Sharp opinions about mines and mining from Jack Caldwell

Normally it is June Gloom time here in southern California.  But this year we have a heat wave.  The beaches and the pool are where we have spent the weekend keeping wet and cool. 

In between, I have been reading Reinventing the Sacred by Calgary professor Stuart A. Kauffman.  As I am but half-way through the book, I will comment no further than to say that he proposes an ethic based on emergent behavoir flowing from complex systems.  My aim is to see if we can apply this thesis and philosophical approach to mining. 

Maybe if you are reading the book too you can let me know so we can explore the possibilities in concert. 

From Los Angeles came an e-mail from a recruiter asking me if I knew anyone who would be interested in a job at the Albian Sands in Ft. McMurray as a Mining, Geotechnical, Process (Extraction), Reclamation Engineers, and/or a Construction Manager (Dykes).  

I do not, nor am I personally interested, but the request set me thinking about the income a suitable candidate might expect.   From the 2008 Canadian Mine Salary, Wages & Benefits Survey from CostMine here are some annual lowest, average, and highest salaries for western Canadian mines:

Mine Manager  = $92,000,  $131,400,  $165,000

Mine Superintendant  = $80,600, $114,200, $135,800

Chief/Senior Engineer  = $70,000, $104, 500, $146,600

Mine Engineer = $60,00, $80,400, $91,000

Metallurgist = $66,000, $83,400, $121,000

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The Canadian Mine Salary, Wages & Benefits 2008 Survey Results has just hit my in-box.  This is the eleventh survey from CostMine, formerly Western Mine Engineering and now part of InfoMine.

With the obligatory disclosures out of the way, let us proceed to examine just one category, that of the Shovel/Dragline Operator.  I choose this category because of the almost mystical fascination of the shovel and dragline on a mine.  Every time you see a picture of an open pit, there is this huge beast that is the center of the true mining operation; for example, see the picture besides this text by Gord McKenna, a photographically-accomplished civil engineer with BGC in Vancouver. 

The average wage for the folk who drive these impressive beasts across all of Canada is $32 (I round to the nearest dollar.)  But there are differences:  the range is from a low of $27 to a high of $47 an hour. 

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Only the British could present so stiff-upper-lip a report.  See this link for a perfect example of the difference in the way the British report the news and the way the United States of Canada presents the news.  In addition to being a fascinating cultural icon, the report is also a BIG mining story—although I cannot help but feel that there is something not quite right in the story.  Something does not add up.  Can you help find the missing pieces?

Want to earn more?  Go into the military or mining in Colorado.  That strange conclusion would appear to follow from this extract of a report on personal income gains since the forth quarter of 2007: 

Of the 23 industries the Bureau of Economic Analysis tracks on a quarterly basis, mining had the strongest earnings growth nationally, at 5.4 percent. But because mining accounts for only about 1 million jobs in the United States, the industry contributed little to overall personal income growth.

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For mining engineers it is an absurdly trivial problem: dig a deep hole into the ground and bring out the valuable ore.  I know that the reverse is also a trivial challenge to mining engineers, namely dig a deep hole and put something valuable into the hole.  Underground miners place backfill into mines every day with great success. 

Now maybe is the time for underground mining engineers to stand up and tell the public the obvious, trival truth:  they can dig a deep hole in the ground as a storage place for high level radioactive waste from the nations nuclear power plants. 

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It would seem a simple debate with clear answers: to dump tailings into lakes or to build above-grade impoundments.  Canadian politicians are offering clear and opposing opinions.  Maybe it is time for the industry and experts to weigh in?

In a new report from CBC, we read these opposing positions and opinions:

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Just a short note to those who have recently posted insightful comments on articles on this blog. 

I am “holidaying” with grandkids in California and can barely access the internet.  But the details of the blog, including vetting of the spam comments and posting of the valid ones, are managed by staff at InfoMine in Vancouver.  I owe them a big thanks for so ably keeping the site functional and neat. 

But more, I owe thanks to those who comment. 

I would like, in particular, to mention Rory McIlmoil who wrote a long and informative comment on a piece I posted on mountaintop mining and an alternative windfarm.  Rory, I would love to hear more from you and this situation.  Please keep us informed. 

To those who have fleshed out the issues on a piece on women in mining many thanks for the perspectives, opinions, and stories.  I have just seen my daughter, a civil engineer, off to work.  She was lugging along her two kids taking them to day-care.  Maybe i should have offered to look after them all day—but I really do not have the energy—it is enough to play with them at the pool and read books from five to nine.  How she keeps it all together, I know not.  But a tribute to all the women who have undertaken careers, motherhood, and/or both.  Somehow those earlier weekend spent putting in new stairs, painting ceilings, replacing rotting timbers, and paying university bills now seem worth it. 

Finally thanks to Fred Williams who brought our attention to a second proposed mine in Costa Rica.  Again another story to follow.   

It is dangerous territory to venture into opinions about the prudence of oil sands mining and oil shale mining.  But the other side continues to post such unmitigated nonsense on their sites that it behoves me to comment. 

When I first came to America in the late 1970s, oil shales was the hot topic.  I even supervised the master’s thesis of a young civil engineer at the university in Tucson: he was working on the problem of trafficability of large equipment on oil shale tailings.  We worked with a professor who had been the consultant to NASA on the traffic ability of lunar landing vehicles. 

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A new report from the Globe and Mail states that sixteen Canadian mining companies have applied to dispose of mine tailings in lakes across the country.  The report concludes:

Byng Giraud, vice-president of policy and communications for the B.C. Mining Association, six of whose members are among the companies applying for permits, said putting tailings in bodies of water is often the best option available.  “We have some of the best environmental scientists in the world on this and certainly we work closely with [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] and environmental assessment to determine what uses are the best,” he said.

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