Facilitators: Greg Gosson and Stella Searston
When: Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6, 8:30 to 16:30
Where: Shaw Conference Centre

Target Audience
Officers and directors of mining companies subject to Canadian disclosure standards; Qualified Persons that prepare technical reports or are named as taking responsibility for scientific and technical information. Those involved in investor relations activities or in-house legal counsel of a mining company.

Description

Step by step presentation on the disclosure standards under the new rules of NI 43-101, including case studies on good and bad disclosure practices.

Discussion on reporting standards in other mining jurisdictions (USA, UK, Australia, South Africa) and reporting codes used in those jurisdictions - detailed review of technical report requirements for mineral projects at different stages of development. Discussion on the expected content of Preliminary Economic Assessments, Preliminary Feasibility Studies, and Feasibility Studies that meets the definitions of those terms under NI 43-101.

Review of other Canadian securities regulatory requirements for mining technical disclosure including TSX and TSX-V policies and NI 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations, with specific reference to forward-looking information on mineral projects.

Instructors

Dr. Greg Gosson is Technical Director for Geology and Geostatistics at AMEC. Greg has more than 25 years of mining and exploration management experience in North America, Africa and the Pacific. He is specialized in Canadian securities regulatory issues including NI 43-101 and is a frequent author and speaker on mining technical disclosure standards at mining industry forums and professional associations.

Greg was the former co-chair and is a current member of the Canadian Securities Administrators’ Mining Technical Advisory and Monitoring Committee, which is a mining industry advisory committee on NI 43-101.

He is a member of the Securities Committee of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, and the Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Definition Standards Committee of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum.

Greg is experienced in the planning, development and management of mining operations, mineral property assessment, negotiation of contracts and joint-venture agreements, and management of multi-million dollar exploration programs.

Stella Searston is a principal geologist with AMEC, based out of AMEC’s Sparks, Nevada, office. Stella has 24 years of mining and exploration experience. She has a keen interest in regulatory matters and jurisdictional codes globally, and has practical experience with both sides of the regulatory scene, working both as mining/exploration geologist in North America, Southern Africa, and the Pacific, and a regulatory geologist in Australia.

Since joining AMEC, Stella has focused on preparation of NI 43-101 Technical Reports for AMEC and select mining corporations, provides technical support for AMEC’s mining and metals consulting group personnel in the Americas on NI 43-101 and JORC issues, and works on detailed mining studies and audits.

Stella’s experience includes collation and review of geological, mineralization, exploration and drilling data, sampling, sample preparation, assaying and other resource-estimation related analyses, quality assurance-quality control, databases, and mineral resource estimates.

Facilitators: SMART members via Tim Joseph, Gord Winkel and Steve Thornton
When: Saturday, May 5, 8:30 to 16:00
Where: Shaw Conference Centre

Target Audience
Surface mining maintenance, operations and planning supervisors, superintendents and managers. Safety personnel, OEMs and service providers.

Description

The workshop is a mixture of operational and maintenance case studies from the surface mining industry and its OEMs that highlight simple low hanging fruit solutions to improve safety and lead to more effective working practices in operations. Over this one day forum, nine scenarios will be highlighted that show easy to put into practice solutions to common surface mining issues. The day will wind up with a one hour open forum discussion where the audience has the opportunity to add their own perspectives, practices and solutions to issues in a moderated setting.

Instructor

Dr. Tim Joseph has been directing the SMART Learning Seminars for over 15 years. A recognized authority on the application of safe maintenance and operational practices for the mining industry and as a short course facilitator across the globe, he brings together colleagues from the SMART organization to deliver a useful and thought provoking series of topics that can make a real difference to safety, productivity and longevity of the tools we use to mine.

Facilitators: G. Ward Wilson and Paul Simms
When: Sunday, May 6, 9:00 to 16:00
Where: Shaw Conference Centre

Target Audience
Anyone with an interest in the design of oil sands de-watering systems, including industry professionals, consultants, and regulators.

Description

A one-day workshop directed at predicting the performance of oil sands tailings deposits for the design of various de-watering systems.

The focus of the workshop will be directed toward the de-watering of fluid fine tailings and the deposition of thickened tailings. The purpose of the workshop will be to describe the mechanisms and outline the principles of environmental de-watering of tailings by evaporative drying, drainage, freeze-thaw and consolidation. Desiccation and its potential contribution to oil sands tailings densification and how to maximize and avoid “threats” to its utility will be covered. Desiccation, drainage, and consolidation, and how they must work together will be illustrated.

