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.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty joined representatives of all three political parties at Queen´s Park to show their support for the contributions of the mineral industry at the Ontario Mining Association´s Meet the Miners Day event in the Legislature.   In speaking to the audience of approximately 200 people, Premier McGuinty thanked those in the mining industry for working hard to build the quality of life we enjoy in this province.  Meet the Miners is an OMA event at Queen´s Park involving member companies and their employees, which helps shine the spotlight on the industry in provincial governmental circles. 

“While many things have changed in the world since last year, the contributions to the society and economy of Ontario of mining, especially given current global economic circumstances, are more important than ever to communities and the province,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson.  “On behalf of our members, we want to be — and are — a part of the solution to help draw Ontario out of this recession.”

“In this age, we may be drowning in information but we are thirsting for wisdom,” said Premier McGuinty.  “I want to thank miners for their work ethic and for pulling together in tough times.  Keep doing what you are doing and we can meet our shared responsibility of building a better Ontario for our children.”

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The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

This article was originally published – February/2008

Coal division

Coal contributed 7% of Sherritt’s revenue in the first nine months of 2007.

2003 was a pivotal year for the coal industry in western Canada, when the two major ownership groups exchanged thermal and metallurgical coal assets. Through its ownership of Luscar Coal Income Fund, Sherritt consolidated its holdings in thermal coal, while metallurgical coal was consolidated in the Elk Valley Coal Partnership.

Sherritt International and the Ontario Teachers’Pension Plan each own 41.2% interest in the Royal Utilities Income Fund, which controls Prairie Mines & Royalty Ltd. Sherritt manages the operations at PMRL’s eight surface mines in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The production from these mines is almost all sold to nearby coal-fired electrical generating plants. As well, Sherritt and the Ontario Teachers’ each own half of the Coal Valley export thermal coal mine in Alberta, which is operated by Sherritt.

While coal was not initially one of Sherritt’s traditional core businesses, it is now a substantial part of the Sherritt puzzle. The company moves 500 million tonnes (t) of material each year to mine 40 million t of coal, making Sherritt the largest surface miner in Canada.

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The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

This article was originally published – February/2008

Sherritt International is a resources company built from the bricks of a Canadian nickel miner, which recently celebrated its 80th anniversary, shown by the timeline in this article. Despite the intervening decades and corporate upheavals, Sherritt is still a nickel company grounded in the strength of its research, technical innovation and operational expertise. But it has become international, and is aggressively focusing on growth in all its business units–metals, coal, power generation, and oil and gas.

In a recent two-hour interview with the company’s president and CEO Jowdat Waheed at its uptown Toronto head office, I learned that Sherritt has decided to get its story in front of the public, which prompted Waheed to invite me to visit the company’s metals, technology and coal offices and facilities in western Canada followed by a trip to see its Cuban assets, all in four days in early February. It is from this brief immersion that I bring you a snapshot of Sherritt International, today.

Metals division

This is by far the largest part of the company, bringing in 62% of Sherritt’s revenue and 80% of its operating earnings in the first nine months of 2007.

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