CIM a success, trade show a money-maker

More than 1,400 delegates signed up for the 90th annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy held at the convention centre on the banks of the north Saskatchewan River in this hockey- crazed city where even the hotel doormen wear Edmonton Oiler jerseys.

Total attendance at the 5-day event came to more than 2,600 including delegates, guests and some 600 registered trade exhibitors. It is the fifth year that a trade show has been held in conjunction with the annual meeting and the show has proved to be a considerable money-maker. In 1987, CIM trade shows turned a profit of about $120,000.

This could be the last annual meeting of the institute under its present name. In July the 11,000 members will be asked to vote by mail on whether to change the name of the professional association to the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.

Outgoing President Lindsay Milne says the name change would recognize the importance of the institute’s petroleum society which accounts for more than 20% of the CIM’s total membership. He also points out that the petroleum sector offers the greatest potential for membership growth. The CIM is already the petroleum industry’s main professional association.

The CIM’s governing council unanimously approved the name change, but a two-thirds majority of the membership and an amendment to the 1898 Act of Parliament establishing the organization are required to make the change official.

If the name change does take effect, the official logo would remain as the CIM.

The theme of the convention was The 1990s — Formulas for Success. Speaking at the plenary session that opened the four days of technical sessions, Robert Hallbauer, president of Cominco, said one of the greatest challenges facing the mining industry in the 1990s will be adding to base metal ore reserves.

Base metal production could drop by as much as 30% in the next decade, he said, unless more base metal exploration is done now. Taxes, generally low commodity prices over the past decade and a focus on exploration for gold due to tax incentives, have shifted the industry’s focus away from base metals. Base metals generate greatest value both directly through exports and indirectly because of the infrastructure for smelting, rail transportation and harbor facilities required.

He said Cominco’s Trail smelter, for example, would have to import 85% of its smelter feed by 1998 if current trends continue.

But the industry’s current optimistic outlook was reflected in another speech at the plenary session by James Gardiner, vice- president operations and development at Fording Coal.

James McCambly, president of the Canadian Federation of Labour, also speaking at the plenary session, says one of the formulas for success in the 1990s will be greater co-operation between business and labor in order to reach the objectives of both.

At the institute’s annual banquet, awards were presented to 13 members for various achievements and contributions. As well, 28 members were inducted into the 50-year club in honor of their 50 years of membership in the CIM, and eight journalism awards were presented. Eight distinguished lecturers were also named.

Executive director Pierre Michaud told the officers of the CIM’s 65 branches that the institute recorded a surplus of revenue over expenditures — the CIM is a non- profit organization — of about $154,000 in 1987 after four previous years of being in the red.

Taking office as president of the CIM in 1988-89 immediately after the annual general meeting is Rene Dufour, 57, a professor of mineral engineering at Ecole Polytechnique at Montreal.