It’s not every day that a new mine goes into production – not even in Sudbury, one of the world’s most important cen-tres of mineral wealth – but, this month, Vale celebrates the official handover to operations at Totten Mine, 40 kilome-tres west of downtown Sudbury.

Hailed as “a mine of the future” by Kelly Strong, vice-president of Ontario and UK operations, Totten is brimming with advanced technologies.

“We’re very excited about this being our first new mine in over 40 years,”

said Strong. “Totten demonstrates that we have this amazing resource under our feet here. Building Totten through some challenging economic times shows our commitment as a company to Sudbury.

“One of the things you see in the mining industry is that the price cycle is shorter than the period of time it takes to complete a project,” noted Strong. “So, when we undertake to build these big capital projects, we have to under-stand that we’re going to go through a downturn at some point – either at the front end, the middle or the end, and we have to have the discipline to continue through from front to back.”

That discipline hasn’t always been manifest. Inco, which was acquired by Vale in 2006, sunk two shafts at Totten beginning in 1966, but put the project on care and maintenance in 1972 and let it flood four years later.

Vale announced plans to bring Totten

into production soon after acquiring Inco in 2006. AMEC was awarded a contract to build a water treatment plant as a prelude to dewatering the underground workings. Existing surface infrastructure was demolished and in 2007 Cementation was hired to begin rehabilitating the 4,130-foot Number 2 shaft.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing. Totten was supposed to cost $450 mil-lion and begin operating in the second quarter of 2011, but water ingress and other challenges encountered along the way delayed startup to December 2013 and the cost escalated to $760 million.

December 1, 2013 ■ Volume 10, Number 4

ShowcaSing the mining expertiSe of northern ontario

w w w . s u d b u r y m i n i n g s o l u t i o n s . c o m

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com

Pub l i cat ions Ma i l Agreement No. 4006541 1

Vale celebrates Totten Mine startup

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

See inside, Page 22

■ Mine of the future brimming with state-of-the-art technology

Futuristic control room in Totten Mine’s administration building includes a wall-to-wall array of computer screens and video monitors with flow charts and bar graphs providing a visual representation of mine operations. Vale Archive. Miningindustrialphotographer.com

INSIDE

WORLD’S LARGEST MINE CAGES ARE ON THE WAY TO INDONESIAFLSMIDTH AND SUDBURY’S STAINLESS STEEL TECHNOLOGY PARTNER UP. ................................. 3

CUTTING-EDGE INNOVATION CENTRE OPENS DOORS IN NORTH BAYICAMP BOASTS LASER SCANNERS, POLYMER PRINTERS, INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS .........................10

SPECIAL REPORT ON WOMEN IN MINING: DIVERSITY TAKES HOLDMEET 12 WOMEN WHO ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE MINING INDUSTRY ...................38-47

Special Focus on Totten Mine: Pages 19 to 30

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1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 2 11/5/2013 10:50:53 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com NEWS Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal � December 1, 2013 3

CONTENTS

7 181712

FLSmidth and Sudbury fabricator Stainless Steel Technology are about to deliver two 300-man cages to Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold’s Grasberg complex in Indonesia.

The two identical conveyances, one of which is a spare, are the largest and most technologically advanced cages in the world, according to Jim Brownlee, product manager for FLSmidth. Designed to operate in a sub-vertical shaft, or winze, the two-deck conveyances carry an 85,000-pound material payload and are designed to operate with a Blair multi-rope hoist.

The cages are equipped with continuous load monitor-ing, LED lighting, a communication system, sensors for door position, a chairing solution and remotely operated wheel chocks to secure rail cars carrying supplies and equipment.

Blair multi-rope hoisting was developed as a solu-tion for very deep shafts in South Africa, but is gain-ing in popularity in Canada for other reasons, noted Brownlee.

“In Canada, we have a requirement for safety dogs on conveyances. These are a spring-loaded apparatus that deploys teeth into wooden guides to make sure a convey-ance will come to a safe stop if the hoist loses control or there is a broken or detached rope.”

The problem though is that the select grade Douglas Fir that’s required for the wooden guides is becoming increasingly hard to source and very expensive.

“It also wears out and has to be continually replaced and maintained, so it’s a huge maintenance issue,” said Brownlee. Galvanized steel guides are an option, but only if there’s a redundant rope.

“For that reason, there’s a lot of interest in BMR hoists.”

Constant power Because of the relatively short depth that the

cages travel, they’re designed with a trailing cable for constant power.

“Usually, when you go in a cage, everybody is standing around with their cap lights on and that’s the only light,”

said Brownlee. “This conveyance has LED lighting and a full communication system.”

The cage operator can talk with the control room instead of ringing bells, although the bells will still be there for backup in the event of a power disruption.

Other features of the cage include door sensors that prevent the cage from moving if a door is left open and a chairing mechanism that secures the cage at a level when heavy loads are moved in or out.

The operator pulls a handle and four feet shoot out to park the cage.

Freeport McMoRan didn’t want it to be a manual sys-tem, “so we designed it to be pneumatically operated with manual as backup,” said Brownlee.

Wheel chocks used for stabilizing rail cars with heavy loads of supplies and equipment are also remotely engaged. The cage won’t leave if the wheel chocks aren’t in place.

The cages are also equipped with Technogrid safety arrestors and FLSmidth Safety Catch Gear with impact buffers –backup safety equipment that is hardly ever used, said Brownlee.

Spare cageAn identical spare cage was required because of the

mine’s location and the amount of time it would take to replace and install it. The cages break down into 28 sections for transport to the mine site and down to the sub-vertical shaft for reassembly.

A cavern was excavated to store the spare cage and FLSmidth supplied storage and transfer equipment to move it into position in the shaft.

“If the cage were damaged and they had to order anoth-er one, they’d have to shut down the mine for months,” said Brownlee. “They couldn’t take that risk. There are so many men who work down there and if they had to use a ramp, it would take half their shift to get there. By bring-ing them down in a cage, they can get to work right away.”

FLSmidth, formerly GL&V Dorr-Oliver, closed its Orillia manufacturing facility in 1998, electing instead to outsource manufacturing and focus on engineering and sales.

“The purpose of outsourcing was to have multiple shops to work with, which would give us a pricing and delivery benefit,” said Brownlee. “We have worked with a number of suppliers over the years, but Stainless Steel Technology has emerged as a superior partner for us in every way.”

Stainless Steel Technology has other customers but man-ufactures skips and cages exclusively for FLSmidth. The company operates out of a state-of-the-art, 55,000-square foot facility in Sudbury’s Lively Industrial Park and boasts a 6 x12-foot laser cutter, a computer-controlled 10 x 24-foot water jet cutter and a robotic welder.

The Sudbury fabricator also has a drop test tower, which eliminates the need for expen-sive and potentially hazardous drop tests at the minesite.

www.flsmidth.comwww.stainlesssteeltech.com

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

TechnologyHoverbarge proposed for access to Ring of FireYear-round overland access beats six-week ice road season/7

News‘Build it and they will come’ strategy pays offNorth Bay’s new airport industrial park a hit with suppliers/12

ExplorationEvening out with mining luminary Robert FriedlandFlat is good, the Congo is a bit like Prince Edward Island/18

NewsKGHM begins site preparation for Victoria ProjectSinking of 1,892-metre exploration shaft planned for 2014/15

Technology Proximity detection system keeps miners safeWhen a zone is breached, system issues audible alarm/17

EnergyFirst comes love, then comes marriageMiners, renewable energy developers check each other out/36

Also in this issueSymboticware wireless system speeds subsidence monitoring ........5Mining companies get behind Scrap Cancer campaign ........................6Vale, Glencore said to be considering Sudbury combination.............. 13Redpath Group wins mine development contract in Zambia .............. 13NORCAT space mining group goes its own way ....................................... 16Atlas Copco wins design award for rig control system .........................48There’s more to Nevada than guys in Elvis suits ....................................49Calendar of coming events, trade shows, short courses ......................50

World’s largest cage headed to Indonesia� Engineered by FLSmidth

and manufactured by Stainless Steel Technology

The cages are equipped with continuous load monitoring, LED lighting, a communication system, sensors for door position, a chairing solution and remotely operated wheel chocks to secure rail cars carrying supplies and equipment.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 3 11/5/2013 10:51:18 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 4

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com NEWS Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 5

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Wireless solution speeds subsidence monitoring

A Northern Ontario gold miner is acquiring a wireless data solution from Sudbury-based Symboticware to quick-ly and efficiently monitor subsidence events linked to historical mining.

The miner currently collects data manually from 47 wells equipped with multi-point borehole extensometers to monitor ground movement. The wells are located throughout the heart of the city’s core in parking lots, golf courses, next to fast food restaurants and other built-up areas. The wells are 18 to 16-inches in diameter, vary in depth from 10 to 60 feet and are covered by steel plates.

ExtensometersThe multi-point borehole extensom-

eters are long cables that stretch and contract in response to ground move-ment. If subsidence is detected, the mining company sends out a crew to dump sand into the well.

The company used to send out crews every six months to take manual read-ings from the instrumentation.

“They’d have to send out two or three guys because they had to lift a manhole cover to get a reading,” said Symboticware president Kirk Petroski. Snow cover in winter was a prob-lem, and sometimes they’d have to stop traffic.

With the company poised to pro-ceed with the development of a nearby open pit, there’s a concern that the dewatering and blasting will trigger ground movement and subsidence, so a decision was made to go with an automated data collection system to streamline monitoring, said Petroksi.

The pit will reclaim land contain-ing mine hazards and unstable under-ground workings from historical min-ing operations, creating a lake and parkland accessible to the public.

“What we’re doing is connecting a wireless device to the head of the sen-sor underneath the manhole cover,” explained Petroski. “The wireless device transmits the readings through a mesh network to a main controller at the minesite.”

“The furthest monitoring point is four kilometres away, but they’re all located within 200 to 300 feet of each other. All these systems wake up and use each other to send the data

to the main controller.”Four wells were equipped with wire-

less devices in November. The remain-ing 43 wells will be converted for wire-less data collection between January and May. Solar collectors or lithi-um-ion batteries will supply power, depending on the location of the wells.

Symboticare has been contracted to supply and maintain the system for a 10-year period.

Geospatial interfaceA Google Earth-type geographic

information system is being used to geospatially represent the data from the 47 wells, with colour-coded mark-ers alerting mining company staff to ground movement and pop-up dis-plays revealing extensometer readings.

TECTERRA, an Alberta-based orga-nization, provided a one-year loan as part of its mandate to support the development and commercialization of geomatics technology.

Symboticware specializes in wireless data solutions for a variety of applica-tions and is best known for its Symbot, a device designed to collect and wire-lessly transmit real-time equipment performance data in underground mines.

symboticware.comwww.tecterra.com

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

Symboticware systems engineer Jon Petrenas demonstrates the wireless data collection and transmission solution that relays readings from multi-point borehole extensometers for monitoring of ground movement in the city’s subsidence-prone downtown core.

■ Symboticware mesh network alerts miner to ground movement

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 5 11/5/2013 10:52:29 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 6

A company of the SCHAUENBURG International Group

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Asking for money is standard prac-tice in fundraising, but the Northern Cancer Foundation will also take scrap metal. Toasters, lawnmowers, boilers, cars, whatever. BM Metal Services, a divi-sion of Milman Industries, and other Sudbury area companies are turning scrap into cold, hard cash.

When BM Metal Services called Northern Cancer Foundation executive director Tannys Laughren with the idea, she didn’t think they would make very much money but was willing to try. That first year, they made $21,000 - far more than she expected.

BM Metal Services, a waste manage-ment and metal recycling company, partnered with the Northern Cancer Foundation to help collect and pro-cess the scrap. The company manag-es the entire process, including col-lection, preparation and selling of the metal.

“This campaign is a fairly simple mar-riage for us,” said Shayne Smith, general manager of BM Metal Services. “We were looking for an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the com-munity. My parents are cancer survivors

and many of our employees have been or are touched by cancer. It is a noble cause to get behind.”

Donations are welcome at their yard, or can be dropped off in bins locat-ed at a number of locations around Sudbury.

The Scrap Metal campaign runs every

October. The money raised for the Northern Cancer Foundation remains in the community and supports research, patient care and the acquisition of new equipment.

Vale and a few other mining and supply companies came on board in the second year of the program, almost

doubling revenue to $35,000. “Health Sciences North joined in

as well, donating an old boiler that brought in $12,000,” said Laughren. And one anonymous donor left a large ice machine by the bin recently.

Dave Duncan, mine manager at Vale’s Copper Cliff Mine, is hoping for still more community involvement.

“Anything from around the home can be donated,” said Duncan. “Steel tables, chairs, lawnmowers. It is a great way to give to a good cause while recy-cling material that might otherwise end up in the garbage.”

Copper Cliff Mine won the Scrap Cancer Cup for 2011 and 2012, donating the most scrap metal. Carriere Industrial won in 2010.

To build on the success of the cam-paign, more bin locations are being added and more businesses are being recruited to help out. BM Metal Services will drop off a bin at any business inter-ested in participating.

Long-term plans include starting more scrap metal campaigns in other northeastern Ontario cities.

Last year, the campaign brought in $65,000, prompting participating com-panies to raise the bar even higher in future years

www.milman.ca/_bmmetalswww.ncrfsudbury.com

Mining companies get behind Scrap Cancer campaign

BY HEATHER CAMPBELL

■ Turning scrap into cold, hard cash

Left to right are Dan Poirier of Vale; Tannys Laughren, executive director, Northern Cancer Foundation; Dave Duncan, mine manager, Copper Cliff Mine, Vale; Christine Harvey, marketing coordinator, BM Metal Services; and Roger Hines, Copper Cliff Mine, Vale, in front of a bin for collecting scrap metal.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 6 11/5/2013 10:52:39 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com NEWS Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal � December 1, 2013 7

While the battle over the mode and route of a fixed transportation link to Northern Ontario’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire drags on, a novel means of transporting construction material and equipment into the remote, water-logged James Bay Lowlands is being proposed by the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).

Hoverbarges, which travel on a cushion of air, can carry hundreds of tonnes of material year-round unlike ice roads, which can only be used season-ally, according to CEMI president Doug Morrison.

It will take years to build a road or railway to Cliffs Natural Resources’ massive chromite discovery and Noront Resources’ proposed nickel and PGM project 330 kilometres north of Ontario’s existing transportation infrastructure.

Construction materialUsing hoverbarges to transport the

vast quantity of construction material and equipment needed for the develop-ment of the mines “is a means of mak-ing sure the project will move forward before the fixed link is constructed,” said Morrison. Hoverbarges, he added, can

also be used to transport material and equipment for the construction of the 30 or more bridges that would be required for a fixed transportation corridor.

Ice roads, he said, won’t suffice for the tonnages required and are increasingly risky due to shortened seasons caused by global warming.

Hoverbarges, manufactured by Singapore-based Hovertrans Solutions, can carry payloads of 50 to 2,500 tonnes. Self-propelled, diesel-powered versions can carry up to 200 tonnes and travel at a speed of 10 kilometres an hour over muskeg, water and ice. Larger units would be towed by a tractor with over-sized balloon tires.

Morrison has met with Cliffs, Noront and De Beers, and is exploring the possibility of tapping into Ontario’s Innovation Demonstration Fund, the federal government’s Sustainable Development Technology Fund and Fednor to fund a demonstration proj-ect using a 60-tonne hoverbarge that is “readily available.”

Leasing and operating a hoverbarge for a two-year trial would cost $20 mil-lion, said Morrison, while a one-year trial would cost $12 million.

Hoverbarges have primarily been used in wetland areas of the tropics by the oil and gas industry, hence the need to demonstrate their effectiveness in the terrain and climatic conditions of the James Bay Lowlands. The proposed trial would be used to determine the ideal size and figuration of the unit, and resolve any issues relating to noise and refueling.

According to Morrison, the hoverbarg-es would travel year-round along cleared ice road routes, which would have to be extended to the proposed mine sites from their current points of termination.

Impact on the land is a mere one to two pounds per square inch for a self-propelled hoverbarge and four to five pounds per square inch for a trac-tor with oversized balloon tires, he noted. In both cases, the impact is less than the seven to eight pounds per square inch attributable to a human being.

FleetMorrison envisions a fleet of different-

sized hoverbarges, or hovercraft, to meet different needs. Larger units would be used to transport freight, while smaller and faster bus-sized units could be used as an alternative to much more expen-sive roads to transport people and sup-plies year-round to remote First Nation communities.

Cliffs’ decision in June to suspend work on the environmental assess-

ment for its Black Thor chromite proj-ect and the Ontario Mining and Lands Commissioner ruling in September denying Cliffs’ application for a road easement across mining claims staked by KWG Resources may delay the develop-ment of the Ring of Fire, but won’t put a halt to it, said Morrison.

“This is a very major deposit and it will absolutely be mined. The major source of chromite at the present time is South Africa and South Africa has some challenges relating to power and labour unrest. (The chromite in the Ring of Fire) has a whole set of other challenges relating to access, weath-er, etc., but it’s a very major deposit that will go ahead. It’s just a question of when.”

www.miningexcellence.cawww.hovertranssolutions.com

BRIEFS

New Gold Inc. has successfully com-pleted its acquisition of Rainy River Re-sources Ltd.

