northern prospector 2015-2016

northernProsPector 2015- 2016

The annual mining & exploration review

An official publication of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association

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0 Honouring history – The David Collins Committee unveils a plaque to mark the role of the pioneering Aboriginal prospector

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Manitoba and Saskatchewan Exploration and Development Highlights

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2015-2016 Northern Prospector10

table ofContentsThe Annual Mining & Exploration Review Northern Prospector is published by DEL Communications Inc. Suite 300, 6 Roslyn Road Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3L 0G5 www.delcommunications.com

President & CEO DAVID LANGSTAFF

Publisher JASON STEFANIK

Managing Editor CARLY PETERS [email protected]

Advertising Sales Manager DAYNA OULION [email protected] Toll Free: 1.866.424.6398

Advertising Account Manager ROSS JAMES [email protected]

Advertising Representatives Robert Bartmanovich Ross James Mic Paterson Production services provided by: S.G. BENNETT MARKETING SERVICES www.sgbennett.com

Art Director KAThY CABLE

Layout JOEL GUNTER

Advertising Art ShERI KIDD DANA JENSEN

©Copyright 2015. Northern Prospector.

All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

The Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Devel opers Association, as a body of members, is not responsible for statements made or the opinions offered in the publication. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained, and the reliability of the source, neither the publisher nor the association in any way guarantees nor warrants the information, and are not responsible for errors, omissions or forward-looking statements made by advertisers.

Opinions and recommendations made by contributors or advertisers are not necessarily those of the publisher or the association, or the ir respective directors, officers or employees. Articles and advertisements in this publication are not solicitations to buy, hold or sell specific securities; they are for information purposes only. Investors should be aware that risk is associated with any security, strategy or investment, and are advised to seek the counsel of a competent investment advi sor before making any investment, or utilizing any information contained in this publication.

Subscription, advertising and circulation can be obtained from the publisher.

Publications mail agreement #40934510 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: DEL Communications Inc. Suite 300, 6 Roslyn Road Winnipeg, MB R3L 0G5 Email: [email protected]

Cover Image: Photo courtesy of Daniel Dillon.

Changing Times – Looking Forward – President’s Message – Stephen Masson 12

Manitoba 2015 Exploration and Development highlights 22

Saskatchewan Exploration and Development highlights 2015 32

A Tribute to Kevin Murphy 48

Diamond Rush – Discoveries at Pikoo area lead to frenzy of activity 50

Mainstay – Saskatchewan uranium mining appears to be headed for brighter days 52

Evolution of a Monster – A look at the Triple R – The world’s largest, undeveloped high-grade uranium deposit 54

high Grade – Skyharbour Resources builds the foundation for uranium success in Saskatchewan 56

Drilling Optimism – CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. is poised for discovery success 58

You’ve got to Keep Trying – Jim Campbell’s life as a prospector 60

The Town that Can – The town of Lynn Lake offers ample mining opportunities with the infrastructure and lifestyle to support it 62

Manitoba North – The town of Snow Lake continues to thrive 63

Making Change – Amendments to Potash Production Tax signal new changes for industry 64

Ring of Fire – It was a hot summer in Northern Saskatchewan 66

honouring history – The David Collins Committee unveils a plaque to mark the role of the pioneering Aboriginal prospector 68

A Welcome Disruption – how drones are changing the way we explore and extract resources 70

Assessing the Safety Risks – Electrical geophysics and lightning 72

Finding the Skills – Several indicators point to a malfunctioning mining labour market 74

Indicator Mineral Recovery using Dense Medium Separation (DMS) 76

Pulling Together for Productivity – The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation’s Ultra-Deep Mining Network 78

Dig up Dirt – The year 2015 has been dubbed the International Year of Soils, and rightfully so 80

Options Open – Copper Reef Mining Corporation hold a varied portfolio in Manitoba 82

Working Wisely – Beware of the legal pitfalls of contract workers 86

Building Foundations of Trust – Achieving mutually beneficial outcomes through cultural engagement 88

how to “Extract More” in Mining – Emerson’s five specialized business platforms 90

Cameras on the World – Educate to eliminate eye injuries 91

Expanding Productivity – New innovations in geophysical mining exploration 92

Team Drilling – Innovation is part of the drill 94

Earthly Considerations – When is the right time to start environmental and social programs for an advanced exploration program? 97

Ready to Soar – Transwest Air celebrates 15th anniversary and expansion in the North 98

Little to no Environmental Impact – Remote building solutions that leave operating sites in their natural state 100

Fortis – Your partner in providing mining solutions 104

McCann Talks Torque – McCann Equipment Ltd. has become synonymous with torque 108

On the Move – VMS Ventures Inc. advances several projects and exploration 110

Spread Your Wings – West Wind Aviation fosters relationships between airline and community 111

Safe Solutions – Certified Mining & Construction Sales & Rentals 112

45 Years and Five Divisions Strong – Northern Strands is growing with Saskatchewan 114

From Little to Big – Wiebe’s Steel Structures expands into larger markets across Canada 117

Enhancing Mine Safety with Load Cells – here’s what you need to know about measuring weight or force with load cells, load pins, and tension links 118

Raise the Roof – The Metal Building Group has grown to become a leading design build metal building contractor 122

Connecting horizons – Perimeter Aviation offers a variety of services to the mining community in Manitoba and other industries across the country 124

On Point – Points North Group provide key services and develop relationships in the North 126

Bearing it All – Dunrite Rubber & Plastic celebrates 30 years of providing customized customer solutions 128

Straight as an Arrow – Arrowhead helicopters Ltd. employs experienced and skilled flight and maintenance crews to ensure an excellent experience 130

Good Set Up – Expedition Camp Service & Logistics offers everything from remote tents camps to hard-sided options 132

Big Ice Products and Services – Big Ice products and services are designed to keep you on top when working on ice covers 133

Suit Up – Northern Factory Workwear offer a wide variety of workwear and promotional clothing 134

Big Show – PDAC 2016 promises to bring another exciting event to Toronto 136

Index to Advertisers 138

PRINTED IN CANADA 11/2015

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HEADPRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Exploration in Manitoba and Sas-katchewan continues to decrease and our industry will need to see

changes if we are to expect improvement. The opportunities related to mining and exploration are enormous in Saskatch-ewan and Manitoba, and recipes are needed for a climate that will better fa-cilitate discovery. Although there are a few exceptions; for example, the Fission uranium deposit in Saskatchewan and the Balmoral Resources nickel deposit in Quebec. The lack of exploration by Ju-nior companies has resulted in a fall-off in the discovery rate all across the coun-try. Without new discoveries mines rap-idly approaching the end of their produc-tive life will not be replaced and our once vibrant mining camps and towns will go into slow decline and new mining camps will not be discovered at all.

The plunge in the discovery rate across the country has been unprecedented and the cause can be attributed to five main factors that have forced junior companies towards inefficient activity: 1) a lack of funds in the market available for explora-tion that is the result of risk-averse bank-owned brokerage firms that engineered a sell off of junior stocks for mere pennies causing a profound shift in risk tolerance on the part of investor confidence in the junior industry; 2) this lack of funds in turn caused desperate Junior companies to divert their few dollars into explor-ing less risky known mineralization and little if any into new targets; as investors leaned towards high-quality projects closer to production; 3) additionally due to the rise in costs related to comply-ing with excessive increasing regulation, consultations, safety, and environment, companies have reached the point, dur-

ing this slow-down, that approximately just 25 per cent had actual dollars to spend on exploration, with the remain-ing companies virtually the walking dead or about to be delisted; 4) combined with the above, the rising cost of pre-produc-tion work as required by best practices has resulted in re-surveying, re-drilling, re-assaying, researching, re-pricing, and refining mill processes to produce yet an-other NI 43-101 resource estimate report to reduce real risk and protect analysts, resource slayers, and geo-morticians has been exploration overkill at sharehold-ers expense as companies had to issue an unprecedented number of shares to finance it all; 5) and lastly, the withdrawal and sterilization of huge areas of land accessible to exploration promoted and funded in a large part by American and international environmental groups is ensuring that any dreams of a better life for future generations as a result of ben-efitting from discoveries in the area are lost forever.

Limited money spent mainly on old, tired resource targets has presented little opportunity to produce exciting new finds. What the financial institutions and the government needs to do is ensure exploration is directed to areas of known potential and to areas where the poten-tial is poorly understood or in reality not known at all by offering enhanced tax incentives for “new target exploration” as opposed to definition and develop-ment work. Exploration of new targets, although of higher risk, is required to revitalize the industry and increase the discovery rate.

Caught in the middle of all this is our First Nations people and communities seeking to benefit, as all residents should,

from resources that are extracted in their region. They have rightly pushed back seeking a say in development and seeking revenue sharing from what is happening in their own backyard. The communities that are benefiting least from re-source extraction in their area have used the duty to consult as leverage in the permitting process, forcing in some areas various degrees in difficulties in obtaining work permits, and in some instances forcing a stop to exploration. This is why provinces should adopt some sort of government-resource revenue-sharing model, similar to what’s been done in B.C. and in parts of the territories, to ensure that Aborigi-nal people see an immediate benefit from supporting resource development.

The unnecessary sterilization of land by new parks in the name of protection is counterproductive for economic op-portunities and the development of skill sets for northern communities and resi-dents. Some northern First Nation com-munities have unemployment rates of 80 per cent, poor infrastructure, and lack modern amenities. Surrounding them with parks will only ensure a wilderness ghetto situation where resources in the region cannot be developed to help fund local community projects, amenities, and create jobs. Parks cost more money than they generate and provide relatively few low-paying seasonal jobs.

A new federal governmentAfter 10 years of a Conservative gov-

ernment we have a change. Prime Min-ister Trudeau promises a better rela-tionship with the First Nations people and perhaps in this there is a chance to address some of the issues affecting the decrease in exploration with a number

Changing Times – Looking Forward Stephen Masson, President, Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association

2015-2016 Northern Prospector 13


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of new First Nation Members of Parlia-ment. The good news in Manitoba we have two new MPs in Jim Carr (Minis-ter of Natural Resources) and MaryAnn Mihychuk, P.Geo. (Minister for Employ-ment, Workforce). Mihychuk was for-merly the Minister of Industry, Trade and Mines, is a graduate geologist, and has sat on the PDAC board where she headed the Capital Crises Committee, as well as others. I have worked with her on these committees and know she got things done on time and on budget. As a new MP she is well aware of the is-sues affecting exploration, and a good resource for Jim Carr on mineral policy and taxation related issues. She has expe-rience with major mining companies and has certainly been a champion for the Junior industry, as well as prospectors. We very much welcome both these new ministers, as well as Prime Minister Jus-tin Trudeau’s new government and look forward to working with them.

In Iceland they have jailed their 26th banker for their shenanigans in 2007-

2008, in the U.S. the bankers got bonuses and the banks got bailouts, while here in Canada the large corporate banks who have no tolerance for any economic risk were allowed to take over the major bro-kerage firms expanding their strangle-hold on the economy and exponentially increasing their profits. In this govern-ment sanctioned process the banks squeezed out or crippled most mid-sized brokerage houses and instructed their brokerage firms to sell off their Junior holdings devastating Junior share prices. The main source of capital for Juniors virtually disappeared essentially guar-anteeing the search for fabulous new deposits would drastically decrease and the discovery rate would plummet. The effect of this has still not been addressed nor is there a reasonable mechanism for replacement of exploration funds. The feds allowed this buy out and security regulators went along with it; so they should be the ones to fix it.

A super flow-through tax break of 150 per cent for exploration of new tar-

gets for a two-year period would go a long way to bring back the high-risk investor and perhaps save our industry. I suggest limiting it to new targets because that will result in new finds and new discoveries the producers, as reserves dwindle, are in dire need of rather than more money to continue drilling off known deposits. This project risk reduction step should be the role of majors. The cost would be initially net neutral to government.

Or another strategy for this is to tempo-rarily (for a three-year period) double the federal Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, which generates funds specifically for grassroots early-stage exploration. Dou-bling this credit would revitalize investor interest as would the 150 per cent flow-through tax credit compensating for re-duced investor risk tolerance by reducing the cost to the investor.

Make no mistake our exploration indus-try is in trouble, especially in Manitoba. The time to act is now.



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Saskatchewan is doing fineExploration has slowed for sure but

that is related to the capital crises for Ju-nior exploration and less so due to pol-

icy or land tenure issues. Saskatchewan is actually a shining example for other provinces on land tenure and mineral policy.

Manitoba is not at all fineExploration in Manitoba has plum-

meted more than any other province de-spite the economic incentives that the provincial government has brought in as far as grants, tax incentives for Manitoba investors, and the doubling of assessment credits. Certainly the cause of this is not potential; Manitoba continues to have world-class discoveries, and recently Hud-bay Minerals has opened two new mines. So in Manitoba, with all the great potential and proven track record of discovery, and great provincial exploration incentives, why is exploration activity so exceptional-ly low? As good as these provincial incen-tives are, and the Manitoba government deserves high praise for being a leader here, the province is not deserving of the Fraser Institute rating as the second best place to explore in Canada or as fourth in the world. The Fraser Institute lost some credibility on that one. Investors and ex-ploration companies have voted with their feet and are either not investing or leaving the province to explore elsewhere.

Courtesy of the PDAC. This chart doesn’t take into account how many of over half of the remaining companies have less than $50,000 dollars and no money for exploration and are basically the walking dead.



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The issuesThe problem lies with the history of

the province not addressing their First Nation communities’ rights for consul-tation in a manner so permitting for ex-

ploration is not held up because of First Nation’s objections to the whole process. Some attention is finally being directed here but it is painfully slow.

The other issue is the Manitoba gov-

ernment’s obsession with alienating vast areas of land (some greater than the province of Prince Edward Island) where economic development is very restricted. No mining, forestry, or hydro is permit-ted. All this, carried out in the name of saving the boreal forest, has permanently alienated millions of hectares of land from exploration. In the far north there is no logging or farming, and tourism is not a viable alternative but there is a con-tinual drive to make a park of most of it, including almost the entire coast of the province. The parks will not stop global warming; this is insanity because noth-ing is threatening the environment here. This obsession of the Manitoba govern-ment is not just misguided but in open disregard of the economic well-being of other stakeholders in the province, as well as the economic well-being of the province itself.

