CMIC News update - February 2012

CMIC Signature Event: "START NOW: Setting the stage for mining innovation in Canada" - A success story

CMIC recently held its first symposium on "Innovation in the Canadian mining industry", and more specifically "the need for assuring innovation to enhance the industry's future economic, environmental and safety performance". The meeting took place on January 30th and 31st in Toronto where about 150 industry, governments and academia leaders gathered to share their views on this important subject.

The keynote address was made by the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources. Minister Oliver's speech was followed by a presentation by Mr. George Ross, Deputy Minister, Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, on behalf of Minister Bartolucchi.

Speakers were:

3M - Robert Finocchiaro, Technical Director
Title: Innovation at 3M

Barrick - François Robert, VP and Chief Geologist - Global Exploration
Title: Innovation needs of the Minerals Industry: an Exploration perspective

CAMECO - Bob Steane, Senior VP and Chief Operating Officer
Title: Success through innovation

CAMESE - Jon Baird, Managing Director
Title: Innovation and Commercialization at Canadian Mining Supply Companies

CMIC - Peter Kondos, Director Strategic Technology Solutions - Barrick
Title: Shaping Our Future Together: CMIC Initiatives

CSIRO - Australia - Jonathan Law, Director - Minerals Down Under - National Research Flagship
Title: Global mining innovation: do we have the right recipe?

Hatch - Chris Twigge-Molecey, Board Member
Title: Challenges to Innovation in the Consulting Engineering business

MAC - Rick Meyers, VP Technical and Northern Affairs
Title: The Importance of Research and Development for Canada's Mining Industry

MiHR - Ryan Montpellier, Executive Director & Martha Roberts, Director of Research
Title: Making the Grade: Human Resources Challenges and Opportunities for Knowledge Workers in Canadian mining

NRCan - Geoff Munro, Chief Scientist & ADM-IETS
Title: Federal role in innovation

NSERC - Janet Walden, VP Research Partnerships Programs
Title: NSERC - A Tool in your Innovation Toolbox?

Syncrude - Gordon Winkel, Professor, U of Alberta
Title: The Innovation Imperative

U of Alberta - Dave Lynch, Dean, Engineering Faculty
Title: The Role of Universities in Mining and Natural Resources Innovation

Vale - Luiz Eugenio Mello, VP Innovation Instituto Tecnológico Vale
Title: Vale´s Perspective on Technology in the XXI Century

Following the success of this first Signature Event, CMIC's executive committee has decided to hold a similar event next year, probably in mid-February. The format will be modified next time to put more emphasis on discussion of the issues. Exact format, content, date and location will be provided later.

Excerpts from Minister Oliver's speech: "As Canada's minister responsible for mining, I take pride in being part of this network of industry, government and academic leaders who are working together to strengthen Canada's role as a global leader in mining innovation. As I'm sure my fellow panelists will agree, I don't think it's possible to overstate the importance of innovation — not just in exploration and mining, but in just about everything we do. ...CMIC is on the right path to meeting its goals of bringing together the people and organizations we need to ensure this industry continues to be a world leader in innovation, and a cornerstone of Canada's economy."

Excerpts from Mr. Ross' speech: "I'd like to acknowledge the important work being done by the members of this council, and the broader minerals industry membership.  There remain a great many areas of our province yet to be explored or explored fully, because technology has previously limited our access.  Likewise, new and aggressive research and development is looking into ways, for example, to increase production at existing mines. Your work is crucial, producing great benefits for our society, which depends so heavily on minerals, and for our economy. The Ontario government is also pleased to support the work of this council, both through funding and the work of Northern Development and Mines Assistant Deputy Minister, Ray Mantha, who serves as a director on the council's board."

CMIC Processing Technical Committee - Call for Mineral Processing Industry Leaders

The mission of the Canada Mining Innovation Council is to enhance the competitiveness of a responsible Canadian mining industry through excellence in research, innovation and commercialization.  Key strategic goals include enrolling new audiences and key decision makers to support mining research and innovation and creating a mining research and innovation culture to effectively link research capability to industry needs.

