How I was sold on doing this issue

Jerry Rogers called me often in 1999. Inco Ltd.’s director of public affairs kept asking when I was going to come to Sudbury to discover all the new things his company was doing. What could an old company like Inco be doing that was really new? I felt he was being a bit pushy.

I finally agreed to spend a couple of days in Sudbury in February 2000. When Jerry said he’d come along, I thought he was being a real control freak. But I accepted his offer of a ride to Sudbury. As I met him in downtown Toronto, I wondered how I would make conversation for five hours with a gravelly-voiced PR guy whom I hardly knew. There was only so much company hype he could tell me, and then what?

We started out with polite conversation about how great Inco was, but before we passed North Bay Jerry was peppering the conversation with some not very complimentary anecdotes. There were things going on at Inco that he was genuinely enthusiastic about and others that he wasn’t. Here was something new: a “spin doctor” who felt he could be open with the press (me).

Jerry did his job well. Over the span of my two-day trip, I saw little of him, but became absolutely sold on Inco’s Telemining projects, on its methods to make the exploration gambit much more of a sure thing, and the possibilities for Inco’s nickel foam products (CMJ, April 2000).

And then, very casually, as he was seeing me off at the Sudbury bus terminal, Jerry suggested that Canadian Mining Journal do a special issue on Inco in 2002, to celebrate the company’s centenary. He outlined all the good things it would do for our magazine. He told me I’d love visiting New Caledonia, the paradise on earth where Goro is. (I never got there.) Then he told me that he would have to run it past his boss and convince Inco’s head office how it would work for them. I realized that this very good idea was his alone.

Within weeks of our trip, Jerry had discovered that he had a serious disease, non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He continued to work when he was able, and coached me carefully on how to keep Inco interested in his absence, because he did want the commemorative issue to come to pass.

This issue is dedicated to Jerry. The disease took his life on Oct. 28, 2001. However, his sense of fun, writing talent, and absolute honesty can still be found on the web site that he set up to chronicle his fight against non-Hodgkins lymphoma, or, as he joked, making it into the NHL: http://www.canoe.ca/ JerrysJourney/home.html

It’s New and It’s Free

Please note a useful new item on our web site–the Product Locator Guide–where you will find detailed information about equipment and services offered to the Canadian mining industry. The menu-driven listings allow you to compare the features of products from different suppliers, grouped into categories. Registered users can add new equipment and update their listings. Visit http://www.Canadian MiningJournal.com/locator/default.asp