At every stage since this was started in the 1990s, the provincial govern-ment has essentially lied to the mineral industry about its intentions. First it

This graph is very similar to the graphs that would illustrate the outline in the staggering decrease of the share price of the majority of Junior exploration companies, new IPOs, and exploration funds raised by Junior companies.



was 12 per cent protected areas. When they were given what they wanted, they re-engineered it so that even more land was sterilized (this time based on land morphology), then they re-engineered it again to take even more using the excuse they wanted to protect species, many of these species were not even threatened. When they ran out of excuses, they cre-ated parks by edict with lame excuses like endangered flowers. If they had ever worked in the north, they would know those flowers are everywhere. I am not sure if this was just misleading or to-tal incompetence. Presently over 25 per cent of Northern Manitoba is restricted from exploration, and now the Mani-toba government is pushing to make it

50 per cent. To withdraw 50 per cent of Northern Manitoba from any develop-ment, including exploration and mining, is irresponsible. Each time we were told there would not be any more withdrawn for development. Lies after lies after lies we have been told and as explorationists in this province we feel misled, deceived, and betrayed as we see the livelihoods of future generations squashed.

Vast areas in the north are essentially unexplored and to withdraw any of it from exploration without doing geo-logical, geophysical, and geochemical re-gional surveys is gross mismanagement of the future economic well-being of this province. It is not that the province is trying to discourage mining and explora-

tion, it is not, but by rushing into creat-ing large parks it creates an unnecessary element of risk and unattractiveness for investors by sterlization of vast sections of land for exploration. The balance be-tween the economy and protection is greatly skewed on the side of protection and the provincial government seems blind to it.

A buzzword these days is “global warming”, and that the land and spe-cies must be protected, in particular the boreal forest and the polar bears in the far north. Well this is a farce, just 10,000 years ago most of Canada was covered with a two-kilometre-thick ice sheet. Without global warming there would be no boreal forest. It was not the little camp

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Note most of Manitoba’s exploration was by major companies.



fires of First Nations people that melted all that ice. It certainly took a lot more warmth than we have now to melt these

continental glaciers. It has to do with the long-term variation of the orbit of the earth (i.e. Milankovitch cycles) and these

are still continuing and likely will until all the ice caps are gone. This is bad for the polar bears, unfortunately, but the good news is there will be a larger boreal for-est. Looking at reconstructed climatic re-cords of glacial and interglacial periods, it appears if mankind has done anything, it has merely forestalled the next onset of global freezing. Without a doubt human-ity’s activities throughout the world have been responsible for pollution, destruc-tion of habitat, and over-use of renew-able resources but it remains to be seen if their part in global warming is signifi-cant.

Please see the chart on this page which demonstrates that climate change has its warm spikes but these are anoma-lies in a world generally colder through time that what we have now. Please note although there are some that suggest global freezing is near in geological time

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ChART COURTESY OF MANITOBA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.



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measured in centuries or millennia, the length of a warm cycle is not something that can be predicted with certainty, only that it will end.

What makes me really upset is that this push for protection is directed from outside Canada, basically by people and nations who have screwed up their own environment and cut down all their for-est and now want to tell Canadians what to do with ours. The PEW foundation and others out of the US are funding this; wanting to stop development in Canada’s north because they can’t do it at home. In fact I was told that we could be like Ireland or Scotland with few trees left. Sorry, this is not the Middle Ages, and even if they think we are, the people of the north are not Stone Age people and are smart enough to govern ourselves and protect what we have.

The Manitoba government is now calling for vast areas of Manitoba to be withdrawn from industrial develop-ment to protect the Woodland Caribou which they themselves admit is one of the healthiest herds in Canada. Logging

maybe, but why mining? Relative to log-ging, exploration and mining activity covers very little area, and the impact of exploration itself is light on the environ-ment due to exploration best practices guidelines and regulations developed over decades by government and the industry. Mining takes up less space in all of Manitoba than the parking lots of shopping malls in Winnipeg, and explo-ration less than the Winnipeg stadium. Exploration should not be excluded in these parks and if mineable deposits are actually discovered, mining should not be excluded as well. In our far north we have amazing diamond mine potential but the area is covered with a huge park. Diamond mines, which occupy tiny ar-eas, are pretty friendly to the environ-ment. For example, the Snap Lake mine in the Northwest Territories, covers an area of less than 500 Ha while the right-of-way for the Bipole I & II transmission lines of Manitoba Hydro covers an area of over 25,000 Ha. Looking at it another way, the Snap Lake diamond mine is eight per cent bigger than the average

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Manitoba farm was in 2012. Snap Lake mine would cover 0.07 per cent of Cari-bou River Provincial Park in northeast-ern Manitoba.

The effect of large parks on First Nation opportunities

The creation of large Parks, especial-ly as proposed covering 50 per cent of northern and eastern Manitoba, would be devastating to the economic oppor-tunities for First Nations peoples, com-munities, and northerners in general. The First Nations are having opportuni-ties for a better life in the future liter-ally ripped away as the government con-tinues to DICTATE vast areas as parks that become prison walls isolating them from the outside world forever. Ameri-cans and city dwelling environmental-ists promoting these large withdrawals of land from economic development believe, I suppose, that they are saving the north from devastation. Those of us who work in the north love our fish-ing, love our clean water, and love the

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEbeauty of the land, plants and animals; but we also love and need our jobs. We want a vibrant economy in the north not only for us but for our children and their children. Proper management of the vast boreal forest can be done with regulations and concertation and consultation with First Nation peoples so they too can benefit from revenue sharing of economic development in areas of their traditional lands. When the glaciers melted they were the first people to populate Manitoba, moving ever northward as the glacier retreated. To put large parks in the area of First Nation communities, some with 80 per cent unemployment, is to keep them forever as wilderness ghettos or “have not communities”, living in conditions probably worse than in the third world, without the benefits of development of the resources in their own backyard. It does not have to be that way. The cre-ation of small reserves not large enough to have sustainable economic viability

in a modern era was tragic, and now for First Nations people to surrender the economic opportunities and prosper-ity that comes with economic develop-ment for the sake of unneeded parks is another tragedy imposed on them from outside.

The prosperity of the north, espe-cially the far north where there are no large forests, hinges almost exclusively on exploration, mining, and other natu-ral resources. First Nation people, who by the way have prospected, used, and traded mineral resources like stone for tools and copper have an opportunity to stake claims and acquire interest in the mineral wealth for themselves and their communities. Why do they need to lose this? Why should all northern-ers need to lose these opportunities? A few part-time low-paying seasonal jobs guiding or in tourism are not going to sustain these quickly growing commu-nities. Canada leads the world in min-ing innovation and the skill sets and the

prosperity that mines bring should be shared with all northerners. Skill sets are valuable and they are tools that can be brought to other industries and places. To surrender large areas of the province, destroying economic opportunities for northern people, with some small ex-ceptions of special spaces, will sterilize these areas for generations to come, if not forever. Like the cover shows First Nation peoples have played a vital role in the north and will likely play an even greater role forward in the north’s de-velopment as we all seek the benefits of economic development within the con-text of an sustainable environment an aspirations of northerners.

It takes times to properly evaluate areas on the scale of what should be a park and what should also be for eco-nomic development. The two can, and currently do co-exist and should not be treated as though they cannot oc-cur side by side. The process, if done properly, should be done over decades so that we make the best informed deci-sions and not rush into political reasons just to get the green vote. We have time to do proper land and regional plan-ning. Before large areas of Manitoba or any province are withdrawn from eco-nomic development it should require a plebiscite of the northern peoples and affected stakeholders, or at least those residing outside the perimeter highways of major cities like Winnipeg.

There is a high probability that as yet undiscovered mining camps and the benefits of enormous wealth are now lost forever, being covered by the huge parks in Manitoba and still this land grab for parks continues unimpeded. We need to counter this insanity with rational multi-use of land. In the north, life-sustaining economic development depends on finding and developing mining deposits where they are found; they are unique, they are where they are, and cannot be moved. 8

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MANITOBA EXPLORATION& DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Manitoba 2015 Exploration and Development HighlightsBase and precious metals by Chris Beaumont-Smith, Minerals Policy and Business Development, Manitoba Mineral Resources

Current as of September 15, 2015

The mining and mineral explo-ration sector in Manitoba con-tinues to show resilience as it

copes with persistent low metal prices and challenging equity markets. This has taken the form of continued capi-tal investment and a modest increase in exploration activity. The decline in exploration and deposit appraisal ex-penditures experienced following the global recession in 2009 is slowly revers-ing. The drop in expenditures from $140 million in 2011 to a low of $28.1 million in 2014 appears to have been reversed in 2015 with exploration spending pro-jected to increase to $36.1 million, an increase of 28 per cent over 2014 expen-ditures.

The rise in exploration spending can, in part, be attributed to the acquisition of several advanced exploration projects by established mining companies with the intention of advancing the projects towards production decisions. These transactions have provided a modicum

of optimism towards improving eco-nomic conditions. The cautious opti-mism extends to both the base and pre-cious metal sectors as both sectors are seeing increases in activity.

Base metalsIn spite of persistent low base metal

prices, Manitoba is experiencing re-newed interest in base metals. Some of the interest reflects the acknowl-edgement from the sector that HudBay Minerals and Vale Canada have dem-onstrated the prospectivity of the Flin Flon – Snow Lake greenstone belt and Thompson Nickel belt, respectively, through their significant discoveries.

Base metal development activities in Manitoba are highlighted by HudBay Minerals, which commissioned two new mines in the Snow Lake region in 2014. This is the culmination of a historic level of capital investment in HudBay’s Manitoba operations. The commission-ing of the Lalor and Reed mines reflects

their exploration successes and replaces base metal production lost through the recent closures of the Trout Lake and Chisel North mines.

Construction of the Lalor mine is complete at a cost of $441 million and commercial production was achieved the end of the third quarter of 2014. Mine production of 2,700 tonnes per day (tpd) is processed at HudBay’s re-cently upgraded Snow Lake concentra-tor. To aid in the treatment of Lalor ore, HudBay purchased the Snow Lake as-sets of QMX Gold Inc, which includes the past-producing New Britannia gold mine and mill complex.

HudBay is studying the potential of refurbishing the 2,000-tpd New Britan-nia mill tpd to treat gold zone ore from the Lalor mine. The purchase of the New Britannia mine and mill will pre-clude the construction of a new concen-trator at the Lalor mine.

HudBay anticipates additional gold resources will be delineated at the Lalor

Mineral Resources as of September 30, 2015

NUMBER hECTARESMINING CLAIMSTOTAL 4,983 731,581

MINERAL EXPLORATION LICENCES (MELs)TOTAL 49 743,231

LEASESTOTAL 3,704 137,204



mine with further exploration conduct-ed from underground. To achieve this, HudBay has commissioned the develop-ment of a 1,025-metre level exploration drift to provide a platform to explore the deep gold zones at Lalor. The Copper-Gold Zone holds the greatest potential to add significant resources to the proj-ect. A recently completed 4,500-metre drill program returned impressive re-sults and is being followed up with an additional 8,500-metre drill program.

Although HudBay has no immedi-ate plans to re-open the New Britan-nia mine, the mine produced 858,000 ounces of gold between 1995 and 2005, and 760,000 ounces of gold between 1949 and 1958 as the Nor Acme mine. The current reserve estimate stands at 336,700 ounces of gold grading 4.43 gpt and total inferred resources are esti-mated at 451,000 ounces of gold grading 4.04 gpt. Surface and underground in-frastructure have been maintained since the closure of the New Britannia mine in 2002, making the potential re-starting of mine production possible, a future option that has not been ruled out.

HudBay’s second new mine is the 70 per cent-owned Reed mine project (30 per cent VMS Ventures), located 80 ki-lometres south of Snow Lake. The Reed mine achieved commercial produc-tion in the second quarter of 2014. The Reed mine development was completed on schedule and under the $71-million budget, with the budget surplus applied to underground development. The cop-per-gold mine will produce 1,300 tpd at full production, with the ore being trucked to Flin Flon for processing.

In support for the Reed mine, Hud-Bay’s partner VMS Ventures is explor-ing their large land package surround-ing the Reed Mine. VMS is conducting a 4,000-metre diamond drill program, testing geophysical anomalies in the vi-cinity of the Reed mine. A total of seven target areas have been selected for eval-uation.

The completion of the Lalor and Reed mines will allow HudBay to increase base metal production in the near term

and significantly increase precious met-al production in the longer term with the eventual development of the gold and copper-gold zones at Lalor. These two new mines have off-set the loss in production resulting from the recent closures of the Trout Lake and Chisel North mines.

Recent exploration efforts around HudBay’s 777 mine in Flin Flon have not yielded the positive results that could potentially impact the projected remaining mine life. Exploration drill-

ing focussed on the “War Baby” claim, recently acquired from Callinan Royal-ties, which represents the down-plunge extension of the 777 deposit, has not re-turned the anticipated results.

