Letters to the Editor Industrial minerals coverage

I read with interest the results of your Readership Survey What readers like — and don’t like — about The Northern Miner, (Dec 14, 1987). I strongly disagree with the findings in one very important area, namely The Miner’s coverage of industrial minerals.

During 35 years with canmet and Mines Branch as a commodity/ processing specialist in industrial minerals, I closely followed developments in the minerals industry by perusal of papers/journals such as The Miner.

I often felt that coverage of the $5-billion industrial minerals segment of the industry by your paper was far below what it should have been. My thoughts in this regard are shared by fellow industrial mineralists in the federal and provincial governments and, I believe, by the industrial minerals industry generally.

I made a tentative attempt to modify the traditional strong “metallic bias” of The Miner last February by proposing increased input in the area of industrial minerals. My first letter received form-letter response, my second remains unanswered. Thus my efforts in this regard were futile, The Miner presumably not being interested in strengthening coverage in this important area.

Many Canadian industry mineral groups, for want of a “home” publication, subscribe to the U.K. magazine Industrial Minerals. This excellent publication usually carries several items on the Canadian scene in each issue and frequently features complete plant writeups of Canadian industrial minerals operations. R. K. Collings Ottawa, Ont.