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.

March 3, 2009, is another black day in the employment history of the mining industry in Sudbury, ON. That was the day Vale Inco announced it was cutting 261 local jobs as part of its worldwide restructuring that will result in 900 terminations. At its Thompson, MB, operations, the company let 24 non-union supervisors go.

“Unfortunately the tough decisions announced today are necessary in these exceptional times” said Tito Martins, Vale Inco CEO and president, said in a news release. “The declining nickel price and reduced demand for nickel make it clear that continuing to operate in our current fashion is simply not sustainable. The measures we’re announcing today are intended to address the immediate health of the business and help reshape the organization for a long-term, successful and sustainable future.”

The announcement comes three weeks after the second largest miner in the area, Xstrata Nickel, announced the layoff of 686 workers. The combined cutbacks are a huge blow to the Sudbury community.

To its credit, Vale Inco released background information about its employment practices in Sudbury and Thompson, MB, since it took over operations in October 2006. The figures are an attempt to put the cuts in perspective in several areas.

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Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper, gave Republic of Mining.com permission to post Bill Bradley’s article. www.northernlife.ca

Mining giant slashes 900 jobs globally, 261 locally

Greater Sudbury is having to face the realities of the global economic maelstrom full force, say Vale Inco officials, unionists, city councillors and members of the community.

First it was Xstrata laying off 682 employees. This week Vale Inco announced 261 non-production job cuts. The Vale Inco workforce reductions are mostly focused on corporate, management and business support operations, according to a Vale Inco press release. The company employs 14,000 people worldwide.

“We are cutting jobs across the board, but none in our production operations in Greater Sudbury,” said Cory McPhee, manager of corporate communications for Vale Inco.

Sixty-five members of Steelworkers 2020 office and technical workers are affected by the cuts, said McPhee. Local 6500 members are not impacted by the announcement, he said.

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Toronto, Ontario
March 2, 2009

Check Against Delivery

Introducation

Thank you for that introduction.

I am pleased to be here, and extend a warm welcome to everyone – especially those of you visiting Canada for the first time.

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is one of the premier mining associations in this country. It hosts the largest conference on mining exploration and development in the world.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to comment not only on the challenges your industry currently faces but also on the action that our Government is taking with industry and with mining communities to weather the current economic recession.

This collaborative approach will see us emerge from the current downturn to take advantage of the rebound.

Major Assets

As you know, mining is a mainstay of the Canadian economy and is vital to some 150 rural northern and Aboriginal communities across the country.

The industry directly employed over 363,000 people in 2007, and contributed $42 billion to Canada’s GDP from mining to downstream processing.

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TORONTO, CANADA
March 4, 2009

The three winners were announced yesterday in the Meet the Mining Mogul contest, a first of its kind, put on by the Women in Mining (WiM) networks in Toronto and Vancouver. Each has won a one-hour private meeting with one of the three mining financiers who agreed to be the “prizes” in the contest, which is part of a fund-raising effort by the Women in Mining for The Townships Project.

A one-hour meeting with Frank Giustra of Fiore Financial will be the prize claimed by Guy Saucier. U.S. Gold’s Rob McEwen will meet with Karen Sutherland for an hour’s chat. And Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management will meet with Virginia Heffernan.

The Meet the Mining Mogul contest was part of an ambitious fund-raising effort by the Canadian WiM branches to support microloans for impoverished people in the township areas of South Africa. Their goal is to raise $250,000 this winter for the Toronto-based registered charity. Every donation in the campaign up to the time of yesterday’s draw was an entry in the contest. The amount of money raised for the charity at press time was $75,035, but that amount was expected to rise with the publicity that has been generated for the campaign during the Prospectors and Developers of Canada annual convention in Toronto this week, with an attendance of 18,000.

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