A CMIC Processing Technical Committee was inaugurated in May 2011 with the mandate to identify and expedite research and innovation in mineral processing. Canada is blessed with mineral diversity, however each mineral has unique processing technology and a commodity specific approach to innovation is likely to be inefficient. Fortunately, mineral processing has some common themes and a focus on two to three common processing themes will be necessary to best utilize scarce innovation project champions.

The CMIC Processing Technical Committee has identified three main areas of focus:

In order to expedite innovation in these three focus areas, partnerships need to de developed between the Canadian mineral processing industry, academic research institutes and equipment and engineering suppliers.  A series of workshops is planned to increase awareness and industry support for this work, to identify centers of innovation excellence and to identify specific projects that will match industry needs. 

The CMIC Processing Committee would like to hear from mineral processing industry leaders who might have an interest in representing their companies.  Please contact Rob Henderson at (416) 365-5601 or Olesja Ro at (613) 996-5486 or info@cmic-ccim.org

The Kellogg Innovation Network

The KIN Resources Expedition will be held in Brazil on April 17th 2012.

The Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) is a unique group at the leading US business school, the Kellogg School of Management www.kinglobal.org

The KIN has decided to launch a Program, named KIN Expeditions, which focus on either industries or issues that have a significant impact on global prosperity and where we see a need for a step up in innovation.

The 1st industry chosen is the resource industry because of its vital contribution to development throughout the world and in many developing countries where single mining projects are a major component of that country's GDP. It is the collective view at Kellogg, FDC in Brazil (a leading Brazilian Business school) that the challenges facing the mining sector require a step change in the level of innovation and industry collaboration if the industry and the host countries are to maximize the value derived from the current super cycle. This applies equally to the operating platform and the business model for the license to operate. To that end the KIN and FDC are jointly holding a program in Brazil in April 2012 to address these issues - they aim to bring together 40+ CEOs and leaders from the mining ecosystem with the goal to act as a catalyst for the creation of a new level of collaboration around some big issues that if addressed will unlock enormous value for the industry.

They have marquee sponsorships from the CEOs of Anglo Gold Ashanti, Vale and BP Castrol and the President of Caterpillar Global Mining. Other attendees are:

Hancock Prospecting Chief Development Officer
3M Head of Mining
Head of Non Ferrous Mining - Arcelor Mittal
CRC Ore - CEO
Vale - CEO
Anglo Gold Ashanti - CEO and President Americas
Anglo Gold Ashanti - SVP technology and Innovation
BP Castrol - CEO
CAT Global Mining - President
CSIRO - Head of Minerals
Colorado School of Mines - EVP
Modular Mining - CEO
Oxfam USA - President and Global Head of Mining
Zamin Ferrous - CEO

For more information please contact Peter Bryant Co-Chair at pbryant@clareopartners.com

Workshop on barriers to green mining innovation in Canada

Federal/Provincial/Territorial Energy and Mines Ministers have recognized the importance of the adoption of greener technologies and practices by the Canadian mining industry by endorsing the NRCan's Green Mining Initiative at their annual Conference in 2009. They also noted however that several challenges to their uptake remain. A recent report presented to the Ministers Conference in 2011 highlighted the presence of regulatory barriers to the use of such technologies.

Eager to finding solutions to those barriers, the Ministers have tasked NRCan and its provincial and territorial counterparts to investigate regulatory barriers to the use of new technologies in the mining industry. They also tasked their officials to explore how other sectors have dealt with similar barriers to innovation in order to learn from their experiences.

To achieve this task, about 50 representatives of industry, mining associations, governments, consultants and NGOs, met on January 30 in Toronto to discuss the issue. A panel including Engin Özberk, CMIC President, and representatives from Health Canada, the Canadian Forest Service and the Standards Council of Canada, discussed experiences in addressing regulatory barriers by other sectors.

Discussion sessions covered R&D steps towards approval processes; regulatory factors influencing innovation; approval processes and risk mitigation; and skills, knowledge transfer and communication processes.

The conclusions of the Workshop will be consolidated in a report to be presented at the Energy and Mines Ministers Conference September, 2012.

For further information, contact Magdi Habib, Director General, CANMET-MMSL or Xavier Daignault-Simard, GMI Secretariat at xdaignau@nrcan.gc.ca