New Ground

I would like to draw your attention to a regular column that we initiated with the June issue and that will become a fixture within these pages. We have called the column “Habitat,” which, to risk stating the obvious, will deal with environmental matters. Generally speaking, our columns or departments that appear regularly deal with specific subjects, such as law, managing and people in mining. Within each of these fields we explore topics or people of interest to all our readers — whether mill superintendent or mine captain, exploration geologist or expediter. The “Habitat” column will be another such regular feature.

Unlike some of the other departments, however, this one will not be written by only one writer. Environmental issues as they relate to mining cut across all disciplines and intrude, or will intrude, into every stage of the minerals cycle, from cow pasture prospect to mine closure. To cover the ground adequately, “Habitat” material will be culled from our scanning of technical papers, manuscript outlines from freelancers, polemical pieces that might appear in other forums. In short, wherever we find or can commission environmental stories that we deem valuable to readers, we will run them. The diversity of the column will, we hope, reflect the diversity of the subject matter.

For example, in the June issue, we ran a piece by Moira Jackson, assistant director of the Centre for Resource Studies at Queen’s University. The column analyzes the industry’s failings vis-a-vis the attacks it sustains from environmental groups. It also exhorts the industry to defend itself. In this issue, an entirely different kind of “Habitat” column is presented (see page 6). In it, freelance writer Stephen Salaff reveals the new-found vigor with which the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) is prosecuting industry participants. It is a straightforward, blow-by-blow account of how the board pursues its mandate in today’s climate of heightened environmental sensitivity. The story focuses, rather intensely, on one company — Cameco, whose unfortunate spill in northern Saskatchewan late last year landed it in trouble with the AECB. Cameco’s treatment at the hands of the AECB will soon find parallels in other sectors of the mining industry.