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IN THIS ISSUE C IM MAGAZINE

OCTOBER | OCTOBRE2014

October/Octobre 2014 | 5

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China is the world’s fastest growing majoreconomy and a powerful player in thenatural resources markets. We examinesome of the forces at play in this oftenmisunderstood countryby Chris Balcom, Lu Jing, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, and Kelsey Rolfe

Reverse engineeringGeometallurgy programs are gaining traction as investor scrutiny and increasingcomplexity push miners to understand theirore bodies betterby Eavan Moore

Direct connectionAs throughputs at mines have steadilyincreased, gearless drive systems’ providershave improved the availability, reliability andenergy efficiency of their products to meetoperational needsby Eavan Moore

cover story

55

42

SPECIAL REPORT:China

52

8 Editor’s letter 10 President’s notes

tools of the trade 12 The best in new technology

compiled by Kelsey Rolfe and Chris Balcom

news 14 Industry at a glance 22 Raglan mine installs innovative

technology to harness the powerof hydrogenby Bernard Simon

24 The Gordon Foundation and theFirelight Group release an updatedtoolkit for First Nations negotiatingIBAs with mining companiesby Vivian Danielson

26 The government of B.C. and FirstNations partner to respond to thetailings breach at ImperialMetals’ Mount Polley mineby Kelsey Rolfe

columns 28 Have your technical reports

timed out?by Laurel Petryk and Greg Gosson

30 The business case for openinnovationby Carl Weatherell

32 Responsible investment: thereward of managing social riskby Monica Ospina

upfront: copper & zinc 34 A former jarosite pond and a

man-made wetland broughtnature back to Glencore’s KiddMetsiteby Chris Windeyer

36 Ore variability drives crushingcapacity at Copper Mountain to extremesby Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

40 Economist Patricia Mohr says acopper price rebound will takeyears, but zinc is heating upby Virginia Heffernan

travel 66 Lincang, China

by Graham Lanktree

cim community 68 CIM news from Canada and

beyond

mining lore 74 The Second World War finds its

way to iron ore-producing BellIsland, Newfoundland, whenGerman U-boat captain RolfRuggeberg starts attacking shipsoff the island’s coastby Herb Mathisen

70 Technical abstracts 73 Innovation showcase

& Professional directory

contenufrancophone

6 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 9, No. 7

22 36

La version françaiseintégrale du CIM Magazine estdisponible en ligne :magazine.CIM.org/fr-CA

47

article de fond47 L’ingénierie

inverseL’examen rigoureux desinvestisseurs et la complexitécroissante des corps minéralisésobligent les sociétés minières àmieux comprendre ce qu'ellesextraient, aussi les programmesde géométallurgie gagnent duterrain.

10 Mot du président

69 L’ICM et OneMine font équipeLes membres de l’ICM ontdésormais accès à unebibliothèque exhaustivecentralisant les travaux derecherche menés dans lesdomaines des mines et desminérauxpar Tom DiNardo

70 Résumé techniques

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he passage above belongs to EvanOsnos, who spent the last eight yearsreporting and writing from China.There are easy ways to explain the cul-

tural and economic identity of the countrybut, the writer cautions, these explanationsthat rely on the standard tropes of collec-tivism, Confucianism and dragons will not bevery useful.

So, while I encourage you to read our spe-cial report on China, be warned that you willnot find the key to understanding Chinesesociety, nor predictions of China’s return toannual growth rates of 14 per cent. There are,however, articles, such as Lu Jing’s account of

one mining team’s efforts to modernize its operations and mitigate some ofthe environmental impacts the mine has made, which together providesome helpful coverage of what Chinese miners, investors and their westernpartners are currently working through.

With the feature story, Reverse engineering (p. 42), Eavan Moore takesa sampling of perspectives from across the industry to analyze the devel-opment and impact that geometallurgical programs are having on projectplanning and investment. Risk aversion, new sampling tools and tech-niques, and the move from siloed expertise back to interdisciplinary teams,she explains, has miners setting end goals and working back from there.

CIM members also have a new tool to use now that CIM has partneredwith the online mining research database OneMine. Signing in at CIM.orgwill give you access to both CIM’s technical paper library as well as morethan 100,000 mining and minerals-related documents hosted at OneMine.

We at CIM’s national office want to add our voices to the many otherswho have been paying their respects to long-time CIM volunteer RayMacDonald who passed away this summer. You will find a tribute to Mr.MacDonald in our CIM Community section (p. 66).

Ryan Bergen, Editor-in-chief [email protected] @Ryan_CIM_Mag


editor’s letter Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen, [email protected] editor Angela Hamlyn, [email protected] editor Andrea Nichiporuk, [email protected]

Section editors Peter Braul, [email protected] DiNardo, [email protected]

Copy editor/Communications coordinator Zoë Koulouris, [email protected]

Web content editor Maria Olaguera, [email protected]

Editorial interns Chris Balcom, [email protected] Rolfe

Contributors Vivian Danielson, Greg Gosson, Virginia Heffernan,Graham Lanktree, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Amanda Lu Jing, HerbMathisen, Eavan Moore, Monica Ospina, Laurel Petryk, BernardSimon, Carl Weatherell, Chris Windeyer

Editorial advisory board Alicia Ferdinand, Garth Kirkham, Vic Pakalnis,Steve Rusk, Nathan Stubina

Translations Karen Rolland

Published 9 times a year by:Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum 1250 – 3500 de Maisonneuve Blvd. WestWestmount, QC H3Z 3C1Tel.: 514.939.2710; Fax: 514.939.2714 www.cim.org; Email: [email protected]

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This issue’s cover

Eldorado Gold’s Jinfeng operation. Courtesy of Eldorado Gold

Layout and design by Clò Communications Inc.www.clocommunications.com

Copyright©2014. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1718-4177. Publications Mail No. 09786. Postage paid at CPA Saint-Laurent, QC.

Dépôt légal: Bibliothèque nationale du Québec.The Institute, as a body, is not responsible for statements made or opinions advanced either in articles or in any discussion appearing in its publications.

Printed in Canada

Approach with caution“China is so vast and contradictory – home to one-fifth ofhumanity, with an income gap wider than that between New Yorkand Ghana — that we are tempted to simplify it by resorting to thearchetypes that capture one side or another.”

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president’s notes | mot du président

Un partenariat en devenirDans les cercles miniers, la mention d’organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) a de tout temps suscité

des commentaires réprobateurs. Ces fortes réactions de la part de l’industrie minière résultent de la longuetradition d’opposition des ONG aux opérations minières et à la mise en valeur de mines. Cette situation, conju-guée à des cas recensés de rapports inexacts, de représentation trompeuse et de déresponsabilisation et àl’objectif général consistant à contrecarrer ou à interrompre les activités d’exploitation minière, explique lespiètres relations existant entre le secteur minier et les ONG.

Le monde évolue, cependant, tout comme le rapport d’opposition de longue date. Les sociétés minières,en particulier dans les zones éloignées et sous-développées, assument la responsabilité d’un éventail étendude besoins communautaires et sociaux locaux, et certaines conséquences sociales doivent être gérées, maisces défis sont complexes.

Il existe un grand nombre d’ONG dont la mission consiste à améliorer la vie et les perspectives de per-sonnes habitant dans des collectivités sous-développées. Prenant conscience que les mines sont souventsituées dans ces zones cibles et qu’elles partagent ces mêmes objectifs, plusieurs ONG internationales trèsrespectées ont fait équipe avec des minières afin de les concrétiser. Le fait est que dans de nombreux cas, lessociétés minières et les ONG peuvent accomplir beaucoup plus en collaborant ensemble.

Les avantages sont multiples. Les ONG peuvent être utiles durant la phase de mise en valeur et contribuerdu financement permettant à davantage de programmes d’être mis en œuvre. Comme certaines sociétésminières sont déjà établies dans un grand nombre des régions où les ONG souhaitent œuvrer, elles sont bienplacées pour présenter les ONG aux collectivités locales. Les ONG peuvent renforcer les programmes de miseen valeur et fournir des compétences dont ne disposent peut-être pas les sociétés minières. Qui plus est, lescollectivités locales considèrent souvent les ONG comme des entités indépendantes des sociétés minières et,par conséquent, elles développent avec les ONG une relation plus axée sur la confiance et plus objective.

Les ONG et les sociétés minières se mettent à l’écoute les unes des autres, et cela donne de bons résultats.Comme c’est souvent le cas, la collaboration – plutôt que l’opposition – est beaucoup plus productive. Au final,ceux qui en profitent le plus sont les gens qui habitent dans les collectivités où nous exerçons nos activités!

Alors, la prochaine fois que vous croiserez une personne qui travaille pour une ONG, échangez avec elle,vous pourriez être surpris.

Sean WallerCIM PresidentPrésident de l’ICM


A developing partnershipMention in mining circles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has traditionally sparked

angry condemnation. These strong views on the part of the minerals industry are due to a long his-tory of NGOs opposing mining operations and mining development. This, along with a record ofinaccurate reporting, misrepresentation, lack of accountability and the overarching objective to hin-der or stop mining has led to a very poor relationship between mining and NGOs.

The world is changing, however, and the long-standing adversarial relationship is, too. Miningcompanies, especially in remote and underdeveloped areas, assume responsibility for a wide rangeof local community and social needs, and there are social impacts to be managed, but these chal-lenges are complex.

There is a large number of NGOs whose mission it is to improve the lives and opportunities forpeople in underdeveloped communities. Realizing that mines are often located in precisely theseareas, and sharing these objectives, several highly respected international NGOs have partnered withmining companies to make this happen. The fact is that in many instances mining companies andNGOs can do so much more by working together.

The benefits are numerous. NGOs can be effective in development work and can contributefunding so that more programs are possible. Since some mining companies are already present inmany of the areas where NGOs want to be, they can introduce the NGOs to the local communities.The NGOs can strengthen development programs and provide skills that the mining companies maynot have. Importantly, local communities often view NGOs as independent of the mining companyand therefore develop a more trusting and objective relationship.

NGOs and mining companies are reaching out to each other, and the results are good. As so oftenis the case, working together rather than in opposition achieves so much more and the real winnersare the people in the communities where we operate!

So next time you meet someone from an NGO, have a discussion, you may be surprised.

Color Space Eff. Res.

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Copyright © 2014 Exxon Mobil Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Exxon Mobil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries unless otherwise noted.

C

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Compiled by Kelsey Rolfe and Chris Balcom12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 9, No. 7

◢ Invisible asset protectionDuring its work conducting investigations for resourceand mining companies, Australia-based ChameleonAsset Protection noticed an issue with theft on minesites. Its solution: an invisible paint for company assets,embedded with a chemical fingerprint unique to eachclient, and easily seen using an ultraviolet light.The paint, which appears fluorescent under theultraviolet light, comes in a variety of colours. It can besprayed or painted onto company equipment like drills orscanners. Once it dries it is nearly impossible to remove.Chameleon keeps a record of each marked asset and itschemical fingerprint in a secure, auditable database. Ifan asset is recovered by the mining company, a sampleof the paint is taken using a scalpel, and Chameleon’slab will analyze it to determine which client it belongs to.The company also drafts press releases and notices tomake employees aware that the mine sites are using theinvisible paint, and stresses that clients implementrandom spot checks on employees exiting the site eachday, using special flashlights that reveal the paint.

“It might just be the odd scanner or the odd drill, butwhen […] people are doing that regularly, it soonbecomes very expensive to the company,” said NinaHobson, an executive director at Chameleon. “This isabout saying, ‘This isn’t acceptable behaviour and we aredoing what we can to stop that from happening.’”

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◢ Efficient dumpWhen a traditional underground scoop truck clears themuck from the working face, it has to pull into a nichein the drift wall to dump the rock into a haul truck at a90-degree angle. The process ends up creating adistance of 100 to 300 metres between loading anddumping. To reduce this distance between rounds tojust 10 to 30 metres, Atlas Copco released a newside-dump bucket for its Scooptram loaders in June.Instead of pulling into a cut-out in the wall to dump themuck, the Scooptram, equipped with the side-dumpbucket, can pull up alongside the truck in the tunnel todump its load. “[It reduces] costs because you’re notmaking these niches or cut-outs in the tunnel,” saidBen Thompson, Atlas Copco’s product manager. “Andyou don’t have to drive the scoop all the way to the cutout to make the turn. That reduces fuel, tire wear andtime.” The side dump bucket is available for theScooptram ST7, ST1030 and ST14.

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TOOLS OFTHE TRADE

◢ Space chevron brush designConstant cleaning is essential for the smooth functioning ofa conveyor belt, and operators of cleated belts often turnto motorized brush cleaners for this task. But the brushesthemselves also need attention and maintenance. Oneparticularly common issue in mining operations is thebuildup of wet material on the centre of the brush,according to Kevin Fale, a marketing specialist withFlexco. To address this problem, Flexo launched its newMotorized Brush Cleaner. The distinguishing feature of theproduct, said Fale, is its unique brush profile, what theFlexco team refers to as a “space chevron.” Afterexperimenting with a variety of patterns, including chevron,zig-zags and spirals, Flexco discovered that tightly packedbristles prevented material from passing through as it wasbeing dislodged and caused it to cake on the cleaner. Onthe new product, which uses a chevron pattern, “thebristles are spaced far enough apart to allow the materialto move away from the brush,” Fale said. The cleaner isdesigned primarily for chevron, cleated, and raised-ribbelts, and has been tested in a variety of applicationsincluding platinum, chromium and coal mines.

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Seabridge receives B.C. approval for KSM

Seabridge Gold’s KSM project, oneof the world’s largest undeveloped goldand copper reserves, received finalapproval from the government ofBritish Columbia in July for an Envi-ronmental Assessment Certificate.Only one other mine in the provincehas received the certificate in the lastfive years.

Seabridge, whose other principalasset is the Courageous Lake gold proj-ect in the Northwest Territories, spentclose to seven years and more than$176 million in exploration, engineer-ing and environmental work leading tothe approval for KSM in northern B.C.The KSM project has a 52-year minelife and an estimated 38.2 millionounces of gold, 9.9 billion pounds ofcopper, 191 million ounces of silverand 213 million pounds of molybde-num.

“We had more than 30 group ses-sions with all the aboriginal groups,federal and provincial regulators, andAlaskan regulators,” said Rudi Fronk,the company’s CEO. “We’ve listened totheir feedback and pushback and madesignificant design changes.”

These modifications added $500million and brought the estimated con-struction cost up to $5.3 billion. Theyinclude adding a liner to the centre cellof the tailing management facility tominimize the potential for downstreameffects on wildlife and fisheries, re-designing the tailings managementfacility to have a different dischargepoint and relocating the mine’s accessroad to minimize the potential foreffects on fisheries and wildlife.

The company recently receivedmore good news. While awaiting fed-eral approval of KSM from the Cana-dian Environmental AssessmentAgency, which is the next step in theprocess, Seabridge confirmed in earlySeptember another major new goldand copper occurrence at KSM. It isnow intensifying its drilling program inorder to collect the data needed todevelop an updated resource estimateby January.

“We’re doing all the de-risking,”said Fronk. “Our goal now is to have a

joint venture in place by the end of firstquarter 2015.” – Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in August the launch of the Arctic program that will carry out workon resource development, northern transportation, marine safety and community infrastructure in the FarNorth.

Feds pledge to improve ice roadsMine operators in the Far North who rely on old man winter for transporta-

tion routes have gained a new ally. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announcedin August the launch of a federally funded project dedicated to improving thesafety and performance of northern ice roads. The project is part of the newArctic program led by the National Research Council (NRC).

The ice road project will focus on how to maximize the use of ice roadsoften employed by mining companies to transport goods from northern sites.Currently, ice roads are open from one to three months depending on wherethe road is located, said Arctic program leader Anne Barker.

She added that the project could take various forms such as strategicresearch and development or technical services that provide solutions to spe-cific problems brought forth by mining companies.

The Arctic program as a whole will carry out work on resource develop-ment, northern transportation, marine safety and community infrastructure.“Overall, the point of the program is to ensure that if there’s resource develop-ment in the Arctic, that it occurs in a safe and environmentally responsiblemanner,” Barker explained. The program will cost the federal government $17million over eight years. They are looking for a further $65 million in invest-ments from industry partners.

Work started on the ice road project in August to figure out users’ needs.“We’ve had conversations with industry partners involved in the area,” saidBarker. “We’re working toward an end-user discussion.”

“I’m very excited by the program,” she said. “It’s great to have a definedfocus.” According to Barker, the ice road project alone is expected to take upto five years.

The Arctic program was created in the recent restructuring of the NRC,which involved concentrating the organization’s efforts on industrial researchinstead of basic science. – Tom DiNardo

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Ring of Fire developmentcorporation announced

In late-August, within 60 days oftaking office, the Ontario Liberal Partymade good on its $1-billion promiseto kick-start a development corpora-tion (known as Devco) for the Ring ofFire region in northwestern Ontario.

With its headquarters in ThunderBay, 540 kilometres south of the mas-sive chromite, copper and nickel dis-trict worth an estimated $60 billion ormore, Devco’s first task will be todevelop an agreement between govern-ment, industry and local First Nationson how all groups will participate in theorganization. In time, Devco could dic-tate the type and location of infrastruc-ture leading into the remote region.

The Ontario Liberals haveappointed an interim four-personboard of directors to oversee this firststage of Devco. The board currentlyconsists of assistant deputy ministersfrom Cabinet Office, the Ministry ofTransportation and the Ministry ofNorthern Development and Mines.The executive vice-president of

Infrastructure Ontario also sits on theboard, while the assistant deputy min-ister from the Ministry of AboriginalAffairs will be added to the roster soon.

No formal infrastructure decisionswill be made, however, until a larger,“mature” board of directors has beenestablished for Devco with key part-ners including the federal government,said Julia Bennett, spokesperson forthe ministry of northern developmentand mines. No timeline has been setfor when the full board will be inplace, but once it is, Devco will beginmaking investment decisions about“strategic transportation infrastruc-ture,” including how best to spend $1billion pledged by Premier KathleenWynne during the recent election,she said.

Mining Minister Michael Gravellefirst promised the creation of Devco inNovember 2013 to set the tone for howthe Ring of Fire could be developed inco-operation with all interested stake-holders. Consulting firm Deloitte wasbrought on board in February to createthe new entity’s legal and governancestructure. – Andrew Reeves

Investors step up forImperial Metals

Bolstered by a $115-million cash infu-sion, Imperial Metals is continuing itscleanup efforts of the Mount Polley tail-ings pond breach and work to completeits Red Chris mine in northwest B.C.

The bulk of the funding announcedin early September came from EdcoCapital Corporation, owned by Imper-ial’s top shareholder, N. MurrayEdwards, and The Fairholme Partner-ship; each purchased $40 million worthof unsecured convertible debentures.

Steve Robertson, Imperial’s vice-president of corporate affairs, said themoney will go towards Mount Polley’sremediation – which analysts have esti-mated will cost between $50 millionand $500 million – and the construc-tion and commissioning of Red Chris,as well as general corporate purposes.“All of our money is going to be put togood use on those projects,” he said.

The entrance to the Red Chris goldand copper mine was blockaded by agroup of Tahltan First Nations’ mem-bers, known as the Klabona Keepers,

news

Construction of the mining and engineering offices at True Gold Mining’s Karmagold project

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ldTrue Gold receives funds for Karmaproject

Vancouver-based True Gold secured up to $120 millionin August to finance its Karma gold project in Burkina Faso.

The company announced August 11 it had entered intoa US$100-million streaming agreement with Franco-Nevada and Sandstorm. True Gold has the option ofincreasing its funding by as much as $20 million in the next18 months. Now that True Gold has access to this capital,said Alex Holmes, vice-president of business development,the Karma project is fully funded. “The package withFranco and Sandstorm, together with our equity on hand,gets us fully financed with a contingency built in to the endof the next year,” he said.

Holmes said that since September, True Gold has startedpouring the concrete for the plant foundation, and equip-ment continues to arrive. “[We’re] pre-stripping, addingsome additional haul roads as well as moving more signifi-cant amounts of material around,” he explained. Up to thispoint, the company had prepared the site for the founda-tion of the processing plant and the ADR plant. It alsoimproved road access in and around the mine site and builtthe mine’s water supply.

According to Holmes, construction will be completed bythe fourth quarter of 2015 and production will start at theend of that year.

The Karma project is an open pit, heap leach gold minein West Africa. The project, which has an estimated minelife of eight and a half years, is expected to yield 97,000ounces of gold annually. – T.D.

Strong business ethics, transparency and environmental stewardship aren’t just the right things to do – they also help build your corporate brand and strengthen your bottom line.

Find out how EDC can help you grow your responsible business practices at edc.ca/responsible.

STRONG VALUES. STRONG BOTTOM LINE.

rey Docks on August 21. When com-pleted, up to four million tonnes of coalper year will pass through the locale,which will join other existing coal trans-fer infrastructures in the area. Theseinclude the West Shore Coal terminal inRoberts Bank and the Neptune terminalin North Vancouver.

According to John Parker-Jervis, aspokesperson for Port Metro Vancouver,the facility will exclusively handleAmerican thermal coal coming intoCanada through Wyoming by train.Once it reaches Fraser Surrey Docks, itwill be loaded onto barges and shipped

boost demand for the company’s keyminerals in emerging markets, and theJansen potash business is expected tobecome an increasingly important partof the global food value chain.

