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IN THIS ISSUE CIM MAGAZINE NOVEMBER | NOVEMBRE 2015
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cover story Under financial pressure and public scrutiny, miners are grappling with the challenge of tailings management By Eavan Moore
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special report: Greenland
Ready with projects, skills and tools, the icy island is making itself a mining destination By Ryan Bergen, Anita Isalska, Kate Sheridan and Chris Windeyer
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37 An untapped opportunity
Cross belt analyzers offer mining companies the ability to understand ore variability and have an earlier online assay By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
37 November • Novembre 2015 | 5
contenu francophone
26 8 10
Editor’s letter President’s notes
tools of the trade 12
The best in new technology Compiled by Kate Sheridan and Michael Yang
news 14 16 17
Canadian junior launches crowd-sourced exploration contest By Antoine Dion-Ortega
Briefs Anti-uranium sentiment snuffs out exploration in Quebec
milling
By Kate Sheridan
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28 30
30 48
travel 52
Zeljka Pokrajcic explains how better approaches to blasting, crushing and grinding improve operational efficiency and the bottom line By Christopher Pollon
Kangerlussuaq, Greenland By Anita Isalska
48th ANNUAL
54
canadian mineral processors CONFERENCE
Conference program
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
By Eavan Moore
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True North Gems: Aappaluttoq ruby mine By Chris Windeyer
Smart tagging technology is taking the guesswork out of throughput forecasting
First Quantum Minerals rewarded for switch to stirred mill
article de fond
project profile
mining lore 74
60
Eaux troubles
Soumises à des pressions financières et à un examen public, les sociétés minières sont aux prises avec l’épineux problème de la gestion des résidus miniers Par Eavan Moore
Une petite société canadienne lance un concours d’exploration par externalisation ouverte
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Par Antoine Dion-Ortega
68
Par Kate Sheridan
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Un sentiment hostile à l’uranium freine l’exploration au Québec Profil du projet : La mine de rubis Aappaluttoq de True North Gems Par Chris Windeyer
Lettre de l’éditeur Mot du président
Cornish miners brought more than just mining expertise when they immigrated to the American West in the mid-19th century By Kelsey Rolfe
La version française intégrale du CIM Magazine est disponible en ligne : magazine.CIM.org/fr-CA
6 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
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editor’s letter
Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen, rbergen@cim.org Executive editor Angela Hamlyn, ahamlyn@cim.org Managing editor Andrea Nichiporuk, anichiporuk@cim.org
Published 8 times a year by: Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum 1250 – 3500 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West Westmount, QC H3Z 3C1 Tel.: 514.939.2710; Fax: 514.939.2714 www.cim.org; magazine@cim.org Advertising sales Dovetail Communications Inc. Tel.: 905.886.6640; Fax: 905.886.6615; www.dvtail.com Senior Account Executives Janet Jeffery, jjeffery@dvtail.com, 905.707.3529 Neal Young, nyoung@dvtail.com, 905.707.3525 Account Manager Mark Spasaro, mspasaro@dvtail.com, 905.707.3523
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Printed in Canada 8 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Be st
Intrepid Potash’s tailing pond in Moab, Utah.
Ryan Bergen, Editor-in-chief editor@cim.org @Ryan_CIM_Mag
eth R. Wilson enn Aw 5K
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ia ed
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our years ago, Canada hosted the annual international Mine Closure Conference. This was the first time the event had been hosted in Canada, and there was a sense of urgency. At the time, Directive 074, an initiative spearheaded by Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board to stem the flow of fine tailings into the ponds at oil sands mines, was still young; its ambitious targets meant to reclaim the land covered by the tailing were in force; and the story of the hundreds of ducks drowned in muddy tailings was still fresh in the public’s mind. At that conference, consulting engineer Andy Robertson presented on the mounting concern that the growing number of tailings impoundments present to their surroundings and, subsequently, to the mining industry. His message: if we continue to build larger mines to extract lower grade ore and hold the resultant tailings behind correspondingly massive dams, then the risk of catastrophic failure will skyrocket. Robertson’s presentation was impressive because it was so matter-of-fact. The Mount Polley dam failure in 2014 has refreshed the urgency and, as contributing editor Eavan Moore details in “Muddy Waters” (pg. 32), engineers, mining companies and regulators are under pressure to make changes, but are uncertain of what exactly those changes ought to be. At the same time, others are pushing for a rebalancing of the scales that weigh the risk of failure against cost of preventing it. The result would be a more thorough accounting of the financial and social impact of a tailings dam failure and, likely, a greater incentive for some projects to invest in technologies that could cut the risk of such an event. With that in mind, I should note that Alberta regulators scrapped Directive 074 earlier this year. Oil sands operators had consistently failed to hit the targets the directive, created in 2009 in part as a response to the bird kill in the tailings pond the previous year, had set. The technical challenges proved to be more complex than the policy and its timelines allowed. A draft of new provincial guidelines is imminent. Today, with many new developments on hold, is a critical opportunity to dedicate the time and energy that the challenge of tailings management and its regulation requires without tight deadline pressure. In policy making as in engineering, poor design will result in failure.
Section editors Peter Braul, pbraul@cim.org Tom DiNardo, tdinardo@cim.org Junior section editor Kelsey Rolfe, krolfe@cim.org Copy editor/Communications coordinator Zoë Koulouris Web content editor Maria Olaguera, molaguera@cim.org Contributing editor Eavan Moore, emoore@cim.org Editorial interns Michael Yang; Kate Sheridan, ksheridan@cim.org Digitization technician Marie-Ève Lapierre, melapierre@cim.org Contributors Correy Baldwin, Antoine Dion-Ortega, Anita Isalska, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Valerian Mazataud, Eavan Moore, Christopher Pollon, Chris Windeyer, Michael Yang Editorial advisory board Alicia Ferdinand, Garth Kirkham, Vic Pakalnis, Steve Rusk, Nathan Stubina Translations CNW
adian Busines sM Can in
Reflections on the tailings pond
president’s notes
Mining under the microscope Mining is vital to everything we as a society have and do, but as a hewer of stone myself, I feel called upon constantly to defend its very existence. This industry underpins human prosperity, and produces the core raw material for nearly all that we engage with and value, notwithstanding our family, friends and pets. Many people still believe mining is a dirty, unsafe business and ought to be abolished. That is even more impractical than to say we should stop using fossil fuels. At least there are alternative fuels. However, there are no alternatives to mining that have proven effective to this point and a 100 per cent recycling rate of scrap metal allows no opportunity for growth. Furthermore, a shift toward renewable energy sources is impossible without the products that come from elements that are mined. Yes, we miners will always be judged on past practices, but we must take this in stride. For without the past we cannot learn and grow. We continue to get better. And yes, there have been failures, but we are constantly improving. As a geoscientist, I believe in the concept of sustainable development, which for me means operating in a way that allows for the safe extraction, transportation and processing of the resources that we rely on to survive, in a manner that is respectful and will benefit future generations. We say to those that have a negative perception of mining and its effects that we take the trust that society bestows upon us seriously and we believe we have a duty of care. So we need to keep informing people of mining’s safety record, and make sure our practices are the best available, but also the best applicable. When we see a wrong, we need to make it right, and we need to speak up when we see bad practices. We will persevere because, despite what others may believe, we know that mining and its continued health and sustainability is a necessity. Vivat fodienda . . . long live mining!
Garth Kirkham CIM President @GarthCIMPrez
10 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
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OF TOOLS THE TRADE
Courtesy of Sandvik
Precision drill
Courtesy of ABB
Courtesy of FLSmidth
Underground drilling requires operators to be extremely precise, and the smallest human error can be costly for mines. Therefore, Sandvik recently released its next generation of development drills, including the DD422i, which brings full automation to drilling. The aim is to increase accuracy, productivity and tunnelling quality, according to Kerry Falk, marketing manager at Sandvik. The equipment is based on Sandvik’s Intelligent Control System Architecture, which allows for nine different hole type settings and three alternative control methods including manual drilling control, feed percussion follow-up and intelligent torque control. The new tech also makes tunnelling easier on the operators by increasing the operator’s field of vision by 25 per cent over previous models and reducing noise levels in the cabin to below 69 decibels at all times. The carrier is articulated, which allows it to work in tight spaces, and the equipment can handle different voltages, making the DD422i a good choice for contractors who share equipment between sites, Falk said.
Get to know your hoist Hoist systems are the lifeline of underground mines – often solely responsible for transporting necessary personnel, materials and equipment below the surface. But, as ABB global service manager Remy Lanoue pointed out, “even if a hoist looks like it’s operating smoothly, there is always room for improvement.” To give clients a full, comprehensive snapshot of their existing hoist system, ABB is launching its Mine Hoist Fingerprint service in North America. The service is a structured audit that collects data from over 20 predefined points and uses it to analyze the electrical and mechanical components of the hoist system. “We check everything from the current condition of the hoist to past issues, identify areas for optimization and even benchmark it against the industry standards,” said Lanoue. Within a week, the service team will provide a detailed report that includes recommendations for the future. Depending on the terms of the agreement, the expert team can also upgrade the hoist system and perform periodic checks. Compiled by Kate Sheridan and Michael Yang 12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Super-sized cells Processing plants handling high tonnages or low-grade ore often require long banks of flotation cells to meet throughput goals, taking up valuable space, power and money. That is why FLSmidth recently released its 600 Series SuperCell flotation cells, the largest on the market. The effective volume of the cells ranges from 600 to 715 cubic metres, depending on the launder arrangements and the kind of rotor/stator used, but their footprint is small. Compared to an arrangement of smaller flotation cells, the larger cells take up between 20 and 30 per cent less area on the plant floor to process the same volume of ore. According to Frank Traczyk, FLSmidth’s director of flotation products, the new cells reduce capital costs and operational expenses by up to 25 and 15 per cent, respectively. When paired with the company’s nextSTEP rotor/stator, the cell also uses less power than other comparable cells, potentially as little as 0.35 kilowatts per cubic metre.
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Coal association encourages optimism at conference
Anti-uranium sentiment snuffs out exploration in Quebec
OSC finds mining lags in diversity
Mining Hall of Fame to induct five new members
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News
From the cloud to the ground Canadian junior launches crowdsourced exploration contest
Vancouver-based Integra Gold kicked off a crowdsourcing competition in September in the hopes of uncovering hidden value at a recently acquired Quebec property. The company officially launched its Gold Rush challenge on Sept. 18, in which anyone in the world is invited to analyze historical mining data for Integra’s Sigma-Lamaque property in Vald’Or, Quebec, and locate the next gold deposit. Once registered, competitors can download the data on the HeroX crowdsourcing platform and gain free access to Leapfrog 3D geological modelling software. One week after the opening, 1,200 people from 65 countries had registered and more than half had already downloaded the data. They have until Dec. 1 to submit their suggested targets for a chance to win prizes ranging from $10,000 to $500,000 for first place, for a total value of one million dollars. Six geologists will judge the submissions: Neil Adshead, investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management; Andrew Brown, chief geologist of West Africa for B2Gold; Benoît Dubé, senior research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada; James Franklin, retired chief scientist of the Geological Survey of Canada; David Rhys, consulting geologist at Panterra Geoservices; and Brian Skanderbeg, president and CEO of Claude Resources. 14 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Valerian Mazataud
By Antoine Dion-Ortega
François Chabot, manager of operations and engineering at Integra Gold, consults material left behind by previous owners of the Sigma mine. Behind him are the record files for each and every drill hole since 1939.
The Sigma-Lamaque property includes two formerly separate mines: Placer Dome’s Sigma mine and Teck’s Lamaque mine. Placer Dome merged them in 1993. Over their 60 years of existence, they produced more than nine million ounces of gold. The property still holds 586,000 ounces of Measured and Indicated Resources. When Integra’s team acquired the mining complex from the struggling
Century Mining Corporation for $8 million in October 2014, it received a list of every asset included in the deal. But when the team members walked into the exploration office, they found a number of external hard drives left behind by the previous owner. These included 75 years of raw data, going back to as far as September 1939. “There were many millions of dollars worth of data compilation that was done by the previous owners,” said
news George Salamis, Integra’s chairman. “They never actually got a chance to use it because they went bankrupt.” Most of this data consisted of highresolution scanned images of old paper files that Sigma had accumulated over the course of the century, and which are still shelved in a small room of the Sigma-Lamaque complex. For the most part, they consist of tables with information on every hole that was drilled. These scans amounted to six terabytes (TB) of data. According to Salamis, going through the data would require tens of thousands of work hours. “We could have given this data to our geologists to work on, but they would get distracted from their work at the Triangle Zone,” said Salamis, referring to an area just south of the Lamaque mine that has already shown very good drilling results. “They concluded that it would take many years of compilation and analysis to come
to a reasonable conclusion [on the property’s potential].” Geologists are already busy at the Lamaque property analyzing results from the winter and summer drilling campaigns, in addition to carrying out the ongoing drilling program. “Our priority is the Triangle Zone, so we concentrate on it,” said Integra COO Langis St-Pierre. “This is where we have the best chances to open a mine in the short term. That doesn’t mean that we won’t do anything with what will come out of the contest.”
Data mining Integra is not the first mining company to use crowdsourcing as an exploration tool. Goldcorp, under the leadership of Rob McEwen, launched a similar contest in 2000 that led to the discovery of more than $6 billion worth of gold under the Red Lake mine. The operation only cost the company $575,000 in prizes, while the
mine became one the largest gold producers in Canada. “Rob and Goldcorp were the true innovators of this method in the mining sector,” said Salamis.
From paper files to 3D shapes Crowdsourcing the Sigma-Lamaque files was not easy. First, Integra had to turn six TB of scanned images into something more palatable in the form of digitized geological models. It contracted Val-d’Or-based InnovExplo, a service provider for the mining sector, to turn the 2D images into 3D files. The job was labour-intensive, according to Salamis. “For every drill hole that was in the database, they had to go back and find a record on paper that they could match it with,” he explained. “If they didn’t find it, the hole was not used.” In the end, the whole operation mobilized 12 people over the three summer months. By August, the six TB had been compressed to 25 gigabytes
November/Novembre 2015 | 15
weights per tonne and even dollars per tonne, with the gold prices of the time. The Lamaque side used mostly ounces per tonne. The two mines also used different grid systems to locate drill holes. “We had to standardize the data and that was a big job,” said Salamis. Even though the database was reduced to 25 GB, Integra could not host it on its own server, so it teamed up with Amazon Web Services. “Had we
Coal association encourages optimism at annual conference
At the conference banquet, CAC presented a Special Recognition Award for environmental and innovation achievement to SaskPower for its Boundary Dam power station, which uses carbon capture and storage technology to reduce emissions by 90 per cent, according to a press release announcing the award. The association also awarded the CAC Award of Distinction to David Fawcett for his role in acquiring and developing coal properties in British Columbia over the past 20 years, including his work on the Willow Creek, Belcourt, Wolverine, Burnt River/Brule, Wapiti/Echo Hill and Horizon projects. “His involvement in so many projects has left a strong legacy for the future of the region and province,” said Hann. The 2016 conference is scheduled for June 8-10 in Vancouver.
News for coal producers around the world has been grim as of late, but Ann Marie Hann, president of the Coal Association of Canada (CAC), said she believes coal markets will perk up – it is just a matter of when. “Coal is a cyclical industry and has been through downturns before and rebounded well,” she said following the CAC’s 2015 conference, held in Vancouver on Sept. 17-18. “We need to be ready when [markets] do [recover].” More than 200 people from 16 countries attended the event to discuss how coal miners can begin “preparing patiently for the upturn,” which was the theme of this year’s conference. The conference’s five general sessions focused on strategies for building and investing for the future. Financial analysts and experts presented on the potential for coal in global markets, including those in emerging India and China, where the economy has slowed. For the first time, the event also included technical presentations. The first session centred on new technologies for the industry like wave liquefaction and a holistic, multi-modal approach to handling coal. The second delved into environmental control and mitigation topics, including selenium filtration technology and the response to the 2013 incident at Obed mine in Alberta, when coal process water was accidentally released from a storage pond into the Athabasca River. 16 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
– Kate Sheridan
done this ourselves,” noted Salamis, “we would have crashed our server for sure.” Integra is looking “for more than the obvious,” he went on to say. “We are looking for specific recommendations or specific targets, and a geological, statistical or mathematical reasoning as to why these are the best targets to test. It is not enough to put an arrow on a map that says: ‘Drill here.’” CIM
Courtesy of the Coal Association of Canada
(GB). The contract was worth “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Salamis. To complicate things further, the Lamaque and Sigma operators, which did not talk to each other much before their merger in 1993, used different units of measurement in their respective logs. Over its lifetime, to indicate ore grades, for example, Sigma used ounces per tonne, grams per tonne, penny-
Paul Vining, CEO of Florida-based Cutlass Collieries, spoke at the Coal Association of Canada’s 2015 conference in Vancouver in September. He presented on the potential for new coal mines in Canada, highlighting his own project in Nova Scotia.
MOVIN’ on up Compiled by Kate Sheridan
Perry Ing was named CFO of Kirkland Lake Gold, effective Nov. 2. Ing most recently served as CFO of McEwen Mining, a position he had held since 2008. Ing has 13 years of experience in the mining sector, including his work as a financial consultant with Barrick Gold from 2005 to 2008. Michael Winship, president elect of CIM, was named interim president and CEO of Rubicon Minerals on Oct. 5, following the departure of Michael Lalonde. In a statement announcing the appointment, the company said the board will initiate the process to select a new, permanent president and CEO. Winship has been a member of Rubicon’s board since 2011. He also served as CEO of Orvana Minerals, a role he retired from in March, and COO of Quadra FNX Mining from 2010 to 2012, before the company was acquired by KGHM.
news
Non! Anti-uranium sentiment snuffs out exploration in Quebec
Quebec’s political climate has uranium mining companies turning their backs on la belle province. Uracan Resources updated the status of the mineral resource estimates for uranium at its project along Quebec’s North Shore on Sept. 21, stating that there was no resource that could be developed there, effectively leaving the project to idle. Uracan had already written off the financial investment in the project in 2012, but the mineral resource estimates had to be amended to avoid misleading investors. “We’re not saying the underlying data is incorrect or anything,” explained Marc Simpson, president and CEO of Uracan. “We’re saying that given the political climate, and that there has to be the potential for something to be developed for there to be a valid NI 43101, we wanted to get out in front of it.” That potential, the company stated, has been squashed by the provincial environment ministry’s refusal to issue permits for uranium exploration and a May report by Quebec’s provincial environmental public consultation agency the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE). The BAPE’s report concluded that the government should ensure three things happen before any uranium mining projects are approved in Quebec: social acceptability, “reliable knowledge” to bridge gaps in scientific knowledge and technical uncertainties, and a legal framework. “Realistically, it will take several years to fulfill these requirements,” the report stated. “Accordingly, it would be inappropriate to give the green light to uranium mining in Québec in the current context.” The Quebec government requested the BAPE’s report in 2013, the same year they imposed a de facto moratorium on uranium mining.
Courtesy of Uracan Resources
By Kate Sheridan
In response to Quebec’s frosty attitude toward uranium mining, Uracan Resources decided in September to officially abandon development at its North Shore property.
Quebec is not the only province skittish about uranium development. Nova Scotia and British Columbia implemented moratoriums in the 1980s, but let them lapse. Both provinces reinstated legislation – effectively moratoriums – in the past decade. The only province with active uranium mines is Saskatchewan, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The province is home to the world’s largest uranium mine, the McArthur River mine, jointly owned by AREVA and Cameco. “Saskatchewan understands uranium – politically, socially, economically,” said Simpson. “You want to go where you’re wanted.” Uracan holds options in the Clearwater property and the Black Lake property in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. “The Saskatchewan public strongly supports mining, including uranium mining and milling operations,” said Pam Schwann, executive director of the Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA). “There is a deep-
rooted understanding and appreciation of resource development in Saskatchewan.” Five of the uranium sites in Saskatchewan are ISO 14001-certified for their environmental management, Schwann said. Uranium mine and mill sites employed 3,200 people in the province in 2014. An SMA survey from May showed that 77 per cent of the province’s residents support uranium mining in the province. “Social acceptability is a correct thing to consider,” said Michel A. Bouchard, a lecturer at McGill and an expert in environmental assessments, adding that the social acceptability concept has morphed into the social license to operate. “This is not something new and this is something that mining companies are very well aware of.” However, Bouchard said he thought the BAPE report was flawed because it did not define what social acceptability would be and did not properly investigate the Saskatchewan experience. November/Novembre 2015 | 17
“I think Saskatchewan is pretty convincing evidence that you can do this with the social acceptability of First Nations,” he said. “It proves that when things are done properly, you can bring the level of risk down to acceptable levels.” The BAPE report’s emphasis on social acceptability still drew criticism from the industry as well as federal regulators. The president and CEO of CNSC, Michael Binder, sent an open letter to the BAPE in July that called the results of the report “troubling.” “It is clear that the BAPE’s recommendation not to proceed is based on the perceived lack of social acceptance and not on proven science,” the letter stated. “I would like to remind the Minister of CNSC’s decision in 2013 involving a uranium project in northern Quebec (Strateco) where a panel of the Commission, which included a former BAPE president, determined that it was safe to proceed.”
