EDITOR’S NOTE Improving Efficiency

Canada’s mineral extraction industry is based on the favorable geology with which the country was blessed, but it is people who developed the industry into one of the bulwarks of the national economy, indeed of the national culture. Today mining people are still striving to maintain and improve Canada’s role as a leading mineral producer.

Their motives may not be totally altruistic. The bottom line is that unless our mines are competitive, our mining people will be without jobs. And, as surely as night follows day, our enviable reputation for mining expertise will begin to erode. In this business, as in most others, if one does not press forward, one falls behind.

But judging from two stories in this issue, by our technical editor, Patrick Whiteway, the heritage of entrepreneurial spirit, technical innovation and the simple desire to do things better that has been a trademark of the industry is in good hands. What’s more, it permeates every level of the industry, from the engineering and senior management teams who make the mega-projects go to the miner who finds a better way to keep an underground sump running smoothly.

For example, although it’s 82 years old, Inco’s Crean Hill mine will likely be the nickel miner’s lowest-cost producer of all its Ontario mines when it reopens as an all-electric operation. That’s a result of some pretty sophisticated technology and some pretty gutsy managerial decisions, all predicated on confidence in the operating personnel.

While not as dramatic in terms of capital investment, when underground operators met at Elliot Lake earlier this year, one of the most popular booths was the “gadget table,” a display of some of the constant stream of gadgets being developed at Canadian mines, the result of someone on the job saying “I could make this work better.”

And therein lies another reason for Canada’s role among the leaders in mining innovation — the free flow of information. It’s this constant cross-pollination of ideas that breeds new ideas and new innovations. In fact that’s what The Northern Miner Magazine is all about. The desire to find out how others are doing things and the willingness to share that information permits us, in some small fashion, to serve as a medium for that exchange of ideas.

The bottom line is keeping Canadian mines competitive, but the motivation for seeking better ways to do things is not fear of losing what has already been gained. The driving force, more often than not, is the sheer fun of finding a better way, of solving a problem, of simply accepting a challenge.