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Ramp-Up: A Study on the Status of Women in Canada’s Mining and Exploration Sector – Executive Summary

Women in Mining (WIM) Canada is a non-profit, industry-led group tasked with advancing the interests of women in the metals and minerals sectors. WIM Canada seeks to provide Employers, Employees, and Educators with tools and resources to break down barriers to employment, improve advancement opportunities, and ultimately increase the representation of Women in leadership positions. www.wimcanada.org

Executive Summary

Canadian women in mining and exploration represent a highly-skilled talent pool in a range of occupations, from CEOs, engineers, and geologists, to heavy equipment operators, and related industry workers. Recognizing the value of this resource to the sector, and concerned about women’s under-representation and underemployment, Women in Mining (WIM) Canada initiated the Ramp-UP study. Its purpose is to gather data on the issue and establish a baseline for measuring improvements.

The study gathered baseline statistical data on the representation of women as well as the perspectives of four key stakeholders, Female Employees, Employers, Female Students, and Educators on issues such as:

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Deals Underscore Chinese Interest in Canada’s Mineral Riches – by Marilyn Scales

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Not so long ago, say 10 years, the Chinese were thought of as a poor, insular nation, mysterious and of a peculiar political stripe. Now we must lay aside those notions and recognize that China is an economic powerhouse. Whatever remains of “communism” in that country is proving to have very capitalistic talents. Hence, the many foreign investments made in the last two years while the rest of the world suffered economic meltdown.

Here are a few of the investments made by Chinese investors outside that country in the past two years:   
 
-Aluminum Corp. of China (Chinalco) attempted to invest US$19.5 billion in Rio Tinto
-China Minmetals made a A$2.6 billion bid for Australian miner Oz MineralsChina Mining United Fund bought into Canadian juniors including

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Interview with Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard About Sudbury Vale Inco Strike – by Heidi Ulrichsen

Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper. www.northernlife.ca

In Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard’s opinion, every time his union or Vale Inco publicly criticizes the other, the further they get from ending the labour dispute between the two parties.

Steelworkers Local 6500 members were “insulted” when Vale Inco CEO Tito Martins recently published a letter on a company website, accusing the union of using racism and xenophobia to further its position, Gerard said.

For his part, Gerard admits he “blew his lid” when speaking about the letter at a recent Steelworkers’ rally.

“Neither one of us are going to resolve this by rhetoric,” he said.

“Each time we get each other ticked off, we’re only further from the settlement.”

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The Northern Miner 2009 “Mining Persons of the Year” Osisko Mining’s Sean Roosen, John Burzynski and Robert Wares – by TNM Editorial

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

The Northern Miner’s Mining Persons of the Year for 2009 are Osisko Mining’s president and CEO Sean Roosen, vice-president of corporate development John Burzynski, and executive vice-president and chief operating officer Robert Wares.

These three are most responsible for taking Osisko in five short years from just another junior with ho-hum assets trading at 13¢ to a polished, $2.8-billion company on the verge of opening a large, long-life gold mine in one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions.

Osisko’s flagship is its Canadian Malartic project in the town of Malartic, some 20 km west of Val d’Or, Que., where in-pit resources now exceed 10 million oz. gold.

Over those five years, Osisko’s management, led by Roosen, Burzynski and Wares, has time and again showed its ability to seize opportunities and solve problems with creativity, spirit and aplomb — and turning many early shareholders into millionaires along the way.

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Mining Gains Economic Boost From 2010 Ontario Provincial Budget

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 provincial budget delivered by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan yesterday in the Legislature has made the future of mining in Ontario significantly brighter. The budget not only boosts the prospects of existing mineral producing operations but it reduces economic resistance to new developments.

“The budget begins to chart a course to a stronger economic future for the people of Ontario,” said Mr. Duncan. Several measures in the budget, which support statements in the Throne Speech of March 8, indicate that course will go through Northern Ontario and involve mineral production as a cornerstone.

The $450 million Northern Industrial Electricity Rate Program (NIERP), the $45 million new project based skills training program for Aboriginals and Northern Ontario residents, the appointment of a Ring of Fire Co-ordinator and the $1.2 billion in infrastructure development to strengthen Northern communities all represent positive commitments for the mineral sector.

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Former Premier Peterson’s Northern Ontario Vision Beats Current McGuinty Policies – by David Robinson

Dr. David Robinson drobinson@laurentian.ca is an economist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. His column was originally published in Northern Ontario Business.

The year 1990 was the high point in development planning for the North. The most dramatic and successful initiatives came from a southerner, David Peterson.

