Voisey’s Bay project featured at CIM meeting

Although it is situated on the other side of the country, the Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt project was among the deposits highlighted at the 99th annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallugy & Petroleum (CIM), which was recently held in this city’s Trade and Convention Centre.

Keynote speakers included Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin and Stewart Gendron, president of Voisey’s Bay Nickel, a subsidiary of Inco (N-T), which owns the $1.4-billion Labrador project.

Tobin kicked off the plenary session by listing other projects coming on-stream in Newfoundland, including the Richmont gold mine, and the Hibernia, Terra Nova and Whiterose oil developments. Mining and petroleum now account for 15% of the province’s gross domestic product, he stressed, adding that Newfoundland also produces 55% of Canada’s iron ore.

“The province’s mining history is built on strong infrastructure,” said Tobin, who pointed out that clear laws regarding taxation and native land claims in Newfoundland are making it possible for exploration companies to plan for the future.

“I’m upset that one or two of you haven’t established an office in the province,” he joked to the audience of largely west coast mining representatives. Development at Voisey Bay is proceeding aggressively, with initial production slated for late 1999, Gendron told the meeting.

“The smelter-refinery complex at Argentia will be a state-of-the-art facility,” he added. “And at an annual production capacity of up to 270 million lb. of nickel, it will be the largest in the world, after Norli’sk [in Russia].”

Convention chairman Allan Cloke described CIM ’97 as one of the biggest mining events to take place in Canada this year. Some 3,000 delegates and exhibitors attended technical presentations, workshops on case histories of operating mines and demonstrations of computer models for the evaluation of mining investments.

Cloke said the meeting tackled some of the most important issues facing the industry, including environmental constraints and the mobility of capital to foreign jurisdictions. “The industry faces unprecedented change, and we must anticipate the speed and direction of that change.”

John Willson, president of Placer Dome (PDG-T), spoke on the need for companies to demonstrate responsibility toward communities situated near mining developments, especially in Third World countries.

“Community development . . . should be supported and strengthened by aid agencies and non-government organizations,” he said, and went on to illustrate how this policy has been enforced at Placer Dome’s projects in Papua New Guinea, Venezuela and the Philippines.

Willson pointed out that Placer Dome, though it has only a minority interest in the Marcopper mine in the Philippines, nevertheless assumed full responsibility for the clean-up of last year’s tailings spill, and, in so doing, sent an important signal to the industry.