Ontario Mining Association

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The Canadian Mineral Industry Federation (CMIF) presented its strengths and concerns to governments today at the 71st Energy and Mines Ministers Conference in Sudbury. The Ontario Mining Association is a participant in CMIF, whose members represent the majority of companies engaged in mineral exploration, mining and processing in Canada.

At this gathering of the nation’s mining industry leaders and politicians, CMIF reminded the high-profile audience that the mineral sector contributed $53.6 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2013, employed 388,000 Canadians in mineral extraction, processing and manufacturing and has paid $71 billion in taxes over the past decade.

“As one of the only private sector actors that invests to such a large extent in remote and northern areas, the mineral industry is a logical partner to promote economic growth,” said the brief titled Searching for the Silver Lining. “Strategic investments in infrastructure would help unlock the resource potential of these regions, facilitating grassroots exploration and enhancing the economic viability of a host mining projects.”

“Because mining is primarily a provincial responsibility legislatively, it is important for representatives from national, provincial and territorial industry groups to share their successes and their hurdles,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson.

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This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The world’s largest underground salt mine has been discovered by Canada’s largest daily circulation newspaper. The Toronto Star’s edition on Saturday, August 16, 2014 featured the Sifto Salt mine in Goderich with a two-page spread starting on the front of the Weekend Life section. Sifto Salt is a member of the Ontario Mining Association.

Toronto Star reporter and restaurant critic – who better equipped to write about salt? — Amy Pataki, traveled to the shores of Lake Huron at the mouth of the Maitland River and visited the mine, which is owned by Compass Minerals. Photographer Richard Lautens accompanied her on her recent underground expedition.

The mine has been operating since 1959 and it produces 6.3 million tonnes of salt annually. Most of the output from the 600-plus employees at Sifto is rock salt used for road safety. However, the company’s nearby evaporator plant turns out about 95,000 tonnes of food grade salt annually. This high-purity product is used as table salt – yes you do shake it on your fries – salt licks for farm animals and in water softeners.

Congratulations to Sifto for this extensive article and photography display and to the Toronto Star for reminding us that we cannot live without this valuable commodity.

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This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Congratulations to the team of mine rescue volunteers from Vale Canada’s East Mines in capturing the gold hardhats, which were presented to the overall winners of the 64th annual Provincial Mine Rescue Competition. The event was held in Timmins earlier this month at the Goldcorp’s Dome Mine.

Seven teams, which won their regional competitions qualified for the finals. They were evaluated on their firefighting skills, first aid response, use of emergency equipment and decision making under the stress of a simulated emergency underground situation. The 2014 gold hardhat winners from Vale Canada in Sudbury included captain Lorne Plouffe, Will Davies, Justin Whitmore, Jonathan Hamilton, Fred Pelletier, Aime Gagnon, Jean Yves Doiron, Perry Simon and Mike Johnson.

The overall runner up was Compass Minerals Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich. Along with Vale East Mines and Sifto, other mines involved in the provincial competition included Goldcorp’s Red Lake Mine #2, Richmont Mines Island Gold Mine, Kidd Operations, a Glencore Company, St Andrew Goldfields and Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, a Glencore Company.

Denis Prevost from First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine earned the award for top technician and Jeff Sowerby, a mine rescue volunteer from Sifto, was honoured for 30 years of service to Ontario Mine Rescue. While Vale Canada East Mines also captured the team first aid award, St Andrew goldfields earned the team firefighting honour and Richmont Mines Island Gold Mine gained the team special equipment award.

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This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Commodity expert Patricia Mohr told miners that global economic forces indicate improvement in markets for Ontario minerals. Ms Mohr, Scotiabank Vice President of Economics and Commodity Market Specialist, was the featured speaker at an OMA board of directors meeting held earlier this month. Her address was titled “Price Outlook for Base and Precious Metals 2014 – 2015.”

“Prices for base metals appear to be bottoming,” said Ms Mohr. “There are reasonable hopes for a rebound in the next two years.” Ms Mohr developed the Scotiabank Commodity Price Index, which was the first yardstick designed to measure price trends for Canadian commodities in export markets. It was introduced in 1987. The index is weighted approximately 40% for oil and gas, 30% for minerals, 15% for forest products and 15% for agriculture products.

“We think the U.S. economy is on the cusp of a stronger recovery based on the most recent job number reports, lower consumer debt and improving mortgage affordability,” she added. “However, China still gets the gold medal among countries for economic growth.”

Although China’s growth rate is slowing a bit from the hectic pace of 7.7% in 2013 and 2012, it is still predicted to be more than 7% in 2014 and throughout the balance of the decade. China is consuming key metals at four times the pace of the U.S.

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This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

For the second year in a row, an Ontario Mining Association member company has earned the John T. Ryan National Safety Trophy for metal mines symbolizing the highest standards of mine safety across Canada. Barrick Hemlo’s Williams gold mine, near Marathon, shares the honours with Cameco’s McArthur River uranium mine in Saskatchewan. Both operations had reportable injury rates of zero for the 2013 calendar year.

The previous year, Glencore’s Kidd Operations captured the honours as the safest metal mine in the country. That marked the eleventh time, the Timmins copper-zinc operation gained this national award.

“Safety performance in mining for 2013 was outstanding,” said Gord Winkel, Chairman of the John T. Ryan Safety Trophies Committee. “This year, we are pleased to announce a tie for best performance in the national metal mining category, along with a three-way tie in our national select mine category. These mining operations are joined by another company in the national coal mine category for a total of six award winners in 2013.”

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This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

More than 80 practitioners convened yesterday to tackle and make progress in dealing with the mining industry’s main human resource issues. The Canadian Human Resource Mining Leadership and Professionals Conference was held at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto. Joining industry leaders and expert panelists in the seminars were students from the Schulich Global Mining Management MBA program.

“This symposium was held for mining sector human resource leaders and professionals to share ideas and work on solutions to workforce specific issues in the mineral sector,” said conference organizer Geoff Ramey, Vice President Human Resources & Business Technology Solutions for St Andrew Goldfields. The event combined the use of keynote speakers, expert exchanges, roundtable discussions, comedy and networking to work on important topics.

Key issues examined included retention of vital personnel, leadership gaps, cost containment, career promotion, workforce planning and competing cultures in joint ventures and merger and acquisition transactions. Other topics involved diversity of the workforce, change management, attracting skilled workers, knowledge transfer and the expectations of the next generation of mining industry employees.

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