Opinions

By Dick DeStefano EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SAMSSA After waiting three years, the first wave of funding for a study of Northern Ontario’s mining supply and services sector has arrived.

After waiting three years, the first wave of funding for a study of Northern Ontario’s mining supply and services sector has arrived. This funding will ultimately propel the industry from obscurity to the forefront.

In September 1998, the National Mining Association in the U.S. presented its vision for the mining industry for the year 2020. 2009 is the halfway point in the grand plan.

Reading this issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, you’d hardly know the city is in the grip of a strike by 3,100 employees of Vale Inco.

Suppliers who believe in the wisdom of the market have already started pumping money into marketing and promotion.

The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) put out a press release in mid-April warning of a "significant shortage of skilled workers and professionals" in the mining industry over the next decade.

In most cases, if I ask our SAMSSA (Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association) member companies how they are structuring their company to become more innovative, the reaction is either a puzzled look or a smile.

Prediction is a risky business. Until a month ago, Australia’s Labour government was predicting that long-term expansion in China would fuel massive growth in the land of the kangaroo.

Ontario is once again laying out the red carpet for the world’s mineral exploration industry as thousands of delegates from all over the world converge on Toronto for the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s 2009 International Conventio

We have been looking for a solution to the mining industry’s global downward slide since October 2008.