects, monitors and performs predictive and optimization analytics for its crushers and vibrating screens at the mining operations of its customers. The goal is to increase uptime and reduce the need for servicing and maintenance crews onsite. Metso launched the platform in November. “There’s been a big push for autonomy on the mine site,” said Jani Puroranta, chief digital officer of Metso. “Now we are trying to do the same in the mineral processing plant. On the fixed plant side, autonomous can mean the machines can adjust to minor variations in the process as needed but also they break down much less. So there is less need for people on the ground. More is planned and prevented so you can plan things ahead of time.” The new platform uses Rockwell’s FactoryTalk Analytics. “The platform can handle data in many formats and normalize the data,” said Puroranta. “So Rockwell does that and turns it into integrated data.” 50 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

The connector Petra Data Science is an artificial intelligence company focused on the resource sector that has produced hundreds of machine learning algorithms to help mining companies integrate data and use it to optimize their processes. The most recent addition to Petra’s offering is MAXTA, the world’s first digital twin for mine value chain optimization. MAXTA integrates data from the geology of an ore body, tracks the ore, builds virtual stockpiles, and incorporates the drill and blast data into the model. The model is then analyzed on how it will perform, allowing it to predict everything from throughput to grade, recovery and even the grade of the tailings. The MAXTA algorithm was used recently to optimize processing at PanAust’s Ban Houayxai gold and silver operation in northern Laos by integrating two years’ worth of 3D geological data with plant data to create both backward reconciliation analysis and forward predictions. “The effort for integration has come down from what it was a few years ago,” said Stewart. “Yes, data integration from different systems can be solved. We have worked out how to integrate their data formats into our products, whether it is for MAXTA digital twin, or our machine learning process. There is an amount of work needed to integrate that data, but in my view it’s not a huge issue.” Stewart said she believes that full integration will be built organically, step by step, by integrating existing systems through collaboration and APIs. As a provider of the types of artificial intelligence solutions that are at the root of min-

ing companies’ aspirations for the intelligent mine, Stewart does not believe that integrating data today is much of a roadblock. “Some people have an idea that we need a universal platform that will go across the whole operation and play everywhere and be generic, but I think by the time you build that, it’s going to be out of date,” she said. Stewart provided two examples of how integration can grow organically. One is Petra’s collaboration with Resolutions Systems, whose flagship product, MaxMine, is a business improvement platform that receives data from load and haul equipment and identifies opportunities to optimize. “Through our collaboration, we’re enabling them to provide us with data from the mine and automatically link that to the processing plant,” she said. “That’s taking a mine production software and integrating it into the processing plant from the mine to the mill.” Petra is also collaborating with mine planning software companies such as Maptek. “These collaborations will enable the assumptions mine planning is built on, whether it’s shovel productivity assumptions or how the ore is going to behave in the plant, to be estimated based on hundreds of millions of tonnes of historical data,” she said. “So we are integrating data from the plant back to the mine planning process to get more accurate estimates and adding a layer of machine learning.”

One step at a time The journey toward the fully integrated intelligent mine has barely begun. Brackpool said he believes most mining companies should begin the journey by focusing on solving a problem. “Don’t buy a technology because it’s cool and create a problem to solve,” he said. “First of all, understand your problem and then apply the technology.” For many companies, the first problem may just be the need to lay down a basic foundation. For those with numerous legacy systems still working with paper and Excel spreadsheets, early steps could be streamlining their systems and increasing automation. “If you have a legacy IT structure with a lot of software applications and need to modernize the infrastructure, you don’t want to change everything at once,” said Mielli. “You have to do it step by step because you can’t stop production. You have to migrate the systems and modernize the infrastructure. You have to partner with someone. I believe in the power of partnership.” Meanwhile, companies such as Anglo American that are ahead of the game are laying down the next-level foundation upon which the intelligent fully integrated mine will possibly be built. “The process of mining is complex, requiring many different pieces of equipment, technologies and sciences,” said Narayanan. “With so many different complicated efforts, the chance for big data to make a big impact is great.” CIM

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November • Novembre 2018 | 51

A legacy project in

progress

The new facilities added as part of the AER project have made the Superstack at Copper Cliff obsolete. It will be demolished in the near future.