Exploration for VMS deposits contin-ues despite poor copper and zinc prices. This exploration is largely focussed in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt. The most active explorer is Cal-linex Mines with their large Pine Bay project east of Flin Flon. The Pine Bay project includes a number of VMS de-

ZONE B

ZONE B

CLAIM STAKING ONLY

CLAIM STAKING ONLY

CLAIM STAKING

ONLY

ZONE A

SOUTHERN INDIAN LAKE

SPLIT LAKE RMA

NELSON HOUSE RMA

CHURCHILL

LIMESTONE

BROCHET

CHIPEWYAN

PUKATAWAGAN

Cross Lake Trapline Zone

WABOWDEN

PIKWITONEI

THICKET PORTAGE

Bloodvein RMA

ISLAND LAKE

OCNTraditional Use

Aea

GOD'S LAKE

OXFORD HOUSESHAMATTAWA

Moose LakeRMA

Cedar Lake RMA

Fox Lake Seasonal Use Area

Fox LakeRMA

64O 64P54M

54K54L

64I

64J

64K

64F 64G

64H 54E

54F

54B

53O

53N

53M63P

64A 54D

64B

64C

63N 63O

63I53L 53K

53F53E

63H

63F

63C

63A53D

52M

62P62O62N

62K 62J

62H

62I 52L

52E

62J

63N

York Factory RMA

63K

Northlands Consultation Area

Norway House RMA

Asatawisipe Aki Planning Area

Island Lake RMA

Little Grand Rapids RMA

166B

301B

302B

299B

380B

1027A

247B

300B209B

428A

236B

426A

1023A

1037B

1004A

1026A

1024A

297B

1016B

1015B997B

988B

331A

987B

396A

1039A

1032A

1042A

400B

1035A

389B

416B

395A

983A

418A

408B

417A

1028A

982A

985A

1044A

1043A

363B

1014B

1025A

1038A

1019A1033A

1036B

1034A

1018A

984A

1022A

984A

1022A

363B

WinnipegBrandon

Thompson

Portage la Prairie

Flin Flon

Dalny

Baden

Morden

Ponton

MedoraMelita

Rennie

Dallas

Powell

Kelsey

Notigi

Ilford

Gillam

Winkler

Carroll

Ogilvie

WaskadaCoulter

Pierson

Lyleton

Tilston

Ericson

Bethany

Russell

Tadoule

Brochet

Harwill

Mallard

Wanless

The Pas

Mc Veigh

Glenella

Woodside

Westgate

Wabowden

Red Rose

Duck Bay

Waterhen

Drybrough

Gladstone

Broomhill

Minnedosa

Millwater

Pine DockHomebrook

Cormorant

Gods Lake

SherridonCold Lake

Churchill

Snow Lake

Lynn Lake

Westbourne

Pikwitonei

Fisher Bay

Moose Lake

Salt Point

Rock Ridge

Dawson Bay

Split Lake

Cross Lake

Shamattawa

Moose Lake

Clanwilliam

Lac Brochet

Crane River

Manigotagan

Spence Lake

Camperville

Pukatawagon

Easterville

Island Lake

God's River

Leaf Rapids

Hollow Water

Seymourville

Loon Straits

York Landing

Nelson House

Norway House

Berens River

Grand Rapids

Oxford House

Dauphin River

Granville Lake

Meadow Portage

Pelican RapidsNational Mills

Matheson Island

Thicket Portage

Red Sucker Lake

Princess Harbour

Herb Lake Landing

South Indian Lake

St. Theresa Point

Gods Lake NarrowsCranberry Portage

ZONE B

ZONE B

CLAIM STAKING ONLY

CLAIM STAKING ONLY

CLAIM STAKING

ONLY

ZONE A

SOUTHERN INDIAN LAKE

SPLIT LAKE RMA

NELSON HOUSE RMA

CHURCHILL

LIMESTONE

BROCHET

CHIPEWYAN

PUKATAWAGAN

Cross Lake Trapline Zone

WABOWDEN

PIKWITONEI

THICKET PORTAGE

Bloodvein RMA

ISLAND LAKE

OCNTraditional Use

Aea

GOD'S LAKE

OXFORD HOUSESHAMATTAWA

Moose LakeRMA

Cedar Lake RMA

Fox Lake Seasonal Use Area

Fox LakeRMA

64O 64P54M

54K54L

64I

64J

64K

64F 64G

64H 54E

54F

54B

53O

53N

53M63P

64A 54D

64B

64C

63N 63O

63I53L 53K

53F53E

63H

63F

63C

63A53D

52M

62P62O62N

62K 62J

62H

62I 52L

52E

62J

63N

York Factory RMA

63K

Northlands Consultation Area

Norway House RMA

Asatawisipe Aki Planning Area

Island Lake RMA

Little Grand Rapids RMA

166B

301B

302B

299B

380B

1027A

247B

300B209B

428A

236B

426A

1023A

1037B

1004A

1026A

1024A

297B

1016B

1015B997B

988B

331A

987B

396A

1039A

1032A

1042A

400B

1035A

389B

416B

395A

983A

418A

408B

417A

1028A

982A

985A

1044A

1043A

363B

1014B

1025A

1038A

1019A1033A

1036B

1034A

1018A

984A

1022A

984A

1022A

363B

WinnipegBrandon

Thompson

Portage la Prairie

Flin Flon

Dalny

Baden

Morden

Ponton

MedoraMelita

Rennie

Dallas

Powell

Kelsey

Notigi

Ilford

Gillam

Winkler

Carroll

Ogilvie

WaskadaCoulter

Pierson

Lyleton

Tilston

Ericson

Bethany

Russell

Tadoule

Brochet

Harwill

Mallard

Wanless

The Pas

Mc Veigh

Glenella

Woodside

Westgate

Wabowden

Red Rose

Duck Bay

Waterhen

Drybrough

Gladstone

Broomhill

Minnedosa

Millwater

Pine DockHomebrook

Cormorant

Gods Lake

SherridonCold Lake

Churchill

Snow Lake

Lynn Lake

Westbourne

Pikwitonei

Fisher Bay

Moose Lake

Salt Point

Rock Ridge

Dawson Bay

Split Lake

Cross Lake

Shamattawa

Moose Lake

Clanwilliam

Lac Brochet

Crane River

Manigotagan

Spence Lake

Camperville

Pukatawagon

Easterville

Island Lake

God's River

Leaf Rapids

Hollow Water

Seymourville

Loon Straits

York Landing

Nelson House

Norway House

Berens River

Grand Rapids

Oxford House

Dauphin River

Granville Lake

Meadow Portage

Pelican RapidsNational Mills

Matheson Island

Thicket Portage

Red Sucker Lake

Princess Harbour

Herb Lake Landing

South Indian Lake

St. Theresa Point

Gods Lake NarrowsCranberry Portage

LEGEND

Mining Claim / Mineral Lease

Fox Lake First NationSeasonal Land Use Area

First NationsTraditional Land Use Area

First NationsResource Management Area

Community Interest Zone

Mining Restricted

Mineral Exploration Licence Zones( Revised Manitoba Regulation 64/92)

Zone AZone B

Mineral Exploration Licence

Map for illustrative purposes only. Contact Manitoba Mineral Resources for more detailed information.

Compiled By M. FedakRevised September 2015 INDEX MAP 2A

ACTIVE MINERAL EXPLORATION LICENCES

NUMBER HOLDER1004A CATHERINE E ENTERPRISES1014B SHAUN SPELLISCY1015B SHAUN SPELLISCY1016B SHAUN SPELLISCY1018A Callinex Mines Inc.1019A HUDSON BAY EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED1022A Callinex Mines Inc.1023A Callinex Mines Inc.1024A Callinex Mines Inc.1025A Callinex Mines Inc.1026A PUMA EXPLORATION1027A Callinex Mines Inc.1028A 4920776 MANITOBA LTD.1032A SHAUN SPELLISCY1033A W.S. FERREIRA LTD.1034A W DOUGLAS FOGWILL1035A ROCKCLIFF RESOURCES INC.1036B W.S. FERREIRA LTD.1037B W.S. FERREIRA LTD.1038A Eagle Point Exploration Ltd.1039A HUDSON BAY EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED1042A Qmc Quantum Minerals Corp.1043A Qmc Quantum Minerals Corp.1044A Wolfden Resources Corporation166B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.209B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.236B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.247B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.297B PURE NICKEL INC.299B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.300B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.301B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.302B CANALASKA URANIUM LTD.331A INTERNATIONAL SAMUEL HOLDING CORP.363B NUINSCO RESOURCES LIMITED380B AURIGA GOLD CORP.389B AURIGA GOLD CORP.395A JAMES CRUISE CAMPBELL396A GOSSAN RESOURCES LIMITED400B HAROLD WESTDAL408B MANITOR MINERALS INC.416B W.S. FERREIRA LTD.417A GOSSAN RESOURCES LIMITED418A GOSSAN RESOURCES LIMITED426A PUMA EXPLORATION428A ALTO VENTURES LTD.982A Canada Bay Resources Ltd.983A TAKARA RESOURCES INC.984A TAKARA RESOURCES INC.985A TAKARA RESOURCES INC.987B SHAUN SPELLISCY988B SHAUN SPELLISCY997B SHAUN SPELLISCY



posits and approximately 10 kilometres of favourable VMS geological horizons. Callinex is focussing on the southern Sourdough area adjacent to HudBay’s past-producing Centennial Mine. Cal-linex recently announced the discovery of new exhalative VMS stratigraphy. The “New Horizon” stratigraphy was not tested by previous exploration and returned assays over 7.4 metres grading 1.58 per cent copper equivalent (total base and precious metals reported as copper) hosted by a 174 metre exten-sively altered chlorite-sericite zone.

South of Snow Lake, Solvista Gold Corp. (previously Rockcliff Resources)

is advancing the Talbot properties north of Grand Rapids. Solvista optioned the Talbot project from HudBay Minerals and has committed to earning 51 per cent in the project over a six-year pe-riod. Solvista’s 5,000-metre diamond drill program is focused on four areas comprising the Talbot deposit and ad-jacent untested geophysical anomalies. The first drill hole returned 9.13 metres of 6.1 per cent copper, five per cent zinc, and 8.2 g/t gold.

Solvista’s other advanced VMS project in the Grand Rapids area was recently purchased by Akuna Minerals Corp., a private company. Akuna has committed

to advance the Tower project through feasibility study and the extraction of a bulk sample by December 31, 2017. The Tower project consists of two mineral-ized zones, the T1 deposit located west of Highway 6 and the T2 zone located east of Highway 6. An initial NI 43-101 compliant-resource estimate for the T1 zone contains 1.1 million indicated tonnes grading 3.73 per cent copper, 1.05 per cent zinc, 0.55 gpt gold, and 1.3 million indicated tonnes grading 2.0 per cent copper, 1.02 per cent zinc, and 0.27 gpt gold.

Manitoba’s other major base metal producer is nickel producer Vale Can-ada, with mining, milling, and smelting operations located in Thompson. Not withstanding poor nickel markets, Vale is proceeding with feasibility studies of the Thompson Footwall Deep project. The Footwall Deep project contains 11 million tonnes of nickel mineraliza-tion forming a deep, north plunging continuation of the Thompson deposit. The feasibility-level assessment of the Thompson Deep project was initiated in 2014, and continues with engineering, technical, environmental, financial, and operational assessments.

The assessment will be conducted through 2015, and if successful, will re-sult in the development of a new mine that will sustain the Thompson opera-tion for up to 15 years.

Renewed interest in Manitoba nickel exploration is demonstrated by the re-cent entry of Wolfden Resources into the Island Lake and Snow Lake regions. Wolfden acquired through claim stak-ing, two nickel properties previously held by Vale Canada that host signifi-cant nickel resources. The Rice Island deposit in Wekuslo Lake east of Snow Lake is currently the focus of a diamond drill program and Wolfden intends to follow-up their recent airborne geo-physical survey of their Nickel Island property in the Island Lake area with a diamond drill program in 2016.

Persistent low nickel prices have con-tributed to the continued suspension of mining operations at CaNickel Mining

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WINNIPEG

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LAKE

MANITOBA

Assiniboine

River

Red

River

HUDSONBAY

Bissett

Thompson

The Pas

BrandonWinnipeg

LynnLake

YorkFactory

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20

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9

17

15

410

3

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19

6

16

14

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0 50 100 150 200 250 km

APPROVED MEAP PROJECTSJune 2015 MEAP Offering

AB&C D E F G

H&I J K L

RegionsFar NorthLynn Lake/Leaf RapidsSE Trans-Hudson OrogenHudson Bay LowlandFlin Flon/Snow LakeThompson Nickel Belt - Superior Boundary ZoneNorthern SuperiorSouth Central ManitobaBissettSoutheastern Manitoba

Note: Projects 2 and 25 were not approved

Companies / Individuals Project name1 VMS Ventures Inc.3 4058667 Manitoba Ltd. 4 Copper Reef Mining Corporation 5 Northern Sun Mining Corp.6 Wildcat Exploration Ltd. 7 CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. 8 CaNickel Mining Limited9 Callinex Mines Inc.10 Strider Resources Limited11 Northern Uranium Corp.12 Tudale Exploration Ltd. 13 Rolling Rock Resources Corporation14 Rockcliff Resources Inc. 15 Akuna Minerals Inc.16 NorCanGeo Ltd.17 Claim Post Resources Inc.18 Wolfden Resources Corporation19 Madeira Resources Inc.20 Canada Bay Resources Ltd. 21 Mustang Minerals Corp. 22 DLM Gold Ventures Inc.23 AuRico Gold Inc.24 Hudbay Minerals Inc.

Snow LakeFay LakeNorth Star/Gold RockBright LakeReedRuttan 2015Thompson Nickel Belt NorthFllin Flon & Pine Bay Wekusko GoldMaguire LakeBissett Area GoldMonument BayTalbotTowerBryce Bay-Thompson EastSeymourville Frac SandNickel IslandLotus and Barb Rice LakeGnom/HannesMayville MakwaHannes 5 AreaMacLellan Gold Lynn Lake JVFlin Flon Dolomite Snow Lake Area

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Ltd.’s (previously Crowflight Minerals Inc.) Bucko Lake mine near Wabowden. Production was suspended and the mine was placed on care and maintenance in June 2012. CaNickel has successfully increased the proven and probable re-serves at Bucko to 3.71 million tonnes of 1.45 per cent nickel. The company is also having considerable exploration success on the nearby M11A and Bowden Lake deposits. CaNickel continues to explore its large portfolio of properties in the Thompson Nickel Belt. Current activi-ties involve geophysical surveys in the southern portion of their property port-folio south and east of the Bucko mine in advance of follow-up diamond drill testing.

Elsewhere in the Thompson Nickel Belt, Victory Nickel Inc. has deferred the development of their Minago nickel and frac sand mine. Victory received an Environment Act licence in 2011, autho-rizing the construction and operation of the Minago project north of Grand Rapids. However, Victory hasn’t been

successful in securing financing for the initial development stages of the nearly $600-million mine. Victory established a frac sand subsidiary Victory Silica to market frac sand to the petroleum in-dustry. Initial frac sand production from their Seven Persons facility in Medi-cine Hat, Alberta, utilized sand from Wisconsin with plans to transition to Minago sand once production from the Minago mine became available. Unfor-tunately, the recent decline in petroleum drilling and development has resulted in Victory Silica suspending procession at its Seven Persons facility.