Though approved by the CNSC, Strateco’s high-grade Matoush project stalled at the provincial stage of permitting. Strateco president and CEO Guy Hébert also said the BAPE’s social acceptability criterion was not defined well enough for companies to act. The company’s difficulties are now the subject of a $190-million lawsuit against the Quebec government. The trial may begin as early as next year. The Quebec-based company, which had been active at the project since 2006, launched the suit last year, alleging that the provincial government encouraged the development of the project until it arbitrarily stopped it. According to a company press release from last December, Strateco invested an average of $20 million per year in the project from 2006 to 2012, when it could not get the permit it needed to do advanced exploration. Hébert claimed the company is entitled to a permit based on their
compliance with the permitting process in place before the moratorium. A Strateco press release from December 2014 stated that the provincial environment minister had refused to approve its application due to a lack of social acceptability. However, Hébert said the company deserves more than a permit from the lawsuit. “We sold our equipment at a very cheap price; we laid off all our employees,” Hébert explained. “We took a write-off of $19 million and our share price just collapsed,” he said, adding that the expenses have been audited by a forensic accounting firm. “The damage is permanent. It’s done.” He hopes to get some of the money back to return it to shareholders, many of whom are institutional investors. “They were ready to take a risk on the metal, they were ready to take a risk on the market,” he said, “but there was not supposed to be a political risk in Quebec.” CIM
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18 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
news
Mining industry lags in board and C-suite diversity: review 1%
About 65 per cent of mining companies on the TSX have no women on their boards according to a review spearheaded by the Ontario Securities Commission. Securities regulatory authorities from 10 provinces and territories participated in the review, which evaluated board and executive officer diversity across 722 TSX-listed companies. Published in late September, the review examined companies’ adoption of specific diversity targets, and their disclosure of the number of women on corporate boards and in C-suites, as required under recently instituted comply-or-explain regulations. The review did not include
164 companies that had fiscal years ending outside of Dec. 31, 2014 and March 31, 2015. Overall, 49 per cent of the issuers sampled had at least one woman on their board, and 60 per cent had at least one in an executive officer position. Mining had the highest proportion of companies with no women on their boards of any industry, followed closely by technology and oil and gas. The three industries, along with biotechnology, also had the worst records when it came to the proportion with no women in executive officer positions, at around 50 per cent. Here are some findings for the mining industry:
8% 26% 65%
Percentage of mining companies with women on their boards
6% 12% 48% 34%
Percentage of mining companies with women in the C-suites
Zero women
Two women
One woman
Three or more women
– Kelsey Rolfe
November/Novembre 2015 | 19
MiHR announces three new occupational standards, pilot certification program The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) will be piloting certifications for three new National Occupational Standards early next year. MiHR announced in early October it is developing standards for frontline supervisors, hoist operators and trainers. Frontline supervisors are “crucial” to a smooth mining operation, executive director Ryan Montpellier said. However, an aging workforce makes the position among the most difficult to fill, according to MiHR’s 2015 national labour outlook survey. As for trainers, skill sets can vary widely from site to site, and hoist operators perform a highly technical and specialized role.
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The new certifications will fall under MiHR’s Canadian Mining Certification Program, which has been certifying miners in “undesignated occupations” in underground mining, surface mining, minerals processing and diamond drilling since 2012. These occupations are not considered skilled trades, but still involve performing job-specific tasks. Montpellier said the new certifications are meant to recognize people already serving in positions for their skills but may also encourage miners to apply for frontline supervisor positions. “We know that youth today are looking for a career, not just a job,” he explained. “For many years, the occupations in mining that were not considered skilled trades did not have the recognition needed for people to want to pursue them. The certification program does that.” The new standards will be ready for review this fall and will officially
launch next year. National certification pilots for these standards will begin around the same time. MiHR is hoping to recruit about 100 miners currently in the field to go through the pilot certification process for the three newly – K.S. added occupations.
Kaminak gets a boost Kaminak Gold has gained another significant investor. The company, which is advancing its Coffee gold project in Yukon, announced on Sept. 28 it received $22.5 million through a non-brokered private placement agreement with Electrum Strategic Opportunities Fund LP. The funding will allow Kaminak to continue exploration at its flagship project. The fund is an investment arm of the Vancouver-based corporate advisor Electrum Group and now owns more than 10 per cent of Kaminak. Other shares in the placement went to existing
news
Courtesy of Kaminak
Precious Metals and Mining Fund remained the largest shareholder after the placement, holding 16.83 per cent. “Kaminak is very pleased to be welcoming Electrum as a significant new shareholder in conjunction with a financing that renews and builds upon the support of our existing strong shareholder base,” said Eira Thomas, president and CEO of Kaminak, in a press release. The company estimated in a 2014 preliminary economic assessment that the proposed open-pit, heap-leach project could produce almost 1.86 million ounces over the proposed 11-year mine life. Kaminak is aiming to begin construction in 2018 with producKaminak’s Coffee gold project in Yukon includes four deposits (labelled above), the largest of which is Supremo. The company’s Sept. 2015 Mineral Resource Estimate stated the project contains 2,968,000 ounces of Indicated Resources. tion following in 2019, according to the press release. A feasibility shareholders including Ross Beaty and S.à.r.l., Luxembourg. Both investors study is fully funded and expected in Zebra Holdings and Investments each now own 8.29 per cent. Vanguard early 2016. – K.S.
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After a 26-year hiatus due to outstanding litigation, junior miner Richmond Minerals resumed diamond drilling on Sept. 21 at its fully permitted Ridley Lake gold project in northern Ontario. The last major exploration work at the site was a 13-hole diamond-drilling program in 1989. Work stopped at the project because of a lawsuit launched by Jacobus Hanemaayer in 1990 against Robert Platt, the former president of the company that became Richmond Minerals. Hanemaayer alleged that Platt had misallocated funds he had invested in a kaolin project in the James Bay lowlands instead toward the unrelated Ridley Lake site, referred to in the lawsuit as the Swayze Claim. The claim is located in the Swayze greenstone belt, in the same area as
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Courtesy of Richmond Minerals
Work restarts at Ontario deposit after 24-year lawsuit settled
Richmond Minerals’ Swayze gold project in northern Ontario shows some signs of life this fall. Diamond drilling resumed in September after a 24-year lawsuit was resolved in January 2014.
Goldcorp’s Borden Lake gold project, which it obtained in the acquisition of Probe Mines for close to half a billion dollars earlier in the year.
The case was thought to be the oldest outstanding civil litigation in the province when the trial began in 2013. The delay between the initial orders to
news stop work and the start of the trial was due to other intervening legal issues, said Richmond Minerals’ exploration manager Warren Hawkins. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice released the decision in January 2014. It stated that Hanemaayer did not own any interest in the claim where the Ridley Lake project is located. Further, he was not entitled to a tax credit for investments in mineral exploration projects based on expenses at the Swayze Claim because there was no evidence that his funds had been used at the site. Since the lawsuit was resolved, the company has raised $638,000 and signed memorandums of understanding with local First Nations. This year’s drilling plan will start with six holes and will be re-evaluated from there. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” Hawkins said. “Certainly the fortunes of our company are vastly different now in a positive way than they were a – K.S. couple of years ago.”
BELTS WITH THE
Gold miner resumes processing at Argentina operation Barrick has resumed normal processing activities at its Veladero openpit gold mine in Argentina following the removal of a restriction that prevented the addition of new cyanide to the heap leach circuit on Sept. 24. The restriction was instituted Sept. 16 after workers discovered a valve failure in the circuit, which caused a leak of a cyanide-containing solution into the Potrerillos River three days earlier. The circuit continued to function during the restriction. Before normal operations were allowed to resume, Barrick was ordered by an Argentine court to demonstrate that additional preventative measures were in place. In compliance with the judge’s orders, Barrick increased the frequency
of valve inspections, installed new heat tracing and insulation materials to pipe valves, and implemented further water monitoring requirements, said Andy Lloyd, Barrick’s senior vice-president of communications. Barrick is a signatory of the Cyanide Code, a management strategy for the gold-leaching chemical developed in 2005 by the International Cyanide Management Code that includes protocol surrounding emergency response to a cyanide incident as well as public reporting and stakeholder involvement. The company and local authorities are currently investigating the incident for possible causes. Barrick estimated that 1,072 cubic metres (over one million litres) of processing solution escaped. However, cyanide made up only a small fraction of the total volume. “The water testing results that we have downstream show that the cyanide level never exceeded
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November/Novembre 2015 | 23
the safe, legal drinking water limit,” Lloyd said. Nevertheless, Barrick and
local municipalities worked together to distribute drinking water.
PROJECT PIPELINE Compiled by Kate Sheridan
Australia-based Wolf Minerals announced it completed commissioning of the processing plant at its Drakelands mine – the first new metal mine in the United Kingdom in 45 years – on Sept. 23. Six days earlier, the company celebrated the official opening of the tungsten and tin project, which has a 10-year mine life. It expects to achieve full annual production of 5,000 tonnes of tungsten concentrate and 1,000 tonnes of tin concentrate by early 2016. The project has Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of 25.7 million tonnes, with an expected annual throughput of three million tonnes. Pretium Resources announced on Sept. 21 that it received a US$540million financing package for the construction of the Brucejack underground gold mine in northern British Columbia. The total cost of construction for the project, estimated in June 2014, is US$746.9 million. The company is currently re-evaluating that cost. The project’s Valley of the Kings zone has Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of 6.9 million ounces of gold. Commercial production is expected to begin in 2017.
24 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Veladero has 4,737,000 ounces of Proven and Probable Reserves and is expected to produce up to 625,000 – K.S. ounces this year.
ACHIEVEMENT Integra Gold won the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award on Oct. 7 for its progress on the Lamaque Project in Val-d’Or, Quebec. This year, the company updated the project’s mineral resource estimate, acquired the Sigma-Lamaque Mill and launched its $1-million open data Gold Rush Challenge (read more on page 14). The company also drilled about 90,000 metres on the project and has another drilling program planned for next year. – Kate Sheridan
All photos courtesy of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame
news
Stewart L. Blusson, Robert M. Friedland, Louis Gignac, J. Keith Brimacombe and Harold Williams (left to right) were announced as the 2016 inductees into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.
Canadian Mining Hall of Fame to induct five new members Five men who have made major contributions to the mining industry will be inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame on Jan. 14 during a ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Stewart L. Blusson, Robert M. Friedland, Louis Gignac, J. Keith Brimacombe and Harold (Hank) Williams are the 2016 crop of inductees. Blusson is an entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for his help discovering what became the Ekati mine in the early 1990s, Canada’s first diamond project, which is now owned by Dominion Diamond. Friedland is the founder of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation and Ivanhoe Mines, which has ongoing projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa. “This honour is proudly shared with the members of several teams of bright, dedicated individuals whose outstanding efforts during the past three decades have contributed to a number of notable discoveries,” he said. Louis Gignac also acknowledged that his achievements as president and CEO of Quebec-based Cambior for 20 years were team efforts. “This nomination was totally unexpected and is extremely rewarding after an intense 45-year career in the mining industry,” he said. Gignac led more than 20 projects over the past three decades. “I owe this one
to thousands of people who got us through many dreams and challenges.” Brimacombe and Williams will be inducted posthumously. Brimacombe was a professor and the founder of the Centre for Metallurgical Process Engineering at UBC. His efforts as a researcher in metallurgical engineering led to the development of improved metallurgical processes and processing advancements. “This is such an honour, and my Dad would have been so pleased,” said Brimacombe’s daughter, Kathryn Brimacombe Alvarez. Williams was a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador and advanced the theory of plate tectonics, advocating for a theory of colliding supercontinents. His work shaped the way greenfield exploration is done today, said Steve Piercey, a professor at Memorial and one of the group that nominated Williams. “His work ushered in a new way of thinking about mountain belts and allowed explorationists to use his maps and concepts to predict where future resources may be.” The induction ceremony is supported by Hecla Mining, a diamond sponsor; Hatch, the dinner wine sponsor; and platinum sponsors Barrick Gold, Franco-Nevada, Goldcorp, Magris Resources and SNC-Lavalin. – K.S.
November/Novembre 2015 | 25
Courtesy of PanAust
Fine, hard material was the result of high energy blasting.
Confronting complexity Smart tagging technology is taking the guesswork out of throughput forecasting By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
nly a few years ago, Phu Bia Mining, a subsidiary of copper and gold producer PanAust, faced a potentially devastating problem with the throughput at its Phu Kham open pit copper-gold mine in Laos. “We knew anecdotally that there were pockets of extremely hard material in there but we just didn’t know when we were going to come across it,” said Duncan Bennett, principal metallurgist at PanAust. “It was quite scary for throughput to suddenly drop dramatically and you’re just not ready for it.” The Phu Kham deposit is heterogeneous to the extreme, with complex and variable mineralogical, geological and geotechnical properties. Among the many factors causing this high variability is that weathering and water table contact have created a soft leached zone on top of areas with supergene chalcocite-dominant secondary copper mineralization, resulting in periodic throughput-slowing batches of hard rock. At its deeper levels, the deposit has extremely hard rock. “We didn’t know when, or even if, we’d need to put in additional crushing because we didn’t have a basic model,” said Bennett. A new crusher is no trivial expense – Bennett estimates the cost at $24 million – so Phu Kham staff needed help deciding if the extra equipment was really worth it. In 2012 Phu Kham engaged Metso Process Technology and Innovation to conduct a full integration and optimization survey that included blasting, crushing and grinding. Metso provided an innovative solution that not only helped Phu Kham make an informed decision for its long-term needs but also empowered the mine operators with ongoing throughput forecasting, allowing them to more effectively process the mine’s extremely heterogeneous deposit – starting with just the right blast force. Prior to working with Metso, Phu Kham had relied on a traditional throughput forecasting model. Performed by geometallurgists, traditional modelling relies on dividing a deposit into cubic blocks with 10-metre sides, taking samples and testing them for such parameters as structure, hardness and ore grade, which govern how the ore will be processed in the concentrator and what the projected throughput will be. Since a mine can be divided into millions of blocks, testing
O
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Top: SmartTags are inserted into the blast hole stemming column; Bottom: Adding SmartTags to a crusher allows operators to track the flow of ore through the processing circuit. Photos courtesy of Metso
each one is impossible. That is why mines only test some of the blocks and then use geostatistical methods to infer the most likely parameters for the rest. This method can be quite reliable, as long as there are no hidden surprises. In the case of Phu Kham, however, the mine simply did not have enough data for an accurate and detailed model of its heterogeneous deposit, which is full of surprises.
The SmartTag advantage For years, Metso has helped mines optimize and solve problems in their processing operations by measuring the
upfront MILLING
effect that blasted ores have on the crushing, grinding and flotation processes. But it is not always easy to keep track of the ore after each blast since it often ends up in stockpiles and mixes with other ores. So in 2007, David La Rosa, manager of mining technology at Metso, helped develop the SmartTag ore tracking system. SmartTags come in three different sizes, with the largest looking like a 60 mm by 30 mm hockey puck, and each one having a chip with a unique identification code. They are dropped in the stemming columns of blast holes and, just before detonation, the ore characteristics of the specific area, as well as the tags’ GPS location, are recorded using a handheld device. Designed to withstand crushing, the tags then travel with the rest of the blasted rock and their signal is picked up by antennas that can be placed permanently or temporarily at critical points across the processing stream. How the specific tagged ore responds to each phase in the process is then recorded and analyzed. Phu Kham has used around 5,000 SmartTags in the past year, says La Rosa: one per blast hole and about 100 per blast. More recently, Metso has built on the SmartTag technology to develop a geometallurgical application called GeoMetso, which uses the data collected with the SmartTags to automatically update the mine’s block model in real time. “We’re measuring what the plant is actually doing at an instant in time and then we’re taking that measurement and putting it back into the block model so we can compare what we thought we were going to get in throughput to what we actually got,” said La Rosa. “And if there’s some shortfall, we can then look at the reasons why. For example, do we need to blast harder?”
Long-term planning With actual data, Metso was able to predict throughput over the life of the mine. The good news is that the mine will only be hitting the very hard rock threatening its throughput for about a year. Now, instead of a major investment, Phu Kham operators can focus on more strategic blasting to manage their throughput, while the company is able to tell shareholders when, and for how long, it will be dealing with the extremely hard rock. “The cost of each tag is $10 so it’s not super cheap, but the alternative is to not know, and if we’d had to put additional crushing that would have been $24 million,” said Bennett. “The more data the system collects, the better the predictions. There’s a very strong economic benefit in developing and understanding how the material in the ground is going to get through the plant.” There was, however, one positive surprise to the project. “It helps break silos as it goes across disciplines,” said Bennett. “Geologists don’t always think about how this material is going to go through the plant. Now they have an understanding of some of the criticalities of some of these measures for future throughput, so they’re thinking about what’s going to happen in the future. It gets everyone thinking from beginning to end, how it’s all interconnected. That’s a really positive thing.” CIM
Blasting “One of the things geometallurgy doesn’t take into account is how the material is actually blasted,” remarked La Rosa. “You can blast something with a low powder factor and not produce much fines, but if you blast with more energy, you get much finer material and very different results in the concentrator.” It took about a year of collecting data at Phu Kham for Metso to identify nine different ore domains based on the data it gathered with the SmartTags, and to conduct simulations for each one to determine the optimal blasting design needed for the desired throughput. The result was nine different “cookbooks” that provide the “recipe” for the optimized blast design for each ore domain at Phu Kham. With GeoMetso, the data obtained through the SmartTags is linked to the plant control system so real-time data can be folded back into the mine’s block model. Having the right blasting recipe has been key for Phu Kham. “Two months ago, we hit some really hard ore and we used some extremely energy-intensive blasting and had some really good results,” said Bennett. “We got way more throughput than if we’d just used the standard blasting patterns. We were able to get 1,900 tonnes an hour. If we’d done nothing, we’d have been lucky to get 1,500 tonnes an hour.” November/Novembre 2015 | 27
Getting intense about grinding First Quantum Minerals rewarded for switch to stirred mill By Eavan Moore
irst Quantum Minerals (FQM) has improved copper recovery and concentrate grade quality at its Kevitsa mine by installing a vertical stirred mill provided by Outotec. It is one of the first hard-rock mines to use the High-Intensity Grinding Mill (HIGmill), which has previously seen use in the industrial minerals industry. The HIGmill’s rotating grinding discs stir small ceramic beads, which wear down ore particles to a size where even very fine grained minerals can be liberated. The tall, narrow shape of the mill and the configuration of its discs produce a very efficient grind, according to Steve Schmidt, Outotec’s commercial product manager for HIGmills. Kevitsa’s chief metallurgist, Ishmael Muzinda, said the mill’s installation had increased throughput, produced higher-purity copper and nickel concentrates, and led to a slight increase in overall copper recovery. “With everything considered, it means we put the regrind mill-payback to under two years, if not a year,” he said.
F
Fine grain problematic for flotation Kevitsa, a copper-nickel-platinum operation in Finland, started up commercial production in 2012 with throughputs of five million tonnes per year. The original flowsheet involved grinding in two AG mills and a secondary pebble mill, sequential copper flotation and then nickel flotation in order to produce two separate concentrates. However, about 12 per cent of the copper was not recovered during the copper flotation stage because of poor liberation and grade-recovery constraints. “If the liberation is 28 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Courtesy of Outotec
The grinding discs and small ceramic beads in Outotec’s tall, narrow HIGmill improved the copper recovery rate at First Quantum Minerals’ Kevitsa operation by one per cent.
poor, then you don’t get a good copper-nickel separation,” said Muzinda. “And that copper that is reporting to the nickel concentrate is not paid for at the same rate as copper in copper.” Mineral liberation analysis showed that the main minerals of interest, chalcopyrite and pentlandite, were finely disseminated in the ore, and the grain size was very small, sometimes as low as 15 microns. “Because of the issue of copper-nickel separation, we identified the need to regrind to 20 microns,” said Muzinda.
HIGmill design The HIGmill represents Outotec’s entry into a field opened by Xstrata with the IsaMill and occupied by Metso and FLSmidth, among others. The concept of a stirred mill originated with white mineral processing, and the HIGmill has more than 200 installations in that industry. In 2012, Outotec acquired exclusive rights to mining applications from the Swiss manufacturer STM Minerals. Stirred mills use attrition-type grinding, which wears away the surface of ore particles instead of breaking them. The HIGmill is one of a few vertical designs that let gravity do the work of compacting the grinding media and promoting efficient contacts between media and ore slurry. In the HIGmill, 70 per cent of the shell is filled with ceramic grinding media three to four millimetres in size. A rotating vertical shaft is fitted with discs that stir the media. When slurry is pumped from the bottom, it travels through the grinding discs to the top of the mill, wearing finer and finer
upfront MILLING
through contact with the media. Counter-discs attached to the shell liner block particles from bypassing the grinding discs, while holes in the discs let the finest particles pass through without further attrition. The most obvious difference between the HIGmill and its competitors is its tall, narrow aspect ratio, unique agitator design and the existence of the stationary counter-discs. According to Schmidt, that effectively creates a plug flow reactor that makes it “virtually impossible to short-circuit particles through the mill.”
HIGmill installed at Kevitsa In February 2015, FQM added a regrinding stage to its copper concentrator. Copper rougher concentrate is fed to the HIGmill, which regrinds it and passes it on to the copper cleaner in an open circuit. FQM considered other ball and stirred mills for its regrind stage. Muzinda said that some options were struck from the list because they used steel grinding media, which could alter the pulp chemistry of the ore and cause gangue to float. Others had too large installation costs, operating costs or footprints. At only about a metre in diameter, the 700-kilowatt Outotec model installed at Kevitsa was small enough to fit into the concentrator layout without much difficulty. Importantly, Outotec also offered a complete solution with automated controls. “We were willing to be the first hard-rock mine to test this technology because we saw the benefits of it having some inbuilt control capabilities,” said Muzinda. The mill’s variable speed drive can be adjusted in response to the quantity or nature of the feed. At Kevitsa, an online particle size analyzer – the Outotec PSI 500 – measures the product from the regrinding circuit. If the primary grind output becomes finer, the HIGmill slows its motor and does not waste energy on overgrinding the minerals.