If shareholders and regulatorsapprove the proposal, the companyexpects the spinoff to be completed bythe first half of 2015. – Peter Diekmeyer

Vancouver port approvescoal transfer facility

Port Metro Vancouver approved anew coal transfer facility at Fraser Sur-


in response to the Mount Polley tail-ings breach in mid-August. It endedafter Imperial signed an agreementwith the Tahltan on August 26, whichwill see the company pay for an out-side engineering firm of the Tahltan’schoosing to evaluate the Red Chris tail-ings facility. Robertson said the evalua-tion should not get in the way of themine’s opening, which is slated forlater this year. – Kelsey Rolfe

BHP Billiton reversesconsolidation

BHP Billiton announced in August itwould spin off a number of assets thatwere assembled in the 2001 merger thatcreated the mining giant. The Melbourne, Australia-based company,which currently operates a global port-folio of 41 assets, will split those opera-tions between BHP Billiton and theas-yet-unnamed new company.

Company documents list “six majoroperated assets” it will maintain in thecoming demerger. These include West-ern Australia Iron Ore, Queensland Coal,New South Wales Energy Coal, theOlympic Dam polymetallic mine in Aus-tralia, and the Escondida and PampaNorte copper mines in Chile. The Jansenpotash deposit, BHP Billiton’s key Cana-dian holding, will also remain under thecompany’s control. The briefing docu-ment states that the demerger “would notalter BHP Billiton’s position as the […]developer of the world’s best undevel-oped potash resource in Saskatchewan.”

Those major operations as well assome select copper, coal and iron proj-ects the company has stakes in but doesnot operate, represent 95 per cent of itscurrent earnings before interest, depre-ciation and taxes.

The spinoff company that will haveits own board and management willinclude the existing aluminum andmanganese businesses as well as variousbase metal and coal mines in SouthAmerica, South Africa, and Australia.

Things are looking bright for thefuture of BHP Billiton, according to Dar-ren Sissons, an analyst with PortfolioManagement Corp. He noted theimproving global economy should

news

Growing support for Movember

While the autumn months areknown for the change in foliage,November has recently becomeknown for a different annual meta-morphosis. Normally clean-shavenmen put their razors aside for themonth to grow moustaches as partof Movember to raise awareness formen’s health issues such as prostatecancer, testicular cancer and men-tal health.

In 2012, the Canadian miningindustry took up the gauntlet ofmen’s health. “Mo Bros” and “MoSistas,” as the men and womeninvolved in Movember are known,decided to formalize their involve-ment in the campaign and estab-

lished the Great Canadian Mining Challenge. The now annual event is afriendly competition within the industry where men form corporate teamsand pledge to grow a moustache while raising money for the cause, compet-ing with teams from other mining companies. One of the leaders of the effortto create the challenge was Matt Rosales, a geologist and GIS analyst at Teck.“He was kind of the one within the industry who championed the effort,” saidJeff Lohnes, business engagement manager at Movember.

Last year, 484 members across 36 corporate teams helped raise more than$190,000. Aurico Gold raised $15,800, the most by any single team. Employ-ees at Teck Resources formed 20 separate teams and collectively raised morethan $56,000. “[It was an] absolutely amazing effort by employees at bothcompanies,” said Lohnes.

He added the importance of Movember goes beyond the challenge, how-ever. “Our real focus is around raising awareness with the campaign,” heexplained. “We’re always looking to make sure that more and more men haveaccess to information around men’s health. Some of the successes we’re reallyseeing are where companies start to adopt better internal health practices andinternal screens for different issues.” – T.D.

Teck Resources’ haul trucks, in addition to itsemployees, grew moustaches last year on its way toraising more than $56,000 across the company aspart of Movember’s Great Canadian Mining Challenge.

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to Texada Island. From there it will betransferred to ocean-going liners to beshipped to Asian markets.

“One train a day will be coming intothe facility,” says Parker-Jervis. “The coalwill be then direct transferred, with nostockpiling permitted on site, and extrabinding agents will be sprayed at theterminal before it is loaded onto thebarge, in order to minimize dust.”

Port Metro Vancouver did not pro-vide a timeline for construction of thefacility.

The $15-million project, which isexpected to create 25 direct and another25 indirect jobs, was subject to a two-yearenvironmental and public impact reviewprior to approval and no significant riskswere identified. The company has statedthat the facility has the potential to dou-ble in size, though such an expansionwould trigger further reviews. – P.D.

Mt. Polley breach raisesuranium tailings safetyconcerns

Reverberations from the Mount Pol-ley tailings pond breach in BritishColumbia continue to spread. InAugust, the Canadian Nuclear SafetyCommission (CNSC) asked licensees ofuranium mines and mills with tailingsfacilities to review safety procedures.

In a letter dated August 14, RamziJammal, the CNSC’s chief regulatoryoperations officer, requested that sevenoperators look into the causes of theMount Polley tailings breach and con-firm they are complying with existinglicensing conditions and introducingmeasures to mitigate breach accidents.The seven licensees are AREVA,Cameco, Rio Algom, Willet GreenMiller, P.J. Bruggar and Associates, EWLManagement, and Denison Mines.

According to Mark Drolet, a CNSCspokesperson, the organization isunaware of any past uranium tailingsbreaches. “With the exception of theradiological content and specific meas-ures to limit radiation exposure, pro-duction of uranium tailings and theirlong-term management [involves] simi-lar processes and practices as those [in]

other metal mines (i.e. gold, silver, cop-per),” said Drolet.

CNSC staff will also be conductinginspections of the above-ground tailingsmanagement facilities of the seven oper-ators, according to Jammal’s letter. If anyissues arise during the inspections, theCNSC may take further action. – P.D.

Asset sales could followCasablanca’s Cliffs takeover

Casablanca Capital, an activistinvestment firm, announced in late Julythat six of its nominees were elected tothe 11-member board of Cliffs NaturalResources, giving it effective control ofthe company.

The new board lost no time in put-ting its stamp on the business. In earlyAugust the slate voted in LourencoGoncalves as chairman of the board.Goncalves, who took over from JimKirsch, has vowed to “set Cliffs on acourse to improve performance andrestore shareholder value.”

Initial moves appear focused onfinancial engineering more than mining.In late August, Cliffs announced a$200-million share repurchase plan thatwill boost earnings per share and returncash to investors, rather than reinvest-ing in operations.

In a statement announcing the buy-back, Goncalves said Cliffs’ new strategywill centre on its core U.S. iron ore business.

Asset sales have also been mentionedby analysts as possible future moves.Cliffs’ Canadian properties include thevast but undeveloped chromite depositin Ontario’s Ring of Fire, as well as theWabush and Bloom Lake iron ore oper-ations, both in the Labrador Trough.The idled Wabush operation wasalready being shopped around prior tothe change in the board and there is thepossibility the Bloom Lake operationwill be spun off as well.

Recently, other iron ore producershave shed or stalled less-attractive assets.Sweden’s Northland Resources has post-poned development of a second process-ing line at its Kaunisvaara operation andis shopping around its Hannukainenproperty. Labrador Iron Mines suspended

all of its operations this past summer, andAustralia’s Cairn Hill mine, owned by Ter-mite Resources, was also closed. – P.D.

Alberta releases newguidelines for consultationwith First Nations

The approach to First Nations con-sultation in Alberta became clearerrecently, following the provincial gov-ernment’s July release of the Guidelineson Consultation with First Nations on Landand Natural Resource Management tosupplement its policy on consultationwith First Nations introduced last year.

The new guidelines were created afterconsulting with industry, First Nationsand other stakeholders last October. Theguidelines lay out the roles and responsi-bilities of project proponents, FirstNations and various branches of the gov-ernment including the Alberta EnergyRegulator. The document also establishesthe process for consultation and givesguidance on the level of consultationrequired depending on the scale of theproject. The 2013 consultation policyincludes the establishment of the Aborig-inal Consultation Office that now acts asthe single government authority andoverseer for consultation. The officemanages the consultation process, com-pletes pre-consultation assessments anddetermines consultation adequacy fordecisions under the Alberta Energy Reg-ulator and makes recommendations forAlberta government ministries, said Mar-tin Dupuis, spokesperson for AlbertaAboriginal Relations.

“The previous guidelines were ministry-specific, and each ministry haddifferent consultation processes as theAboriginal Consultation Office was notin existence,” explained Dupuis. “[Theyalso] did not contain sector-specificconsultation matrices.”

Two matrices were included as plan-ning tools for industries. The first isdesigned to help companies determinewhether their activity necessitates con-sultation. If it does, the second matrixassists in deciding if that consultationshould be streamlined, standard orextensive. – A. L.-P.

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8:58 AM

If all goes according to plan, nextspring Glencore’s Raglan nickel-coppermine in northern Quebec will becomethe first mine in the world to cut its dieselconsumption by linking a wind turbineto a hydrogen fuel-cell storage system.

At the moment, only part of theproject is complete. Raglan mine andits partners finished construction of asingle 80-metre-high windmill at themine on August 7 and connected theturbine to the local power supply inearly September. A mine spokeswomansays the first 120-hour run-test, fromSept. 2 to 8, was successful.

The windmill was supplied by Ger-many’s Enercon, one of the world’sbiggest wind turbine manufacturers.An Enercon team as well as Raglanemployees and Tugliq, a Quebec City-based energy firm that owns the sys-tem, assembled the windmill on site.

The next step is energy storage.Four shipping containers with fly-wheels, a battery system and othercomponents of the storage system aredue to arrive at the mine towards theend of the year. But it is unlikely to beinstalled for several months due toharsh winter conditions at the mine.

The project involves connecting thewind turbine to an electrolyzer, whichwill pass wind-generated electricitythrough water, splitting the H2O mol-ecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Theplan is to store the hydrogen in twosix-metre-long compressed-gas reser-voirs – similar to horizontal propanestorage tanks – and then use it to gen-erate electricity from a fuel cell.

The Quebec government has con-tributed more than a quarter of theproject’s $22.6 million cost as part ofits plan to spur economic developmentin the remote northern part of theprovince. The remaining $16 millionhas come from the federal government,Glencore and Tugliq. Once in opera-tion, the mine will pay Tugliq forpower from the wind system.

Transforming wind into fuelGlencore to install hydrogen fuel-cell storage system at Raglan mine

By Bernard Simon

Hydrogen fuel cells have long beenhailed as a promising source of cheaprenewable energy. But researchers havestruggled to translate the benefits intocommercially viable projects.

“There are not that many green-energy technologies that you can use tostore electricity,” said LaurentAbbatiello, principal vice-presidentand chief financial officer at Tugliq,who has coordinated its construction.

Up to now, fuel cells have beenviewed mainly as a potential replace-ment for the internal combustionengine in motor vehicles. For example,California-based Vision Industries hasinstalled fuel cells in its Tyranno heavy-duty truck, currently in use at the portsof Los Angeles and Long Beach. Thezero-emission truck has a range of 200miles on a single tank of hydrogen.

Kevin Harrison, a research engineerat the U.S. Department of Energy’sNational Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL), noted that fuel cells are anefficient medium for converting hydro-gen to electricity, especially when rela-tively low heat (60-80 C) is required.Other advantages include no movingparts and quick recharging.

But hydrogen also presents someserious challenges. It takes up a lot ofspace relative to the energy it gener-ates. It is also not necessarily the mostefficient option. “Since you have toproduce the hydrogen and then makeelectricity again through a fuel cell, ithas a lower round-trip efficiency com-pared with other storage technologieslike batteries and pump hydro,” saidHarrison.

Even so, he added, “with inexpen-sive renewable electricity, energy stor-age can be a very compelling economicpossibility.”

Raglan is not the first mine inCanada’s North to harness wind as away of cutting diesel costs. Four tur-bines at the Diavik diamond mine inthe Northwest Territories, a joint ven-ture between Rio Tinto and DominionDiamond Corp., already generate about10 per cent of that mine’s power needs.

Diavik estimates the wind farm willdisplace five million litres of diesel fuelthis year, which is equal to a savings of$6 million out of an annual $70 milliondiesel bill. But Diavik has no storagesystem and uses the wind-generatedpower as it is being produced.

Glencore’s Raglan mine and its partners finished construction of a single 80-metre-high windmill at the mine onAug. 7.

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Atlas Copco celebrates 30 years of Water for All initiative

Atlas Copco recently celebrated the 30th anniversary ofWater for All, an organization created to provide long-term clean and safe water for people in need. More than1.5 million people have gained access to clean drinkingwater since the company launched this initiative. Thecompany has also donated more than $500,000 to 15international projects since 2010. Atlas Copcoannounced that it will fund a $50,000 project in theTigray region of Ethiopia; five community-drilled wellswill be built to bring clean water to 2,500 residents. Upto 35 countries with around 5,000 regularly donatingemployees worldwide represent Water for All.

Raglan’s plans are more ambitious. “The thing with windis that it’s not stable,” explained Abbatiello. “One day itblows, one day it doesn’t. And sometimes even the way itblows changes within a minute. The storage devices aremeant to supply a stable energy level even if there is not windall the time.”

The Raglan mine pilot project has a design capacity ofabout three megawatts, enough to save the equivalent ofabout 2.5 million litres of diesel fuel a year, or five per centof the mine’s consumption. The mine currently uses 60 mil-lion litres of diesel a year, with fuel making up one-fifth of itstotal operating budget.

But if all goes well, Abbatiello foresees the day when a full-blown wind farm with multiple turbines will generate nine to12 megawatts of electricity, equal to nearly half of the mine’sneeds.

Kristan Straub, Raglan mine’s vice-president, estimatesthat a wind project of that scale could slash the mine’s dieselconsumption and overall energy costs by 40 per cent.

The first two hydrogen reservoirs will collectively storeelectricity for about 20 hours, but the addition of more couldconsiderably extend the storage period.

“If results are positive, we hope that our system will serveas a model that could be installed in diesel-dependent com-munities, and then benefit all of Nunavik (the northernregion of Quebec),” said Straub.

Abbatiello is confident that the wind-to-hydrogen systemwill perform well: “We know that the technologies work inother applications. This is the first time that everything hasbeen combined. So the complexity is how to integrate, con-trol and command all those components.” CIM

Yukon First Nations gathered inWhitehorse in mid-August to discussimpact and benefit agreements (IBAs)and add their views to an updated IBACommunity Toolkit scheduled forrelease this fall.

The toolkit is intended to help abo-riginal communities negotiate IBAs withmining companies looking to start proj-ects on their territory.

Ginger Gibson, co-author of thetoolkit, said it was important to learnmore about past and present IBAsbetween Yukon First Nations andresource companies before the revisedguidebook is offered to aboriginal com-munities across Canada in October.

“We had never held an event inYukon before and never developed agood feel for Yukon issues,” Gibsonsaid. “It was timely, with many partiesinterested in Yukon now.”

In addition to this crucial back-ground, Gibson said the revised docu-ment also captures the evolution of IBAssince the original was released in 2010. Financial arrangementsbetween aboriginal communities andresource companies may now includegross overriding royalties for mines andprofit-sharing deals with, or equitystakes in resource companies, ratherthan simply employment and contract-ing opportunities, as was typical in thepast. As a result, the updated toolkit willplace increased emphasis on financialplanning and management.

Aboriginal communities should pre-pare for greater transparency of IBAs,Gibson added, as the federal govern-ment is drafting legislation to lift thecloak of confidentiality and require dis-closure of IBA payments exceeding$100,000. “This [information] was heldclosest to the chest,” Gibson said. “Butsome IBAs are public now, so the cat’sout of the bag on financial considera-tions.”

The toolkit is published and distrib-uted by the Walter and Duncan Gordon

Fall debut for updated IBA Community ToolkitWhitehorse workshop sheds light on Yukon First Nations’ agreements with mining companies

By Vivian Danielson

Foundation, a Toronto-based philan-thropic organization focused on policyissues in the North. Research and technical support is provided by theFirelight Group, of which Gibson is adirector. They also collaborate on IBAworkshops, including the recent White-horse event.

The value in the August workshop,said James MacDonald, natural re -sources and environment manager forthe Council of Yukon First Nations,came from sharing different experi-ences and perspectives. Unlike B.C.,Yukon First Nations have settled mostland claims and are largely self-gov-erning, he pointed out. Yukon’s battlefor devolution from Ottawa, won in2003, has further empowered FirstNations communities to directly nego-tiate IBAs.

Along with precedent-setting IBAcase studies from Yukon, the updatedtoolkit will reflect and help explainrecent legislative changes and aboriginalcourt decisions from across the country.As examples of this new con t ent, Gibson cited the 2014

Supreme Court ruling on the Tsilhqot’intitle claim in British Columbia, and revi-sions to the Canadian EnvironmentalAssessment Act.

“We see the toolkit as a livingresource,” Gibson said. “[The updatedversion] will also address issues such asthe Mount Polley tailings dam failure inB.C. We saw the need to reflect on pre-vention and technical solutions andinclude suggestions on the terms for[industry] commitments such as compensation.”

IBAs vary greatly depending on thetype of project, and with no universalblueprint, negotiations are often a chal-lenge for all parties. Aboriginal negotiat-ing teams can range from two to 20people, noted Gibson, and many lackthe resources and capacity of the com-panies they face across the table. In thepast, he said, “Some didn’t know how tobuild a budget, for example, which iswhy we developed budget worksheets.The goal was to provide tools andresources, including the basic dos anddon’ts of negotiations, to guide themthrough every stage of the process.”

Ginger Gibson (center) at an IBA workshop in Yellowknife, NT in September 2011, after the launch of the originaltoolkit.

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Gibson said most IBA workshops ofthe type held in Whitehorse arerequested by communities facingresource activity and/or developmentproposals.

The original IBA CommunityToolkit grew out of a 2007 GordonFoundation northern policy forum inthe Northwest Territories and was fur-ther developed from input duringmeetings with aboriginal leaders acrossCanada (with the now remediedexception of Yukon). The contentstresses the need for negotiators toestablish the baseline socio-economic,cultural and environmental conditionsof their communities and how thingsmight change – for better or worse – ifthe project goes ahead. The other mainsections focus on preparing for andconducting negotiations, reaching andimplementing agreements, and main-taining relationships.

Allen Edzerza, a Tahltan and veterannegotiator who has attended IBA work-shops across Canada, including the

Whitehorse event, said the toolkit pro-vides a common starting point for abo-riginal communities, particularly those


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giving back

Kenya school hall opens withAusenco Foundation support

The Ausenco Foundation announcedthat the Magaoni SecondarySchool Multipurpose Hall officiallyopened in August, a joint projectwith Base Titanium and the Maga-oni community. The AusencoFoundation partially funded themulti-purpose hall’s construction,aimed at providing better learningservices and facilities for the stu-dents and the surrounding com-munities. It is located near theKwale Mineral Sands mite site,owned and operated by Base Tita-nium, which is constructing a sec-ond school on the site.

with no negotiating experience. “It’shelping,” he said. “The ones that haveaccessed it are pleased with it.” CIM


When the tailings pond dam rup-tured at Imperial Metals’ Mount Polleymine on August 4, it sent 10 millioncubic metres of water, 13.8 millioncubic metres of tailings slurry and 0.6million cubic metres of constructionwaste into Hazeltine Creek, an amountthe company said in September was 78per cent higher than original estimates.

To address the spill, the governmentof B.C. announced in August it wouldpartner with two local First Nations’bands affected by the tailings breachand ordered an independent investiga-tion to determine what caused thebreach.

The partnership between the provin-cial government and the Williams Lakeand Soda Creek Indian Bands, outlinedin a letter of understanding, consists ofa principals table and a senior officialscommittee. The committee, made up ofrepresentatives from the Ministries ofEnvironment, Aboriginal Relations andReconciliation, and Energy and Mines,as well as delegates from the FirstNations groups, will oversee cleanupand remediation planning, and assessfunding requirements as well as thefuture of the mine. The ultimate decision- making authority will remainwith the province.

The committee will report back tothe principals table, a group thatincludes the three ministers and the twoFirst Nations chiefs. There is no dead-line for the report as of yet. The letter ofunderstanding also promises $200,000to each band in the partnership for cur-rent and future costs incurred by thebreach.

The independent investigation isbeing conducted by a panel of four:Norbert Morgenstern, an Albertaexpert in geotechnical engineering;Steven Vick, a Colorado geotechnicalengineer; Dirk Van Zyl, a University ofBritish Columbia professor; and JimKuipers, a Montana-based miningengineer who will act as a First Nations

Collaborative response B.C. government and First Nations team up to tackle the aftermath of the Mt. Polley tailings breach

By Kelsey Rolfe

liaison. The panel has the power tocompel evidence and will give itsreport with recommendations to theprovince by January 31, 2015.

“We tried to find people who hadexperience in these types of investiga-tions, who had the knowledge andexpertise to be able to undertake thework that needs to be done,” said JohnRustad, the minister of aboriginal rela-tions and reconciliation. “Our hope isto get to the bottom of what happenedand how it happened so that we can, asa province, make sure that this sort ofthing never happens again.”

In the letter of understanding, theprovince promises a “dialogue” on exist-ing mining sector laws and regulations.

Ann Louie, chief of the WilliamsLake band, said she wants to see morethan talk come out of the partnershipand investigation. “We need stricterrules,” she said. “Right now the[provincial] government wants to pushfor 30 new mines. Just because there’spotential doesn’t mean that it shouldbe pushed through. The rules have tobe stringent, because we don’t wantany more disasters like this.”

Louie said she hopes to see bondsincreased to between $15 million and$100 million for companies looking toopen a new mine. “Right now, likewith Mount Polley’s disaster, the bondthat was there is next to nothing com-pared to what it’s going to cost to dealwith this situation,” she said. Louiealso called on the provincial govern-ment to take the recommendations ofFirst Nations members of the partner-ship seriously: “I think it’s critical forthe British Columbia government tolisten now, because they have not lis-tened in the past.”

