CORRECTION: Mining jobs

I have been accused of comparing apples to oranges when I wrote about the OMA and SAMSSA studies of the mining supply sector [CMJ Net News, June 30, 2010]. With the help of the Ontario Mining Association's Peter McBride, I would like to clear up any misunderstanding.

The OMA study of direct and indirect jobs that I thought was on the low side for the province instead refers to a single, representative base metal mine in Northern Ontario. McBride wrote that such a mine "... employes 480 people, generates more than 1,100 indirect jobs and almost 700 induced jobs for a total of 1,800 on top of the 480 direct mine jobs.

"The SAMSSA study which indicates there are 23,000 in the mine supply sector in Northern Ontario would fall under the indirect category in the OMA study. All of Ontario's minng industry (north and south) has about 16,000 direct jobs," he added.

CMJ regrets the error.