“We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of Rainy River and look forward to advancing it through the vari-ous stages of development,” said Ran-dall Oliphant, executive chairman.

The company is in the process of completing its detailed review and up-date of the Rainy River feasibility study as well as advancing the permitting ef-forts for the project.

New Gold is an intermediate gold mining company with a portfolio of four producing assets and three development projects. The New Afton Mine in Cana-da, the Cerro San Pedro Mine in Mexico, the Mesquite Mine in the United States and the Peak Mines in Australia provide the company with its current production base. In addition to the Rainy River proj-ect, New Gold owns 100 per cent of the Blackwater project in British Columbia, as well as 30 per cent of the El Morro project in Chile.

New Gold completes acquisition of Rainy River

Hoverbarge proposed for year-round access to Ring of Fire

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

� CEMI proposes novel means of transportation for construction material and equipment

Hoverbarge with 50-tonne payload capacity travels on a cushion of air over ice, snow or swampy terrain. Unit shown was built by ST Marine of Singapore.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 7 11/5/2013 11:00:15 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 8

8/OPINIONS

December 1, 2013, Vol. 10, No. 4

EditorNorm Tollinsky

ntollinsky@sudburyminingsolutions.com

Editorial Advisory BoardDavid Robinson, Chair

Associate Professor, EconomicsLaurentian University

Greg BaidenCanadian Chair, Robotics and Mine Automation

Dick DeStefanoExecutive Director,

Sudbury Area Mining Supplyand Service Association

Erin RichmondManager, Economic Development

City of North Bay

Dennis ShannonPresident, National Mine Safety Training Centre

Daniel GirouxVice President, Collège Boréal

Graphic DesignerMandy Kinnonen

mkinnonen@nob.on.ca

Creative ResourcesMatina Castonguay

Barb Smith Allan McMullan

Tom Colton

CirculationGiselle Perrin

giselep@nob.on.ca

PresidentMichael R. Atkins

matkins@laurentianmedia.com

PublisherPatricia Mills

pmills@nob.on.ca

Marketing DirectorBrandi Braithwaite

705-673-5705 ext. 381brandi@nob.on.ca

Contact InformationTelephone: 705-673-5705

Fax: 705-673-9542Mail:

Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal158 Elgin St. S

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada P3E 3N5

Online:www.sudburyminingsolutions.com

Subscription Inquiries:705-673-5705

Advertising Inquiries:Patricia Mills

705-673-5705pmills@nob.on.ca

Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal is published quarterly, in March, June, September and

December, by Northern Ontario Business Limited

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40065411. Return undeliverable addresses to Circulation

Dept. 158 Elgin St. S Sudbury, ON P3E 3N5

ISSN 1710-7903

OPInIOn

The mining supply and service sector will do much better than the rest of the economy over the next 50 years. Here’s why. And here is what we ought to do.

There are three stylized facts that matter. For economists “stylized facts” capture the most important features of a situation. For the mining supply and service sector, the stylized facts are “Harold Hotelling,” “China,” and “tech-nology.”

“Technology” obviously stands for the fact that in mining, as in other fields, labour is being replaced by capital and services. That means the mining supply and service sector will be getting a big-ger and bigger share of the value-added of the mining sector.

“China” stands for the huge growth in demand for minerals that we know is coming. No one really doubts that we will need to produce as much copper over the next 30 or 50 years as has been produced in the whole history of min-ing. You might quibble about whether the right time frame is 25 or 55 years, but this stylized fact tells us that the pie will get a lot bigger.

This means the supply sector will be getting bigger share of a bigger pie.

The third stylized fact comes from and old piece of economic theory. In 1931, Harold Hotelling published a paper

that showed resource prices should rise exponentially. It was a brilliant bit of analysis, and it became a foundation stone in the field of Resource Economics. It also became the biggest embarrassment faced by theorists in the field because resource prices actu-ally fell throughout most of the 20th Century. Even by the 1990s, researchers didn’t

have statistical evidence that resource prices were starting to trend upward. The sharp spikes that they were seeing could have been accidents.

Now, we are almost certain that we are into a long period of rising prices. This rise may be the result of a “Super Cycle” in the world economy. If that is true, then we may only have 30 years of relatively high prices. If the Hotelling Effect kicks in, we can expect to see a permanent change in the relative price of what the mining sector produces. In any case, we have positive fact number three: rising prices for metals will mean more lavish spending on equipment and services.

If the share of mining value-added increases by 50 per cent and total output increases by a factor of five, the supply sector will have to grow by a factor of 7.5. Add in rising prices and the sec-tor’s revenues will increase by at least 10 times. Supplying the mining sector will be a very good business to be in.

For supply firms, the question is how to position themselves for this bonanza. The answers are fairly obvi-ous. Invest heavily and soon. Buy

competitors. Do a lot of research. And play politics in a strategic way: support industry organizations like SAMSSA and encourage governments to spend more on research related to mining and much more on research for the supply sector.

For industry organizations like SAMSSA, the first job is to make Canadian governments understand that we have an historic opportunity to expand Canadian trade. The supply sector is still languishing in the govern-ment’s blind spot. It is overshadowed by the drama of high-stakes gambles in the mining industry, outshone by the financial sector and outshouted by the major mining players. It is hard for policy makers to see that there could easily be more revenue for gov-ernment from growing the supply sector than from growing the mining industry itself.

For Canada, the big question is what the country can do to make sure Canadian firms grab a much bigger share of the much bigger pie. The coun-try needs a national strategy to supply mining companies around the world with Canadian equipment, consum-ables and services.

A good start would be a road-map-ping process for the mining supply industry. The U.S. did it 15 years ago for its own mining industry. Our min-ing companies would be happy to help guide supplier research and innova-tion. A great role for government would be to bring together a very diverse and scattered sector to plan for a very exciting future.

Supply and service sector headed for good timesBy David Robinson

ECOnOMISTLaurentian Universitydrobinson@laurentian.ca

This month marks the handover to operations at Vale’s state-of-the-art Totten Mine, the first new mine in the Sudbury Basin for Vale (and the former Inco) in 40 years.

In this issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, you can read about the cutting-edge technology at Totten and some of the engineering challenges encountered during the mine’s construc-tion, but the development of any new mine is primarily a human triumph made possible by hundreds of talented people working together as a team.

Foremost among them in the case of Totten are the members of the in-house project management team – people like project manager Bill Booth, execution manager Gary Annett, automation and production lead Jack McIssac, operation-al readiness lead Bernie Parisé, senior environmental specialist Allison Merla, chief mine geologist Lance Howland,

chief mine engineer Erick Jarvi and maintenance super-intendent Jason MacKinnon.

Building a new mine is no endeavour for the faint of heart. In the case of Totten, the project team oversaw the rehabilitation of a 4,130-foot timbered shaft built in1966, the excavation of 43,200 feet of lateral development plus thousands of feet of ventila-

tion raises and boreholes, and the instal-lation of the infrastructure and mine-wide communication system. They over-came ground control and water ingress challenges. They weathered a wild roller-coaster ride that saw nickel prices climb from $9 a pound in 2006 to $24 in 2007 and back down to $4 in 2008. And they directed the traffic of 500 or more work-ers from dozens of companies while chalking up an industry-leading safety record.

Totten Mine is a testament to the incredible mining talent we have in Sudbury and Northern Ontario, but it is also indicative of the seemingly inexhaustible mineral wealth of the Sudbury Basin.

Ore was discovered on the site of Totten Mine in 1884 and mined from 1890 to 1927, when there was a cave-in caused by a crown pillar failure. Inco bought the property in 1935 from the Mond Nickel Company, sunk the Number One shaft to the 820-foot level and mined approximately one million tonnes. The Number Two shaft –Totten’s current shaft – was sunk from 1966 to 1972, but placed on care and maintenance and allowed to flood in 1976 when nickel prices tanked. It was drilling in the 1990s that defined the deposit as it’s known today.

Now, a mere seven kilometres east of Totten Mine, a similar story is playing out as KGHM International begins site preparation at its Victoria Project, where a new ore zone was recently discovered on the site of another historic mine.

Clearly, after more than a century of mining, the mineral wealth of the Sudbury Basin is nowhere near exhaus-tion - great news for the talented people in the region’s mining community who thrive on challenges.

See Pages 19 to 30 for a full report on Totten Mine and Page 15 for more on KGHM’s Victoria Project.

no endeavour for the faint of heartBy Norm Tollinsky

EDITORSudbury Mining Solution Journal

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 8 11/5/2013 11:01:08 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com opinion Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 9

9/ROP

Ontario Exploration & Geoscience Symposium November 5 & 6, 2013, United Steelworkers

Local 6500 Hall, Sudbury, Ontario

Booth & Poster Space AvailableFree Admission to Exhibits on Tuesday, November 5th after 3 p.m.

Ontario Prospectors Association – Awards Dinner6 p.m. Tuesday, November 5thTicketed Event

To participate contact Susan or Garry at 866.259.3727 (807.622.3284) orEmail oegs@ontarioprospectors.comFor additional details on prospecting funding or Symposia, please visit our website at www.ontarioprospectors.com

Ontario Exploration & Geoscience Symposium November 5 & 6, 2013, United Steelworkers

Local 6500 Hall, Sudbury, Ontario

Booth & Poster Space Available

Free Admission to Exhibits on Tuesday, November 5th after 3 p.m.

Ontario Prospectors Association – Awards Dinner6 p.m. Tuesday, November 5th

Ticketed Event

To participate contact Susan or Garry at 866.259.3727 (807.622.3284) or

Email oegs@ontarioprospectors.com

For additional details on prospecting funding or Symposia, please visit our website at

www.ontarioprospectors.com

Northwestern Ontario Mines & Minerals Symposium✓ April 8 & 9, 2014

Vahalla Inn, Thunder BayNortheastern Ontario Mines & Minerals Symposium

✓ April 15 & 16, 2014 McIntyre Arena, Timmins

For additional details on

prospecting funding or Symposia,

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www.ontarioprospectors.com

Email

oegs@ontarioprospectors.com

Modern Mining & Technology Sudbury (MMTS) is one of the best organizations in Canada for promoting and creating awareness of mining and the technology advances in the industry.

The organization is responsible for number of mining games and activi-ties geared to elementary and high school students and teachers during April and May each year, events that attract thousands of students from the Sudbury district to Dynamic Earth, the city’s geoscience centre. These innovative and interactive opportu-nities expose students to the impor-tance of new technologies required for the future of mining. MMTS 2013 week-long events attracted over 1,000 attendees.

MMTS 2014 will be special because the organization has commitments from a number of professional women with mining industry experience. The profiles of women in mining in this edition of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal reflect the important role

women are playing in the industry. However, in addi-tion to playing a role in industry, women are taking a lead in promoting mining as a great career choice.

Much credit must go to Nicole Tardif, former chair of MMTS. Program co-ordinator at Laurentian Unversity’s Goodman

School of Mines, Nicole led a group of volunteers to rebrand and restructure the Sudbury Mining Week organiza-tion to move into the 21st Century. Her perseverance during the past two years led to the creation of a non-profit organization with a full gover-nance structure and multiple commit-tees. She will continue to work with the MMTS executive as secretary and will be an active member in the years to come.

Lori Martin, geology lead at Glencore Xstrata’s Fraser Morgan Project in Sudbury, has agreed to serve as chair for the next two years. Lori has a sig-nificant background in mining explo-ration and analysis and, last year, was responsible for sponsorship support for MMTS. Lori is very thorough and committed to the industry, and we look forward to her leadership and ideas during the next two years.

Claudine Beausoleil of the Bharti

School of Engineering at Laurentian University is vice-chair for the forth-coming year and has been an active supporter of MMTS. She is well known in mining circles as she is responsible for finding co-op placements for stu-dents. Claudine brings a high level of energy and professionalism to the MMTS committee.

Samantha Epsley, Vale’s general manager of mines & mill technical services for Ontario Operations, has agreed to serve as honourary chair for the forthcoming year. Samantha has a wealth of operational experi-ence and recently received the pres-tigious Women in Mining Canada National Trailblazer Award. She is a past-president and a founding director of WISE Sudbury (Women in Science & Engineering), a past member of the board of trustees for Science North, a long-standing member of CIM and has been an executive member of the CIM Sudbury Branch. She is also a newly appointed board member for

the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University.

Alana Arcand, Canadian min-ing coordinator at Golder Associates in Sudbury, is responsible for the annual MMTS career showcase, as well as the advertising campaign for the week-long MMTS. Alana has proven to be a capable and excellent organizer.

Other members of the executive are the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines’ Sean MacLean, who will oversee sponsorship, and Ed Debicki who serves as MMTS treasurer. Ed is the senior manager of the Ontario Geological Survey’s Geoscience Laboratories.

Yours truly, past honorary chair, will continue to work on the MMTS execu-tive committee as a director emeritus, a newly created position.

A significant number of MMTS com-mittees are led by women.

Shannon Katary of CEMI, Danica Pagnutti of Vale, Diana Holloway of Northern Life newspaper, Jennifer Beaudry of Dynamic Earth (Science North) and Sherrie Burrell, executive assistant, Stantec, are also contributing to the success of MMTS.

For full details on committee members and the proposed events for 2014, visit http://www.modernmining.ca/author/mmts.

Women. What would we do without them?By Dick DeStefano

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORSAMSSAdestefan@isys.ca

“Women are taking a lead in promoting mining as a great career choice.”

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December 1, 2013 � Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal RESEARCH www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 10

Manufacturers and entrepreneurs from North Bay and the rest of Northern Ontario have a standing invi-tation to come and “play” in a sandbox with the latest in 3D laser scanning, polymer printing and robotic technology.

ICAMP, the Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Production, celebrated its official opening in September. The 8,500-square foot innova-tion centre, located at Canadore College’s trade cam-pus in North Bay, is equipped for reverse engineering, product design and rapid prototyping.

Cutting-edge “toys” include a hand-held Metra Scan 3D optical scanning system, Solid Works virtual real-ity simulation software, a 3D theatre, a Connex 500 3D polymer printer and a robot with a 9 axis CNC milling machine. Still to come are a scanning electron microscope and a water jet cutter.

ICAMP “is an incubator, a sandbox, where compa-nies can come and have access to this equipment,” said Charles Gagnon, the college’s manager of cor-porate relations. “If I’m a manufacturer of mining equipment, I can send my employees to ICAMP to learn how to program a robot to tool a machine, so I don’t have to buy it and have it sit on my floor for eight months while I’m getting up to speed.

I can use it at ICAMP and practise on it until I’m comfortable.”

In addition to offering companies expertise and technology, ICAMP will connect clients with funding agencies to support their research, product develop-ment and process improvement.

For example, a manufacturer or entrepreneur with an idea for a new wrench can scan an existing one, import it into Solid Works software, adapt it, view it in a 3D theatre and then produce a replica of it using the polymer printer.

An industrial-sized robot mounted on a track to the nine-axis CNC machine and a miniature, six axis train-ing robot offer manufacturers an opportunity to test drive 21st century manufacturing technology.

“Mining supply companies have been very slow in adopting robotic technology,” said Gagnon. “We know there’s going to be a tremendous skill shortage in the coming years. Robotics can help address it. We also face offshore competition. Using a robot, you can tool a machine in two hours, versus the six hours it takes for a machinist.”

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Industrial-sized robot mounted on a track at ICAMP’s Canadore College trades campus can tool CNC machine in two hours, versus the six hours it takes for a machinist.

College invites manufacturers to innovation sandbox

“If I’m a manufacturer of mining equip-ment, I can send my employees to ICAMP to learn how to program a robot to tool a machine, so I don’t have to buy it and have it sit on my floor for eight months while I’m getting up to speed.”

– Charles Gagnon, Manager, Corporate Relations, Canadore College

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 10 11/5/2013 11:01:48 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com RESEARCH Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 11

Gagnon and Canadore president George Burton consulted widely with North Bay manufacturers to conceptualize ICAMP and its toolkit of prototyping and manufacturing technology.

“We pounded the cement for a year and a half visiting companies, talking to owners and asking them what kind of equipment we should buy,” said Gagnon. “We had a tre-mendous amount of input and we were very fortunate to have strong participation from local businesses.”

The federal and provincial governments each contributed $1 million. Another $800,000 came from the college and local businesses, including Rotacan, a manufac-turer of rotary blasthole bits, Wipware, a manufacturer of photoanalysis and fragmen-tation analysis systems, Pilot Diamond Tools, Premium Mining, 3H Manufacturing and GinCor Industries.

There are plans to hire a metals and materials expert to assist clients and equip-ment suppliers themselves will demonstrate their technology through workshops and presentations.

A working relationship with other innova-tion centres across Northern Ontario is in the formative stages.

ICAMP has signed a memorandum of understanding with MAJIC, the Materials Joining Innovation Centre in Kirkland Lake, and hopes to establish a similar relation-ship with the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre and the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology in Sudbury.

“It’s a natural down the road because we need to work together,” said Gagnon.

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Visitors at ICAMP’s official opening learn about miniature, six axis training robot.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 11 11/5/2013 11:02:12 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 12

The new 600-acre Airport Industrial Park in North Bay has put an end to the chronic shortage of fully-serviced industrial land in the city and attracted three mining suppli-ers in search of new and larger premises: Mine Hoists International, Barrie Hard Chrome Plating and Drillers Edge.