The bottom line Most importantly, FQM has achieved its goal of improving recovery. The amount of copper reporting to nickel has dropped from 12 per cent to eight per cent. Overall copper recovery has increased by one per cent. If concentrate prices alone were paying back FQM’s investment in the HIGmill, it would take several years. But Muzinda remarked that the regrind stage allows the feed for flotation to come in at a slightly coarser grind: 70 per cent passing 75 microns. Before HIG installation, anything below 75 per cent passing was considered too coarse. “That then benefits throughput,” said Muzinda. With increased throughput factored in, he estimated payback at under two years.
A spreading technology The installation at Kevitsa seems likely to be the first of many. Schmidt pointed out that as worldwide ore quality drops, regrinding is becoming a more critical stage. Ten other Outotec HIGmills are in the engineering or deliverable stage at other copper and platinum projects. Schmidt said he expects the data stream from Kevitsa to aid in marketing this technology to mining customers. He stressed, however, that the technology had already been proven in flowsheets almost identical to a typical mining operation. The basic design has not changed. Could there be other comminution tools out there, waiting to be discovered? “I’m sure there are technologies that could cross over to the mining industry,” said Schmidt. Caution is understandable, he added. “I just think the mining industry itself needs to be a little more proactive in extending new technologies from other industries.” CIM
Learning curve Immediately upon commercial installation, it turned out that the 20 micron target grind size could be adjusted upward: 30 to 35 microns would achieve the targeted flotation performance. However, the grinding discs wore down very fast. “Initially we were having to change the grinding discs every four weeks,” said Muzinda. FQM and Outotec have been reducing disc wear by trying out different shapes and metal alloys. The current discs are expected to last four to six months; continuing optimization work seeks to bring that even further. “This will be followed by further work on the ceramic grinding media,” said Muzinda. “This, if it is successful, will also prolong the life of the grinding discs.” “For me it wasn’t particularly surprising that we didn’t get the exact material specification we wanted to initially,” said Schmidt. “And there was always going to be some learning experiences for the hard rock application. One of the really positive findings we’ve had at Kevitsa is that there’s been virtually no wear at all on the shell liner, which is a significant positive for the technology.” November/Novembre 2015 | 29
Courtesy of Zeljka Pokrajcic
Get smart Better approaches to blasting, crushing and grinding can improve operational efficiency and the bottom line, says Zeljka Pokrajcic By Christopher Pollon
elbourne-based Zeljka Pokrajcic is a metallurgical engineer on a mission to change the way companies plan and execute mineral processing. In 2010 she completed an award-winning PhD thesis on the subject of comminution, which she puts to good use as a founding director of the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC), a non-profit dedicated to optimizing the processing efficiency of mines everywhere. By day she works at Advisian, a global management consulting group that is part of WorleyParsons, where she conducts optimization and tradeoff studies for the minerals industry.
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CIM: How did you get interested in mining and comminution? Pokrajcic: In high school I had an ability in maths and sciences, and I knew I wanted to do an engineering discipline, but I wasn’t sure which one. A friend was doing chemical engineering and mentioned the possibility of a metallurgical degree. My first question was, what is it, and how do you spell that? I did some research and thought it looked very interesting. There was lots of travel involved, and lots of big exciting machinery. So I signed up. In the first year, I was one of four females in a group of 40. CIM: You came to Canada to work as an engineering undergrad. What did you do? Pokrajcic: I have a real soft spot for Canada; it was the launching pad for my career and my foray into processing. I managed to get a job in Canada when I took a year off in between my third and fourth year in university, at Lakefield Research just 30 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
outside of Toronto, which is now SGS Lakefield Research. I worked about six months there, and found another job outside Thunder Bay at Winston Lake with Inmet Mining, which has since closed. I had a good year in Canada working in mines and research facilities, which really cemented my commitment to the industry. CIM: You write in your thesis that the long-term viability of the industry will ultimately depend on improving current “generic” approaches to comminution. What do you mean by that? Pokrajcic: If you consider a crusher, which is the first step in size reduction, essentially the design and the way that this piece of equipment operates hasn’t changed that much. Also, the design of new comminution circuits follows one or two standard designs, which have been around for about 50 years, featuring the same equipment in the same format. Meanwhile, we’re getting into deeper resources, which are lower grade, and we have to use more energy to extract the valuable minerals. So we’ve got to be smarter with how we design and run these circuits. CIM: How can it be done smarter? You have suggested that a mining operation needs to know a lot about the ore they are digging up, instead of just setting up a generic circuit. Pokrajcic: Yes, that’s a key point. We need to tailor the design of the comminution process to suit the ore properties. We now have methods and tools available to us to tell us what is going on in the ore body and what the different properties are. If the ore body has a tendency for the valuable minerals to congre-
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gate in the fine particles, let’s put in a screening stage. And if the ore body can be differentiated by colour, grade or fluorescences, let’s consider an ore-sorting stage. It’s these kinds of things that we should be exploring.
can I do to improve my operation?” The program addresses some of the low-hanging fruit. The first stage of realizing the opportunity is to benchmark, and that’s what the CEEC Energy Curve is all about.
CIM: It seems logical to avoid putting useless waste rock into a comminution circuit from the outset. Pokrajcic: Yes, that’s called pre-concentration, which means exploiting the inherent features of the ore body to reject waste material. By removing waste from further processing you will end up with a smaller circuit, so you have a smaller capital cost and a lower operating cost.
CIM: Can you cite any examples where operating mines are incorporating the kinds of comminution circuit improvements you are championing? Pokrajcic: At the Antamina mine in Peru their aim was to increase plant throughput with little or no capital investment. They optimized rock breakage and fragmentation from blasting and reduced run of mine top size and SAG mill feed size. Their throughput increased from 2,750 tonnes per hour to 3,600 tonnes per hour. Another example is Barrick Gold, which in 2010 targeted three operating sites – Cortez, Cowal and North Mara – where they improved SAG mill liner and lifter design, incorporated better crushing practices and reduced mill drive losses. The changes resulted in total energy savings of 61 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, worth about $5 million annually.
CIM: What does pre-concentration look like in practice? Pokrajcic: Depending on the ore properties, it could be as simple as putting in a screen or separation device based on size, so as soon as the material comes out of a size-reduction process, it goes over a screen and you can separate one size fraction from another. Typically, one size fraction is higher grade than another, so you reject some and put the rest into the processing circuit. Or perhaps the ore body exhibits a difference in specific gravity, containing minerals that are either high or low in specific gravity. In this case a heavy media separation can be employed. This mode of separation has been around a long time and it’s well practised. CIM: As far as energy savings, you note that comminution is the most energy-intensive part of the mineral processing stage. Pokrajcic: It typically uses up to 40 per cent of the total energy used in a mineral processing circuit. But it’s possible to improve energy efficiency by up to 30 per cent on existing circuits by finessing and tweaking their operation. You don’t have to put in a whole new mill, automation system or sorting system. There are things that you can do that are available to operators now, like optimizing mill operation and performance, including liner and grate design, charge composition and particularly feed size. CIM: What is CEEC doing to make smarter comminution a reality? Pokrajcic: One of the projects we’re working on with the Canadian Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) is a program called the CEEC Energy Curve, which is a benchmarking tool that allows operators see where they are compared to other sites in terms of comminution energy efficiency, so you can ask, “What
CIM: What drivers are pushing companies to make efficiency improvements to their comminution circuits? Pokrajcic: For a lot of these generic circuits that are already installed, operators are often looking at optimizing because they want to increase throughput and reduce costs or because the ore body properties have changed. They’re looking to run their operations faster and cheaper, which means assessing different options for improved efficiency and linking these to ore properties, which wasn’t considered previously. It’s an interesting driver and I’m glad it’s happening. CIM: What are the barriers to making these kinds of improvements? Pokrajcic: There’s a really high turnover at sites in terms of people, so a lot of knowledge and experience is lost every couple of years, every time a new group comes through. Also, I think that as an industry – and this is starting to change, but certainly earlier on – it was really tough to convince people to embrace new technologies and ways. There’s a saying in our industry that everybody wants to be second. Nobody wants to be first and risk the possibility of not being successful and losing a lot of money as a result. Mineral processing is a very large, capital-intensive industry, so if you make a mistake it’s going to be costly. CIM
November/Novembre 2015 | 31
After Mount Polley, miners and engineers grapple with the risk of maintaining the status quo By Eavan Moore
Six months before the Mount Polley tailings dam failure in August 2014, a tailings facility in North Carolina released toxic coal ash into the Eden River. One month after Mount Polley, three workers died in a tailings facility failure at the Herculano mine in Brazil. An unusually bad year? Not necessarily. According to a July 2015 report by David M. Chambers, president of the Center for Science in Public Participation, and Lindsay Bowker, a Maine-based activist with a background in civil construction projects, between 1990 and 2010 there were 33 dam failures that released more than 100,000 cubic metres of “semisolid discharge” and/or caused loss of life. Based on historical trends, the report predicts 11 more will have occurred by 2020. In January 2015, a three-person panel appointed to investigate the origins of the Mount Polley tailings spill came to similar, albeit less drastic, conclusions. “If the inventory of active tailings dams in [British Columbia] remains unchanged, and performance in the future reflects that in the past, then on average there will be two failures every 10 years and six every 30,” the panel wrote. “In the face of these prospects, the Panel firmly rejects any notion that business as usual can continue.” Mining companies, engineering consultants, investors, regulators and the public at large must now determine how “business as usual” should be changed, and by whom.
The Mount Polley breach started quite a few conversations in Canada, according to panel member Dirk van Zyl, also a mining engineering professor at the University of British Columbia. “You really have a number of corporate tailings engineers sitting around the table saying, ‘What do we do so that what happened at Mount Polley does not happen again?’”
WATER MANAGEMENT
One obvious line of inquiry looks precisely at the nature of the disaster at Mount Polley: almost 25 million cubic metres of water, tailings and “interstitial” water broke through its dam and was then carried into the Quesnel and Cariboo river systems. This type of breakage is an inherent risk with conventional water-filled impoundments. “It’s almost certain that in the long term, these tailings facilities will fail,” said van Zyl. The panel called for the mining industry to phase out water covers completely. KGHM Ajax, a prospective mine developer near Kamloops, British Columbia, heeded the panel’s call to revisit its tailings plan. The company had planned to submit an environmental assessment application in 2015 that included a conventional water-covered storage facility, with tailings deposited as slurry with 68 per cent moisture content. But in response to the panel’s November/Novembre 2015 | 33
report, Ajax commissioned a new tradeoff study re-exploring its options. The application submitted in mid-2015 looked quite different; the tailings would be thickened to about 40 per cent moisture content and deposited that way. Ajax also strengthened its dam by adding a buttress taller and wider than the wall it supported and doing extra geotechnical work to identify weak areas. However, Ajax shied away from radical solutions. The study had also investigated paste (in the 30 per cent moisture range) and filtered tailings – 20 per cent or less moisture, able to stand unsupported as a dry stack. Paste was judged unproven at Ajax’s size. So were dry stack tailings, which are widely considered by experts to have been proven only at mine throughputs of 20,000 tonnes per day or less. At 65,000 tonnes per day, the throughput at Ajax posed a challenge. Also, the site was “in close proximity to one of the major thoroughfares in Canada and in fairly close proximity to [Kamloops],” said Clyde Gillespie, Ajax’s manager of project development. There were concerns that dust would blow from the dry tailings and that compaction equipment noise and light would cause disturbances. On top of that, Gillespie admitted, installing an extra filter plant is just plain expensive. Buying and running a thickener carries higher capital and operating expenses than slurry equipment, but it costs considerably less than the dry stack solution. “I think what [Mount Polley] has done is told us that we need to put a little more rigour and scrutiny into the design process,” said Gillespie. “Maybe a lot of those tools are still good, but it’s the rigour that we put into them as we’re designing a facility upfront and then as we operate it through the life of the mine.”
EXTERNAL REVIEW
Scrutiny is a key word for the Mount Polley panel, which recommended that independent tailings review boards check for design oversights before the design is finalized and submitted to regulators for permitting. Mount Polley brought home the fact that even major engineering companies make mistakes. “I think the paradigm shift is having external review,” said Irwin Wislesky, the technical director of tailings and mine waste at SLR Consulting. “I think that is very important. Some mining companies do it already, but most don’t.” One of the key problems such a review board might be able to mitigate, he suggested, is a lowball budget for the design work itself. Mining companies are not always willing or able to pay for extensive analyses that fully consider the site conditions. “It’s not just the mining companies holding back on proper 34 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
funding,” he added, “it’s also engineering companies undercutting price to get the work.” Wislesky hopes that tight regulatory guidance on what constitutes an adequate thirdparty review will emerge post-Mount Polley; otherwise it could be an empty exercise. When British Columbia required all tailings facilities to undergo a third-party review, he said, “one of the comments in one of the review reports basically said that everything is good because it was designed by a professional engineering company.”
UPFRONT COST, LONG-TERM PAYOFF WITH DRY STACK
Tahoe Resources did engage a peer review in 2012 of the tailings plan at its Escobal mine in Guatemala, where dry stacking quickly emerged as the one feasible approach for developing the silver resource. Filtering and then dry-stacking has numerous benefits: it conserves water in arid climates, eliminates the risk of overflow in heavy rain, has a relatively small footprint, does not spill far if the facility fails, and requires minimal long-term monitoring after closure. Water balance, space constraints, aesthetics, seismic activity and a number of other considerations led Tahoe to start a highly compacted, 15 per cent moisture tailings stack within a valley, with one wall at the downhill end. “We built the mine for closure,” said Charlie Muerhoff, vicepresident of technical services at Tahoe. “The dry stack undergoes concurrent reclamation as it’s built, and so essentially when the mine is done, our closure time and cost is very limited.” Between its October 2013 startup and mid-2015, Escobal placed and compacted about 0.61 million cubic metres out of a total design capacity of nine million. The front buttress of each successive lift received graded, seeded topsoil. “When people are looking across the valley at the mine, they don’t see a big pile of rocks and tails, what they see is a green slope,” said Muerhoff. Filtered, stacked tailings have been on the rise in the last five or so years, but they are still rare. Some mines, like those with clay-rich ores, simply cannot use filters. Still, Muerhoff finds it a little surprising that Escobal has not received more inquiries from other mines interested in its approach. “We think our facility is a showcase,” he said, “from an engineering standpoint, an operational standpoint and an environmental standpoint. We’re all quite proud of it.” Some larger mines may be waiting to see how the technology scales up. According to Robert Cooke, a principal at the consultancy firm Paterson & Cooke, the biggest advance in filter technology has been the increase in size of pressure filters, as well as the pressure at which filtration is done. These redesigned
filters provide the means to operate at more than 20,000 tonnes per day, but have yet to be proven in a large-scale operation. For that reason, tailings experts are watching Hudbay Minerals’ proposed Rosemont copper mine in Arizona with great interest. At a planned throughput of up to 80,000 tonnes per day, Rosemont will push the known limits of filter plant capacity. Patrick Merrin, Hudbay’s Arizona business unit vice-president, downplayed the novelty of Rosemont’s technology, as the mine will use basically the same filters as the smaller Karara iron mine in Australia – just more of them. “Whether you’ve got 10 filters or 18 filters, it’s the same size filter and the same process,” he said. “So we see this as reasonably proven technology, despite the fact that we’re going to be much, much larger.”
“FILTERED TAILINGS DON’T WORK”
Van Zyl said not everyone who approaches him is gung-ho about new technologies. Those conversations can be summed up as: “You guys are crazy. Filtered tailings don’t work.” What could that mean when the solution that does work fails a few times per year? The sticking point for these individuals might be the absence of examples to follow at the desired tonnage, or it might be technical or water management issues for specific sites. For example, Hudbay’s new Constancia mine does not filter its tailings. “In Peru, where it rains like crazy for six months and is bone dry for six months, you need to have water capture structures, so it’s more appropriate to have a tailings facility that can act as both,” said Merrin. But van Zyl thinks that the ultimate business case for innovative tailings designs – a case that has to be, and is not always, made – is the whole life cycle evaluation, which includes the cost of failure. Every evaluation includes some acknowledgement that failure has costs, but for a solution’s full impact to be appreciated, failure must exist as a material possibility to be planned around.
SOCIAL COSTS
Societal costs are not consistently included in this type of life cycle analysis. Franco Oboni, founder of the consultancy Riskope, would like to change that. In his work, he takes pains to include seemingly immeasurable damage. On some jobs, he has factored in the potential loss of traditional ways of living if an entire indigenous population has to leave the land because of an environmental catastrophe. “At this point, many people often balk and say, ‘How can you count non-material losses?’” Oboni said. The best answer Riskope has found is in the work of psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe, who developed the stress measurement known as ‘life change units’ in the 1960s. According to their model, point values are assigned to stressors such as change in residence, losing a job or change in sleeping habits. The scale was validated by comparing patients’ stress scores and their health. The methodology has its detractors, but Oboni argues: “It is better to do something that is not 100 per cent accurate rather than put a hand in front of the
eyes and say, ‘Oh, I can’t do it, so I will drive without lights in the night.’”
A SECOND PAIR OF EYES
That is not the only issue Oboni sees. He believes that completely independent third-party risk assessments would add a critical check to the current system, and balance the interest the company and its consulting engineers have in making sure their project lands in the green zone of acceptable risk. Oboni considers it paramount to remove conflicts of interest by bringing in risk assessment specialists with comparatively sophisticated tools. He argues that the standard engineer’s tool, the widespread Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA), treats failures individually and does not acknowledge the fact that each small hit to a structure’s integrity boosts the likelihood of failure exponentially. That is an important point, because it is the low probabilities of major disasters that often lead companies to go ahead and take the risk. Van Zyl observed that in one of the more common calculations, “If we say that probability of failure is one in a million, and it will cost us $500 million to clean it up, then the risk cost is $500. And people may say that they would be happy to live with that risk cost. I think the question to ask is, what is the resiliency planning for the company around surviving a $500 million cost? Can you physically bear that cost and move forward?” There is a second reason that future cleanup costs appear to recede in importance. Companies generally estimate their own long-term liability at a discount. Using hypothetical numbers, if a company estimates closure in 20 years will cost $10 million, it will put $50,000 into a bond. The expectation is that with inflation and interest, the amount will have multiplied by the time it is needed. “Looking at closure costs using your discounted rate is, from my perspective, a bit problematic,” Wislesky said. “It muddies the waters.” The problem, he said, is that companies discount the importance of those costs as well as their dollar value. To the average mining company, a $50,000 bond may seem like a better bargain today than a $10 million thickener. But to Wislesky’s way of thinking, a better strategy would be to choose the tailings design that minimizes risk – because risk has a way of translating into costs in the long run.
SECURITY
The public is rarely happy to accept risks of any kind, but the truth is that it does. Wislesky remarked that governments do eventually take over the long-term responsibility of mine clo-
sure, including waste treatment operation, maintenance and periodic rebuilds; the idea is that the required security deposit miners must pay will grow at a rate that can keep pace with need. However, the security deposit covers mine site reclamation, but not downstream impacts. Brian Olding, an environmental consultant to First Nations who represents the T’exelc (Williams Lake band) and Xat’sull (Soda Creek band) First Nations on Mount Polley-related issues, thinks that awareness of downstream ecosystems should play a much stronger role in the environmental assessment process for projects. Understanding fully what could be impacted would give a clearer picture of the risks of one tailings strategy or another. He also supports the idea of a pooled bond companies could pay into when starting their projects, with the expectation that it would pay for accident mitigation as needed, as an alternative to gambling with public resources. “If you don’t have the bucks to participate in that, you shouldn’t be mining,” he said. “You’re not prepared for it.” The bucks involved could be enormous. The July report coauthored by Chambers and Bowker takes a stab at estimating “unfunded, unfundable public cost” of its projected failures and comes up with a figure of $6 billion in 10 years. Van Zyl thinks the report is “more alarmist than it should be,” but it does represent a rare attempt to work from the failure end rather than the front end.
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Chambers and Bowker believe that current mining economics set the industry up for more failures. They trace a historical correlation between ore tonnages and cost to produce on one hand, and the frequency of serious failures on the other. They conclude that mining lower grades has become more cost-efficient with advances in technology, but storing all the waste lower grades produce has become less cost-efficient, which in turn provides a clear incentive to skimp on tailings storage. Even as alternative tailings technology improves, new challenges are appearing as a result of those falling grades. “Tailings management is going to get more complicated for everybody,” said Cooke. “To recover more of the metal, there’s a tendency to grind the rock finer, so the tailings themselves end up finer. And those finer tailings are more difficult to dewater. So that’s increasing the complexity of both thickening and filtration. That’s a trend that we observe and I think it’ll be difficult to stop that.” The current state of the industry does provide an opportunity to take stock, however: there are not many new mines being built right now. That could give mining companies, professional organizations and regulators some breathing space to hammer out new standards. “There really is a lot of activity right now,” said van Zyl. “And some of it’s because of the lull in the development of new projects. And some of it is just that people say, ‘We need to find a way to address [the panel’s] recommendations.’” CIM
An untapped opportunity
technology
A S S AY I N G A N D T E S T I N G
By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
Proven successful in the coal and cement industries, cross belt analyzers offer an opportunity for mining companies to get a handle on ore variability and have an earlier online assay. The main challenge is the industry’s hesitance to change.
Courtesy of IMA Engineering Ltd.