Imperial Metals is not involved inthe partnership, but Steve Robertson,the company’s vice-president of corpo-rate affairs, said Imperial has escalatedits monthly meeting with the WilliamsLake and Soda Creek bands to convenealmost weekly so that the three partieshave a “good, full understanding aboutwhat each other is doing.” He also saidthe company is conducting its owncleanup and constructing a dyke insidethe tailings impoundment.

Robertson said Imperial Metals isnot looking to reopen Mount Polley

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The government of British Columbia announced in August it would partner with the Williams Lake and Soda CreekIndian Bands to determine what caused the breach.

Flickr/The

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until the company has completed itsthree-part initial response plan, helpedto rehabilitate Hazeltine Creek andrepaired the tailings pond.

He said he sympathized with com-munity members and First Nationswho found the footage of the spill dis-turbing but added that the tailingspond has non acid-generating tailings,so the “level of deleterious elements inthe tailings is very low.”

“It’s a shocking experience foreverybody to have something like thishappen, and it will take some time forthese wounds to heal,” he said. “One ofthe best ways to ensure that we movebeyond this though is to have a contin-ual and open dialogue with the com-munity members.” CIM

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Philippi-Hagenbuch targetscancer research

U.S.-based group Philippi-Hagenbuch, Inc. and theSusan G. Komen Memorialare working together to raiseawareness about breast can-cer prevention and to raiseresearch funds aimed atfinding a cure. For eachpink PHIL Autogate® Tail-gate purchased through the Pink Tailgate Initiative, the company will give fiveper cent of the proceeds to the Memorial. All tailgates are pink and decoratedwith a ribbon. This initiative runs through December 2014.

Courtesy of P

hlippi-H

agen

buch

(SEDAR), the report must be complete, current and contain allmaterial information about the property.

But what happens when things change? Perhaps metalprices used in mineral resource estimates a few years ago arenow considered too high, permits expire, or there is a signifi-cant change in the project boundary? What about when obli-gations to maintain the project have changed? Orrecommendations in the technical report are no longer valid orplans for the property have changed for various reasonsincluding a change to the jurisdiction’s tax or royalty regime.Is the technical report still considered current?

Some of the triggers to file a technical report under NI 43-101 are events related to documents filed by the company,such as annual information form (AIF), and do not necessarilyapply at the project level. A company can rely on a previouslyfiled technical report to satisfy the AIF trigger; however, it cando so only if there is no new material scientific or technical

I n today’s economic climate, with many mining companiesin survival mode and expenditures down, the last thingcompanies want to worry about is technical reports on their

material mineral properties, and whether those reports are stillcurrent. It is easy to think that, because exploration programsare limited and there are no new material results to disclose ona property, the technical report on the property is still up todate. However, this is not necessarily the case.

Mining companies are generally only legally required to filea technical report on a material property when they hit a trig-ger under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosurefor Mineral Projects (NI 43-101). Technical report triggers canbe events related to activities on the mineral property like afirst-time disclosure of, or material change to, a mineralresource, reserve or preliminary economic assessment (PEA).When a mining company does file a technical report on theSystem for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval

Have your technical reports timed out?

BY LAUREL PETRYK AND GREG GOSSON


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We have often seen regulators ask companies to fileupdated technical reports when they consider the current onesmisleading to investors. If a company is relying on an existingtechnical report filed on SEDAR that is no longer current toform the basis of its continuous disclosure, the companyshould at the very least provide an appropriate context for theinformation and cautionary language that clearly explains anypossible risks to investors of relying on that existing report sothat the disclosure is not misleading.

Since market windows open and close quickly, a miningcompany could pay the price further down the line if it doesnot keep its technical reports up to date. When equity mar-kets become available to raise finance again, non-currenttechnical reports could deter an investment bank and hold upthe filing of a prospectus, rights offering, or offering memo-randum, causing a company to lose out on a valuable finan-cial opportunity. CIM

information about the project. If the technical report is nolonger current, and the AIF has new scientific or technicalinformation about the project, including information aboutpotential economics, an updated technical report containingall the new project information must be filed on SEDAR tosupport the information in the AIF.

How can a mining company determine if an existing tech-nical report it has on file on SEDAR is complete and current?If there are no new exploration or mining study results and thesite visit is still current, a company should look at the scientificand technical information as presented in the existing techni-cal report, including the validity of economic assumptionsused, and determine whether such information is still currentand not misleading in today’s economic conditions.

For instance, some assumptions used in mineral resourceestimates or economic analyses in relation to metal prices andexchange rates may now be considered out of date. If a tableshowing sensitivity of the mineral resource estimates to cut-offgrade was included, the shelf life of the technical report can beextended since it would support a wider range of long-termmetal prices. For more advanced properties that include aneconomic analysis, the technical report should contain theappropriate sensitivity analyses of key economic variables toshow how changes, for example, to commodity prices, costs,exchange rates and other factors can affect project economics.

Laurel Petryk is a partner in McMillan’s Vancouver office in the mining andsecurities department. She has extensive experience advising on NI 43-101issues and reviewing technical reports and feasibility studies for miningcompanies in all stages of development. [email protected]

Greg Gosson is technical director, resource estimation and compliance at AMEC.He is a recognized expert and frequent speaker on NI 43-101 and otherinternational mining disclosure standards. He is currently a member of the MiningTechnical Advisory and Monitoring Committee for NI 43-101, an industry advisorycommittee to the Canadian Securities Regulators. [email protected]

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columns

The business case for open innovation

BY CARL WEATHERELL


I N N O V A T I O N

I n March 2000, Goldcorp published 45 years of proprietarydata on its Red Lake mine in northwestern Ontario and itssurroundings on the Internet. The company invited the

world at large to use the data to submit prospecting methodsand received 1,400 proposals. From these, Goldcorp selecteda total of 25 semi-finalists and three finalists who identified110 exploration targets. Half of those were previouslyunknown to the mine’s geologists and 80 per cent of themhave since netted significant deposits. The end-result was theidentification of eight million ounces of gold, and the com-pany’s valuation moving from around $100 million to $9 bil-lion. Goldcorp’s success is also one of the few case studies ofopen innovation by mining companies.

Many companies struggle with the notion of innovation(never mind open innovation) because they equate it withR&D. This could not be further from the truth. Innovation, inthe context of the minerals industry, is about bringing

something new to the business such as ideas, technology,processes or research that provides measurable, economicvalue. Without a direct and tangible link to the economic driv-ers of the business, activities labelled innovation are simplyactivities and not innovation.

Open innovation takes this a step further. It is about bringingnew ideas, technologies, processes or research from both insideand outside a single company or the minerals sector. This couldbe from collaboration with other companies, suppliers, originalequipment manufacturers (OEMs), colleges and universities toimprove results. As the Goldcorp example shows, openness canprovide solutions with less risk and a higher success rate andenrich the culture of innovation in the process.

Another benefit of open innovation is cost reduction. In2010, AngloGold Ashanti created the Technology InnovationConsortium (TIC), an open innovation organization in SouthAfrica that includes OEMs, suppliers and research institutions.


Carl Weatherell is the executive director and CEO of the Canada Mining InnovationCouncil. Carl is a change agent known for discovering new ways of doing thingsand taking ideas to execution. He is a natural connector, often bringing togetherdisparate and seemingly unrelated people, groups and organizations to create newpartnerships.

With TIC, AngloGold hopes to develop a solution to the chal-lenges of safe and sustainable mining at depth by repurposingcurrently available safe technologies for the mining industry toreplace drill and blast techniques. Although it is still a work inprogress, AngloGold has been able to reduce its all-in sustainingcosts by 22 per cent using the outputs of the open innovationapproach. They’ve achieved this by increasing the sources ofideas and sharing solutions to specific challenges while mitigat-ing development costs.

Open innovation may be rare in mining but it is not a newconcept, as many companies in other sectors of our economypractise this approach. BMW, Proctor and Gamble, Tesla, Price-waterhouseCoopers, IBM and Google are a few examples of com-panies that, in recent decades, have employed this strategy andenjoyed healthy profits.

Of course there are many myths surrounding open innova-tion. The first is the perceived value of intellectual property (IP)developed in-house. With today’s rapid pace of change in theglobal economy, companies in all sectors are looking to quicklydevelop and execute projects. In the minerals industry, compa-nies are focused on bringing new mining projects online fasterwith less capital expenditure. In this climate, companies woulddo well to forgo the time and expense of patenting their IP inexchange for rapid development. One mining company execu-tive we spoke to recently explained their company had gener-ated a large amount of IP but was increasingly convinced itwould be more valuable to open up and let external partiesaccess and build upon it rather than protect it.

Related to the IP challenge is the notion that companies cancollaborate while competing at the same time. Open innovationemploys collaboration and co-creation, sometimes with competi-tors of a core piece of technology, process or IP. In this case, thevalue of open innovation to these businesses comes from theprofit gained individually or collectively through the co-createdassets. For example, two companies co-develop patents for aninexpensive and effective baseline emission control technologythat is beneficial to both companies in different markets. Neitherof the partners, however, is a product company, so they both con-tribute IP to a start-up manufacturing company funded by outsideinvestors to produce their technology. The company is jointlymarketed by the partners and complements current service offer-ings to each of their customers.

It is important for mining companies to address major techni-cal challenges in order to increase shareholder value. What if youcould find new deposits faster at a greatly reduced cost? What ifyou could reduce operational expenditures by five per cent annu-ally through energy efficiency? Imagine that you could eliminategrab sampling of receiving waters or tailings altogether. These aresome of the greatest technical challenges the industry faces, yethas not been able to solve. Only through an open innovationapproach can we even think about addressing them, let aloneachieving success. CIM

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social and governance (ESG) factors in their decision makingwhen buying or investing in companies. PRI motivates com-panies to incorporate good practices such as sustainabilityand corporate social responsibility (CSR). This heightenedfocus on responsible investment means that mining compa-nies must demonstrate that they have implemented sustain-ability practices around ESG to secure long-term funding.

Shareholders are committed to their investments on ascale of 10 to 20 years and want to know that the companiesthey invest in have developed procedures to keep thoseassets healthy. This means managing social risk. Unrestamong people impacted by a mining project will lead to con-flict and disrupt operations, possibly through protests, roadblocks or vandalism. These can result in anything fromshort-term production slowdowns to the government’s per-manent shutdown of the mine.

I t may be tempting, at a time of low commodity prices andincessant demands for low-cost production, to focus onshort-term costs rather than long-term issues like building

a collaborative relationship with communities in a mine’sarea of influence. But smart mining companies consider thetrends around investor demands. Since the 2008 financialcrisis, institutional investors have become more aware of theneed to have healthy short- and long-term portfolios. Theycannot afford to carry companies exposed to social conflict orwithout risk mitigation programs customized to their opera-tion.

This comes in part with the rapid growth of the Principlesof Responsible Investment (PRI). This independent initiativewas convened by the United Nations in 2005 and officiallylaunched by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2006. Itlooks to encourage investors to integrate environmental,

Responsible investment: the reward of

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Consider a hypothetical town in South America wherea truck from a nearby mine hits and kills two chickensowned by a local farmer. If the company has implementedgood practices in community relations and opened com-munication channels through ongoing dialogue or griev-ance mechanisms, the chickens’ owner knows where to goand what to do to present his or her case, and trusts thecompany to provide compensation for the loss.

But if the mining company has not acknowledged itsstakeholders, is disrespectful toward the community, andis too distant to communicate with locals, those twochickens might cause the community to explode in anger,leading to social conflict. It is difficult to quantify the costsof such a conflict, but ignoring the risk exposes the com-pany to millions of dollars in losses if roadblocks cause aproduction stoppage, negative headlines and a tarnishedreputation.

In building good relations with stakeholders and ensur-ing CSR is done right, a company needs to consider ele-ments other than philanthropy. Too many in the miningindustry rely on this approach. However, donations tolocal churches or NGOs do not do the job of communityengagement and risk management. Effective communityrelations should involve building partnerships, oftenaround creating socio-economic opportunities for localpeople. This includes a commitment to local procurementand planning the development of the project around thecapacity of local economies and education.

Management at a mining company also must incorpo-rate community relations into their overall operation.From the start, mining companies should have a profes-sional approach to communities in their direct and indi-rect area of influence. That is the time at which the miningcompany should begin to engage with the community,finding ways to understand the socio-economic environ-ment and build long-term relations. Like the operation,this is an ongoing process and part of daily activities.

Additionally, companies need to know how to manageaccidents when they happen. What is important iswhether there is an effective plan for dealing with prob-lems. If the company has already forged a solid relation-ship with the community and has communicationchannels, problems can be discussed and resolved moreeasily and respectfully.

It is important to understand how expensive it could beto ignore sustainability and CSR, especially when thegrowth of PRI indicates that investors agree on the needfor well-managed companies that are able to mitigatesocial risk, avoid social conflict and ensure a healthy envi-ronment for a long-term mining operation. CIM

Monica Ospina is founder and director of the social economic developmentconsultancy OTrade, with a focus on the extractive industries (otrade.ca).

CIM DELIVERSRECOGNITIONL’ICM RECONNAÎT L’EXCELLENCE

TAKE THE TIMEto nominate a company or anindividual who has made an impact within our industry.

DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1ST, 2014CIM.ORG/AWARDS

PRENEZ LE TEMPSde soumettre une candidature pourle prix d’excellence de l’ICM.

DATE LIMITE : 1ER DÉCEMBRE 2014CIM.ORG/PRIX

2015 CIMAWARDSPrix d’excellence de l’ICM


Canada’s manager of reclamation and projects. “To create thisstable platform across the pond area, we used waste rockobtained from a nearby gold mine.”

Next, the team installed a massive liner out of thousands ofsheets of 60-millimetre-thick black high-density polyethylenewelded together to create what Yaschyshyn describes as a mas-sive quilt. Wind was a constant nemesis, however. On breezydays, a crew of 12 to 15 workers would use sandbags to holddown the sheets as they were welded together. On very windydays, work on the liner stopped completely. The team checkedevery weld for integrity, Yaschyshyn says.

Finally, the crew added a layer of soil almost one metrethick. The soil itself was augmented with municipal biosolids– dehydrated human waste culled from sewage treatmentplants in Toronto and Ottawa. “The nutrients in the biosolidswere readily available,” Yaschyshyn says. “It’s like putting Miracle Gro on your garden.” Though the idea of usingbiosolids may make some squeamish, they are safe and non-toxic by the time they are applied, and pose no danger to theenvironment according to Glencore.

The approach of using biosolids as fertilizer in farming andreclamation work is one being promoted by the Ontario gov-ernment, says Stroiazzo. He adds that using biosolids has anadded benefit: “It comes at a very good price: it’s free. The veg-etation over the former pond grew quickly and flourishes tothis day.”

The result is a lush green meadow and the return of anindustrial waste site to something approaching a natural state.Even so, Yaschyshyn says the site will still be monitored forongoing care and maintenance of the vegetation, which cannotinclude trees because root systems could damage the liner.“Financial provision has been made for this long-term moni-toring and maintenance,” he adds.

A thriving ecosystemAlthough not so impacted by the nearby industrial activity

that it required full remediation, Glencore Canada stillincluded Three Nations Creek, located slightly downhill from

The jarosite pond and the area around it at Glencore’sKidd Metallurgical site (Kidd Metsite) in Timmins,Ontario was an eyesore three and a half years ago.More than 800,000 tonnes of jarosite, an iron sulphate

byproduct of refining zinc ore from the nearby Kidd copper-zinc mine, covered 30 hectares, an area the size of 56 footballfields, with brown and red water and sludge.

Flash forward to 2014, and today the area resembles whatit used to look like in the days before industry: an open greenmeadow. For its work reclaiming the pond and the areaaround it, Glencore Canada Corporation won the 2014 TomPeters Memorial Mine Reclamation Award, handed out everyyear by the Canadian Land Reclamation Association and theOntario Mining Association in recognition of the best minecleanup work in Ontario.

Kidd Metsite was mostly shut down when zinc and coppersmelting ceased in May 2010 and the bulk of its buildingswere dismantled. However, the concentrator at the site contin-ues to process ore from the Kidd mine, 27 kilometres away.

The pond was built in 1971 and, during the very earlyyears, some seepage from the containment area into nearbyThree Nations Creek was detected and quickly contained.Over the life of the site, there was continuous monitoring andadditional upgrades were made including the construction ofseepage collection ditches, pump-back systems, and stabiliza-tion berms.

“When closure of the jarosite pond began in 2010, thepond had been stable for the majority of its years in use,” saysDavid Yaschyshyn, Kidd Operations’ environment manager.

Building on mudThe closure of the jarosite pond, including the dewatering

of the sludge and the covering of the remaining material,posed a challenge as this waste had the consistency of mud,making it difficult to build on or over. “Part of the challengefor our project design partner, AMEC Environment & Infra-structure, was to establish a surface upon which we couldinstall the final covering,” explains John Stroiazzo, Glencore

Reclamationon solidgroundHow a former jarositepond and a man-madewetland brought natureback to Glencore’s KiddMetsite By Chris Windeyer

The jarosite pond area after reclamation

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the jarosite pond, in the multi-million dollar remediation proj-ect. The concentration of metals in the creek’s water would riseand fall seasonally as soil and sediment containing some met-als, particularly zinc, would dry out then wash into the creekduring heavier rains. “Prior to the project, the creek wasalready relatively healthy with all kinds of fish and inverte-brates living in it,” says Yaschyshyn.

Stroiazzo says the company considered a range of options,from leaving the relatively healthy creek untouched to com-pletely removing the creek bed. The final remediation planconsisted of a series of dams and ditches that raised the waterlevel in the creek to ensure the water cover was maintained tokeep the soil and sediments from drying out. This was accom-plished by creating a 10-hectare wetland as part of ThreeNations Creek.

As a result, the presence of zinc in the water no longerspikes after a dry season and has declined yet another order ofmagnitude, now regularly below provincial water qualityobjectives.

“Creating this wetland provided for a more sustainable wayto manage the nearby ecosystem, says Yaschyshyn. “Not onlydoes this wetland help prevent the drying of the soil in sum-mer and its washing away into the creek during the rainy sea-son, but it also includes a network of passageways designed toallow fish to move up and downstream unencumbered.”

“Three Nations Creek is a thriving ecosystem,” concursStroiazzo.

The complete project, whichemployed as many as 50 workers, costmore than $50 million and was deemeda success as attested by GlencoreCanada’s recent win of the Tom PetersMemorial Mine Reclamation Award.

“Although we are still in active oper-ation with a mine, concentrator and tail-ings area, this project is an example ofhow we will undertake future closures atour site,” says Yaschyshyn. “We have setthe bar high and are committed to thesame level of effort to minimize ourimpact on the environment while inoperation and to remediate our site as weapproach closure.”

For Stroiazzo, the project is an exam-ple of good planning and use of easilyavailable local materials, whether it bewaste rock or fertilizer made fromhuman excrement. “It established amethodology of using what you have,where you have it to minimize yourimpact to the environment in otherways,” he says. “There was a lot of cleverthinking to bring this together at a rea-sonable cost.” With closure plans andremediation deposits mandatory just


about everywhere these days, Stroiazzo says the best practiceslearned at Kidd Metsite are valuable for Glencore Canada.

And of course, there is the simple pride of being recognizedfor a job well done. With 32 years of experience in minecleanup, Stroiazzo is used to working behind the scenes,although his cleanup project for another decommissioned Glen-core site, the Gaspé copper mine in Murdochville, Quebec, alsowon an award in 2011. Still, he says, “These are big jobs. Theytake a lot of time and energy. They’re not always visible and toget recognition for projects like this is very satisfying.” CIM

The jarosite pond area before reclamation

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In the summer of 2011, after four and a half years of metic-ulous planning and construction, Copper Mountain Cor-poration’s flagship mine near the town of Princeton, B.C.commenced production and began extracting ore from its

five billion pounds of copper resource on its 18,000-acre site.Almost everything worked as projected with one dauntingexception: the mill’s designed throughput rates were not beingconsistently met and were lower than anticipated. The missedtarget threw engineers for a loop. “We’d had a feasibility studyand design done,” says the company’s president and CEO, JimO’Rourke. “The grinding mill suppliers had been involved init and given us a warranty of capacity, which was never met,and we had an independent consultant and a consulting firmworking with us as well. We had a lot of people working onthe design. It’s just that the rock didn’t react the way it wassupposed to.”

Based on the design and feasibility studies using samplesfrom the site, the rock was supposed to go through the pri-mary crusher, coming out of it in 5.5-inch chunks that wouldthen go into the mine’s 34-foot diameter x 20-foot, 17,000horsepower SAG Mill, producing a throughput rate of 35,000tonnes per day. Instead, in the first quarter of 2013, the aver-age throughput rate was 24,900 tonnes per day.

Rather than rely on more rock samples, Copper Mountaininstalled cameras on the SAG mill feed conveyor to monitorthe ore size as well as provide a 3D image of the ore enteringthe mill. The information provided by these cameras was veryimportant because it demonstrated the inverse relationshipbetween feed size and throughput. “It was very clear that whenwe had five percent or less of plus four-inch ore entering themill, we were getting good tonnage, in fact, over design. Butwhen the ratio of plus four-inch ore came up to about 30 percent or so of the mill feed, the tonnage would drop way back,”recalls O’Rourke. The deposit has some very hard rock thatinstead of being crushed in the SAG mill was simply beingworn down in size.