Courtesy of Vale

By Robert Hiltz

project profile

The completion of a $1-billion retrofit at Vale s Copper Cliff smelter begins a new era for the operation and spells the end of a local landmark oon the changes at the smelter complex will become visible to the people of Sudbury, Ont. as the iconic 380-metre Superstack is brought back down to earth. But no matter how the changes made as part of Vale’s Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction project may impact the Sudbury skyline, its effects on the air are more profound. With upgrades throughout the smelting process, Vale has been able to bring down sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 85 per cent, metal particulate emissions down by 40 per cent over the last decade, and once the superstack is decommissioned, carbon dioxide emissions will drop 40 per cent at the smelting complex. Over the 10-year span of the project, the company has built two new converters, overhauled the converter flues, built a wet gas cleaning plant, and constructed a new secondary baghouse and fan building. And through all of the upgrades, the Copper Cliff smelter stayed operational. Dave Stefanuto is Vale’s vice-president of Canadian projects including the Clean AER project – pronounced “air” – and he said one of the greatest challenges in doing all of this was keeping the Copper Cliff smelter complex, which produces 24,000 tonnes of copper and 80,000 tonnes of Bessemer matte each year, running through the project. “During this whole period, we continued to smelt and produce nickel, while we made changes to the smelter,” Stefanuto said. “It’s akin to doing open heart surgery on a long distance runner while he’s running his race.” It was not always easy, he said. SNC-Lavalin took on the engineering, procurement and construction management challenge for the project. “If you can imagine, the crews installing the new converter are working next to an operating converter,” Stefanuto said. “We have 180 crane movements of molten metal going up and down the aisle while the team is there trying to install, from the ground up, this new converter.” Despite these potential hazards, Stefanuto said that, on a million-person hour basis, the project finished its last year with a total recordable injury frequency of 2.36 for an overall TRIF of 8.88. This included a lost time injury frequency of zero. There were times when the upgrades could not be completed because the smelter was in operation, he said, so the Clean AER team had to schedule certain upgrades – like elec-

trical tie ins and the installation of the new flue systems – during regularly planned maintenance cycles. “We’ve made a really important point of integrating a very strong operational readiness team as part of the project team. So we can do that integrated planning between the two,” Stefanuto said. This was one of the key lessons Stefanuto said the Vale team learned through the process. “Bringing in that operational team so that they’re part of the project implementation, they’re engaged, they take ownership of it as well. So when we hand it over, they understand what they’re getting, and they’re ready to operate the assets,” he said. The upgrades were done in several phases. The company replaced its five conventional converters with two PierceSmith converters. This was, for Stefanuto, the big moment. The converters are about 14 metres long, and weigh nearly 100 tonnes and required much of the highway to be shut down as they were brought from Anmar Mechanical’s fabrication facility in Lively to the Copper Cliff smelter in September 2012. “That was kind of the first indication to people that something was going on. And it was something that we could show that change is coming,” Stefanuto said. After the converters were in, new primary and secondary hoods had to be installed. The new primary hoods are designed to better capture SO2 with a closer fit to the opening of the converter than previously. That gas is then directed to the wet gas cleaning plant where the gasses are scrubbed before the SO2 is sent off to Vale’s acid plant for conversion into sulfuric acid. The gasses not captured by the primary hood will be captured by the secondary hood, which Stefanuto describes as something similar to an aircraft hangar door closing in front of the converter. But more than just to catch the remaining SO2, the secondary hood is there to capture fine particulate metals that are often released during the converting process. That gas and particulate mixture captured by the secondary hood is sent off to the secondary bag house, where what can be best described as a giant industrial vacuum filters out the nickel particulate from the off gasses. What is left is air with a low-percentage of SO2, which is then sent out to the soon-to-be-decommissioned Superstack. November • Novembre 2018 | 53

