MINER DETAILS — Mining will regain public support

For the past eight years, as a reporter and editor for The Northern Miner, I’ve been fortunate — observer of the mining industry untouched by the slings and arrows of its outrageously cyclical fortunes.

Ensconced in my office, I have sometimes been criticized for being out of touch with the real world. But I’ve also had an opportunity to see “the big picture” few others will ever experience. At the eye of a hurricane, I’ve watched in relative security as events swirled about me.

The Miner has not been unscathed during a decade of change in the mining industry. Family-owned for 74 years, the paper was purchased by publishing giant Southam Inc. in 1989.

Transitions like that are difficult, but the paper’s underlying integrity gave it the collective character to weather that change. The mining industry today also finds itself going through a difficult transition. Once supported by a web of public policy and welcomed as a provider of jobs and creator of wealth, the industry seems to be greatly misunderstood by the very people whose way of life it does so much to support. It has, to a great degree, lost the public’s trust.

Dismissing its critics as the enemy and assuring itself that mining’s huge contribution to the economy will eventually be appreciated is not a strategy that will solve the industry’s crisis of confidence. To convince others that a strong industry is in their own best interest, mining has to meet the public’s concerns head on, not dismiss them as unworthy.

Mining, in many ways, is unique. Because orebodies are where you find them, no other business is so rooted in Canada’s regions and so in tune with each community’s special interests. Yet because of the global market for metals, mining is international and less willing to be bound by the artificial barriers that local interests often try to establish.

I believe the spirit of generosity within the Canadian mining industry that allows it to embrace both regionalism and internationalism eventually will enable it to regain the public trust.

I, however, will not be at The Northern Miner to watch the industry meet that challenge. After eight whirlwind years, I am leaving to take on a new challenge with The Nickel Development Institute. I’ll miss my days at The Miner and those who opened their doors to me. I wish nothing but the best for the paper, the people who turn it out each week and the industry it has served for the past 77 years.