Covering mining’s projects, people and sticky challenges over a two-decade career

This will be my last editorial for The Northern Miner after 19 years here, and with its sister publications. In December, I’m off to start another adventure outside of mining. 

It’s unusual these days to spend nearly 20 years with one entity, so you might ask: what kept me here so long? 

Well, there have been some perks. Travel, for one. My work has taken me to a remote exploration camp in the Argentinean Andes; to Canada’s Arctic, and flying by helicopter over craggy fjords on Baffin Island to reach a remote diamond project. I saw a project in Asia, where beer-loving German investors met their match when offered shot after shot of the Chinese spirit baijiu.  

I’ve also had the opportunity to meet and cover some of the business world’s most entrepreneurial people. Problem-solvers, risk-takers, people who have an impact in one of the toughest – and most essential – businesses around. 

One highlight was interviewing mining legend Pierre Lassonde in his mid-town Toronto home. It had a multi-level library/study, just like in the movies.  

I’ve also enjoyed digging into the stories behind new exciting discoveries made by smart young geos like TNM 2021 person of the year Chris Taylor, and 2024 YMP Peter Munk Award winner Scott Berdahl. 

The stories that examined and dissected mining’s failures and stickiest challenges – from tailings reforms to the rising clout of Indigenous communities, and guiding coverage of this year’s heap leach failure at the Eagle mine in the Yukon – have been more difficult and complex, but still rewarding. 

Constant change 

A lot has changed in mining over the past 19 years. Here are just a few examples: 

Attention to diversity 

While women still represent only 15% of the mining workforce globally, there’s much greater recognition now of the importance of diversity in the sector. Rio Tinto released a report two years ago that showed a shocking level of bullying and harassment in the company’s workforce that largely targeted women and minorities. In November it published a follow-up report. Although it identifies some alarming trends since its first report – a rise in bullying as a response to the miner’s “Everyday Respect” initiatives, for example – it’s also something that would never have happened 20 years ago. Rio’s willingness to publicly disclose the troubling findings is commendable and a welcome attempt to address mining’s culture issue. 

Canada’s declining diamond sector

When I first started at the Miner, memories could still easily recall the first exciting 1991 diamond find in Lac de Gras that led to the Ekati mine in the Northwest Territories. One of my first site visits in 2006 was the opening of the Jericho diamond mine in Nunavut, then the third in Canada. That same year, two more mines were being built – Snap Lake in the N.W.T. and Victor in Ontario. Now, the sector’s a sunset industry in Canada, killed by a combination of high costs, a low success rate in finding new, economic mines, and competition from lab-grown diamonds. The Diavik mine is set to close in 2026, leaving just two mines running – Ekati, and Gahcho Kué. 

Retail investor migration 

While discount brokerages have made DIY investing easy and cheap for retail investors, it’s not exploration plays that they’re buying anymore. 

Competition from other speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies have drawn huge amounts of investment since Bitcoin’s birth in 2009. Forbes puts the value of global cryptocurrency at US$3.2 trillion. In comparison, S&P put the value of the global mining sector by market cap at just US$2.2 trillion at the end of 2023.  

Critical minerals rise 

Western governments have finally come to realize the importance of mining to their economies and national security, and the risk that comes with China’s control of critical minerals supply chains and expertise. They haven’t yet addressed the lengthy permitting timelines that can kill projects and deter investment, but there’s some hope that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s deregulation drive could change that. 

Before I depart, allow me to say a quick thank you to John Cumming, the former editor-in-chief who hired me and was a great mentor, and to TNM Group president Anthony Vaccaro for promoting me up the ranks. 

On a personal note, I’m proud of helping to build a very strong editorial team at the Miner that’s stayed intact for more than two years and produces independent work that’s of value to the industry and to our readers. I know the publication is in good hands with interim editor-in-chief Colin McClelland, Western editor Henry Lazenby and production/copy editor Blair McBride.