Posts from — May 2008

Word has just come in that the folk organizing the conference Tailings and Mine Waste ‘08 have just met.

They have extended the deadline for submission of abstracts to this conference until mid-June and they are asking that papers come in by mid-July. 

This is a conference worth supporting, writing for, and attending.  It is a resuscitation of an historic series–seven previous conferences that established and advanced the science, engineering, and technology of tailings and mine waste. 

Another good reason to write for and attend the conference is that it is in Vail, Colorado in October this year.  Hard to find a nicer place to be at that time of the year. 

By way of full disclosure:  the company I work for part time as a genuine engineer, Robertson Geoconsultants is a sponsor, and the other company I work for as a Blogger and engineering author, InfoMine (really TechnoMine)plan to put as much on the site as we can get as is left behind after publication of the proceedings by a European publisher–in fact the one that published all seven past proceeding. 

Call Linda Hinshaw at 970-491-5049 or e-mail her at linda.hinshaw@colostate.edu for more information or to get personal attention. 

Is it true that the salary of new mining graduates is $100,000 a year?  Depends on whom you ask.  Bragging professors tell you that it is true.  Impressionable young journalists gush about high starting salaries in the mining industry.

But those who take time to ferret out the numbers disagree.  They say it is no more than $50,000–still not a bad salary.  Seems you can get one hundred K if you go to work in Houston or a remote mine on Baffin  Island.  But if you want to work in a nice place, you may have to settle for half that.

At this link is a much longer piece I compiled that explores the details of this mining salary debate.  Or contact Jennifer Leinart (jbleinart@earthlink.com) of CostMine who is trying to compile the data. 

Yesterday was Queen Victoria day in Canada.  Let me belatedly celebrate the old lady by ruminating on the glories of empire, resource development in the colonies, and the benefits that accrue to the politicians, businessmen, and priests of the ruling class. 

On Sunday I rode along the dikes of the Fraser River past wealth unimaginable, and folly unassailable.  On the one side is the sluggish river dotted by an occasional tug or barge transporting goods to Westminster.  On the other side are large new houses–hundreds of them going on and on and getting bigger and more opulent as you wind down-river. 

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Monday we “celebrate” Queen Victoria’s birthday–how quaint!  But is it a holiday and so no more blog posting until Tuesday.  Meanwhile one last link to a fascinating article in the Tyee on the Red Chris Mine approval process.   No comment from me: just access and read and fume. 

Funny the things that get people and societies upset and activistic.  The Alaska Assembly, meeting in Juneau, has just passed a resolution opposing the “clean water” initiatives that would in effect kill the Pebble Mine,affect Anglo American’s profits, and eventually turn Alaska into a non-mining state. 

Alaska would become like Montana: a place for only the rich and the poor: particularly the rich who make money elsewhere and the poor who work to make life comfortable for them.  Never like California where mining is essentially illegal but movies et al. keep them going–have you seen Speed Racer, a fantastic new movie from Hollywood?  Better than reading most NI 43-101 reports, although they have a similar approach to reality.    

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Innovation in Mining was the topic of the last session I attended at the CIM Edmonton Conference.   I have written extensively about what was said in the session at this link. 

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On wet, squishy grass unlikely to survive the frenetic feet of hundreds of school kids, are pitched the tents of the BC Mining Week Community Fair.  In front of the Vancouver Art Gallery.  When I visited yesterday, there were kids everywhere: grabbing plastic bags and filling them with rocks, pebbles, mineral specimens, crayons, coloring books, and propaganda extolling the virtues of mining.  I succumbed and grabbed three posters from Mining Works for Canada.  And stickers of Komatsu trucks–I will take those to Iowa and the grandkids. 

This was indeed kids’ heaven:  a free day off school: free stuff; dirt and puddles; treasure hunts; gold panning; and attentive adults eager to promote mining.  If the intent was to induce kids to like mining, surely this must succeed.  As the Church says: give them to me until they are seven and they will be Catholic for life. 

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At $1.64 billion per person, this is surely the biggest claim ever in Canada.   When I returned to Canada a few years back, I was assured that Canada is not litigious like the US.  Seems those who told me that are wrong.  I repeat, this claim is for $1.64 billion per person. 

The announcement of the claim is so routine and bland you almost pass it by:

The Gimaa (chief) and council of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek wish to announce that they have commenced litigation against Canada and Ontario for the failure of the Crown to provide the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek with a reservation consistent with the terms of the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850.

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I THINK MINING is a blog about mining, not politics.  Fact is, however, that politics is a major factor in mining:  get the politics right, and you mine; get the politics wrong and you are undermined.   It is inevitable, in this season of high politics, that politics creeps into thinking.  Now let it burst into this blog.

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From an Aboriginal I know and respect.   He forwarded me the e-mail repeated below from the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty:   

From: dmcguinty@premier.gov.on.ca    Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 12:17:37 -0400

Conversation: An e-mail from the Premier of Ontario    Subject: An e-mail from the Premier of Ontario

Thank you for writing to me regarding the incarceration of Robert Lovelace of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.

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