Not willing to accept lower than predicted output, themine’s team leaped into action and introduced several

temporary measures to increase throughput. First, they imple-mented high-energy blasting in early 2013 to improve orefragmentation and create more fines in the feed. But they alsocontinued looking for a more effective and long-term solution.In March 2013, they tried something new: they ran a full-scaleproduction test whereby 70,000 tonnes of ore was crushed tominus two inches in size using a contractor’s portable crusherto feed the SAG mill. “We achieved and surpassed designcapacity,” says O’Rourke. “We then knew that finer crushingwas the solution.”

In early 2013, the mine contracted a temporary crushingunit to crush up to 7,500 tonnes per day of minus two-inchmaterial. In August of that year, the mine purchased its ownportable crusher and in December added a third crusher froma contractor. About 30 per cent of the feed going into the SAGmill was at that point crushed down to minus two inches insize with the portable crushers, resulting in its throughput rateincreasing to 30,450 tonnes per day by the second quarter of2014. However, there were two setbacks with these temporarymeasures: one was they could not handle 100 per cent of thetotal mill feed; the second was that the extra crushers cost $1.3million a month.

To achieve the targeted SAG mill throughput rate, CopperMountain needed to install a permanent secondary crusherthat could crush 100 per cent of the ore to minus two inchesin size. It had to be a high-performance, massive crusher, capa-ble of handling high tonnage. After completing an engineeringstudy that confirmed viability of the secondary crusher, Cop-per Mountain chose the FL Smidth Raptor 2000, the largestcone crusher on the market, with technology that has beenproven to be capable of handling applications like theirs. Atthe time, there were only two other such crushers installed inthe world and the one at Copper Mountain would be the third.

Race against time and the oddsStaff at Copper Mountain chose to directly manage all of

the transportation and logistics themselves rather than out-source the delivery to the equipment supplier. “Freight

CopperMountain’smissionimpossibleOre variability drives crushingcapacity to extremesBy Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco Copper Mountain’s new

primary crusher arrived infour main components

totalling 260 tonnes.

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forwarding options canchange very quickly as ves-sels are available in differ-ent ports, and that windowof opportunity is some-times very short so youhave to make very quickdecisions,” says WaltHalipchuk, the company’sadministration managerwho, along with a team oftwo logistics specialistsfrom Panalpina’s Pan Proj-ect group, worked longhours to co-ordinate everystep from procurement todelivery. “We were able toreduce the decision-mak-ing process, review options and reply back within 24 to 48hours, which is a huge advantage.”

The company ordered the crusher on December 6, 2013.Only 30 days later, and over the Christmas holiday, the fourmain components; the lower main frame, which weighs over100 tonnes, the upper main frame, the bowl short head andthe adjustment ring – for a total combined weight of 260tonnes – were trucked from the manufacturing plant inBucharest, Romania to that country’s Port of Constanta. Fromthere, the cargo was shipped over water to Venice, Italy. Ratherthan make Vancouver its destination, Halipchuk chose Halifaxbecause the road trip between Vancouver and the mine siteincludes 35 bridges, all of which would have required bridge-load bearing calculations and engineering, given the cargo’sweight. By contrast, there are only 13 bridges between Kam-loops and Princeton. So Halipchuk had the cargo shipped tothe Maritimes and contracted CN Rail to handle the cross-country transportation.

All went well when the cargo with the four major compo-nents left Venice, but then a hurricane hit the Atlantic and theship had to be diverted. Still, on Feb. 2, the crusher’s maincomponents arrived safely in Nova Scotia. In late March, thecargo reached Kamloops via specialized rail cars and was puton a massive transport truck with 108 wheels ready to travel acarefully planned trip over four nights so as to minimize trafficdisruption. “We had a whole traffic management plan and anengineer personally supervising every bridge crossing,” saysHalipchuk.

On March 18, during the final stretch, an unexpected hur-dle developed: a road tension crack appeared from a slope fail-ure caused by spring runoff on a two-lane section of theProvincial Highway 5A 45 kilometres north of Princeton. Cop-per Mountain responded rapidly, working with Ministry ofTransport engineers, contract surveyors, civil and geo-techni-cal engineers, the local aggregate supplier, trucking firms, roadrepair crews, traffic control services, and project manage-ment – and footing the bill. “It was a little bit like sending inthe navy Seals,” Halipchuk says.

The repair work was completed on March 21 and the truckrolled by 15 minutes later, arriving in Princeton at 2:30 a.m.,as originally scheduled.

Since the crusher was built with parts from Romania, sev-eral U.S. states, Germany, China, and Canada, there were a lotmore logistics involved. “The major components are all veryexciting but you can’t overlook the smallest detail,” saysHalipchuk. “So you go from these 260-tonne components toan electrical component that maybe weighs a pound but isequally important to the project. As they say, ‘For want of anail.’”

Meanwhile, back at the siteBetween December to late March, construction manage-

ment company Merit Consultants International Inc. was work-ing to have all the preparation completed before the truck withthe major crusher parts arrived. “Once we started receivingmore equipment, we rounded up from about 15 people to 60and worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Moe The-riault, Merit’s construction manager for the project. Theyerected the crusher building, installed the crusher using a largecrane – no easy feat due to the weight of the parts – andrevamped the conveyer system, including inserting a shorttransfer chute into the kilometre-long section. This was donewith precise timing during a planned four-day shutdown ofthe primary crusher and with no disruption to the mill opera-tions, as there was enough ore stockpiled to keep operating.

By the end of July, just seven months after the start of con-struction, the $40-million secondary crusher was built on timeand on budget, with testing and commissioning finalized inAugust.

“There are always hiccups in construction, but when youhave a great team, the team gets together and overcomes allthe hiccups,” says O’Rourke. As Copper Mountain cele-brates the completion of this latest ambitious mission, it hasalso uncovered another bit of great news: the deposit willsupport a mine life that is at least two years longer than esti-mated back in 2011. CIM

The new Raptor 2000 crusher(left) supplies minus two-inchfeed for the SAG mill.

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An Introduction to Cutoff Grade: Theory and Practice in Open Pit and Underground Mines (with a new section on blending optimization strategy)Cutoff grades are essential in determining the economic feasibility and mine life of a project. Learn how to solve most cutoff grade estimationproblems by developing techniques and graphical analytical methods, about the relationship between cutoff grades and the design of pushbacks inopen pit mines, and the optimization of block sizes in caving methods.INSTRUCTOR Jean-Michel Rendu, USA • DATE September 3-5, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Geostatistical Mineral Resource Estimation and Meeting the New Regulatory Environment: Step by Step from Sampling to Grade ControlLearn about the latest regulations on public reporting of resources/reserves through state-of-the-art statistical and geostatistical techniques; howto apply geostatistics to predict dilution and adapt reserve estimates to that predicted dilution; how geostatistics can help you categorize yourresources in an objective manner; and how to understand principles of NI 43-101 and the SME Guide.INSTRUCTORS Marcelo Godoy, Newmont Mining Corp., Denver; Jean-Michel Rendu, JMR Consultants, USA; Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGillUniversity, Canada; and Guy Desharnais, SGS Canada Inc., Canada • DATE September 8-12, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Strategic Risk Management in Mine Design: From Life-of-Mine to Mining Complexes• Find out how to manage and minimise risks and produce optimal pit designs with strategic mine planning processes and the next generation

optimisation methods. • Discover how new developments will help you capture the “upside potential” in mine designs and minimise “downside risks” as well as increase

cash flows through the effect of the mining sequence and “risk blending”.• Explore real-world examples and participate in hands-on computer sessions that show how to increase project value by employing new risk-

based (stochastic) optimisation models.• Understand and learn about the new stochastic mine planning optimisation framework and its contribution to sustainable utilisation of mineral

resources.• Discover new developments in optimizing mining complexes and mineral value chains.INSTRUCTORS Tarrant Elkington, Snowden, Australia; and Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada • DATE October 15-17, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Quantitative Mineral Resource Assessments: An Integrated Approach to Planning for Exploration Risk ReductionLearn about exploration risk analysis for strategic planning. Understand how to demonstrate how operational mineral deposit models can reduceuncertainties; make estimates of the number of undiscovered deposits; and integrate the information and examine the economic possibilities.INSTRUCTORS Don Singer, USA; and David Menzie, U.S. Geological Survey, USA • DATE Postponed until 2015 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec,Canada


Patricia Mohr, vice-president of economics and com-modity market specialist at Scotiabank in Toronto, isknown for her precision in predicting commodityprices. She is responsible for developing the Scotia-

bank Commodity Price Index, the first index designed tomeasure price trends for Canadian commodities in exportmarkets. In 2013 she won the Metal Bulletin Apex Award forthe most accurate gold and precious metal price forecasts of2012. In mid-September, Mohr shared her views on the mar-kets with CIM Magazine. She expects copper prices to remainstable or drop slightly over the next couple of years, withzinc taking its place as the base metal market darling.

CIM: What is driving the copper price this year?Mohr: Although copper prices are down from the record highin 2011 (US$4.65/lb), they remain quite profitable. I thinkwe are beginning to get a cyclical lift-off in base metal prices,but copper is not going to be in the group that rallies in thenext 18 months because there is still a lot of new mine sup-ply coming on stream. At US$3.15 per pound, prices remainlucrative for most copper mining companies, yielding anaverage profit margin of 28 per cent over full break-evencosts, including depreciation and interest on debt.

CIM: What can we expect on the supply side for the rest of2014 and into 2015?Mohr: There is another wave of mine supply that is about tocome on stream including three new mines in Chile (MinaMinistro Hales, Caserones and Sierra Gorda), two in Peru(Toromocho and Las Bambas), one in B.C. (Red Chris), anda big mine in Zambia (Sentinel). There is a lot of new supplycoming from both Zambia and the Congo, including green-field projects and the ramping up of brownfield mines. There

Channelling the futureEconomist Patricia Mohr says a copper price rebound will take years but zinc isheating upBy Virginia Heffernan

is a fair amount of brownfield expansion in the United States,and KGHM International plans to re-start the Afton Ajaxmine in B.C. around 2019, so all in all, there is quite a lot ofnew supply coming our way.

CIM: What about demand? Mohr: The demand for copper remains quite robust in Chinawith consumption boosted by strong auto production andinvestments in high-speed rail and social housing. Despite allthe negative sentiment about China’s economy, the reality isthat they are still likely to get GDP growth of about 7.4 percent this year. Yes, there is a correction in private sector res-idential construction, but China is offsetting that by expand-ing social housing – mostly apartment buildings – a biginitiative that rarely gets discussed. In urban areas, the Chi-nese are tearing down whole shantytowns and replacingthem with new housing and they are building new subwaysand rail lines. All of this activity is very copper intensive.Copper consumption in China will slow from 12 per centgrowth last year, but it will still be more than 8.5 per cent.

CIM: How much of global copper production is consumed inChina?Mohr: China accounts for 46 per cent of world consumptionof refined copper and that number is increasing slowly. By2017, its share should be up to 47 per cent because it con-trols so much of the world’s manufacturing capability. In

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Europe, economic growth has been disappointing and evenreversed in the second quarter. The United States is pickingup steam and industrial activity is performing quite wellthere, but because of the economic shift that occurred overthe past decade, the real demand driver remains China.

CIM: What direction are copper inventories moving?Mohr: Inventories for refined copper are down about 50 percent on the LME, COMEX and Shanghai Futures Exchangesince late-2013. Demand growth is solid and there is a short-age of copper scrap around the world, so fabricators havehad to shift to copper cathode. The prices have not been highenough to encourage a lot of scrap to come into the market.

CIM: Labour disruptions have affected copper supply in thepast. Do they continue to be a factor?Mohr: There haven’t been any major labour disruptionsrecently, but the Indonesian ban on the export ofunprocessed minerals caused Freeport McMoRan and New-mont to suspend operations at the Grasberg and Batu Hijaumines respectively for a number of months. The Grasbergmine is operating again because Freeport reached a memo-randum of understanding with the Indonesian governmentin July – under which an amended contract of work will benegotiated over the next six months – allowing the company

to export concentrates at a reduced export tax rate, thoughwith higher royalties on copper and gold. Newmont is alsoworking on an agreement, and I would expect it to receive asimilar package. However, the Indonesians are quite seriousabout increasing processing in their country and the exportduties are tied to smelter development in Indonesia.

CIM: Are there other factors affecting the copper price?Mohr: General market sentiment on the economic outlook forChina and global GDP growth are both very important indetermining prices. The strength or weakness of the U.S. dol-lar is also important. Unfortunately, we expect a strengthen-ing of the U.S. dollar in the next 18 months – not usually apositive for dollar-denominated commodity prices.

CIM: What are your copper price forecasts for 2014, 2015 andthe longer term?Mohr: I’m calling for prices to average US$3.16 per poundthis year and to move to a US$3 per pound average next year.In terms of market interest, the baton will shift from copperto zinc in the next couple of years, and I expect very goodperformance from zinc. Later in the decade, I think copperprices are going to move back up resoundingly, but that willtake a while. There is still a lot of new mine supply comingon stream that the market will need to absorb. CIM


ReverseengineeringBy Eavan Moore


WHEN ROYAL NICKEL SET OUT TO DESIGN ITSDUMONT NICKEL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN QUEBEC,THE TEAM RECOGNIZED IT HAD A COMPLEX ORE BODY.“We knew that we really needed to understand the mineralogy, thealteration, and what was affecting recoverable minerals,” says projectgeologist Michelle Sciortino. An average recovery rate taken across theore body could have misrepresented the deposit’s net present valueand risked poor returns in the critical early years. So as part of its effortto de-risk the project, Royal Nickel undertook a four-year geometal-lurgy program to reach a better calculation – one that others in thefield now see as an example of high-quality work in an increasinglyimportant field.

Geometallurgy has no agreed definition, but for Steve Williams,owner of the GeoMet Tech consultancy, it starts with a basic fact: Anymineral has an innate response to metallurgical processing, andgeometallurgy is about understanding that response. Getting to thatunderstanding and making effective use of it involves – at a minimum– having mine planners, geologists and metallurgists sit down and talkabout their shared objectives. Typical geometallurgical work relies onnumerous metallurgical samples, coupled with their mineralogicaldata, to build a block model of the ore body where domains aredefined by their processing outcomes.

The practice has taken on new urgency in the last decade inresponse to greater variability, complexity and remoteness of ore bod-ies. It has also acquired greater sophistication, thanks to new technol-ogy used to rapidly produce data and build three-dimensional models.More and more mining companies, under pressure from rising costsand newly preoccupied with waste, are working to institutionalizegeometallurgy and its role in risk management.

In some ways the approach of geometallurgists today is reminiscentof the mid-20th century and the interdisciplinary training of geology;mining and metallurgical teams focused on value before increasingvolumes of data and sophistication of analysis encouraged greater spe-cialization, argues Karin Olson Hoal, consultant and research professorat the Colorado School of Mines. Today, with the demands to minemore effectively and sustainably, geometallurgy has become a majorresearch initiative in its own right, with university professorships, pro-grams, students and labs.

Dumont nickel characterizationSciortino attributes the smooth execution of the geometallurgy pro-

gram for the Dumont project to interdisciplinary work. As a geologist,she spent time not only looking at rocks in the core, but also coordi-nating the sampling effort for mineralogical characterization and thendirectly planning the metallurgical program with Royal Nickel’s vice-president of operations, Johnna Muinonen.

The Royal Nickel team focused on three minerals: the sulphidespentlandite and heazelwoodite, and the ferronickel awaruite. Afterplotting nickel and sulphur against rougher recovery and turning upno meaningful relationship, the Dumont team dug deeper into datagenerated for them by SGS using FEI’s QEMSCAN (quantitative eval-uation of minerals by scanning electron microscopy), one of severalcommercially available systems that scan samples and automaticallycharacterize their mineralogical properties.

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One QEMSCAN program using 1,420 1.5-metre core sam-ples gave a broad overview of variability across the ore body.A second set of 105 15-to-20-metre samples was subjectedboth to metallurgical tests and to a more detailed QEMSCANanalysis. The mineralogy showed which sulphide domainswere heazelwoodite dominant, pentlandite dominant, ormixed; metallurgical tests showed the nickel recovery rates foreach. An electron microprobe – which operates on the sameelectron bombardment principle included in QEMSCAN butat a higher resolution – identified the nickel tenor within min-erals, showing for example the high-nickel versus low-nickelpentlandite, which proved important for understanding theconcentrate grade.

“The work we’ve done has given us a lot more confidencein understanding the recovery of the ore body and the abilityto maximize value from that ore body, by processing thehigher-value material first,” says Muinonen. “The Dumontdeposit is fairly uniform in nickel grade throughout, but thatnickel recovery can vary from 20 per cent to 80 per cent,which leads to very different ore value in different areas. With-out knowing where the higher-value material is and trying toprocess it as early as possible, Dumont may not have gonepast the prefeasibility study completed in 2011.”

Risk management for juniorsIt is all about de-risking, according to Doug Hatfield,

technical manager of development at SGS Lakefield. Mineproponents want to accurately predict recoveries, limit cap-ital expenditures and attract investors; operations in laterstages want to manage production volumes and maximizeprofitability.

Geomet is “not exactly in its infancy,” comments Hatfield.“It’s in its teenage years.” Not only do mining companiesaccept it more widely, investors are also becoming more aware.

“They’re becoming more risk-averse, they understand riskbetter, and I think the cowboy days of the California gold rushare over,” says Hatfield. “No one throws money at a project

without a reasonable quantified probability of return.”He believes that could put pressure on junior compa-nies that might otherwise hesitate to invest in geomet-allurgical studies.

Inevitably, the added scrutiny will mean some proj-ects are non-starters. That may be bad news for project

proponents but a step forward for the industry as a whole. Forexample, a project SGS worked on showed that the ore wouldhave become so hard after five years of mining that the projectwas not viable. “To understand how this relates specifically togeomet, it must be compared with the traditional projectassessment technique, which is to test a blended bulk com-posite ore sample,” Hatfield explains. “If an over-blended com-posite was tested for hardness, it would have shownreasonable performance since the extremely hard materialcould have been mixed with softer material from the earlieryears of the life of mine. The project may have gone aheadbased on this approach.”

Mike Bandrowski, a base metals analyst at Clarus Securitieswho covers Royal Nickel, agrees that investors should demandthat management teams minimize processing risk to the bestof their ability. “But keep in mind that financial constraintsoften limit junior mining companies,” he cautions. Metallur-gical work does not necessarily raise stock prices. Junior min-ers tend to gather what little money they have to drill moreholes instead, which Bandrowski feels can be an expensivemistake if it fails to de-risk the project. Metallurgical work –which at Dumont cost $1,000 to $1,200 for each metallurgicalsample and $500 for each mineralogical sample – costs “noth-ing” in the context of a mine costing hundreds of millions ofdollars.

Bandrowski lauds the work done at Dumont: “We believethe geometallurgical work is extremely important, and whenproperly done it can be invaluable to the project at hand.”Dumont’s results, particularly the varying degrees of serpen-tinization leading to different nickel tenors, gave him greaterconfidence that the process plant would be able to produce asteady quality of concentrate.

However, he warns, “The capital budget, financing risk andcommodity prices will truly determine the Dumont’s internalrate of return. Their feasibility study was done at $9 nickel.At the end of the day, if the commodity prices aren’t there, theproject doesn’t get built.” In mid-September, nickel was sellingat around US$8.28 per pound.

Successful geometallurgy programs set theirgoals with the saleable product in mind and work backwards.

Left to right:Copper cathodes; copper pour; Flotation

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Production management for minesA junior’s attempt to trim risk from an early-stage of project

is just one opportunity for geometallurgical work. Major miningcompanies are much more likely to do extensive geometallur-gical work, since they already have the cash flow to fund it. Themost advanced work has occurred in large porphyry copperoperations in South America, making copper one of the best-understood ores for a geometallurgical program. Iron ore, asanother industry characterized by high-volume, well-fundedoperations, has also received attention.

“Gold is still difficult,” says Williams. “Ultimately it’s aboutgold deportment, and that can be complex. And it’s not readilymeasured by mineralogy at the moment. You have to dodetailed gold deportment studies, which are nowhere near asrapid as a base-metals QEMSCAN study.”

Successful geomet programs set their goals with the saleableproduct in mind and work backwards. For example, one ironore client of SGS uses hardness data to tune its seasonal output:harder ores are processed when customer demand is low and

softer ores when it is high. Another major producer considered11 different flowsheets for its copper-molybdenum operationbefore deciding in favour of a novel circuit designed to retrievemolybdenum from column tails when more difficult ore isprocessed. Some companies are able to predict variability inproduction rates on a day-to-day, month-to-month, or year-to-year basis, based on what is understood about the ore comingdown the conveyor.

Will Goodall, principal consultant at MinAssist in Australia,remarks that the grade engineering work done via the CRC-ORE project at the University of Queensland has offered a moreunusual example of geometallurgical thinking. It finds moresophisticated distinctions between ore and waste – for example,using hardness as a cut-off rather than grade.

Faster, cheaper mineralogyWhatever its motivations, Royal Nickel could not have run

its geomet program quickly or cost-effectively enough to workbefore the advent of scanning electron microscopes and faster

The tools exist to collect sufficiently refined data such as the nature of the chalcopyrite losses during rougher flotation. The task is now to apply this data to the fullest toimprove metallurgical performance.

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Left to right: Blasting at El Tesoro; Los Bronces project in Chile; a geologist examines copper in the Chilean Andes

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computing speeds. Twenty years ago, the electron microscopywould have been done by hand. Today’s technology – in par-ticular, the small-scale tests of hardness and grindability – hasto date favoured comminution applications, but flotation andleaching tests are also improving in cost and effectiveness,according to Olson Hoal.