Peterson was elected in 1985. He immediately created a new Ministry of Northern Affairs and Mines. He appointed himself minister and went to work. He moved the Ministry of Northern Development and the Ontario Geological Survey to the North. This was the most effective single development decision of the last 30 years. Then the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Act was passed in 1990. And that was the year the voters threw Peterson out. Not much has happened since.

Leonard Cohen must have been thinking of this wild affair when he sang:

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Canadian Mining Sector Partnerships with Aboriginals Create Enormous Benefits – by Marilyn Scales

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

A new wave of co-operation between Aboriginal peoples and the mineral industry can be felt across Canada. It is evidenced by the growing number of impact and benefit agreements that are created every month. Gone are most of the adversarial relationships between mining and Aboriginals in favour of participation and sharing.

Time was, 35 years ago when I first took an interest in the Canadian mining scene, that the words “land claim” could strike fear into the heart of any mine builder. As long as a specific claim was not settled, the land under discussion was essentially off-limits for exploration and development.

Today’s impact and benefits agreements provide cultural, educational, training and employment opportunities for the descendents of Canada’s original inhabitants. Explorers and developers spend millions to provide these opportunities. The native population has taken up the challenge by becoming trusted employees and owners of their own businesses that serve the mineral industry.

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Meet the Miners at the Ontario Legislature Celebrates Industry Contributions

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 contributions of Ontario’s mining sector to society and the economy were celebrated yesterday at Queen’s Park by politicians of all stripes and industry officials at the Ontario Mining Association’s Meet the Miners event.  The industry can’t take the legislature to the mines but it can take the mines to the legislature at least one day a year.   Meet the Miners is an OMA initiative at Queen’s Park involving member companies and their employees, which helps shine the spotlight on the industry in government circles. 

At an evening reception, OMA Chairman and President of mining contractor JS Redpath George Flumerfelt welcomed guests and encouraged them to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the OMA, which has been representing mineral producers in the province since 1920.  He noted that the importance of mining to the future prosperity of the province was highlighted in the Throne Speech to open this session of the Legislature on March 8, 2010. 

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The other side of the podium – by Michael Atkins

Michael Atkins is president of Northern Life

I remember chairing a meeting of an economic self-help group in Sudbury 30 years ago called Sudbury 2001. We were at the Cambrian College boardroom and a group of union members and politicians burst into the room to bust up the meeting. We were in about month eight of the last debilitating, vengeful, violent, desperate conflict between Inco and its union, and Sudbury was not only suffering through the strike, they were suffering through the knowledge of massive layoffs on the way. In those days there were 20,000 or so Steelworkers, not 3,000.

The interlopers were livid that David Patterson, president of the Steelworkers Local 6500, would sit at the same table as an Inco executive during the strike. You see, Sudbury 2001 was a community group. We all swore to leave our politics at the door, no matter how dismaying the conflict. David stood up; pushing and shoving, screaming and yelling ensued. When David came back in, and the uninvited guests retreated, the meeting reconvened.

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We Call on Vale to Respect Its Employees and Our Community – United Steelworkers (March 19, 2010)

Posted in: News, Release
This a reply letter by the United Steelworkers in reply to Vale’s letter published in the March 17th Sudbury Star. www.fairdealnow.ca

In the latest “open letter” published by Vale Inco, this foreign corporation again demonstrates its contempt for our community and for Canada’s democratic traditions and labour relations culture. But most of all, Vale demonstrates a shocking disrespect for its employees.

Indeed, the most disturbing aspect of Vale’s latest public attacks may well be its blatant disregard for the independence, intellect, and judgment of thousands of its workers.

As you know, striking Vale employees in Sudbury and Port Colborne recently voted 90 per cent against the company’s last contract offer. After eight months on the picket lines, the vote was even more emphatic than an earlier contract rejection at the strike’s onset in July 2009.

To a reasonable, objective observer, such an unequivocal result would suggest serious shortcomings with Vale’s contract offer. It would suggest that a company that purports to care for its employees would want to address these issues in the democratic Canadian way – at the bargaining table with the employees’ legally-sanctioned and democratically-elected representatives.

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Our Commitment to Canada is Clear – Tito Martins, President and CEO, Vale Inco Limited (March 18, 2010)

www.valeinconegotiations.com

Labour disputes, like the ones affecting two-thirds of our Canadian operations, generate a lot of questions from a lot of different perspectives. We have a question of our own – does anyone really believe that Canada and Canadians are so intolerant that race and heritage are suitable excuses for ridicule and recrimination?

