Gammon seeks a balance for Ontario

hile Ontario’s new Mining Act will come into force next year, regulations for the act are still being generated. Leader of the team responsible for the task is John Gammon, 49, director of the Mineral Development and Lands Branch, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. Gammon brings together industry organizations, other ministers and his ministry’s staff “to reach a solution in the best interest to the people affected,” he told The Northern Miner. “We must (strike) a balance.”

One controversy involves the level of assessment work required to maintain a claim in good standing under the new Act. “The amount of money to be spent on assessment work on each claim, recommended to us by the industry and others, varied from $200 to $1,200,” said Gammon. “The participants are reaching a compromise to be recommended to Mines Minister Hugh O’Neil.”

Before he joined the Ontario government, Gammon had worked as senior geologist and exploration manager for Falconbridge Nickel Mines, 1970-1986. From October, 1988, to July, 1989, he filled in for assistant deputy minister Dennis Tieman who was on sick leave. The experience gave Gammon a broader perspective, he said. “Having been in his (Tieman’s) shoes, I understand his problems better.”

Gammon grew up and was educated in England; he received his Ph.D. from the University of Durham in 1964. As a child, he travelled with his father, a civil engineer, to other parts of the world. During his 2-year sojourn in Iran, Gammon often went horseback riding with geologists to collect fossils. That started his interest in geology.

“I like mining and I like to talk about it and explain how it works and why it is important,” said Gam0600,0000 mon. “Most of the things in any room are mined. If it does not grow, it has to be mined. The public gets concerned about the effect on the environment but forgets we need the products of the activ ity” to maintain our standard of living.

The enthusiasm to share his beliefs prompted him to write a book on mining for the layman, titled Gold!!! and other metals: how they are found and mined. It was published in 1988 by The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in London, England. The book was, in Gammon’s words, “very well received.”

Gammon lives in Sudbury, Ont., whose landscape is dotted with smokestacks. His five children, two girls and three boys, are understandably concerned about the environment — a frequent topic at the dinner table. “I try to give them other viewpoints,” said Gammon. They have been underground with him during the exploration stage and in old mine workings.

His favorite hobby is stamp collecting, which gives him a new focus.

With his wife, Renate, Gammon has developed a board game to explain how mineral exploration works to players of all age groups. Now ready to be marketed, it is a labor of love and a marriage of Gammon’s mining know-how and his wife’s expertise in board games.