C
IMA Engineering’s FCA cross belt analyzer emits an intense X-ray beam to analyze the material’s elements.
ontinuous, real-time chemical analysis of material on a conveyer belt represents a tremendous opportunity for the mining industry to improve efficiencies with better understanding and management of ore variability, from the pit right through to processing and the quality of the final product. Although the necessary technology has existed since the 1970s, when devices installed on conveyer belts that measured sample streams taken from the belt were first developed for the coal sector, it remains largely untapped in metal mining. After success in coal, material analysis technology was soon adapted for the cement industry, which took it one step further by creating the first devices, installed over the belt, that measured everything from moisture to elements, and that, instead of measuring samples, analyzed the actual stream in real time. Today, almost every new cement plant has been designed with at least one cross belt analyzer, according to Henry Kurth, minerals consultant for Scantech International. Eventually, the advancements bounced back to coal, but when it came to the minerals sector the adoption of cross belt analysis technology hit a rock wall. “The minerals industry has always been reluctant to change,” said Kurth, who, like all manufacturers of cross belt analyzers, says these products can help mining operations get a better grip on ore variability. “It’s very hard getting a new technology into an industry. No one wants to be the first to try it.” His company has been slowly breaking through the wall with its Geoscan cross belt analyzer. Cross belt analyzers are practically unheard of in South and North America, according Philip Thwaites, manager of process control for XPS Consulting & Testwork Services. However, Scantech has installed more than 60 units globally at over 50 mining operations. One of those is for Assmang, which mines iron, manganese and chrome in South Africa. As far back as 2002, the company tested the technology in a production environment at its Beeshoek operations in the Northern Cape. Their findings “gave the required confidence and motivation to include these analyzers in some of our relatively new processes and plants,” said Kgobalale Motubatse, senior superintendent product quality for Assmang’s Khumani iron ore November/Novembre 2015 | 37
Courtesy of Real Time Instruments
Real Time Instruments’ AllScan uses a neutronbased radiation source to reveal the material’s elemental spectra.
operations. The company also uses the technology at Khumani and their Black Rock site.
ranges between US$250,000 and US$500,000 per unit.
Cross belt analyzers scan the material bed on the belt continuously and send instantaneous readings and weighted averages to the plant’s process control and production management systems, and the data can in some cases be stored on the cloud. The analyzers also send the information back to the mine so mining operations can be adjusted as needed. This “limits a lot of sampling and sample preparation errors and perceived errors that occur due to inherent bias during conventional sample-taking methods,” said Motubatse, adding that it also decreases “the total volume of samples that would have had to be taken within the processing plant sections.” In simple terms, “these analyzers are used to check and ensure that the product from one stage to the next is within specified parameters,” said Will Robinson, regional manager for Real Time Instruments, the makers of the AllScan cross belt analyzer. “On most mining applications the analyzer cost is recuperated in less than one year from commissioning, and cost saving for the mine is usually in excess of $1 million,” Robinson said. “For example, monitoring ore grade prior to shipping can make sure lower spec materials are diverted, and only acceptable grade material is loaded. Imagine the cost implications of a ship that sails halfway around the world only to be rejected when the ore is tested at the destination and found to be outside the required parameters.” Although prices differ depending on the technology and manufacturer, the cost of a cross belt analyzer on average
Cross belt analyzers come in a number of distinctly different technologies. Near-infrared (NIR) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) are two technologies that emit energy to the surface on the material, whose characteristics are analyzed based on how the energy is reflected back. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), used by IMA Engineering, the Finnish company behind the FCA cross belt analyzer systems, emits an intense X-ray beam that causes the different elements in the material to produce distinct fluorescent X-rays, making it possible to analyze it. These technologies primarily read part of the surface of the material. Real Time Instruments and Scantech use prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) for their cross belt analyzers, which many in the industry consider to be the leading technology because it penetrates through the full depth of the material on the conveyer belt. In PGNAA, a neutron-based radiation source above or beneath the conveyor generates neutrons that are absorbed by the material on the belt. The gamma rays emitted by the material reveal its elemental spectra. “The PGNAA technique sees right through that thickness, and it does that continuously,” said Kurth. “So it’s constantly measuring what’s on that belt through the full cross-section, the full width.”
How cross belt analyzers work
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Different technologies
Applications
“The applications for cross belt analyzers are wherever you put the material on the conveyer belt,” said Ilpo Auranen,
Challenges
Although the technology has been proven in cement and coal, “in metal mining, we’re talking about measuring in much lower percentages,” said Auranen. “In copper, the ore grades are typically between 0.1 per cent and one per cent, whereas in limestone or coal, we’re talking about closer to 80 or 90 per cent.” Good calibration when the units are installed – as well as ongoing calibration maintenance – is thus critical. This involves taking lab samples to verify the cross belt analyzer’s results, with adjustments made to the modelling for fine tuning. According to Auranen, the calibration process after installation can take up to two weeks. “To get the benefit of the data accuracy, some consideration has to be given to how your calibration verification program is structured and resourced,” added Motubatse. Although all the technologies are relatively low maintenance because they are non-contact, NIR, LIF and XRF scans are susceptible to dust interference. Safety is always a concern with radiation, but PGNAA cross belt analyzers use only a small amount of radioactive material, and models such as the Geoscan and AllScan are designed so that users are shielded from it. Most experts agree that each of the different technologies has its ideal use – something that, in the past, was not always considered. “There can be a level of skepticism about cross belt
Courtesy of Scantech International Pty Ltd.
Scantech chairman of IMA. Assmang, for example, International’s the Geoscan for “trend monitoring uses Geoscan analyzer uses PGNAA of all processes from primary to final technology to product, but not for product certificapenetrate the full depth of the material tion,” said Motubatse. on the belt. Although cross belt analyzers can also be used in the back end of mineral processing to measure final product quality, what makes the technology important for the mining sector is that it can analyze material far earlier than any other existing instrumentation, since they can be installed at the mine or pit generally after primary crushing, according to Thwaites. Cross belt analyzers, he said, assay the material, providing its chemical composition – its elements – rather than its mineral composition. That’s important because with detailed assays, mining operations can get a much better grip on ore variability by identifying ore grades in different stockpiles for effective blending. “The thing with a lot of processing plants is that the more variable the feed quality, the less efficient they are, and the lower the recoveries,” said Kurth. “Most plants are designed on an average ore grade. They very rarely see the average ore grade. So, based on the quality of material coming in, you can then blend it so that the plant sees a consistent quality feed, and that actually increases metal recovery.” Interestingly, some of the surface measurement technologies used for cross belt analyzers are also being applied in portable analyzers for exploration. For example, IMA has created a van called the Scanmobile that has its own mini conveyer belt and is used in exploration rock analysis.
analyzers,” said Graeme Turner, of Australian-based Downer Group, which helps mining companies assess their needs and the best-suited cross belt technology for them. “I think that comes from the fact that in the past sometimes the wrong technologies were installed in the wrong applications. You have to match the right technology with the right application and needs.” Everything from what is being measured to where in the cycle it is being measured, and if it is an underground mine or an open pit mine, needs to be considered to achieve the best match and the best cost. One final reason minerals mining has been slow to adopt cross belt technology might just be a common human response to difficult problems: denial. “Until you actually own up to it and admit there’s a problem, the problem doesn’t exist,” said Kurth. “So until people start measuring stuff, they don’t recognize the problem. [We can measure] the extent of the problem they have with variability in ore grade or even product. As long as it’s on a conveyor, we can measure it.” CIM
November/Novembre 2015 | 39
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SPECIAL REPORT
Courtesy of North American Nickel
GREENLAND For nearly 250 years, Greenland has – off and on – been home to mines and miners. Today, the Greenlandic government has thrown open its doors to miners with a revamped mining code, a new geosciences portal and support for a mining school. And miners have accepted the invitation.
INSIDE: EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW HUMAN AND ONLINE RESOURCES PROJECT PROFILE: THE AAPPALUTTOQ MINE AN INTERVIEW WITH MARK FEDIKOW OF NORTH AMERICAN NICKEL TRAVEL: KANGERLUSSUAQ On the ground at North American Nickel’s Maniitsoq property
EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT
OVERVIEW Complied by Kate Sheridan
Name of Project: Black Angel Mine Mineral: lead, zinc, silver Type of Mine: underground Current Status: exploitation permit previously granted, new exploration and drilling in progress Company: FBC Mining Notes: The mine was previously run by Angel Mining A/S. It had been active from 1973–90 and was reinvigorated in 2008. Angel Mining A/S went into administration in March 2013.
EXPLOITATION
Courtesy of Google
EXPLORATION
Name of Project: White Mountain Mineral: anorthosite Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: exploitation permit granted, IBA signed Company: Hudson Resources Notes: Construction on the project is expected to begin in the spring of 2016 after the financing is complete. A 10-year supply deal was announced in July 2015.
Name of Project: Maniitsoq Mineral: nickel, copper, cobalt, PGM Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: exploration and drilling Company: North American Nickel Notes: Assay results from this year’s drilling program were released in September. Drilling will continue next year.
Name of Project: Isua Mineral: iron ore Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: exploitation permit granted, IBA pending Company: General Nice Notes: London Mining, the former owner of the project, went into administration in 2014. The company’s Greenlandic subsidiary, London Mining A/S, was bought by General Nice, a company based in Hong Kong.
Name of Project: Aappaluttoq Ruby Mine Mineral: coloured corundum Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: production imminent Company: True North Gems Notes: Recent US$4 million investment to get the project to the production phase. The mine is the only one in Greenland currently being constructed.
Name of Project: Malmbjerg Mineral: molybdenum Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: feasibility study being prepared Company: KGHM International Notes: KGHM took over the project when they acquired International Molybdenum/Quadra Mining in 2011. Currently, the company is negotiating with the Greenlandic government to keep their exploitation licence while they wait out the bearish market.
Name of Project: Citronen Fjord Mineral: zinc, lead Type of Mine: underground Current Status: awaiting exploitation licence Company: Ironbark Notes: Public consultations on the project began in September and will continue until early December.
Name of Project: Kvanefjeld Mineral: REE, uranium, zinc Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: exploration, application for exploitation permit expected imminently Company: Greenland Minerals and Energy Notes: Documentation for the Environmental and Social Impact Assessments were expected to be completed in October, according to the company’s website.
Name of Project: Tanbreez Mineral: REE Type of Mine: open-pit Current Status: awaiting exploitation licence Company: Tanbreez Mining Greenland A/S Notes: Tanbreez’s parent company is Australian miner Rimbal. The company hopes to receive an exploitation licence this year. The licence application has been pending since 2013.
Courtesy of Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum/Tove Madsen
The local school, opened in 2008, offers classroom studies and hands-on equipment training.
Job ready Greenland school has been training up miners to be ready for this moment By Kate Sheridan
S
tudents of the Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum in Sisimiut have been preparing for a year like this one: as some of Greenland’s promised resource extraction projects finally come to fruition, these students have the chance to put their training to the test. With True North Gems’ Aappaluttoq Ruby project heading into production (p. 48), Hudson Resources’ White Mountain mine receiving an exploitation permit and others
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sites pushing forward, graduates of the school will have opportunities to use their skills at operations on their home turf. “We cheer for each mine that opens in Greenland, for our students,” said Hans Hinrichsen, the general manager of the school, the only one in Greenland that prepares students for life in the country’s budding mineral extraction industry.
Access supplied Newly launched data portal opens the door to exploration By Kate Sheridan
T
he Greenland Mineral Resources Portal has swung open. The newest version of the online database, launched in April, provides even more information – much of it completely free – to the public. The interactive GIS map may be the portal’s crown jewel. Users can overlay data from eight categories including mineral occurrences, licences and the geological environment. The site also features other useful resources such as backgrounders on relevant regulations and licences, which are available on the portal’s front page next to databases for documents and technical data. “It’s very important for companies to get easy access to high-quality geological data,” said Mikael Pedersen, head of the GIS section at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). “It’s common sense that companies expect to be able to find everything on the Internet,” he said. “We know very much what their needs are.”
GEUS and Greenland’s Ministry of Mineral Resources have developed and funded since mid-2011. Previous versions of the portal had fewer data types and less data freely available. “We used to charge for a lot of the data,” Pedersen said. “When we did the project in the beginning, we put [up] what we could do at the time. We showed a map so [people] could explore what kind of data was available at our institutions, and then they got a phone number where you could call to get the data.” Now people interested in buying the data can pay for it online with their credit card or download it straight from the website. Pedersen presented the most recent update to the portal at PDAC in Toronto in March, but he said more changes are on the horizon. “We’re adding more and more data,” Pedersen noted. “We’re also making sure that the data on the portal are quality controlled. If we find something that’s not good enough, we improve the data. This is a continuously developing thing.” CIM
November/Novembre 2015 | 45
Greenland
try: English. Hinrichsen said he sees the Greenlandic workforce as part of a larger, global workforce. Hinrichsen added he envisions more opportunities for the school’s students in the future. The Citronen Fjord zinc-lead project in northern Greenland and the Kvanefjeld rare earth elements project in the south are both moving forward. The Citronen project’s feasibility study estimates it will require about 300 workers; Kvanefjeld may need more than 700 workers and about 325 would be local recruits, according to its most recent feasibility study. Mining has already had an impact on the local workforce. North American Nickel has hired a few students from the school and plans to bring students to its Maniitsoq camp next year. True North Gems’ entire construction workforce was local, and the company will work with the school as production gets underway, according to Bent Olsvig, the managing director of the company’s local subsidiary True North Gems Greenland A/S. The company’s social impact assessment mentioned the school and also revealed that “all positions (at the project) can be occupied by Greenlanders with few exceptions” after some training. On Sept. 24, Hudson Resources and representatives from the Greenland government gathered at the school to sign the impact benefit agreement for the White Mountain project. The site is located about 50 kilometres away from the school. “[The signing is] awesome for the school,” Hinrichsen said. “They have to build the mine before they go into production, but surely, we’ll have students at that project.” CIM
SPECIAL REPORT
“I think we have 23,000 non-skilled labourers here in Greenland,” said Hinrichsen, “and there is room in the mining industry for non-skilled labour. But they need skilled labour. So we started up this professional apprenticeship program for miner and machine operations. It will raise the skills and potentially raise the salary for these guys.” Next summer, 15 students will graduate from the school’s four-year apprenticeship program. Since it opened in 2008, the school has also graduated 348 people from its 10-week common core course. That course teaches basic drilling, blasting and safety topics. Other courses cover diamond core drilling, heavy machine operation and upgrading, and advanced blasting topics. The longer apprenticeship program involves two years of theory courses and two years of practical training. Hinrichsen said the curriculum models Norwegian training programs and standards, so graduates have the option of pursuing more training in Scandinavian countries. The school was certified as meeting Norwegian standards for machine operator training in 2013. “It took quite a lot of hard work to build up a new institution for a new industry here in Greenland,” Hinrichsen said, “but we have had help.” He travelled around the world to meet partners to help develop the curriculum, including the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology in Sudbury, Ontario. The school has also collaborated with the government of Nunavut. At the school, students learn more than their trade. They also learn the language they will need to work in the indus-
Courtesy of North American Nickel
Mark Fedikow says the geographic and legal terrain have made Greenland a good area to explore.
Nickel concentrated Mark Fedikow on North American Nickel’s growing foothold in Greenland By Ryan Bergen
N
orth American Nickel (NAN), an exploration and development company, was formed in 2010 by spinning out nickel properties in Ontario and Manitoba held by junior miner VMS Ventures. Not long after NAN listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, a pair of prospectors familiar with Greenland pitched the company on a nickel-copper play on the southwest coast of the island. Today, the company is wrapping up its fourth year of drilling at its Maniitsoq nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group metal project in southwestern Greenland. This year’s work featured the discovery of a new mineralized zone the company reports as one of the best drill results from the property to date. It is also close to completing the acquisition of a deep water port on the southern end of its nearly 3,000-square-kilometre property. We talked to North American Nickel’s president, Mark Fedikow, to learn more about what lured the company to the relative greenfields of Greenland and what they have discovered during their time in the North Atlantic.
CIM: HOW LONG AFTER NORTH AMERICAN NICKEL FORMED DID YOU SHIFT YOUR ATTENTION TO GREENLAND? FEDIKOW: We listed in April 2010 and three months later we were approached by two prospector-geologists with years of exploration experience in Greenland. They presented us with a property scenario that eventually evolved into the Maniitsoq project. They described numerous historic nickel, high-grade nickel, copper, cobalt, PGM occur46 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
rences on the southwest shore of Greenland that had received little modern exploration despite the tenor of the nickel and related metals. The property is situated in an area that is pack ice-free year-round and very close to tide water. With this in mind our chief geologist, John Pattison, travelled to Greenland to review the property and to assess the regulatory environment and logistical support available. John confirmed the favourable geology and mineralization, as well as the care with which past historic exploration results were organized. Historic drill core and assessment reports were readily available.
CIM: HOW DID YOU PUT THAT INFORMATION TO USE? FEDIKOW: We acquired a 5,000-square-km property which, at that time, was the largest licence that had ever been granted in Greenland. We then brought modern geophysical technology to bear on the property in the form of helicopter-borne, electromagnetic and magnetic surveys. Because the surveys are helicopter-borne, we were able to hug the rugged terrain with our geophysical sensors and maintain a fixed height of surveying above ground. This gave us a tremendous advantage over previous explorers who utilized fixed-wing surveys.
CIM: TO WHAT EXTENT HAD THE PROPERTY BEEN EXPLORED BEFORE NAN ARRIVED? FEDIKOW: The earliest work was done by Danish company Kryolitselskabet Øresund A/S or KO. The approach
CIM: AND THE LACK OF GROUND COVER MUST HELP AS WELL? FEDIKOW: Yes, the surveying is very effective because the
focused on water quality, because a lot of the people are fishers who rely on the fishing industry to earn their livelihood. Another group were the hunters who wanted to be certain our helicopters and other activities did not significantly impact the caribou herds. They did not want caribou herds scattered to the four winds. Subsequently, we ensured our airborne surveys were flown in such a way as to avoid the caribou.
landscape is about 85 to 90 per cent rock. It is unlike Canada where bedrock is mantled by thick sequences of glacial sediments, and derivatives such as sand, silt or clay topped by wet organic soil and swamp. There are no forests and as such, it provides a tremendous advantage for prospecting, mapping and general exploration. This is one reason why KO was successful.
CIM: AS WELL SUITED AS THE LANDSCAPE IS TO EXPLORATION, HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THE LEGAL TERRAIN? FEDIKOW: All of the regulatory issues relating to exploration and mining are handled in Nuuk, the capital city of Greenland. There are some items we would like to see happen a bit faster than others, however, the Greenland regulatory process is transparent and we have been well served by the various government agencies that we deal with. There are no outstanding issues.
CIM: YOU’VE BEEN ACTIVE IN THE AREA FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS. HOW HAVE YOU REACHED OUT TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY? FEDIKOW: In 2013 we brought Tony Naldrett, a worldrecognized expert in nickel sulphide ore bodies, to Greenland along with John Pattison our chief geologist. Tony and John travelled to the Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum in Sisimiut to give presentations to the students there as part of a lecture series. The intent was to provide an introduction to North American Nickel and to give the students some background and advanced information on nickel sulphide ore bodies. More recently, we felt that as our exploration program moved forward we needed to have a wider presence in Greenland and to reach out to local communities. That was the focus of our trip to Greenland this past June.
CIM: WHAT WAS YOUR APPROACH? FEDIKOW: This trip was focused on community engagement. We wanted to introduce NAN to the communities by
CIM: WHAT SORT OF CONCERNS DID THEY RAISE? FEDIKOW: The local community members are very
CIM: AND WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THESE SESSIONS? FEDIKOW: It was surprising to hear that the local communities had no major concerns with the manner in which we were undertaking our exploration. They said they wished only to be kept informed on when and where we would be working in the future, so that they could let their fellow community members know what to expect in terms of helicopter or drill activity. They also requested ways in which they could become suppliers to our exploration camp, and we are in the midst of exploring these possibilities now.
CIM: EARLIER THIS YEAR NAN BEGAN THE WORK TO ACQUIRE PORT FACILITIES JUST SOUTH OF YOUR PROJECT. HOW DOES THAT FIT INTO YOUR PLANS THERE? FEDIKOW: The Seqi deep water port is at the head of a fjord that provides access to ocean shipping lanes and is adjacent to the Seqi Olivine mine. The pier can handle 50,000-tonne dry weight ships, and we are just finishing up our environmental and technical due diligence on the harbour. This includes underwater assessment of the pier to verify its structural integrity. The harbour provides us with the ability to potentially ship our nickelcopper concentrates and any other commodity that we might become involved with while doing business in Greenland. The harbour is an opportunity for the company to grow and expand. We also intend to use the area adjacent to the harbour as a logistical hub that will allow us an easy and more economical way to mobilize crews, camps and supplies for the exploration of the Maniitsoq property. CIM November/Novembre 2015 | 47
Greenland
telling them who we were and where we were from, what we were trying to accomplish and how we do our day-today job of exploration. The trip was also designed to provide a platform for local community members to voice their opinions on our activities and to air any concerns they may have regarding the impact of our activities on their community. We started in Nuuk with our meetings and travelled up the southwest coast visiting Napasoq, Maniitsoq, and Sisimiut. These three communities are adjacent to our Maniitsoq project.
SPECIAL REPORT
utilized by KO was to fly over the terrain in a fixed-wing aircraft and mark on their base maps every rusty or gossanous site they saw on the ground. Later, they would follow up these areas on foot with their crews. This follow-up included sampling and mapping, and in some instances they would drill the target. Drilling was limited to depths of around 50 metres and was hampered by a lack of modern geophysical techniques to assess the orientation and depth of their mineralized targets, thus effectively drilling blindly. With the airborne system we currently utilize it allows us to look roughly 200-plus metres below surface, which identifies mineralized zones that weren’t exposed at surface.
The camp (top left) and production facilities (centre) for the Aappaluttoq project in western Greenland.