The theme of the workshop will be centred on recent field scale trials for environmental de-watering using methods such as thin lift deposition. Advanced techniques for numerical modeling as well as the required laboratory testing procedures will be described in detail. Methods of instrumentation and in-situ testing will be presented and discussed. Basic theory and concepts for the application of unsaturated soil mechanics to oil sands tailings will also be reviewed. Finally, oil sands tailings deposition, beach slope, and lift thickness will be outlined along with issues related to prediction versus management.

The workshop will be presented in modules and will include an interactive question-and-answer session, providing an opportunity for the interchange of experience and information.

Instructors

Dr. G. Ward Wilson, professor (Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta was previously at the University of British Columbia where he was Professor and Chair of Mining and the Environment. He brings almost 30 years of industrial experience to his practice in advanced mine waste management. He has extensive work experience as a consulting engineer and has maintained a strong industrial focus through his research programs at the university.

Ward is involved in mine waste management systems for numerous sites worldwide and serves as both a researcher and specialist consultant to several large international mining companies.

Ward has developed extensive programs in soil-atmosphere systems for mine waste management. He led the development of the comprehensive numerical model, ‘Soil Cover’ (under the Canadian MEND program) for the prediction of soil cover performance.

More recently, he is involved in several new and innovative research programs. These include funded programs for the de-watering mine tailings to reduce long-term liabilities associated with fluid containment and to move mine waste management practices from wet tailings to dry landscapes.

Paul Simms, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University has been heavily involved in research on different aspects of surface deposition of thickened tailings. He has presented a number of papers on slop geometry at the Paste and Thickened Tailings seminar series, and has published several journal papers on thin-lift desiccation, rheology of surface deposition, and seismic stability of thickened tailings stacks.

Paul was the lead facilitator for short courses on surface deposition of thickened tailings at the 2010 Paste and Thickened Tailings conference in Toronto, and on beach slope prediction at the 2011 conference in Perth, Australia. He has been previously involved in research on different aspects of mine waste management, including soil cover design, water covers, geochemistry of acid drainage, and paste backfill.

Paul has recently started working on projects related to thin-lift deposition of mature fine tailings sponsored by Shell Canada and Total. He is currently an advisor on several tailings deposition projects.

Facilitator: Ben Bradshaw, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Guelph
When: Sunday, May 6, 8:30 to 16:30
Where: Shaw Conference Centre

Description

The workshop will be hosted by Learning Together Inc., an aboriginal grassroots mining association. Using the case study model that Learning Together has successfully utilized and that has become its hallmark, we will be showcasing three case studies from across Canada. The case studies will have presenters from both industry and aboriginal communities where the focus of the presentations will be on how they have built solid working relationships, thereby strengthening the bonds beyond the agreements. Additionally you will hear from aboriginal presenters that will discuss aboriginal perspectives on relationship building.

Facilitator: PricewaterhouseCoopers
When: Sunday, May 6, 9:00 to 17:00
Where: Shaw Conference Centre
Participants: Minimum 10, maximum 50

Description

This full-day workshop will provide you with an in-depth understanding of the growing CSR challenges that resource companies are facing in the areas of (1) extractive industries transparency, (2) the influence of the media and NGOs on extractive industries, and (3) scarcity issues in the mining sector. Through a series of discussions between industry, government, community, legal and business leaders, facilitated by PwC, we will address the following key topics:

• Initiatives to increase transparency on payments made by resource companies to foreign governments;
• Leading practices in adopting and enforcing anticorruption policies;
• Stakeholder influence on mining projects;
• The media’s role in public perception of the mining sector;
• Metals and minerals scarcity in the manufacturing sector; labour shortages in the mining sector; and economic impact of the mining industry.

Facilitators: Rick Meyers and members of the MAC Tailings Working Group
When: Sunday, May 6, 13:30 to 17:00
Where: Shaw Conference Centre
Maximum: 30 participants

Target Audience
Tailings management personnel from all mining companies operating in Canada and elsewhere.

Description

For the past 15 years, the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has worked to improve the management of tailings facilities by its member companies and the broader mining industry. This effort began out of a realization that tailings present a major business risk to the mining industry, that the risk needed to be better managed, and that a series of major tailings failures around the world in the 1990s, while individually related to specific technical issues, were fundamentally indicative of the need for improved care and management practices by tailings facility owners and operators.

The main focus of the workshop will be on MAC’s three volume set of guides developed to improve tailings management:

• A Guide to the Management of Tailings Facilities initially published in 1998, updated edition published in 2009
• Developing an Operation, Maintenance and Surveillance Manual for Tailings and Water Management Facilities, published in 2003
• A Guide to Audit and Assessment of Tailings Facility Management published in 2009.