“North Bay is the only city in Canada that will sell airside land on or beside an airport,” said mayor Al McDonald.

It’s also one of only four airports in Ontario that boasts a 10,000-foot runway capable of accommodating the largest air-craft in the world, the Antonov 225, which has carried payloads of up to 189 tonnes and made several stops in North Bay over the years.

“It’s very difficult finding industrial land beside an airport, said McDonald. “Mining supply firms need access worldwide, so it makes sense that there’s a lot of interest in the park.”

Mine Hoists International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mining Equipment Ltd. of Colorado, refurbishes, rents and sells mine hoists and shaft sinking winches from its new 14,000-square foot building

in the park.“We buy used hoists when they become

available, we store them in our yard, and when they find a new home, we refurbish and upgrade them with new electrical con-trols, PLC controls and brake controls to meet modern standards,” said Dan Howe, president.

Prior to moving into the park, the com-pany subcontracted work to other shops in the city. Bringing the work in-house, he said, “helps us with scheduling and gives us more capacity.”

The building is equipped with 80-tonne and 12.5-tonne cranes for lifting hoists and winches off a trailer and moving them into work areas.

Customers include mine contractors Dumas, Cementation and former co-own-er J.S. Redpath. “We’ve also sold equip-ment into Tanzania, Mexico, Chile and Peru,” said Howe.

Barrie Hard Chrome Plating chromes inner tubes and outer tubes for dia-mond drilling from a state-of-the-art 12,000-square foot building in the park.

In business in North Bay since 1965, the company has twice as much space as it had in its former location and has invested in new chrome plating tanks, hoists and scrubber systems to meet strict environ-mental standards.

Chrome applications of between two and four one thousandths of an inch resist wear and corrosion, prolonging the life of

the tubes.“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but the

chrome is so hard, it makes everything last longer,” said owner Jamie Corbeil.

Barrie Hard Chrome customers include Boart Longyear, Atlas Copco and Drillers Edge, an immediate neighbour at both its former and current locations.

Founded in 2010 by a trio of former Boart Longyear employees, Drillers Edge moved into its new, 28,000-square foot

building in November.Starting off as a manufacturer of drill

bits and core retrieval tools, the company recently broadened its product line to include rods and casings. In September, it completed a strategic merger with Edmonton-based Di-Corp, which has focused until recently on supplying drill-ing fluids to the oil patch in Western Canada and is now aggressively diversify-ing into mining exploration.

New industrial park home to three mining suppliers ■ North Bay airport park

ends shortage of fully serviced land

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

SMSJ_December_2013_Pro_JG_am

Rock Solid Solutions

Dan Howe, president of Mine Hoists International, in the company’s new 14,000-square foot building in North Bay’s Airport Industrial Park.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 12 11/5/2013 11:02:18 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com NEWS Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 13

“Despite the slowdown in the explora-tion industry, we’ve seen growth every year – even this year with the addition of rods and casings to our product line,” said operations manager Lori Leblond.

Drillers Edge has focused more on export markets such as South America, Turkey and Russia. Now, as a subsid-iary of Di-Corp, which has also acquired Drilling Depot and West Coast Drilling Supplies, Driller Edge will also have a stronger presence in the Canadian market, said Leblond.

The idea of building an airport indus-trial park dates back to 1988, but it took until 2010 for the three levels of govern-ments to fund it.

“The province and the feds each con-tributed $2 million and we contributed $2 million,” said McDonald. “That was the final hurdle allowing us to go ahead.”

The city will sell or lease land, and con-nect prospective tenants with local inves-tors and developers who will build to suit.

“The inventory of serviced indus-trial land in North Bay was very tight, if not non-existent before we opened this park,” said McDonald. “We’re find-ing that local companies that were hin-dered by not being able to expand on their footprint are looking to the air-port park for expansion, and that’s open-ing up space for smaller companies and startups.”

www.cityofnorthbay.cawww.drillersedge.comwww.minehoist.com

www.di-corp.com

Top to bottom are the new homes of Drillers Edge Mine Hoists International and Barrie Hard Chrome Plating.

The Redpath Group has won a contract for the expan-sion of Mopani Copper Mines’ Mindola Mine in the Zambian Copper Belt. The North Bay, Ontario, min-ing contractor’s Johannesburg group is busy mobiliz-ing for the project, which will include shaft sinking, raiseboring and lateral development.

“The contract is of substantial importance to the international Redpath Group and will prove to be a major contributor towards our long-term growth in Africa,” said company president George Flummerfelt.

Mopani Copper Mines is co-owned by Glencore International (73.1 per cent), First Quantum Minerals (16.9 per cent) and ZCCM Investment Holdings (10 per cent). The Mindola Mine is part of Mopani Copper’s Nkana complex, located in Kitwe, 388 kilometres north of Lusaka.

Earlier this year, Redpath also completed a sand tunnel project at Gem Diamonds’ Ghaghoo dia-mond mine in Botswana. Redpath drove a con-crete lined tunnel to 112 metres below surface at an incline of eight degrees using an open-faced tunnel shield.

“It was a very challenging project,” said Flummerfelt. “It’s a big 50-tonne hydraulic shield with a safety canopy. The sand is dug out under the protection of the shield, which is advanced a half metre at a time.

“A similar solution is used in horizontal applications for civil works, but we adapted it for this project.”

In addition to its North American business unit and headquarters based in North Bay and its pres-ence in Johannesburg, Redpath has offices in Australia, Chile and Germany.

“In the last year, we worked in some 18 different coun-tries,” said Flummerfelt.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Deilmann-Haniel International Mining and Tunneling of Dortmund, Germany, the Redpath Group employs approximately

6,200 people, including between 180 and 200 at its headquarters in North Bay.

www.redpathmining.com

Redpath Group wins contract in Zambia’s Copper BeltConcrete lined tunnel excavated by Redpath Group’s South Africa divi-

sion for Gem Diamonds’ Ghaghoo diamond mine in Botswana.

BRIEFS

Media reports circulating since October have Glencore Xstrata and Vale in discussions about combining their nickel mining opera-tions in the Sudbury Basin, although neither company has issued confirmation.

The original Reuters news item quoted “sources familiar with the situation” saying “discussions are still at an early stage but have revived hopes of a long debated Sudbury tie-up, with the companies considering a number of options for their mining and processing

operations in the area.”When previous owners Inco and Falcon-

bridge flirted with a merger in 2006, estimated savings of more than $500 million a year were expected from the resulting synergies.

The Reuters report said “talks restarted after Glencore completed its acquisition of Xstrata earlier this year…against the backdrop of a nickel price that has fallen by around a fifth since January to around four-year lows, weighed down by over-supply.”

Glencore Xstrata’s Kidd Operation in Timmins has won Workplace Safety North’s President’s Award for its contribution to build-ing safe and healthy workplaces in Ontario. “Everyone’s really proud of the win,” said Tom Semadeni, general manager of Kidd Operations. “It’s really icing on the cake be-cause earlier this year we won the John T. Ryan national safety trophy for the best safe-ty performance for a Canadian metal mine. “I think it’s great to promote success in the area of safety. A lot of times, businesses have a tendency to notice and follow up on things that are going badly or wrong, but you need to recognize success, not only internally, but also publicly.

“We’re the deepest base metal mine in the world and that creates its own set of chal-lenges… with logistics, transportation and

supervision of people over vast distances. “There are two aspects of benchmarking that are important,” noted Semadeni. “One is that you should be improving relative to yourself. Sometimes it is difficult to compare yourself to others because every operation is different. So I think the aspect of the award where you need to demonstrate year-on-year improve-ment is important because the most important thing is to be able to prove to yourself that you are improving your own operation. The rest of the world moves around and you can’t control that, but you can control your own destiny, your own operation.

“Changing human behaviour and chang-ing our habits are hard,” added Semadeni. “It takes a lot of hard work to improve safe-ty, so I think a validation of that work is a great feeling.”

Vale, Glencore rumoured to be exploring Sudbury combination

Kidd operation wins safety award

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 13 11/5/2013 11:02:42 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 14

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com NEWS Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 15

KGHM International has commenced site construction work at its Victoria Project 30 kilometres west of Sudbury in preparation for the sinking of an explo-ration shaft next year.

The 6.7-metre diameter shaft is sched-uled to be completed by the end of 2016 and will extend to a depth of 1,892 metres. Lateral development will follow at the 1,400, 1,600 and 1,800-metre levels for underground definition drill-ing and the extraction of a bulk sample in 2018.

Parent company KGHM Polska Miedz acquired the Victoria Project when it purchased Quadra FNX in December 2011 for $3.3 billion.

Hailed by former Quadra FNX presi-dent Paul Blythe as “one of the most significant discoveries made in the Sudbury district in the past 40 years,” Victoria boasts an inferred resource of approximately 12 million tonnes grad-ing 2.3% copper, 2.2% nickel and 8.5 g/t precious metals.

The deposit starts at 1,000 metres from surface and remains open at 2,000 metres. At that depth, surface drilling would be “like pushing down on a piece of spaghetti,” hence the decision to proceed to an advanced exploration program, explained Adrian McFadden, vice-president of underground opera-tions for KGHM International.

KGHM has submitted a closure plan to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and has signed memoranda of understanding with the Sagamok and Atikameksheng First Nations.

The company had a choice of sinking two shafts concurrently or in sequence.

“At this point in time, we’re looking at a single exploration shaft scenario

because it’s an inferred resources,” said McFadden. “We want to be able to go down and determine its actual size. The way it looks right now, we’d be able to convert it to a ventilation shaft, or use it as a production shaft if the orebody isn’t sustainable for a higher mining rate or there’s some surprise that we don’t anticipate.”

A decision on the economic viability of the project would be made following the conclusion of definition drilling in 2018.

Commencement of mining opera-tions would depend on the results of advanced exploration, commodity pric-es and a decision on whether to sink a second shaft. Commercial production would likely begin at a rate of 1,200 to 1,500 tonnes per day in 2023 and increase to 3,500 tonnes per day over a mine life of 10 plus years, according to McFadden.

DiscoveryCopper and nickel sulphide miner-

alization was first discovered on the Victoria property in 1886. The prop-erty was acquired by the Mond Nickel Company in 1889 and yielded 888,000 tonnes of ore grading 2.99% copper and 2.12% nickel between 1900 and 1923. Inco acquired the property following its merger with Mond Nickel in 1931 and brought it back into production in 1973, producing 649,000 tonnes of ore averaging 1.26% copper, .083% nickel and .067 oz/tonne of total precious metals.

In 2001, Inco sold Victoria and four other “non-core” assets to FNX Mining.

Following the discovery of a new ore zone south of the historic Victoria Mine in 2011, Quadra FNX announced plans to spend upwards of $750 million to sink two concurrent shafts in support of a 2,500 to 4,000 tonne per day mining operation.

However, plans for Victoria were shelved when KGHM acquired Quadra FNX and entered into negotiations with Vale over processing terms and “back-in rights” to the project.

The two-year hiatus concluded in August when the two companies came to an agreement that leaves KGHM as the sole owner of the project with Vale receiving a royalty and off-take on pro-duction from the mine.

KGHM has a workforce of approx-imately 600 people in the Sudbury Basin and produces ore from the McCreedy West Mine and the Levack Mine’s Morrison deposit, which it accesses from Glencore’s adjacent Craig Mine.

The Victoria Project is approximately seven kilometres east of Vale’s Totten Mine.

www.quadrafnx.comwww.kghm.pl

KGHM begins site preparation for Victoria Project■ Excavation of

1,892-metre exploration shaft to commence next year

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

“At this point in time, we’re looking at a single, exploration shaft scenario because it’s an inferred resources. We want to be able to go down to and determine its actual size.”

– Adrian McFadden, Vice-President,

Underground Operations, KGHM International

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 16

Deltion Innovations Ltd. CEO Dale Boucher wants people to pay close atten-tion to the new company, as it is going places. Far away places.

“If things go well, you will see our logo on the moon in 2018. Watch us,” Boucher said.

Deltion is an independently owned business spun out of the Innovation and Prototype Department of the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT). The department has been hard at work on space mining technolo-gies since 1995. When NORCAT decided to no longer continue the work last year, members of the department banded together to keep it alive.

Deltion is a private corporation, but is leasing space from NORCAT. There are nine shareholders, all former employ-ees of the NORCAT Innovation and Prototype Department.

“We believe there is a great oppor-tunity here,” Boucher said. “Our capa-bilities are rather unique in North America. We were encouraged by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to continue. We think we are on the threshold of something great. We think Canada and the Canadian mining sec-tor in particular can play a significant role in the space mining industry. We think, Canada being a leader in mining technologies, should lead the way. We all think it is worthwhile to continue our work.”

Drilling technologyThe Deltion team has been designing

and fabricating drilling and excavation technology for more than a decade, specializing in transferring and adapt-ing technologies developed in the space sector to the terrestrial market and vice-versa. Technology includes drilling and excavation systems, processing, power systems, remote operations and subsur-face exploration equipment.

Launched officially in September, Deltion is already in full swing. The team is working with NASA and CSA on the development of drilling technology for the RESOLVE payload destined for the Lunar Resource Prospector Mission scheduled for 2018.

Deltion recently finished the con-cept study for a drill they will build for the mission. It is a tight deadline - going to the moon in four years - but one Boucher knows his team can meet.

“We looked at a diamond drill that can operate in a liquid-nitrogen envi-ronment and operate with little power to drill one-metre into frozen rock, dirt and water,” Boucher said. “Our concept comes in at under 100 watts of power.

It is an interesting project. NASA is on a mission in 2018 to prospect for water and ice and they invited Canada to par-ticipate. We hope to be the provider for the drill.

NASADeltion is also in negotiations with

NASA on a long-term contract and has done a concept study for the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation on space suit technology and how it can be adapted to improve the health of miners working at depth here on Earth.

“There are a lot of areas in which we can be beneficial to both the space min-ing industry and the mining industry,” Boucher said.

Deltion was formed with three main priorities. It wants to develop mining technologies and systems for space, robotic mining systems and technolo-gies for Earth and adapt space-derived technologies for the mining industry. And they want to do it in Sudbury. There is no other place they would rather be except for the moon or an asteroid or far away planet.

“We were keen to keep it in Sudbury,” Boucher said. “We had a lot of space agencies asking us why we’re not mov-ing, but mining is in our blood in Sudbury. If the 2018 mission comes through, we will have to hire more staff quickly to meet the requirements.”

Deltion also negotiated the rights to host the Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium, an annual event held since 2004, as well as the joint PTMSS/Space Resources Roundtable, held since 2012. The PTMSS, sched-uled to be held in Boulder, Colorado in 2014, addresses the parallels between Earth-based mining and space mining.

Deltion aims for the moonBY SCOTT HADDOW

Deltion Innovations CEO Dale Boucher.

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TECHNOLOGY Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 1717

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A new detection system developed by Hard-Line Solutions of Sudbury alerts workers when they get too close to a piece of heavy equipment while working underground.

The new product will increase safety for workers with the aim of preventing injury or death on the job.

“There have been incidents in the mining industry where these sorts of things happen because people become complacent with using a remote con-trol,” said Max Gray of Hard-Line Solutions. “They get too close to it, they make an error, and all of a sud-den it’s too late for them to react. This system will warn them so they can react.”

Integrated into Hard-Line’s Muckmaster Radio Remote Control System, Prox detects when a remote operator enters a zone around the piece of machinery being operated. When a zone is breached, the system emits an audible and visual warning and can be programmed to slow or

stop the machine automatically.Other proximity detection systems

are on the market, but they operate as separate wireless systems, Gray said. Because both run on radio signals, there’s the potential for the two systems to interfere with each other, and both could fail.

Because Prox is integrated into Hard-Line’s system, it eliminates the opportunity for interference.

Vice-president Ryan Siggelkow said the company had been researching the idea for about four years.

Predictability“We’ve seen many

systems that are not predictable,” Siggelkow said. “They’ll (trigger an alert) within 30 feet one time and with-in 15 feet the next time, and that, to us, wasn’t good enough. We finally found one that actually was very predictable and repeatable.”

The system Hard-Line eventually chose was originally developed by

another company for use in coal mining, so it had to be adapted for a hard-rock environment.

Radio signals react differently under-ground in a hard rock environment than they do surrounded by coal, a softer material.

TestingWhen tested at the NORCAT test

mine, “it performed perfectly,” Gray said.

“We’ve projected that we can prob-ably sell 50 to 100 systems in the first year of launching it and that’s prob-ably a conserva-tive estimate,” Gray said. “Right

now, we’re going to be moving this in Ontario and Quebec … and we’re nego-tiating right now for our South American offices (Chile, Peru) and also for the Australian market.”

Customer needs are also behind the development of a second safe-ty system launched in the last few

months. Developed at the request of Xstrata Nickel (now Glencore), Entry Alert is a warning system that noti-fies both remote operators and mine personnel when someone enters a stope.

A light beam spans the stope entrance while a strobe light flashes to noti-fy pedestrian and vehicle traffic that remote mucking is in progress. If the light beam is broken by entry into the area, the strobe at the operator station is immediately activated, notifying the operator.