A ruby-studded first step Red stones will be the initial jewel in the crown for Greenland’s nascent mining industry as True North Gems puts the pieces in place for its Aappaluttoq ruby project. By Chris Windeyer
B
y some measures, the project is tiny. Its capital cost is only $35 million. Its workforce, 45 to 50 workers for construction and around 60 for production, would barely count as a skeleton crew at some mines. Even Aappaluttoq’s open pit, at a couple of hundred square metres, is really not that large. But in other important ways, Vancouver-based True North Gems’ (TNG) mine is huge. It is one of the first projects to make its way through Greenland’s new mining-friendly regulatory regime. Once Aappaluttoq is fully online, it figures to be a major player in the $2-billion global ruby industry.
48 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
And the grade of the mine’s Probable Reserves, 292 to 339 grams per tonne, compares well to Gemfields’ Montepuez operation in Mozambique, the only other large-scale ruby mine in the world, said Andrew Fagan, TNG’s project manager for Aappaluttoq.
MOVING QUICKLY Ruby exploration in southwestern Greenland is not particularly new. Danish geologists first discovered gems in the region in the mid-1960s. A succession of Canadian and Danish companies removed promising bulk and
LOGISTICS Aappaluttoq is located 20 kilometres from the tiny fishing village of Qeqertarsuatsiaat (population 240), which is itself 150 kilometres from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk. Although that might sound remote, western Greenland actually enjoys a relatively mild climate and well-developed shipping infrastructure. Fagan said temperatures rarely drop below -20 C, although an unusually cold winter last year slowed construction somewhat. Shipping infrastructure in Nuuk is far more developed than in, say, the Canadian Arctic, with a full port that sees ships call daily. It is a small, out-of-the-way market, so shipping is relatively expensive, Fagan said, but the infrastructure is reliable. “The sea doesn’t freeze, so we have all-year shipping right up to our door,” he said. “And that ice-free shipping goes all the way up to Nuuk, so we actually have a pretty good logistical supply chain.” But Qeqertarsuatsiaat’s small size limits the role it plays in operations. The company intends to use the local November/Novembre 2015 | 49
Courtesy of True North Gems
Greenland
million financing deal with LNS Greenland. The firm is the Greenlandic arm of Leonhard Nilsen & Sønner A/S, a Norwegian mining and construction firm that operates at producing mines in Scandinavia. The deal with LNS Greenland offered True North $6 million in cash for a 27 per cent stake in the project, and an additional $5 million worth of construction work that will up LNS’ stake in Aappaluttoq. “They significantly cut our CAPEX by doing that arrangement,” Fagan said. In addition to the construction, LNS Greenland will do the mining for the project. So far, construction of the main roads connecting the local port to the camp and processing plant site is finished. Fagan estimated camp construction is 80 per cent complete. The pit site is on a peninsula jutting into a nearby lake, and TNG plans to lower the water level by 10 metres, allowing them to build a road connecting the pit to the processing plant, a job that Fagan said is around 50 per cent complete. The processing plant area is blasted, concrete for the workshop floor is poured and rebar for the site is being assembled. The processing plant equipment has all been procured and is awaiting the completion of the processing plant building. Pre-stripping work in the pit is scheduled to begin this fall. Once mining is underway, production will ramp up, starting at 2,849 tonnes of ore in the construction-shortened first year, and topping out at more than 31,000 tonnes in the ninth and final year. The gem-bearing corundum grades are projected to average 292 grams per tonne over the life of the mine. Waste rock at the open pit will be blasted, ore will be drilled and the drill holes connected with a production wire saw, common to the dimension stone industry. The sawed blocks will then be broken into smaller pieces with a rock breaker before being sent to the primary crusher.
SPECIAL REPORT
mini-bulk samples from the region, although commercial production never took off. True North Gems arrived in the area in 2004 and quickly began an aggressive exploration program that ultimately clinched essential financing for the mine last fall. Construction on the mine began last October, and Fagan said the company will forego a traditional feasibility study altogether, although it has issued two pre-feasibility studies, one in 2011 and one in March of this year. What matters, he said, is the confidence the company has in the project’s geology and engineering. “The last pre-feasibility study that went through, it would normally be called a feasibility study,” said Fagan. The 2015 study includes a much more comprehensive pit design, mine schedule and processing flowsheet, opts for dense media separation and optical sorting rather than jigs, and nails down the tax and royalty numbers for the project. The difficulty in pricing ruby means a compliant feasibility study is not possible. “There is no spot price for rubies, which makes a feasibility study a difficult thing to do,” he explained. “Diamonds have a long-established history of published prices and a defined grading system – this is not the case for rubies and sapphires yet.” “Coloured gemstone pricing is an extremely difficult thing to do,” said Hayley Henning, the company’s vice-president of marketing and development. “There is no manual, and because the Greenland material is new, there’s nothing to base a pricing structure on. We’ll work it out according to the market and depending on the quality of the material.” Until Aappaluttoq begins producing stones later this fall, True North will not know what those stones are worth, said Henning. For now, True North is focused on construction and financing. It found a unique way to tackle both those issues at once when, last October, the company closed an $11-
1
2
“It was a big signal that Greenland was ready for the mining industry to start.” – Andrew Fagan on the 2014 signing of the company’s IBA
3
50 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
SPECIAL REPORT
Ruby at surface
A FRIENDLY, ORDERLY PLACE Despite the unique logistical environment, Fagan said the company views Greenland as a mining-friendly jurisdiction. The home-rule government in Nuuk has long wanted to create greater independence from Denmark by replacing some of the $600 million in funding it gets from its colonial ruler with revenue from resource development. One of the ways Greenland has courted development is through an overhaul of its mining regulations since it took control of its own natural resources policy in 2009. Aappaluttoq is the first project to go through the new regulatory regime and into production, which among other things streamlines the public consultation process. Fagan said the system offers straightforward rules and a clear path for companies to convert exploration licences into mining licences. “This is really part of Scandinavia,” he said. “There’s the rule of law. There are individual steps that you have to go through to get your licence, and at the end of the day your licence is available if you do all of those steps in the right way.” TNG has also signed an Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBA) with the Government of Greenland and local communities. The IBA encourages the company to maximize the number of Greenlandic workers and mandates contributions to local education and social development funds. “That IBA was fairly historic because it was the first one that had been signed under the new regulations,” Fagan said. “When we [signed] that on June 4 last year, it was a Captions, opposite page: 1. The workshop facility (red building) is nearing completion and the foundation for the process plant building has been laid. 2. The road to the outer port facility is currently being upgraded. 3. Clean rough gem corundum material ready to be graded into pink sapphire and ruby. All courtesy of True North Gems
Greenland
workforce, but the town lacks both a runway and a hospital. Nuuk, however, is a 45-minute helicopter ride away, so True North will operate its upgrading plant in an industrial park in the capital. That plant will take dirty concentrates from the mine, with 20 to 30 per cent of the waste rock still attached, and run them through a hydrofluoric acid bath, which washes away the remaining silicates. From there, the clean concentrates can be further sorted and categorized. That work has to be done in Nuuk, primarily for security and safety reasons. It is less risky to move the half-finished corundum to the sorting plant in the city and secure the sorted stones there. In addition, explained Fagan, “hydrofluoric acid is not something we’d want to have in the middle of nowhere at site. We’d prefer to have that as close to medical facilities as possible, and the main hospital and police stations are about a 15-minute drive from where we’re going to be doing the sorting.”
big signal that Greenland was ready for the mining industry to start.” According to Fagan, the project boasts nearly 100 per cent Greenlandic employment. The only expat workers are people from True North’s head office and the occasional consultant. The sorting plant will require some outside labour with specific training, but Fagan said that should be temporary. The company hopes to train local workers for those jobs, too, and leave those skills behind after the proposed nineyear mine life ends.
MARKETING Once the stones start coming out of the ground, the challenge will be to sell them. Although rubies and pink sapphires are highly prized, they are unquestionably a luxury item, and one with no industrial use. Henning said the point of origin of True North stones adds another element of marketability. The fact that the stones are mined in Greenland will most definitely draw the attention of buyers. “This is something completely new,” Henning says. “[Aappaluttoq] is a clean source with no environmental, governmental or human rights issues.” Henning goes on to point out that the company has created a proprietary system called Ruby Track, designed to trace the movement of the gems from the mine, through the sorting and processing. It will allow consumers to trace each gemstone’s origin. Ruby Track will assign barcodes to batches of sorted gemstones, so each can be sold with a certificate of authenticity, much like the way Canadian diamonds are marketed. Henning said she expects other players in the gemstone industry will adopt similar systems as the move toward greater accountability and transparency continues. And while luxury items may seem a hard sell in turbulent economic conditions, Henning is confident True North and its rubies can weather the storm. CIM November/Novembre 2015 | 51
Wikicommons
TRAVEL Kangerlussuaq, Greenland By Anita Isalska
STAY
WHERE TO
Flickr/Karsten Bidstrup
WHERE TO
K
angerlussuaq (pronounced ‘Kan-geh-looh-swak’) lies just north of the Arctic Circle, a tiny town perched on the edge of Greenland’s vast ice sheet. Inuit hunters have long prowled this area in search of caribou and muskoxen, but the first permanent settlement wasn’t established until 1941 when the U.S. military built an air base here during the Second World War. In 1992 military personnel gave control of the town to the locals, who named it Kangerlussuaq (meaning “large fjord” in Greenlandic). The modern town of barely 550 people is Greenland’s main flight hub and most visitors’ first glimpse of the country. The town feels unnervingly empty at first, but a little exploration offers interesting glimpses of Greenlandic culture and wildlife.
The area’s most comfortable hotel is here too: the 70-room Hotel Kangerlussuaq (ensuite single/double room DKK 1,325/ 1,595; +299 84 11 80;
BANK NOTES $1 = DKK 5.14
Rene Schwietzke
The airport is central to life in Kangerlussuaq, and much of the local economy is based on visitors arriving or transiting by plane.
www.hotelkangerlussuaq.gl) has conference facilities, a cafe and a restaurant. Another choice is the simple, airport-side Polar Lodge (single/ double room DKK 785/995; wogac.com/ accommodation/polar -lodge). There’s a communal kitchen and a lounge room, plus a service desk that can help visitors book taxis and excursions.
DINE
Greenlandic cuisine is heavy on meat. Muskox and fish dominate menus, along with Danish imports like rye breads, cheeses and salamis. Kangerlussuaq’s most scenic place to eat is Roklubben (+299 524526), by the shores of Lake Ferguson. The impressive menu includes specialities like mattak, a delicacy of narwhal and beluga whale fats. The restaurant is about five kilometres
TIP Wi-Fi is patchy and pricey in Greenland, so expect to pay extra to keep in touch. from Kangerlussuaq’s airport and main hotels. Make use of Roklubben’s shuttle service, which is arranged when you book a table and offers complimentary service to and from the restaurant.
Delivering fresh produce to remote TIP Kangerlussuaq is difficult, so don’t be surprised by the lack of fresh milk or fruit at hotel breakfasts and supermarkets. When shopping for snacks, Danish imported hams and cheeses are good choices. Otherwise, eat like the locals and try dried fish. HOW TO
GET THERE
Kangerlussuaq is the main flight hub for the rest of Greenland, with connections from Nuuk, Ilulissat, Narsarsuaq and more. Air Greenland (www.airgreenland.com) has flights to Kangerlussuaq from Copenhagen, Denmark. Icelandair (www.icelandair.com) and Air Canada (www.aircanada.com) have flights between Canadian airports and Copenhagen.
CONTACT CANADIAN HONORARY CONSULATE IN GREENLAND Tuapannguit 48, PO Box 135, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland; +299 31 16 47; +299 32 21 40; lpdaniel@greennet.gl 52 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
GETTING
AROUND
Walking is sufficient to cover the main strip from Kangerlussuaq’s airport and hotel, the post office and the supermarket opposite, and a couple of interesting boutiques. Beyond this, public transport and rental cars are almost non-existent, so visitors rely on taxis (easily arranged through hotels) and shuttles (often included with restaurant or excursion bookings).
EXPLORE
Wikicommons/Algkalv
Flickr/Destination Arctic Circle
WHERE TO
HOW TO
spun from muskox wool, jewellery made of muskox horn and sealskin ornaments. The store’s charming owner, Nini Frydkjær Holstebro, feels a deep connection with her creations, which are sustainably sourced. The horns and fur are
FIT IN
Greenlandic is difficult for non-native speakers to learn and pronounce, but a simple greeting is aluu. Most locals speak Danish and many have an excellent command of English. Bring appropriate clothing for Kangerlussuaq’s climate. During winter, the mercury can drop as low as -28 C. Finally, be sensitive on the subject of Danish-Greenlandic relations. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1721 when missionaries settled near what is now Nuuk, the capital city. Danish control ended for a while during WWII, when the Americans rolled in to protect it from potential attacks from Nazi Germany. Danish links continued after the war, but Greenland was given home rule in 1979, though powers were limited until the 2000s. Since then its autonomy has grown, but the Queen of Denmark remains Greenland’s head of state. Many inhabitants of Kangerlussuaq and other Greenlandic towns are Danish (or part-Danish), but feelings are mixed about the power dynamics between Inuit Greenlanders and Danes.
collected from the wilds around Kangerlussuaq or are byproducts from hunters. The town’s most bizarre tourist attraction is the wreckage of three Lockheed T-33 planes that crashed during a whiteout in 1968. Remarkably, all pilots managed to eject from their aircrafts safely. Huge twisted chunks of wreckage remain at the site, which now attracts a stream of visitors. Green valleys give way to the stark frosty desert of the inland ice sheet 25 km from Kangerlussuaq. The ice sheet makes up
around 80 per cent of Greenland and is second only to Antarctica’s ice sheet in size. World of Greenland (wogac.com) can arrange excursions that can include a short walk on the ice sheet. If you have a little longer to explore, Kangerlussuaq is surrounded by terrain that’s excellent for hiking in summer, though it’s advisable to get a local guide to track wildlife and to stay safe. The weather can change quickly and large swathes of the land are uninhabited and have no shelter. Thousands of muskoxen roam the valley, the largest in the area, weighing in
at more than 400 kilograms. As well as these huge land mammals, the area is home to Arctic foxes, snow hares and numerous species of birds of prey. In summer, kayaking and fishing excursions are popular. In winter, you can tour the frozen land by dog sled and potentially see the northern lights; Kangerlussuaq is one of the best spots in the country for sightings. The local company Greenland Outdoors (www.greenlandoutdoors.com) can organize short or multi-day excursions by foot, kayak or dogsled. Wikicommons/Algkalv
Catering to travellers who spend a few hours browsing before catching a connecting flight, Kangerlussuaq has several boutiques selling local crafts and clothing. Butik Frydkjær offers the town’s most colourful collection including clothes
Muskoxen usually flee from humans, but TIP staying downwind of animals increases your chance of getting a good view. Don’t approach too closely as they can charge when threatened. HOW TO
PAY
Greenland uses the Danish krone as currency. Hotels accept major credit cards, but many locals prefer payment in cash at restaurants and shops, especially for smaller purchases. It’s a good idea to have some cash as a back-up. It’s best to bring some Danish krone with you from home, but otherwise you can buy currency at the airport.
November/Novembre 2015 | 53
Courtesy of Al Kuiper © Ottawa Tourism / Tourisme Ottawa
48th ANNUAL
canadian mineral processors CONFERENCE
We are pleased to invite you and your colleagues to attend the 48th Annual Conference of the Canadian Mineral Processors to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, from January 19 to 21, 2016. For more than 45 years, the CMP conference has provided a forum for discussing best practices and the latest improvements in mineral processing technology. Almost 600 delegates attended last year’s conference and profited from the outstanding opportunities in networking, knowledge sharing and personal development the CMP Conference consistently offers.
The Technical Program will be the heart and soul of the conference with close to 40 technical papers presented by fellow mill operators and mineral processing professionals. In addition to discussions on Canadian milling practices, international speakers will weigh in on the mineral processing challenges they encounter abroad. We look forward to you joining us in the capital this January.
– The CMP Executive
48e CONFÉRENCE ANNUELLE DES
minéralurgistes du canada
Nous sommes heureux de vous inviter, ainsi que vos collègues, à participer à la 48ème Conférence annuelle des minéralurgistes du Canada qui aura lieu à Ottawa (Ontario) du 19 au 21 janvier 2016. Depuis plus de 45 ans, nous préservons notre mission de créer un évènement où la dissémination de méthodes innovatrices d’opération de concentrateurs et de technologies émergentes sont à l’honneur. Presque 600 délégués ont participé à la conférence l’an dernier pour profiter de cette occasion exceptionnelle de réseautage, de partage d’expériences industrielles et de développement professionnel. Encore cette année, le programme technique sera au cœur de l’évènement avec près de 40 articles présentés par des opérateurs d’usines et autres professionnels de la minéralurgie. Pendant que plusieurs se concentreront sur des problématiques typiquement canadiennes, d’autres présentateurs discuteront des défis techniques auxquels ils font face à l’étranger.
En espérant vous voir en grand nombre dans la capitale canadienne en janvier prochain.
– L’exécutif de la Société cannadienne du traitement des minerais
JANUARY 19
TO AU
21 JANVIER 2016 | WESTIN HOTEL | OTTAWA, CANADA
54 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
REGISTRATION | INSCRIPTION EARLY REGISTRATION FEES | TARIFS PRÉFÉRENTIELS DE PRÉINSCRIPTION Taxes are included. Les taxes sont incluses.
CIM/AIME/TMS MEMBERS | MEMBRES DE L’ICM, TMS ET AIME $600
The non-member rate includes a one-year membership to CIM. Registration includes the three day meeting, coffee breaks, the Tuesday and Wednesday luncheons and evening social receptions, the Wednesday reception and awards banquet, as well as a copy of the proceedings. Conference registration and attendance at social events should be indicated when registering online at cmpsoc.ca/events/cmp-2015. All pre-registered delegates will be able to pick up their registration kits at the Conference Registration Desk on Monday evening between 19:00 and 22:00 and Tuesday to Thursday between 7:00 and 15:00. New registrations will be taken during these times.
Note: To pre-register, the form must be received by December 14, 2015. Any requests for refunds must be made, in writing, prior to this date. As of December 15 an administration fee of $100 will be charged for new and/or cancelled registrations. No cancellations will be accepted after January 11, 2016.
NON-MEMBERS | NON-MEMBRES $811.31
Le tarif des non-membres comprend un abonnement d’un an à l’ICM. Ces frais donnent droit aux conférences, à une copie des comptes rendus, aux pauses-café, au dîner le mardi et mercredi, et à la réception sociale en soirée ainsi qu’à la réception/souper le mercredi soir. Veuillez indiquer votre inscription à la conférence et votre participation aux événements sociaux lors de l'inscription en ligne sur cmpsoc.ca/events/cmp-2015 (uniquement disponible en anglais). Tous les délégués inscrits à l’avance pourront recevoir leur trousse d’inscription en se présentant au bureau d’inscription le lundi soir entre 19 h et 22 h et le mardi au jeudi de 7 h à 15 h. Les autres délégués qui désirent participer à la conférence pourront également s’inscrire à cet endroit, aux mêmes heures. N.B. : Les formulaires de pré-inscription doivent être reçus avant le 14 décembre 2015 et les demandes de remboursement doivent être faites, par écrit, avant cette date. Après le 14 décembre, des frais de 100$ s’appliqueront à toute nouvelle inscription ainsi qu’aux annulations. Aucune annulation ne sera acceptée après le 11 janvier.
SHORT COURSES | COURS ABRÉGÉS COURSE COURS
PRESENTERS PRÉSENTATEURS
DATE
COST COÛT
ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED, PLEASE REGISTER EARLY! LA PARTICIPATION EST LIMITÉE, S’IL VOUS PLAÎT, INSCRIVEZ-VOUS TÔT! A Strategic Approach to Set Operational Variables on Comminution Equipment to Deal Better with Ore Variability
Presenter: Ben Steyn, Minerality
January 17-18 janvier
$700
Presenters: John Goode, Volker Moeller, John Goode and Associates; Ben Yu, Niels Verbaan, SGS Canada; Grant Feasby, Doug Chambers, Senes
January 17 janvier
$400
Presenters: Luc Lachance and Donald Leroux, Triple Point Technology
January 17 janvier
$400
Classification Cyclones
Presenter: Ernst Bekker, Multotec
January 18 janvier
$400
Chemistry of Flotation
Presenter: Akira Otsuki, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie, Université de Lorraine
January 18 janvier
$400
Presenter: Rosie Steeves, Executive Works and CIM Leading in Mining Program
January 18 janvier
$200
Rare Earth Production: Beneficiation and Hydrometallurgy Designing, Using, Monitoring and Retrofitting Metal Accounting Systems
Leading the Way you Want to – an Exploration of Personalized Leadership within the Mining Sector
All costs include lunch, coffee breaks and course materials. Tous les coûts comprennent le dîner, les pauses-café et le matériel de cours.
November/Novembre 2015 | 55
Courtesy of Al Kuiper
ACCOMMODATIONS | HÉBERGEMENT
GENERAL INFORMATION RENSEIGNEMENTS GÉNÉRAUX The 48th Annual Canadian Mineral Processors Conference will be held in Ottawa at the Westin Hotel. The conference will feature presentations on various aspects of mineral processing including comminution, flotation, gold and iron ore processing, mineralogy, mill optimization, process control and projects.
La 48e conférence annuelle des Minéralurgistes du Canada se tiendra à Ottawa, à l’Hôtel Westin. La conférence comprendra des présentations traitant de divers aspects minéralurgiques tels que la comminution, la flottation, le traitement de l’or et du fer, la minéralogie, l’optimisation des usines de traitement, le contrôle de procédés et les opérations minières.
