EDITORIAL PAGE — Expecting the unexpected

The mining industry has spawned a number of colorful adages, such as “Mines are where you find them” and “The best place to look for elephants is in elephant country.”

Lesser known is the pearl of wisdom that cautions those working in the mining business to treat fairly all who cross their path, as it is impossible to predict who will make the next major discovery. In other words, “Don’t be judgmental, and expect the unexpected.”

Today, the truth of that adage is being borne out in the ongoing saga of the Voisey’s Bay discovery in Labrador. Two years ago, who would have imagined that two of Canada’s largest nickel producers would be vying for a nickel-copper-cobalt discovery plucked, as it were, out of thin air by two Newfoundland prospectors and a little-known junior company looking for, of all things, diamonds?

Moreover, who could have imagined that Robert Friedland — the man linked to the Summitville mine fiasco in Colorado and the paper gold rush into Venezuela’s Kilometre 88 district — would emerge as the power-broker of the year, being courted and wined and dined by the presidents of blue-chip companies and institutional fund managers, all of whom doubtless had been warned previously to steer clear of his promotional excesses. Promoter or no, Friedland is clearly in the driver’s seat at Voisey’s Bay.

Skeptics abounded in early 1995, when the Voisey’s Bay story began to unfold. The project was not taken seriously until a Vancouver-based mining company moved to acquire a stake in the company. At that time, some mining analysts and industry professionals questioned the wisdom of Teck’s plunking down millions of dollars to acquire a minority stake in a project that few had taken seriously.

Teck had the advantage of being based in Vancouver, where Friedland was, at the time, also based. To their credit, Teck and affiliated company Cominco were at Friedland’s door immediately after the first exploration results were announced. This early interest paid off handsomely. Today, Teck’s investment is worth a tidy sum, even though it has been unable to secure a larger stake in the company, or the project.

All this goes to show, once again, that it is people who drive the mining business. The industry has been shaped and transformed by individuals who have charted their own course, who sometimes have operated outside of the mainstream, and who have, at times, been controversial. It is this tradition of individualism that makes the mining industry a true meritocracry, where drive and determination can pay more handsome dividends than the right schools and the right political connections. It is an industry in which PhD geologists can find themselves shut out of the discovery game for their entire careers but in which a Vancouver-based promoter with no geological background can wind up negotiating what could be the mining deal of the decade.

The Voisey’s Bay saga demonstrates, once again, that the mining industry is a dynamic one. The course of events leading to the discovery may have been unusual, but even that is being eclipsed by the extraordinary events now taking place in the boardrooms of the world’s largest nickel-producing companies.

It is doubtful that any of them could have imagined that Robert Friedland’s junior company, Diamond Fields Resources, would play a pivotal role in the future of the world nickel business. Or that Friedland would hold the cards that would determine which company would be the dominant player in that competitive market, and at what price. Or that his negotiating skills would be so formidable.