Facilitators

The MAC Tailings Workshop Group was established in 1996, and continues to work within the industry to promote safe and environmentally responsible tailings management practices. Rick Meyers is Vice President, Technical and Northern Affairs, The Mining Association of Canada.

Facilitator: Ben Chalmers
When: Sunday, May 6, 8:30 to 12:00
Where: Shaw Conference Centre

Target Audience
Personnel from all mining companies operating in Canada and elsewhere.

Description

Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) was developed by The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) to improve the industry’s performance by aligning its actions with the priorities and values of Canadians. The TSM initiative is a way for the industry to find common ground with its communities of interest – the groups and individuals involved in and affected by mining – in order to build a better industry, today and in the future.

The TSM Initiative is built around a series of performance indicators in the areas of tailings management, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions management, Aboriginal and community outreach, tailings management, biodiversity conservation management, and safety and health. These indicators, by measuring the quality and comprehensiveness of companies’ management systems, give the public an overview of the industry’s performance.

This workshop will provide an overview of:

• The Towards Sustainable Mining Initiative
• The TSM assessment protocols, and
• The TSM external verification system.

Instructor

Ben Chalmers is Vice President, Sustainable Development, The Mining Association of Canada. In this role Ben is the MAC team member responsible for the implementation of TSM. He also works with members on issues related to corporate social responsibility both within Canada and internationally.

Among his other responsibilities are advocacy and policy development related to the Species at Risk Act and the Migratory Birds Convention Act.

He began working in the mining sector in 2004 at Myra Falls Operations, zinc and copper mine on Vancouver Island in British Columbia where he worked as the Environmental Supervisor. Ben has also worked for Natural Resources Canada and most recently as the Vice President of Environment and Technical Affairs for the Mining Association of British Columbia.

Ben holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography.

CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF REGISTRATIONS!

Facilitator: Pierre Chantraine, Consultant

Target Audience
Managers involved in energy efficiency, production operations and long-term cost efficiency planning.

Description

This customized workshop by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Office of Energy Efficiency, will teach you about energy management planning, spotting the energy savings opportunities and energy monitoring. The workshop provides an overview and hits the highlights of three standard full day workshops.

Learn how to assess organizational characteristics and build on them to achieve effective day-to-day energy management. Discover some key tools for monitoring and improving performance and where to look for energy saving opportunities. Learn about successes in energy management, key success factors and high-level energy analysis.

In essence, identify YOUR next steps in the road to saving energy – and money – in your organization.

Instructor

Pierre Chantraine gained varied and extensive management experience during his 39-year career at DuPont Canada Inc. In his last 15 years, Pierre was responsible for energy conservation, recycling and environmental affairs at the company's Kingston site and also led the company's energy management team. During the decade of the 1990s, under his leadership, DuPont Canada achieved in excess of 25% improvement in energy efficiency.

Between 1998 and 2004, he helped negotiate a large energy-performance contract resulting in investments of over $50 million in energy conservation projects at five company locations. After retiring in 2004, Pierre has been active in energy management consulting in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa. Pierre holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Chemical Engineering.

Facilitator: Scott Dunbar
When: Sunday, May 6, 8:00 to 16:00
Where: Shaw Conference Centre
Minimum: 10 participants

Target Audience
Curious people – those with a non-technical background needing or wanting to know more about the industry.

Description

An introduction to mining and mineral processing using basic concepts and lots of examples. The aim is to provide a basic understanding of mining and mineral processing, mine waste disposal and the industry with a minimum of technical jargon. It consists of six parts:

• Geological Concepts
• Mining Methods
• Mineral Processing and Refining
• Mine Waste Management
• Mining and Money
• A Future of Mining

Instructor

Dr. Scott Dunbar’s education is in geophysics and civil engineering. From 1975 to 1996 he worked for various engineering consulting organizations obtaining experience in mining exploration, geotechnical engineering, mine design, design of tailings dams, water resources engineering and hydroelectric engineering. He worked on projects in Canada, the United States, Central and South America, Iran, Africa, and China.

In January 1997 he joined the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia where he has taught courses in Mine Economics, Mine Waste Management, Mine Design, Management Science and Simulation. He was the founding director of the Integrated Engineering program, with a focus on engineering design methods, teamwork in design, independent learning, and communication skills.

Scott's research interests are in advanced mining and mineral processing methods. In collaboration with members of the Centre for Blood Research and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC, he has been working on applications of biotechnology to mineral separation. He also does research in project economics, mining construction, and minerals processing.