In general, says Goodall, the newer tools include small-sam-ple (and therefore relatively cheap) tests to produce Bond WorkIndex crushability values. He adds that a number of companiesenjoy exclusive use of innovations as sponsors of the researchorganization AMIRA International’s Geometallurgical Mappingand Mine Modelling (GeM) series of projects. QEMSCAN andother quantitative mineralogy systems generate large datasetswith particle size, mineral associations, and so on. The finallevel of sophistication includes electron microprobes, whichrevealed nickel tenor at Dumont and also come in handy foridentifying sub-micron gold in refractory ores.

Implementing geomet programsNow that the tools exist to collect sufficiently refined data,

the question becomes: What to do with it? Goodall was tappedto develop the next round of AMIRA research looking atanswering that question. For example, how are geometallurgicalparameters from different fields of research best reconciled?What is the best way to relate them to the block model? Butamid both a downturn and a debate over the value of geomet-allurgy and how to quantify it, companies have hesitated tofund GeM III.

If geometallurgy has failed to gather momentum within min-ing companies, it may be due in part to examples of botchedimplementation. Geometallurgical testwork is an increasinglycommon part of feasibility studies, but cash-strapped compa-nies still skimp on it by taking a small number of samples oroverblending their composites. “As a consequence,” says DavidMeadows, vice-president of global process technology for

FLSmidth, “some plants start up which have not had very thor-ough geomet programs, and they either fail to make throughputor they fail to make final recovery of the metal, or a combinationof both.” Even at larger companies, geomet initiatives havetended to take place on a project-by-project basis. Goodallbelieves that at the current stage, efforts to coordinate acrosssites and provide useful benchmarking depend on a champion.If that individual leaves, “it falls to pieces.”

The latest effort to centralize geometallurgy comes fromAnglo American, where John Vann, group head of geosciencessince last March, has reorganized the corporate geoscience func-tion to support post-discovery work. He is currently recruitinga three-position geometallurgy team. “We are at the beginningof a journey trying to coordinate geomet at a higher level insideAnglo American,” he comments, noting that geometallurgy is afundamental business process that affects every aspect of oper-ations from blasting to tailings. The personnel he seeks wouldbe “professional catalysts” who can connect geology, planning,processing and sustainability.

Coordinating between diverse disciplines requires a sharedlanguage – and companies commonly use the indicators mostclosely aligned with dollar signs, avoiding department-specificlingo. Within Anglo American Copper, mining geology managerSergio Spichiger says that instead of talking about variabilityand uncertainty, the engineers in the plant discuss “understand-ing of the risks” or “adding value” when they want to commu-nicate across silos. At another South American developmentproject that Hatfield worked on, the production forecast wasthe key to communication. SGS used the mine plan it was givento generate a production forecast, which provided feedback tothe geologists and mine planners and was used to calculate rev-enue, offering a bridge between the diverse specialties of theproject team and head office.

Consulting and engineering firms with geometallurgicalexpertise play pivotal roles for clients without in-house capa-bilities. While in theory this may not be the ideal arrangement,

mining companies are hard-pressed to redis-cover the holistic mining engineeringapproach of the previous century. When sofew professionals have cross-trained over thelast 30 years, finding the right catalysts is a dif-ficult task.

“Companies just don’t know where the skillsare going to come from,” says Goodall. “Weneed people who can understand the full sys-tem of mining rather than every little silo.” Forexample, the kinds of management skillsneeded include retooling the entire operation’skey performance indicators – if a site is newlyimplementing a geomet program, it is almostcertain that their current KPIs will not suit.Rather than grade and tonnage from the mine,recovery from the mill, and so on, the entireoperation needs to be working toward an endresult such as revenue or concentrate quality.

“Those are the soft issues of geometallurgy,”comments Goodall. “We haven’t started toaddress them yet.” CIM

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The graph shows the outcomes of a pair of copper concentrator projects in Africa. One, whichreached design capacity in less than a year, “represents proper sampling geometallurgy and processdesign,” explains FLSmidth’s David Meadows. The other does not.

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LORSQUE LA SOCIÉTÉ ROYAL NICKEL S’ESTLANCÉE DANS LA CONCEPTION DE SON PROJET DEDÉVELOPPEMENT NICKÉLIFÈRE DUMONT AUQUÉBEC, L’ÉQUIPE A RECONNU QUE LE CORPSMINÉRALISÉ QU’IL CONTENAIT ÉTAIT COMPLEXE.« Nous avons réalisé qu’il nous fallait bien comprendre laminéralogie, l’altération et les éléments qui affectaient lesminéraux récupérables », explique Michelle Sciortino, géo-logue du projet. Le taux moyen de récupération calculé surl’intégralité du corps minéralisé pourrait avoir donné unefausse impression de la valeur actualisée nette du gisement etaurait pu entraîner des rendements médiocres durant les pre-mières années décisives du développement. Ainsi, dans le butde réduire les risques associés au projet, Royal Nickel a entre-pris un programme de géométallurgie sur quatre ans afin deparvenir à des calculs plus précis. Aujourd’hui, ce pro-gramme est considéré par d’autres sociétés de l’industriecomme un exemple de travaux de grande qualité dans undomaine qui devient de plus en plus important.

On ne dispose aujourd’hui d’aucune définition précise de lagéométallurgie, mais pour Steve Williams, propriétaire de lasociété d’experts-conseils GeoMet Tech, tout commence par unfait fondamental : tout minéral réagit naturellement au traite-ment métallurgique, et la géométallurgie implique de compren-dre cette réaction. Pour la comprendre et en faire bon usage, ilfaudra, au strict minimum, que les planificateurs de la mine,les géologues et les métallurgistes se réunissent et discutent deleurs objectifs communs. Les travaux géométallurgiques clas-siques consistent à associer plusieurs échantillons métal-lurgiques à leurs données minéralogiques afin de développerun modèle de blocs du corps minéralisé pour des domaines quisont définis par leurs résultats en matière de traitement.

Ces dix dernières années, cette pratique a revêtu une impor-tance croissante étant donné la variabilité et la complexité gran-dissantes des corps minéralisés ainsi que l’accès difficile à cesderniers. Elle est aussi devenue plus sophistiquée grâce auxnouvelles technologies permettant de générer des données rapi-dement et de construire des modèles tridimensionnels. La

L’ingénierie inverse Les programmes de géométallurgie

suscitent un intérêt grandissantPar Eavan Moore

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hausse des coûts et les récentes préoccupations concernant lesdéchets miniers imposent une forte pression sur les sociétésminières, aussi elles œuvrent à institutionnaliser la géométal-lurgie et son rôle dans la gestion des risques.

À certains égards, l’approche qu’adoptent les géométallur-gistes aujourd’hui n’est pas sans rappeler le milieu du XXe siècleet l’apprentissage interdisciplinaire de la géologie. Comme l’ex-plique Karin Olson Hoal, conseillère et professeure derecherche à la Colorado School of Mines, les équipes spécial-isées dans les mines et la métallurgie se concentraient sur lateneur avant que la masse croissante de données et la complex-ité des analyses ne les encouragent à se spécialiser davantage.Aujourd’hui, l’extraction du minerai se doit d’être plus efficaceet plus durable, aussi la géométallurgie est devenue une impor-tante discipline scientifique à part entière à laquelle ont étédédiés des chaires universitaires, des programmes, des cursusd’études et des laboratoires.

La caractérisation du nickel selon Dumont D’après Mme Sciortino, l’exécution homogène du pro-

gramme de géométallurgie pour le projet Dumont estattribuable aux travaux interdisciplinaires. En tant que géo-logue, elle a passé beaucoup de temps non seulement à étudierles roches des carottes de sondage mais aussi à coordonnerl’échantillonnage pour la caractérisation minéralogique et àplanifier directement le programme métallurgique avec JohnnaMuinonen, vice-présidente des opérations de Royal Nickel.

L’équipe de Royal Nickel s’est concentrée sur trois minéraux :la pentlandite (ou nicopyrite) et le disulfure de trinickel (ouheazlewoodite), tous deux des sulfures, et l’awaruite, du fer-ronickel. Le processus de récupération par dégrossissage a per-mis de détecter du nickel et du soufre, mais l’équipe de Dumontn’est parvenue à établir aucune relation concluante entre lestaux de récupération de ces deux minéraux, aussi elle a creuséplus loin dans les données générées à leur intention par SGS àl’aide du système QEMSCAN de FEI (évaluation quantitativedes minéraux par microscopie électronique à balayage), l’un dessystèmes commercialisés qui scannent les échantillons et car-actérisent automatiquement leurs propriétés minéralogiques.

L’un des programmes de QEMSCAN s’est basé sur 1 420carottes de sondage de 1,5 mètre pour fournir une vued’ensemble générale de la variabilité de l’intégralité du corpsminéralisé. Une deuxième série de 105 échantillons de 15 à 20mètres a été soumise à des essais métallurgiques et à uneanalyse plus poussée par le système QEMSCAN. Les donnéesminéralogiques ont montré les zones de sulfure contenant uneprédominance de disulfure de trinickel, de pentlandite ou desdeux combinés ; les essais métallurgiques ont montré les tauxde récupération du nickel pour chacun d’eux. Une microsondeélectronique, qui fonctionne sur le même principe de bom-bardement d’électrons qu’utilise le système QEMSCAN mais àune résolution plus élevée, a permis d’identifier la teneur ennickel au sein des minéraux, révélant par exemple la pent-landite à haute teneur et celle à basse teneur en nickel, ce quia permis de comprendre la teneur du concentré de minerai.

« Grâce aux travaux que nous avons menés, nous sommesmaintenant capables de mieux comprendre la récupération du

corps minéralisé et d’optimiser la teneur à partir de ce corpsminéralisé en transformant en premier lieu le matériau affichantla plus haute teneur », explique Mme Muinonen. « L’ensembledu gisement de Dumont est relativement homogène en termesde teneur en nickel, mais la récupération de ce nickel peutvarier de 20 à 80 %, ce qui aboutit à des teneurs très différentesdans le minerai extrait dans différentes zones. Si l’équipe deDumont n’était pas parvenue à déterminer où se trouvait lematériau affichant la plus haute teneur et à le traiter dès quepossible, le projet Dumont aurait bien pu ne pas dépasser lestade de l’étude de préfaisabilité réalisée en 2011. »

La gestion des risques pour les petites sociétés minières

D’après Doug Hatfield, directeur technique du développe-ment chez SGS Lakefield, il faut avant tout réduire les risques.Les promoteurs miniers désirent prévoir de manière précise lesrécupérations, limiter les dépenses en capital et attirer desinvestisseurs ; les exploitations se trouvant à des étapes avancéessouhaitent gérer leurs volumes de production et optimiser larentabilité.

La géométallurgie n’en est « pas exactement à ses balbu-tiements », indique M. Hatfield. « On pourrait dire qu’elle estau stade de l’adolescence. » Non seulement les sociétés minièresl’acceptent davantage, mais les investisseurs y deviennent plussensibles.

« Ils deviennent davantage réticents à prendre des risques etles comprennent mieux ; je pense aussi que l’époque des cow-boys de la ruée vers l’or en Californie est révolue », indiqueM. Hatfield. « De nos jours, plus personne n’investit d’argentdans un projet sans avoir obtenu de quantification raisonnablede la probabilité de rendement. » Selon lui, cela pourrait inciterles petites sociétés minières hésitant encore à investir dans desétudes géométallurgiques à les envisager.

Inévitablement, l’examen minutieux auquel sont de plus enplus soumis les projets implique que certains ne pourront allerde l’avant. Il s’agit peut-être d’une mauvaise nouvelle pour lespromoteurs de projets, mais c’est un grand pas en avant pourl’industrie dans son ensemble. Par exemple, dans l’un des pro-jets sur lequel a travaillé SGS, le minerai était devenu si duraprès cinq années d’exploitation que le projet n’était pas viable.« Pour comprendre comment cela est spécifiquement lié à lagéométallurgie, il faudra la comparer à une technique tradition-nelle d’évaluation d’un projet, qui consiste à tester un échantil-lon de matériau composite brut formé par un mélange deminerai », explique M. Hatfield. « Si l’on avait testé un matériaucomposite formé par un mélange de plusieurs qualités de min-erai pour déterminer sa dureté, il aurait affiché une performanceraisonnable étant donné que le matériau extrêmement duraurait pu être mélangé avec un matériau plus meuble desannées antérieures de la vie de la mine. Le projet aurait pu sepoursuivre sur la base de cette approche. »

D’après Mike Bandrowski, analyste des métaux communschez Clarus Securities, courtier de Royal Nickel, les investis-seurs devraient exiger des équipes de direction qu’elles min-imisent le risque lié au traitement au mieux qu’elles le peuvent.



« Mais gardez bien à l’esprit que les contraintes financières lim-itent souvent les petites sociétés minières », prévient-il. Lestravaux métallurgiques ne contribuent pas nécessairement à lahausse du cours d’une action. Les petites sociétés minières onttendance à plutôt rassembler le peu d’argent dont elles dis-posent pour forer d’autres trous, ce qui, selon M. Bandrowski,peut représenter une erreur coûteuse si cela ne contribue pas àréduire les risques associés au projet. Les travaux métallurgiquesqui, pour le projet Dumont, coûtent entre 1 000 et 1 200 $ paréchantillon métallurgique et 500 $ par échantillonminéralogique, ne représentent « rien » pour une mine quicoûte des centaines de millions de dollars.

M. Bandrowski félicite les travaux réalisés dans le cadre duprojet Dumont. « Les travaux géométallurgiques sont extrême-ment importants, et lorsqu’ils sont menés dans les règles de l’art,les résultats se révèleront précieux pour le projet concerné. » Lesrésultats qu’affiche Dumont, et notamment les divers degrés deserpentinisation menant à différentes teneurs en nickel, viennentconfirmer que l’usine de traitement pourrait bien être en mesurede produire une qualité régulière de concentré de minerai.

Cependant, M. Bandrowski prévient que « le budget d’in-vestissement, le financement des risques et les prix desmarchandises détermineront réellement le taux de rentabilitéinterne (TRI) de Dumont. L’étude de faisabilité du projet avaittablé sur un prix hypothétique du nickel à 9 $ US la livre. Aufinal, si les prix des marchandises ne suivent pas, le projet nese poursuivra pas. » Mi-septembre, le nickel se vendait à envi-ron 8,28 $ US la livre.

La gestion de la production pour les minesLes travaux géométallurgiques peuvent se révéler intéres-

sants pour une petite société minière qui tente de réduire lesrisques dès le début du projet. Les grandes sociétés minièressont bien plus susceptibles de mener des travaux géométal-lurgiques plus poussés étant donné qu’ils disposent déjà du fluxnet de trésorerie pour les financer. Les travaux les plus avancésont eu lieu dans de grandes exploitations de cuivre porphyriqueen Amérique du Sud, faisant du cuivre l’un des minerais lesmieux compris pour un programme géométallurgique. Le min-erai de fer, une autre industrie caractérisée par des exploitationsdisposant d’un bon financement et gérant de gros volumes, aégalement suscité un grand intérêt.

« L’or présente encore des difficultés », explique M. Williams.« Tout réside dans le comportement de l’or en définitive, et celapeut s’avérer complexe. La minéralogie ne permet pas de lemesurer facilement. Il faut mener des études complètes sur lecomportement de l’or, qui sont considérablement plus longuesque l’étude QEMSCAN. »

Les programmes concluants de géométallurgie sont ceux quiétablissent leurs objectifs en gardant à l’esprit le produit vend-able, et qui évoluent à partir de ce point. Par exemple, un clientde SGS spécialisé dans le minerai de fer utilise des données surla dureté pour ajuster son rendement saisonnier : les mineraisles plus durs sont traités lorsque la demande des clients estfaible, et les minerais plus meubles le sont quand les demandessont plus fortes. Un autre grand producteur a étudié 11 schémasde traitement différents pour son exploitation de cuivre-molyb-

dène avant d’opter pour un circuit innovant permettant derécupérer le molybdène à partir des rejets des colonnes lors dutraitement de minerai plus complexe. Certaines sociétés peu-vent prévoir la variabilité des taux de production sur une basequotidienne, mensuelle ou annuelle en fonction de leur degréde compréhension du minerai sortant du convoyeur.

Will Goodall, conseiller principal chez MinAssist en Aus-tralie, fait remarquer que les études techniques menées sur lateneur au titre du projet CRC-ORE à l’université du Queenslandont fourni un exemple moins commun du raisonnementgéométallurgique. Ces études établissent des distinctions pluscomplexes entre le minerai et les déchets, par exemple en util-isant la dureté en tant que teneur de coupure et non pas en tantque teneur de tête.

Une minéralogie plus rapide et moins coûteuseQuelles que soient ses motivations, Royal Nickel n’aurait pu

mener son programme de géométallurgie avec la même rapiditéet rentabilité avant l’arrivée sur le marché des microscopes élec-troniques à balayage et sans les vitesses de calcul actuelles. Il ya vingt ans, la microscopie électronique aurait été effectuéemanuellement. D’après Mme Olson Hoal, la technologie actuelle,et en particulier les essais à petite échelle sur la dureté et la broy-abilité, a jusqu’à présent privilégié les applications de comminu-tion, mais le coût et l’efficacité des essais de flottation et delixiviation s’améliorent petit à petit.

De manière générale, explique M. Goodall, les instrumentsles plus récents incluent des essais effectués à l’aide de petitséchantillons (d’où leur faible coût) pour générer des valeursde l’indice de broyabilité de Bond. Il ajoute qu’un certain nom-bre de sociétés bénéficient d’un usage exclusif des innovationsen tant que commanditaires de la série de projets Geometal-lurgical Mapping and Mine Modelling (GeM, projets dédiés àla cartographie géométallurgique et la modélisation des mines)de l’organisme de recherche AMIRA International. QEMSCANet d’autres systèmes minéralogiques quantitatifs génèrent devastes ensembles de données portant sur la taille des partic-ules, les associations minérales et ainsi de suite. Le tout dernierniveau de sophistication comprend des microsondes électron-iques, qui ont permis de déceler les teneurs en nickel dans leprojet Dumont et s’avèrent également très utiles pour l’iden-tification des particules submicroscopiques d’or dans les min-erais réfractaires.

La mise en œuvre des programmes de géométallurgie

Maintenant que nous disposons des outils nécessaires pourrecueillir des données suffisamment pointues, la question estde savoir ce que nous allons en faire. M. Goodall a été chargéde développer la prochaine série de travaux de recherched’AMIRA dans le but de répondre à cette question. Par exemple,comment concilier au mieux les paramètres géométallurgiquesde différents domaines de recherche ? Quel est le meilleurmoyen de les rattacher au modèle de blocs ? Cependant, dansle contexte du ralentissement économique et du débat sur la

valeur de la géométallurgie et la manière de la quantifier, lessociétés ont hésité à financer le projet GeM III.

Si la géométallurgie n’a pas gagné de terrain auprès dessociétés minières, cela pourrait en partie s’expliquer par destentatives bâclées de mise en œuvre. Les essais géométal-lurgiques deviennent de plus en plus courants dans les étudesde faisabilité, mais les sociétés à court d’argent lésinent encoreet préfèrent prendre de petites quantités d’échantillons oumélanger plusieurs qualités de minerais pour leurs matériauxcomposites. « Ainsi », explique David Meadows, vice-prési-dent des technologies de système à l’international pourFLSmidth, « certaines usines de traitement se lancent sansavoir bénéficié de programmes complets de géométallurgie etelles ne parviennent pas à atteindre la capacité souhaitée ou àrécupérer le métal au final, et parfois ni l’un ni l’autre ». Mêmedans de plus grandes sociétés, les initiatives de géométallurgieont tendance à être menées en fonction de chaque projet.Selon M. Goodall, à ce stade, il faudra un champion pourcoordonner les efforts menés dans tous les sites et établir descomparaisons utiles. Si ce champion quitte le projet, « tousles efforts seront réduits à néant ».

La toute dernière tentative de centraliser la géométallurgie estl’œuvre d’Anglo American, où John Vann, responsable des sci-ences de la terre depuis mars dernier, a réorganisé la fonctioninterne de cette discipline pour soutenir les travaux suivant ladécouverte. Actuellement, il recrute une équipe de trois person-nes spécialisées en géométallurgie. « Nous commençons un longpériple dans l’espoir de coordonner la géométallurgie à un niveauplus élevé au sein d’Anglo American », explique-t-il, ajoutant quela géométallurgie est un processus opérationnel fondamental quiaffecte tous les aspects des activités, de l’abattage à l’explosif auxrésidus. Il est à la recherche de personnes qui seraient des « catal-yseurs professionnels » capables de mettre en relation la géologie,la planification, le traitement et la durabilité.

La coordination entre plusieurs disciplines requiert de parlerla même langue ; les sociétés ont la plupart du temps recoursaux indicateurs qui se rapprochent le plus de la valeur finan-cière et évitent les jargons spécifiques à chaque discipline. Ausein d’Anglo American - Copper, le responsable de la géologieminière Sergio Spichiger explique que les ingénieurs dans l’u-sine ne parlent pas de variabilité et d’incertitudes, mais plutôtde « comprendre les risques » et d’« ajouter de la valeur »lorsqu’ils communiquent d’un silo à l’autre. Dans un autre pro-jet de développement en Amérique du Sud sur lequel a travailléM. Hatfield, les prévisions concernant la production ont étéessentielles à la communication. SGS s’est servie du plan de lamine qu’elle a reçu pour générer une prévision de la production.Elle a ainsi pu fournir des renseignements aux géologues et auxplanificateurs de la mine qui leur ont permis de calculer lesrevenus et ainsi de rapprocher les spécialités multiples del’équipe du projet et le siège social.