This is the Canada the USW leadership would have you believe we live in, as it sets about looking for anyone and anything to blame for strikes that have kept our employees off the job for more than eight months in Ontario and more than seven months in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It’s a regrettable tactic. It’s also a deflection that conveniently allows them to ignore the real issues at dispute.

We have shared our objectives with the USW leadership from the very beginning – to build a long-term, sustainable future for our Canadian operations. It seems straightforward – even worthy of support. In the rush to further their own objectives, however, the USW describes it as “an assault on Canada” – questioning our commitment, our values and our “Third World” ethnicity every step of the way.

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A Special Day for Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association in 2009 – by Dick DeStefano

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA)
www.samssa.ca  destefan@isys.ca

December 10, 2009 was a special day for me.   Working with a small and determined group of invisible mining supply companies in the early stages of 2003 has now evolved into a viable, dynamic community of entrepreneurs making a difference in Northern Ontario and throughout the world.

Twenty centimetres of driving snow and frigid conditions did not prevent more than 90 SAMSSA members and guests from attending the SAMSSA annual meeting in Sudbury.

We all applauded our two SAMSSA Hall of Fame inductees, Peter Matusch and Ron Miller, both of whom were introduced by their sons.  We congratulated our slate of new board members and thanked those who retired.

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Mining Suppliers: The Invisible Aliens in the Movie Avatar and in Canadian Society – by David Robinson

David Robinson is an Economist at Sudbury’s Laurentian University drobinson@laurentian.ca

Outer space has more than its share of miners and no mining suppliers. I wonder how they do it.

You may not have noticed, but the highest grossing movie in history was a mining movie. Technical support for the industry was provided by the military. The mining industry lost. The supply industry didn’t even show. The movie was Avatar.

Sci-fi fans know that one of the main activities in outer space is mining. There are stories about asteroid mining, lunar mining, mining on Mars and on planets half a galaxy away. Mining provides a reason to be in space. Mining supplies everything you need to live in space.

Mining supplies water, precious metals, helium 3 for energy and exotic jewels to drive the most unlikely plots. Mining technology is used to blow up asteroids headed for Earth. There are claim jumpers in space and whole underdeveloped worlds run by cruel mining companies. Mining in space is something the sci-fi writers take seriously.

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First Nations and Mining Companies are Working Together in Northern Ontario – Xavier Kataquapit

Xavier Kataquapit grew up in Attawapiskat First Nation on the James Bay Coast. Readers are invited to visit his website: www.underthenorthernsky.com.

As a First Nation person from the James Bay Coast, I was raised to respect the land and all the creatures that live on Mother Earth.

There are a lot of reasons that my people, the Cree of the James Bay Coast, believe in this philosophy but it mainly has to do with survival.

We knew and we still know that if we over hunt, over fish or abuse the land, it comes back to haunt us. When you live off the land very directly, it is natural and easy to feel the connection to everything. Our Elders tell us we must be conscious of how we affect the land.

There are many legends having to do with bad things happening to those who are not considerate of the land. For the past few years, I have witnessed a lot of resource development on Native lands in the Timmins area and up the James Bay Coast.

In the past hundred years, First Nation people have really been left out of the loop when it came to resource development.

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The 2008/2009 Mining Bust – Is There Light at the End of This tunnel? – by Paul Stothart

Paul Stothart is vice-president, economic affairs of the Mining Association of Canada. He is responsible for advancing the industry’s interests regarding federal tax, trade, investment, transport and energy issues. www.mining.ca This column was originally published November, 2009. This column was originally published in May, 2009.

Amidst the doom and gloom of present economic times, it can be difficult to find signs of optimism that could generate light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. While economic predictions can be easily contradicted, it seems evident that there are some positives emerging from the present recession and that, more importantly, mineral prices are destined to rebound in the not-too-distant future.

Sanity is returning to input costs and waiting lists

The business environment that existed until mid-2008 was one of frenzy, cost explosion and waiting lists. Companies seeking to buy mining equipment were assigned lengthy delivery times. Basics such as large tires for mining trucks carried a one-year or longer delivery lead time. As noted in 2005 by the president of a Virginia machinery company, “there are eight people trying to get the same tire.”

Capital projects that began with cost budgets in the hundreds of millions ended with budgets in the billions. Companies reported that capital investment cost projections were doubling or more during the 2005 to 2007 timeframe. The need for $16 per hour fast food workers in oil sands country was going unmet. Marine shipping costs and timelines were expanding rapidly.

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