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project profile To the moon and back Where before the project, about 150,000 tonnes of SO2 were released out the stack per year, now only 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes will be released. This 85 per cent reduction makes the superstack that defines the Sudbury skyline obsolete. In 2020 it will be decommissioned, and a new pair of smaller, 140-metre stacks will go online. The difference will not only be felt in the city. One of the biggest changes to air quality is actually inside the smelter. “Whatever SO2 remaining that could escape into the workplace … we try and capture that as best we can. We noticed not only that we’re capturing the primary gas but there has been a significant improvement to the workplace environment within our smelter,” Stefanuto said. “In the past the air used to be a bit hazy and now it’s clear, and certainly much better for our workforce.” When the Superstack was first built in the early 1970s, the smelter was emitting more than two million tonnes of SO2 per year. This volume of SO2 emissions, along with a heavier discharge of metal particulate, pumped out of a shorter smoke stack, had serious effects on the environment in the Sudbury region. When David Pearson first arrived in Sudbury to work at Laurentian University in 1969, he remembers having to run from his car to the classroom on days when the SO2 was particularly thick. “The fumes were very, very dense, and you really felt them in the back of your throat, like you were breathing from a bottle,” said Pearson, who is a professor at Laurentian’s Vale school of the environment. It was not just bad for the lungs, though. It had broader effects throughout the region. Smelting began in Copper Cliff in the late 1880s, soon after copper and nickel deposits were found in the region. Initially, the smelting process was done out in the open, with ore placed on top of stacks of cut timber several metres high, and then set alight, left to roast for months. Over the next 80 years, the process was industrialized, smokestacks were added, but the problem of SO2 emissions remained. “The problem was that the acidity of the gas when it was met by rain and fell on the land, acidified the groundwater, which dissolved metal from the metal particles and turned out to be toxic for the trees and shrubs,” he said. This acid rain and other pollution also blackened the pink rocks in the region. With greenery dying off, the soil became more fragile and with no roots to hold it in place, soon washed away. “We lost millions of tonnes of soil, which was washed downhill into lakes and that [...] took the topsoil where the nutrients would normally be in soil profile,” Pearson said. Opposite page, clockwise from top: (L to R) Laurentian University Vale school of the environment professor David Pearson, Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger, Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre and Vale Base Metals COO Ricus Grimbeek release a butterfly to celebrate the completion of the AER project in September; one of the two Pierce-Smith converters that replaced the five conventional converters at the smelter; the wet gas cleaning plant building; inside the wet gas cleaning plant

