Editorial A new mine can mean big changes

When production finally starts, those urban miners can reduce the efforts of hundreds of men and women to a few short lines under the headings of “cash operating costs” or “earnings per share.”

It’s different for those who live where the mines are built. For them, mining is something that brings more than the promise of prosperity. It can set in motion changes that the hoi polloi of the nation’s financial districts are often blissfully unaware of.

The township of Pickle Lake in northwestern Ontario is a good example. Long based on mining, Pickle Lake has grown into a jumping off point fo r Ontario’s far north and destinations beyond. It boasts the Pickle Crow and Central Patricia gold mines as part of its heritage, but of late it has come to rely more on that role as a transportation centre.

While mining made the community, the less stringent regulations of an earlier time have also left their mark. Because tailings dumps from the old Central Patricia mine don’t meet current environmental standards, the province will not issue title to people who have lived there for years. It’s a battle the township has been waging with the province for years, says Pickle Lake Reeve Jim Dalzell. It’s also one the township does not want to repeat.

So when Placer Dome announced plans to build the Dona Lake mine about 15 miles outside of the community, the township wasted no time in extending its boundaries to include both it and the Pickle Crow mine (which, at the time, was being rehabilitated).

There was no opposition to the boundary extension. Placer Dome, one of the most enlightened mining companies in Canada due to its long history of operation in Canada and around the world, recognized the need for the township to increase its control on the mining operations in the area. The boundary change increased the township’s tax base in order to pay for the increased demand for services a new mine can generate.

And, while the township of Pickle Lake took steps to ensure its interests were protected, local native groups in the area also pursued their objective of gaining direct benefits from the mine. Together with the governments of Ontario and Canada and with Placer Dome, they came up with an agreement to ensure training and other benefits to the residents of the native communities as a result of the Dona Lake mine opening.

The agreement, the first of its kind in Ontario, will likely prove to be a model for the Golden Patricia mine owned and operated by Bond Gold southwest of Pickle Lake, and the Musselwhite project north of Pickle Lake should it ever reach the production stage.

Placer Dome has accepted some serious obligations under the agreement. They include an obligation of the company and any contractors or subcontractors to provide maximum employment opportunities to local natives during the mine’s entire operating life as well as during construction. The company, with financial support from the two levels of government, will provide training. Placer Dome is also sponsoring a university scholarship particularly for native university students to pursue studies related to disciplines involved in the mining industry.

In short, the Dona Lake mine is an example of how a mine opening has a ripple effect on the communities that serve it. The effects of the development will be felt long after the deposit is mined.

The financial wizards in the south might turn a tidy profit on the strength of a discovery “somewhere up north.” They’ll likely never know what the real significance of such a discovery can be.

]]>