It’s a simple solution, but one Gray said can make a significant impact on underground safety.

“One death is too many,” Gray said. “It’s dangerous down there, so the more a company can do to protect its work-ers, and the more the employees can do to protect themselves, the better it is for everybody.”

Glencore was so satisfied with the result that it now plans to install it throughout the mine. Gray said other companies have expressed interest in it as well.

System keeps miners out of harm’s wayBY LINDSAY KELLY

Proximity detection system marketed by Hard-Line Solutions triggers an audible alarm when mine personnel get too close to underground equipment.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 17 11/5/2013 11:06:07 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal EXPLORATION www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 18

“The supercycle for metals is very much alive,” according to internation-ally renowned financier and mining luminary Robert Friedland.

Kicking off a lecture series at Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines in Sudbury October 9th, the execu-tive chairman of Ivanhoe Mines said, “Anyone who tells you that the super-cycle is over is completely idiotic.

“The fundamental, overwhelming, most important phenomenon of our age is urbanization,” he said. “In 1970, when I was 20 years old, 39 million people lived in magacities – that’s cities with a population of more than 10 mil-lion. There were only two of them – New York and Tokyo. By 2011, we had 359 million people in 23 megacities and, tomorrow morning in geological time, 2025, we’ll have 630 million people liv-ing in megacities.”

From 1900 to the present, said Friedland, world consumption of cop-per totalled 585 million tonnes.

With hydrogen fuel cell automobiles, high-speed trains, the Internet and the a rapidly growing global middle class snapping up air conditioners and stain-less steel woks, we’ll need 600 million

tonnes of copper over the next 20 years, “and we don’t know where it’s going to come from,” he warned.

Lamenting popular ignorance about the supply chain, Friedland complained that people “have no idea where things come from.

“Americans think a ham sandwich comes out of a refrigerator. No one thinks about what it’s like to slaughter 50 million pigs a year to deliver that ham sandwich.”

Voisey’s BayFriedland’s two major claims to fame

are the discovery of the nickel-rich Voisey’s Bay deposit by Diamond Fields Resources, which he sold to Inco for $4.3 billion in 1996, and Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, one of the world’s largest copper-gold porphyry deposits.

Shares of his company, Diamond Fields Resources, skyrocketed from $1 to $161, and when the price hit $40, a columnist in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper wrote “a nasty article” tell-ing investors they “might as well go to Nevada and roll the dice,” Friedland recalled. “However, anyone buying Diamond Fields shares when the article was published quadrupled their money in five months.

“Everybody said Inco paid too much for Voisey’s Bay, but in 1996 China hadn’t been invented yet and we didn’t know that Mrs. Wong would want a stainless steel wok, so by the time Voisey’s Bay came on stream, it was worth every nickel.”

Oyu Tolgoi, which was gradually acquired by Rio Tinto and began ship-ping copper this past summer, contains an estimated resource of 2.7 million tonnes of copper and 1.7 million ounces of gold. Its number two shaft is 10 metres in diameter and has a hoisting capacity of 50,000 tonnes a day, he said. Ultimately, production from Oyu Tolgoi will increase to 300,000 tonnes per day from a total of seven shafts, he predicted.

Far from resting on his laurels, Friedland has a trio of new projects in Africa focusing on platinum, copper and zinc.

The Platreef platinum-nickel-copper deposit in the South African province of Limpopo boasts a NI 43-101 compliant indicated resource of 214 million tonnes grading 4.1 g/t platinum, palladium, gold and rhodium. The orebody is per-fectly flat with a thickness of 24 metres and open in every direction.

“If you go to a typical platinum mine today, you crawl for a kilometre or two on your hands and knees to get to the working face. The rock is 50 degrees Celsius and the humidity is close to 100 per cent. You can’t stand up and there’s virtually no ventilation.

“How can Toyota Motor Corporation build a new generation of fuel cell vehicles to clean up the air in China and the U.S. when platinum is mined like that?” he asked.

“This discovery is much bigger than Bre-X, but it has the distinct advantage of being real and it’s remarkable how

many people are not noticing it.”Friedland attributed the lack of inter-

est to a bias against Africa and the public perception of a continent full of “bush-men, blowguns and lions.” Indeed, geo-political risk is one of the reasons cited, along with the downturn in the mining sector as a whole, for a close to 50 per cent plunge in Ivanhoe’s share price this year.

Actually, “Limpopo is a very civi-lized place, a very beautiful part of the world with friendly, intelligent people,” Friedland said.

CongoIvanhoe Metals also has two proj-

ects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Kamoa copper deposit 25 kilometres west of Kolwezi boasts a mineral resource estimate of 739 mil-lion tonnes grading 2.9 per cent copper, while the Kipushi Big Zinc project boasts grades averaging 11 per cent zinc and seven per cent copper.

Kamoa, said Friedland “is a transfor-mative orebody,” but “we need 20 more of them.”

The Goodman School of Mines can play a role in preparing Africa for the next wave of mineral development, said Friedland. “They’re not going to be down there with a jackleg making $12 a day,” he said. “They’re going to be driving air-conditioned equipment like in Sudbury and will be paid like dental surgeons.”

www.ivanhoemines.com

Friedland: supercycle has legsBillionaire mining financier and mine finder Robert Friedland kicked off a lecture series at Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines in October.

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

■ Mining luminary talks up copper, platinum and zinc

“Anyone who tells you that the supercycle is over is completely idiotic.”

– Robert Friedland, executive chairman, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 18 11/5/2013 11:06:15 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 19

When Bob Booth and Gary Annett of the Totten project team hand over the reins to mine manager Dave Pisaric on December 31st, life won’t be near as exciting.

Few mine development projects go exactly as planned. Mother Nature can frustrate the intentions of the most experienced and skilled engineers and geoscientists, as happened at Totten when unfavourable ground condi-tions and water ingress began bogging things down.

The team stepped it up a notch, hun-kered down…and saw it through.

Vale decided against the engineering, procurement and construction manage-ment (EPCM) approach and kept the project management in house.

Annett, with the ominous title of Totten execution manager, was assigned

to Totten in February 2008. A 15-year Vale and Inco mining engineer and alumnus of Laurentian University, Annett worked his way up through operations and spent eight years at the company’s Coleman Mine.

Bob Booth, a 23-year veteran, trans-ferred from operations to project management in 2000. He oversaw the Creighton Deep project from 2000 to 2007, served in several senior engineer-ing and management roles both in Thompson, Manitoba and Sudbury, and was assigned to the Totten team as proj-ect manager in February 2011.

Keeping project management in-house eliminates a third party from the equa-tion, allowing for quicker decisions when challenges are encountered, said Booth.

The size of the team has to be appro-priate though.

“When you bring in an EPCM team, you bring on a full suite of systems. When I arrived, there was a very small team here, so we had to grow it and the robustness of the systems to be able to deliver,” said Booth.

The project team defined a new level of excellence and trumpeted the “One team, one way to zero harm” mantra to the 500 workers from multiple con-tractors crossing paths and interacting at the site.

“The colour of your coveralls didn’t

matter,” said Booth. “It didn’t matter if you worked for this engineering com-pany or some other engineering com-pany, Cementation, SCR, Technica. It was about all working toward the same goal. That’s what made us successful. It was a team effort from everyone.”

One of the key indices of excellence in the mining industry is safety, and on this score, the results were world-class, said Booth.

“There are no mines that I’m aware of in North America that have an annual recordable injury frequency of 3.58. We set up the system in 2011, were middle of the pack in 2012 and this year we’re leading the pack.”

In September, the Totten team cel-ebrated one million man hours without a lost time injury.

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

■ Ground conditions, water ingress and a 60-year-old timbered shaft among the challenges overcome

See Page 21

Totten Mine administration building features main floor entrance to drys with underground corridor for access to cage. Vale Archive. Miningindustrialphotographer.com

Team Totten rises to challenge

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 20

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 21

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The mine development process began in 2006 with the construction of a wastewater treatment plant.

“We had to complete the wastewater treatment plant before we could pump out one millilitre of water from the mine workings,” said Annett.

The plant, designed by AMEC, pumped out one million gallons of water from the mine, clearing the way for a thorough inspection of the shaft.

The Totten Number 2 timbered shaft descends 4,130 feet. The challenge was to take a 47-year-old shaft and make it like new, said Booth.

“We don’t build tim-bered shafts anymore, so we had to find the right people to do this type of work. We were lucky to have Cementation on board. They had some experienced old-timers who understand timbered shafts.”

The timbers weren’t in bad shape, said Booth. Immersion in water was actually a good thing because they didn’t dry out.

A thorough classifica-tion of the ground was performed and appropriate ground support installed to stabilize challenging ground conditions, including ‘bookcasing’.

“We weren’t able to use modern-day ground support with screen and bolts, so we created concrete wall sets,” said Booth. “We classified the whole shaft from surface to the 1850-level to decide the treatment that would be required to reduce risk based on the ground in certain areas.” Beyond the 1850 level, concrete rings lined the shaft.

The nine-foot by 18-foot shaft is ser-viced by a 16.5-foot Davey-Markham hoist and two conveyances supplied by FLSmidth and Stainless Steel Technology. There are two conveyances

– an 18-tonne skip, a second 15-tonne skip with an underslung cage for 17 and a two-deck Marianne accommodating eight people in tight quarters.

There are five levels off the shaft, but only two main mining levels – 3150 and 3850.

Totten had very limited lateral devel-opment.

“There was some development on the upper levels, but we aren’t using any of it,” said Annett. “We’re going after deeper ore.”

The project team oversaw 43,200 feet of lateral devel-opment, which was com-pleted in August of this year.

“We went a bit smaller - 14 x14-feet for the drifts and 14 x 16-feet for the ramps – because of the smaller equipment we’ll be using – 30-tonne trucks and six-yard scoops instead of 50-tonne trucks and eight-yard scoops,” said Annett.

Cementation drilled two ventilation raises from sur-face to the 1850 level – an 18-foot diameter fresh air raise and a 16-foot return air raise. Beyond the 1850 level, Redpath’s raiseboring group drilled several fresh and return air raises to the 3150 and 3850 levels – mostly 12-footers except for one 16-foot return air raise between the 3150 and 3850 levels.

A rebuilt Pitnam crusher on 3880 level will be more than sufficient to handle eventual output of 2,200 tonnes per day.

From a project management perspec-tive, the main challenge, aside from the ground conditions and water ingress, was the sequencing of all the construc-tion in the shaft with the delivery and installation of the infrastructure under-ground, said Booth.

“I think we’re both going to be bored when we move on to the next project.”

...oneteam,onewaytozeroharmgetsresultsFrom Page 19

Bob Booth, project manager, Team Totten

Gary Annett, execution manager, Team Totten

Totten Mine will ramp up to a daily output of 2,200 tonnes.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 21 11/5/2013 11:07:39 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal TOTTEN miNE www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 22

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expertsFLS Suppliers of Skips, Cages, Trailer Cages, Guide Rollers, Head Sheaves, Cement Galloway, Load Stations for the Vale Totten project.

On behalf of FLSmidth Ltd, we congratulate Vale on the start up of Totten Mine.

Meanwhile, the price of nickel went on a wild rollercoaster ride from $9 per pound in 2006, peaking at $24 per pound in 2007, then plunging to just over $4 in 2008.

Vale’s sixth operating mine in the Sudbury Basin, Totten will ramp up to a production output of 2,200 tonnes per day, representing 10 per cent of the feed to the company’s Clarabelle Mill.

“We’ll start up at 500 tonnes per day, but as we get into different ore zones, we’ll get up to full capacity by 2015-2016,” said Strong.

A polymetallic orebody with “some good copper and nickel grades and precious metals,” Totten will initially result in a slight increase in production from Vale’s Sudbury operations, noted Strong. Over time, however, Totten and other mine development projects in the pipeline “will replace some of the ore we’ve been depleting, so our production levels will remain relatively stable over the next 10 years.”

Thanks largely to the deployment of advanced technology, Totten will be “at the lower end of the cost curve in com-parison with other mines,” said Strong. “It’s a leaner operation that enables us to unlock some of the value in the reserves and resources we have. Once we get Totten running, we’ll look at imple-

menting some of these technologies in our other five mines, as well as in future mine projects.”

Totten was also noteworthy in that it was the first time Vale (or Inco) has negotiated an impact benefit agreement with a First Nation. Located 70 kilome-tres west of Totten, the Sagamok First Nation benefits from business, training and employment opportunities.

“The agreement allows both Sagamok and Vale to see the success of Totten,

so we’re very happy to be associated with Chief Paul Eshkakogan and his community,” said Strong.

Totten’s sterling safety record is another source of pride for Vale and suppliers who have worked at the site. Earlier this year, the development team celebrated one million man hours of work without a lost time injury, “a significant achievement considering the environment they worked in and the multiple contractors doing very unique, non-standard work,” said Strong.

The one-team philosophy adopted by Vale is cited as one of the main reasons for Totten’s safety record.

“It didn’t matter if your hard hat said Vale, Cementation or some other com-pany,” said Strong. “Everybody was part of one team.”

Also contributing to the success of the project was the Sudbury area’s sup-plier community. Dozens of Sudbury and North Bay suppliers participated in the project, including Cementation, Redpath, Technica Mining and SCR Mining and Tunnelling.

“We’re blessed with having so many suppliers of equipment and material right in our backyard,” said Strong.

Totten provided a major boost to the local economy with upwards of 500 workers on site during construc-tion, and 200 permanent jobs going forward.

Vale’s commitment to the Sudbury Basin goes beyond Totten, said Strong, pointing to the recently completed $200 million Challenging Ore Recovery proj-ect at Clarabelle Mill and the ongoing $1.1 billion Clean AER project at the company’s Copper Cliff smelter.

These, together with future mine expansion and development projects at the company’s Creighton and Copper Cliff mines, demonstrate “that we’re going to be here for a long time,” said Strong.

... Vale’s sixth operating mine in Sudbury BasinFrom Page 1

Kelly Strong, vice-president of Ontario and UK operations, Vale.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 22 11/5/2013 11:07:51 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 23

What makes Totten “a mine of the future” has just about everything to do with data and communication. Tying together the headframe, the hoist, the crusher, the mobile production equip-ment, the ventilation fans, the backfill plant and all the other mine infra-structure is Totten’s distributed control system (DCS).

“Most mines in Sudbury use pro-grammable logic controllers (PLCs),” said Jack McIssac, Totten automation and electrical lead. “PLCs are stand-alone smart boxes that control indi-vidual parts of the process. A crusher station will have a PLC, same with the conveyor belts and the hoist. The dis-tributed control system pulls everything together into one system.

“The advantages of a DCS are that it’s easier to maintain, easier to program and implement the logic in the field, and easier to troubleshoot. It’s also easier to transfer data from one system to another.”

Want to know the performance details of a pump? Easy. Go to a workstation,

click on the piece of equipment and drill down for real-time performance values.

Everything comes together in a futur-istic control room in the mine’s spa-cious administration building, where a single operator sits at a long, curved desk with a wall-to-wall array of com-puter screens and video monitors. Flow charts and bar graphs provide a visual representation of each process, along with operational metrics, and

large overhead monitors display high-definition video from cameras installed throughout the mine.

The desks, the monitors and the over-head lighting can be raised, lowered or otherwise adjusted with the push of a button.

“In the control room, we can moni-tor every instrument, every pump, every valve,” said McIssac.

If a piece of equipment devi-ates from normal operating param-eters, an alarm is triggered, alerting the

operator and other designated staff, who can then drill down to see the status of the equipment and take appropriate action.

“We would still have the same capa-bility at a central control facility, but DCS makes it easier to provide infor-mation to the control room. It’s a very simple process, whereas with PLCs, there’s a lot of work behind the scenes to get to that point,” said McIsaac.

“The advantages of a DCS are that it’s easier to maintain, easier to program and implement the logic in the field, and easier to troubleshoot. It’s also easier to transfer data from one system to another.”

– Jack McIsaac, Automation and Production Lead, Totten Mine

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Jack McIssac, automation and production lead, at a controller for one of Totten’s two surface fans.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 23 11/5/2013 11:08:11 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal TOTTEN miNE www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 24

Overseeing mine planning, execution and scheduling at a brand new mine is a once in a lifetime experience. For Erick Jarvi, it’s a dream come true.

A Laurentian University mining engineering grad, Jarvi joined Inco in 1997 as a production miner at the company’s Levack Mine. He spent four years as an hourly employee and six years as a production supervisor at Coleman before transferring into engineering at Creighton Mine.

Starting at the bottom and working your way up isn’t unusual given the cyclical nature of the mining industry and the difficulty of landing an engineering job in a down market. In Jarvi’s case, the wealth of experience he gained at the face paid off in January when he was appointed chief mine engineer at Totten.

Hailed as “a mine of the future,” Totten offers Vale an opportunity to introduce cutting-edge technology for ground control, ventilation and surveying, all of which are overseen by the chief mine engineer.

Blasthole stopingThe vertically dipping orebody lends

itself to blasthole stoping, a mining method which is commonly used across the Sudbury Basin, said Jarvi.

“We’re looking at lift heights of 120 to 140 feet and we incorporate a four-foot raisebore slot raise coupled with 4.5-inch in-the-hole production drilling, so our average stopes range from 15,000 to 30,000 tonnes.