“What was left was not good ground for plants to grow in. So that’s when Sudbury became known as a moonscape.” (While astronauts did train in Sudbury for the Apollo moon missions, it was not because of this moon-like appearance. The astronauts went there to study, first-hand, geologic formations particular to meteor craters, like the shatter cones and breccia found around the Sudbury basin, itself a longago impact site.) At the time, the best answer to deal with all of this SO2 was to disperse it over a larger area. How? Make a really big smokestack. And so in 1972 the superstack, towering above the landscape, went online. Since it was erected, Vale has steadily decreased the amount of sulfur released by the smelter into the atmosphere. According to the company, only one per cent of the volume of SO2 released when the stack was first built is now emitted. The volume is so low they are forced to burn natural gas at the bottom to keep the gasses hot enough to make it to the top of the stack without condensing into sulfuric acid. The two shorter stacks have been designed to handle the far lower concentration, 25,000 or so tonnes per year, of SO2 gas, and will require signficantly less natural gas to operate. By turning off the Superstack natural gas burners, Vale will be able to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by some 40 per cent all at once. After that, the steel liner will be removed from the Superstack and the concrete shell will be prepared for dismantling in the coming years. Plans to decommission and dismantle the Superstack are “a symbol of how far we’ve come as a company and community as well, in terms of reducing our impact on the environment. So we’re looking at it as a positive thing,” Stefanuto said. The community has come a long way, there is no question, but there may still be further to go. Where once Pearson could pick up pellets of re-solidified metal particulates from the soil with a magnet, now the landscape has been regreened. That the city is no longer referred to as a “moonscape” and people are able to look outside and see the leaves change with the season is a testament to the improvements at Copper Cliff and in the industry as a whole. But things are still fragile. No one yet knows whether the regreening will last more than a few generations, because it has never been done before, Pearson said. “This is not a natural landscape or an old landscape, it’s a new landscape that may be vulnerable to stresses that an old landscape with more mature soil might be able to withstand.” With the Clean AER project, Vale has taken another positive step for helping the landscape thrive by lowering the risks of further damage. But it is too soon to say things have turned the corner permanently, he said. “We can talk about recovery in a hundred years, what we’re talking about now is the first step – maybe the beginning of the second step – but you and I will be long gone by the time somebody is going to be able to say the Sudbury landscape has recovered,” Pearson said. CIM November • Novembre 2018 | 55

Mine security in the digital age With more mines being connected, how are they being protected? By Ian Ewing

hat’s the worst thing that hackers could do to a mining company? It is a question that Cherie Burgett asks herself a lot. As the operations director of the Mining and Metals Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MM-ISAC), Burgett sees the threats every day. “Right now I see general malware. Cryptominers” – programs that hijack computer resources to mine cryptocurrencies without permission – “are huge this year. Ransomware, which holds a company’s data hostage until a ransom is paid, is actually still pretty big as well,” Burgett told CIM Magazine. Most of these threats are mass market, common to any company in any industry, though no less problematic for their ubiquity. But those are not the ones she loses sleep over. “The ones that we’re highly aware of are some of the nation-state activities against industrial control systems,” she said. Think Stuxnet, the highly sophisticated worm, uncovered in 2010, that destroyed Iranian centrifuges by targeting the SCADA systems controlling them. While neither mining nor Canada seem to be particular targets yet, the risk of similar attacks by ill-intentioned trespassers exists. “It is something that they’re practising,” said Burgett. 56 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

cybersecurity A shared defense against the dark web Conceived in March 2017 at PDAC and incorporated in January this year, MM-ISAC is an industry-owned non-profit group with a mandate to share cybersecurity threat information and conduct security research on behalf of its members. The collaboration helps put the 10 current members on more even footing with hackers, who share and sell tools and knowledge of vulnerabilities freely amongst themselves on the dark web. “Members get oversight,” said Burgett, “and they can stop attacks before they even start.” In one incident, a member company identified cryptomining malware on its network. Within hours of sharing the data with MM-ISAC, another member found and halted its own previously unrecognized infection at just a single computer. “These hackers are casting a big net, and sometimes they’re not focusing just on one company,” said Luis Canepari, VP Technology at Goldcorp, a member of MMISAC. “The more information that we can share across the industry and facilitate to our peers, [the better] we can prevent something happening. If somebody has been hacked, everybody else can benefit from early remediation.” The breaches in mining to date – the public ones, at least – may seem fairly innocuous compared to other news-making cybersecurity failures. In 2015, Detour Gold admitted that a server had been hacked, apparently in a politically motivated attack by a Russian group. In 2016, hackers attempted to extort Goldcorp, a wake-up call that led the company to triple its cybersecurity budget and prompted the conversations that led to the formation of the MMISAC. In each case, potentially sensitive corporate and employee data was accessed and released online. While the incidents were not catastrophic for either company, cyber threats to businesses continue to evolve and expand as do regulations around data protection. This November, new provisions in Canada’s personal information security legislation came into effect. These provisions open companies up to fines if they do not document and report any data breaches, not only to the affected individuals but also to Canada’s Privacy Commissioner. These rules are in line with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) enacted earlier this year.

