Editor’s Note BLESSING OR CURSE?

That complacency has vanished, replaced by anxious efforts ever since the recession earlier this decade to increase productivity. The mining companies want and need innovation. So we have remote- controlled load-haul-dump machines, video cameras on haul trains, computerized process controls in the mill, increasingly sophisticated production drills, automated hoists. And many manufacturers are engineering and machining these innovations in local factories. In this context, Sudbury serves as a reliable bellwether for the rest of the industry. Entering the recession, the city was widely regarded as a squalid, moonscape mining town. The greening and re-tooling of Sudbury and its mainstay nickel miners — the regional government’s commitment to economic diversification and environmental renewal, the nickel miners’ commitments to SO2 abatement and technological advancement — are well under way. As you’ll read in these pages, the region is gathering about it a thriving mining equipment supply and manufacturing sector — proximity to what we have dubbed the “Billion Dollar Triangle” has certainly aided Sudbury’s quest for diversity and respect.

The recession did the industry a big favor. It reminded us that we can’t sit on our butts and weather commodity price cycles — our ores aren’t that rich. Editor

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