The Totten production fleet will include Redbore 40 raise drills and two fully automatic Atlas Copco Simba in-the-hole drills. The load-haul-dump machines are six-yard Elphinstone Caterpillar units.

Resin rebar will be used for primary ground support along with some dynamic support where warranted.

“We have a couple areas where we intersect a trap dyke, so we use the trap

dyke protocol there,” said Jarvi. “We also have a very advanced ESG Solutions microseismic system that provides real-time source location.”

The microseismic system is monitored from Totten’s control room and from several computers underground in active working areas, allowing control room staff and production supervisors to visualize seismic activity in real time.

“If there’s an event, we can identify the magnitude and location, and make sure workers are out of harm’s way,” said Jarvi.

A ventilation-on-demand system from Simsmart Technologies controls louvers and modulates fans with variable speed drives

to direct air based on the detection of RFID tags installed on mobile equipment and in miners cap lamps.

“The purpose isn’t necessarily to save power, but to maximize efficiency,” said Jarvi. “It ensures that ventilation is

being used efficiently across the mine and drastically improves blast clearing time by shutting off areas where air is flowing for nothing and focusing on where the ventilation is really needed.”

The system is able to distinguish between an LHD and a personnel carrier and adjust the volume of air accordingly.

Totten is also pioneering new technology for

surveying, having opted for the Miner Operated Survey System (MOSS).

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■ Ventilation on demand, blasting and surveying innovations

Erick Jarvi, chief mine engineer, Totten Mine

“The purpose (of ventilation-on-demand) isn’t necessarily to save power, but to maximize efficiency. It ensures that ventilation is being used efficiently across the mine and drastically improves blast clearing time…”

– Erick Jarvi, Chief Mine Engineer, Totten Mine

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 24 11/5/2013 11:08:41 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 25

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“We’re the first Vale mine to incorporate the wall bar system and the MOSS system,” said Jarvi. “It reduces the amount of survey attention that the development needs, but it’s also a big improvement in safety because we no longer have to use smoke marks on the back. There’s a lot less of a requirement to work at the back. You can almost do all the surveying without even having to use a manlift and there’s no more drilling overhead which used to result in injuries with people getting dust in their eyes. It’s a much more efficient system because the surveyors don’t have to go down as often.”

Totten is also planning to do mass blasting.

“Mass blasting is gaining momentum with Vale,” said Jarvi. “It allows us to blast out an entire stope in two or three blasts

maintaining a full brow and maximizing our mucking efficiency. A lot of the mines are using six-inch or 6.5-inch drilling. We’re going to use 4.5-inch drilling, but it’s the electronic detonators that give us a lot more flexibility and a lot more delay time to play with. It’s a lot more efficient because it reduces the amount of time that a blaster has to go in and plug holes and measure holes.”

To begin with, there will be two mining fronts – one on the 3150 level and another on the 3800 level. A third mining front will be established on the 4170 level in 2015.

“We have a solid mine plan, a skilled technical team backed by a quality ground control program and a state-of-the-art microseismic system that should ensure a safe operation,” said Jarvi.

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal TOTTEN miNE www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 26

The hydraulic backfill system at Totten Mine is state-of-the-art from the covered dome that stores up to 5,000 tonnes of sand to the remotely controlled under-ground diverter valves that dictate the final destination of the fill.

Golder Associates designed the plant and was accountable for building it, and Walden Electric supplied much of the labour.

Locally-sourced alluvial sand is trucked to Totten, dumped into a covered receiv-ing dock, screened and conveyed to the top of the covered pile.

“At most other mines, the sand is stored in an open area,” said Bernie Parisé, operational readiness lead, “A covered sandpile allows for automation. At the same time, we eliminate any envi-ronmental impact from dust.

“Anytime we need to pour, we can start up the plant and begin pouring. We don’t have to call for an operator with a payloader to bring sand.”

The supplier, OCL Trucking and Custom Crushing, is automatically notified when the pile needs to be replenished. Over the

course of a year, said Parisé, Totten will consume approximately 300,000 tonnes of sand.

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“Processed water comes from our pol-ishing pond,” said Parisé. “It’s pumped up to our headframe and at that point a deci-sion is made through our distributed control sys-tem as to whether the water is pumped to the backfill plant or if it’s used for process water in the mining activities underground.”

“The sand comes from the dome and is metered into the mixing tank. We have a density meter placed on the tank so we have a proper consistency, and from there it’s sent out and down through our underground distribu-tion system to the voids to be filled.”

When there’s a stope to be filled, the plant runs 24/7 until it’s full because “the sooner we get it filled, the sooner we can continue with the mining process,” said Parisé.

The hydraulic fill is sent underground through two six-inch boreholes to the 1,250-level. Often, access to the boreholes is from inside the plant. At Totten, they’re outside, imme-diately adjacent to the plant, offering easier access if the line is plugged and a drill rig has to be brought in to clear the obstruction.

Otherwise, it would be necessary to take out the side of the building to

accommodate the drill rig.The two holes ensure

redundancy in the event that one gets plugged and is out of service for a peri-od of time.

The preferred method of transport is through rock because rock wears pre-dictably and lasts a long time, but water ingress problems over the first 500 feet of the boreholes forced Vale to use ceramic lined steel pipe to avoid dilution.

The backfill plant and the quality of the fill are critical. If it goes down, or if the quality of the fill isn’t right, the mining process grinds to a halt.

The backfill goes down to the 1250-level, across a 300-foot span and then descends again all the way to the 3625-level.

In other mines, directing backfill to the target stope is a high-risk manual process. At Totten, it’s all auto-mated using diverter valves.

“So, now, all that work is done by pressing a button from the con-trol room,” said Parisé. “We decide which stope to fill and send it down.”

“Anytime we need to pour, we can start up the plant and begin pouring. We don’t have to call for an operator with a payloader to bring sand.”

– Bernie Parisé, Totten Mine

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal TOTTEN miNE www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 28

A decade ago, mineral extraction was just a blip on the radar of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation. Now the community is collaborating with Vale on how it can benefit from the develop-ment of Totten Mine.

The community, located 70 kilome-tres west of the mine along the north shore of Lake Huron, has an on-reserve population of 1,600, and an additional 1,000 off-reserve band members scat-tered across Canada and the U.S. Vale’s new, $760-million mine backs onto Sagamok’s traditional territory.

Collaboration between Vale and the community has been an evolv-ing process, said Sagamok Chief Paul Eshkakogan.

“I look back at that time and where we’re at now and I’m amazed at the amount of capacity that I think we’ve built, and also with Vale because there wasn’t a template out there for us to follow,” he said. “Things have changed quite a bit in the resource development area as it relates to working with First Nation communities.”

Sagamok elders and community members, who realized resource devel-opment was going to become a reality

for the community, showed great fore-sight in developing the community’s mineral strategy in 2003, the chief said. Not all community members agreed with resource development on tradi-tional lands, but all saw the importance of being at the table for discussions

rather than be left behind, Eshkakogan said.

When deliberations began in earnest with Vale around 2006, the community was prepared. In negotiating an impact and benefit agreement (IBA) with Vale, Eshkakogan said consideration for the

impact on the environment was a key priority. In particular, the community paid close attention to the mine clo-sure plan, commissioning a third-party assessment to ensure the community understood and agreed with the plan’s technical components.

In early September, workers at Totten Mine achieved one million hours of work without a lost time injury, a mile-stone for the new mine, which had up to 600 people from six different contrac-tors working together to bring the mine into production.

Project manager Bob Booth, who joined Totten in February 2011, came to the mine with a goal of redefining excel-lence in on-the-job safety. He attributes the successful safety record to the “Team Totten” approach—a system of checks and balances adhered to by all those working on the project.

“Team Totten is about one team, one way to zero harm because we’re dealing with six different contractors here to execute a very complex project,” Booth said. “We deal with some very serious issues, but we try to do it in such a way that we engage everybody, and that’s the piece that’s hard when something’s complex.”

Contractors working on the project included Cementation, SCR Mining and Tunnelling, Redpath, Technica Mining, Swick, and T. Bell Transport.

Gary Annett, Totten’s underground project execution manager, said those contractors bring with them safety tips they’ve learned on other jobs in Northern Ontario, across Canada and around the world, which help keep awareness about safety at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Through the Near Miss Program, workers share what they’ve learned dur-ing their shifts to help enhance safety. Supervisors look for trends that can be addressed, or predict problems that may come up in the future, Annett said.

A recent example is the elimination of a bump in the road in one of the tun-nels. Taking 30 minutes to remove the bump eliminated a potential safety haz-ard for scoop tram drivers and reduced the possibility of any future rollovers.

“It’s through all those communica-tions and safety talks that we have that we believe we’re achieving these results,” Annett said.

Thousands of these ideas are regis-tered and tracked at any given time, and Totten addresses and fixes them at a rate

of about 95 per cent, Booth said. The issues and their progress are posted for all workers to see in an effort to remain transparent about how Vale addresses their concerns.

Totten, like all Vale mines, employs the Safe Production program to assess and address risk in the workplace. Launched a decade ago at Vale’s Thompson Mine in Manitoba, it’s a process followed by everyone on site, whether they work underground or in the office, mine manager David Pisaric explained.

“It’s intended to be reflective and

there is a process in place to help you manage your way through the work,” he said.

Ultimately, Vale wants to pursue peak production and profitability while ensuring its workers get home safely at the end of the day, he said. Gone are the days when Vale’s competitors were the companies down the street. Now, the mining giant is competing in a global marketplace and must be at peak perfor-mance with respect to safety.

Central to the program is the SLAM analysis, which asks workers to “stop, look, assess and manage” risks by assess-ing tasks before they’re performed. Each step requires workers to ask a series of questions and guides them going for-ward.

“Before we perform a task, we would like our employees to SLAM the job and to take a breath, have a look at the work that’s going to be tackled and then to manage that going forward,” Pisaric said.

The goal is to have zero harm, but it requires co-operation from everyone, and communication is integral to the program’s success, he said.

Totten’s one million hours of work without a lost time injury coincided

Training, jobs and business opportunities

Team Totten reaches safety milestone

BY LINDSAY KELLY

BY LINDSAY KELLY

■ Sagamok First Nation sees benefits from Totten

■ Safety a priority for Sudbury mine

Kelly Strong, Vale’s vice-president of Ontario and UK operations, and Sagamok Anishnawbek Chief Paul Eshkakogan signing impact and benefit agreement.

“Before we take a task, we would like our employees to SLAM the job and to take a breath, have a look at the work that’s going to be tackled and then to manage that going forward.”

- David Pisaric, Mine Manager, Totten Mine

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 28 11/5/2013 11:09:19 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 29

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“We asked to be involved in the envi-ronmental monitoring, and that’s part of the IBA, but we didn’t want to be involved in a way where we were just going around collecting water sam-ples,” Eshkakogan said. “We want to be involved in the actual management, the decisions that are made.”

Discussions are still underway about how Sagamok can be involved in envi-ronmental monitoring, but the chief said due diligence is important to the community.

“We certainly want to be afforded every opportunity, but at the same time we want to ensure that we’re ready to meet those opportunities and those chal-lenges that come with it,” Eshkakogan said.

The community is already benefiting from other relationships with indus-try partners, including Cementation, Glencore Xstrata and KGHM through its New Miner Training Program, which sets up community members with common core training for working underground.

Participants get in-house training in the community, after which they’re sent to Cementation’s training facility in Lively. From there, they are sent for on-the-job training with one of the part-ners. Eshkakogan sees it as an across-the-board win for both Sagamok and industry.

“Everybody’s talking about this labour shortage that’s going to happen, so we said, ‘Hey, we’ve got 200 or 300 young people who are on social assistance at any given time here, a good young

vibrant labour force that just needs an opportunity,’” Eshkakogan said.

Sagamok has also secured the contract to haul ore from Totten to Clarabelle Mill in Sudbury. Working with T. Bell Transport in Nairn Centre, just outside of Sudbury, Sagamok will train driv-ers, mechanics and office staff, building capacity along the way. T. Bell has been supportive of the endeavour, offering scholarships, participating in graduation ceremonies and providing financial sup-port for education, and language and cultural retention.

“The life of the mine is approximately 25 years with the potential of maybe even being longer if they find additional resources there,” Eshkakogan said. “So that’s something that we’re really look-ing forward to.”

The biggest challenge facing the com-munity to date has been working within the timelines set by the Ministry of the Environment. Only 45 days for a First Nation to respond following a miner’s filing of its closure plan is not enough time, Eshkakogan said. It puts pressure on both parties to make a decision quickly, and more time should be afford-ed the parties to come to an agreement.

“(Mining companies) have to be accountable to their shareholders, but at the same time, First Nation communities have to be accountable to their people and what they want, and they have to try to get those things for them,” he said.

www.sagamok.ca

with 16,000 feet of development since November of last year. Total record-able injuries underground for this year totalled 3.58, a statistic that can hold up against any mine in North America, Booth said.

“Building a mine is fun, but the only piece that really makes a difference in

someone’s life is when they come to work and they can go home safe every day,” he said. “We’re building a mine to create wealth for the company and the community, but what’s more meaning-ful is knowing that people can go home safe.”

Safety at Totten Mine is one of the core responsibilities of mine manager Dave Pisaric.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 29 11/5/2013 11:09:30 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal TOTTEN MINE www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 30

More stringent environmental oversight of new mine development means more work. But instead of a challenge, it’s actually made the pro-cess easier at Totten Mine because it allows Vale to meet industry expectations and be creative in its approach, said senior environmental specialist Allison Merla.

“There’s the opportunity here to do it right, right away,” said Merla, who acted as the environmental co-ordinator for the mine, ensuring Vale’s permits and requirements met current industry standards.

“If you’re looking at a legacy site that has always done something a certain way for years, and they’re working on some of the older permits or legislative requirements, it takes a while to instill that change. Here, we’ve built it right and we’re going to do it right.”

Every aspect of Totten was designed with the envi-ronment in mind, starting with its overall footprint. The headframe and main operations have been laid out on top of previous mine workings, while the Victoria Creek pumphouse, from which Vale gets its domestic water, has been retrofitted and upgraded to meet today’s standards.

This effort will not only minimize the environmen-tal impact of the mine, but also assist with the even-tual closure process, Merla said.

“The design was to build where there was already impact, so when we go to remove infrastructure from this site we’ll be cleaning up the previous site operations as well,” she said.

Unique to Totten are the enclosed material-handling operations. The bin house, where materials are hoisted and loaded onto trucks, the material storage area and the fuel-delivery system are all enclosed to minimize dust and other fugitive emissions that could impact the environment.

At other mines, the material that isn’t ready to be shipped is typically dumped in piles in the mine yard. At Totten, even the material-handling area, where

waste ore and rock can be stored prior to shipment for milling, is encased in a protective shell.

Three large bays, built to store 2,000 tonnes of ore or 500 tonnes of waste rock, have been constructed inside a building, into which transports can drive to receive their loads. A carbon monoxide monitoring system ensures the air remains safe.

“It fits with Totten’s design that there is no waste stockpiled, so there aren’t going to be material piles outside, and there isn’t going to be material handling out in the open where it’s subject to wind, erosion and rain,” Merla said. “All those are minimized by having material handling done inside enclosed buildings.”

A sophisticated water treatment system, which includes three water treatment plants, is at the heart of the Totten operation, which does not have access to a municipal water source. A mix of chemicals is used to treat mine water, removing the metals and filtering particles before being pumped back out to Victoria Creek or recycled for mine usage.

Everything within the plant is automated to monitor for oversight, Merla said. If the pH levels don’t meet required standards, for example, the water is returned

to the system for reprocessing, rather than sent back into the environment.

“There is a tight water balance to manage, and we don’t want to be impacting the creek in any negative way, so we’re only taking as much as we need,” Merla said.

The original mine operation, dating back to the 1920s, had been left untouched since a cave-in took place in 1927, leaving the area resembling an open pit, Merla said. In the mid-2000s, Vale’s environmental department went in and partially reclaimed the area, removing waste rock material and seeding it.

Now, waste rock that would normally be sent to Copper Cliff will be used to backfill the cave-in area.

“That’s going to provide a safe place to put waste rock,” Merla said. “It’s reducing truck traffic, potential for spillage of mine waste, and it’s also afforded more stability to the cave zone.”

Eventually, Merla said, Vale will reclaim the entire site, bringing it as close to its original, natural state as possible. If Vale is successful, passers-by won’t know the site had ever hosted a mine cave-in, or any mining operations at all.

■ Water, emissions priorities for mine design

Environment takes precedence at Totten

BY LINDSAY KELLY

Allison Merla, Vale’s senior environmental specialist, takes a water sample at Totten Mine’s water treatment plant. The sophisti-cated system reduces metals from water used at the mine before it’s returned to the environment.

“There’s the opportunity here to do it right, right away.”

- Allison Merla, Senior Environmental Specialist, Vale

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 33

The mineralization at Vale’s Totten Mine is so rich, ribbons of copper, nickel and precious metal can be viewed at surface just by walking through the parking lot.

“It’s pretty interesting for any-body who likes geology,” said Lance Howland, Totten’s chief mine geolo-gist. “They can go out for their lunch break to look at exactly what’s here, and that’s pretty much what you’d see underground.”