Les sociétés d’experts-conseils et d’ingénierie ayant de l’ex-périence en géométallurgie sont indispensables aux clients nedisposant pas des capacités en interne. En théorie, ce n’est pasla meilleure disposition, mais les sociétés minières ont beaucoupde mal à redécouvrir l’approche holistique du génie minier dusiècle dernier. Tellement peu de professionnels ont reçu une for-mation polyvalente ces 30 dernières années qu’il est difficile detrouver les meilleurs catalyseurs.

« Les sociétés ne savent tout simplement pas d’où vont venirles compétences », indique M. Goodall. « Nous avons besoinde personnes qui peuvent comprendre l’intégralité du systèmeminier et non pas uniquement chaque petit silo. » Les compé-tences requises en matière de gestion comprennent par exemplele renouvellement des indicateurs de rendement clé (IRC) detoute l’exploitation. Si un site met en œuvre un programme degéométallurgie pour la première fois, il est pratiquement certainque les IRC qu’il utilise ne seront pas adaptés. Plutôt que seconcentrer sur la teneur et le tonnage de la mine, la récupérationdans le concentrateur et ainsi de suite, l’exploitation doit êtreorientée sur un résultat final tel que les revenus ou la qualitédu concentré de minerai.

« Ce sont les questions annexes de la géométallurgie »,explique M. Goodall. « Nous ne les avons pas encore abordées. » ICM


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Montréal

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T here is one very good reason toinstall a gearless drive on a beltconveyor or tumbling mill: The

size of mining equipment has out-stripped the ability of gear systems todeliver enough power. The fragile steelteeth of a complex gearbox system canhandle up to about 16 megawatts (MW)on a grinding mill application, but afterthat a drive system that obviates any needfor gears is the only practical choice.

The gearless design for drive systems– first used in a mill in 1969 and then abelt conveyor in 1986 – has come into itsown since the early 1990s, as an industrythat is processing ever greater through-puts has demanded larger and morepowerful equipment. Each increase inmill size has necessitated a larger drivedesign. Moreover, in the last 10 years,ABB and Siemens, the top two producersof gearless drives, have steadily improvedtheir product’s reliability and availability.

Removing the gearboxThe basic principle behind a gearless drive is that it directly connects the motor to the driven

equipment. Timo Roesch, senior sales engineer at Siemens, explains that a gearbox is usuallyneeded to reduce the fixed motor speed of a standard electric motor of 1,200 or 1,800 revolu-tions per minute – when operated at a 60 Hertz frequency network like in Canada – to theequipment speed. On a belt conveyor, for example, the drive pulley usually runs at 50 to 70revolutions per minute.

Siemens and ABB manufacture a type of motor designed to run at the speed of the drivenequipment. Each installation is custom engineered and more cost intensive than a conventionalmotor, but it allows the mine to do away with the gearbox and couplings.

Gearless drives are found in a number of equipment types including hoists, excavators,slurry pumps and draglines. Their most well-known use, however, has taken place in tumblingmills and belt conveyors where the designs integrate the motor with the equipment.

In a conventional large ore conveyor, the standard motor connects via couplings to the gear-box with several gear stages and then to the drive pulley. But in a gearless conveyor, the motorconnects directly to the pulley drive. In a gearless mill drive, the stator of the motor wraps rightaround the mill. The rotor poles are attached directly to the mill flange, essentially making themill itself the turning rotor.

Gearless systems are universally variable speed, allowing the mill speed to be adjusted to theoperation requirements at any time across the full operating range. This makes for smootherstarts, stops and changes. Variable-speed controls allow gearless mills to respond flexibly to

The direct approachBy Eavan Moore

While few mine sites in Canada have adapted the technology, gearless drives meetthe need for efficiency and increasing volume in today’s mines.

technologyE Q U I P M E N T M O N I T O R I N G

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In a gearless milldrive, the stator of themotor wraps directlyaround the mill.


changes in throughput andore hardness, switch rota-tional direction to get a moreeven wear on the liner, andrun at a speed optimized forenergy saving.

Advantages of going gearlessConventional gears have limited strength;

overload them and their steel teeth start tobreak. “For large mills, you already need twomotors and two gearboxes arranged on eachside in order to bring some 16 MW to themill,” says Roesch. “All these conventionalarrangements get to the limit of their mechan-ical robustness. That’s why we look at the com-ponents that are at the edge of their power andtorque limits, which are the gearboxes andpinion and so on, and take them out and justattach the motor directly to the mill.” In a conveyor application,gearless technology means that conveyors can be longer andstronger, with fewer and smaller drive stations.

The other top two reasons mines select gearless drives aretheir relatively high availability and energy efficiency. Becausethere are fewer fragile moving parts, gearless drives experienceless maintenance downtime. A geared drive would need to belubricated regularly and fixed more frequently. Roesch saysSiemens’ gearless drives themselves have an availability ofmore than 99 per cent.

Taking the entire mill into account, a typical gearless-drivenmill availability would be minimum 95 per cent, according toRoesch. “Typical conventional drive systems achieve two to 2.5per cent less,” he says. “So there’s usually at least two per centof difference in availability, which is more than 160 hours peryear. With 160 hours at $100,000 in throughput per hour, youare already at $16 million yearly additional revenue.”

Gearless drives also offer an energy-efficiency advantage.The losses to heat incurred by geared drive systems add up tonine per cent, while gearless drives lose only 4.5 to five percent. Roesch notes that energy efficiency interests miners morethan it used to, especially in high-cost South America. Chile,which represents the biggest single market for gearless drives,says Roesch, has experienced an annual 11 per cent climb inenergy cost since 2000.

That is not the only reason South America is a hotspot forgearless technology. Sachin Jari, group manager for mining atABB’s Montreal office, notes that once a few operations getstarted, their neighbours feel more confident in copying them.“People in South America are very comfortable with this tech-nology,” says Jari. “There’s good know-how.”

In Canada, by contrast, only two mine sites have installedgearless mill drives so far: the Canadian Malartic site co-ownedby Agnico Eagle and Yamana Gold, and the Mt. Milligan minethat Thompson Creek Metals put into production in 2013.“What [Canadian mine operators] haven’t seen yet, they’re usu-ally reluctant to install,” says Roesch. “From our perspective,considering the total costs of ownership, it could be a very good

idea for the end customer to think aboutgoing gearless.”

As more mine operators plan for highthroughputs in response to lower-gradeores, use of large gearless-driven equip-ment will likely rise. At least two more sites in Canada plan touse gearless mills in their process plants. Royal Nickel’sDumont project in northern Quebec, slated to start commis-sioning in 2016, plans to go gearless with its SAG mill, accord-ing to Johnna Muinonen, vice-president of operations at thecompany.

“Our plan contemplates a 21 MW SAG mill,” she says. “Tomy knowledge, there are no geared drives powering a 21 MWSAG mill currently in operation. Our capital equipment waschosen with a focus on using existing, proven technology at thesize we require, which, for our SAG mill, led to the gearless drivedecision. We would also get the greater flexibility – for example,speed control range and frozen charge control – as well as theslightly higher energy efficiency of the gearless drive.”

Western Copper and Gold Corp. will also use a gearlessSAG mill at its polymetallic Casino deposit in Yukon, which

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The availability ofa typical gearless

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released a feasibility study in 2013 estimating throughput of120,000 tonnes per day. Cam Brown, vice-president of engi-neering, was involved in the first gearless installation in NorthAmerica in 1989, and he has supported the technology since.He says his company has already selected Siemens to supply a29 MW drive for the 40-foot SAG mill and two 22 MW drivesfor the 28-foot ball mills.

“At 29 MW, we’re clearly in a power range where the gear-less drive offers the only acceptable technical solution,” heexplains. “There are people out there that might argue that youcan get that kind of power for the ball mills with geared solu-tions, but to my knowledge there is no running installationthat is using geared technology at that power threshold.”

The break-even pointThe main drawback is the upfront investment. Gearless

drives cost more than conventional ones. For a 16 MW, 26-foot ball mill, estimates Roesch, the combined investment ofmill and motor is about 10 to 15 per cent higher than a con-ventional design. “However, you would pay it back in one tothree years,” he adds.

For higher-power applications, the operational cost savingsoutweigh the starting cost. Roesch judges that the break-evenpoint for many gearless mill drives would be around 14 to 16MW of installed power, although recent applications start at10 to 13 MW.

Other applications, without the complex engineeringrequired to wrap the motor around a mill, have a considerablylower break-even point. A commonly cited calculus for con-veyors pins 2.5 MW as the magic number at which gearlessbecomes worthwhile.

Steady growthAs mines continue to develop in remote regions with high

costs and low grades, gearless-drive use seems likely to spread.But when it comes to the less common uses like pumps anddraglines, comments Roesch, “I would say there is a lack ofinterest and information.”

Nevertheless, there is theoretically scope for further appli-cation of the technology. Within grinding, Jari says it is beingexplored for use in stirred mills, which agitate material withina stationary shell.

The technology is also maturing in predictable ways. Theintroduction of remote monitoring, for example, has providedmore reliable information about drive operation.

If miners continue to accumulate vast throughputs, drivemanufacturers may find themselves once again cooperatingwith mill manufacturers to go bigger. The current largest millon order is a 42-foot, 28 MW SAG mill for Newmont Mining’sConga project. If there is an interest in pushing past that, saysJari, “It’s not a question of the capability, we can design it. It’sabout who’s going to be the first one to do it.” CIM

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INSIDE:

MADE-IN-CHINA MINING EQUIPMENT

WHAT REALLY DRIVES CHINESE INVESTMENT?

UNDERSTANDING THE CHINESE GREEN MINING STANDARD

PROJECT PROFILE: ELDORADO GOLD’S JINFENG MINE

TRAVEL: LINCANG

CHINASPECIAL REPORT It is hard to overstate the importance of China to

the world’s resource projects. In the capacity forinvestment, the demand for commodities and thepotential for new mining projects on its own soil,most other countries pale in comparison.

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work in China. “I preach it,” he says. “I’ve been there, I seewhat they do, I believe in what they do.” But “people reallyaren’t accepting of China yet. I think that the North Amer-ican manufacturers have done a great job of disconnectingthemselves from China although they’re using them in avery large capacity.”

McMartin says his is a common concern, and he knowsof several other companies that do not like to say they areusing Chinese manufacturers because of the perception ofinferior quality. “The competitors try to bash them,” hesays. “So they tell their customers [that they import fromChina], but not the general public.”

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at theUniversity of Alberta, says western companies like Wajaxusing Chinese manufacturers is fairly new and he thinks itis a trend that will continue to grow. “I think that the costfactors are significant,” he explains. “[Chinese] manufac-turing continues to get more sophisticated every day. Ifyou’re a producer, you may find excellent, serviceableequipment at a very competitive price from exporters inChina.”

Made-in-China pieces make up a small portion ofthe economic pie for Wajax Equipment’s Prairieregion, roughly one per cent of whole good sales,

says Lee McMartin, the company’s general manager for thePrairies. But there is a tangible benefit: the pieces cost farless to make and they are the same quality as those manu-factured elsewhere.

Wajax Equipment’s Prairie region switched to using aChinese manufacturer to produce smaller accessories in2013. Clients buy the made-in-China pieces to customizetheir current machinery for specific applications, for whichWajax Equipment is a Canadian distributor (they representcompanies that produce equipment for construction,forestry, material handling and mining). The company’sPrairie region includes Manitoba, Saskatchewan andAlberta, and previously used various manufacturers acrossCanada and the United States; it is the only one of WajaxEquipment’s four regions to source manufacturing in Chinaat this time.

As pleased as he is with the present arrangement,McMartin admits he hesitates to talk publicly about Wajax’s

Tiptoeing into the big leaguesManufacturing in China is economically competitive

but must overcome stigmaBy Kelsey Rolfe


Hatch procured modules for the Koniambo Nickel project in Qingdao, China, savingthe project approximately four months of time and 50 per cent of the modules’ cost.Once completed, they were shipped to New Caledonia by Dockwise for installation.

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McMartin says the only issue the Prairie division facedwhen it started work in China was a long lead time. “We’vehad a few back and forths, but otherwise it’s been no differ-ent than dealing with any manufacturer that’s 2,000 milesaway.”

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AN EVOLVINGUNDERSTANDING

China’s insufficient intellectual property laws werenamed in a 2011 Deloitte report as a factor that workedagainst the growth of the country’s manufacturing industry.Houlden says this is something Canadian companies enter-ing joint ventures with Chinese partners should be espe-cially aware of, and gives the example of a Canadiancompany working in China that learned its ore treatmentprocess had been patented by a Chinese third party.

“China’s in the early stages – well, medium stages – ofdeveloping their own more robust and more effective intel-lectual property system,” Houlden says. He also cites theCanada-China foreign investment promotion and protec-tion agreement, which came into effect October 1, as animprovement. It would allow for international arbitration ofdisputes in either country, giving Canadian companies abetter chance of resolving patent disputes in their favour,rather than in a Chinese court where they would be at a dis-advantage.

Ramshaw, Houlden and McMartin all suggest compa-nies looking to do business in China perform proper duediligence, such as getting advice from other western com-panies working in the country and talking to the tradecommissioner service, consulates or embassies. “Havingnothing to do with China is probably not a winning strat-egy,” Houlden says. “But have your eyes wide open and getadvice.” CIM

RISKS CAN BE WORTHTHE REWARD

“I would have to say that thereis probably trepidation around[using Chinese manufacturers],”says Spencer Ramshaw, directorof information and com -munication at the Canadian Asso-ciation of Mining Equipment andServices for Export (CAMESE).But, “it’s a situation where youneed to produce a safe productthat is the best design and bestvalue, and you don’t ignore cer-tain areas of the world simplybecause you might have heardthere’s a problem.”

Chris Twigge-Molecey, a senioradvisor at Hatch, agrees, saying hewould advise those involved inprocuring equipment or parts toovercome their prejudices: “As Ioften have told people, you fly onan Airbus, and at least a third of every Airbus is made inChina. So what are you concerned about? You committedyour life to it already.”

Hatch has four lines of business in China, includingprocuring products from Chinese manufacturers for itsclients. After 10 years, the company has established a list ofpre-approved manufacturers that Twigge-Molecey says runsinto the hundreds, depending on the item that needs to beproduced.

A 2013 McKinsey & Company report on China listedthe “breakneck development” of China’s manufacturing sec-tor as something that became a problem for achieving oper-ational excellence: with so many new workers entering themanufacturing industry, they were ill-trained and unable todo a thorough job. Hatch got around this problem, Twigge-Molecey says, by taking the time to train Chinese workers:“There’s a lot of turnover in staff in these fabrication shops,so they’re always training new people.”

A large part of Hatch’s procurement group in China ismade up of professional inspectors, who evaluate any man-ufacturers that apply to work as a vendor for the company,and work with existing vendors to make sure they under-stand Hatch’s specifications, which Twigge-Molecey saysallows them to get the best results.

And if quality can be controlled, Chinese manufacturingmay be the only logical choice in a tough economy. “Howdo you compete in a market today when everybody issqueezing every last nickel of profit out of you?” McMartinasks. “As a dealer, we buy from the manufacturers, and sothe only way we can try to improve our margins is to lookat alternative sources for bits and pieces.”

That level of quality, Twigge-Molecey notes, “has beensteadily improving over the years as they deal more andmore with western folks.”


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Chinese manufacturers haveimproved the quality of their work.

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Exchange rateChina insider and mining investment mastermind Keith Spence

on how that country went from an investee to investor By Chris Balcom

C hina’s big moves in the mining industry haveattracted considerable international attention inrecent years. Few understand the country’s develop-

ment better than Keith Spence, who has been working inChina for more than a decade. With a background in geology and investment banking, Spence first came toChina as the president of an exploration company workingin Xinjiang, and later became an early mover in China’s outbound investment in the mining sector. Today, Spenceserves as president and partner of Global Mining CapitalCorporation, involved in private equity and partnering withChinese investors looking to make international acquisi-tions. Spence is a CIM Distinguished Lecturer and formerCIM board member, and is the recipient of several awards,including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medaland the Robert Elver Mineral Economics Award.

CIM: Drawing on your first-hand experience, how would youexplain China’s rise as a major investor in foreign miningprojects? Spence: From 1999 to about 2004, there was a huge influxof investment in China because it had just changed the laws

to allow foreigners to invest in mining. What China neededat that time was money. It sounds like a joke now, but it wasreally true. They needed money, they needed managementexpertise and they needed technical help, particularly inexploration.

Then, from about 2004 to 2005, China started tochange from an importer of capital to an exporter. Theseminal event was when China Minmetals made a bid forNoranda. Minmetals was unsuccessful in its bid, but thatwas the time when we started looking at China as havingserious money.

Since then we have seen a change in the kind of projectsthe Chinese have been seeking. The geographies they’reinterested in have changed considerably over time, thetypes of metals have changed over time, and the actors havechanged over time.

CIM: Let’s start with the actors. Is it still primarily state-owned enterprises that are investing abroad? Spence: Initially, it was mainly state-owned enterprisesbecause they were the ones that had the resources and thetechnical depth to go abroad. They were also the ones who

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soft issues, which they didn’t pay a lot of attention to. Onecase in point: one of these companies has a project in Peru,which they haven’t been able to develop because of localopposition.

Then in the more developed countries, there’s a sort ofbacklash, a form of nationalism, like we had in the case ofthe Chinese national oil company CNOOC’s purchase ofNexen, where people were saying, “Yes, you can invest inour country if the companies are small and insignificant,but when you’re going to take national treasures or nationaltrophies, that’s a problem.”

Another issue that the Chinese have faced in theirinvestments abroad is that their due diligence probablywasn’t what we would do in North America. Just on purelyeconomic criteria, they’ve made acquisitions and then haverealized that there are a lot of issues they weren’t aware of.

CIM: Is securing supply the reason why Chinese firms havebeen so active abroad? Spence: I would say there are three principal reasons. Oneis what everybody talks about – securing a source of rawmaterial. Second, China also looks to some of these acqui-sitions to beef up their technical and managerial skills. Bymaking these acquisitions they’ll learn how to operate over-seas and learn some of the capital market skills as well.

But probably the most important reason for these invest-ments is to diversify China’s huge foreign reserves. By lastcount, China had more than $3 trillion in foreign reserves,with most of it in U.S. dollar instruments. It’s another wayto manage some of that money by putting it into hardassets, such as in mineral resources, and as a hedge againstthe U.S. dollar. This is just good portfolio management.

CIM: What kinds of lessons are the Chinese learning goingforward?Spence: Number one is that they should use foreign advi-sors in all their acquisitions. That includes technical andfinancial advisors, but also for corporate social responsibil-ity, environment and political risk management. All of theseadvisors are integral to making a foreign acquisition successful.

CIM: What does the future hold for Chinese investment?Spence: I think the Chinese are now more focused on theirinternational investments and they have liberalized therules so that not every investment has to be approved bygovernment, only the very large ones. The future augurswell.

Mineral prices are at all-time lows. I often tell my Chinese partners this is a time for a buying spree, and theirony is that the Chinese were actually more aggressive inforeign investments during the time when the prices werehigh. Now they’re a little more cautious because they knowmore and they’ve had to deal with some challenges. Expectmore investments and mergers and acquisitions fromChina, but from a more sophisticated and astute Chineseinvestor. CIM

got permission because in order to go overseas to makeacquisitions, you have to get permission from the state.

Now there’s more diversification in the kinds ofinvestors. You’re seeing companies in other industries thatwant to make investments in mining, and you’re also seeingsmaller mining companies and private mining companies.So there’s been more of a mix in the last few years.

CIM: What about the geographic change?Spence: In the early years, there was more emphasis onAfrica, which was a natural fit because China had verystrong relationships with a lot of Third World countries.Most of the early investments were in Africa because ofdiplomatic relations. The African investments, while inmining, were tied to infrastructure developments. Therewere also a lot of early investments in Latin America.

As the boom continued, you started seeing China spreadout to Australia, Canada, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.Since the downturn in the market, the Chinese risk appetitehas changed and the focus has been on less politically riskyplaces. The countries at the top of the list now are Canadaand Australia.

CIM: What kind of projects and minerals are of interest toChinese investors? Spence: There is a strong focus on very late-stage, near-development projects. That is the sweet spot for the Chinese right now. There isn’t a lot of interest in early-stageexploration.

In terms of minerals, most of the Chinese forays abroadhave been in what I call the “big four”: copper, iron ore,metallurgical coal and to some extent, gold. Now the focusis on gold and to some extent, copper.

CIM: How has the ownership structure that Chinese investorsseek changed since their first forays abroad?Spence: In the early days there couldn’t be any deal thatwas structured without majority control. There are stillsome who insist on majority control but that demand isn’tas strong as before. Now they’re starting to consider strate-gic investments in the 20 to 30 per cent level and also jointventures. All of these transactions usually involve someform of mineral off-take agreements. This structure has ele-ments of the Japanese model of the 1970s, where theJapanese took a minority stake in the foreign company butalso got access to the mineral output. This has a lot ofadvantages. You allow the foreign company to run thecompany and handle all the technical and managerial chal-lenges, but you still have what you really want, which isaccess to the raw material.

CIM: What kind of challenges have the Chinese faced in theirpursuit of foreign mining assets?Spence: The labour standards are a lot less rigorous inChina than in some other countries, so there have beenlabour problems in some of the investments in Africa andin Latin America. The other challenge is management of the


In order to satisfy the national standards, as well as itsown goals, Fankou has taken numerous actions, all ofwhich are directed by three key drivers:1. Establishing a good management system, which is the basisof a good operational practice.

