Mining and Exploration

It was almost 350 years ago that the seeds of Canada’s mining sector were sown with the discovery of coal on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Three and a half centuries on and there are more than 800 mines across the country providing direct employment for more than 363,000 workers.

Today Canada ranks first in the world for the production of potash and uranium, and among the top five for the production of nickel and diamonds, with its mining industry contributing approximately five percent of its gross domestic product.

"Providing service for what we sell" is the formula which has endured for eight decades and managed to consolidate Finning as the most important partner in the distribution of Caterpillar equipment worldwide. This is stated by Marcello Marchese, CEO of Finning South America, who has led the company since June 2012, taking command of the Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay branches, where the company is positioned as the major CAT equipment and services distributor for the mining, construction, energy, forestry and oil & gas industries.

In an age where negative stories seem to supersede positive news the vast majority of the time, it is always refreshing to hear an optimistic voice or opinion. We have all been privy to the damaging effects that have come in the wake of the sharp fall in metal prices and economic activity in the mining sector, a prolonged event that has seen a lot of company’s share prices plunge as they fail to raise much needed capital, however if you search around you will find people that are much quicker to speak of the opportunities that do exist today.

Mining has been a fundamental part of Ontario’s economic fabric for centuries and is now seen as an integral component of its future. Ontario’s native population is widely credited with being the first to tap into the province’s mineral wealth, while major discoveries and mine development in the 20th century helped to underpin Ontario's rise to the status of Canada's most populous and wealthiest province, and supported Canada's development as an industrialised and globally competitive nation.

There’s a sense of purpose at Canadian junior Potash Ridge – and the tone is set by its President and CEO Guy Bentinck a Chartered Accountant who has devoted the 20 years he has spent in the mining sector to finding smart ways of securing finance. He is not a man whose head can be turned by specious arguments: every step in the development of a project has to be considered, and realistic contingency planning built in.

Base listed on the ASX in October, 2008, with a portfolio of Australian iron ore projects. Carstens and his team, recognising that these assets would not produce any company-makers, “set sail round the world looking for the right opportunity we could build the company around”. In July, 2010, Base acquired its 100 per cent interest in the Kwale minerals sands project in Kenya.

Howden Africa was established in Johannesburg in 1952, to supply fans for the mining and power generation industries, just under a century after the Scottish engineer and inventor James Howden set up the parent company in Glasgow. Howden was an innovator par excellence, but his most successful invention was a forced draught system that dramatically improved the performance of steam boilers.

The market has a lot to answer for, and so do investors in search of a quick buck. Where gold mining is concerned, it is a well-known fact that as the price on the international metal exchanges fluctuates the viability of higher cost mines comes into question. There are properties all over the world that have been put into mothballs either because all the high grade material has been taken or because they can’t any longer sustain a decent margin.