(L to R) Shawn Ryan, PDAC Prospector of the Year; PDAC President Scott Jobin-Bevans

For a video documentary of Shawn Ryan’s disovery, please go here: http://www.pdac.ca/pdac/programs/awards/award-winners-video-dennis.html

This award, named for a former president of the association, honours individuals who have accomplished one or both of the following: made a significant mineral discovery; made an important contribution to the prospecting and/or exploration industry. The award may also be used to recognize an important mineral discovery in Canada. 
 
Prospector Shawn Ryan wins this year’s Bill Dennis Award for his gold discoveries in Yukon. Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold found in the Klondike gold fields. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent $138-million takeover by Kinross. Ryan’s efforts and eventual success have had a positive impact on exploration in the Yukon, with a six-fold increase in exploration spending from $30 million at the beginning of this decade to an estimated $183 million in 2010.

Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold that sparked the Klondike gold rush more than a century ago. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent $138-million takeover by Kinross Gold Corporation. Ryan’s efforts and prospecting success have had a substantial impact on exploration in Yukon, stimulating renewed exploration interest and activity in the territory.

TORONTO (March 22, 2011) – Scott Jobin-Bevans, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), expressed support for the inclusion of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC) in the Government of Canada’s budget, announced today. 
 
“On behalf of our members, many of whom are involved in raising financing for grassroots exploration, I am pleased that the federal government has proposed that the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit be extended for another year,” said Dr. Jobin-Bevans. “Investment in mineral exploration is the first step in addressing Canada’s decline in mineral reserves and the METC program plays a critical role in encouraging investment in Canadian-based projects.”
 
The 2011 federal budget proposes that the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, known also as the super flow-through share program, that was due to expire at the end of March 2011 be extended for an additional year to March 31, 2012. As stated in today’s budget, exploration and development of Canada’s rich mineral resources offer important investment and employment benefits in many parts of the country, particularly in rural and remote regions. Read the rest of this entry »

TORONTO (March 22, 2011) Where the world’s mineral industry meets just about sums up this year’s PDAC International Convention. Total attendance was a record-breaking 27,700, up by 26% or 5,000 from last year. Attendees included registered delegates, exhibitors, investors, speakers, sponsors, students, media, staff and volunteers.

In all, 1,000 companies showcased their discoveries and wares at the Trade Show and Investors Exchange in an exhibit space covering the equivalent of eight football pitches. Sixty companies were featured in the Core Shack.

More than 50 foreign delegations, many of them headed by government ministers, attended. The largest contingents came from Argentina, Chile, China, India, Mexico and Peru. Many countries booked rooms where their governments could promote mining and investment opportunities, and the crowds flocked to find out more about Armenia, Bolivia, Portugal, Australia, Greenland, Brazil. Ecuador, South Africa, Peru, Chile, Colombia and India. Read the rest of this entry »

March 7, 2011

TORONTO — Canada’s world-leading exploration and mining industry, an important source of employment and an economic driver for the country, will benefit from a new federal investment in mineral exploration geoscience.

Speaking at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference, the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Natural Resources, today announced the third renewal of the Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI). The Government of Canada will provide funding of $25 million over five years ― more than double the original two-year allocation of $12 million ― to help develop new ways of exploring for deep mineral deposits.

“The Government of Canada recognizes that modern geoscientific information can help lower industry’s exploration risks and support the search for undiscovered natural resources,” said Minister Paradis. “We are committed to fostering economic growth throughout Canada, improving our global competitiveness and helping create local employment in mineral-based communities.” Read the rest of this entry »

This speech was given by the Honourable Christian Paradis, P.C., M.P., Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, on March 7, 2011 at the Prospector and Developers of Canada convention in Toronto, Canada.

Introduction

Good morning. Bon matin à tous.

Whether you’ve come here from across the country or around the world, I’m delighted to welcome you on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Government of Canada.

I want to thank Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, for being here.  His presence demonstrates that Aboriginal people have a shared interest in mining and development of our resource sector. It also, in turn, reflects the importance of exploration and mining to Canada’s Aboriginal communities.

Let me also welcome Peter Van Loan, Canada’s Minister of International Trade. And I would like to bring special greetings to the Honourable Laurence Golborne, Minister of Mines for Chile.