A new operating expense The reality is that cybersecurity is now a fundamental cost of doing business and ignoring it is even costlier. “In the last 12 months, there was $250 billion earned by the bad guys,” according to Greg Davison, Canadian area vice-president of FireEye, a cybersecurity firm that works with several miners, including Goldcorp. “That’s money the good guys are losing. And that’s just the financial side. That’s not necessarily including the reputational risk or the operational.” “It’s one thing to lose data,” said Canepari, “but once you start losing production because critical systems are being compromised, that’s a direct hit to your revenue. I think that is the biggest risk in the future.”

As with critical infrastructure and utilities, breaches of operational technology (OT) systems can have other consequences: lives are literally at risk when industrial machinery malfunctions. In a 2014 incident (overshadowed at the time by the headline-grabbing Sony hacks), attackers disrupted a German steel mill’s control systems, causing an unregulated shutdown of a blast furnace and “massive” system damage, though fortunately no injuries.

Playing catch-up In spite of the growing threat, a 2017 Ernst & Young Global Information Security Survey found that 48 per cent of energy and resources respondents believed it was unlikely their organization could detect a sophisticated cyberattack, let alone prevent it. “They’re playing catch-up,” stated Michael Rundus, a partner at Ernst & Young, and the consultancy’s mining cyber leader. “Four or five years ago, oil and gas companies started to take operational technology cybersecurity quite seriously. It has probably only been in the last two or three years that the global miners have made a differential investment into OT security, and the rest of the industry is really only 12 to 18 months into their own journey.” For many companies, catching up may mean starting over. “In the early days, cybersecurity was having a firewall and an anti-virus standard,” said Davison. “It takes much more than that today.” As more systems and equipment become centrally controllable and automated, or simply generate and share realtime operational data, OT networks have become ever more intertwined with corporate IT networks. Where there used to be literal air gaps between the two, there are now frequently multiple links, and therefore multiple vulnerabilities. “With the Internet of Things (IOT), we have hundreds of thousands of sensors on our mills, trucks and shovels, and all kinds of equipment being connected to our network,” said Goldcorp’s Canepari. “These are now devices that are also vulnerable to cyberattacks.” “There’s always a firewall in place, and rules and so on, but you typically have very immature patching management and password protocols in place on some of those OT systems,” Rundus explained. Air-gapping in an ever more connected world is obviously unrealistic. Instead, mitigating the risk comes down to testing your vulnerabilities. Goldcorp does a vulnerability test every quarter, said Canepari, and does targeted ethical hacking – penetration testing – at least once a year. Rundus agreed that is an important best practice. “It helps them understand that if people can compromise the corporate network, more than likely they can hop over into the OT network, or vice versa,” he said. “We’re only at the forefront of attacks on the OT systems. It’s early days,” he added. “If they get compromised, there could be serious safety, operational and commercial consequences for that.” November • Novembre 2018 | 57

Protect your crown jewels According to Davison, step one is to define the very specific threat profile for your company. “Too many companies don’t understand what their real crown jewels are, and they haven’t done the due diligence in prioritizing efforts to protect them,” he said. Ernst & Young has worked with mining companies to identify their biggest assets, including information, systems and technology, and physical assets, said Rundus. “And then you have to identify plausible scenarios that management could say, ‘That could actually happen.’” The result? “Companies that thought they were advanced still had material vulnerabilities,” said Rundus. To Davison, it is not a matter of if, but when. “It’s almost impossible to prevent everything,” he said. “I’d be spending my money as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) on effective detection and remediation.” “Of the companies we are working with, probably 20 per cent have a long term plan,” he added. “These 20 per cent are thinking strategically, understand where they’re at today, where their unique vulnerability is, and for every incremental dollar they spend, it’s buying down the highest risk.” Getting the best bang for your buck need not be complicated. Of the 612 investigations FireEye undertook in the last 12 months, Davison said, 91 per cent of breaches originated