Fankou continually improves its management systemto match its technological and industrial development. 2. Paying increased attention to advanced technology, tech-niques and facilities.

These are the tools needed to make green mining areality. Green mining is a general concept that implicatesalmost every area of a mine operation, especially technol-ogy and technical improvements. For example, by usingvertical crater retreat, and panel mechanized mid- longhole mining methods, whole-tailings tilling, and thefoamed mortar backfill method for mining, the efficiencyof mineral resource exploitation and tailings disposal areincreased. In addition the mine saves power by using theelectrical frequency conversion in mining and ore pro-cessing operations, and by using energy-efficient lighting.Curtain grouting is used as a water management tech-nique, which prevents about 50 per cent of the under-

To prevent and reverse the destruction of the envi-ronment that has occurred in the past due to min-ing, the Chinese government came up with a new

strategy to help create a more resource-conserving andenvironmentally-friendly society. The Chinese Ministry ofLand and Resources conceived the Green Mining Standard in 2007. The following year, the National Min-eral Resource Program was compiled and the Guidance toImplement the National Mineral Resource Program, DevelopGreen Mining and Construct a Green Mine was issued in2010, establishing a defined Green Mining Standard.

The standard assesses nine aspects of an operation:mining legally, good practices, using all resources effi-ciently, technological innovation, reducing waste release,environmental protection, reclamation, harmonious com-munity relationship and good enterprise culture.

The Fankou mine, owned by Shenzhen Zhongjin Ling-nan Nonfemet Co. Ltd., is one of the biggest lead-zinc- silver producers in Asia. Fankou began its commercialproduction in the 1960s and the facility, located inGuangdong Province, earned green mine certification in 2012.

Inside the Chinese Green Mining standardThe Fankou mine has undergone major changes in recent years

By Lu Jing

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ground water from entering the mine in the first place.Fankou has bought automated equipment from Germany,Finland, the United States and Canada to improve pro-ductivity and safety.3. Persisting in environmental protection.

The mine attaches importance to environmental man-agement and uses it as a basic guideline for the wholemining operation. Fankou achieved the ISO 14001 envi-ronmental management standard in 2012 and wasawarded the Guangdong provincial “EnvironmentalIntegrity Green Brand Enterprise.”

Because of the environmental protection and minereclamation initiatives, pollution issues have beenimproving. Conflicts between the mine and the commu-nity, which stem mainly from pollution, are also dimin-ishing.

Another subsidiary of Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfement,located in Guangxi Province, is currently workingtowards the national “Green Mine” certificate. But differ-ent mines face unique challenges. For Fankou, thebiggest difficulty was waste water recycling and tailingsdisposal, while for the mine in Guangxi Province, it ismineral recovery rate improvement.

The Green Mining certification is voluntary, ratherthan compulsory, for all mines in China, which meansdeciding whether or not to become a green mine dependson individual circumstances. But it is clear that in China,mines of a considerable scale are motivated to achieve thenew standard; 459 mines have been certified since 2010.Green mining increases an enterprise’s spending. There-fore, it is crucial that companies balance the cost ofinvestment at present with the potential for production inthe future, and consider how their individual expenseswill correspond with improvements in the environment.Of course, this is related to other concepts, such as cor-porate cocial responsibility and corporate citizenship.Potential government assistance also plays a very impor-tant role in enterprises’ consideration of adopting greenmining standards. For example, different provinces inChina have issued their own policies to give some finan-cial support (in the form of allowances or awards) toencourage mines to improve their facility, technology inmining or tailings storage. In some places, the local gov-ernments also give certain tax deductions when a minespends on improving its facility or technology. It has beenproven here that government financial support is a greatstimulus for mining companies in achieving higher envi-ronmental performance.

LU JING is the deputy general manager of internationalbusiness at Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co. Ltd.She has 10 years of experience in the company, previouslyin HR management, moving to managing overseasinvestments in 2010. She also has experience working inthe company’s subsidiaries in Australia and the DominicanRepublic. She holds a PhD in management.

CIM


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CIM joins OneMine.org !

CIM members now have unlimited access

to OneMine.org, a centralized repository of more than 106,000 mining, minerals and tunneling documents.

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cyanidation would only leach some 20 or 30 per cent ofthe gold.

Eldorado had previously used the BIOX process at theSao Bento mine in Brazil, which the company operatedfrom 1996 until its eventual closure in 2007. According toPaul Skayman, the company’s chief operating officer, Eldo-rado’s extensive previous experience with BIOX allowed theteam to continue to improve upon the process. As a resultof the continued improvements, the BIOX plant at Jinfengis a robust operation and one of the most successful exam-ples of the process in the world today.

BIOXOne of the biggest advantages of BIOX is that it can help

keep operating labour costs down, according to Jan vanNiekerk, managing director, Biomin South Africa Pty Ltd.,which owns the patented BIOX process. This is due to itsrelative ease of operation and minimum staff requirement.“You don’t have to bring in highly trained experts,” he says.“You can rely on a local workforce.”

In 2005, Eldorado Gold Corporation first ventured intoChina through the acquisition of Afcan Mining, whichincluded the Tanjianshan Gold project. The Vancouver-

based company subsequently became the leading foreign goldproducer in the country through the acquisition of Sino Goldin 2009, which comprised the Jinfeng mine and the smallerWhite Mountain mine assets. With a currently estimated 13-year mine life, Jinfeng, an open pit and underground goldmine located in China’s southern Guizhou Province, is thecountry’s largest known Carlin-type gold deposit. It is thecompany’s second-largest gold producer, treating around 1.5million tonnes of ore per year and producing between120,000 and 165,000 ounces of gold per year.

Jinfeng also happens to have the third-largest of theonly seven operating BIOX plants in the world. BIOX is abiotechnology fully commercialized in the 1990s forrefractory ores and concentrates in which gold is encapsu-lated in sulphide minerals such as pyrite, arsenopyrite andpyrrhotite. Without a pretreatment such as BIOX or themore common roasting and pressure-oxidizing processes,

Keep the gold bugs happyEldorado’s Jinfeng operation uses the BIOX process

to liberate gold from its refractory oreBy Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

All photos courtesy of Eldorado Gold


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EQUIPMENT INVENTORY

OPEN PIT 3 Atlas Copco ROC L8 drill rigsMINING 1 Atlas Copco CM780D drill rig 20 Komatsu HD605-7 63-t trucks 1 Hitachi 850 excavator 2 Hitachi 870 excavators 1 Komatsu PC400 1.8 m3 excavator 3 Komatsu PC 1250SP-7 6.7 m3 excavators

UNDERGROUND 6 Atlas Copco Boomer 282 jumbosMINING 1 Wagner Wagner MT-439 truck 4 Caterpillar AD45B trucks 1 Wagner ST-7.5Z loader 1 Caterpillar R2900G loader 3 Caterpillar R1700G loaders 1 Jinchuan Machinery JCCY-6 loader

lurgically challenging, including the growing necessity totreat refractory ores, and BIOX represents a proven technol-ogy in this successful treatment.”

THE NUTS AND BOLTSJinfeng, which covers an area of 128.4 hectares with

rugged karstic topopgraphy, is well supported by localinfrastructure. Although the mine has a 1.2-megawattdiesel genset on site as backup for grid disruptions and tokeep the cooling system for the BIOX circuit operating, Jinfeng is connected to the provincial electrical grid. Thesite is also accessed through sealed access roads. Water ispumped through a three-kilometre pipeline from the Luofan River to the mine’s processing plant.

Once the ore is mined from both the open pit andunderground operations, it is sorted into numerousstockpiles at the process plant, based primarily on theore’s gold grade as well as its hardness and sulphur grade.Ore is blended from the different piles to achieve a uni-form feed and is put through a primary jaw crusher. Theresulting stockpile material is then fed through the SAGmill and two ball mills. Once milled, the ore is fedthrough a flotation circuit and the resulting concentrate isthickened. Thickened, the material is transferred to twoidentical trains of tanks where the BIOX process takesplace. Five to six days later, the oxidized pulp is pumpedinto a multiple-stage thickener circuit where the solidsare separated from the liquid. The solution overflow isneutralized and discharged to tailings while the under-flow material is pumped into a CIL circuit. Carbon is fedthrough the circuit counter-currently to collect the goldthat has been leached into solution. After 24 hours, the

Because BIOX is a biological process that uses bacteria tobreak down the sulphide mineral matrix and liberate thegold for cyanidation in a series of very large tanks, most ofthe work involves making sure the living organisms are wellfed and in good health. They need to be “fed” the ore – ormore precisely, the sulphide – regularly and evenly. “Thebugs are a little particular on temperature,” says Skayman.“So the tanks have significant cooling systems to keep themat the right temperature. But it’s not a super-complicatedprocess. Once the guys have a handle on what works andwhat doesn’t work, it’s pretty reliable.” It takes about a weekfor the bacteria to do their job and leave the material readyfor cyanidation.

Skayman says there have been some pleasant surprises:“There’s a small amount of mercury in the ore at Jinfeng, sowhen they built the plant, they installed a full mercurymanagement system. But interestingly, with BIOX, the bugsdon’t eat the mercury, so it is not liberated. They leave it inthe sulphide matrix and as a result, there is no necessity tooperate the mercury management system. If it was a roasteror a different circuit, you’d be managing things very differ-ently.” In addition, Jinfeng uses a treatment process thatbreaks down thiocyanate (SCN-) to ammonia (NH3/NH4),to nitrite (NO2) and then onto nitrates (NO3) that can besafely discharged, he goes on to say.

“Our initial experience with the BIOX process at our SaoBento mine, coupled with our experience at Jinfeng hasallowed us to accumulate 20 years of experience in under-standing and operating the process,” Skayman explains.“We wouldn’t shy away from a BIOX circuit and we wouldcertainly consider utilizing BIOX again if the conditionswere favourable. Gold deposits are becoming more metal-


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from day one, Eldorado’s approach was to take a leadership rolein good operating practices. “There’s a standard we’re hammeringaround the world,” says Jones. This is part of the reason whydoing business in China is not very different for Eldorado fromoperating in any other state. The company operates by the samestandards across all jurisdictions. Open pit mining is done by acontractor, China Railway 19 Bureau Group Corporation, andGuizhou Construction Company is the drilling contractor. Whenit comes to the BIOX process, the experts at Jinfeng are Chinese.“They run a very robust operation with excellent recoveries andthey continue to improve recoveries year after year,” Jones says,adding the plant’s gold recovery rate has gone from some 82 percent in 2009 to 87 per cent today as its operators continue tooptimize the conditions for the bacteria.

PLANS FOR THE FUTUREWhile 13 years of mine life remain, Jinfeng is now in the

process of moving operations to become underground-only in2017. It is a process that began in 2008 when the mine firstwent underground, with ore production progressively rampingup year after year and expected to reach 800,000 tonnes peryear by 2015. Currently, the mine is conducting studies with thehope of increasing production after next year to 1.2 milliontonnes of ore annually for the estimated 10 million tonnes of oreunderground. That translates to some 175,000 ounces of goldprocessed by BIOX coming out of Jinfeng each year, if all goesas hoped. CIM

carbon is taken from the CIL circuit for gold removal byZadra methods consisting of stripping, electrowinningand smelting.

Jinfeng’s final product is a gold doré bar that is sold to alocal refiner at world spot prices.

OPERATING IN CHINAWhen Doug Jones, Eldorado’s senior vice-president,

operations, first took on the role of overseeing Eldo-rado’s operations in China almost three years ago, hewas surprised by the similarities between doing busi-ness there and in the West. “Partly that’s because I hadset up the expectation that it would be way different,”he says.

Still, there are differences. For one, Chinese culture –and its government – tends to have a far longer view whenit comes to planning than westerners, often looking 10 to20 years ahead.

Jones says the safety and environmental regulations inChina are on par with those of any major western econ-omy, and in fact, the country requires permits not just forsafety and the environment but also for extraction. And


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Captions, left: 1. Jinfeng is transitioning to underground-only operations asopen pit reserves are depleted; 2. Eldorado operates by the same standardsacross all jurisdictions; 3. BIOX and a CIL circuit refine the product; 4. Jinfengis Eldorado’s second-largest gold producer

FAIRVIEW owned by Pan African Resources, South Africa; JINFENG owned by Eldorado Gold, China; ASHANTI owned by AngloGoldAshanti, Ghana; FOSTERVILLE owned by Crocodile Gold, Australia; SUZDAL owned by Severstal, Kazakhstan; BOGOSO owned byGolden Star Resources, Ghana; KOKPATAS owned by Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combinat, Uzbekistan

SuzdalKokpatas

Jinfeng

Fosterville

Fairview

Ashanti

Bogoso

BIOX PLANTS IN OPERATION WORLDWIDE

The months from June to September

see 70 per cent of Lincang’s

annual rainfall (117 centimetres).

TIP


It’s easier to getaround in Lincang ifyou know some basicMandarin, especiallywhen ordering food,but there are a num-ber of importantpoints of business eti-quette to remembertoo. Confucianism,with its attention todemeanour, harmony,and preservation of“face,” plays a centralrole.

Meetings alwaysbegin with a hand-shake. Give a slightnod and don’t be toovigorous when shak-ing hands, it couldcome across as beingaggressive. Stay awayfrom physical contactafter this, includingpats on the arm. If ahost is guiding youthey may tug yoursleeve.

Have businesscards translated onone side. It is consid-ered fortuitous ifthey are printed ingold ink. Be sure toplace received cardsin a case rather thanyour pocket. Avoidhumour since jokesmay not come acrossas you intend. Giftetiquette and negoti-ations can be com-plex, so it’s best to

Bugs are a popular snack in YunnanProvince. So be careful about what you order

on restaurant menus.

TIP

Just north of the Tropic of Cancer, in a temperate highland valley where China’s Hengduanand Nu mountain ranges meet, the city of Lincang is going through a growth spurt. Localssay this modern prefecture city of more than 290,000 people, with its wide, freshly paved

central boulevards and new apartment buildings, looks nothing like it did just six years ago. Therugged vegetation of the countryside, tea farms and thatched-roof villages of the ethnic Wa peo-ple surrounding it belie a different time and way of life. Industry is spurring the city’s growthand vast mineral wealth lies in the region, with coal, germanium and uranium mined nearby.

TRAVEL Lincang

By Graham Lanktree

HOW TO FIT IN

The city’s restaurants borrow influences fromall over the region, including Vietnam, Laos andMyanmar, all of which border Yunnan Provinceto the south. Savory noodle and stir-fry dishespacked with chilies are mainstays of this diversecuisine.

Locals eat at the Youli Jinwang Restaurant,near Qishan Mountain, which offers a Dai(descendants of Lao and Thai) take on tradi-tional. The Yishunxiang Muslim Restaurantoffers up an exceptional twist on local fare,eschewing the usual pork found in a Chinesediet for Halal options.

If you’re hungry for something more western,Salvador’s Coffee House serves pizza, wafflesand wraps ($3-$8 or ¥17-¥45 CNY) as well asamericanos and cappuccinos starting at $3 (¥17CNY).

WHERE TO DINE

It’s easy to see why Lintong Grand Hotel is apopular standby for business travellers to Lincang.Centrally located on Shiji Road, it offers a freewireless network throughout the building. Roomsstart at $68 (¥380 CNY) and its large conferenceand meeting rooms, western restaurant and otheramenities – including a tennis court and pool –make it a safe bet.

At the intersection of Shiji and Fengxianroads

WHERE TO STAY

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nection to more than500 years of Chinesetea culture. To digdeeper, head northand visit the LincangTea Culture and Cus-toms Garden where

WHERE TO EXPLORE

GETTING AROUND

Update your medications. Some malariamedicines will not work against strains found

near the China-Burma border.

TIP

All transactions aremade in Chinese YuanRenminbi (CNY). Thecurrency is usedthroughout the coun-try and available atany ATM. C$1 isworth about ¥5.6CNY. Frequently usedbank notes are: ¥1,¥5, ¥10, ¥20, ¥50,¥100.

HOW TO PAY

Both China Eastern and Southern Air-lines fly daily to Lincang. Leaving from themajor city of Kunming, prices begin ataround $300 for round-trip tickets. Connect-ing flights to Kunming from Beijing arrive reg-ularly on carriers including AmericanAirlines, Qantas, JAL and United Airlines.All-in from Canada the trip will cost about$1,500. Once at Lincang airport, it’s a 22.5-kilometre journey north to the city centre.Taxis are available at $22 (¥123 CNY), and anairport shuttle bus is timed to flight arrivals.

If the budget is an issue, overnight sleeperbuses to Lincang leave from Kunming’s WestBus Station. Depending on which bed youchoose, they can cost as little as $32 (¥180CNY). The trip takes between nine and 12hours.

HOW TO GET THERE

It’s not unusual tosee water buffalololling along the riverthat runs near Lin-cang’s modern mainroad. It can feel like asmall town despitethe big city surround-ings. If you wander tothe hilly south end oftown you will find thetwisting lanes of Lin-cang’s oldest streets.

Keep wanderingand you’ll find hillsfilled with tea farmsand scratch the sur-face of the area’s con-

Lincang has little traffic relative to its wideroadways, making it fast and easy to get aroundby bike. You can rent gear in good conditionfrom the Ronghui Bicycle Club and exploresome areas of the countryside at your own pace.711 Shiji Lu, www.ynzxc.com CIM

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you can see theprocess of preparingtea and experience thelocal folk customs. Aday trip away in themountainous villageof Jinxiu in FengqingCounty grows anancient tea tree said tobe 3,200 years old. Inmid-April the localKun people hold acolourful two-week-long festival honour-ing it and the crop’simportance.

Pick out the beau-tiful Taoist, Mahayana

and Theravada Bud-dhist temples and aProtestant church, nuz-zled among Lincang’slarge modern build-ings. They offer anarchitectural counter-point to the present.But if you seek more ofthe ancient past, visitthe Neolithic paintingson the cliffs ofCangyuan County.

Eleven paintedrocky outcrops arescattered through several villages nearby.Images of animals,trees, boats, the sun,the moon, mountains,and abstract symbolsfloat on the limestonesurface and can appearin red, sandy brown orpurple hues depend-ing on the time of dayand humidity. Checkin with local travelagents to schedule a

visit in advance. A taxibooked at your hotelshould cost around$75 (¥420 CNY) toget there.

Closer to Lincangis the 3,429-metretall Big Snow Moun-tain connected toseveral other peaksranging from 3,177to 1,813 metres. Allare easily accessibleby a bus that coversthe 100-km distanceor by taxi for roughly$53 (¥300 CNY).

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CIM community

CIM Toronto Branch and the Canadian Mineral Proces-sors (CMP) Society of CIM hosted the 14th Annual FrankGrieco Memorial Golf Tournament at the Glen Abbey golfcourse at the end of August. “We spent six hours on the golfcourse in brilliant sunshine,” said Curtis Clarke, CIMToronto golf committee chair. “It was a wonderful day of golffollowed by good food and great prizes.”

The team from Detour Gold, sponsored by ToromontCAT, won the tournament that was played in a best ballscramble format. Teammates Martin Briere, Trevor Kraw-chyk, Rishi Ghuldu and Pierre Beaudoin scored a 53, 20-under par.

After finishing on the links, golfers attended a dinner andawards ceremony where $15,000 worth of prizes for variousachievements, such as a hole-in-one, was up for grabs. Theawards included “stay and play” packages at ClubLink golfresorts in the Muskoka region of Ontario for two nights andtwo rounds of play.

The tournament is organized annually to raise funds forthe local Toronto branch’s programs, which include monthlyluncheons and various youth events. This year, the tourna-ment welcomed 136 mining industry professionals, suppli-ers, consultants and financiers as well as CIM executivedirector Jean Vavrek.

The Toronto branch golf tournament was initiated 14years ago by Frank Grieco, president of PR Engineering inOshawa, Ontario. Following Grieco’s passing in May 2007,the event was named in his honour. CIM

Detour Gold wins Frank Grieco Golf TournamentBy Tom DiNardo

Ray MacDonald, a long-standing and instrumentalmember of the CIM community, passed away on August10, 2014. Ray was deeply involved with the Canadian Min-eral Processors (CMP) Society and, at the time of his pass-ing, was the organization’s treasurer. In previous years heserved as CMP secretary. The recipient of numerous awardshimself, Ray’s tireless dedication to the society was recog-nized in 2011 when CMP established the annual Ray Mac-Donald Volunteer Award.

“He was an integral part of the Canadian Mineral Proces-sors for over a quarter century,” said Janice Zinck, whoworked with Ray for nearly 25 years, and was the firstrecipient of the award named in his honour. “Ray quietlytouched so many lives in both his personal and professionallife and leaves behind a community of like-minded volun-teers who will continue his efforts.”

The CIM community extends its deepest condolences toRay’s family and friends. CIM

Golfers Vivien Clubb, Miranda Werstiuk, Wayne White and Peter Dallas (left to right)teed off at the Frank Grieco Golf Tournament under sunny skies.

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Ray MacDonald (right), who was deeply involved in the Canadian MineralProcessors (CMP) Society, poses at CMP’s 2013 student mixer with CIM past-president Chuck Edwards (left) and 2013 André Laplante Scholarship winnerCooper Meadows (middle).

CMP loses a champion: Ray MacDonald (1934-2014)By Chris Balcom

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CIM community

“CIM members will have direct access to OneMine via theCIM website through a single sign-on process utilizing theirCIM membership information,” explained CIM past-president(2013–14) Robert Schafer. For members, this means that oncethey log on to the CIM website, they will find a direct link tothe OneMine site.