In southeastern Manitoba, Mustang Minerals Corp. continues exploration and development on its Makwa and Mayville deposits near Lac du Bon-net. Mustang released the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) outlining the co-development of the Makwa and Mayville deposits with processing infrastructure located at the Mayville site, 43 kilometres from Makwa. The PEA estimates capital costs

at $209 million and a pre-tax Internal Rate of Return of 17 per cent.

Total Makwa and Mayville Indicated resources are estimated at 33.8 million tonnes grading 0.27 per cent nickel, 0.33 per cent copper, 0.6 gpt platinum, and 0.19 gpt palladium. Current exploration activities are focused on geophysical surveys on their Mayville property in advance of diamond drill testing.

Other nickel exploration projects in-clude Corazon Mining Ltd.’s assessment of the past-producing Lynn Lake nickel mine and Victory Nickel’s Mel project north of Thompson. Corazon is evaluat-ing the Lynn Lake and El nickel mines originally operated by Sherritt Gordon Mines. Using advanced exploration techniques and technology, the com-pany have discovered new mineraliza-tion and expanded remaining resources at the Lynn Lake mine. Victory Nickel continues to advance the Mel project.

Precious metalsPrecious metals exploration and de-

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velopment activities have been domi-nated by the bankruptcy of San Gold Corporation, the only primary gold pro-ducer in the province, and significant acquisitions of two advanced explora-tion projects by established, Canadian-based gold producers. This reflects the challenges faced by emerging producers during challenging markets and the op-portunity for acquisition presented by low share prices of junior explorers.

The sharp decline of gold markets and the general deterioration of pre-cious metal prices have taken their toll on Manitoba gold mining. The casu-alty of the rapidly changing economic environment is San Gold Corporation. The challenges of achieving profitable operational performance in a declining commodity market eventually caught up with San Gold and resulted in the Corporation’s bankruptcy in June 2015. Attempts to restructure San Gold were unsuccessful and the assets of the com-pany came under the control of the major creditor. The private successor, Shoreline Gold has placed the Rice Lake mine under care and maintenance while an assessment of the future of the mine is undertaken.

The news was better for junior gold explorers Carlisle Goldfields Ltd. and Mega Precious Metals Inc. with their

respective transactions with established gold producers. Carlisle reached agree-ment with AuRico Gold Corp. to ac-quire 60 per cent of the advanced explo-ration holdings within their Lynn Lake gold project. The joint venture includes the MacLellan and Farley Lake proper-ties and commits AuRico to advance the two properties through feasibility study during the first three years of the agreement. AuRico also committed to providing up to $2.0 million per year to Carlisle to fund regional exploration in the Lynn Lake project area beyond the feasibility study properties. These funds will be matched by Carlisle, which has assembled a portfolio of past-produc-ing gold properties previously oper-ated by Blackhawk Mining and acquired through staking a large portion of the Lynn Lake greenstone belt.

Carlisle has successfully explored the MacLellan, Burnt Timber, and Farley Lake mine sites and adjoining proper-ties to assemble a resource base of more than 4.8 million ounces. Following the approval of the joint venture transac-tion, AuRico merged with Alamos Gold Inc. Alamos is now the operator of the joint venture.

In a similar vein, Mega Precious Met-als attracted the attention of yamana Gold Inc. with their Monument Bay

project southeast of Thompson. The project includes the Twin Lakes gold de-posit within a large regional exploration property. yamana acquired all outstand-ing shares of Mega in June 2015, and is proceeding to advance the Monument Bay project towards feasibility study. ya-mana plans to continue with an aggres-sive infill and exploration drill program at Twin Lakes. A significant component of the exploration program is the sam-pling and analysis of drill core generated by previous project operators. An im-portant and somewhat unique aspect of the Twin Lakes deposit is the association between gold and tungsten through-out the deposit. The close association led Mega to include tungsten in the resource estimate, significantly increas-ing the value proposition of the project. The revised resource estimate contains an open pit-constrained Measured and Indicated resource of 2.9 million ounces of gold at 1.3 gpt, with an additional 700,000 ounces of inferred resources grading 1.2 gpt. yamana is preparing an upgraded gold-tungsten resource esti-mate in advance of the commissioning of pre-feasibility studies.

The northern Superior Province in Manitoba represents the western strike-extension of proven, gold-producing geology in Ontario. It is viewed by ex-plorers as an under-explored, accretion-ary terrane having the potential to host a number of gold deposits that form a regional camp. The geological environ-ment and the success of the Monument Bay project has led Puma Exploration Inc. to significantly increase its property position in the Little Stull Lake area, ad-jacent to yamana’s Monument Bay proj-ect. Puma’s property contains the Little Stull Lake deposit that has a historical resource in excess of 250,000 ounces of gold grading 10 gpt.

In the Trans Hudson Orogen efforts to reopening the past-producing Puffy Lake mine near Sherridon by Minnova Corp. (previously Auriga Gold Corp.) are proceeding through regulatory re-view in advance of the finalization of a renewed environmental license. The

LYNN LAKE:Discoveries Await

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Recent ClientsRecent Clients Cameco Cameco (Uranium Exploration)(Uranium Exploration)

Rio Tinto ExplorationRio Tinto Exploration (Copper and Uranium)(Copper and Uranium)

Canadian Royalties Canadian Royalties (Nickel Exploration)(Nickel Exploration)

HudBay Minerals HudBay Minerals (Base Metal Exploration)(Base Metal Exploration)

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recently released PEA for the Maverick project outlined robust economics to resume production of 48,000 ounces of gold per year over an 11-year mine life at a cash cost of $798 per ounce. The low capital costs of $18 million and relatively short 18-month payback period further demonstrate the feasibility of the Mav-erick project. Current project resources support the processing of 2.5 million tonnes at a grade of 6.53 gpt for a total 483,000 ounces of gold over the life of mine.

UraniumUranium exploration activity has

been rekindled in Northwest Manitoba. The region hosts the northeast exten-sion of the Wollaston Domain in Sas-katchewan that exploration companies believe was overlain by Athabasca Basin sediments prior to glaciation. This rep-resents the same geological environ-ment that hosts a number of significant, basement-hosted uranium deposits in neighbouring Saskatchewan.

CanAlaska Uranium, Northern Ura-nium, and East Resources currently hold dispositions covering the known extent of the Wollaston Domain in Northwest Manitoba. Northern Ura-nium has completed initial geochemical and geophysical surveys on their North-west Manitoba project and is undertak-ing a major drill program to follow up on a number of significant anomalies. East Resources recently acquired their Kasmere project from CanAlaska and is planning an initial airborne geophysi-cal survey in advance of an exploration program.

Exploration by Northern Uranium on their Northwest Manitoba project has returned very encouraging results, and on the strength of these results, North-ern has exercised its right to acquire an increased interest in the project from CanAlaska Uranium. Northern Ura-nium has agreed to incur an additional $5.6 million in exploration expenditures over the next two years to increase their interest to 70 per cent of the project.

PotashManitoba’s consolidation of the con-

vention minable potash resources in southwestern Manitoba has renewed interest in potash. The Manitoba Potash Corporation (MPC) controls the Russell-McAuley area of southwestern Manitoba, the largest land holdings with sufficient thickness and grade to sustain potentially economic underground potash mining. In January 2015, MPC, assisted and ad-vised by Micon International Limited and Manitoba Mineral Resources, initi-ated the divestiture process to sell MPC and its assets in the Russell-McAuley area. The phased divestiture process for MPC is ongoing. Micon has received a number of Expressions of Interest from interested parties, which will be as-sessed, taking into consideration criteria such as industrial experience, capability, financial capacity, proposed exploration and resource evaluation, project devel-opment and marketing strategy and ex-pected contribution to the economy of the province of Manitoba. 8

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VMS along with JV Partner HudBay Minerals reached a major milestone last year with commencement of commercial production in April, less than 7 years from discovery by VMS Ventures, in 2007.

With the Reed mine now in production, management is focused on exploring for new deposits near Reed mine and pursuing opportunities to grow the Company, building on our success with Reed mine.



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SASKATCHEWAN EXPLORATION& DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Saskatchewan Exploration and Development Highlights 2015Submitted by the Saskatchewan Geological Survey – Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy Current as of September 8, 2015

In the Fraser Institute’s 2014 survey of mining companies, Saskatchewan ranked first in Canada and second

overall out of 122 jurisdictions for In-vestment Attractiveness. The Invest-ment Attractiveness Index is a compos-ite of the survey’s Best Practices Mineral Potential Index (i.e. geologic attrac-tiveness) and Policy Perception Index, which measures the effects of govern-ment policy on attitudes toward explo-ration investment. The rating for Invest-ment Attractiveness is based 60 per cent on geological potential and 40 per cent on composite policy factors.

In 2014, Saskatchewan remained the world’s leading jurisdiction for potash

production and the second largest pro-ducer of primary uranium. The province

also produced coal, gold, base metals, salt, sodium and potassium sulphate,

2010 ($ M) 2011 ($ M) 2012 ($ M) 2013 ($ M) 2014 ($ M) 2015 ($ M) (preliminary estimate)

Uranium 103.2 101.2 115.8 143.9 138.7 136.4Gold 9.5 10.5 13.1 6.3 6.0 2.0Base Metals1 6.5 13.3 13.0 7.8 3.0 3.6Diamonds 17.3 7.9 5.2 4.2 3.6 9.4Industrial Minerals2 184.0 160.3 176.5 74.3 64.6 87.3Total 320.5 293.2 323.6 236.4 215.9 238.71 Includes: platinum group metals.2 Includes: potash, coal, rare earth elements, and clays.

Table 1 – Saskatchewan mineral exploration expenditures, compiledby the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy from the annual survey

of exploration spending intentions. M = million.

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PO Box 989 | 819 Poirier St.La Ronge, SK. S0J 1L0

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LALOCHE

PATUANAK

PINEHOUSELAKE

LARONGE

21

MontrealLake

AmiskLake

CumberlandLake

1817

16156 5 4

Scott Lake

Tazin Lake

Lake AthabascaFond du Lac

BlackLake

Fond du Lac RiverHatchet Lake

WollastonLake

PasfieldLake

WaterburyLake

Reindeer

Lake

Cree

Cre

eR

iver

Turnor Lake

DoreLake

Lac La

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Beaver River

Battle River

North

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LastMountainLake

Lake Diefenbaker

Old Wives Lake

Qu'Appelle River

Frenchman River

Souris

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Lake

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21

21

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SWIFT CURRENT MOOSEJAW REGINA

YORKTON

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WEYBURN

ESTEVAN

LLOYDMINSTER

FLIN FLON

STONYRAPIDS

60°110°

49°110°

102°

1

DODGE

TANTATO

BEAVERLODGE

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CARSWELL STRUCTURE

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RESOURCE MAP OF SASKATCHEWANNorthern Prospector 2015 Edition

LEGEND

Base metal potentialUranium potential

Gold potential

Major peat resource potentialHelium resource potential

Oil fieldsGas fieldsOil sands potential

Coal fields Potash and salt resource areasCarnallitic regions (magnesium)

SYMBOLSEdge of Precambrian ShieldPrecambrian domain boundaries and namesMajor faults

1 RoadsCitiesTowns

0 25 50

0 25 50 Miles

75 Kilometres25

25

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URANIUMOperating Mines/Mills1. Eagle Point mine (Cameco Corp.); ore processed at Rabbit Lake mill 2. McArthur River mine (P2N Zone deposit; Cameco Corp., 69.805%; AREVA Resources Canada Inc., 30.195%); ore processed at Key Lake mill3. Cigar Lake mine (Cameco Corp., 50.025%; AREVA Resources Canada Inc., 37.1%; Idemitsu Uranium Exploration Canada Ltd., 7.875%; TEPCO Resources Inc., 5%); ore processed at McClean Lake mill4. McClean Lake mill5. Rabbit Lake mill6. Key Lake mill

Locations Referenced in Text7. Triple R deposit8. Arrow, Bow, and Spitfire zones9. Gryphon zone10. Phoenix deposit11. J zone GOLDOperating Mines1. Seabee mine (includes L62 zone; Claude Resources Inc.) 2. Santoy mine complex (Claude Resources Inc.)Locations Referenced in Text3. Kettle Falls4. Greywacke/Greywacke North

COPPER-ZINC1. McIlvenna Bay2. Brabant Lake3. Janice Lake4. Borys Lake5. Callinan mine COPPER-NICKEL1. Dinty Lake

RARE EARTH OCCURRENCE1. Hoidas Lake2. Douglas River3. Fraser Lakes Zone B

KIMBERLITE OCCURRENCE1. Fort à la Corne kimberlite cluster2. Star-Orion South project3. Pikoo district

3

POTASH AND SALTOperating Mines1. Vanscoy potash mine (Agrium Inc.)2. Cory Division potash mine (Potash Corp.) 3. Patience Lake Division potash solution mine (Potash Corp.)4. Allan Division potash mine (Potash Corp.)5. Colonsay potash mine (The Mosaic Company)6. Lanigan Division potash mine (Potash Corp.)7. Esterhazy K-1 and K-2 potash mines and K-3 potash mine expansion (The Mosaic Company)8. Rocanville Division potash mine (Potash Corp.)9. Belle Plaine potash solution mine (The Mosaic Company) 10. Unity solution salt mine and plant (Compass Minerals Canada Corp.)11. Saskatoon chloride based chemical plant (ERCO Worldwide)

Locations Referenced in Text12. Jansen project13. Kronau project14. Legacy project15. Milestone project16. Muskowekwan project

SODIUM SULPHATE AND POTASSIUM SULPHATEOperating Plants1. Chaplin Lake sodium sulphate plant (Saskatchewan Mining and Minerals Inc.)2. Big Quill Lake potassium sulphate plant (Compass Minerals Wynyard Inc.)

CLAY RESOURCESOperating Quarries1. Saskatoon clay quarry (Cindercrete Products Ltd.)2. Ravenscrag clay quarry (I-XL Industries Ltd.)3. Wilcox bentonite plant (Canadian Clay Products Inc.)