Minister Golborne, like everyone in this room, I was elated by the rescue of those 33 trapped miners last fall. I was born and raised in a mining town, and I know the close bonds that form not just between miners themselves but among their families.

So you can bet I was cheering along with the rest of the world when those miners were reunited with their loved ones. The rescue was an inspiration to all of us. And I hope that spirit and inspiration finds its way into all our talks at this conference. Read the rest of this entry »

TORONTO (December 9, 2010) – Prospector Shawn Ryan will receive the Bill Dennis Award for prospecting success, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) announced today. Ryan is one of six awards winners to be honoured at an awards evening on Monday, March 7, 2011, in Toronto during the association’s annual international convention (March 6-9).
 
Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold that sparked the Klondike gold rush more than a century ago. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent $138-million takeover by Kinross Gold Corporation. Ryan’s efforts and prospecting success have had a substantial impact on exploration in Yukon, stimulating renewed exploration interest and activity in the territory.
 
One of the discoverers of gold in the Klondike was Skookum Jim Mason. An award commemorating him is presented by the PDAC for aboriginal achievement in the mineral industry. The winner of the 2011 Skookum Jim Award is Jerry Asp who is being recognized for promoting mining’s benefits to aboriginal communities in British Columbia. Asp established the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation to provide construction and maintenance services to northern BC mines and was responsible for negotiating two mining impact and benefits agreements in the province. Read the rest of this entry »

Norm Tollinsky is editor of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. This article is from the March, 2011 issue.

It’s no accident that 22,000 members of the global mining community take over Front Street in Toronto every year about this time. Ontario, the epicenter of the global mineral exploration business, is where the deals get done. It’s where money is raised and expertise is sought for discovering and mining the resources that are more in demand than ever as prosperity in the developing countries puts cash in the pockets of hundreds of millions of new consumers.

Downtown Toronto is where it all happens, but Ontario’s stature as an international centre of mining expertise begins with the province’s inexhaustible natural endowment of gold, diamonds, copper, nickel, zinc, platinum group metals and now, chromite. After a brief dip in mineral exploration caused by the global financial meltdown in 2008, Ontario is once again firing on all cylinders.

As reported in our cover story this issue, the province reported record-breaking mineral exploration expenditures of $825 million for 2010 and there is every indication that 2011 will be just as busy. All across Northern Ontario, from Detour Gold’s 14.9 million ounce Detour Lake project in the northeast to Osisko’s 6.7 million ounce Hammond Reef project in northwestern Ontario, we are seeing former producing mines returning to production, new resources being discovered, shafts being sunk or deepened and head frames rising from the earth. Read the rest of this entry »

(L to R) Garry Clark, Executive Director of the Ontario Prospectors Association; Phil Vinet, Mayor of Red Lake; Alan Spacek, Mayor of Kapuskasing and President of FENOM; Honourable Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry; Chris Hodgson, President of Ontario Mining Association; Glenn Nolan, Vice-President, Aboriginal Affairs and the PDAC’s first Vice-President

Check Against Delivery

Thank you, for your kind introduction. And welcome everyone to PDAC 2011!

I’d like to begin by extending a warm welcome to Glen Nolan, First-Vice President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, Garry Clark, Executive Director of Ontario Prospectors Association and Chris Hodgson, President of the Ontario Mining Association, who have joined us here today for the official opening of the Ontario Pavilion.

We’re all looking forward to participating in the greatest mining show on earth here in Toronto!

This year I’m very excited to report a new record for delegations this year – 25,000!  Over the next few days we will be telling these delegations from all over the world about Ontario! 

I’m very happy to report that this year for the first time; more than 800 active mining exploration projects have been recorded across the province.

As well, we’ll be telling the world that we’ve set a new record in exploration spending – in 2011 we are expected to hit $951 million! Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa Wright is a business reporter with the Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion. This article was originally published March 6, 2011.

Lisa Wright (Toronto Star Business Reporter)

With demand for metals red hot again, it feels like the Klondike for miners. An army of 25,000 from 125 countries is expected to show at the industry’s biggest annual blast, opening today in Toronto

Amid boom times in the metals business, the centre of corporate Canada will be transformed into a mining mecca this week as thousands prospectors converge at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to dig for deals and take advantage of skyrocketing prices.

