Try It On For Size

I am told that in the Kirkland Lake gold mines of the 1940s, there was resistance to the newfangled jackleg or pusherleg drill that Atlas Copco had just invented. Resistance appeared on two fronts. Workers feared job losses. Where the old bar-and-arm required two beefy souls to heft it, the new drills required only one. Management cast a wary eye on the new lightweight machine. Could the drill match the productivity of the older method? Well, it could and did, and the old bar-and-arm drill is now a quaint museum piece.

Resistance to innovation is not new, of course. Skeptics likely scoffed at the enterprising Neanderthal who invented the wheel. There were those in Columbus’s day who feared the explorer would go over the edge. Many, I’m sure, felt the Wright brothers had it all wrong.

Mine managers habitually stick to the tired and true. If their mines are in the black and the honchos at head office are seldom on the telephone line, why should they risk money on questionable outcomes? But I think the more enlightened managers do encourage innovation when possible. Not only might there be a tangible payoff down the road, but of ten new technology energizes the people who work with it.

You might be interested in knowing that in 1989 (the latest year for which figures are available), as a group you spend C$928 million on machinery and equipment, not all of it innovative, but obviously necessary. You also spent $1.9 billion on repairs to existing structures, machinery and equipment and another $429 million on new structures. (The figures are those of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada.)

EMR is expecting less spending in 1990 and 1991. However, as a group you will be spending money and maybe this issue will lead you to some of the products you need. We feature new products in each of the main industry sectors. Some are extremely high-tech; others, like footwarmers for prospectors, less so. If you have your ear to the ground in this industry, you will have heard of some of these products, but many, I hope, will be new to you. Some may even prove to be as revolutionary as the jackleg.