COAL AND PEAT Operating Mines1. Poplar River coal mine (Westmoreland Coal Co.)2. Boundary Dam (Shand, Costello, and Utility) coal mine (Westmoreland Coal Co.)3. Bienfait coal mine (Westmoreland Coal Co.)4. Carrot River peat moss plant (Premier Horticulture)5. Wapa Bay leonardite quarry (Wapa Bay Resources)

SILICA SANDOperating Quarry1. Canfrac sand quarry (private company)

KEY TO NUMBERED MINES AND DEPOSITS

17. Wynyard project18. Foam Lake project19. Albany project

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SOUTHEND

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KINDERSLEY


and clay products. Thanks in large part to record potash sales volumes, provin-cial mineral sales for 2014 were $7.3 bil-lion (B) compared to $7.1 B in 2013, $7.4 B in 2012, and $8.1 B in 2011.

A preliminary estimate by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) of explora-tion spending intentions, indicated that Saskatchewan will account for about 15.7 per cent of Canadian exploration expenditures in 2015, up from an esti-mated 12 per cent in 2014, and ranking fourth nationally behind Quebec, On-tario, and British Columbia. The con-tinued investment and confidence in Saskatchewan’s mineral sector comes at a time when the rest of the country is experiencing significant exploration cutbacks. NRCan data show a dramatic decrease in mineral exploration spend-ing in Canada from a record $4.2 B in 2011 to estimated spending intentions of about $1.9 B in 2015.

In 2015, an initial estimate is that $238 million (M) will be spent on min-eral exploration in Saskatchewan (Table

1). This compares to actual expenditures of $216 M in 2014, $236 M in 2013, $323 M in 2012, and $293 M in 2011. Most of the 2015 expenditures were planned for uranium and potash projects, with lesser expenditures planned for diamonds, gold and base metals.

As of September 2015, active mineral dispositions, issued pursuant to The Min-eral Tenure Registry Regulations, totalled about 8.3 M hectares (ha). In addition, there were 163 active potash disposi-tions, issued pursuant to The Subsurface Mineral Tenure Regulations, comprising permits and leases, totalling about 4.4 M ha. Since 2012, the amount of land dis-posed for mineral exploration and de-velopment has increased from 5.5 M ha to 8.3 M ha. The increase is due in large part to the discovery of high-grade ura-nium deposits in the Patterson Lake area and diamond-bearing kimberlite north of Deschambault Lake, and has been facili-tated by the introduction of the Mineral Administration Registry Saskatchewan (MARS), an online staking system.

UraniumSaskatchewan maintained its status as

a leading uranium-producing jurisdic-tion in 2014, producing 16.2 per cent of the world’s primary supply, all from the Athabasca Basin area of Northern Sas-katchewan. Production came from three operations. The most prolific of these was the McArthur River mine and Key Lake mill operated by Cameco Corpora-tion (Cameco), which produced 19.1 M pounds (lb) U3O8, enough to retain its status as world’s leading uranium pro-ducer. Cameco’s Eagle Point mine and Rabbit Lake mill yielded a further 4.2 M lb U3O8, and the Cameco-operated Cigar Lake mine (which commenced production in December 2014) and the McClean Lake mill operated by AREVA Resources Canada Inc. (AREVA) pro-duced 0.34 M lb U3O8. Forecasted pro-duction for these operations in 2015 is 19.6 M lb U3O8, 3.9 M lb U3O8 and 6.0 to 8.0 M lb U3O8, respectively.

Exploration spending for uranium re-mained strong, with over $215 M spent


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in 2014 and a further $238.7 M estimat-ed to be spent in 2015. This work was fo-cused on exploration projects in or near the Athabasca Basin. Among the proj-ects that have gained the most attention in recent years is Fission Uranium Corp.’s (Fission) Patterson Lake South, in the southwest part of the basin. Drilling has been focused along an east-northeast trend, 2.31 kilometres long, that con-tains four zones of uranium mineraliza-tion: R600W, R00E, R780E, and R1620E. In early 2015, Fission released its first NI 43-101–compliant resource estimate for the property. The estimate is for the R00E and R780E zones, which are now collectively referred to as the Triple R deposit, although a gap of 225 metres remains between the zones beneath Pat-terson Lake. The bulk of the deposit is in the R780E zone. In total, the deposit contains 79.6 M lb U3O8 in an Indi-cated Resource grading 1.58 per cent U3O8 (2.29 M tonnes (Mt) rock; 0.1 per cent cut off) and 25.9 M lb U3O8 in an Inferred Resource grading 1.30 per cent

U3O8 (0.9 Mt ore; 0.1 per cent cut off). The deposit contains high-grade zones and over half of both the Indicated and Inferred Resources have grades higher than 18 per cent U3O8. The Triple R de-posit has been expanded since the pub-lication of the Resource estimate by new drilling. Given the continued success at Triple R, in 2014 Fission contracted the drafting of an NI 43-101–compli-ant Preliminary Economic Assessment. The report concluded that a stand-alone mining and milling operation could pro-duce 100.8 M lb U3O8 over 14 years at low operating costs of $14.02/lb U3O8 over the life of the operation. The report assumes a $1.1 B capital cost and relies on favourable market conditions.

About five kilometres to the north-northeast of the Triple R deposit, Nex-Gen Energy Ltd. (NexGen) has contin-ued the expansion of its Arrow zone, discovered early in 2014. The basement-hosted Arrow zone comprises a net-work of uraniferous veins within two graphite-bearing shear zones at depths

between 100 and 920 metres below surface, and has a plan-view footprint of 645 metres by 215 metres. The best intersections at Arrow are both over 50 metres long and grade between 11.5 per cent and 12.0 per cent U3O8. High-grade intersections such as 18 metre grading 20.6 per cent U3O8 and 20 metre grading 20.7 per cent U3O8 at depths between 400 and 550 metres below surface highlight the drilling re-sults. NexGen plans to release an initial mineral resource estimate for Arrow early in 2016. In addition, NexGen has reported mineralization 3.7 kilometres to the north-northeast of the Arrow zone, which it has nicknamed Bow. A further two kilometres to the north-northeast of Bow, Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. has announced the discov-ery of two mineralized zones separated by some 300 metres at the Hook Lake joint venture with Cameco and AREVA. One of these, the Spitfire zone, contains a best intersection of 2.8 metres of 2.2 per cent U3O8, including 12.9 per cent



U3O8 over 0.4 metres. The discovery is about 390 metres below surface and 250 metres below the Athabasca Group un-conformity in a drill hole angled at -70 degrees.

In the eastern Athabasca Basin, Deni-son Mines Corp. (Denison) has contin-ued to report exploration successes at the Wheeler River joint venture with Cameco and JCU (Canada) Explora-tion Company. The joint venture prop-erty is located halfway between the Key Lake mill and McArthur River mine. The 400-metre-deep Phoenix deposit, which contains over 70 M lb U3O8 in an Indicated Resource grading 19.1 per cent, continued to be expanded by drill-ing over the past year. Drilling has also expanded Gryphon zone, five kilome-tres north of Phoenix, in 2015. The Gry-phon zone is some 650 metres below surface and, unlike Phoenix which rests at the Athabasca Group unconformity, is about 180 metres into the basement. Denison hopes to publish an initial min-

eral resource estimate for the Gryphon zone by the end of 2015.

Fission and Denison announced in July 2015, their intention to combine as-sets in order to create a company that is a mid-tier producer with a diversified exploration portfolio. The new compa-ny, to be named Denison Energy Corp., will control 100 per cent of the Triple R deposit and other prospects on the Pat-terson Lake South property; 60 per cent of the Phoenix deposit and the Gryphon zone; the J-zone, which is contiguous with Rio Tinto’s Roughrider uranium deposit; 25.2 per cent of the Midwest deposit; 22.5 per cent interest in the re-maining uranium deposits on the Mc-Clean Lake property; and 22.5 per cent ownership of the McClean Lake mill. The merger is expected to be completed in October 2015, contingent on share-holder approval.

PotashOn the strength of unprecedented

global demand, Saskatchewan set a new record for potash sales volumes in the 2014 calendar year. Saskatchewan’s three producers combined for produc-tion in 2014 of 10.3 Mt of K2O (16.8 Mt KCl) with a sales value of $5.7 B, com-pared to 2013 when production and value of sales were 9.7 Mt K2O (15.9 Mt KCl) and $5.6 B, and to 2012’s 8.8 Mt K2O (14.4 Mt KCl) and $6 B production and sales. Saskatchewan potash prices in the first half of 2015 were up by over 20 per cent from the end of 2014, primar-ily as a result of the depreciation of the Canadian dollar, but softening demand and competitive pressures could cause prices to drift lower in the second half of the year. Second quarter 2015 reports from the province’s three producers in-dicate that although domestic sales are down considerably, offshore shipments continue to be strong.

Despite the market uncertainty, most of Saskatchewan’s current potash op-erations have been expanded since


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2014, or are in the process of being ex-panded. It is estimated that Agrium Inc. (Agrium), Potash Corporation of Sas-katchewan Inc. (PotashCorp), and The Mosaic Company (Mosiac) have com-mitted $13.5 B collectively to expand Saskatchewan’s production capacity by over 90 per cent. In March 2015, Mosaic announced it would invest another $1.7 B on an expansion of its Esterhazy op-eration in southeastern Saskatchewan. The K3 mine expansion (part of the Es-terhazy operations), for which Mosiac had previously announced a $1.5 B in-vestment in 2009, is expected to be in production in 2017. After a five-month production hiatus, in late December 2014 Agrium restarted potash produc-tion at the Vanscoy facility in central Saskatchewan after completing a one Mt expansion project.

In addition to existing producers, K+S Potash Canada GP (K+S), a division of Europe’s largest fertilizer producer, is building the province’s newest mine in over 40 years at its Legacy site near Bet-hune, in south-central Saskatchewan.

K+S reached a milestone in March 2015, with ‘early cavern development’ start-up at the $4.1 B Legacy mine site. The company began injecting water into production wells to derive a potash-rich brine for processing, with the goal of developing 36 caverns in time for com-missioning the mine in the summer of 2016. When at full capacity, the Legacy mine will be able to produce 2.86 Mt KCl annually. In June 2015, K+S broke ground and began construction of a potash-handling facility in Port Moody, B.C., which will house product from the pending Legacy mine. By the end of 2017 K+S expects twice weekly ship-ments to the coast on trains with 177 rail cars – equivalent to about 2.6 kilo-metres of rail cars.

In July, K+S rejected a US$8.7 B take-over bid by PotashCorp, stating it wasn’t suitably lucrative and that the bid dis-regarded the value of the company’s Legacy project. PotashCorp stated it may increase its offer, and it still has the option of attempting a hostile takeover.

A previous attempt by PotashCorp to acquire K+S in the 1990s was blocked by German authorities.

Other major companies including BHP Billiton (BHP), Rio Tinto Potash Management Inc. (Rio Tinto), and Vale Potash Canada Ltd. (Vale), as well as several mid-size to junior companies, are investigating the feasibility of vari-ous potash projects from exploration to pre-construction phases.

In the spring of 2015, BHP an-

nounced plans to separate its assets into two distinct companies. The new independent resource company, called South32, inherited aluminum, manga-nese, coal, nickel and silver assets in five countries, with over 24,000 employees and contractors. A simplified BHP re-tained 19 core assets focusing primarily on iron ore, metallurgical coal, copper, potash, and other base metals. In Febru-ary 2015, BHP provided a brief update on its Jansen project in south-central


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Saskatchewan. The update showed the company’s $2.6 B endeavour to finish excavation and lining of the production shafts and to install essential surface in-frastructure and utilities was 39 per cent complete and within budget. Although BHP’s corporate branch has yet to make a final production decision, the com-pany has now invested over $4 B on the proposed eight-million-tonne per year (M tpa) mega project, and lists potash as a future pillar of the company’s business.

Vale is in the final feasibility stage on its proposed solution mine near Kro-nau, approximately 30 kilometres south-east of Regina. The company anticipates completion of a feasibility study by the end of 2015. Initial studies indicated that the project could sustain a 3.5 M tpa mine. Vale has received approval from the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Environment for its Environmental Im-pact Assessment (EIA) on the project. The feasibility study will wrap up in late 2015, which will coincide with a deci-

sion whether or not to move into con-struction based on the outcome of this stage of evaluation, the addition of a potential project partner, and the state of global potash markets. If approved, construction is slated to begin in 2016 with production targeted for 2019-2020.

North Atlantic Potash Inc. (North Atlantic), the Canadian subsidiary of Russia’s fertilizer producer JSC Acron, and joint venture partner Rio Tinto have completed exploration on the Al-bany potash project, a proposed solu-tion mine located about 50 kilometres southeast of Regina. North Atlantic also completed extensive exploration at its Foam Lake project area about 220 kilo-metres southeast of Saskatoon, where the company is investigating the feasi-bility of an underground mine within the Esterhazy Member of the Prairie Evaporite Formation.

In August 2015, Western Potash Corp. (Western) released an updated NI 43-101 scoping study for a new scal-

able pilot plant at its Milestone project, about 30 kilometres southeast of Regina. The proposed small-scale solution oper-ation would utilize a horizontal mining method, which would skip the primary mining phase. The company believes that it can go directly to secondary min-ing by injecting hot sodium-saturated brines to preferentially remove potas-sium from the Esterhazy Member, leav-ing behind a lattice of halite (NaCl) crys-tals while selectively mining the sylvite (KCl). Western estimates that the pilot operation could recover up to 146 000 t KCl per year, at an initial capital cost of $80.6 M. If successful, the company plans to scale the operation up to over a million tonnes per year. Shortly after Western’s announcement, Beijing-based Tairui Innovation Capital Manage-ment Ltd. made a strategic investment of CDN$80 M in Western, resulting in a 51 per cent ownership stake in the company. In September, CBC (Canada) Holding Corp., a joint-venture company


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of China Blue Chemical Ltd. and Bene-wood Holdings Corporation Limited, invested an additional CDN$720,245 in Western to maintain a 10.1 per cent ownership stake in the company.