“This is a significant move for CIM,” noted CIM presidentSean Waller. “The recent strategic outreach exercise con-

firmed our members’ desire for access to qualitytechnical knowledge, and we are con-fident that they will find great value

in OneMine.”OneMine.org has evolved into a

multi-society effort and is not solely asso-ciated with a single organization. In addi-

tion to SME, it also includes support from theAustralasian Institute of Mining and Metal-

lurgy (AusIMM); the South African Institute ofMining and Metallurgy (SAIMM); the Minerals,Metals and Materials Society (TMS); the Interna-

tional Marine Minerals Society (IMMS); and theDeep Foundations Institute (DFI). CIM

Les membres de l’ICM ont maintenant accès à OneMine, le fruit dela collaboration de plusieurs sociétés souhaitant centraliser les travauxde recherche les plus exhaustifs au monde dans les domaines desmines et des minéraux.

Initialement créée par la Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Explo-ration (SME, la société des mines, de la métallurgie et de l’exploration)en 2008, OneMine est une base de données numérique destinée àl’industrie minière qui contient des articles complets de comptes ren-dus de conférences, de revues techniques et d’autres publications.Comme l’expliquait le directeur exécutif de l’ICM Jean Vavrek, l’institutfait désormais partie de cette base de données OneMine, aussi lesmembres ont maintenant accès aux plus de 106 000 documents quiconstituent cette bibliothèque exhaustive. Le projet est d’ajouter àcette base de données en ligne des milliers de documents techniquesde l’ICM, actuellement disponibles sur le site Internet cim.org. Au coursde la première phase du projet, 1 000 documents seront mis à dispo-sition sur OneMine début octobre, et il est prévu d’en téléchargerenviron 4 000 autres au cours des mois à venir. « La conservation et ladiffusion des connaissances techniques ont toujours été au cœur dumandat de l’ICM en tant que communauté pour une expertise de pre-mier plan », déclarait Jean Vavrek.

« Les membres de l’ICM auront un accès direct à OneMine par l’in-termédiaire du site Internet de l’ICM. Il leur suffira d’ouvrir une sessionen utilisant leurs coordonnées de membre de l’ICM », expliquaitRobert Schafer, ancien président de l’ICM (2013-2014). Après avoirouvert une session sur le site Internet de l’ICM, les membres n’aurontqu’à cliquer sur un lien qui les mènera directement à OneMine.

« C’est une étape importante pour l’ICM », indiquait Sean Waller,président de l’ICM. « Notre récente activité stratégique d’information aconfirmé le désir de nos membres d’accéder à des connaissancestechniques de qualité, et nous sommes persuadés qu’ils trouveront deprécieux renseignements dans OneMine. »

OneMine.org a évolué et réunit maintenant les efforts de plusieurssociétés et non plus d’une seule organisation. Outre la SME, OneMineest également soutenue par l’Australasian Institute of Mining andMetallurgy (AusIMM, l’institut australasien des mines et de la métallur-gie) ; le Southern Africa Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM,l’institut sud-africain des mines et de la métallurgie) ; la Minerals,Metals and Materials Society (TMS, la société des minéraux, desmétaux et des matériaux) ; l’International Marine Minerals Society(IMMS, la société internationale des minéraux marins) ; et le DeepFoundations Institute (DFI, l’institut des fondations profondes). ICM

CIM joins OneMineBy Tom DiNardo

CIM members now have access to OneMine, a global col-laborative effort among multiple societies to place a vast collec-tion of mining and minerals-related research in one location.

Originally created by the Society for Mining, Metallurgyand Exploration (SME) in 2008, OneMine is a digital databasefor the mining industry that features full text articles from con-ference proceedings, technical journals and other publications.Now that CIM is part of OneMine, members have access to themore than 106,000 documents that form OneMine’sextensive library, explained CIM executive director JeanVavrek. The plan is to add thousands of CIM’s technicalpapers, currently available at cim.org, to the onlinedatabase. Under the first phase of the project, 1,000papers will be available on the OneMine site inearly October, with an additional 4,000estimated to be uploaded over the nextseveral months. “The curation anddissemination of technical knowl-edge has always been a corner-stone of CIM’s mandate as thecommunity for leading industryexpertise,” said Vavrek.

L’ICM se joint à OneMinePar Tom DiNardo

Excerpts taken from abstracts in CIM Journal, Vol. 5, No. 4.To subscribe, to submit a paper or to be a peer reviewer—www.cim.org

T E C H N I C A L A B S T R AC T S

CIM journal


Online X-ray fluorescence analysis of potash materials at various stages of processingE. Hasikova, V. Titov, A. Sokolov, and V. Gostilo, Baltic Scientific Instruments, Riga, Latvia

ABSTRACT Introducing online X-ray fluorescence (XRF)analyzers in the mining and processing industries canlower costs and improve the representativeness and speedof analysis. The applicability of the CON-XTM industrialconveyor XRF analyzer for continuous measurement ofpotassium content in process materials was demonstratedat various stages of potassium muriate (MOP) production.The CON-X analyzer produced reliable and accurateresults for sylvinite ore (27–36% KCl), MOP cake afterflotation (88–97% KCl), and NaCl residue (1.5–5% KCl).Tests of the analyzer at an MOP-producing plant showed a< 0.5% difference between online and laboratory results.

RÉSUMÉ L’utilisation par les domaines de l’exploitation minière etdu traitement des métaux d’appareils d’analyse en ligne par fluores-cence à rayons X permet de réduire les coûts et d’améliorer le degréde représentativité et la rapidité d’exécution du processusd’analyse. L’applicabilité de l’analyseur par fluorescence à rayons XCON-XMD pour transporteurs industriels à la production demesures en continu du contenu en potassium de matières en coursde traitement a été démontrée à différentes étapes de la produc-tion de muriate de potassium (MOP). L’analyseur CON-X a donnédes résultats fiables et précis dans les cas du minerai de sylvanite (27à 36 % de KCl), des gâteaux de MOP recueillis après l’étape de flot-tation (88 à 97 % de KCl) et des résidus de NaCl (1,5 à 5 % de KCl).Des essais de l’analyseur menés dans une usine de production deMOP a permis d’établir une différence de < 0,5 % entre les résultatsobtenus en ligne et ceux réalisés en laboratoire.

Industry-scale knowledge management—Introducing the RISKGATE underground strata and explosions body ofknowledgeP. A. Kirsch, J. Harris, D. Cliff, and M. Shi, Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland,Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; B. Hebblewhite, School of Mining Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales,Australia; D. Sprott, Design Solutions Australia Pty Ltd., Buddina, Queensland, Australia; A. Ranjan, S. Sharma, and T. Biswas, Mining Engineeringstudents, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India; and S. Sharma, Mining Engineering student, National Institute of Technology Karnataka,Surathkal, Mangalore, India

ABSTRACT RISKGATE is an interactive online risk manage-ment system that compiles and presents current practicesfrom a diverse range of Australian coal mining experts. Thesystem is designed to assist the industry in implementingcontinual improvement in management of major unwantedevents, thus maximizing health and safety performance.This paper presents an overview of the comprehensivebody of knowledge developed for management ofunwanted strata incidents and explosions in the under-ground environment. From a broader industry perspective,RISKGATE provides an environment for knowledge captureand exchange to drive innovation and advance currentpractices in the identification, assessment, and manage-ment of risk.

RÉSUMÉ RISKGATE est un système interactif en ligne de gestion durisque; il compile et présente les pratiques actuelles de diversexperts australiens en extraction du charbon. Le système est conçude manière à assister l’industrie à mettre en œuvre des améliorationscontinues dans la gestion d’événements majeurs non désirés, max-imisant ainsi le rendement en santé et sécurité. Cet article présenteun survol des connaissances développées pour la gestion des inci-dents non désirés impliquant des strates et des explosions dansl’environnement souterrain. D’un point de vue industriel plusgénéral, RISKGATE fournit un environnement pour la saisie etl’échange des connaissances afin de pousser l’innovation et faireavancer les pratiques actuelles dans l’identification, l’évaluation et lagestion du risque.

September/Septembre 2014 | 71

Excerpts taken from abstracts in CIM Journal, Vol. 5, No. 4.To subscribe, to submit a paper or to be a peer reviewer—www.cim.org


CIM journal

Kinetics of hexavalent chromium reduction in constructed wetland mesocosmsA. Rodriguez-Prado, Independent Consultant, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; R. L. Legge, Department of Chemical Engineering, University ofWaterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; W. C. Lennox, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario,Canada; and P. Kuschk, Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany

ABSTRACT Using constructed wetlands to chemicallyreduce hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) to Cr(III) from indus-trial and mining wastewater has proven to be feasible andefficient. Applying first-order kinetics to describe theprocess is simple, but in some cases a more accurate modelis required to reflect the process. This paper studies the fea-sibility of using non–first-order kinetics to describe thereduction process. Results indicate that half- and second-order kinetics adequately described Cr(VI) reduction inlaboratory wetland mesocosms. The organic carbon contentplayed a relevant role, whether it was built up by plantgrowth or spiked into the feed water.

RÉSUMÉ L’utilisation de marais artificiels pour réduire chimique-ment le chrome hexavalent Cr(VI) en Cr(III) des eaux uséesindustrielles et minières a été prouvée faisable et efficiente. L’ap-plication de la cinétique de premier ordre pour décrire leprocessus est simple mais, dans certain cas, il faut un modèle plusprécis pour refléter le processus. Cet article étudie la faisabilitéd’utiliser la cinétique de non premier ordre pour décrire le proces-sus de réduction. Les résultats indiquent que les cinétiques dedemi-ordre et de deuxième ordre décrivent adéquatement laréduction du Cr(VI) dans des mésocosmes de marais en labora-toire. La teneur en carbone organique joue un rôle pertinent, qu’ilait été rehaussé par la croissance des plantes ou qu’il ait été intro-duit dans l’eau d’alimentation.

Highwall mining technology—A review of current status and design methodsC. P. Verma, Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Maharashtra, India; N. R. Thote, Visveswaraya National Institute of Technology,Maharashtra, India; and J. L. Porathur, Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT Highwall mining is a highly mechanized coalmining method associated with several advantages, such asa very high production rate (approximately 3,000 t/d) andlow production costs. There is no requirement for under-ground support, ventilation, or blasting. Production leadsto added recovery, which is otherwise lost in the ultimatepit. The use of highwall mining can bridge the gap thatexists between supply and demand in the energy sector.This paper presents a brief review of highwall mining tech-nology, including current status, analysis tools, and designtechniques. In addition, it identifies important parametersfrom the analysis of failure case studies.

RÉSUMÉ L’extraction sous paroi haute est une méthode haute-ment mécanisée d’extraction du charbon; elle comporte plusieursavantages tels qu’un taux de production élevé (environ 3000 t/j) etde faibles coûts de production. Le support souterrain, la ventilationet le sautage ne sont pas requis. La production conduit à unemeilleure récupération du charbon qui serait autrement laissédans la fosse finale. L’extraction sous paroi haute peut combler lemanque entre l’approvisionnement et la demande dans le secteurde l’énergie. Le présent article présente un bref survol de la tech-nologie de l’extraction sous paroi haute, incluant son statut actuel,les outils d’analyse et les techniques de conception. De plus, ilidentifie des paramètres importants à partir de l’analyse d’étudesde cas de défaillances.

High-performance synthetic ropes for mine hoistingA. J. Guse, Vale, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT The primary limiting factor for hoisting capacityfrom great depths is the self-weight of steel wire ropes. Ashoisting depths increase, the service life of steel wire ropesdecreases due to the higher stresses and physical effects onthe ropes. The significantly higher strength-to-weight ratioof synthetic ropes offers the advantage of hoisting a largerpayload with a similar sized rope and hoisting plant. Thebeneficial properties of synthetic could be used to improvethe overall economics of deep underground mining.

RÉSUMÉ Le principal facteur de limitation de la capacité de hissagedes treuils à partir de grandes profondeurs est le poids propre descâbles d’acier. À mesure que la profondeur de hissage augmente, ladurée de vie utile des câbles d’acier décroît en raison des plusgrandes contraintes et des effets physiques sur les câbles. Le rapportrésistance/poids significativement plus élevé des câbles de fibressynthétiques offre l’avantage de soulever une plus grande chargesans modifier les dimensions du câble ou du treuil. Les propriétésbénéfiques d’un câble de fibres synthétiques pourraient être util-isées pour améliorer l’économie générale des mines souterrainesprofondes.

Excerpts taken from abstracts in CMQ, Vol. 52, No. 4.To subscribe – www.cmq-online.ca


canadian metallurgical quarterly


Adsorption behaviour of sodium hexametaphosphate on pyrochlore and calciteX. Ni and Q. Liu, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Correlation of initiation of corrosion pits and metallurgical features of X100 pipeline steelX. Y. Peng, G. C. Liang, College of Petroleum Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; T. Y. Jin, and Y. Frank Cheng,Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT In this work, corrosion pits initiated on X100pipeline steel and their correlation with the metallurgicalfeatures of the steel were characterised by scanning elec-tron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.It was found that pits are always associated with variousinclusions. For pits initiating at an MnS inclusion, a pref-erential dissolution occurs of the steel matrix at theinclusion/steel interface, with the inclusion remaininginside the pit. For duplex inclusions consisting of bothMnS and Al2O3, the Al2O3 component is dissolved in thepit solution. Pits initiated at Al2O3 and Ca/Al/Mg/O inclu-sions are also due to the preferential dissolution of theadjacent steel. However, the Si enriched inclusion is anodicrelative to the steel matrix, resulting in dissolution of theinclusion to initiate pits.

RÉSUMÉ Dans ce travail, on a caractérisé les piqûres de corrosioninitiées sur l’acier X100 pour pipeline et leur corrélation avec la car-actéristique métallurgique de l’acier, au moyen de la microscopieélectronique à balayage et de la spectroscopie à dispersion d’én-ergie. On a trouvé que les piqûres étaient toujours associées àdiverses inclusions. Pour les piqûres initiées à une inclusion de MnS,une dissolution préférentielle se produit sur la matrice de l’acier àl’interface entre l’inclusion et l’acier, l’inclusion se retrouvant à l’in-térieur de la piqûre. Pour les inclusions conjuguées consistant à lafois de MnS et d’Al2O3, la composante d’Al2O3 est dissoute dans lasolution de la piqûre. Les piqûres initiées à des inclusions d’Al2O3 etde Ca/Al/Mg/O résultent également de la dissolution préférentiellede l’acier adjacent. Cependant, l’inclusion enrichie de Si estanodique par rapport à la matrice de l’acier, résultant en la dissolu-tion de l’inclusion, ce qui initie des piqûres.

ABSTRACT FTIR, XPS and zeta potential measurementswere performed on pyrochlore and calcite to study theadsorption mechanisms of sodium hexametaphosphate(NaHMP). While no hexametaphosphate could be detectedon the FTIR spectra of NaHMP treated pyrochlore or cal-cite, the observed chemical shifts of the binding energies ofCa 2p5/2 (0.25 eV) and P 2p (0.20 eV) electrons indicatedthat the hexametaphosphate groups formed a complexwith calcium on calcite. The complex seemed soluble inwater leaving a low concentration of its residue on calcitesurface after water washing, thus undetectable by FTIR.The binding energy shifts of Nb 3d5/2 (0.13 eV) and Ca2p5/2 (0.10 eV) electrons on NaHMP-treated pyrochlorewere within instrumental resolution, therefore, NaHMPwas not strongly bound to pyrochlore. The zeta potentialsof pyrochlore and calcite were both lowered in the pres-ence of NaHMP. However, for pyrochlore, the zeta potentialdrop occurred mainly in the acidic pH range, while thedrop for calcite was independent of pH, indicating possiblechemisorption of NaHMP on calcite. The work explainedthe selective depressive function of NaHMP in the hydrox-amic acid flotation of carbonatite niobium ores.

RÉSUMÉ On a effectué des mesures de FTIR, de XPS et de potentielzêta du pyrochlore et de la calcite afin d’étudier les mécanismesd’adsorption de l’hexamétahosphate de sodium (NaHMP). Bienqu’on ne puisse pas détecter d’hexamétaphosphate dans les spec-tres de FTIR du pyrochlore ou de la calcite traités au NaHMP, lesdécalages chimiques observés des énergies de liaison des électronsde Ca 2p5/2 (0.25 eV) et de P 2p (0.20 eV) indiquaient que lesgroupes d’hexamétaphosphate formaient un complexe avec le cal-cium sur la calcite. Le complexe semblait soluble dans l’eau, laissantune faible concentration de son résidu à la surface de la calciteaprès lavage à l’eau, donc indétectable par FTIR. Les décalages del’énergie de liaison des électrons du Nb 3d5/2 (0.13 eV) et du Ca2p5/2 (0.10 eV) du pyrochlore traité au NaHMP se situaient dans leslimites de résolution de l’instrument. Donc, le NaHMP n’était pasfortement lié au pyrochlore. Les potentiels zêta du pyrochlore et dela calcite s’abaissaient tous deux en présence de NaHMP. Cepen-dant, la chute de potentiel zêta du pyrochlore se produisaitprincipalement dans la gamme de pH acide, alors que la chute pourla calcite était indépendante du pH, indiquant la possibilité d’unechemisorption du NaHMP sur la calcite. Ce travail explique la fonc-tion sélective et dépressive du NaHMP lors de la flottation à l’acidehydroxamique des minerais de carbonite de niobium.


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In the fall of 1942, the world was at war for the second timein 24 years. Having blitzed through western Europe,Germany was engaged in a two-front conflict: in the east

with the entrenched Soviet Union, and in the west with theAllies hanging on to Great Britain. On this front, Germany knewif it could choke off suppliesarriving from North America, itcould weaken and perhaps evenconquer the United Kingdom.

For this reason, the AtlanticOcean became an importantbattleground in the SecondWorld War. The German navy,using its prized U-boat sub-marines, had for the last twoyears besieged the Allies withhighly successful “wolfpack”tactics in which large groups ofGerman subs would swarmtransatlantic convoys. The Ger-mans sunk thousands of sup-ply and escort vessels this way.As technology and strategiesevolved, the war found its way to Canada’s doorstep. U-boatspatrolled the waters off Newfoundland in the autumn of 1942,stalking like sharks around a significant iron ore mining dis-trict just west of St. John’s.

Bell Island, a rugged nine-by-three-kilometre landmass inNewfoundland’s Conception Bay, had been home to continu-ous iron ore mining since 1895. Before the war, the island’smines shipped most of their product to Germany. But afterCanada’s declaration of war in September 1939, the majorityof its iron ore was sent to steel mills in Sydney, Nova Scotia, tocontribute to wartime shipbuilding efforts. All of this madetiny Bell Island an important asset for the Allies, but also astrategic target for the Germans.

U-boats started attacking vessels along the East Coast ear-lier in 1942, picking off mainly ill-prepared American ships atwill after Germany’s official declaration of war against theUnited States in December 1941. Between January and August1942, more than 600 merchant ships were destroyed off theEast Coast, killing thousands.

Celebrated German “ace” Rolf Ruggeberg, captain of U-513,had been hunting Allied ships in the waters around New-foundland since August. Observing steamer traffic outside ofConception Bay, he followed a small ship into the bay on Sept.4 and came upon three ships anchored outside Bell Island.Ruggeberg waited out the night and then, on Sept. 5, he firedon the bulk carrier Saganaga while it was waiting for a convoy


to Sydney, loaded with 8,300 tons of iron ore. The ship sunkin three minutes from the two torpedoes that hit in quick suc-cession. Thirty seamen perished, only 14 survived. Witnessingthe attack, the crew aboard the Canadian steamer Lord Strath-cona pre-emptively took to lifeboats before two torpedoes con-

nected with their ship 30minutes later. The LordStrathcona went down, butall 44 crew members werespared. The third ship, PLM27, escaped unharmed.

Defences and fortifica-tions went up to try to pro-tect ships accessing BellIsland. Despite those efforts,two more ships met theirdemise at the hands of theGerman U-boat fleet laterthat year. In the early morn-ing of Nov. 2, the German U-518 fired torpedoes at theCanadian steam merchantRose Castle, anchored just off

the island. Coincidentally, this ship had narrowly avoided mis-fortune two weeks prior, when it was hit by a dud U-boat tor-pedo that failed to explode. This time, 23 crew members werekilled when it sank. Before slipping away, U-518 also destroyedPLM 27, which had survived the earlier September attack.

During U-518’s November strike, a torpedo, destined forthe coal ship Anna T, missed and instead hit Bell Island’s ScotiaPier loading dock, causing more than $30,000 in damages.This made Bell Island one of the few North American commu-nities to be directly fired upon during the Second World War.

Residents of Bell Island were shaken by these events andthe October sinking of the SS Caribou, a passenger ferry enroute from North Sydney, N.S. to Port-aux-Basques, N.L.,which claimed 137 lives. Yet production at the mines andshipments of ore persisted until the end of the war.

When the iron ore demand from the war and the subse-quent rebuilding of Europe ceased, so did mining on BellIsland. Its operations could not compete with cheaper extrac-tion methods employed elsewhere. On April 19, 1966, the lastof Bell Island’s six mines were closed. Over the course of its 71-year history, more than 79 million tons of iron ore wereextracted.

Today visitors can take guided tours of the Bell Island mine,or dive down to explore the wrecks of the four doomed Alliedships, sunk by German U-boats that might even have beenbuilt with some of the island’s high-quality iron ore. CIM

War comes to Bell Island, NewfoundlandBy Herb Mathisen

Bell Island’s Scotia Pier was accidentally hit by a torpedo from a Germansubmarine in November 1942. This was one of the few attacks on NorthAmerican communities during the Second World War.

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CIM Magazine October 2014