Totten Mine is situated along the Worthington Offset, one of the frac-tures resulting from the creation of the Sudbury Basin 1.8 billion years ago. Offset deposits like Worthington were formed when pressure caused by mol-ten material cooling around the basin pushed its way into a fracture.

“(The molten material) carried with it the copper, nickel and precious met-als, and formed multiple deposits along that string. One of them was Totten Mine,” Howland said. “It’s a pretty unique story and we’ve got some very interesting deposits that a lot of people

around the world have come here to see given how unique it is.”

Totten Mine shares many of its characteristics with the Copper Cliff mines, including a comparable type of ore, and was modelled on the older mines, using many similar assumptions during the pre-feasibil-ity and feasibility stages of planning, Howland said.

“That’s why we’re modelled after the Copper Cliff offset,” Howland said. “We’ve got very similar rock types, very similar ore types, so a lot of the decisions that were made for this mine, from a geology perspec-tive, were based on what we under-stood for the Copper Cliff North and South Mines.”

Rather than a solid mass of sulphides, the ore is comprised of a blend of lower grade metals with high-grade bands throughout the deposit, he said. He compares the metals to a stream flowing around a series of large boulders. After blasting a fresh area, the exposed depos-it shows patches of no-value material surrounded by very high-value nickel and copper.

Though there has been exploration at Totten in the previous two years, none has taken place in 2013 while the focus has been on preparing for first production.

H o w e v e r , exploration is scheduled for future years. Howland said drill results and geophys-ics from the deposit show potential for e x p a n s i o n both vertically and horizon-

tally. Vale does have targets selected for 2014, and will be following up on exploration once its budget is set for next year.

“We’re excited to get into that,” Howland said. “Our focus has to be on making sure our ore is figured out and to begin mining. The next step is to start adding to that, building on that potential.”

Another year won’t be long to wait, considering the Worthington Offset deposits were first discovered in 1884. Various deposits along the offset have seen multiple phases of mining through the decades. What is now the Totten deposit was acquired by Inco in the 1930s.

New deposits were found over the years, but it was drilling done in the 1990s that provided information to

help define the deposit as it’s known today. Work on the current mine began around 2006-2007.

The prospect of helping to develop a new mine—Vale’s first in 40 years—is exciting for Howland, who came over from Stobie Mine to work at Totten. Because a new mine startup is so expen-sive, and many mines have lives of 100 years or more, it’s a rare opportunity.

Setting up a mine today is vastly different from the mine setup of even 10 years ago. Technology like LIDAR mapping and 3D visualization soft-ware allow miners to conceptualize the deposit before tunnelling even begins, and wireless information systems such as those being used at Totten relay real-time information to geologists.

But, regardless of how much infor-mation has been gleaned from the deposit, the orebody still holds its mysteries.

“It’s a giant puzzle,” Howland said. “You’re always trying to figure out the puzzle, and the frustrating part is that you’re never going to be completely right until it’s completely mined out. That’s when you know what you’ve done and whether it was 100 per cent correct or not. You’re always put-ting out your best estimate until it happens.”

Totten boasts copper, nickel and PGMs■ Further exploration

scheduled for 2014

BY LINDSAY KELLY

Lance Howland, chief geologist, Totten Mine.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 33 11/5/2013 11:10:18 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal TOTTEN miNE www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 34

Real-time tracking of operating perfor-mance of fixed and mobile equipment at Totten will allow maintenance person-nel to address issues before they result in a breakdown.

Fixed equipment like the crusher, the hoist, the chutes, loading pockets and conveyors are all hard wired to Totten’s distributed con-trol system for this purpose, and in the New Year, main-tenance superintendent Jason MacKinnon expects to have the same capability for the mobile fleet.

Real-time engine data, including temperature, fuel consump-tion and RPMs, will be wirelessly com-municated via the mine-wide network

of wireless access points.“If an operator is running equipment

and the engine temperature spikes for a sustained period of time over a certain

set point, an alert would be generated for us to have a look before any damage is done,” said MacKinnon.

Alerts could be sent via email or pop up on a com-puter monitor. They can also generate work orders.

Staff will be able to trend equipment utilization and historical data to improve maintenance schedules and budgeting.

In the event of a break-down in the field, mechan-ics will be able to review the

data from a load-haul-dump machine, for example, and collect the relevant tools and supplies to address the issue.

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

Totten Mine’s Davey-Markham hoist services two conveyances – an 18-tonne skip and a 15-tonne skip with underslung cage. Vale Archive. Miningindustrialphotographer.com

There are two maintenance garages at Totten – one on 3150 level and another on 3850. Each is equipped with metal halide lighting, overhead cranes and dispensing systems for lubricants. Bulk lubricants are stored in an adjacent fuel bay and pumped into the garage for improved housekeeping and fire safety.

Wireless network enables real-time equipment monitoring

Jason MacKinnon, maintenance superintendent, Totten Mine.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 34 11/5/2013 11:10:39 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com TOTTENmiNE Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 35

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal ENERGY www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 36

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Over 250 delegates from five conti-nents attended the Renewable Energy and Mining Summit in downtown Toronto September 25 and 26. The summit brought together mining industry people who are responsible for procurement and planning of energy services with represen-tatives from the renewable energy sector who develop energy projects.

The gathering was a bit like an engage-ment party for an arranged marriage with those present burdened with apprehen-sion about whether or not the prospective bride (renewable developers) and groom (mining sector) could actually get on with each other. Bay Street financial ana-lysts and investment companies assumed the roles of ‘the parents’ nervously over-looking proceedings.

In fact, the summit was all about busi-ness, the business of supplying energy to mine operators at lower costs than at present. It was also about exploring the potential for a new, non-utility market for the renewables sector.

Those representing the mining ‘side of the family’ on the various discussion panels seemed quite open to the idea that over the past two decades, renewable energy technologies have improved sub-

stantially such that many of the former criticisms about them are now untrue. They are no longer that expensive, their reliability has improved significantly and the technologies have been proven at vari-ous scales and in diverse environments.

The miners were looking for energy with lower cost and lower price volatility, irrespective of the source - renewable or non-renewable. Hybrid energy solutions such as wind-diesel or mine micro-grid solutions (renewable + conventional + storage) were reported to offer opportuni-ties. There seemed to be some consensus developed at the summit that for off-grid mines the levellized generation costs from renewables could be appreciably lower than the cost of electric power gen-erated from liquid fuels, and could offer a more reliable electricity supply.

The other side of the family, the ‘renew crew,’ seemed to not quite grasp or couldn’t quite accept the miners’ statements that capital is very, very tight across the mining industry at present, and thus, the number of mine owner-operator opportunities for the renew-crew was potentially modest.

Enter the energy services compa-nies with offers to facilitate the bring-ing together of the parties with buy, lease, lease back, rent, or even $/kWh supply contracts matched to mine lives,

Renewables and Mining Summit explores energy optionsBY DEAN MILLAR

The $31 million Diavik wind farm project in Canada’s Northwest Territories is projected to lower the mine’s annual power-related diesel fuel requirement by 10 per cent and reduce its carbon footprint by six per cent. As well, it will reduce Diavik’s seasonal winter road fuel haul by approximately 100 loads. Photo courtesy of Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 36 11/5/2013 11:10:56 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com ENERGY Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ September1,2013 37

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rather than the con-ventional 20 to 25-year lives of their equipment. However, the wedding was nearly called off com-pletely when someone on the bride’s side sug-gested that their finan-cial backers may view a longish-term contract with a mining company as something less than an asset.

Although wind ener-gy and solar energy are approaching, or have beaten, grid parity at certain locations with good natural resources, the dis-counted costs of electricity produced from renewable energy technologies are still capital dominated, in contrast to conventional technologies where the cost of fuel dominates.

Several participants at the summit pointed out that by working togeth-er, mining operators and renewable developers should be able to realize appreciable value in the renewable energy supply chain so that capital costs can be significantly diminished. Liezl Van Wyk of Rio Tinto illustrated this point beautifully with her presen-tation about the $31 million Diavik Wind Farm project. As many of the engineering design and construction skills required to bring off renew-

able projects successfully already exist within min-ing operators’ facilities, capital costs can be saved by doing some of the work ‘in-house’.

Ian Nelson of Energia Llaima and Hans Grydehøj of Sunmark reported on a solar elec-trolyte heating system supported by Codelco in an electrowinning plant in Chile. Together, they designed, constructed, operate, maintain and

own the 39,300 m2 flat panel solar heating plant for which they receive a fixed $/MWhth amount for energy supplied over 10 years. Energy pro-curement risk is substantially reduced for the mine operator with this type of deal.

Thermal-to-electricityKevin Smith of SolarReserve also

impressed with a concentrating solar thermal-to-electricity system that could operate with a sustained out-put for 20 hours each day with use of a heat store for “low teens” of cents/kWh. The quiet heroes of the summit were the team from Rame Energy Ltd. (http://www.rame-energy.com/). It was this Plymouth-based, UK SME that had big enough cojones

to design, construct and commis-sion the mining industry’s first three utility scale wind cluster projects at Veladera (2007), El Toqui (2010) and Punta Colorada (2011). Today, at over 4,100 metres above sea level, Veladera remains the world’s highest wind turbine.

Renewable energyLast time I looked in my renewable

energy textbooks, hydroelectric power plants were classified as a form of renewable energy and the number of mining companies investing directly in the construction of hydroelectric plants to support their operations is appreciable. So the idea that renew-able energy and mining can marry for mutual benefit is not a new one at all. Payback times for hydroelectric plant are long, IRRs are low and NPV/CAPEX ratios are low too, demonstrating the importance of resilience to electricity price volatility to mining companies. However, what was apparent from this summit was that new technologies are emerging that offer similar benefit with potentially improved financials and that more imagination is being used to think about the financing of these projects.

Dean Millar is MIRARCO Research Chair of Energy in Mining, Bharti School of Engineering, Laurentian University.

BRIEFS

Noront Resources Ltd. has announced the appointment of Alan Coutts as president and CEO.

Coutts is a mining executive with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of explora-tion, feasibility, construction and production of mineral deposits. He has worked both do-mestically and abroad in a variety of roles and across multiple commodities. Most re-cently, he was managing director of Xstrata Nickel Australasia based in Perth, Australia. Prior to that he served as general manager at the Brunswick Mine in Canada.

Noront Resources is focused on the de-velopment of its high-grade Eagle’s Nest nickel, copper, platinum and palladium de-posit and the high-grade Blackbird chromite deposit, both of which are located in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario in the Ring of Fire.

Noront announces appointment of president

and CEODean Millar, MIRARCO Research Chair for Energy in Mining, Bharti School of Engineering.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 37 11/5/2013 11:12:59 AM

December 1, 2013 � Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal WOMEN IN MINING www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 38

They’re smart, eager to learn and make their mark in the mining industry. Meet Donna, Carolyn and Sadie, pioneers of gender diversity and students at Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mining.

Sadie Bechamp, a fourth year mining engineering student, started off at the other end of the academic spectrum as a performing arts student and budding saxophonist at Sudbury Secondary School.

“By the time I was graduating from high school, a lot of the guys I was friends with were starting to explore the mining industry for jobs, things like the trades,” she said. “I knew I didn’t want to be a tradesperson, but we had a career fair and I learned about all the opportunities in engineering, especially mining engi-neering.”

A co-op student, Sadie has had two placements – a four-month stint with MIRARCO Mining Innovation and a 16-month placement with Vale. She worked at Coleman Mine for a year on the 170 Orebody project and then transferred to Totten Mine, where she worked in the shaft construction department.

“You always hear that if you’re a woman in the min-ing industry, they’ll give you a hard time, but I didn’t have any bad experiences at all,” she said. “Once I showed an interest, (my co-workers) were incredible.”

Sadie expects to have her fair share of challenges when she enters an engineer-in-training program and gets to experience work at the face. “I’m pretty sure a jackleg will weigh more than me, but it’s really crucial to understanding the mining cycle and the issues min-ers encounter,” she said.

Born and raised in Sudbury, Sadie’s interest in the

mining industry was understandable, but Carolyn Gummer, a third year mining engineering student, hails from Ajax, Ontario, 48 kilometres east of Toronto.

Carolyn was always interested in math and sci-ences and was encouraged by her parents to go into engineering. She started in general engineering at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and settled on mining engineering because of her interest in travel and geology.

She switched to Laurentian’s Goodman School of Mines because “Sudbury is the heart of mining and was the best option. You can go underground on field trips, the classes are small and the profs are always available.”

Donna Cortolezzis is the veteran of the trio with a resumé as long as your arm. A PhD stu-dent doing research on mining-induced seismicity, Donna has undergraduate degrees in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia and a Mining Engineering degree from Queen’s University.

She spent two summers working underground as a miner at the Williams Mine in the Hemlo camp in the late ’80s, worked at the Geco Mine in Manitouwadge as a supervisor and in the engineering department from

1991 to 1995 and spent four years at the Holloway Mine east of Timmins, where she did everything from ventilation to environmental sampling, layouts, design and scheduling.

“In the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was pretty much the only woman,” said Donna. “It was very rare to see a woman underground or in the engineering office, but now when I go to sites, there are more women.

“Initially, it was harder, for sure. Many of the guys had never worked with a woman, but after they got to know you, they respect you and like having the diver-sity in the crew. It made it more fun and enjoyable.”

Donna relocated to Winnipeg in 2000 to start her own business, but returned to Ontario in 2004 when her husband landed a job in Sudbury as part of the Nickel Rim project team. She worked for McIntosh Engineering doing feasibility studies for Inco and sub-sequently joined Vale as chief engineer at Stobie Mine.

Along the way, she found time to raise two chil-dren, a daughter in third year university and a son who is still in high school, but showing an interest in mechanical engineering.

Donna left Vale in 2010 and enrolled in a Masters program at Laurentian last year.

Based on her marks and the level of research she was doing, she was given permission to switch directly into a PhD program.

Grateful for the career and the opportunities the mining industry has given her, Donna is giving back by heading up Laurentian’s Go Eng Girl program, which brings together 50 female high school students and their parents to spend a day learning about the oppor-tunities in engineering.

www.laurentian.ca

Diversity rules at Goodman SchoolBY NORM TOLLINSKY

Donna Cortolezzi

Carolyn Gummer

Sadie Bechamp

“I’m pretty sure a jackleg drill will weigh more than me, but it’s really crucial to understanding the mining cycle and the issues miners encounter.”

– Sadie Bechamp

Women in Mining

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com Womeninmining Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 39

For Judy Baker, challenges in the junior exploration side of the mining industry aren’t necessarily linked to gender. It’s a formidable field that poses challenges for anyone – men or women.

Baker is CEO of Superior Copper Resources, a junior miner with a property around the former Coppercorp cop-per mine near Sault Ste. Marie.

She developed an interest in mining while still in high school and, attending night courses in Geology at Brock University, she was fascinated by the theory of plate tectonics.

After completing a B.Sc. in geological engineering at Queen’s University, she spent three years doing contract work for the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. However, a lull in work sparked by a dip in commodity prices sent Baker back to school to complete an MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Creativity and resourcefulness are key assets for working in the industry, Baker said.

“The cyclical nature of the industry provides challenges on the downside, so when the commodity business cycle contracts, you have to be resourceful. I went back to busi-ness school when exploration activity in Canada got cut dramatically in 1993.”

Baker has now had a successful 23-year career in the industry.

Working at various brokerage houses in Toronto, she

was involved in financing junior exploration mining com-panies as a research associate and analyst. Baker acquired the first company she ran, Black Pearl Minerals (now Canada Lithium Corp.), from IAMGOLD for six million shares and $250,000 in cash. In July, Canada Lithium pro-duced its first run of 99.1 per cent, battery-grade lithium carbonate and is set to start shipping to clients in Japan.

Baker has been impressed by the training and educa-tional opportunities that have opened up to women. She points to Osisko’s Malartic Mine in Quebec as a positive training ground to get women to operate heavy machinery.

The China-driven commodity boom of the last decade has meant a need for more workers, and that has meant a new world of opportunity opening up for women.

“There’s been good opportunity for women to get edu-cation, and the number of women in geology and mining programs has really picked up,” Baker said. “They have a good standing and the commodity boom of the last decade has created such huge demand for people that women in the industry have been able to get on-the-job experience that’s critical to their education and training to build a career.”

Mobility remains the biggest hurdle to overcome when seeking success in the industry, Baker said.

“There are no mines in downtown Toronto, or Vancouver, or Calgary, or Montreal,” she said. “You have to have mobility to take on consulting projects.”

That can be difficult for women who want to put down roots and have a family, she acknowledged.

The general nature of the industry can throw anyone for a loop, no matter how prepared.

“There’s no crystal ball in the ground, so there’s no guarantee you’re going to be successful even if you are focused, even if you have the smartest people hired, even if you’re in good touch with your shareholders, even if you understand the economic viability parameters for the camp you’re exploring in,” she said.

www.superiorcopper.ca

Judy Baker

BY LINDSAY KELLY

■ Challenges in junior exploration faced by both genders

Judy Baker, CEO of Superior Copper Resources, maintains that the same hurdles have to be faced by both men and women trying to find success in the field. Photo by Stanley Sudol

Accomplishment. Leadership. Inspiration.

