The Northern Miner podcast – episode 81: Lessons learned ft. Rio Tinto & Iamgold

This week’s show is packed with exclusive content recorded at The Northern Miner’s Progressive Mine Forum in Toronto.

First up, we listen in on Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) president and CEO Stephen Letwin’s keynote speech on cost control, innovation and “gold’s bright future.” (7:10)

He recounts an impactful moment at age 26 in the oilpatch in Calgary, when he witnessed the “Elon Musk-like” wunderkind Jack Gallagher weeping uncontrollably in his boardroom (8:25). Later, Letwin recalls “feeling like Mick Jagger” prior to the great recession in 2008, and the “hard business lessons” he learned in the following years (11:15).

Matt then sits down with Rio Tinto‘s (NYSE: RIO; LON: RIO) managing director of iron and titanium, Stefane LeBlanc, during our Sponsor Spotlight to chat about corporate social responsibility (25:00). LeBlanc outlines Rio’s new “partnership model” and discusses the challenges related to working with communities in remote locations.

He comments on some recent successes the major miner has had with stakeholders around its 60%-owned Diavik diamond nine in Canada’s Northwest Territories (27:12) and explains the benefits of establishing long-term partnerships across multinational organizations.

Bonus: Matt digs into mining news and notes for the week (3:48).

(Rio Tinto was a sponsor of The Northern Miner’s Progressive Mine Forum in October.)

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