with phishing or spearphishing attacks. “Everybody’s different, but sometimes that incremental spend to reduce the most amount of risk is just to invest in email [security].” Another simple – and often free – way to decrease risk, he added, is to implement multi-factor authentication wherever possible. “We do a lot of cybersecurity awareness,” said Canepari, “trying to phish our own users. That has actually been very successful in reducing the amount of people who click on those phishing attempts.” Joining information sharing groups like MM-ISAC can be another inexpensive tool. For a $25,000 annual investment, Burgett said, “members have gotten tremendous value in a short amount of time.” “Statistically, today we see one per cent of IT spend on cybersecurity,” said Davison. “I would say the best-of-breed companies that are going at the problem the right way are typically spending six to 10 per cent of their IT budget on cybersecurity.” Needs and abilities vary, but Goldcorp, smarting from the 2016 breach, now spends 15 to 20 per cent of their IT budget on cybersecurity, according to Canepari. “You’re never done,” said Davison. “The adversaries are always going to get better. But for every dollar you spend and every time allotment of your human capital, you want to be reducing your risk to the greatest extent.” CIM

JUNE 11-13, 2019 C A L G A R Y, C A N A D A NORTH AMERICA’S LEADING ENERGY EVENT

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT GPS IN NUMBERS

1,000+ Exhibiting Companies

600+ Conference Delegates

100+ Expert Speakers

NOCs

IOCs

460,000+ Gross sq ft

50,000+ Attendees

GLOBALPETROLEUMSHOW.COM 58 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

60+ Technical Sessions

115+ Countries Represented

51st ANNUAL

CANADIAN MINERAL PROCESSORS CONFERENCE We are pleased to invite you and your colleagues to attend the 51st Annual Conference of the Canadian Mineral Processors (CMP). The CMP conference has provided a forum for discussing best practices and the latest improvements in mineral processing technology. More than 600 delegates attended last year’s conference and profited from the outstanding opportunities in networking, knowledge sharing and personal development the CMP conference consistently offers. The technical program is the heart and soul of the conference. This year, there will be close to 40 technical papers presented by fellow mill operators and mineral processing professionals, and one panel discussion on comminution. In addition to discussions on Canadian milling practices, international speakers will weigh in on the mineral processing challenges they encounter abroad. Students are invited to participate in this year’s mentorship program and the student poster session. We look forward to you joining us in the capital this January for this very special 51st anniversary of the conference.

MINÉRALURGISTES DU CANADA Nous sommes heureux de vous inviter à participer à la 51e Conférence annuelle des Minérallurgistes du Canada. La conférence a mis en place un forum pour discuter des meilleures pratiques ainsi que des dernières avancées en matière de technologie de traitement des minéraux. Plus de 600 délégués ont participé à la conférence l’année dernière et ont pu profiter d’opportunités de réseautage, de partage de connaissances et de développement personnel. Le programme technique est au cœur de l’événement avec près de 40 articles techniques présentés par des collègues opérateurs d’usines et des professionnels en traitement du minerai ainsi qu’une table ronde sur la comminution. En plus des discussions portant sur les pratiques d’usinage canadiennes, les conférenciers internationaux donneront leurs avis sur les défis relatifs au traitement des minéraux auxquels ils ont fait face à l’étranger. En espérant vous voir en grand nombre dans la capitale canadienne en janvier prochain afin de célébrer avec nous cet événement très spécial. L'exécutif de la Société canadienne du traitement des minerais

The CMP Executive

JANUARY 22

51e CONFÉRENCE ANNUELLE DES

TO AU

60 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 7

24 JANVIER 2019 | WESTIN HOTEL | OTTAWA, CANADA

All photos © Canadian Mineral Processors 2018

GENERAL INFORMATION | RENSEIGNEMENTS GÉNÉRAUX

ACCOMMODATIONS | HÉBERGEMENT

Held in Ottawa at the Westin Hotel on January 22-24, 2019, the conference will feature presentations on various aspects of mineral processing including comminution, flotation, gold and iron ore processing, mineralogy, mill optimization, and process control.

