Mining in Ontario and the need for female talent

Big restructuring and acquisition news will be the theme of 2023. Just before I started drafting this editorial, Teck Resources, Canada’s largest diversified miner, announced major changes including rebranding to Teck Metals Corp. as it spun off its steelmaking coal unit into a new company: Elk Valley Resources Ltd.

The Vancouver-based miner’s business separation will allow it to focus on critical metals that are crucial to the global energy transition, such as copper. Teck will seek shareholder approval of the separation at its annual and special shareholders meeting scheduled for Apr. 26.

Another big news was Canada’s B2Gold’s announcement that it is buying fellow precious metals miner Sabina Gold & Silver in an all-stock deal worth $1.1 billion (US$824 million).

The transaction hands B2Gold the Back River gold district property in Nunavut, which holds multiple high-potential mineralized zones. In my opinion, this is a strategic move for B2Gold as the company operates mines in Mali, Namibia, and The Philippines, so this would be their first property in Canada. Soon, I will be interviewing Clive T. Johnson, president and CEO of B2Gold, to speak on the Sabina transaction.

Just one week before B2Gold’s announcement, the world’s largest gold producer, Newmont, confirmed it had approached Australia’s biggest gold miner, Newcrest Mining, with a US$17-billion takeover offer.

If you are planning to attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2023 convention in Toronto, Mar. 5-8, please visit our booth to pick up a hardcopy of this humungous issue, which is our biggest CMJ issue in a long time with 72 pages.

As the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development industry, PDAC recently provided the federal government with a list of recommendations that would help increase the competitiveness of Canada’s mineral exploration and development industry as part of the public consultation in advance of Budget 2023. PDAC’s recommendations focused on providing incentives to the industry to bolster exploration and development in Canada, including extending the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC), expanding the eligibility of Canadian Development Expenses (CDE), reviewing the net benefit of flow-through share regime, increasing the METC for exploration within Canada’s territories, and expediting the development of a Pan-Canadian Geoscience Strategy (PGS).

With International Women’s Day (IWD) approaching on Mar. 8, we introduce our new “Women in Mining” section in this issue. Flip to page 22 for an exclusive interview with Jamile Cruz, founder of I&D 101 and currently director of joint ventures and Brazil country manager with Rio Tinto. On page 28, Kesiah Stoker highlights the social impacts of mining on Indigenous women and communities from PDAC’s recent social impact report.

Several articles in this issue highlight and provide updates on critical mining in Ontario with a focus section on careers and recruitment and the need for female talent in the mining sector (see pages 46-67).

Our April issue will tie-in BEVs, mine electrification, and the hunt for the resources to fuel de-carbonization. Editorial contributions will be accepted until Mar. 8, 2023, and should be sent to the Editor in Chief.