Osisko VP Maggie Layman on the roots of exploration success: Exclusive interview at the Mining Legends Speaker Series 

The Mining Legends Speaker Series kicked off with an inaugural in-person event in Vancouver featuring mining entrepreneur and Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inductee Ross Beaty and rising talent Maggie Layman, vice-president exploration of Osisko Development (TSXV: ODV).  

Organized by The Northern Miner, the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and Young Mining Professionals, the series pairs CMHF inductees with accomplished young talent to bridge the knowledge gap in the mining industry and give the audience a chance to ask questions, share knowledge and discuss the future of mining.  

What follows are excerpts from Layman’s remarks at the sold-out event, which attracted 100 delegates.  

Tickets to the next Speaker Series event in Toronto on June 8 with mining legend Pierre Lassonde and Orix Geoscience president, CEO and cofounder Ashley Kirwan are now available.   

Layman is the recipient of the Young Mining Professionals’ prestigious Eira Thomas Award. She led Barkerville Gold’s technical team on the Cariboo project from exploration through to feasibility and its drill programs for over seven years. Prior to joining Osisko, Layman worked as a drill manager and a project geologist for Vale.  

Formative experiences 

Anthony Vaccaro, president of the Northern Miner Group, kicked off the conversation by asking Layman how a famous quotation from Mark Twain applies to her life.  

“’The two most important days in someone’s life (are) the day you’re born, and the day you realize why you were born.’ When you came to geology, was there a feeling that you knew this was almost your destiny?” Vaccaro asked. 

In response, Layman recalled her job working in the field in central Labrador, with the Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2004,  before she graduated from Memorial University with a degree in geosciences. 

“(It) was definitely life changing,” she said. “It was a couple of months living in a tent. It was an all-women crew, with one male field assistant. But it was a group of really strong, powerful women who were having absolutely so much fun working in the field and problem solving. It was really empowering.  

Another formative early career experience was her work as a project geologist with Vale (NYSE: VALE) in Sudbury, Ont. 

“Sudbury is one of the best places to work as a geologist, especially if you’re just starting off your career,” she said. “It’s really interesting field work, there are so many different technologies that are used in the rich history of mining, there (are) so many people to learn from, you really get a lot of technical responsibility and (can) hone your technical skills.”  

Layman, who lived in the historic nickel city for five years, says she is constantly meeting others who’ve lived in Sudbury and worked in the mining industry there.  

“It’s an excellent community of mining people. There’s a lot of talent there. And so many mines that you can work out in different deposit types.” 

Her career then took her to Independence Gold (TSXV: IGO), where the junior miner environment gave her a different sense of responsibility than she had at Vale.  

“A lot of the advice that I got when I left Vale was when you work for a big company, you can’t just go out and buy something when you need it, or you can’t just hire or deal with problems right away. There are a lot of policies and bureaucracies and red tape. But there’s a reason for that when you employ 100,000 people, and you’ve got mines all over the world,” she said.  

The junior space, in contrast, gave her a greater feeling of autonomy and different opportunities to manage programs the way she wanted. However, she also learned that juniors work hard to raise capital that belongs to shareholders.  

“I did really enjoy it because I liked being in the field. And I liked running drill programs,” she said. “I liked having that responsibility of hiring people and managing and understanding a bit more about what goes into running a program.”  

Turning the ship around 

In a move that might’ve raised eyebrows for some, Layman in 2015 went to work for Barkerville Gold Mines, a company that ran afoul of National Instrument 43-101 reporting regulations in 2012 for misstating its mineral resources. 

“You’re a young geologist building a steady career at that time. So what were you thinking there? Would you see this as an opportunity? Why did you believe in the company when the market was saying ‘what’s going on here’?” Vaccaro asked. 

Layman said the Barkerville opportunity came together when Paul Geddes, a trusted colleague from a decade earlier called her and offered her a position as a project geologist.  

At the time, Geddes was vice-president of exploration with Barkerville. He’s now senior vice-president of exploration and resource development with Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE; NYSE: SKE). 

“He’s always been one of my mentors — but he was very (focused on) essentially rebuilding things with this company. We brought in a whole new technical team (and) a different diamond drilling contractor (and had) to go through everything from permitting and land management,” Layman said.  

“It was kind of like starting a new company and wiping that historic resource from the books and an understanding of the science because although there had been so many years of historic mining on the project, you have to look at that and figure out what’s actually been mined, what are the mineral controls, what’s the geologic model, and that takes a long time. We did that for a year or two.” 

They brought at least eight rigs onto the property in the Cariboo region of British Columbia and drilled 750,000 metres. The initial resource came out in 2018.  

Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR) acquired Barkerville in 2019. Vaccaro asked Layman if that moment was a kind of vindication for her.  

“It’s been great to work with the Osisko team,” she said. “Getting bought out by Osisko Gold Royalties, and then having that spin off into Osisko Development was a really exciting time for us to have that Osisko name and to be carrying the project forward to feasibility and permitting and continuing to advance it. 

“It [has] been a lot of work by so many people involved, and a huge team of people and their contributions from the exploration side of it to mining, permitting, [and] all the consultants who have been involved in the project as well. So, we’re happy to keep moving this forward.” 

Her work in helping to turn the Barkerville project around was as enjoyable as it was successful, Layman explained. 

“You pick up the phone, (and say) ‘we need 10 rigs in there tomorrow.’ We understand the geology, we have the permits in place, we’ve got the team in place, now you can bring in 10 rigs. And it can be a lot of fun.” 

Amid such a varied career and after having worked across Canada and in precious and base metals, Vaccaro asked how Layman thinks technologies such as AI and big data will change exploration in the future.  

“I think that when you have big companies, you’ve got to start with the technology side, the data collection, and the data management, and then making sure that you include that historic data. We’ve got all kinds of things now to be able to map, but it’s still a very much a boots-on-the-ground, systematic exploration of analyzing the chemistry, making sure you’re collecting those samples. But the data collection and the data storage, and then being able to use different technologies to look at that data, that’s going to be increasingly important, especially when you have multiple projects, and things that are advancing at the same time.” 

Layman noted that Osisko doesn’t do a lot of machine learning. “For us, it’s the training and the succession planning for field mapping and interpretation of geology [that] has been very successful,” she said. 

“We have a couple of geologists on the project who have done one-to-2,000 scale mapping over all of the high-level targets, and they come in and they say, ‘we really need to drill right here in here.’ And a year later, we’ve got a resource on the thing. So I find that doing the soil sampling and then following that up with mapping has been the most successful exploration tool that we have.” 

ESG evolution 

In her time in the industry, Layman has seen a “night and day” change in how mining companies approach ESG compared to 10 years ago.  

“I think that on the environment side, that seems to be the most important of [all], if you’re going to develop a project, or if you’re going to do a drill program or anything, try to use disturbance that’s already been made, logging roads, or previous sites…rather than clearing new ground,” she said. 

More broadly, ESG principles are influencing how companies work at every level – junior or major. “Even the really big companies, they’re talking about it with their people who are boots on the ground. It’s important for everybody to be involved, to understand everything to do with society, environment, truth and reconciliation, to be aware of that and to have training, and to just give people as much information as possible.” 

For information on The Northern Miner’s next Mining legends Speaker Series event, visit: https://events.northernminer.com/speaker-series/.