Investors are also welcome to attend the annual industry blast known as the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention. The hard-rock bonanza draws all walks of the mineral exploration business from the guys who stake claims in the bush to brokers and bankers, students, salesmen, geoscientists and mining company executives from more than 100 countries.

The PDAC’s new president, Scott Jobin-Bevans, says a lot has changed since the first time he attended with his dad — both geologists from Flin Flon, Man. — about 20 years ago when the event was at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

“I would say the big difference is the sheer size of it. It’s a monster now,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

Virginia Heffernan, principal of GeoPen Communications, is a science and business writer who specializes in writing about mineral and energy resources. She provides research and writing services to both corporate and government clients and is a regular contributor to publications such as Investment Executive, The Northern Miner and Canadian Consulting Engineer. www.geopen.com/

“From the Ground Up” is an autobiography of one of Canada’s most notable mining women Viola MacMillan, best known for her involvement in the infamous Windfall mining scandal of 1964. Although her autobiography presents her side of the controversial story some gaps and context were missing. Virginia Hefferernan’s thorough investigation cleared up many of those gaps and provided much needed context in the “Afterword” final chapter of the autobiography.

Afterword (March 2001)

The frenzy begins

“Some of the drillers started buying stock through their brokers, who would have told their other clients that if the drillers were buying, there must be something in the core. The market activity just blossomed from there, almost regardless of what the MacMillans did,” says Ford. Blossomed is an understatement. On Monday morning, Windfall shares opened at $1.10. Before the market closed at 3:30 PM, 1.57 million shares had changed hands and the price had reached $2. When rumours that the core contained 2.4% copper and 8% zinc surfaced later in the week, the trading accelerated and by the closing bell on July 10th, the price had doubled again to $4. “Such trading removed from the market any semblance of order and reduced it to a scene of uncontrollable speculative frenzy,” observed Justice Arthur Kelly, the judge who presided over the royal commission.

In the absence of any concrete information, the press and brokerage houses latched onto rumour. They became enthusiastic boosters of the Windfall play, fuelling even more optimism in the market. The Northern Miner congratulated the “Mining MacMillans” for taking an intelligent gamble on the Prosser claims and The New York Herald Tribune reported a “major base metal drill core.” Brokers added credence to the rumours by reporting them to investors as fact. “Frustrated by their efforts to get accurate information and feeling under compulsion to provide whatever information was available, (the brokers) gave out such reports as they were able to gather,” concluded Justice Kelly. Just like during the Bre-X mining scandal that was to hit three decades later, the  information mongers whose impartiality is so vital to the investing public were either unable or unwilling to see that the emperor was wearing no clothes.

Throughout this frenzy, the MacMillans kept their lips sealed save for two statements issued to the press on July 7th and again, under orders from the TSE, on July 15th. Both releases were equivocal, saying little more than that the first hole had been stopped at 530 feet, the core had not yet been sent for assay and drilling would continue. The second release read as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Virginia Heffernan, principal of GeoPen Communications, is a science and business writer who specializes in writing about mineral and energy resources. She provides research and writing services to both corporate and government clients and is a regular contributor to publications such as Investment Executive, The Northern Miner and Canadian Consulting Engineer. www.geopen.com/

“From the Ground Up” is an autobiography of one of Canada’s most notable mining women, Viola MacMillan, best known for her involvement in the infamous Windfall mining scandal of 1964. Although her autobiography presents her side of the controversial story some gaps and context were missing. Virginia Hefferernan’s thorough investigation cleared up many of those gaps and provided much needed context in the “Afterword” final chapter of the autobiography.

Afterword (March 2001)

The name Viola MacMillan evokes one of two responses. Those who knew her personally describe a generous and dynamic professional who became the sacrificial lamb of a corrupt Bay Street. Those introduced to her by the press recall a scoundrel who swindled innocent investors out of their savings. Will the real Viola Rita MacMillan please stand up?

If MacMillan were alive today, she would readily rise and state her case, just as she did on the 1960s television program, “To Tell the Truth.” As her memoirs divulge, she was an aggressive personality who rose from humble beginnings to achieve success in the mining industry: Canada’s own Horatio Alger, some would say. Despite her tiny stature – she stood just five feet tall and weighed little more than 100 pounds – she fought her way to the top of a man’s world by sheer force of will and a refusal to take ‘no’ for an answer. “Anybody, regardless of sex or circumstance, can do anything they want to do. All you need is the guts to stick to things,” was her favourite response to queries about the secret of her success.