Throughout the first half of 2015, Kar-nalyte Resources Inc. (Karnalyte) was embroiled in an internal struggle be-tween its board of directors and a dissi-dent group of shareholders led by com-pany founder Robin Phinney. In April 2015, Karnalyte directors announced plans to write down, and discontinue work on the Wynyard project in east-central Saskatchewan, about 190 kilo-metres east of Saskatoon. The company shut its field offices and laid off staff in Saskatoon and Calgary. In June, the board of Karnalyte announced it would step aside to allow the appointment of five new directors. In July, Karnalyte an-nounced it had reopened the Saskatoon and Wynyard offices and re-hired key engineering and technical personnel to implement a development program in

preparation for an initial 625 000 tpa production facility. The company noted that its strategic partnership with Guja-rat State Fertilizer and Chemicals Ltd. could help arrange funding for the proj-ect on more attractive terms than those offered by North American banks.

yancoal Canada Resources Co., Ltd. (yancoal), a subsidiary of China-based yanzhoucoal Mining Co., is in the Fea-sibility Study stages on its Southey pot-ash project, about 60 kilometres north of Regina. The company is proposing to construct a 2.8 M tpa solution mine, and hopes to be in operation by 2020. yancoal submitted an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to the Saskatch-ewan Ministry of the Environment in July of 2015 and hosted public informa-tion forums in the communities of Earl Grey, Strasbourg and Southey. The EIS is currently under a technical review, and once the Ministry of Environment is satisfied with the content, the pub-lic will have an opportunity to provide

feedback and have their questions and concerns considered. Pending regula-tory approvals, an internal decision on whether to proceed with the project is expected in the second quarter of 2016.

First Potash Ventures, a partnership between Encanto Potash Corp. and Muskowekwan Resources Ltd. is still investigating the feasibility of a solution mine on the Muskowekwan First Na-tion, located approximately 100 kilome-tres northeast of Regina.

Other junior companies such as M & J Potash Corp., Canada Potash Corp., Canada Golden Fortune Potash, and Gensource Potash Corp. are at various stages of project evaluation on proper-ties throughout the southern half of the province.

GoldClaude Resources Inc.’s (Claude) Sea-

bee mining operation in the La Ronge mining district of northern Saskatch-ewan, comprising the Seabee mine and


and Analyses


mill and the Santoy mine complex, was the sole producing gold mining opera-tion in the province in 2015. Follow-ing annual gold production in 2014 of 62,984 Troy ounces (oz) from 279,597 t of ore grading 7.32 grams per tonne gold (g/t), the operation yielded 41,686 oz from 142,030 t of ore grading 8.88 g/t during the first two quarters of 2015. All gold production in 2014-15 was from the L62 zone at the Seabee mine and the Santoy Gap deposit at the Santoy mine complex. The record annual pro-duction for the operation in 2014, and subsequent record first half production in 2015, was reportedly the result of a change in mining method, together with higher ore grades from the L62 zone and the replacement of Santoy 8 ore with the higher-grade Santoy Gap ore. Based on this strong performance, Claude has recently increased its 2015 gold pro-duction guidance for the operation to 68,000-72,000 oz.

Total gold exploration expenditures

in the province are expected to be $2 M in 2015, a decrease from expendi-tures of just under $6 M in 2014. Over the past year, exploration at the Seabee mining operation has focused primarily on underground drilling in an attempt to expand the current Reserves and Re-sources at Seabee. Claude developed an underground drill chamber at the San-toy mine complex to facilitate an esti-mated 35,000 metres of drilling, and an additional 30,000 metres of drilling is forecast at the Seabee mine. Results of this drilling program are expected later in 2015.

Eagle Plains Resources Inc. recently acquired, and initiated exploration on, a package of land to the southeast of the Seabee mining operation that en-compasses several historically known properties. Exploration completed on the project to date has focused on the Kettle Falls property and consisted of grab sampling and channel sampling to follow up on historical sampling results.

Other active gold exploration and development projects include the La Ronge South gold joint venture in northeastern Saskatchewan between Masuparia Gold Corporation (operator) and Golden Band Resources Inc. Recent work by the partners on the Greywacke Lake property, one of three covered by the agreement, has resulted in release of a new Mineral Resource estimate for the Greywacke North deposit, including an Indicated Mineral Resource of 252 299 t grading 9.92 g/t Au (80,587 oz) plus an Inferred Mineral Resource of 58 456 t grading 7.42 g/t Au (13,951 oz; 5 g/t Au cut off).

Base MetalsSaskatchewan had a small amount

of production of zinc and copper from Hudbay Mineral’s Callinan deposit, which straddles the Saskatchewan–Manitoba border at Flin Flon.

Base metal exploration continued to advance during 2014-2015 with $2.88 M


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spent in 2014 and an estimated $3.35 M in expenditures forecast for 2015. Foran Mining Corporation (Foran) continued to release positive results from its McIl-venna Bay deposit and the Bigstone and Balsam properties, which are all part of the Hanson Lake camp in the western Flin Flon Domain of east-central Sas-katchewan. Murchison Minerals Ltd. (Murchison Minerals) has continued work on its Brabant-McKenzie deposit in the northern part of the Glennie Do-main, located just west of the Flin Flon Domain.

In November 2014, Foran announced the results of an independent pre-liminary economic assessment (PEA), which included recommendations for an underground mining operation, av-erage annual production rates for zinc, copper, gold and silver, as well as poten-tial locations for smelting operations. Early in 2015, Foran commenced a win-ter exploration program consisting of approximately 4,000 metres of diamond

drilling on the Balsam and Bigstone properties and a time-domain elec-tromagnetic (TDEM) survey over tar-geted stratigraphy north of McIlvenna Bay. Drilling confirmed the copper-rich Main zone and an overlying zinc-rich massive sulphide deposit, as well as po-tential for a third zone of mineraliza-tion consisting primarily of zinc-rich stringer-style sulphides that occur pe-ripheral and/or transitional to the Main zone. Highlights of the winter drilling included 2.0 per cent Cu over 105.0 metres (including 4.1 per cent Cu over 20.4 metres) in drill hole BS-15-239 and 18.4% Zn over 11.8 metres (including 27 per cent Zn over 7.6 metres) in drill hole BS-15-240 (with true thicknesses esti-mated at approximately 60 per cent of down-hole distance).

Murchison Minerals has staked ad-ditional claims (940 ha), east of their existing Brabant zinc project claims, to cover additional EM conductors that had been identified in a 2011 versatile

time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) survey. The Brabant-Mackenzie deposit has confirmed Indicated Resources of 1.475 Mt grading 9.18 per cent zinc with additional copper, lead, silver, and gold values.

DiamondsIn 2014, actual expenditures for dia-

mond exploration projects were ap-proximately $3.6 M. Spending in 2015 is anticipated to be $9.4 M and focused on resource evaluation on the Star-Orion kimberlite project, about 65 kilome-tres southeast of Prince Albert, and on grassroots activity in the Deschambault Lake area, 290 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert.

In August 2014, Shore Gold Inc. (Shore Gold) filed the final Environmen-tal Impact Statement (EIS) for the Star-Orion South diamond project with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Environment. In De-

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HEADSASKATCHEWAN EXPLORATION& DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

cember 2014, CEAA announced an En-vironmental Assessment Decision for the company’s Star-Orion South proj-ect, stating that the project is unlikely to cause significant adverse environ-mental effects. The provincial review of the EIS, led by the Saskatchewan Min-istry of the Environment, is underway.

In spring 2015, Shore Gold com-pleted a drilling program on the Orion South kimberlite. The program includ-ed 18 vertical NQ (48 millimetres) dia-mond drillholes totalling 3,617 metres that intersected 1,208 metres of the Early Joli Fou (EJF) and Pense kimber-lite units, and twelve 24-inch diameter holes totalling 2,560 metres that sam-pled 1,027 metres of the EJF and Pense kimberlite units. Results from the sam-pling included diamonds of 3.25, 1.15, 1.09, and 1.04 carats. Shore Gold in-tends to re-calculate the Orion South Mineral Resource estimate with the new drill results and updated diamond

prices. The company will optimise the existing Feasibility Study with a revised pit design and mine plan, where Orion South is mined first.

In the Deschambault Lake area, North Arrow Minerals Inc. (North Ar-row) was active this past year on its Pikoo diamond project. In fall 2014, it completed a till sampling program to supplement its summer 2014 pro-gram. Preliminary results of the two till sampling programs defined at least two, possibly five, new kimberlite in-dicator mineral (KIM) trains. In win-ter 2015, North Arrow commenced an exploration drilling program. The program included initial ground geo-physical surveys of selected target areas and 24 holes, totalling 3,243 metres of drilling, at the heads of two of the five KIM trains. The drilling program led to the discovery of three new kimberlite occurrences, increasing to seven the number of discreet kimberlite occur-

rences within the Pikoo property. The program also led to the recovery of 487 diamonds larger than the 0.106 milli-metre sieve class, with nine diamonds greater than the 0.85 millimetre sieve class, at the previously known PK150 kimberlite. Drilling expanded PK150 to at least 150 metres in length and the kimberlite remains open in the east and at depth.

In the vicinity of North Arrow’s Pikoo diamond project, staking and explora-tion activity continued to increase over the past year. Alto Ventures (Alto) com-pleted a fall 2014 till sampling program on its GEFA (directly east of North Ar-row’s Pikoo property) and Fisher (12 ki-lometres northwest of Pikoo) claims, in which significant KIMs were recovered, including Cr-rich chromites, Mg-il-menites, Cr-pyrope garnets, and eglog-ite garnet. These results defined at least three dispersion trains on the GEFA property. In winter 2015, Alto flew a

215_070_Earthmax-SR47-177x123mm_DG_0_1-conv.indd 1 07/09/15 17:20


high-resolution airborne magnetome-ter survey over its GEFA and West Fish-er claims; preliminary interpretation identified at least 16 magnetic targets. Canadian International Minerals Inc. (CIN) acquired 100 per cent interest in three properties (Pikoo Extensions A, B and C) from three private “arm’s length” individuals. CIN subsequently signed a letter of agreement with North Arrow, by which North Arrow can earn a 70 per cent interest in the Extension A and B properties by, among other things, funding exploration and evaluation of the properties to a discovery. North Ar-row subsequently collected till samples on the properties, recovering KIMs, in-cluding a G9 garnet. CIN also acquired an 80 per cent working interest and operatorship of the Arc diamond proj-ect, southwest of Pikoo, from Kelowna-based Kalt Industries Ltd. Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (EPL) entered into a similar agreement with North Arrow whereby North Arrow could earn a 70

per cent undivided interest in the dia-mond rights on EPL’s Orchid property, roughly 15 kilometres east of the Pikoo property. Copper Reef Mining Corpo-ration (Copper Reef ) announced initial results from its 2014 till sampling pro-gram on its B1 and B2 Pikoo diamond project; several till samples returned

KIMs, including chrome diopsides and eclogite olivine. The company also completed an airborne magnetic survey over its B1 property and purchased the C2 and C3 diamond claims–also in the Pikoo diamond belt–from CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.

Other companies exploring in the


Jason Berenyi, P.Geo.,Assistant chief Geologist Minerals and Northern Geologysaskatchewan Geological survey, Minerals, Lands, and resource Policy Divisionsaskatchewan Ministry of the economy1000-2103, 11th Averegina, sK s4P 3Z8(306) 787-2579 • [email protected]

Gary Delaney, Ph.D., P.Geo.,

chief Geologist

saskatchewan Geological survey

Minerals, Lands, and resource

Policy Division

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1000-2103, 11th Ave

regina, sK s4P 3Z8

(306) 787-1160 • [email protected]

For further information on mining and mineral exploration in Saskatchewan, please contact:

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HEADSASKATCHEWAN EXPLORATION& DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Pikoo diamond district include Strike Diamond Corporation (Strike Dia-mond), which identified four potential KIM dispersion trains on its Sask Cra-ton properties from till sampling in fall 2014. Results of the program include Cr-pyrope, chromites, picroilmenites and mantle-derived olivines. Gem Oil Inc. completed a fall 2014 till sampling program on the GEM15 project. Atha-basca Nuclear Corporation (Athabasca Nuclear) acquired the Pikoo North dia-

mond project in winter 2015.

Industrial MineralsAlthough exploration for industrial

mineral deposit types in 2014 was quiet, there was significant production. There are five producing salt operations, three as byproduct from potash production and two as primary producers. K+S Windsor Salt Ltd. produces byproduct salt at Belle Plaine in southeast Sas-katchewan. Compass Minerals Canada

Corp. produces primary salt at the Uni-ty mine in west-central Saskatchewan. ERCO Worldwide produces primary salt at its Saskatoon operation. NSC Minerals produces byproduct salt at Rocanville and Vanscoy.

Saskatchewan Mining and Minerals Inc.’s long-standing operation at Chaplin in south-central Saskatchewan remains the only primary sodium sulphate pro-ducer in the province. Compass Miner-als Wynyard Inc. produces value-added potassium sulphate at a plant near Wyn-yard in east-central Saskatchewan.

Canadian Clay Products Inc. exca-vates and processes bentonite at an operation near Wilcox, about 41 kilo-metres south of Regina. Colored Shale Products Inc. mines clinker from quar-ries near Willow Bunch, roughly 190 kilometres southwest of Regina, on an “as-needed” basis for use as landscap-ing material. Premier Tech Horticulture produces horticultural peat from bogs in the Carrot River region of northeast Saskatchewan and processes it at a plant near the town. Wapa Bay Resources produces leonardite on a campaign ba-sis from a small quarry near Wapawekka Lake in northern Saskatchewan. Leon-ardite is used as an organic soil addi-tive and fertilizer. A private numbered company, at an operation northeast of Lloydminster in west-central Saskatch-ewan, quarries and processes hydraulic fracturing (frac) sand on private land for sale to the petroleum industry.

