EDITORIAL Mining has a story to tell

The following is from a recent speech by W. R. A. Aitken, executive vice-president, Inco Ltd., to the Mines Accident Prevention Association of Ontario,

We need to get people excited about the (mining) industry rather than frightened of it. We need to demonstrate that in fact this is a sexy business. We have got new methods, we have computer-assisted mine designs, sophisticated new equipment, automated equipment, underground roadways bigger than the tunnel from the Royal York to the Sheraton Centre, plants controlled by one or two people with a multitude of electronic wizardry. No more pick and shovel mining. We are 20th century people, unfortunately with an image still from the 19th.

We must put more effort and more thinking and more resources into cutting mine fatalities, and the only acceptable target is “zero.” It is no coincidence that in the eyes of the public a mine fatality is less acceptable than a farm accident or a traffic accident, or even a hospital fatality. The public doesn’t understand us, and is afraid of us.

So, the final challenge is to tell our story better.

We have a story to tell. Mining has got its act together. We have made tremendous strides in research, in training, in productivity, in environmental protection and in safety. We have got to find the ways, we have got to make the opportunities to tell our story. We have got to quit talking to ourselves. We have got to educate the public. We have got to get the media on our side, and to convince the voters and through them the politicians. We can do that by telling the people the things they have the right to know, and by making sure they hear the things they ought to know. So let’s get on with it and tell them.