A special rate of $217 (standard/premium) and $267 (deluxe) which includes complimentary internet has been negotiated at the Westin Hotel (reference the Canadian Mineral Processors Conference). The Westin Hotel will only guarantee these rooms until January 7, 2019, so book early to avoid disappointment.

La conférence se tiendra à l’Hôtel Westin à Ottawa du 22 au 24 janvier 2019. Elle comprendra des présentations traitant de divers aspects minéralurgiques tels que la comminution, la flottation, le traitement de l’or et du fer, la minéralogie, l’optimisation des usines de traitement, le contrôle de procédés.

Un nombre limité de chambres incluant l’accès internet a été négocié avec l’Hôtel Westin à un tarif spécial de 217$ (traditionnelle/premium) et 267$ (de luxe). Veuillez noter que les chambres sont retenues à notre intention jusqu’au 7 janvier 2019. Veuillez réserver votre chambre le plus tôt possible afin d’éviter tout inconvénient.

SHORT COURSES | COURS ABRÉGÉS COURSE / COURS

PRESENTERS / PRÉSENTATEURS

COST / COÛT

Attendance is limited, please register early! La participation est limitée, s’il vous plaît, inscrivez-vous tôt! JANUARY 20 JANVIER MineSite Mineralogy – A Workshop The Integration of Automated Mineralogy into The Mineral Processing Plant - How close to realtime Mineralogy can we realize towards Optimization and Control?

Chris Hamilton and Geoff Lame

$400

Process Control Optimization – A necessity for performing assets!

Michel Ruel, Marc Tardiff, Derek Blais, Elizabeth Renaud, BBA

$400

Dense Media Separation and Pre Concentration

Ryan Cunningham (DRA), Mark Cresswell (DRA) and Erin Legault (SGS)

$400

Operating SAG Circuit

Alex Doll, SAG Milling

Bulk Solids Handling: How to Avoid Being a Statistic!

Tracy Holmes (Jeneke and Johanson) Ian Landry (Hatch)

$400

Tailing Preparation, Tranport and Deposition

Rachel Jenon, Matt Treinen (Paterson and Cooke) and Jack Calcwell (Roberson GeoConsultants)

$400

Assessing Sensor-Based Sorting for Greenfield and Brownfield Projects

Dr. Bern Klein, Dr. Andrew Bamber, Arvin Mazhary (UBC)

$400

Water Management and Treatment – Risks and Best Practices

David Kratochvil (BQE Water), Franco Oboni (Riskope Associates), + one more (tailings specialist TBC)

$400

Practical Geometallurgy Short Course for Mineral Processors

Dr. Jussi Liipo, Dr. Antti Remes (Outotec)

$400

Operating SAG Circuit

———

$800 (2 days/2 jours)

JANUARY 21 JANVIER

$800 (2 days/2 jours)

All costs include lunch, coffee breaks and course materials. Tous les coûts comprennent le dîner, les pauses-café et le matériel de cours. November • Novembre 2018 | 61

TECHNICAL PROGRAM | PROGRAMME TECHNIQUE WEDNESDAY JANUARY 23 | MERCREDI 23 JANVIER

TUESDAY JANUARY 22 | MARDI 22 JANVIER 8:30

OPENING REMARKS | JOHNNA MUINONEN, STÉFANIE VO

PLENARY PRESENTATION 8:45

PROCESS PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY 8:30

WHEN EVERY MINUTE COUNTS: CASE REVIEW- RELIABILITY ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES USED TO IMPROVE SHUTDOWN TIME FOR MULTIPLE GYRATORY CRUSHERS AND MILL RELINE | EDWIN GUTIERREZ, METSO

