Editorial: Teck Cominco steps up to the plate

What was always a source of good-natured debate is all of sudden undisputed: Teck Cominco now stands as the “best of breed” of Canadian-based base metals majors, courtesy of the recent disappearances of rivals Inco, Falconbridge and Noranda into the pockets of two overseas mining giants (and not counting aluminum producer Alcan).

More to the point, Teck is clearly relishing its new role as a standard-bearer for Canadian mining, and is already stepping up its leadership both within the industry and in society at large.

Teck is the only base metal company that’s a top-level sponsor of late January’s Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver, and is the only company ranking as a “diamond sponsor” (i.e. the highest level) of the upcoming Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto.

Most striking of all, in mid-January, Teck president and CEO Donald Lindsay showed up in his hometown of Toronto to deliver a much-needed and appreciated $10-million cheque to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

The donation will accomplish three things: establish the Teck Cominco Suite of Earth Sciences Galleries; fund a newly endowed curatorial chair in mineralogy at the ROM; and allow the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame (CMHF) to move to the ROM from its current locations in the Lassonde Mining building at the University of Toronto and in the Mining Museum in Elliot Lake, Ont.

It also sends a strong signal that Teck is a Canadian company that looks well beyond the view from its head office in Vancouver.

It’s the largest corporate donation and the sixth-largest private donation in the museum’s 93-year history. From private donors, the ROM has recently received more money from the Weston family ($20 million), AIC chairman Michael Lee-Chin ($30 million), and Robert Shad and his family ($12 million).

It’s no mystery how Teck came up with the $10 million: to the gratitude of its investors, the company has been furiously churning out large profits in recent years from its interests in 14 mines and a metallurgical complex in Canada, the U.S. and Peru, and ended the third quarter of 2006 with $3.7 billion in cash and relatively little debt. And in its upcoming fourth-quarter report, apart from its usual earnings stream, Teck’s due to post a pretax gain of $135 million from the tendering of its Inco shares to CVRD’s cash bid and the settling of its outstanding Inco exchangeable debentures.

As Don Lindsay told the Miner after the cheque-presenting ceremony at the ROM, “If we can’t give back now, then when?”

Due to open in 2008, the Teck Cominco Suite will be located on the second floor of the ROM’s Weston Family wing, in the older “Queen’s Park” portion of the building, immediately south of the rotunda that marks the museum’s former main entrance on University Avenue.

The suite, which will allow for the doubling of minerals and gems on display, will comprise three galleries: the Inco Limited Gallery of Minerals and Gems; the Gallery of Gold and Gems for rotating exhibits; and the CMHF — of which this newspaper is a main sponsor, along with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, the Mining Association of Canada, and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

According to the promotional material, a new Teck Cominco Digital Education Module in Earth Sciences will comprise electronic 3-D scans of the most dramatic ROM mineral specimens, which can be examined by schoolchildren and other groups at a nearby, 32-seat Digital Gallery.

With respect to the new CMHF, rather than simply continuing with the existing static displays, the new hall will be a fully interactive, audio-visual touch-screen exhibit that will liven up the telling of inductees’ stories and the history of mining in Canada. And instead of the sleepy traffic of some 500 visitors annually at the University of Toronto location, potentially tens of thousands of people will tramp through the new CMHF each year.

Furthermore, with so much of the CMHF material changing into digital form, there are plans to reproduce CMHF exhibits at satellite locations such as the B.C. Museum of Mining in Britannia Beach, B.C.

Meanwhile, across the rotunda from the Teck Suite will be built the Gallery of Earth and Early Life, which will display, among other things, the ROM’s excellent collection of Burgess Shale fossils, and around the corner will be the new Jim and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs.

While the glory goes to Teck with its major donation, the Canadian mining industry owes many thanks to semi-retired mining veteran Jack McOuat, a founding partner of Watts, Griffis and McOuat, who worked selflessly behind the scenes and made good use of his still-prodigious energy and director-level connections at Teck, the ROM and the CMHF to help bring all the parties together.

The refurbishing of the ROM’s minerals wing is only a small part of the highly ambitious “Renaissance ROM” renovation and expansion program, which is being led by ROM CEO William Thorsell and Renaissance ROM campaign chair Hilary Weston.

Counting the Teck donation, $218 million has now been raised out of an estimated $250-million capital cost for Renaissance ROM, with money flowing in from a wide variety of governments, individuals and corporations.

Once completed, the Renaissance ROM project will add 19% more gallery space, bringing the total to 214,000 sq. ft. and allow the museum to bring more of its collection out of storage. The total of new and renovated gallery and public space will reach 388,000 sq. ft, up 20%.

With the expanded capacity, the ROM has high hopes that it can double its current attendance base of 750,000 people annually, roughly half of whom are children and young adults.

The architectural centrepiece of the expansion is the Daniel Libeskind-designed, five-storey “Michael Lee-Chin Crystal” addition, which — regrettably — is an ugly, decadent structure resembling a large hockey arena that’s collapsed under the weight of too much snow. (Libeskind, at least, is upfront in admitting he’s “allergic to all forms of specialization and so-called professionalism.”)

The Lee-Chin Crystal is due to open on June 2, 2007, while the remaining new galleries will be phased in this year and next.

Teck didn’t stop at the ROM, though: the next day, the company chipped in a $300,000 donation to the Historic Cobalt Corporation to help the old silver-mining town in northern Ontario build a mining-themed park and heritage walking trail around Cobalt Lake.

Next up, Teck is likely to add to its generous $7.5-million donation made last spring, along with its partners, to the mining engineering program at the University of British Columbia.

Teck will also get some broader visibility in the years ahead with its selection as an official supporter for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, and exclusive supplier of metals for every gold, silver and bronze medal awarded during the games, in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mint. Teck will also be a sponsor of Canada’s Olympians in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, as well as the related Paralympics games.