Juan Carlos Reyes is the organizer of the annual Learning Together conference and an aboriginal consultant with Efficiency.ca. He is passionate about human rights and works tirelessly to help improve the lives of Canadian aboriginal people. This column was originally published December 08, 2009.

KI Mining Conflict Sends a Chill Throughout Many Aboriginal Communities

Last month, the Waubetek Business Development Corporation hosted its 4th Annual Economic Development Officers’ Conference in Sault Ste. Marie. I was honoured to be selected as a speaker at this conference, which is attended by almost all of the First Nations’ representatives in economic development from across the province.

Waubetek spends a great deal of time studying needs and opportunities within First Nations in Ontario. The information gathered is used to develop workshops that assist communities in identifying ways of bringing about their economic development.

In my opinion, exploration and mining should have received greater coverage at the conference. Only one brief workshop on impact benefit agreements was held, in which there seemed to be a surprising lack of interest among many of the participants. My belief is that they were interested in more basic information on exploration and mining. Although I broached the topic with conference organizers, they did not see the need for further coverage, as the program already addressed numerous other areas. This is unfortunate as the conference is a perfect venue to encourage dialogue between the mining industry and First Nations groups.

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This article was originally published in the March 14, 2007 edition of Northern Life – Sudbury’s Community Newspaper. It is being posted for archival purposes.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

Patrick Moore, founding member and former president of Greenpeace, supports the mining sector. This is the same Patrick Moore, who, with his band of Rainbow Warriors forced the American and French governments to stop nuclear testing, shamed the Russians and Japanese to halt factory whaling and were a nightmare for Newfoundland sealers.

He lightheartedly quipped that all his life, he had been against many issues so he finally decided to be in favour of something. He stated the obvious fact that the world’s real needs for food, energy and building materials cannot be met without a growing mining sector. Moore gave an engaging luncheon speech at the Prospectors and Developers of Canada (PDAC) convention, last Wednesday that highlighted the many benefits the mining sector brings to impoverished lesser-developed countries around the world and the hypocrisy of many in the NGO environmental movements.

He mentioned that many of the environmental extremists who focus on greenhouse gasses and global warming are adamantly again nuclear energy and hydro-electric dams – the two sources of clean energy that can significantly help in solving these problems. During the past decade the mining industry has embraced many sound practices in water shed management, land restoration and pollution reduction that have significantly reduced their impact on the environment. In addition, sustainable mining initiatives in the social arena – the most challenging part of this new strategy – helps build up local capacity, through education, health care and economic diversification initiatives.

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This article was originally published in the March 7, 2007 edition of Northern Life – Sudbury’s Community Newspaper. It is being posted for archival purposes.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

South African premier plans to head to Sudbury while in Canada

Seventy-five years old and still going strong as ever. The annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, which got under way Sunday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, is expecting to see almost 18,000 participants. Like the price of many of the metals its members are searching for, this is a new record high.

The organization was first founded in 1932, early in the Great Depression in order to fight some new provincial government regulation that was detrimental for struggling prospectors. Copper was then selling at four cents a pound (US), nickel was about 35 cents per pound, and gold could be bought for $20.67 per ounce. How things change and how they stay the same.

The March convention is the world’s premiere event for mineral exploration and development professionals. These include representatives of major and small to medium-sized junior exploration and mining companies, technical experts, government officials, prospectors, and mine financiers and investors, just to name a few of the participants.

This is the largest and sometimes one of the most “hard-drinking” and notorious conventions in Toronto. Twenty years ago, when it was still held at the Royal York Hotel, a mining promoter was murdered by an angry creditor. The longest reigning PDAC president, Viola MacMillan, was charged with insider trading during the infamous Windfall Scandal of 1964.

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This article was originally published in the March 12, 2006 edition of Northern Life – Sudbury’s Community Newspaper. It is being posted for archival purposes.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

The Prospectors and Developers Association promotes the exploration and development sectors of the Canadian mineral industry

The 74th annual PDAC (Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada) convention that ran from last Sunday to Wednesday was a smashing success, the biggest ever. It is the mining world’s version of the “Academy Awards” but spread over four days and with just as much networking, deal making and partying. PDAC is the largest gathering of mineral explorationists, developers, investors, bankers, financiers, analysts and government representatives in the world.

Established in 1932, the PDAC is a national not-for-profit organization that supports and promotes the exploration and development sectors of the Canadian mineral industry. There are about 1200 mining companies in Canada and almost 700 that are actively exploring worldwide on 3,500 projects. Canada is a global powerhouse in the mining sector and our expertise in many facets of the industry is well respected and in demand internationally.

Toronto’s stock exchange helps raise almost half of global venture capital for exploration and mining projects while about 65% of the world’s mining companies are listed here.

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Adelle Larmour is a journalist at Northern Ontario Business and Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal. Contact her at  untiltheend.larmour@gmail.com  to order a copy of Until the End.

Chapter 4 – Mine Mill Union

Processes for extracting ore from the ground and, in turn, specific metals from the ore were still developing and very much at the experimental stage. The industrial revolution was gaining momentum, but the technology employed was crude at best. Harsh, dangerous working conditions were the norm, creating a breed of hard-bitten, tough labourers who produced the wealth for mining companies.

These very conditions, coupled with long strenuous work days, termination notices at the drop of a hat, job and race discrimination, and screaming tyrant bosses, created a stress-induced, unsafe environment leading to numerous fatalities. Consequently, attempts to organize workers into unions as a means of collective protection were initiated.

On May 5, 1893, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was born and brought into being in Butte, Montana, according to The International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, CIO-CCL (Congress of Industrial Organizations-Canadian Congress of Labour). WFM organizers were sent to British Columbia in 1906. In that same year, organizers came to Northern Ontario, where Local 146, Cobalt Miners Union, was chartered a member of the Western Federation of Miners. Within ten years the union had spread to many of the northern gold mines.1

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Juan Carlos Reyes is the organizer of the annual Learning Together conference and an aboriginal consultant with Efficiency.ca. He is passionate about human rights and works tirelessly to help improve the lives of Canadian aboriginal people.

At this year’s Learning Together conference in Vancouver, one of the presenters spoke of the increasing need for junior exploration and mining companies to build and strengthen solid relationships with regional Aboriginal communities. He referenced a recent taking place in the Ring of Fire. Due to poorly managed relationship building, exploration was halted during a recent blockade by the First Nation communities of Webequie and Marten Falls, and the flow of funding to these projects was stifled.

He went on to say that Bay Street is finally starting to realize the importance for companies to nurture strong Aboriginal alliances and partnerships. Another of our presenters, Learning Together Director Jack Blacksmith, focused on community engagement and social corporate responsibility. In short, these topics have never been more relevant.

The inflamatory and strained relationship between industry and Aboriginal communities might prompt government intervention. Governments will attempt to implement what they would see as a measured approach for relationship building, but the impacts of this could be detrimental for both Aboriginal communities and industry. Bill C-300, for example, currently making the rounds in parliament, has a lot of merit on the surface. However, when you stop and think about the thousands of other cases in which the relationships between communities and industry have been phenomenal, this new regulation might create unnecessary complications. Otherwise amicable relationships could be strained by giving more power to the naysayer. Read the rest of this entry »