8:55

INCREASING ZINC SELECTIVITY AT HUDBAY MINERALS’ FLIN FLON OPERATION | JIN QUI, HUDBAY MINERALS

9:20

IMPROVING CONCENTRATE LOADOUT AVAILABILITY WITH SPECIALISED CONTAINERS AND AN UPGRADED FILTER PRESS AT NUNAVICK NI CONCENTRATOR | CAMERON FARSANGI, CANADIAN ROYALTIES INC

HOW FAILED ATTEMPTS CAN BLOCK INNOVATION [ BREAK ]

FLOTATION IMPLEMENTATION OF RAPID ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR 10:25 FLOTATION CONTROL AT EAGLE MINE | HUGO STATON, EAGLE

[ BREAK ]

MINE; ERFAN SHAFIRI, OUTOTEC

ENHANCEMENT OF MINERALOGICAL ASSESSMENTS THROUGH 10:50 MASS RECONCILIATION FOR FLOTATION IMPROVEMENT | PATRICK LAFLAMME, COREM; DARREN NATHAN, RAGLAN

START-UP AND COMMISSIONNING OF THE GRAVITY CIRCUIT 11:15 AT THE ATLANTIC GOLD MOOSE RIVER PROJECT | ROBIN NEALE, SEPRO MINERALS; C. HUDSON, ATLANTIC GOLD CORPORATION

10:15

DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS FOR COARSE GRAVITY CONCENTRATION AND THEIR BENEFITS | BEN ADASZYNSKI, GEKKO

10:40

IMPLEMENTATION OF APC AT FREEPORT-MCMORAN’S (FMI) MORENCI METCALF CONCENTRATOR | ARI SUPOMO FREEPORT-MCMORANS

11:05

OPTIMIZING THE OPERATION OF PASTE THICKENING AT YARA SIILINJÄRVI PLANT | MIKA KOSONEN, OUTOTEC [ CMP ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND LUNCHEON ]

IMPROVING FLOTATION CIRCUIT PERFORMANCE WITH A 11:40 LARGE MECHANICAL FLOTATION CELL | MICHAEL SUE,

FLOWSHEET, OPERATIONS AND START-UP

OUTOTEC

13:00

DEVELOPMENT OF A FLOWSHEET INCORPORATING CYANIDATION, CIP, CCD AND THE SART PROCESS TO TREAT FLOTATION TAILINGS FROM A MEXICAN COPPER MINE | CHRIS FLEMING, SGS

13:25

SAMPLING AT AUSTRALIAN MINE SITES | JIMMY ZHANG, CONCEP

13:50

BENEFICATION OF SPODUMENE ORE FOR USE IN GLASSMAKING AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES | MIKA MUINONEN, XPS

[ NETWORKING LUNCHEON ]

GOLD PROCESSING OPERATION OF THE EL VALLE GOLD /SILVER/COPPER 13:35 PLANT | AGUSTIN MORAN MARTINEZ, OROVALLE MINERALS

14:00

AN EVALUATION OF ORGANIC ADDITIVES FOR PREG-ROBBING MITIGATION | ANCA NACU, KETMETCO

14:15

SUCCESSFUL MINE FEED ORE-SORTING PLANT AT STORNOWAY RENARD DIAMOND MINE, QUEBEC, CANADA | IAN HOLL, STORNOWAY; VLAD FELMAN, DRA

FINANCIAL RISK ANALYSIS OF A CARBON FINES CAPTURE 14:25 METHODOLOGY | ZIAD YAMAK, GOLDCORP

15:10

[ BREAK ]

MAXIMIZE OPPORTUNITIES IN MILLING OPERATIONS | KIM KIEDOCK, KK CONSULTING

BLOOM LAKE : FLOWSHEET IMPROVEMENT AND RECOMMISSIONNING | FRANCOIS LAVOIE, QUEBEC IRON ORE;