SOCIAL PROGRAM | PROGRAMME SOCIAL MONDAY | LUNDI 21:00 – 23:00
Student Mixer Fourth Floor, Westin Hotel Soirée « Student Mixer » 4e étage, Hôtel Westin
TUESDAY | MARDI
Networking Luncheon Fourth Floor, Westin Hotel Dîner de réseautage 4e étage, Hôtel Westin 19:00 Hockey Cup Challenge Carleton University Défi de hockey Université Carleton 21:00 Chairman’s Reception Governor General’s Ballroom Réception du président Salle du Gouverneur 12:00
A special rate of $205 (standard/premium) and $255 (deluxe) which includes complementary internet has been negotiated at the Westin Hotel (reference the Canadian Mineral Processors Conference). The Westin Hotel will only guarantee these rooms until January 4, 2016 so book your room early to avoid disappointment.
Un nombre limité de chambres a été négocié avec l’Hôtel Westin à un tarif spécial de 205$ en occupation simple/double et 255$ pour une chambre de luxe. Veuillez noter que les chambres sont retenues à votre intention jusqu’au 4 janvier 2016 donc réserver votre chambre le plus tôt possible afin d’éviter tout inconvénient.
TECHNICAL PROGRAM | PROGRAMME TECHNIQUE TUESDAY JANUARY 19 8:30
PLENARY PRESENTATION 8:45
12:00
Business Meeting Luncheon Fourth Floor, Westin Hotel
Dîner de réunion d’affaires 4e étage, Hôtel Westin 18:00 Executive Reception (by invitation only) Rideau Suite Réception des dirigeants (sur invitation) Suite Rideau
Reception Fourth Floor, Westin Hotel Réception 4e étage, Hôtel Westin 19:30 Annual Banquet Confederation Ballroom Banquet annuel Salle Confédération 18:30
56 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
2016 Keynote Speaker COMMINUTION
9:30
Benefication of Low Grade Ore at the Detour Lake Mine | JEAN-FRANCOIS DUMONT
9:55
Towards a Better Understanding of Stirred Milling Technologies. A Review of Scale-up Methods | PETER RADZIEWSKI
10:50
Cyanidation in Grinding Circuits | MRABET DRISS
11:15
Flowsheet Development for Processing of Dumont Nickel Ore and Concentrate | JOHNNA MUINONEN
11:40
Evolution of Direct Coupled Pinion Drive Technology for Grinding Mills | JOSH SOBIL
Général
WEDNESDAY | MERCREDI
Opening Remarks | PAUL BLATTER
PROJECTS 13:35
Development of the Rainy River Project and Processing Plant | DAVID HALL
14:00
Start-Up of the Éléonore Plant | RICHARD SHAW
14:25
PETER MAH AND BERNY RIVERA VASQUEZ
15:20
Constancia Project Process Plant Design | KEVIN SCOTT
15:45
Achieving a Great Start-up / Action Plan to Maximize Your Chances | STEVE BELLEC
16:00
Commissioning of a Brownfield CDS Plant: Victories and Pitfalls | JEAN-CLAUDE MILOT
The Avanti Kitsault Mine |
Courtesy of Al Kuiper
AUTHORS | AUTEURS Authors, session chairs and regional representatives must register as conference delegates. A speaker’s breakfast will be provided the day of their presentation at 7:00. Authors, please contact John Chaulk (john.chaulk@canada.ca) for presentation information.
Tous les auteurs, les présidents de sessions et les représentants régionaux doivent s’inscrire comme délégués à la conférence. Un déjeuner sera servi le jour de leur présentation à 7 h. Auteurs, veuillez contacter John Chaulk (john.chaulk@canada.ca) pour obtenir de l’information au sujet des présentations.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20
THURSDAY JANUARY 21
PROCESS CONTROL
PROJECT OPTIMIZATION
8:30
Recent Developments of Lazer Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Real Time Measurement and Control of Mineral Processing | PAUL BOUCHARD
8:30
Increasing SAG Mill Capacity at the Copper Mountain Mine Through the Addition of a Pre-Crushing Circuit | DAVE ROSE
8:55
Continuous Real Time Pulp Chemistry Measurements and What They Tell Us About Metallurgical Performance | CHRISTOPHER GREET
8:55
9:20
A Contribution for the Improvement of a Rotary Sample Divider for Iron Ore Concentrate Sampling | JEAN HILAIRE
Extension of the Comminution Energy Curves and Application to Stirred Milling Performance | SARAH BOUCAUT Cerro Negro: From Concept to Reality | RICHARD SHAW
10:15
Carbon Dioxide Used for pH Control and Greens Creek Mill | DAVE TAHIJA
9:20
10:40
A Re-Examination of the Sacred Cows in the SART Process | CHRIS FLEMING
10:15
Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the Fluid Flow in a Hydrocyclone in the Ansence of an Air Core | ERDEM KUCUKAL
11:05
Geoscan Elemental Analyzer for Optimizing Plant Feed Quality and Process Performance | HENRY KURTH
10:40
Tracking the Mineral Contents of the Ore from Daily Production Samples | CLAUDE BAZIN
11:05
Promoting Energy Efficiency Studies During Mineral Processing Plant Design | SVETLAINA LOIF
FLOTATION FUNDAMENTALS 13:00
Woodgrove Flotation Cell Performance at New Afton Mine | 13:00
Flotation of the Major Copper Sulphide Minerals – an Electrochemical Viewpoint | NORMAN LOTTER
Where did that Ear Bud Come From? Today's Rare Earth Produce | JOHN GOODE
13:25
Magnetic Conditioning of Sphalerite at Red Dog Mine | JASMINE OLIVER
FLOTATION DEVELOPMENT
13:50
Dense Media Separation an Effective and Robust Pre-Concentration Technology | ERIN LEGAULT
14:45
Sulfur Burning Sulfur Dioxide Gas Plants for Hydrometallurgical Processes | KYLE LOUTET
15:10
Evaluation of Alternative Lixiviants to Replace Cyanide in Precious Metal Extraction of LaRonde Ore | CAROLINE OLSEN
15:35
STUDENT ESSAY WINNER
16:25
CONFERENCE CONCLUDES
13:25 Performance of the TankCell e500 at the Kevitsa Mine | ANTTI RINNE 13:50
MINERALOGY AND HYDROMETALLURGY
KEVIN SWEDBURG AND MIKE SAMUELS
14:45
Improved Cleaner Circuit Performance at DeGrussa Copper Mine with in situ Column sparging system | ERIC BAIN WASMUND
15:10
Typical Reproducability of Metal Balances in Flotation Plants | LUC LACHANCE
15:35
Reflectance Spectroscopy with X-ray Fluorescense for Rapid Slurry Analysis' | JUHA TIMPERI
16:00
Improvement in Copper Flotation-In Terms of Recovery and Concentrate with the use of Specialty Chemical- FLEX 31 | SURESH THIRUNAGARI
November/Novembre 2015 | 57
SECTION francophone 64 Eaux troubles
Soumises à des pressions financières et à un examen public, les sociétés minières sont aux prises avec l’épineux problème de la gestion des résidus miniers
59 Lettre de l’éditeur 59 Mot du président Par Eavan Moore
60 Une petite société canadienne lance un
concours d’exploration par externalisation ouverte
61 Un sentiment hostile à l’uranium freine Par Antoine Dion-Ortega
l’exploration au Québec
68 Profil du projet : La mine de rubis Par Kate Sheridan
Aappalutoq de True North Gems Par Chris Windeyer
La version française intégrale du CIM Magazine est disponible en ligne : magazine.CIM.org/fr-CA
lettre de l’éditeur
Réflexions sur le bassin de rétention
I
l y a quatre ans, le Canada était l’hôte de la Conférence internationale annuelle sur la fermeture de mines. C’était la première fois que cet événement se déroulait au Canada et un sentiment d’urgence prévalait alors. À cette époque, la Directive 074, initiative lancée par l’Energy Resources Conservation Board de l’Alberta pour endiguer le flux des résidus fins dans les bassins des mines de sables bitumineux, en était encore à ses balbutiements. En revanche, son objectif ambitieux, soit la restauration des terres recouvertes par les résidus, était fixé. Qui plus est, le souvenir des centaines de canards englués dans un bassin de résidus boueux est encore bien présent dans l’esprit de la population. Lors de cette conférence, l’ingénieur-conseil Andy Robertson a parlé du problème grandissant que représente le nombre croissant de bassins d’accumulation de résidus pour leur milieu et, ultérieurement, pour l’industrie minière. Son message était le suivant : si nous continuons à bâtir des mines plus grandes pour extraire des minerais à plus faible teneur et à retenir les stériles qui découlent des activités minières derrière des barrages de taille aussi imposante, le risque d’une rupture catastrophique montera en flèche. La présentation de M. Robertson a été marquante, car elle illustrait des faits fort à-propos. La défaillance du bassin de retenue des résidus de la mine Mount Polley en 2014 a ravivé ce sentiment d’urgence et, comme l’explique en détail le collaborateur à la rédaction, Eavan Moore, dans son article intitulé « Eaux troubles » (page 32), les ingénieurs, les sociétés minières et les organismes de réglementation subissent des pressions pour apporter des changements, mais ils ne sont pas certains des changements qui devraient être faits exactement. Par ailleurs, d’autres parties prenantes réclament un rééquilibre des barèmes qui évaluent le risque de défaillance par rapport aux coûts en matière de prévention. Il en résulterait une reddition de comptes plus rigoureuse quant à l’incidence financière et sociale d’une défaillance d’un bassin de rétention, et, probablement, une plus grande motivation à procéder à certains investissements dans des technologies qui contribueraient à réduire le risque d’une telle catastrophe. Ceci étant dit, je dois faire remarquer que les organismes de réglementation albertains ont jeté au rebut la Directive 074 un peu plus tôt cette année. Les exploitants de sables bitumineux ont systématiquement fait fi des objectifs fixés par la directive créée en 2009 en partie pour réagir à la mort de centaines d’oiseaux survenue dans un bassin de rétention, l’année précédente. Les défis techniques s’avèrent plus complexes que ne le sont la politique et ses délais prévus. L’ébauche de nouvelles lignes directrices provinciales est imminente. Aujourd’hui, compte tenu des nombreux et nouveaux développements en suspens, voilà une occasion unique de consacrer du temps et de l’énergie au défi que requièrent la gestion des résidus et leur réglementation, sans subir de fortes pressions de délais. En ce qui a trait à l’élaboration de politiques, tout comme c’est le cas en ingénierie, une mauvaise conception entraînera une défaillance. Ryan Bergen, Rédacteur en chef editor@cim.org @Ryan_CIM_Mag
mot du president
L’exploitation minière sous la loupe
L
’exploitation minière est essentielle pour tout ce que nous avons et réalisons en tant que société, mais, étant moi-même un piqueur, je ressens constamment le besoin de défendre son existence même. Cette industrie est à la base de notre prospérité et elle est au cœur de presque toutes nos entreprises et de nos valeurs, indépendamment de notre famille, de nos amis, et de nos animaux de compagnie. Beaucoup de gens sont encore persuadés que l’exploitation minière est une activité sale et dangereuse et qu’elle devrait être abolie. C’est encore plus irréaliste que de dire que nous devrions cesser d’utiliser les combustibles fossiles. Au moins, nous disposons de combustibles de substitution alors qu’aucune solution de rechange à l’exploitation minière ne s’est avérée efficace jusqu’à maintenant et qu’un taux de recyclage de 100 % de la ferraille n’offre aucune occasion de croissance. Qui plus est, un virage en faveur des sources d’énergie renouvelable est impossible en l’absence des produits provenant des éléments que nous extrayons. Certes, les sociétés minières seront toujours jugées d’après les anciennes pratiques, mais nous devons l’accepter. En effet, sans le passé, nous ne pouvons apprendre ni grandir. Nous continuons de mieux faire et, oui, il y a eu des échecs, mais nous nous améliorons constamment. En tant que géoscientifique, je crois au concept de développement durable, ce qui pour moi signifie travailler de façon à permettre l’extraction, le transport et le traitement sécuritaires des ressources dont dépend notre survie, et ce, dans le respect et à l’avantage des générations futures. Nous disons à ceux qui ont une perception négative de l’exploitation minière et de ses effets que nous prenons au sérieux la confiance que la société nous accorde et que nous croyons avoir une obligation de diligence. Nous devons donc tenir le public informé du bilan de l’industrie minière en matière de sécurité et veiller à ce que nos pratiques soient les meilleures qui existent, mais aussi les meilleures applicables. Quand nous nous apercevons d’une erreur, nous devons la corriger, et nous devons dénoncer les mauvaises pratiques quand nous en voyons. Nous persévérerons, car malgré ce que les autres peuvent croire, nous savons que l’exploitation minière est une nécessité et doit demeurer vigoureuse et durable. Vivat fodienda…longue vie à l’exploitation minière!
Garth Kirkham Président de l’ICM November/Novembre 2015 | 59
Les actualités Du nuage à la réalité sur le terrain Une petite société minière canadienne lance un concours d’externalisation ouverte dans le domaine de l’exploration
La société Integra Gold basée à Vancouver a lancé en septembre un concours d’externalisation ouverte (de l’anglais crowdsourcing, également appelé production participative) dans l’espoir de découvrir un trésor caché sur sa toute nouvelle propriété du Québec. La société a officiellement lancé son concours, baptisé Ruée vers l’or, le 18 septembre dernier, et a invité les internautes du monde entier à analyser des données minières historiques de sa propriété de Sigma-Lamaque, à Vald’Or, dans l’optique de dénicher un hypothétique futur gisement aurifère. Une fois inscrit(e)s, les participant(e)s peuvent télécharger les données sur la plateforme d’externalisation ouverte HeroX et obtiennent l’accès au logiciel Leapfrog de modélisation géologique en 3D. À peine une semaine après le lancement du concours, 1 200 personnes de 65 pays s’étaient inscrites, et plus de la moitié avaient déjà téléchargé les données. Elles ont jusqu’au 1er décembre 2015 pour envoyer leurs suggestions concernant les cibles potentielles et pourront peut-être remporter des prix allant de 10 000 $ à 500 000 $ pour la première place, pour une valeur totale d’un million $. Les suggestions seront évaluées par six géologues, à savoir Neil Adshead, stratège en placement chez le gestionnaire d’actifs Sprott ; Andrew Brown, géologue en chef pour l’Afrique de l’ouest chez B2Gold ; Benoît Dubé, chercheur scientifique principal à la Commission géologique du Canada (CGC) ; James Franklin, ancien chercheur scientifique principal à la retraite à la Commission géologique du 60 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Valerian Mazataud
Par Antoine Dion-Ortega
François Chabot, directeur opérations et ingénierie à Integra, examine l’une des nombreuses documents abandonnées par les précédents propriétaires de la mine Sigma. Derrière lui sont entreposées les archives papier de chacun des trous forés sur la propriété depuis 1939.
Canada (CGC) ; David Rhys, géologueconseil à Panterra Geoservices, et Brian Skanderbeg, président et chef de la direction à Claude Resources. Le complexe Sigma-Lamaque consiste en deux mines distinctes : la mine Sigma, de Placer Dome, et la mine Lamaque, de Teck. Placer Dome les a regroupées en 1993. Au cours de leurs 60 années d’existence, elles ont produit plus de 9 millions d’onces d’or. La propriété contient encore 586 000 onces de ressources mesurées et indiquées. Quand l’équipe d’Integra a acquis le complexe minier auprès de la chancelante Century Mining Corporation pour 8 millions $ en octobre 2014, elle a reçu une liste de chacun des actifs inclus dans la transaction. Mais une fois arrivés dans le bureau d’exploration, les membres de l’équipe ont
découvert plusieurs disques durs externes abandonnés par les précédents propriétaires, lesquels renfermaient 75 années de données brutes remontant jusqu’en septembre 1939. « Cette compilation de données effectuée par les précédents propriétaires représentait plusieurs millions de dollars en heures de travail », déclarait Georges Salamis, président du conseil d’administration d’Integra. « Ils ont fait faillite et n’ont pas eu l’occasion de les utiliser. » Ces données consistaient principalement en des numérisations d’images haute résolution de vieilles archives sur papier que Sigma avaient accumulées au cours du siècle dernier et qui se trouvent encore aujourd’hui sur les étagères d’une pièce étroite du complexe Sigma-Lamaque. Il s’agit pour la plu-
les actualités part de tableaux contenant des relevés géologiques de chacun des trous de forage de la propriété. Ces numérisations représentaient l’équivalent de six téraoctets (To) de données. Selon M. Salamis, l’analyse de toutes ces données requiert des dizaines de milliers d’heures de travail. « Nous aurions pu demander à nos géologues de s’atteler à cette tâche, mais cela les aurait détourné de leur travail à la zone Triangle », indiquaitil. Cette zone de la propriété Lamaque située au sud de la mine présente jusqu’à maintenant de très bons résultats de forage. « Ils ont conclu qu’il leur faudrait plusieurs années de compilation et d’analyse pour parvenir à une conclusion satisfaisante [quant au potentiel de la propriété]. » Or, les géologues étaient déjà occupés à analyser les résultats des campagnes de forage d’hiver et d’été sur la propriété Lamaque, en plus de diriger le programme de forage en cours. « La zone Triangle est prioritaire, aussi nous nous concentrons là-dessus », indiquait Langis St-Pierre, directeur de l’exploitation d’Integra. « C’est dans cette zone que nous avons toutes les chances d’ouvrir une mine à court terme. Ceci ne signifie pas pour autant que l’on ne mettra pas à contribution les données générées par le concours. »
Exploration de données Integra n’est pas la première société minière à se servir de l’externalisation ouverte comme outil d’exploration.
Sous la direction de Rob McEwen, Goldcorp avait lancé en 2000 un concours similaire, qui avait mené à des découvertes aurifères sous la mine Red Lake d’une valeur de plus de 6 milliards $. Ce concours n’avait coûté que 575 000 $ en prix à la société, et la mine est depuis devenue l’un des plus importants producteurs d’or au Canada. « M. McEwen et Goldcorp sont les véritables pionniers de l’externalisation ouverte dans le secteur minier », indiquait M. Salamis.
Des manuscrits papier aux graphiques en 3D Mettre en ligne les archives de Sigma n’a pas été facile. En premier lieu, Integra devait transformer six téraoctets d’images scannées en modèles géologiques numériques plus digestes. Ainsi, elle a embauché le prestataire de services pour le secteur minier InnovExplo de Val-d’Or afin qu’il transforme ces images 2D en fichiers 3D, ce qui, selon M. Salamis, était une tâche extrêmement laborieuse. « Pour chaque trou de forage mentionné dans la base de données, leur équipe devait retrouver dans les archives papier les informations correspondantes », expliquait-il. « Si elle ne les retrouvait pas, le trou de forage n’était pas pris en compte. » Au final, cette opération aura mobilisé 12 personnes pendant les trois mois d’été. En août, les six téraoctets avaient été compressés en 25 gigaoctets (Go). Le contrat a coûté « des centaines
de milliers de dollars » à la société, indiquait M. Salamis. Comme si tout cela n’était pas assez compliqué, les mines Sigma et Lamaque, qui ne communiquaient pas avant leur fusion en 1993, utilisaient des unités de mesure différentes dans leurs diagraphies. Ainsi, tout au long de son existence, la mine Sigma aura utilisé tour à tour les onces par tonne, les grammes par tonne, les pennyweights par tonne et même les dollars par tonne, selon le prix de l’or de l’époque. Quant à Lamaque, elle utilisait principalement les onces par tonne. Les deux mines employaient également différentes grilles pour cartographier les trous de forage. « Il a fallu uniformiser les données ; c’était une entreprise titanesque », indiquait M. Salamis. Même si la base de données a été réduite à 25 Go, Integra ne pouvait pas l’héberger sur son propre serveur. Elle a donc fait appel aux services Web d’Amazon. « Notre serveur n’aurait pas supporté une telle charge si nous l’avions fait nous-mêmes », faisait remarquer M. Salamis. Integra ne s’intéresse cependant pas à ce qui coule de source. « Nous sommes à la recherche de recommandations spécifiques ou de cibles précises, ainsi que d’un raisonnement géologique, statistique ou mathématique qui nous explique pourquoi ces cibles sont celles qu’il faut tester. Tracer une flèche sur une carte en écrivant simplement “ forez ici ” ne nous suffit pas. » ICM
Non ! Le ressentiment envers l’uranium met fin à l’exploration au Québec Par Kate Sheridan Le climat politique au Québec force les sociétés d’extraction de l’uranium à tourner le dos à « la belle province ». Le 21 septembre, la société Uracan Resources a actualisé le statut des estimations des ressources minérales en uranium de son projet de la Côte-Nord au Québec, stipulant qu’aucune res-
source ne pouvait être développée dans cette région, ce qui impliquait l’arrêt du projet. Uracan avait déjà dû amortir l’investissement financier dans le projet en 2012, mais les estimations des ressources minérales avaient dû être corrigées pour éviter d’induire les investisseurs en erreur.