But she rarely spoke of what became known as the Windfall affair, a mining scandal in the 1960s that triggered a royal commission investigation, exposed weaknesses in the market regulatory system and shamed several high-ranking officials. Even MacMillan’s otherwise detailed autobiography gives scant attention to an event that not only rocked her world, but changed the dynamics of share trading in Canada forever. MacMillan carried a long list of accomplishments to her grave, but her name will always be synonymous with Windfall.

MacMillan and the mining industry were joined at the hip. Read the rest of this entry »

This column was originally published in the Late Summer, 2010 issue of Highgrader Magazine which is committed to serve the interests of northerners by bringing the issues, concerns and culture of the north to the world through the writings and art of award-winning journalists as well as talented freelance artists, writers and photographers.

Timmins Owes its Very Existence to Six Men Not Three!

Timmins city clerk Jack Watson says with a note of bitterness in his voice:
“We submitted all six and were upset with the decision. We appealed but lost.”

The community that calls itself The City With a Heart of Gold has every right to the motto because literally the ground beneath it, the heart of Mother Earth, has arteries of gold.

There has been gold production in Timmins continuously since 1910 and it will continue for  many more decades. There is no reason for a thriving modern city to be located in the middle of nowhere; there is no port to support international trade, no junction of railways, no meeting of highways that is a destination point.

Yet, Timmins is in the midst of a four-year celebration of 100 years of history and achievements.

No achievement was greater than the exploits of these six men: Sandy McIntyre, Hans Buttner, Harry Preston, John (Jack) Wilson, Benny Hollinger and Alex Gillies.

They discovered in 1909 the gold deposits that became the Big Three producers in Canadian mining history, the Dome (1910-still in production), the Hollinger (1910-1968) and the McIntyre (1912-1988).

Yet earlier this year the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inducted just three of the six into its illustrious membership. Wilson and Harry Preston found the gold outcrop that was to become the Dome or as its workers fondly called it, The Big Dome. Only Wilson made into the Hall. Read the rest of this entry »

OTTAWA, Canada (October 27, 2010) – The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) today issued the following statement in response to the defeat of bill C-300, a private members bill entitled An Act Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries in the House of Commons:

“Canada’s mining and exploration industry, which employs more than 306,000 Canadians, is pleased that the Parliament of Canada saw the importance of defeating bill C-300, a fundamentally flawed private members bill that would have damaged Canada’s exploration and mining industry and jeopardized jobs here in Canada and the local jobs in the communities in which we work. We appreciate the efforts of the Government of Canada in exposing the flaws of the bill and in working to defeat it in the House.

Canada’s mining and exploration industry is already actively engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility practices and bill C-300 would not have enhanced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Canada’s competitors would have used the passage of bill C-300 as a tool to undermine the competitiveness of Canadian firms in the highly competitive global extraction industry. Frivolous or vexatious claims would have been filed against Canadian firms by competitive interests at no cost or risk to themselves, tying up important projects and putting well paying local jobs and community development projects in developing countries at risk.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

 If words such as “suppressed report” and “international violations by Canadian mining companies” were not written to be inflammatory, I miss my guess. Such was the headline above a report leaked by MiningWatch to the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star and various news outlets. MiningWatch’s release also made hay out of the fact that the report was commissioned by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. The implication is that the mining industry is trying to hide its bad behaviour from the public.

In fairness, I called the PDAC and learned that the leaked document was a first draft and the final draft was not identical. I was also told that the association wanted a benchmark survey and was disappointed with the quality of the study.

So I looked over the 16 pages of “Corporate Social Responsibility: Movements and Footprints of Canadian Mining and Exploration Firms in the Developing World.” It was prepared by the Canadian Centre for the Study of Resource Conflict, that has no dated material more recent than 2006 on its website. I did learn that the CCSRC is associated with Royal Roads University.

I turned past the title page. It seems 75% of the world’s mining companies are Canadian, and 33% of all violations are attributed to Canadian miners. Followed by India, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, companies from these five countries are responsible for 63% of all corporate social responsibility violations. Read the rest of this entry »