In 2014, Saskatchewan produced about 6.4 M t of coal, a decrease from 8.9 M t produced in 2013, and the 9.7 M t of coal produced in 2012. In 2014, American-based Westmoreland Coal Company (Westmoreland) acquired Sherritt International’s coal mines in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Since ac-quiring the Saskatchewan operations, Westmoreland has signed new long-term supply agreements with Crown corporation SaskPower and announced it was amalgamating the Bienfait and Boundary Dam mines of southeast-ern Saskatchewan into one operation, named the Estevan mine. 8

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W inkler Structures, a division of Winkler Canvas Ltd., has been providing its customers with the highest quality, innovative products, and solu-

tions for over 35 years. Its humble roots as a small opera-tion manufacturing agricultural truck tarps has been built up on a foundation of strong work ethic and integrity, and a commitment to quality with no compromises.

The values that were at the core of Winkler Structures’ beginnings set the company up for rapid growth in both its product offering and company culture; a growth sub-stantial enough for the company to have to expand their production and office facilities three times in less than 10 years. This expansion has also resulted in a growing dealer network across North America, and the ability of Winkler Structures to service almost any industry requirement with its certified engineered, “no compromise” fabric cov-ered buildings.

Winkler Structures continually adapts to changing mar-kets due to its core principles of innovation and quality. In 2014, the company underwent a change of ownership that fuelled a complete overhaul of the brand, a process which caused the company to reflect on its past and set the di-rection for future growth. The result was a commitment to becoming leaders in the fabric structure industry.

“Our tagline expresses our vision; which is to provide our customers with a ‘No Compromise Fabric Structure’, ” says Rick Knelsen, vice-president of sales and marketing.

As a result of this commitment, Winkler Structures prides itself on providing quality-backed, custom-fabric covered buildings are ideal for mining equipment main-tenance facilities and anything else that requires superior protection from the elements.

“Our structures are often custom designed for our cus-tomers, which means you don’t need to cater your needs to our buildings, but rather we cater our buildings to our customers’ requirements,” explains Knelsen.

For Winkler Structures, maximum efficiency is one of the most important components in serving the mining in-dustry. Buildings can be installed in as little as a week and can be deconstructed and moved in the same amount of time. The specialty polyethylene material covering Win-

kler’s buildings has amazing strength-to-weight ratios that allow for easier, faster, and money-saving installations. This advanced fabric also provides natural lighting into the build-ing for a safe and efficient work environment, while also pro-ducing savings in electricity costs.

To supplement the new ownership and re-branding of the company, Winkler Structures has recently launched a com-pletely new building lineup to meet the growing demand for larger fabric-covered buildings. One of these buildings, branded the Trident, offers an innovative rigid steel frame that literally widens the possibilities. The Trident’s solid web beams offer widths up to 250 feet with a clear span design, creating a spacious, obstruction-free area inside the building which can also be customized to any length. It’s straight-wall design means doors can be added to the building for acces-sibility, or additionally, end walls can be left completely open for quick transfer of large machinery and equipment.

Due to their strength and resistance to corrosion, the Trident’s solid steel beams also offer superior protection and durability. Various coatings are available including grey primer, powder coated, or hot-dipped for extreme protec-tion against corrosion. Buildings can be customized to in-clude a variety of options such as doors, insulation, ventila-tion, and hanging accessories such as conveyors.

The introduction of the Trident model to its building line-up is just one part of Winkler Structures’ complete series re-lease. Each new structure profile has been personalized with its own brand and each one offers various widths, among other structural features. Any of Winkler Structures’ stan-dard options can be used in mining operations, or a building can be completely custom designed to meet specific needs.

What enables Winkler Structures to introduce its new in-novative product line while simultaneously keeping up with production and managing its large dealer network, is the company’s holistic approach to the manufacturing process. Everything including drafting and design, material handling, welding, packaging, and shipping is all done under the same roof in the company’s 60,000-square-foot plant. The facility even includes the company’s head offices on site, allowing effective communication between departments of the Win-kler Structures family.

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TRIBUTE

It’s with great sadness that we an-nounce the passing of our broth-er Kevin on Saturday, November

29, 2014, at 56 years. Left to miss Kevin’s memory are his sisters Kar-en (Ned) and Gail; brothers Glenn (Ruth) and Brent; as well as cousins, nieces, and nephews. Kevin was a geologist and loved the outdoors. He cherished times at the lake and spending time with the nieces and nephews, blueberry picking and teaching them about all aspects of nature.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Canadian Diabetes or charity of your choice. 8

Kevin MurphyA Tribute to

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DIAMOND RUSH

Diamond RushDiscoveries at Pikoo area lead to frenzy of activity

By Leonard Melman

While many segments of the Saskatchewan resource development world, such as metals mining and fossil fuels exploration and production, have encountered

some difficulties due to declining general commodity prices, one important area of Saskatchewan’s mining industry is not only remaining intact, but is actually enjoying a period of re-newed excitement – diamond exploration and development.

The world of diamonds is divided into two general catego-ries: diamonds for jewellery and those directed toward indus-trial uses. And, as it happens, the outlook for both segments appears to be positive.

Worldwide demand for jewellery diamonds has been grow-ing thanks to a steady increase in the number of wealthy in-dividuals who can afford expensive diamond jewellery. One industry journal recently noted, “The demand for diamonds continues to grow as the world population now exceeds seven billion people and consumer demand from rising global in-comes looks to diamonds for both pleasure and investment.”

Lest anyone doubt that the world of diamonds is big busi-ness, we also learn, “De Beers (the world’s largest diamond company) reports that the global demand for jewellery was up by three per cent in 2014 to US$81 billion.”

But jewellery is only one part of the diamond demand equa-tion as industrial-grade diamonds also have numerous impor-tant applications. These include construction; machinery man-ufacturing; stone cutting/polishing; transportation systems and very fine diamond saws. In addition, and quite ironically, many of the drills used in diamond mining exploration use bits con-taining numerous industrial-grade diamonds.

Saskatchewan’s diamond exploration activities have been centred in a geologic region known as the Archean Saskatche-wan Craton and began in 1988 with the discovery of potentially

diamond-bearing rock known as kimberlite in the Sturgeon Lake region about 30 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert, a discovery which led to the identification of the Fort a La Corne (FALC) kimberlite province.

Shore Gold Inc. has been active in the FALC vicinity since 1995 when the company acquired its initial claims in the area. Shore’s exploration work has led the development of three separate projects; Star Orion-South, Star Diamond, and the FALC-JV.

Star-Orion South is the most advanced project and a feasi-bility study was completed in 2011. This was followed by the forwarding of environmental impact statements to both the federal and provincial governments. The federal one has gained approval while the provincial one was still pending a decision in early fall 2014. In early September 2015, Shore released results of a recently-concluded 12-hole diamond drilling program.

While activity in the Fort a La Corne area has been the focus for many years, a new and exciting development is taking place within Saskatchewan diamond mining and that is a strong burst of activity in the Pikoo mining district. Over the past two years, a virtual “rush” mentality has emerged as numerous companies have moved into the Pikoo area.

Stornoway Diamond Corp. initially acquired claims at Pikoo in February and March 2011, as an area of interest within the Saskatchewan Craton. During the summer of 2011, Storno-way initiated a high-resolution airborne geophysical survey at the Pikoo property, located about 220 kilometres northeast of FALC. Subsequent follow-up sampling confirmed the potential for multiple kimberlites or kimberlite clusters localized within a 15 kilometres by 20 kilometres source area.

Since Stornoway’s primary area of interest was their Renard Property in Quebec, they decided in 2013 to enter a participat-

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ing joint-venture agreement with North Arrow Minerals, Inc. whereby North Arrow would acquire an 80 per cent interest in the project in return for completing specified exploratory work.

North Arrow’s initial work identified two areas of particular interest named North Pikoo train and South Pikoo train. Both areas were tested in July 2013, via a 2,000-meter drill program and when the results of this program became widely known, the rush was on as the drilling identified the existence of a new diamondiferous kimberlite field.

North Arrow has continued exploration and in spring 2015, conducted a drilling program at areas known as PK150 and PK312 which produced results which were sufficiently optimis-tic to cause North Arrow President and CEO Ken Armstrong to comment, “These new diamond results from PK150 are con-sistent with those reported from the 2013 discovery drill holes and confirm PK150 as a significantly diamondiferous kimber-lite…Planning is underway for a detailed follow up geophysi-cal program in advance of a winter drilling program to further delineate PK150 and the other kimberlites on the property, as well as to test new targets.”

Copper Reef Mining Corp. recently acquired two claims at Pikoo, identified as C2 and C3, from CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. The two claim areas are located just east of the village of Des-chambault and north of the Hanson Lake Highway.

Another company entering the area following the 2013 North Arrow announcement is Canadian International Minerals, Inc.

which staked 67,350 hectares north of Pikoo comprised of six separate claim blocks known as the Reindeer River Claims. The company announced it is presently reviewing information from earlier airborne surveys which had identified a number of po-tential kimberlite targets and was also exploring the potential for kimberlites south of Pikoo.

A list of other public companies involved in Pikoo include Alto Ventures Ltd. which has acquired land holdings totalling 90,000 hectares in the Pikoo vicinity through staking, pur-chases and entering an Option Agreement; Athabasca Nuclear Corp. which holds an 80 per cent interest in the 9,270-acre Prongua Lake Diamond Project located to the north, east, and northeast of the North Arrow Mineral’s Pikoo project; and Strike Diamond which holds sizeable positions north of North Arrow and Alto and announced in mid-September 2015 that they were conducting an airborne survey in order to ultimately generate drill targets for the purpose of kimberlite testing.

The current time frame appears to be one of particular op-portunity for Saskatchewan diamond mining since it has been reported that demand for diamonds is expected to grow faster than supply in coming years. As mining analyst Paul Zimni-sky recently observed, “ global diamond demand is expected to grow at 5.9 per cent annually through 2020, while supply is only expected to grow at 2.7 per cent over the same period of time.”

Should this prediction come true, it appears likely that Sas-katchewan’s diamond mining industry could witness a period of increasing exploration and development. 8


URANIUM SPECIALINDUSTRy OVERVIEW

MainstaySaskatchewan uranium mining appears to be headed for brighter daysBy Leonard Melman

Following the ups and downs of the uranium industry in Sas-katchewan during recent years

might be truly compared to riding a gi-ant roller coaster.

Thanks to what appeared to be a glowing group of positive fundamen-tals, interest in Saskatchewan uranium soared from roughly 2005 through about 2012. Arguments in favour of the industry included the fact that nuclear power generation was virtually pollu-tion-free, there was a growing antici-pated construction of numerous nuclear power reactors around the world and anticipated recovery from the decom-

missioning of Russia’s nuclear weapons arsenal appeared to be coming to an end, thereby suggesting a strong reduc-tion in future supply.

This combination of environmental attraction and increasing demand cou-pled with suggested decreases in supply led many analysts to predict strong in-creases in uranium prices – and that, in turn, led to an explosion of interest in nuclear development around the world in general and in Saskatchewan in par-ticular. Within the province, the area coming in for the most intense interest was the Athabaska Basin in Saskatch-ewan’s far North.

For some time the optimistic ana-lysts appeared to be correct as the price per pound of uranium oxide exploded upward from about US$12 per pound in 2003, to an astonishing US$140 per pound by 2008. Based on this action, mining companies swarmed into the Athabasca Basin, incorporating with rapidity and subsequent strong perfor-mance of uranium mining shares result-ed in massive inflows of working capital. Employment within the uranium in-dustry soared, towns such as Uranium City enjoyed a period of hyper-activity and the province itself received both in-creasing revenues and a flood of enor-mously positive publicity.

Regrettably – from the point of view of the nuclear industry, as well as Sas-katchewan’s economic performance – the price of uranium oxide subsequently went into decline, dropping to US$65 by early 2011, and falling further to about US$30 per pound by year-end 2014. Those declines have been attributed to such factors as growing opposition to nuclear power generation in general, a

reduction in the anticipated rate of new nuclear power plant development, and, most particularly, to the earthquake and tsunami disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power complex in March 2011 which cast somewhat of a pall over the world of nuclear power generation.

As a consequence of those declines, numerous new projects began to ap-pear uneconomic; share prices for many of these junior mining companies went into steep decline; capital became very difficult to raise and layoffs became widespread.

However, there are many who still believe in the Saskatchewan uranium mining industry. The basic fundamen-tals of nuclear power generation’s envi-ronmental purity, accelerating opposi-tion to fossil-fuel power plants and equal opposition to additional hydro-electric facilities are suggesting that alternatives to growing use of nuclear power may simply not be available in the future and, therefore, there will be increasing use of nuclear power generation in coming years. In addition, the successful current operation of scores of nuclear power plants around the world is providing new evidence that nuclear power gen-eration is notably safer when compared to other alternatives.

As a result of steady current demand combined with anticipation of a brighter future, production of uranium inside Saskatchewan has continued at a high level. The most important source of current activity is the McArthur River Uranium Mine, co-owned by Cameco Corporation (70 per cent) and Areva Re-sources Canada (30 per cent).

The McArthur River uranium deposit was originally discovered in 1988, and

Athabasca Fuel Service Ltd.


URANIUM SPECIALINDUSTRy OVERVIEW

following a period of exploration and development, mine construction began in 1997 with full commercial produc-tion beginning in 2000. During the years between 2000 and 2013, McArthur River produced about one-quarter bil-lion pounds of U3O8. McArthur River ore is processed at the Key Lake Mill site located about 80 kilometres south of the mine and recent yellowcake production is at a rate of approximately 18 million pounds per year.

In addition to McArthur River, Ca-meco owns 100 per cent of the Rabbit Lake project, also located in the Atha-basca Basin, which includes the second largest milling facility in the Western world. Uranium mining at Rabbit Lake began as an open pit operation in 1975, and as that ore body became depleted, an underground deposit known as Eagle Point was discovered in 1980, and en-tered production in 1994. Outside of 1998-2002 when the facility was shut down due to low prices, production has been continuous.

In late September 2015, Cameco and their partners including Areva formally celebrated the achievement of their long-delayed goal of reaching commer-cial production at the Cigar Lake Mine, second in size among high-grade ura-nium deposits only to their McArthur Lake Mine. In addition, ore processing was resumed at the McLean Lake Mill which is operated by Areva.

Production reached a rate of ap-proximately six to eight million pounds during 2015 with the goal of attaining a level of about 18,000,000 pounds per year by 2018.

