EDITORIAL AND OPINION — `Why are you ruining the environment, daddy?’ — Mining Matters

A few years ago, at the Northwest Mining Association conference in Spokane, Wash., a session was held on how to convince the public of the importance of the mining industry’s improved environmental performance. The miners were tired of taking a beating from radical environmental groups who portrayed them as a bunch of rednecks running roughshod over Mother Nature.

After the session, the conversation continued on an informal basis, with one delegate admitting that he was pained when his elementary-school-Age daughter challenged his choice of livelihood with the question: “Why are you ruining the environment, daddy?”

As it turned out, the young girl’s teacher believed that not enough pristine wilderness was being preserved for future generations. She passed this view along to her students, along with the not-so-subtle message that the main threat to preservation of wilderness was resource development. And what young child does not want to save trees and rivers, and creatures great and small that still live in the wild?

It is no easy task to explain the concept of sustainable development to a child, or to explain that planning to ensure the integrity of the environment is part and parcel of modern-day resource development. It is a bit easier to make the child see that, without the products supplied by the mining industry, people would have to live in caves without telephones or television and hunt and trap their own food.

Such discussions about mining can be challenging, but they are also important. If miners are not able to convince their families of the importance of mining, how can they convince the rest of the world? It is a matter not of indoctrination, but of balance.

Parents faced with this dilemma will be pleased to know that several programs have been launched to help make the world of mining relevant and intriguing to young people. These programs are designed to help them gain a broader outlook and develop critical thinking skills.

The Education Committee of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada, for example, runs a program called “Mining Matters,” which is aimed at educating students about Canada’s geology and mineral resource endowment.

It promotes awareness of the importance of rocks, metals, minerals and mining through the development and distribution of educational programs and material.

Mining Matters is an activity-based teaching unit, designed for students in grades six and seven, which reflects today’s high-Technology world of mining.

It was developed by teachers and is available in both French and English.

Since 1995, more than 60,000 students, teachers and parents in Ontario have learned about the importance of mining through the program.

A similar program has been developed in British Columbia, with encouragement from that province’s Mining Association. Educational initiatives also have been developed in several American states, Nevada being a noteworthy example.

This behind-The-scenes hard work has not gone unnoticed. Maureen Lipkewich worked tirelessly to promote the British Columbia program, and was honored by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy & Petroleum for her efforts.

This year, Mining Matters won the Conference Board of Canada’s Partnership Focus Award for promoting science literacy at the elementary/ secondary level, beating out more than 175 business-education partnerships entered in the competition.

Which goes to show, once again, that mining is about a lot more than tonnage and grade.