Samantha Espley is Vale’s General Manager of

Mines and Mill Technical Services. She leads a

multidisciplinary team of mining professionals and

is a role model and inspiration to women and girls

considering a career in mining.

Vale congratulates Samantha for receiving Women

In Mining Canada’s 2nd Annual National Trailblazer

Award and salutes all women who are blazing

trails in Canada’s mining industry.

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 39 11/5/2013 11:14:09 AM

December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal Women in mining www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 40

At her first summer mining job while an engineering stu-dent at the University of Toronto, Samantha Espley was one of four women—of 10 students—hired on at Falconbridge’s Keno Gold Mine in Val d’Or, Quebec. It wasn’t until later that it dawned on her how unique it was to work with that many other women.

“I didn’t really think much of it at the time until after I realized how few women there really were to choose from,” said Sudbury-based Espley, who was the only woman in her engineering class. “So it was quite a neat experience.”

After graduating, Stan Bharti, who would later bestow Laurentian University’s engineering school with a $10-mil-lion endowment, interviewed Espley for her position at Falconbridge, where she remained for a few years before hiring on at Inco (now Vale). Since then, she’s worked in research, been a general foreman underground, acted as superintendent of business systems, and served as manager of nickel services for mining operations. She’s currently the general manager for mines and technical services.

In March, in recognition of her achievements, Espley was awarded the second annual National Trailblazer Award from Women in Mining Canada, an organization that focuses on advancing the interests of women in the mineral exploration and mining sector.

Of the roles she’s held during her 25-year career, Espley said her favourite remains hard-rock mining.

“We’re always mining and depleting the ore zone and we’re chasing the next zone, so it’s always changing,” she said. “It’s something new every day and you have the ability to make

decisions to make things better. You have the ability to influ-ence what happens every day, and in a positive way—the safety, the production. You feel a very strong sense of reward at the end of every shift.”

She’s often found herself the only woman in a group of men, but Espley said her experience in the industry has been overwhelmingly positive. Often, she had to overcome her own anxieties about the job she was doing. Was she being assertive enough? Was she being too soft?

“I really haven’t had any role models who are women in my field, so it’s been difficult to find my way,” Epsley said. “But there have been a number of men in the business who have been extremely supportive as formal mentors, and who have really been helpful in working through some of those personal anxieties that I had.”

Advancements in the industry have made mining a more attractive career option for women, Espley said. She points to Vale’s progressive policies surrounding parental leave, top-ups to benefits and recruitment efforts as examples of how companies are recognizing the value of women in the workplace.

With the introduction of better mechanized equipment, even the physical demands associated with mining have changed.

“So you’re able to work underground now because you’re driving trucks. You’re not having to pick up a 120-pound jackleg drill,” she said.

Up-and-coming female workers should be aware of the variety of roles open to them, Espley said. Whether they work directly in mining, or for a service and supply company, women can find meaningful work without hitting a glass ceiling.

It helps to have a support network through friends, family and organizations like Women in Science and Engineering, Women in Mining, or the Canadian Institute of Mining.

Perhaps Espley’s best counsel came from a former col-league at Vale who advised her to “be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” They’re words she’s tried to live by and ones she passes on to the next generation.

www.nickel.vale.com

Samantha Espley

BY LINDSAY KELLY

■ Mining a challenging career for Vale manager

Samantha Espley, general manager for mines and technical services at Vale, has held a number of positions with Falconbridge (now Glencore Xstrata) and Vale during her 25-year career in mining.

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Unsure of what she wanted to do after some post-sec-ondary education, Armanda Farrell submitted her resumé to the Dome Mine in Timmins six years ago.

She and another woman were hired to work in the mill, part of Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines operation.

“I had no idea what the mill was,” she said. “I took the employee bus to the mill the first day on the job and I had no idea what I was getting into. It was a nerve wracking ride.”

After meeting the supportive crew and trainer, she felt better.

“It wasn’t what I thought it was,” she said.Farrell spent three years in the mill and then transferred

to the underground department where she has worked for the last three years in track maintenance as a Miner 3.

“It is a very physically demanding job, but I find it very rewarding,” said Farrell.

She is also the first woman to be part of the mine rescue team, a position she has held for the past two years.

“I really feel it is an honour,” she said. “I did have some concern that I would be the token female and I raised that with my coach. But I was told that I did earn the spot.”

Being on the competition team is physically demand-ing. The breathing apparatus weighs 17 kilograms, for example, but she said it’s like second nature after getting used to wearing it.

“To go on the team you have to show initiative that you

want to be involved in the general mine rescue program. Based on that and feedback from the mine rescue officers and expressing interest in the competition team, they look at how enthusiastic you have been and how much initiative you have shown,” Farrell said.

“Being on the team, there is some self-doubt you proj-ect onto yourself and, sometimes, you think others have the same opinion about you. But I have had so much support from everyone.”

The team nabbed second place this year and came first last year in the district competition.

“It was the most challenging thing I have done in my life and probably the (accomplishment) I am most proud of so far,” she said.

Her great-grandfather died of silicosis and her grandfa-ther never wanted any of his children to work in a mine. Her family was apprehensive at first about her career choice and her grandparents were a bit upset when she began to work underground.

“But mining has evolved so much since those times,” Farrell said. “Now, my grandmother sees the photos of me in the mine rescue team and she is proud.”

Farrell has her track specialty, which is a dying art.“Most mines don’t have track mining, which is a small

underground railroad. It eliminates a lot of diesel emis-sions but it is a high-maintenance mining process,” she said.

She spent her first four years at the mine doing shift work, but currently works days, Monday to Friday.

“If a woman is interested in getting involved in the industry, do the research and give it a chance,” Farrell said. “It is a career that will open a lot of doors for you if you are willing to try it.

“Once you become involved in mining, it becomes a part of you. Not just the industry, but the people too.”

www.porcupinegoldmines.ca

Armanda Farrell

BY LIZ COWAN

■ Miner earns spot on mine rescue team

Armanda Farrell sits in the mine rescue substation at the Dome Mine in her Drager BG4 breathing apparatus.

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com Womeninmining Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 43 December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal Women in mining www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 38

The mining industry was an uninviting place for job-seeking women like Mary Louise Hill to catch a break in the 1970s.

In fact, it was a downright oddity for a female to be involved even at the grass roots level.

It was deemed a newsworthy event in 1976 when Hill, as young university student, was hired by the Saskatchewan Geological Survey for its summer program.

While she was studying geology at Carleton University, new legislation was taking aim at discrimination against women in the workplace. Up until that time, mining companies prohibited women from going underground. But even after those laws came into force, change didn’t come easy.

“It was quite blatant in those days,” said Hill, now a geology professor at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

When the mining companies arrived on campus for their recruiting tours, Hill eagerly signed up for job inter-views.

One company rep asked how many words a minute she could type.

“Me, being so foolish, I asked if we’re taking typewriters into the field. They were going to hire women to sit in the office and cover up for office staff who were on vacation. It was the men in the office who were going out into the field.”

Another recruiter closed the door and announced, “We have absolutely no intention of hiring women, but we’re required by law to interview you. So what do you want to talk about?”

The so-called career glass ceiling appeared to be solid rock.

“Women of a certain age, we all have our horror stories to tell,” said Hill.

Her first opportunity to venture below ground came while teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia,

leading a class into a former New Jersey zinc mine.“It was my first time underground,” said Hill. “I was so

excited.”In today’s industry, women occupy positions in geol-

ogy, engineering, administration and supply services, but Hill finds they are still under-represented in many jobs. “There’s definitely room for more female miners.”

As a co-founder of the Thunder Bay chapter of Women in Mining, Hill is doing her part to advance the cause.

The group began its first membership drive last fall. Relying only on a few emails and word of mouth, they booked a hotel meeting room and laid out a wine and cheese spread for 40. Hill was astounded when 100 women attended.

“So many of us work as the only woman in our compa-nies, so everybody came out of curiosity to see who these other women are,” said Hill.

Monthly gatherings take place at a member’s workplace, such as an assay lab, so all can gain an understanding of how the whole industry is interconnected.

What Hill finds most rewarding is the camaraderie, the sharing of experiences and the group’s diverse makeup with field geologists, a drilling company president, lab techs, engineers, consultants, service suppliers and admin-istrators.

Hill said much of the talk among industry women today revolves around juggling family life with career demands that often require being away for extended periods, or the challenges of acting in a supervisory role.

“When they get out in an exploration camp in charge of siting drills and all the drillers are older men and they need them to respect their authority, that’s not something you learn in school.”

While their challenges pale in comparison to her early experiences, Hill finds it’s refreshing that women are mak-ing strides and gaining respect.

www.wimcanada.orgwww.lakeheadu.ca

Mary Louise Hill

BY IAN ROSS

■ Rock solid resolve

Mary Louise Hill, geology professor, Lakehead University.

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal Women in mining www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 44

Cynthia Le Sueur-Aquin doesn’t view herself as an inspirational role model for women.

If there is a gender imbalance in today’s mining indus-try, the president and CEO of Laurion Mineral Exploration admits she doesn’t devote much time to thinking about it.

“I encounter many women in the field as geologists, and I respect them greatly, but I don’t know how I can be a mentor.”

In her mind, the gender issue never enters the picture despite some tough personal experiences early in her professional life.

Her 35-year career has involved every facet of running mining companies - from project financing to property acquisition, corporate legal work, handling negotiations and investor relations.

Laurion is a junior mining company operating in the Beardmore area, 220 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. Le Sueur-Aquin’s focus these days is on raising money to build a gold and base metals resource around the old Sturgeon River gold mine and its flagship Ishkoday property.

“I’m far too busy trying to get through the issues of the market and exploration to even think about how to men-tor someone coming through the ranks.”

The South African-born Le Sueur-Aquin emerged from the hard-knock world of that country’s gold mining indus-try. It was during the apartheid era when some parts of society staunchly believed that a woman’s place was in the home.

The deep gold mines weren’t the most hospitable place for a young female mining engineer. Until 1991, women were prohibited from going underground.

There were no latrines for women and the intense heat in working at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 metres could chal-lenge anyone’s physical stamina.

The workforce was a cultural mix of tribes and migrant workers, some harbouring the belief that women under-

ground were bad luck.“You have to understand, the South African mining

industry is a subset of a very sociologically complex soci-ety,” said Le Sueur-Aquin.

Though never disrespected by black miners, it was the less-educated Afrikaners who gave her the most grief. “They hated to see a woman drive a car or come under-ground.”

Inside the three-decker service cages at the large mines, it wasn’t uncommon for management types to be urinated on by the miners above.

In one instance, a forklift operator, who neglected the right-of-way rules, drove his forks through the windows of the company car she was driving.

“I was so shocked at the time. They could get away with murder and say, sorry it was an accident.”

Another time, Le Sueur-Aquin was called to surface and the hoist operator dropped a counterweight that bounced her helmeted head off the top of the cage she was riding.

“I knew that was on purpose because the joke was out over the next couple of days.”

Instead of letting her white-hot temper get the best of her, she developed a thicker skin.

Reliving those experiences is not something she dwells on.“I never sat down and cried into my soup and said,

‘Poor me I’m a woman.’ When you’re in what you recog-nize as a male-dominated industry, abuse will occur. It’s how you manage it.”

That steely focus is what eventually propelled her into the leadership of Davidson Tisdale, one of the oldest listed mining companies on the TSX Venture Exchange.

She arrived in 2003 with a monumental task to clean up the company’s debt and get it back on solid footing again.

Le Sueur-Aquin believes the physical aspects of some mining jobs may limit opportunities for women, but they shouldn’t be prevented from applying for them.

She finds women can make far more significant contri-butions in support roles such as hoist and heavy equip-ment operators, and especially in the boardroom.

The women who inspire her are Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American (“my absolute hero”); Debra Valentine, Rio Tinto’s head of legal affairs; Sika Resources’ CEO Kim Harris, and Zoe Yujnovich, president and CEO of the Iron Ore Company of Canada.

If she were to see herself as mentor, it would be to pro-vide Aboriginal people with an invitation to fully partici-pate in the industry.

“I would like to see the mining industry being able to mentor the communities in our area through government programs in getting people to train on our projects. I want to see them develop and have opportunities, not just women. There’s a bigger picture there.”

Cynthia Le Sueur-AquinBY IAN ROSS

Laurion Mineral Exploration president and CEO Cynthia Le Sueur-Aquin prospecting in the vicinity of the former Sturgeon River gold mine near Beardmore.

Lindsay Martin is proof that women can be both a mom and a miner. The underground scoop operator at Goldcorp’s Dome Mine in Timmins even has a photo of her son Reid, as a newborn, on the cover of the 2011-2014 collective agreement.

“I was involved in the collective bargaining in 2011 and I was nine months pregnant. He was born the day I signed the contract,” she said. “I didn’t get the chance to pres-ent the agreement to the members though. I was in the hospital.”

Martin has worked for Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines for the past eight years. She operated heavy equip-ment on surface at the Pamour pit, but when it closed, she transferred underground.

“I did have a lot of apprehension at first about going underground, and I still do to some extent, but it is a good place to work. It’s a great atmosphere and my male co-workers have been great,” said Martin.

If there were any sentiments from the older miners that women didn’t belong underground, or that it was bad luck to have them on the cage, they soon changed their minds.

“They really took care of me because I would be the same age as their daughters, so I had an easier go,” she said.

A self-professed tomboy and not “a lipstick kind of girl,” Martin sometimes accompanied her father when she was younger to his work as a heavy-duty mechanic.

“When I saw the money you could make with heavy equipment, I just stuck with it.”

She works shift work, which can be challenging for a single mother. When she came back from maternity leave, she was on eight-hour days. Now she has gone back to shift work, but on steady days.

“Goldcorp has really accommodated me and that has been a godsend for me. It’s hard to find child care on nights,” said Martin.

While her career choice is non-traditional, she would recommend it to any woman contemplating a well-paying job.

“I know, growing up, women don’t think about this field because it is male dominated, but it is a good avenue to go into. In high school and college, girls were steered to teaching or something more traditional, so this field was never mentioned to the females. I got into it because of my dad,” she said.

The work is physically demanding and requires strength. Martin said it is also important to be able to take construc-tive criticism.

“Being a woman in this field, sometimes you have to be twice as good as the males, but that is only because they have to be sure you can do the job. I never had any qualms about asking for help and never had a hard time from anyone,” said Martin.

She is content in her career and sees herself doing it until retirement.

“I never feel like I have made a mistake. And for the amount of money I make, I certainly can’t complain.”

She and two other women were the first three females to go underground and all still work there.

“Going underground is definitely an adjustment. It is not that hard though - just another work environment that you can get used to. There is a risk involved, but there are risks with anything. You just need to be careful and take care of yourself, your partner, and the others you work with.

“All around, it is just a nice place to work.”

www.porcupinegoldmines.ca

Lindsay Martin

BY LIZ COWAN

■ Mom proves her worth underground

Lindsay Martin balances being a single mother and an underground scoop operator.

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Imola Götz’s choice to study mining engineering wasn’t an unusual one while growing up in Romania.

“There were many mines around my home town and I knew the possibilities and thought this was a very interest-ing career,” said the chief engineer at Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines in Timmins.

It was not unusual to find women working in the industry, with many fill-ing technical positions.

However, when she immigrated to Canada more than two decades ago, she was surprised there were not as many women working in the industry or pursu-ing engineering.

“When I got to Canada I was an oddity and I often got asked why I chose min-ing,” said Götz.

She has been with Goldcorp for nearly 10 years and spent about 15 years in Manitouwadge before that. Her husband, Laszlo Götz, also works for Porcupine Gold Mines as its environmental man-ager.

The couple decided to leave Romania early in their careers because the commu-nist regime was “getting more and more intolerable.”

“Our son was 14 months old at the time and we decided the first one to get a passport would leave with him. I got the passport and defected,” she said.

The family is Hungarian and the Romanian government would not issue passports to entire Hungarian families at the same time. After spending a year in Austria, she arrived in London, Ontario.

“I went to English as a second language school for three weeks and realized I had to work, since I had a young child,” said Götz. “I found a job with a manufactur-ing company and worked as a machinist for a year. Then my husband joined us.”

Canada seemed like a good choice from a mining point of view and it also

offered some recreational opportunities such as downhill skiing, which Götz loves to pursue.

“I arrived in London, where there was no skiing and no mines. There is no such thing as luck. You have to work for every-thing,” she laughed.

The couple heard that a Hungarian with a degree in teaching got a mining job in Manitouwadge so they thought they would be able to secure employ-ment there, especially since they both had mining engineering degrees.

“We were offered jobs, but not min-ing engineering jobs. My husband was a mine trainee and I was offered a sur-veying position. I stayed home since I found out I was expecting, but it took my husband less than a year to get into an engineering position,” she said.

While deciding to stay home to raise her children, Götz obtained a teaching degree and became a supply teacher. She taught Math and Science in senior high school grades and said she found no dif-ference in performance in those subjects between male and female students.

It puzzled her as to why female stu-dents were picking more traditional careers.

“Perhaps they weren’t being guided to consider careers such as engineering,” said Götz.

She too returned to engineering, but the mining company she and her hus-band worked for closed its Canadian operations. While they were offered transfers to the United States, they felt Canada was their home and relocated to Timmins.