« Nous ne prétendons pas que les données sous-jacentes sont incorrectes », expliquait Marc Simpson, président et chef de la direction d’Uracan. « Cependant, étant donné le contexte politique et le fait que nous devons avoir la possibilité de développer une ressource pour que la NI 43-101 soit November/Novembre 2015 | 61
62 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Gracieuseté d’Uracan Resources
valide, nous souhaitions prendre les devants. » Cette possibilité, comme l’expliquait la société, a été réduite à néant suite au refus du ministère de l’environnement de la province de lui délivrer les permis d’exploration de l’uranium, et à un rapport au mois de mai du bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), l’organisme provincial de consultation publique du Québec. Le rapport du BAPE concluait que si le gouvernement du Québec décidait d’ouvrir la porte à l’exploitation de l’uranium sur son territoire, il devrait répondre à trois exigences, à savoir l’acceptabilité sociale, des « connaissances fiables » qui combleraient les lacunes scientifiques et certaines incertitudes sur le plan technique, et un cadre légal. « De telles conditions ne peuvent être assumées de façon réaliste avant plusieurs années », lisait-on dans le rapport. « Ainsi, il serait contre-indiqué, dans le contexte actuel, d’autoriser l’exploitation de l’uranium sur le territoire québécois. » Le gouvernement du Québec a demandé au BAPE d’établir ce rapport en 2013, année durant laquelle il a imposé un moratoire de facto sur l’exploitation de l’uranium. Le Québec n’est pas la seule province à dénigrer le développement de la filière uranifère. La Nouvelle-Écosse et la Colombie-Britannique avaient imposé des moratoires dans les années 1980, mais les ont laissés arriver à expiration. Ces provinces ont rétabli le projet de loi (des moratoires) ces dix dernières années. D’après la Commission canadienne de sûreté nucléaire (CCSN), la seule province où l’on trouve des mines uranifères actives est la Saskatchewan. Cette province abrite la plus grande mine d’uranium au monde, McArthur River, conjointement détenue par AREVA et Cameco. « La Saskatchewan comprend l’intérêt de l’uranium, sur les plans politique autant que social et économique », indiquait M. Simpson. « Mieux vaut vous installer là où vous êtes les bienvenus. » Uracan détient des options
Face à l’attitude glaciale du Québec envers l’exploitation de l’uranium, Uracan Resources a décidé en septembre d’officiellement mettre fin au développement de sa propriété de la Côte-Nord.
dans les propriétés de Clearwater et de Black Lake dans le bassin d’Athabasca de la Saskatchewan. « Les habitants de la Saskatchewan sont de fervents défenseurs de l’exploitation minière, et notamment de l’extraction et de la concentration de l’uranium », indiquait Pam Schwann, directrice exécutive de la Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA, l’association minière de la Saskatchewan). « La Saskatchewan comprend très bien et apprécie à sa juste valeur le développement des ressources dans la province. » Cinq des sites uranifères de la Saskatchewan détiennent la certification ISO 14001 pour leur gestion environnementale, déclarait Mme Schwann. En 2014, les sites miniers d’extraction et de concentration de l’uranium employaient 3 200 personnes dans la province. Une enquête menée par la SMA montrait que 77 % des habitants de la province soutiennent l’exploitation de l’uranium. « L’acceptabilité sociale est le premier facteur à prendre en compte », expliquait Michel A. Bouchard, confé-
rencier à l’université McGill et expert en évaluations environnementales, ajoutant que la notion d’acceptabilité sociale s’était transformée en permis social d’exploitation. « Elle n’a rien de nouveau et c’est une notion que connaissent bien les sociétés minières. » Cependant, indiquait M. Bouchard, le rapport du BAPE est contestable car il ne définit pas cette notion d’acceptabilité sociale et n’a pas dûment étudié l’expérience de la Saskatchewan. « La Saskatchewan est une preuve suffisamment claire que l’exploitation est tout à fait envisageable avec l’acceptabilité sociale des Premières Nations », indiquait-il. « Cela prouve que lorsque les choses sont bien faites, il est possible de réduire les risques à des niveaux acceptables. » L’importance qu’accorde le rapport du BAPE à l’acceptabilité sociale a également fait l’objet de critiques de la part de l’industrie et des autorités fédérales chargées de la réglementation. Michael Binder, président et directeur général de la CCSN, a envoyé une lettre ouverte au BAPE en
juillet dans laquelle il qualifiait les résultats du rapport de « troublants ». « Il est évident que la recommandation du BAPE consistant à étouffer les projets d’exploitation est fondée sur la perception du manque d’acceptabilité sociale, et non sur des principes scientifiquement éprouvés », lisait-on dans la lettre ouverte. « Je tiens à rappeler au ministre que la CCSN, dont l’un des commissaires est l’ancien président du BAPE, a pris une décision en 2013 concernant l’approbation d’un projet d’extraction de l’uranium au nord du Québec (Strateco) car il avait été jugé sécuritaire. » Bien que le projet de mine Matoush à forte teneur en uranium de Strateco ait été approuvé par la CCSN, il s’est vu refuser l’octroi du certificat d’autorisation nécessaire de la province pour poursuivre ses activités. Le président et chef de la direction de Strateco Guy Hébert a également réfuté les critères d’acceptabilité sociale avancés par le BAPE, car ils n’étaient selon lui pas suffisamment clairs pour que les sociétés puissent prendre les mesures nécessaires. Les difficultés rencontrées par la société sont maintenant au cœur d’une poursuite judiciaire de 190 millions $ contre le gouvernement du Québec. Le jugement pourrait commencer dès l’année prochaine. Cette société basée au Québec, qui travaille sur le projet depuis 2006, a lancé la poursuite en justice l’année dernière, prétendant que le gouvernement provincial avait encouragé le développement du projet jusqu’à ce qu’il décide arbitrairement de l’interrompre. D’après un communiqué de presse de la société datant de décembre l’an dernier, Strateco a investi en moyenne 20 millions $ par an dans ce projet entre 2006 et 2012, date à laquelle elle s’est vu refuser l’octroi du certificat d’autorisation nécessaire pour procéder à l’exploration avancée de son projet de mine d’uranium. Comme le revendique M. Hébert, la société est autorisée à obtenir ce permis au regard de sa conformité avec le processus de délivrance de permis qui existait avant l’entrée en vigueur du moratoire. Un communiqué de presse de Strateco de décembre 2014 indiquait que le ministre provincial de l’environnement avait refusé d’approuver sa demande en raison du manque d’acceptabilité sociale. Cependant, réfutait M. Hébert, la société mérite bien plus que l’obtention d’un permis à l’issue de la poursuite. « Nous avons dû nous séparer de notre équipement et le vendre à un prix terriblement bas ; nous avons dû licencier tou(te)s nos employé(e)s », expliquait M. Hébert. « Nous avons également dû amortir plus de 19 millions $ investis et le cours de notre action s’est tout simplement effondré ». Il ajoutait que les dépenses ont été vérifiées par une société d’expertise comptable judiciaire. « Les préjudices causés sont permanents. Ce qui est fait est fait. » Il espère être en mesure de récupérer une partie du capital investi afin de pouvoir rembourser ses actionnaires, dont la plupart sont des investisseurs institutionnels. « Ils étaient prêts à prendre un risque sur ce métal et ce marché », indiquait-il, « mais nous n’étions pas censés être confrontés à ce genre de risque politique au Québec ». ICM November/Novembre 2015 | 63
Après la catastrophe de Mount Polley, les sociétés minières et les ingénieurs s’efforcent d’évaluer le risque lié au maintien du statu quo Par Eavan Moore Six mois avant la défaillance du bassin de retenue des résidus de la mine Mount Polley en août 2014, les cendres de charbon toxiques d’une installation de stockage se sont déversées dans la rivière Eden en Caroline du Nord. Un mois après Mount Polley, trois travailleurs ont péri dans un incident similaire survenu à la mine Herculano au Brésil. S’agissait-il d’une année exceptionnellement mauvaise? Pas nécessairement. Selon un rapport publié en juillet 2015 par David M. Chambers, président du Center for Science in Public Participation, et par Lindsay Bowker, militante du Maine ayant de l’expérience dans des projets de construction civile, de 1990 à 2010, 33 cas de défaillance d’un bassin de retenue ont entraîné la fuite de plus de 100 000 mètres cubes de résidus semi-solides ou causé des décès. Selon les tendances historiques, les auteurs prédisent que onze autres événements du genre surviendront d’ici 2020. En janvier 2015, un groupe de trois experts nommé pour enquêter sur les causes du déversement de résidus miniers à la mine Mount Polley ont tiré des conclusions semblables, quoique moins dramatiques. « Si le nombre de bassins de retenue des résidus en exploitation en [Colombie-Britannique] demeure inchangé et si la performance future reflète celle du passé, alors il y aura en moyenne deux défaillances tous les dix ans et six tous les 30 ans », ont écrit les membres du groupe d’experts. « Devant de telles perspectives, le groupe d’experts rejette fermement toute prétention selon laquelle le statu quo peut être maintenu. » 64 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Le moment est venu pour les sociétés minières, les ingénieurs-conseils, les investisseurs, les organismes de réglementation et la population en général de déterminer comment ce « statu quo » doit être changé et par qui. La fuite de résidus à Mount Polley a ouvert une discussion entre de très nombreux intervenants au Canada, selon un membre du groupe d’experts, Dirk van Zyl, qui est également professeur de génie minier à l’Université de la ColombieBritannique. « Plusieurs ingénieurs responsables de la gestion des résidus miniers de diverses entreprises sont vraiment réunis pour décider de ce qu’il faut faire afin que ce qui est arrivé à Mount Polley ne se reproduise plus. »
Gestion des eaux
Un champ d’enquête qui s’impose consiste à examiner la nature même du désastre survenu à Mount Polley : après la rupture de la digue, près de 25 millions de mètres cubes d’eau, de résidus et d’eau interstitielle se sont déversés dans le réseau hydrographique des rivières Quesnel et Cariboo. Ce type de rupture est un risque inhérent aux bassins de retenue classiques remplis d’eau. « La défaillance de ces installations de stockage est presque inévitable à long terme », a expliqué M. van Zyl. Le groupe d’experts a lancé un appel à l’industrie minière pour l’élimination progressive, mais complète, des couvertures aqueuses. KGHM, promoteur du projet de la mine Ajax près de Kamloops, en Colombie-Britannique, a accueilli avec attention l’appel
lancé par le groupe d’experts pour qu’il revoie son plan de gestion des résidus miniers. L’entreprise avait prévu de présenter en 2015 une demande d’évaluation environnementale en lien notamment avec une installation de stockage à couverture aqueuse conventionnelle, avec rejet de stériles sous forme de boue d’une teneur en humidité de 68 %. Toutefois, pour donner suite au rapport du groupe d’experts, la mine Ajax a commandé une nouvelle étude de compromis afin de réévaluer ses options. La demande soumise par le promoteur au milieu de 2015 était bien différente. En effet, les résidus rejetés seraient épaissis jusqu’à ce qu’ils aient une teneur en humidité d’environ 40 %. Le promoteur de la mine Ajax a également renforcé sa digue par l’ajout d’un contrefort plus haut et plus large que la paroi qu’il soutient et en réalisant des travaux géotechniques supplémentaires dans le but de repérer les points faibles. La mine Ajax a cependant évité les solutions plus radicales. Dans le cadre de l’étude, on avait également envisagé l’utilisation d’une pâte (d’une teneur en humidité d’environ 30 %) et de résidus filtrés, d’une teneur en humidité d’au plus 20 %, que l’on pourrait laisser en lisse sèche sans soutien. On a estimé que la pâte n’était pas une solution éprouvée pour une installation de la taille de celle d’Ajax. La conclusion a été la même pour les résidus en lisse sèche qui, de l’avis d’un grand nombre de spécialistes, n’ont fait leurs preuves que pour les mines d’un débit de 20 000 tonnes ou moins par jour. La mine présentait un défi particulier en raison de son débit de 65 000 tonnes par jour. De plus, le site était « tout près de l’une des principales voies de communication du Canada et assez près de [Kamloops] », a indiqué Clyde Gillespie, responsable de la mise en valeur des projets d’Ajax. On craignait également que le vent soulève la poussière des résidus secs et que le matériel de compactage soit une source de pollution sonore et lumineuse. En outre, comme l’a admis M. Gillespie, l’installation d’une usine de filtration supplémentaire est coûteuse, tout simplement. L’achat et l’exploitation d’un épaississeur nécessitent des dépenses en capital et des frais de fonctionnement plus élevés que le matériel de traitement de la boue, mais cette solution est considérablement plus abordable que celle de la lisse sèche. « Je crois que [Mount Polley] a servi à nous montrer que nous devons faire preuve d’un peu plus de rigueur et de minutie pendant le processus de conception », a souligné M. Gillespie. « Beaucoup de ces outils sont encore probablement adéquats, mais ce qui compte, c’est la rigueur dont nous faisons preuve dès les premières étapes de la conception d’une installation, puis pendant son exploitation tout au long de la durée de vie de la mine. »
examen externe
Le souci du détail est un concept clé pour le groupe d’experts de Mount Polley, qui a recommandé, en ce qui a trait aux résidus, de confier à des comités d’examen indépendants le soin de vérifier que rien n’a été oublié sur le plan de la conception avant que le projet ne soit présenté dans sa forme définitive et soumis aux organismes responsables de l’émission des permis. Mount Polley a démontré de façon éloquente que même les plus grandes sociétés d’ingénierie peuvent faire des erreurs.
« Je crois que le changement de paradigme est d’avoir un examen externe », a expliqué Irwin Wislesky, directeur technique des résidus et des déchets miniers à SLR Consulting. « Je crois que cela est très important. Certaines sociétés minières le font déjà, mais la plupart, non. » Comme l’a suggéré M. Wislesky, un des principaux problèmes qu’un tel comité d’examen pourrait contribuer à atténuer est celui des soumissions au rabais pour le travail de conception proprement dit. Les sociétés minières n’ont pas toujours la volonté ou la capacité de payer pour des analyses exhaustives qui tiennent pleinement compte des conditions du site. « Le problème n’est pas seulement lié aux sociétés minières qui hésitent à octroyer un financement approprié, a-t-il ajouté, mais aussi aux sociétés d’ingénierie qui réduisent leurs tarifs pour décrocher un contrat. » M. Wislesky espère que des critères rigoureux d’application de la réglementation seront élaborés dans la foulée de Mount Polley afin de définir ce qui constitue un examen indépendant adéquat, faute de quoi, cet exercice risque de n’avoir aucune valeur. Comme l’a expliqué M. Wislesky, lorsque la ColombieBritannique a demandé que toutes les installations de stockage des résidus soient soumises à un examen indépendant, « en substance, selon un des commentaires formulés dans un des rapports d’examen est que tout était correct parce qu’une société d’ingénierie professionnelle s’était chargée de la conception. »
Le coût initiaL de La Lisse sèche est compensé par ses avantaGes à LonG terme
Tahoe Resources a bien soumis le plan de gestion des résidus de sa mine Escobal, au Guatemala, à l’évaluation de ses pairs en 2012. La lisse sèche s’est rapidement imposée comme une stratégie réaliste pour la mise en valeur du minerai argentifère. Le filtrage des résidus, suivi de leur empilage à sec, comporte de nombreux avantages : il permet de conserver l’eau dans les climats arides, il élimine le risque de débordement lors de fortes pluies, l’encombrement est relativement faible, le déversement est limité en cas de défaillance de l’installation et la surveillance requise à long terme est minimale après la fermeture. L’équilibre hydrique, les contraintes d’espace, l’aspect esthétique, l’activité sismique et un certain nombre d’autres considérations ont incité Tahoe à commencer à empiler des résidus très compactés, d’une teneur en humidité de 15 %, dans une vallée, après avoir construit un mur au pied de la colline. « Nous avons construit la mine en pensant à sa fermeture », a mentionné Charlie Muerhoff, vice-président des services techniques à Tahoe. « La lisse sèche fait l’objet d’un processus de récupération pendant les travaux de construction ; donc, essentiellement, à la fin de l’exploitation de la mine, les délais et les coûts de fermeture seront très limités. » Entre la phase de démarrage en octobre 2013 et le milieu de 2015, on a placé et compacté à la mine Escobal près de 0,61 million de mètres cubes, alors que la capacité nominale totale est de neuf millions. Le contrefort avant de chaque gradin successif a reçu une couche de terre végétale de qualité avant d’être ensemencé. « Lorsque les gens regardent la mine à travers la vallée, ils ne voient pas une grosse pile de roches et de résidus, mais une pente verdoyante », a souligné M. Muerhoff. November/Novembre 2015 | 65
Le filtrage et l’empilage des résidus sont une technique en plein essor depuis cinq ans environ, mais elle est encore rarement utilisée. L’utilisation de filtres est tout simplement impossible dans certaines mines, comme celles dont le minerai est riche en argile. Malgré tout, M. Muerhoff est un peu étonné que les responsables de la mine Escobal n’aient pas reçu plus de demandes de renseignements de leurs homologues d’autres mines qu’une telle stratégie intéresserait. « Nous croyons que notre installation est un exemple édifiant, a-t-il affirmé, « tant d’un point de vue technique qu’opérationnel et environnemental. Nous en sommes tous très fiers. » Il se peut que certaines mines plus grandes attendent tout simplement de voir comment cette technologie peut être appliquée à plus large échelle. Selon Robert Cooke, directeur non associé au cabinet d’experts-conseils Paterson & Cooke, la plus grande avancée technologique liée à la filtration a été l’augmentation de la taille des filtres à pression, ainsi que la pression utilisée pour ce processus. Ces nouveaux filtres permettent d’atteindre un débit de plus de 20 000 tonnes par jour, mais leur efficacité reste à démontrer dans les installations de grande envergure. C’est la raison pour laquelle les spécialistes des résidus s’intéressent beaucoup au projet de mine de cuivre de Hudbay Minerals à Rosemont, en Arizona. Avec son débit pouvant s’élever jusqu’à 80 000 tonnes par jour, Rosemont repoussera les limites connues concernant la capacité des usines de filtration. Patrick Merrin, vice-président de l’unité fonctionnelle de l’Arizona de Hudbay Minerals, a minimisé le caractère novateur de la technologie mise en œuvre à la mine Rosemont puisqu’on y emploiera en gros les mêmes filtres que ceux utilisés à la petite mine de fer de Karara, en Australie, la seule différence étant qu’on aura recours à un plus grand nombre de filtres. « Que l’on ait dix filtres ou 18 filtres, la taille des filtres ne change pas et le processus est le même », a-t-il indiqué. « Pour nous, il s’agit d’une technologie raisonnablement éprouvée, malgré le fait que nous l’utiliserons à une échelle beaucoup plus vaste. »
« Les résidus fiLtrés ne fonctionnent pas »
Selon Dirk van Zyl, les gens qui l’approchent ne sont pas tous enthousiastes face aux nouvelles technologies. On peut résumer les conversations qu’il a avec eux en ces termes : « Vous êtes fous, les gars. Les résidus filtrés ne fonctionnent pas. » Qu’est-ce que cela peut entraîner comme conséquences lorsque la solution qui fonctionne bien connaît quelques ratés par année? La pierre d’achoppement pour ces personnes pourrait être l’absence d’exemples à suivre en fonction du tonnage désiré, ou il peut s’agir de considérations techniques ou d’enjeux liés à la gestion des eaux pour un site donné. Par exemple, les résidus de la nouvelle mine Constancia de Hudbay ne 66 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
sont pas filtrés. « Au Pérou, où il pleut abondamment pendant six mois et où les conditions sont très arides le reste de l’année, il faut des structures pour capter l’eau ; il est donc plus approprié d’avoir une installation de stockage des résidus qui peut remplir ces deux fonctions », a déclaré M. Merrin. M. van Zyl croit cependant que la meilleure analyse de rentabilité que l’on peut fournir pour les concepts novateurs en matière de gestion des résidus – cela devrait être fait, mais ne l’est pas toujours, – consiste à évaluer tout le cycle de vie, ce qui inclut le coût d’une défaillance. Dans chaque évaluation, on reconnaît, d’une façon ou d’une autre, que les défaillances ont un coût, mais pour juger de tout l’impact d’une solution, il faut considérer les défaillances comme une possibilité importante envisagée dans le processus de planification.
coûts sociaux
Les coûts pour la société ne sont pas systématiquement pris en compte dans de telles analyses du cycle de vie. Franco Oboni, fondateur du cabinet-conseil Riskope, aimerait remédier à cette situation. Dans le cadre de son travail, il s’efforce de considérer des dommages qui semblent incommensurables. Pour certains contrats, il a tenu compte de l’éventualité de la perte de modes de vie traditionnels, ce qui pourrait arriver si une catastrophe environnementale obligeait toute une population autochtone à quitter son territoire. « C’est à ce moment que beaucoup de gens protestent en me demandant comment on peut comptabiliser des pertes non matérielles ? », a mentionné M. Oboni. La meilleure réponse à cette question, Riskope l’a trouvée dans l’œuvre des psychiatres Thomas Holmes et Richard Rahe, qui ont élaboré une échelle d’évaluation du stress connue sous l’appellation d’« unités de changement de vie » dans les années 1960. Selon leur modèle, des valeurs ponctuelles sont attribuées à des facteurs de stress, comme un déménagement, la perte d’un emploi ou un changement dans les habitudes de sommeil. L’échelle a été validée en comparant les résultats obtenus par des patients à un test de stress et leur état de santé. La méthodologie ne fait pas l’unanimité, mais comme le soutient M. Oboni : « Il vaut mieux faire quelque chose qui n’est pas exact à 100 % que de se couvrir la face en disant : ‘Oh, je ne peux pas le faire, alors je vais conduire la nuit sans allumer les phares.’ »
une autre paire d’yeux
Ce n’est pas le seul problème que M. Oboni entrevoit. Il estime qu’une évaluation des risques effectuée par un tiers parti complètement indépendant ajouterait un niveau de contrôle indispensable au système actuel, et ferait contrepoids à l’intérêt que l’entreprise et ses ingénieurs-conseils ont à ce que leur projet se situe dans la zone d’acceptabilité des risques. M. Oboni juge qu’il est essentiel d’éliminer les conflits d’intérêts en faisant appel à des spécialistes de l’évaluation des
risques qui utilisent des outils relativement évolués. Il fait valoir que l’outil habituel des ingénieurs, la très répandue analyse des modes de défaillance et de leurs effets (AMDE), traite les défaillances individuellement et ne tient pas compte du fait que chaque petit coup porté à l’intégrité d’une structure fait augmenter de façon exponentielle la possibilité qu’un incident technique survienne. Il s’agit là d’un point important, parce que c’est souvent la faible probabilité d’un sinistre majeur qui incite les entreprises à aller de l’avant en prenant un risque. Voici ce que M. van Zyl a observé au sujet d’une des méthodes de calcul les plus courantes : « Si on suppose que la probabilité d’une défaillance est d’une sur un million et qu’il en coûtera 500 millions de dollars pour la réparer, alors le coût lié à ce risque est de 500 $. Les gens diront probablement qu’ils seraient à l’aise de vivre avec un tel coût pour ce risque. Je crois que la question qu’il faut se poser est de savoir comment on peut planifier la résilience d’une entreprise pour qu’elle survive à un coût de 500 millions de dollars ? Pourriez-vous assumer physiquement un tel coût et poursuivre vos activités ? » Il y a une autre raison pour laquelle les coûts de décontamination futurs semblent perdre de l’importance. Les entreprises sous-estiment généralement leurs propres passifs à long terme. À l’aide de données hypothétiques, si une entreprise évalue qu’une fermeture lui coûtera dix millions de dollars dans 20 ans, elle investira 50 000 $ dans une obligation, en espérant qu’avec l’inflation et les intérêts, ce montant aura été multiplié quand elle en aura besoin. « Considérer les coûts de fermeture en fonction d’un taux d’actualisation est un peu problématique à mon avis », a précisé M. Wislesky. « Cela brouille les cartes. » Le problème, at-il expliqué, c’est que les entreprises sous-estiment l’importance de ces coûts ainsi que leur valeur en dollars. Pour la société minière moyenne, une obligation de 50 000 $ peut sembler être une meilleure affaire aujourd’hui qu’un épaississeur de 10 millions de dollars. Pour M. Wislesky cependant, une meilleure stratégie consisterait à opter pour une conception qui réduit au minimum les risques liés aux résidus, parce que les risques finissent toujours par entraîner des coûts à long terme.
