E3 to be free of charge

Beginning in March 2004, the E3 Environmental Excellence in Exploration program will be available on the Internet free of charge.

The program was launched by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Cananda in early 2003 on a paid subscription basis and currently has more than 200 users, including large mining corporations, junior mining companies, consultants, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.

Initially, the web-based, 841-page manual was paid for with revenue from subscriptions. Subscriptions for PDAC members ranged from $150 for an individual to $400 for a junior mining company to $4,000 for a senior company. The rates doubled for non-members.

However, the Toronto-based PDAC says it intended to offer the program free of charge eventually.

“We had to sell it at the beginning to recover costs,” says project manager Barry Simmons. “The overall development costs for putting this together were in the order of about half a million dollars. We had some operating costs in the first year that had to be covered, and we had to do that on a subscription basis. Otherwise we would have been in the hole until this thing got off the ground.”

Simmons says the PDAC will be able to run E3 without incurring a loss, and adds: “We’ve had a high level of sponsorship and response from subscribers in the first seven or eight months, so that we’re comfortable we can do this on a free basis.”

Part of the cost of E3 will be offset by companies that buy a listing on the electronic manual’s service directory.

E3 is an amalgamation of best-practice guidelines from six major companies, with contributions from governments and individuals. The information is used primarily by geoscientists, prospectors, governments, contractors, mining company managers, and non-governmental organizations.

The program had its genesis four years ago when a group of large mining companies tried to establish an e-manual for environmental practices. They eventually approached the PDAC, which agreed to run the project with Neil Westoll as manager. He was later replaced by Simmons, who previously served on the PDAC’s board of directors.