“It is important to start at the school level to let girls know there is an option,” she said.

“I see more women in mining, but there is still a discrepancy between males and females attending engineering schools.

“I am active in the PEO (Professional Engineers of Ontario) and I go to the annual meetings where I see that only 10 per cent of those attending are women… but I think it is getting better.”

www.porcupinegoldmines.ca

Imola Götz

BY LIZ COWAN

■ Mining engineer an “oddity” in Canada

Imola Götz is the chief engineer at Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines in Timmins. Liz Cowan Photo

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal Women in mining www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 46

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But for a twist of fate, Maureen Jensen may never have become a geologist.

The daughter of a Falconbridge mining engineer who grew up in Sudbury, Jensen was studying pre-med at the University of Toronto when a course in Geology piqued her curiosity. She was immediately hooked.

“I decided that I wanted to be a geologist, not a doctor, and, of course, my mother cried about it for three years. I love it, and I still think of myself as a geologist, even though I’m not working in that field anymore.”

As executive director and CAO of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), Jensen oversees the body that adminis-ters and enforces securities law in the province of Ontario. The office is responsible for establishing standards for reporting in mineral exploration.

Jensen started out in hard-rock geology with a focus on base metals and gold, working in mines and on exploration proj-ects all over North America, Mexico, Central America, South Africa and the U.S. She has been a prospector, and founded a couple of junior mining companies with her husband, Torben.

Following the Bre-X scandal in the mid-1990s, she was named to the Mining Standards Task Force, designed to clean up mining reporting standards.

Though the OSC received some pushback at the time, the regulations have transformed the industry.

“These rules are a sea change in the world, and Canada is now looked on as the best jurisdiction for this kind of disclo-sure. It has pushed a lot of the standards globally,” Jensen said. “It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Jensen. One of 10

women in a graduating class of 35—she remains friends with many of her former classmates—she did struggle as a woman trying to make it in the business.

In her early years, Jensen said, it was hard to get field work. She was given any number of excuses to prevent her from experiencing it: there was only one toilet on site, there weren’t separate facilities for women, she wouldn’t like living in a tent for three months.

Because it was so hard to get those jobs, she found herself fighting hard for them.

“Almost exclusively I was the only woman in the board-room. It was very hard to get other CEOs to take you seriously until you could show that you could get the job done,” she said. “You had to prove yourself over and over and over.”

That old boys’ club approach to the mineral industry has greatly improved since she started in the business in the 1970s. Today, Jensen said she and other women of her era are work-ing to mentor succeeding generations of women, encourag-ing them to go into senior management and take on board roles. She’s now seeing more women in senior roles, and describes the network of women in mining across the country as “incredible.”

Contemporary challenges aren’t really about gender bal-ance, she added, but about replenishing the stock of retiring senior management professionals.

To do so, mining companies would be wise to concentrate on building corporate social responsibility, she said.

“They’re going to have to rejuvenate this business, and to get young people to look at this business it has to be socially responsible. That’s a big issue, and part of being socially responsible is having a good diversity balance, and not just in the companies, but at the senior (levels) and in the board-room.”

Jensen relates well to the old adage that if you’re passionate about something, you never work a day in your life.

“Never stop learning and trying new things,” she advises. “I think one of the best things to do is don’t get stuck, but keep expanding your horizons.”

www.osc.gov.on.ca

Maureen Jensen

BY LINDSAY KELLY

■ Mining a fantastic career for securities commission head

Maureen Jensen, executive director and CAO of the Ontario Securities Commission, oversees the office that administers and enforces securities law in the province of Ontario.

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www.sudburyminingsolutions.com Womeninmining Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 47

With the birth of mining in northeastern Ontario came a supply and

services sector that served the local industry’s

needs. Today, the region is home to

some of Canada’s richest mines

and SAMSSA, the Sudbury

Area Mining Supply and Service

Association. The sector now

comprises 500 companies,

producing more than $5 billion

a year in goods and services

for mining and industrial clients

around the world. And that’s good

news for everyone.

Samssa is mining excellence at work.www.samssa.ca

Good news travels fast.

Attitude is everything for women to succeed in the mining industry.

Caitlin Jeffs, vice-president of Thunder Bay’s Fladgate Exploration Consulting, said some women’s experi-ences, both good and bad, can be shaped by their pre-conceived approach to their work.

Women’s general perception of the industry is that it’s an all-male club and sometimes they try to overcompen-sate for that.

“Some women walk in with a chip on their shoulders to show ‘I’m tough, I can handle this,’” said Jeffs.

“They expect there to be conflict. And when you walk in expecting it, it happens.”

Handling yourself in the field and gaining respect is not something that can be taught at school.

“My personality is I don’t walk in saying I’m the boss. I walk in saying what’s your suggestion? How about we try this? I work with them, same as anywhere.”

Jeffs grew up in a Vancouver household where her father’s philosophy was anyone can do anything.

She was introduced to geology in her early 20s while working summers at a casino in the historic Yukon mining town of Dawson City.

After graduating with a degree in geology from the University of British Columbia in 2002, she worked for Placer Dome at Musselwhite Mine before starting Fladgate, a 20-employee firm she co-founded in 2007 with her husband Michael Thompson.

On the side, she runs Red Metal Resources, a copper-gold project in Chile, and is director with Kesselrun Resources, a junior outfit in northwestern Ontario.

Jeff said most of her experiences working in all-male

environments have been positive.“We do work in different ways, and we have to

approach things differently from men, but there is no reason why women cannot thrive in today’s mining world.”

Out in the field, Jeffs used her female charm to get things done.

“When you’re out in the bush and you need a driller to do something, you kind of capitalize on that. He hasn’t seen a woman in six weeks. Why not? You don’t have to flirt, you don’t have to promise any-thing, but if you go out and smile and act nice...it’ll go a long way.”

Compared to her trailblazing older contemporaries, Jeffs finds the biggest challenge is juggling a young fam-ily with a job that demands travel.

“It’s hard on women, and being away from your kids is pretty tough,” said Jeffs, a mother of a two and a four-year-old.

Her eldest was dragged along on more than 70 flights during the first two years of his life.

“When I went to New York, I just took him. I made sure I timed things so he would fall asleep when I walked into a meeting. I would tuck him into the corner (of the boardroom) and deal with my meeting. Ninety per cent of the time the other person in the room is a human being with kids too.”

At Fladgate, Jeffs brought her infant children to work, hanging them in the jolly-jumpers on her office door.

“I didn’t have a choice. They needed me to work.”If she has any advice for women considering mining

careers, it’s that there’s room for everybody.“There’s a wide variety of jobs, all of them interest-

ing. You can have an office job, work in the field, at a mine, and as long as you approach it with the right attitude and work hard, you can do what you want to do.”

Jeffs finds some companies actually prefer hiring women as haul truck drivers because they’re easier on the equipment.

But some physical aspects of the job will never change, and there’s no caddy to carry your bags in the field.

“As a project geologist, you still have to pick up rock and it’s still heavy.”

But the rewards of the job are there’s something new every day.

“Every deposit is different, so it’s never going to be routine.”

www.fladgateexploration.com

Caitlin JeffsBY IAN ROSS

■ Finding the right balance

Caitlin Jeffs co-founded Fladgate Exploration Consulting with husband Michael Thompson.

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 48

SMSJ: December 2013_Process_ML_Barb

BRIEFS

The new Atlas Copco Rig Control System, RCS 5, and its interface design earned a bronze award in the digi-tal design category at the 2013 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) competition.

The IDEA competition was established in 1980 and ranks among the preeminent interna-tional design competitions.

RCS 5 is a hardware and software interface solution designed for drill rigs. As the primary connection between the rig and the operator, the RCS 5 assists in monitoring and controlling the rig and enables hands-on or remote control operation. The system also logs events, error or status informa-tion for future analysis.

The interface is designed to accommodate different scenari-os such as ambidextrousness or color blindness of the operator and variable light conditions. By incorporating self-explana-tory symbols, the RCS 5 can be used globally.

Operators navigate using a 15-inch touch screen display and two multifunctional joy-sticks control drilling. Primary functions for drilling are grouped together on the top of the controller. The joysticks allow the operator to focus on drilling instead of searching for functions on the keyboard or display.

Atlas Copco is the first com-pany in the mining industry to receive a design award for a control system.

Nordex Explosives Ltd. of Kirkland Lake has constructed a new production facility with full man-ufacturing capabilities for its ButtBuster Perimeter Control products.

The production facility can crank out over 120 cases per shift to meet the high demand for this prod-uct in underground and surface blasting situations.

“The ButtBuster product is well-known in the mining and construction industries, and has been difficult to obtain in North America until now,” said Jim Taylor, CEO of Nordex Explosives. “We are pleased to make this announcement after over five years of development. The demand for

this particular product, because of its high qual-ity and known safety benefits, is huge. We were reluctant to begin full distribution before now be-cause we would not have been able to keep up to expected demands without the proper production facilities in place.”

Nordex Explosives has exclusive rights for man-ufacturing and distributing the ButtBuster product.

Originally developed by Johnex Explosives of Australia, the ButtBuster product is highly sought after for its ease of use, cost effectiveness, improve-ment in ground control safety and associated reduc-tions in potential rockfall situations.

Goldcorp Inc. has reported adjusted third quar-ter revenues of $1.2 billion, generating adjusted net earnings of $190 million, compared to $441 million in the third quarter of 2012.

“Operations throughout our portfolio performed as planned during the third quarter and we remain on track to achieve our annual production and cost guid-ance,” said Chuck Jeannes, Goldcorp president and CEO. “Most importantly, our focus on operational discipline and cost containment delivered positive results. Most of our mines saw meaningful reduc-tions in costs compared to the previous quarter, with particularly impressive improvement at some of our higher-cost operations such as Porcupine in Ontario.”

Gold sales in the third quarter were 652,100 ounces.

At the company’s Red Lake complex in north-western Ontario, gold production for the third quarter was 97,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $986 per ounce and $640 per ounce on a by-product basis. Gold production during the quarter was lower than the second quarter of 2013 due to mining lower grade blocks and the planned commencement of de-stress work. However, the company reported that Red Lake remains on track to meet gold production guidance for the year of between 475,000 and 510,000 ounces.

The haulage drift to the Bruce Channel deposit has now advanced to 80 per cent completion.

At Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) unit in Timmins, gold production in the third quar-ter increased to 76,000 ounces at an all-in sustain-ing cost of $921 per ounce and $637 per ounce on a by-product basis. These are the lowest costs at PGM since the fourth quarter of 2011. The Hoyle Pond underground operation experienced similar grades on 7 per cent lower tonnage due to the op-timization of long-hole sequencing to remove mar-ginal tonnes. The Dome underground operation experienced 61 per cent higher grades and 18 per cent lower tonnage due to optimization of the min-ing sequence. Material reclaimed from stockpile provided 22 per cent higher tonnage due to higher mill throughput.

PGM’s Hollinger pit project continues to be de-layed pending final permitting. The environmental compliance approval was expected to be issued by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in the fourth quarter of 2013. On-site work focused on remedia-tion of critical voids and reverse circulation drilling to define ore limits prior to mining. A revised mine plan has been developed to support an economic project at lower gold prices.

Atlas Copco wins international design award

for rig control system

Nordex Explosives expands to supply Buttbuster product

Goldcorp on track to achieve planned production

1_52_SMSJ_DEC_2013.indd 48 11/5/2013 11:16:38 AM

www.sudburyminingsolutions.com NEWS Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal■ December1,2013 49

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A Sudbury company is mining busi-ness opportunities in Nevada’s mining industry, thanks to a growing partner-ship with Canada and a business group from the U.S. state.

While most people associate Nevada with Las Vegas, the area has much more to offer than gambling, said Bob Groesbeck, vice-president of the Canada-Nevada Business Council. Nevada is home to a billion-dollar min-ing industry that’s enjoying a resurgence even as the rest of the state tries to recover from the recession.

“We’re just blown away by what’s going on in (Sudbury),” said Groesbeck. “It didn’t take us long to figure out that this is a good fit.”

Canada is Nevada’s largest trading partner with combined two-way trade exceeding $2 billion per year.

Dura21, a Sudbury business with technology that increases the longev-ity of wear parts, is a charter mem-ber of the Canada-Nevada Business Council.

Dura21 co-founder Bob MacInnis said the company’s products help busi-nesses improve productivity and save money. For heavy industries like min-ing, where parts and equipment must be replaced continually, the implications are huge.

“If we can increase productivity by decreasing downtime caused by wear ... we can really make an impact,” MacInnis said.

He cited the example of a piece of mining equipment that had to be replaced every six weeks. After Dura21

transformed the product, it now lasts 130 weeks.

MacInnis said joining the business council give the company access to (the Nevada) market in a whole new way. It’s a conduit for Dura21 to access decision-makers in the industry, so they

avoid “going down the rabbit hole,” which has happened to them in past attempts at making connections in unfamiliar markets.

www.dura21.comwww.canadanevada.org

Nevada business group opens doors for suppliersBY DARREN MacDONALD

Bob Groesbeck, vice-president of the Canada-Nevada Business Council, addressing a luncheon of the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.

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December 1, 2013 ■ Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal NEWS www.sudburyminingsolutions.com 50

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This is the new Leica NOVA MS50

One part high definition scanner.

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All parts combined?

Unprecedented!

Call 1.800.461.3223 for a free demo. Let us bring the new Leica MS50 to you!

nsscanada.comTOTAL STATIONS • GPS & GNSS • LASER LEVELS • TRIPODS • THEODOLITES • LASER DISTANCE METERS • HDS SCANNERS • ON SITE / IN-CLASS TRAINING

This is the new Leica NOVA MS50

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COMING EVENTSMines and MoneyDecember 1 – 5, 2013Business Design CentreLondon, United Kingdomwww.minesandmoney.com

CEMI  Short Course Reliability Methods in the Design of Underground StructuresDecember 4 &5, 2013Holiday InnSudbury, OntarioEmail: cfolz@miningexcellence.ca

Exploration Geophysics CourseDecember 5 – 14, 2013Laurentian UniversitySudbury, Ontariomerc.laurentian.ca/education

MIRARCO Short Course  on Vibration-based Machine Condition Monitoring and Fault DiagnosisDecember 9 – 13, 2013Laurentian UniversitySudbury, Ontariowww.mirarco.org

What is Your  Health/Safety Culture?December 12, 2013590 Graham Rd.North Bay, Ontariowww.wsps.ca/nke

Chile Investment ForumJanuary 13 – 16, 2014

Santiago –Puerto Varas – Copiapowww.chileinvestmentforum.cl

CIM – SudburyGeneral Membership MeetingJanuary 16, 2014Dynamic EarthSudbury, Ontario

Mining Arabia 2014January 20 – 23, 2014Al Faisallah HotelRiyadh, Saudi Arabiamining-arabia.com

Canadian Mineral  Processors ConferenceJanuary 21 – 23, 2014Westin HotelOttawa, Ontariowww.cmpsoc.ca

Mineral Exploration RoundupJanuary 27 – 30, 2014The Westin BayshoreVancouver, B.C.amebc.ca/roundup

CIM Sudbury Winterlude DinnerFebruary 8, 2014Caruso ClubSudbury, Ontariodwitow@hatch.ca

SME 2014February 23 – 26, 2014Salt PalaceSalt Lake City, Utahwww.smenet.org

PDAC 2014March 2 – 5, 2014Metro Toronto Convention CentreToronto, Ontariowww.pdac.ca/convention

Mining VietnamMarch 11 – 13, 2014International Exhibition CentreHanoi, VietnamMiningvietnam.com

Calgary Investment ConferenceMarch 27 – 28, 2014Telus Convention CentreCalgary, Albertacambridgehouse.com

Expomin 2014April 21 – 25, 2014Espacio RiescoSantiago, Chilewww.expomin.cl

Canadian Mining  & Industrial ExpoApril 30 – May 1, 2014Garson ArenaSudbury, OntarioDacshows.com

CIM 2014May 11 – 14, 2014Vancouver Convention CentreVancouver, B.C.vancouver2014.cim.org

Euro Mine ExpoJune 10 – 12, 2014

Skelleftea, Swedenwww.eurominexpo.com

14th Int’l Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoconferenceJune 17 – 26, 2014Varna, Bulgariawww.sgem.com

LATAM Expo Mining 2014August 13 – 15, 2014Orange County Convention CenterOrlando, Floridawww.expomining.com

Add your eventto our calendarEmail:ntollinsky@ sudburyminingsolutions.com

Companies & organizationsin this issue

BM Metal Serviceswww.milman.ca

Canada Nevada Business Councilwww.canadanevada.org

Canadore Collegewww.canadorecollege.ca/ICAMP

CEMIwww.miningexcellence.ca

City of North Baywww.cityofnorthbay.ca

Deltion Innovationswww.deltion.ca

Drillers Edgewww.drillersedge.com

FLSmidthwww.flsmidth.com

Hard-Line Solutionswww.hard-line.com

KGHM Internationalwww.quadrafnx.com

Mine Hoists Internationalwww.minehoist.com

Redpath Groupwww.redpathmining.com

Stainless Steel Technologywww.stainlesssteeltech.com

SymboticwareSymboticware.com

Valewww.vale.com/canada

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