sécurité
C’est rarement avec plaisir que la population accepte les risques quels qu’ils soient, mais la vérité est qu’elle le fait. M. Wislesky a fait remarquer que les gouvernements finissent éventuellement par assumer la responsabilité à long terme de la fermeture d’une mine, notamment le traitement des résidus, l’entretien et les réfections périodiques ; l’idée est que le montant des dépôts de sécurité que les sociétés minières sont tenues de payer augmentera à un rythme qui permettra de suivre l’évolution des besoins. Cependant, le dépôt de sécurité couvre les frais de remise en état des sites miniers, mais pas ceux des répercussions en aval. Brian Olding, expert-conseil en environnement qui représente les Premières Nations T’exelc (bande de Williams Lake) et Xat’sull (bande de Soda Creek) pour les questions liées à Mount Polley, pense que le processus d’évaluation environnementale des projets devrait accorder
beaucoup plus d’importance aux écosystèmes en aval. Le fait de bien comprendre toutes les répercussions permettrait de se faire une meilleure idée des risques liés à une stratégie de gestion des résidus par rapport à une autre. Il est également favorable à l’idée d’un fonds d’obligations en gestion commune dont les sociétés pourraient acheter des parts quand elles lancent leurs projets, dans l’espoir que cela leur permette de payer pour les mesures d’atténuation des accidents, leur évitant ainsi de jouer à la roulette avec les ressources publiques. « Si vous n’avez pas l’argent pour participer à un tel fonds, vous ne devriez pas être dans l’exploitation minière. Vous n’êtes tout simplement pas prêt », a-t-il affirmé. Les sommes en jeu pourraient être énormes. Dans leur rapport publié en juillet, les auteurs David Chambers et Lindsay Bowker tentent d’estimer « le coût public qui n’est pas et qui ne peut être financé » associé aux défaillances projetées et arrivent à un total de six milliards de dollars sur dix ans. M. van Zyl pense que le rapport est « plus alarmiste qu’il ne devrait », mais qu’il représente bien une rare tentative d’aborder la question du point de vue des défaillances plutôt que des frais initiaux. M. Chambers et Mme Bowker sont d’avis que les paramètres économiques actuels de l’industrie minière augmentent les risques de défaillances. Les auteurs établissent une corrélation historique entre, d’une part, le nombre de tonnes de minerai et les coûts de production, et la fréquence des défaillances majeures, d’autre part. Selon leurs conclusions, l’exploitation de minerais à teneurs moins élevées est devenue plus rentable grâce aux progrès de la technologie, mais le stockage de tous les déchets par ce minerai moins riche est devenu moins économique, ce qui en retour peut clairement inciter certains à lésiner sur l’entreposage des résidus. Même avec l’amélioration des technologies de remplacement pour la gestion des résidus, de nouveaux enjeux apparaissent par suite du déclin de ces teneurs. « La gestion des résidus va devenir plus compliquée pour tout le monde », a prédit M. Cooke. « Afin de récupérer plus de métal, on a tendance à broyer la roche plus finement, ce qui fait que les résidus eux-mêmes sont plus fins au final. Et comme ces résidus plus fins sont plus difficiles à assécher, la complexité du processus d’épaississement et de filtration s’accroît. C’est une tendance que nous observons, et je crois qu’il sera difficile d’y mettre un frein. » Cependant, l’état actuel de l’industrie fournit une bonne occasion de faire le bilan puisqu’il n’y a pas beaucoup de nouvelles mines en construction en ce moment. Cela pourrait donner un certain répit aux sociétés minières, aux organisations professionnelles et aux organismes de réglementation pour leur permettre d’élaborer de nouvelles normes. « Il y a vraiment beaucoup d’activité actuellement », a souligné M. van Zyl. « Cette situation s’explique en partie par le ralentissement dans la mise en valeur de nouveaux projets et aussi en partie parce que les gens disent : ‘Nous devons trouver une façon de donner suite aux recommandations [du groupe d’experts].’ » ICM November/Novembre 2015 | 67
Gracieuseté de True North Gems
Le camp minier d’Aappalutoq (au centre à droite) est installé près de la source d’un fjord sur la côte occidentale du Groenland.
Une première étape sertie de rubis Ces pierres rouges deviendront les premiers bijoux de la couronne de la toute nouvelle industrie minière du Groenland, True North Gems mettant en place tous les éléments de son projet de mine de rubis d’Aappaluttoq. Par Chris Windeyer
À
certains égards, le projet est petit. Son coût en capital n’est que de 35 millions de dollars. Son personnel, composé de 45 à 50 travailleurs pour la phase de construction et de quelque 60 pour la phase de production, paraîtrait squelettique comparativement au personnel employé dans certaines mines. À ciel ouvert, la mine d’Aappaluttoq, qui ne fait que quelques centaines de mètres carrés, n’est pas très grande. Mais sous d’autres aspects importants, la mine de True North Gems (TNG), société établie à Vancouver, est énorme. Il s’agit en effet d’un des premiers projets lancés sous le nouveau régime réglementaire favorable aux mines du Groenland. En pleine opération, Aappaluttoq devrait devenir un acteur important dans l’industrie mondiale du rubis, évaluée à 2 milliards de dollars. Et la teneur des réserves probables de la mine, entre 292 et 339 grammes la tonne, se compare favorablement à celle de la mine Montepuez de Gemfields, au Mozambique, la seule autre
68 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
mine de rubis importante au monde, explique Andrew Fagan, gestionnaire de projet de TNG pour Aappaluttoq.
BOUGER RAPIDEMENT L’exploration du rubis dans le sud-ouest du Groenland n’est pas particulièrement récente. Ce sont des géologues danois qui, les premiers, ont découvert les pierres dans la région, au milieu des années 1960. Une série de sociétés canadiennes et danoises ont extrait, dans la région, des échantillons et des mini échantillons en vrac prometteurs, mais la production commerciale n’a jamais été lancée. True North Gems, arrivée dans la région en 2004, s’est rapidement lancée dans un ambitieux programme d’exploration qui a permis d’obtenir l’automne dernier le financement essentiel pour la mine. La construction sur le site de la mine a commencé en octobre dernier, et M. Fagan explique que la société renoncera à l’étude de faisabilité traditionnelle, bien qu’elle ait publié
deux études de préfaisabilité, une en 2011 et l’autre, en mars de cette année. Ce qui compte, dit-il, c’est la confiance qu’accorde la société dans la géologie et l’ingénierie du projet. « La dernière étude de préfaisabilité publiée serait normalement appelée une étude de faisabilité », affirme M. Fagan. L’étude de 2015 explique en profondeur la conception de la mine, le schéma d’extraction et de traitement, prévoit une concentration en milieu dense et un triage optique plutôt que par bacs à piston et explique les chiffres relatifs aux taxes et aux redevances du projet. La difficulté dans la fixation du prix du rubis signifie qu’une étude de faisabilité conforme est impossible à réaliser. « Il n’y a pas de cours au comptant pour le rubis, ce qui rend difficile la réalisation d’une étude de faisabilité », explique-t-il. « Pour les diamants, la publication des prix et le système de classification existent depuis très longtemps, ce qui n’est pas encore le cas pour les rubis et les saphirs. » « La fixation des prix des pierres précieuses colorées est extrêmement complexe », remarque Hayley Henning, viceprésidente du marketing et du développement de la société. « Il n’y a pas de manuel, et comme le matériau a été nouvellement trouvé au Groenland, il n’existe rien sur quoi fixer une structure de prix. Nous figurerons la chose en fonction du marché et de la qualité du matériau. » Jusqu’à ce qu’Aappaluttoq commence à produire des pierres, plus tard cet automne, True North ne saura pas ce que ces pierres valent, explique Mme Henning. Pour le moment, True North se consacre à la construction et au financement. La société a trouvé une façon originale de régler simultanément ces deux aspects de son travail quand, en octobre dernier, elle a conclu un accord de financement de 11 millions de dollars avec LNS Greenland, branche groenlandaise de Leonard Nilsen & Sonner A/S, entreprise norvégienne d’exploitation minière et de construction présente dans le secteur minier en Scandinavie. En vertu de l’accord conclu avec LNS Greenland, True North a reçu 6 millions de dollars en espèces contre une participation de 27 % de LNS dans le projet, et a obtenu de cette dernière qu’elle effectue des travaux de construction d’une valeur de 5 millions de dollars, ce qui augmentera sa participation dans Aappaluttoq. « Grâce à cet accord, LNS nous a aidés à réduire sensiblement nos dépenses d’investissement », ajoute M. Fagan. En plus de la construction, LNS s’occupera de l’exploitation minière. À ce jour, la construction des principales routes reliant le port local au camp et à l’usine de traitement est terminée. M. Fagan estime que 80 % du camp est déjà construit. La mine elle-même est située sur une péninsule, et TNG prévoit abaisser de 10 mètres le niveau de l’eau du lac qui se trouve à proximité, ce qui permettrait de construire une route reliant la mine à l’usine, travail qui, selon M. Fagan, est complété à 50 %. Le secteur de l’usine de traitement a été dynamité, le béton de la dalle de l’atelier a été versé et les barres d’armature du site sont en train d’être assemblées. Tout l’équipement de l’usine de traitement est prêt et sera installé dès que la construction de
| profil de projet
Gracieuseté de True North Gems
A A P PA L U T T O Q
Une scie à fil sera utilisée pour extraire les blocs de pierre afin de limiter les dommages aux rubis
l’usine sera terminée. Les travaux de déblaiement de la mine devraient commencer cet automne. Dès que l’exploitation minière commencera, la production passera de 2 849 tonnes de minerai au cours de la première année, réduite en raison des travaux de construction, à plus de 31 000 tonnes pendant la neuvième et dernière année. La teneur des pierres précieuses contenues dans le corindon devrait atteindre 292 grammes par tonne en moyenne pendant la durée de vie de la mine. Les stériles extraits de la mine à ciel ouvert seront dynamités, le minerai sera percé et les trous seront reliés par une machine à scier à fil, commune dans le domaine des pierres d’échantillon. Les blocs sciés seront alors brisés en blocs plus petits par un brise-roche avant d’être envoyés au concasseur principal.
LOGISTIQUE Aappaluttoq est située à 20 kilomètres du petit village de pêche de Qeqertarsuatsiaat (240 habitants), lui-même distant de 150 kilomètres de la capitale groenlandaise, Nuuk. Bien que ce lieu puisse sembler éloigné de tout, l’ouest du Groenland bénéficie en fait d’un climat relativement doux et possède une infrastructure de transport bien développée. November/Novembre 2015 | 69
Gracieuseté de True North Gems
Les fondations de l’usine de traitement l’été dernier
M. Fagan fait remarquer que la température chute rarement sous les -20 oC, quoiqu’un hiver inhabituellement froid l’an dernier ait quelque peu ralenti la construction. À Nuuk, l’infrastructure de transport est plus développée que, disons, dans l’Arctique canadien, et des bateaux arrivent à son port et le quittent sur une base quotidienne. Par ailleurs, puisqu’il s’agit d’un petit marché éloigné, le transport est relativement coûteux, admet M. Fagan, mais l’infrastructure est fiable. « Puisque la mer ne gèle pas là-bas, nous bénéficions de transport toute l’année, jusqu’à notre porte, pour ainsi dire », affirme-t-il. « Comme la mer est libre de glaces jusqu’à Nuuk, nous bénéficions donc d’une chaîne d’approvisionnement logistique plutôt bonne. » Mais la petite taille de Qeqertarsuatsiaat réduit le rôle que le village joue dans les opérations. La société a l’intention d’engager la main-d’œuvre locale, mais le village ne possède ni piste d’atterrissage ni hôpital. Par ailleurs, comme on peut se rendre à Nuuk en hélicoptère en 45 minutes, True North exploitera son usine de valorisation dans un parc industriel de la capitale. Cette usine recevra le concentré brut de la mine, contenant encore de 20 à 30 % de stériles, et le traitera dans un bain d’acide fluorhydrique, qui éliminera les silicates restants. Ensuite, les concentrés propres pourront alors être mieux triés et catégorisés. Ce travail doit être effectué à Nuuk, surtout pour des raisons de sécurité. Il est en effet moins risqué de déplacer le corindon semi-fini à l’usine de triage de la ville et d’y conserver les pierres triées. En outre, explique M. Fagan, « nous ne vou70 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
lons pas utiliser de l’acide fluorhydrique au milieu de nulle part. Nous préférons l’utiliser le plus près possible d’installations médicales, et le poste de police ainsi que le principal hôpital de la ville sont situés à environ 15 minutes de route d’où nous effectuerons le triage. »
UN ENDROIT AMICAL ET HOSPITALIER Malgré les exigences logistiques complexes, M. Fagan affirme que la société voit le Groenland comme un territoire où l’exploitation minière est bienvenue. Le gouvernement autonome à Nuuk désirait depuis longtemps s’affranchir encore plus du Danemark en remplaçant une partie du financement de 600 millions de dollars qu’il reçoit de l’autorité coloniale par des revenus tirés du développement de ses ressources. Une des façons dont le Groenland a encouragé ce développement depuis qu’il a acquis le contrôle de ses propres politiques en matière de ressources naturelles en 2009 a été de remanier les règlements régissant le secteur minier. Aappaluttoq est le premier projet soumis d’abord aux nouveaux règlements, lesquels rationalisent, entre autres, le processus de consultation publique, et ayant ensuite passé à la production. Selon M. Fagan, ce régime prévoit des règles simples et un processus clair permettant aux sociétés de transformer leur permis d’exploration en permis d’exploitation. « Nous sommes sans conteste en Scandinavie », expliquet-il. « Le droit prévaut. On doit franchir des étapes précises pour obtenir son permis, et si on les franchit toutes de la bonne façon, on l’obtient. »
Gracieuseté de True North Gems
A A P PA L U T T O Q
| profil de projet
« Cette Entente a été plutôt historique puisqu’elle a été la première à être signée en vertu du nouveau règlement », rappelle M. Fagan. « Lorsque nous l’[avons signée] le 4 juin de l’an dernier, le Groenland a ainsi clairement indiqué qu’il était prêt à accueillir l’industrie minière. » Selon M. Fagan, la main-d’œuvre embauchée pour la réalisation de ce projet est presque totalement groenlandaise. Les seuls expatriés qui y participeront seront des membres du siège social de True North et, à l’occasion, un consultant. L’usine de triage exigera en partie l’embauche d’une main-d’œuvre étrangère possédant une formation précise, mais M. Fagan affirme que la chose sera temporaire. La société espère former des travailleurs locaux à ces emplois et laisser ces compétences en héritage à la fin de la durée de vie de neuf ans de la mine.
MARKETING
Gracieuseté de True North Gems
Après que les pierres auront été extraites du sol, le défi consistera à les vendre. Bien que les rubis et les saphirs roses soient très recherchés, ils sont sans Le niveau du lac (au premier plan) sera abaissé de 10 m afin de construire une route qui reliera le puits de la conteste des articles de luxe, sans usage mine à l’usine de traitement. industriel. Selon Mme Henning, l’origine géographique des pierres précieuses de True North ajoute un autre atout à leur qualité marchande. Le fait que ces pierres proviennent du Groenland attirera certainement l’attention des acheteurs. « C’est quelque chose d’entièrement nouveau », ajoute Mme Henning. « [Aappaluttoq] constitue une source propre, sans problèmes en matière d’environnement, de règles gouvernementales ou de droits de la personne. » Mme Henning ajoute que la société a créé un système exclusif appelé « Ruby Track », conçu pour suivre le déplacement des pierres précieuses depuis la mine jusqu’à leur traitement en passant par le triage. Les consommateurs pourront alors retracer l’origine de chaque pierre. Ruby Track attribuera des codes barres à des lots de pierres précieuses triés de façon à ce que chacun de ceux-ci soit Des rubis et des saphirs bruts prêts à être triés accompagné d’un certificat d’authenticité, procédé similaire à celui appliqué à la vente des diamants canadiens. Mme HenTNG a aussi signé une Entente sur les répercussions et ning s’attend à ce que d’autres participants de l’industrie des les avantages avec le gouvernement du Groenland et les pierres précieuses adoptent des systèmes similaires, puisqu’on collectivités locales, laquelle encourage la société à embau- exige toujours plus de responsabilisation et de transparence. Bien que les articles de luxe soient difficiles à vendre dans cher le plus de travailleurs groenlandais possible et à contribuer à la formation locale et au fonds de développe- un contexte économique turbulent, Mme Henning est certaine ment social. que True North et ses rubis peuvent y faire face. ICM November/Novembre 2015 | 71
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Knock, knock, who’s there? By Kelsey Rolfe
T
74 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 10, No. 7
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
he discovery of gold and silver in but mischievous little pranksters the American West during the who would filch miners’ picks, mid-19th century came at a candles or clothes on a lark. But fortuitous time. Just as production of the they also proved useful to the precious metals began in earnest, tin and miners: some said they would copper mining in Cornwall, England, knock on the mineshaft walls to started to decline. As one sustained alert miners to a particularly rich mining rush ended, another began, and vein of ore, the sound getting the renowned Cornish miners crossed louder as the men moved closer the Atlantic to help it flourish. But they to the vein. brought more than just their famous Cornish miners also thought hard-rock mining skills; they also they looked out for the welfare imported their superstitions and lore, of the mine’s employees. Just specifically a belief in mine-dwelling before cave-ins, Tommyknockfairies called Tommyknockers. ers would knock loudly on the Cornish miners began immigrating walls of the mine as a warning, to America in the 1860s and quickly to give the miners enough time earned respect at American mines. They to escape. Cousin Jacks considhad years of experience tunnelling and ered the Knockers their protecmining that Americans at the time tors and essential to their safety lacked, and their seemingly uncanny while they worked. Cornish miners immigrating to America in the mid-19th century ability to sniff out veins of ore made were renowned for their mining and tunneling expertise. They could become malithem extremely valuable to stateside cious, however, if neglected or mine owners. offended. Whistling was They also popularized many of the mining terms that thought to disturb the fairies and for that reason considered became part of the permanent industry lexicon, like shafts, to be bad luck. Miners who spoke ill of the Knockers did so levels, winzes, raises and adits. The creation of the miner’s at their own risk. To keep the sprites in their good books or code of signals, which allowed hoisters to communicate with to say thanks for overseeing their safety, miners would leave miners below using bells, is also credited to the Cornish. behind pieces of their pasty from lunch for the Knockers to Their success often led mine owners to ask them if they nibble on. knew others back home with similar experience who would Mine owners came to accept that doing business with the be willing to immigrate for work. The typical answer was, Cornish meant entertaining their belief in the Knockers. That “Well, me cousin Jack over in Cornwall wouldst come, could belief was so strong that in 1956, when a large California ye pay ‘is boat ride.” That common refrain eventually earned mine ended operations, miners lobbied the mine’s owners to them the nickname Cousin Jacks. hold off closing up the mine long enough to let the TommyThe origins of the Tommyknockers (also known as Knock- knockers make their way out, so they could go to work in ers) vary depending on the telling, but most miners agreed other mines. The company complied. they were small, dwarf-like creatures that were somewhere Many of the phenomena attributed to the Tommyknockbetween one-and-a-half and two feet tall. Some believed them ers can be easily explained by more earthly factors. Before a to be greenish in colour and outfitted in miniature miners’ collapse, mine caves have a tendency to creak and groan clothes. under the weight they can no longer shoulder. And in such a The Knockers were, according to some Cornish folklore, poorly lit, expansive place, it is easy to misplace a tool or a the spirits of miners who had died in previous cave-ins; other piece of food, and then find it later – or not. But mines at the lore described them as the ghosts of the Jewish men who cru- time were dark and dangerous places, and in such a precaricified Jesus Christ and were sent by the Romans to work as ous and risky occupation it is easy to understand why miners slaves in the mines. developed myths and lore. It was their collective imagination However they came to be in the mines, the Tommyknock- that cemented the Tommyknockers’ place in American miners were generally regarded by the Cousin Jacks as benevolent ing culture. CIM
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