The onset of production at Cigar Lake is particularly noteworthy in view of serious difficulties which had to be overcome. Cigar Lake was originally discovered in 1985, by geologists work-

ing for Areva and a corporation was put together to develop the project. However, as noted in a Financial Post study, flooding and mud problems were encountered due to the fact that the ore body, which is located about 450 metres below surface, was overlaid by “highly unstable sand-stone” which was satu-rated with water.

Another Saskatchewan mining de-velopment of note is Fission Uranium’s release of a Preliminary Economic As-sessment (PEA) on their wholly-owned Patterson Lake property. The PEA calls for an investment of approximately $1.12 billion in order to achieve even-tual production of 114 million pounds of yellowcake over a 14-year period.

Saskatchewan’s uranium mining in-dustry received a genuine shot-in-the-arm this past spring when India an-nounced an agreement with Cameco to purchase over 7,000,000 pounds of ura-nium over the next five years. Saskatche-wan Premier Brad Wall states, “India has a dynamic and growing nuclear energy program and the opportunity to supply this major customer is a huge deal for our industry.”

Despite some true setbacks, Saskatch-ewan’s uranium mining industry remains a mainstay of Saskatchewan mining, pro-viding jobs, support for the province’s first nations people, and continues to make important contributions to Sas-katchewan’s financial community. 8

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As a result of steady current demand combined with anticipation of a brighter future, production of uranium inside Saskatchewan has continued at a high level.


On January 9, 2015, after two years of drilling, Fission Uranium re-leased a maiden resource esti-

mate for its high-grade uranium discov-ery at PLS, in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin region. The discovery, which had netted the PDAC Bill Dennis award for its President and Chief Geo, Ross McEl-roy, and The Northern Miner’s Mining Persons of the year for McElroy and CEO, Dev Randhawa, was now officially host to the Triple R Deposit – the larg-est undeveloped high-grade deposit in the Athabasca Basin. A lot has hap-pened since January.

On September 3, 2015, following nearly two more seasons of aggressive drilling, Fission followed its remark-able resource estimate with a Prelimi-nary Economic Assessment (PEA) that shows the Triple R has the potential to become one of the lowest cost sources of uranium production in the world.

The PEA is an important milestone for the Triple R because it starts put-ting dollar figures next to an asset that

has previously only been measured in depth, weight, and grade. Here are some of the key highlights from the PEA re-port, which was carried out by the highly-respected RPA Inc. of Toronto, Ontario:• Average OPEX of US$14.02/lb U3O8• Base case pre-tax NPV of $1.81 billion• Base case pre-tax IRR of 46.7 per cent• Rapid pay back in 1.4 years• Project includes mill and avg annual

production of 7.2 million lbs U3O8• Hybrid open pit and underground

mine• Mine life of 14 years• Metallurgical recovery of 95 per cent• Base case pre-tax Net Cash Flow over

proposed LOM of $4.12 billion• Estimated CAPEX of $1.1 billion

The base case referred to in the bullets above uses a price of US$65/lb U3O8 and an exchange rate of US$0.85:C$1.00). It’s also worth noting that the PEA focuses solely on the de-velopment and extraction of the R00E and R780E zones (which form the cur-

rent Triple R deposit) and does not in-clude the high-grade R600W zone that lies just over half a kilometre west of the Triple R.

The R600W zone, which was original-ly thought to be a low-grade zone dur-ing the early stages of the PLS discovery, is now host to wide, high-grade min-eralization. With the lithology show-ing strong similarities to the Triple R’s R780E zone, Fission has focused heavily on R600W during the current and prior drill programs. However, while the zone has now grown substantially, the data was not available for the PEA as the bulk of the drilling had yet to take place when the report was being conducted.

At this time, the western side of the Athabasca Basin does not have a mill. While one did previously exist at Cluff Lake, located some 80 kilometres north of the Triple R, it ceased production in 2002 and has since been deconstructed. The PEA thus approaches the Triple R as a stand-alone mine and mill opera-tion. This obviously means a consider-able CAPEX (est. $1.1B). However, the size, grade, and shallow nature of the project offsets this with a rapid pre-tax pay back in 1.4 years. Also, the poten-tial for the mill to become a centrepiece for a western Athabasca Basin uranium district is very strong and could service operations such as Areva’s Shea Creek, as well as new discoveries in the region.

In terms of the specific approach to developing and extracting the deposit, the PEA suggests a combination of open-pit and underground mining, with a dyke system (dyke and slurry wall) for water control. This would allow high-grade mineralization (above four per cent U3O8) to be captured within the open pit, avoiding the need for com-plex and costly underground mining

Evolution of a MonsterA look at the Triple R – the world’s largest, undeveloped high-grade uranium deposit

URANIUM SPECIALFISSION URANIUM


methods characteristic of all deposits and mines in the Basin’s containing high-grade zones. This hybrid approach uti-lizes methods common to the Athabasca Basin region.

Beyond the figures themselves, Fis-sion’s PEA is interesting because the only other published PEA in the Atha-basca Basin was for Hathor’s (now Rio Tinto’s) Roughrider deposit on the east-ern side of the basin. That doesn’t leave much room for comparison, particularly as the Roughrider is smaller and deeper than the Triple R but does have access to operating, high-grade mills. Perhaps more relevant is that the OPEX means the Triple R has the potential to be one of the lowest-cost uranium producers in the world.

There’s no question that the Triple R is a remarkable asset with an exciting future. Exactly who will be taking it for-ward from here is currently waiting on two shareholder votes. On July 6, 2015, Fission Uranium and Denison Mines an-nounced their intention to merge. Tech-nically, Denison has agreed to take over Fission, however, Fission’s management team will be running the merged compa-ny and no doubt McElroy will be looking to bring his highly successful technical team with him.

In October, the shareholders of both companies will vote on the merger. If it’s a yes, the companies will officially merge within a few days. If it’s a no, they will go their separate ways. Whatever the out-come, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the progress of the Triple R. 8

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URANIUM SPECIALSKyHARBOUR RESOURCES

High GradeSkyharbour Resources builds the foundation for uranium success in Saskatchewan

Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V: SyH) is a preeminent ura-nium and thorium exploration company focused in the prolific Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, which is one

of the most favourable jurisdictions to work in globally. Despite a challenging resource market and a particularly depressed ura-nium sector, Skyharbour has forged ahead with accretive and opportunistic acquisitions, value-add exploration, and the for-mation of synergistic partnerships to help advance projects in a less equity-dilutive manner. Furthermore, Skyharbour has been able to raise the necessary capital to execute on its plans having raised over $3 million in the last 18 months with both retail and institutional involvement which fully finances the company for its upcoming exploration programs. It has been a dismal mar-ket for uranium exploration companies but Skyharbour and its management sees it as an opportunity to build the foundation needed for success going forward.

Skyharbour recently reported diamond drill assay results from its 100-per-cent-owned, 79,003-hectare Falcon Point Uranium and Thorium Property located 55 kilometres east of the Key Lake Mill. The drill program consisted of five diamond drill holes totalling 1,278 metres with four of the five holes in-tersecting uranium and thorium mineralization. Drill hole FP-15-05 intersected a 14.0-metre-wide mineralized zone start-ing at 134.5 metres down-hole depth consisting of the highest grade mineralization found to date in the deposit area. These intersections include 0.172 per cent U3O8 and 0.112 per cent ThO2 over 2.5 metres, as well as 0.165 per cent U3O8 and 0.112 per cent ThO2 over 2.0 metres within a broader interval con-taining 0.103 per cent U308 and 0.062 per cent ThO2 over 6.0 metres. The drill program tested high-priority targets in and around the current uranium and thorium resource at the JNR Fraser Lakes Zone B deposit. It was successful in discovering additional mineralization at higher grades than the deposit average and was the company’s first work program at Falcon Point (previously called Way Lake) since acquiring the property

from Denison Mines in summer 2014.Jordan Trimble, president and CEO of Skyharbour Resourc-

es, states, “We are excited to have intersected the highest grade uranium mineralization found to date in the deposit area on the Falcon Point Project. Similar to other notable high grade Athabasca Basin deposits, we are seeing the character of the uranium mineralization changing at depth as the grade is in-creasing which illustrates the strong discovery potential going forward at the project. Furthermore, we will be commencing a summer field program shortly consisting of prospecting and vegetation/soil sampling in and around a high grade 48 per cent U3O8 surface showing on the Hook Lake target near the north-ern end of the property.”

Background on the Falcon Point projectIn May 2014, Skyharbour announced the purchase of a 100

per cent interest in the Falcon Point Project (previously Way Lake) from Denison (TSX: DML). The Falcon Point property hosts an NI 43-101 mineral resource of 7.0 million pounds U3O8 inferred at an average grade of 0.03 per cent U3O8 and 5.3 million pounds ThO2 inferred at an average grade of 0.023 per cent ThO2 within 10.4 million tonnes using a cutoff grade of 0.01 per cent U3O8. In addition to the deposit on the south end of the project, at the north end of the project high-grade mineralization has been discovered with up to 48 per cent U3O8 in historic grab samples from a massive pitchblende vein at the Hook Lake target. The source of this high-grade uranium mineralization has yet to be discovered.

As a well-diversified land holder in the Athabasca Basin, Sky-harbour also holds interest in one of the largest land packages (127,495 hectares) strategically located near Fission Uranium’s (TSX: FCU) Patterson Lake South (“PLS”) high-grade Triple R uranium deposit, as well as NexGen Energy’s (TSX-V: NXE) recent high-grade uranium discovery on their Rook 1 Project at the Arrow target. These new discoveries demonstrate the po-


URANIUM SPECIALSKyHARBOUR RESOURCES

Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V: SYH) is a uranium and thorium exploration company focused in the prolific Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Skyharbour’s Falcon Point property hosts an NI 43-101 mineral resource of 7.0 million pounds U3O8 inferred at an average grade of 0.03% U3O8 and 5.3 million pounds ThO2 inferred at an average grade of 0.023% ThO2. In addition to the deposit, high grade mineralization has been discovered with up to 48% U3O8 in historic grab samples discovered north of the Hook Lake target. The source of this high grade uranium mineralization has yet to be discovered.

Skyharbour has earned a 50% interest in one of the largest land packages (127,495 hectares) strategically located near Fission Uranium’s (TSX: FCU) Patterson Lake South (“PLS”) high-grade Triple R uranium deposit, as well as NexGen Energy’s (TSX-V: NXE) recent high grade uranium discovery on their Rock 1 Project at the Arrow target. These new discoveries demonstrate the potential for high-grade uranium on the margins of the western side of the Basin where significantly less exploration has been carried out.

C O N T A C T I N F O

Jordan Trimble: President and CEO

C O R P O R A T E I N F O

SKYHARBOUR RESOURCES LTD.

Suite 1610, 777 Dunsmuir Street Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K4 Canada

Tel: 604-687-3376 Toll Free: 1-800-567-8181

Email: [email protected]

www.skyharbourltd.com

tential for high-grade uranium on the margins of the western side of the Basin where significantly less exploration has been carried out. Skyharbour’s properties host favourable geology for the occurrence of PLS style uranium mineralization.

Utilizing the JV model to advance projects without signifi-cant equity dilution, Skyharbour is partners with three other companies in the Western Athabasca Syndicate which was formed to explore the PLS property package in an operationally effective, cost efficient manner. Each of the companies has an option to earn in 25 per cent by incurring exploration expen-ditures over two years totalling a combined $6 million. Skyhar-bour is the operator of the project and will fund $1 million with the three partner companies funding the remaining $5 million. Fifteen high-priority drill target areas at the flagship Preston Project associated with eight prospective exploration corridors have been successfully delineated through the extensive explo-ration carried out thus far. A total of $4.2 million in exploration has been carried out to date of the $6 million planned.

Lastly, Skyharbour has a 60 per cent interest in the Mann Lake Uranium Project located on the east side of the Basin 25 kilometres southwest of Cameco’s McArthur River Mine. This

serves as a strategic holding for the company and offers ex-posure to one of the most prolific uranium mining districts in the world being on the same main mine trend that hosts notable high-grade uranium deposits and operating mines. The project boasts highly prospective geology and robust discovery potential as identified by the historic work consist-ing of over $3 million in exploration including drilling. The property is also adjacent to the Mann Lake Joint Venture oper-ated by Cameco (52.5 per cent) with partners Denison Mines (30 per cent), and AREVA (17.5 per cent) where high-grade, basement-hosted uranium mineralization has been recently discovered. 8


URANIUM SPECIALCANALASKA URANIUM LTD.

Drilling Optimism CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. is poised for discovery success

CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. holds interests within approximately 770,000 hectares (1.9 million

acres) in Canada’s Athabasca Basin re-gion known as the “Saudi Arabia of Ura-nium”. The company’s strategic holdings have attracted major mining companies such as Mitsubishi, KORES, and KEP-CO, proof that it is poised for discovery success in the world’s richest uranium district.

Earlier in 2015, Vancouver-based CanAlaska underlined its favourable po-sition by reporting that significant ura-nium mineralization had been detected at its Northwest Manitoba project. This project lies just east of the border with northeast Saskatchewan. It is 70 kilome-tres north of Reindeer Lake and covers 143,603 hectares. The project has simi-lar geology to areas including the Rabbit Lake, Collins Bay, and Eagle Point Ura-nium mines 90 kilometres southwest.

Peter Dasler, president and CEO, CanAlaska, confirmed to Northern Prospector that Northwest Manitoba is a geological target identified by CanAlas-ka’s own crew in 2005. There had been no other activity in the area at that time, although reconnaissance work had been completed in the 1970s.

The drilling programmesThe mineralization was the first to

be identified at Northwest Manitoba’s Maguire Lake site and was the result of drilling by Northern Uranium which holds a 50 per cent interest in the prop-erty. Northern Uranium’s extensive ra-don survey on land and lakes along the Maguire structural corridor in 2013 and 2014, defined a number of anomalies, some of which correlated with earlier defined geophysical targets.

Drilling started in late winter 2014. A down-hole gamma ray log of one hole

(MG15DD-0012) revealed two zones of highly anomalous responses attributable to uranium mineralization between 164 and 238 metres and between 285 and 347 metres. The current site intersects a sub-stantial hydrothermal alteration zone, with several structures over a 100 metre width and 300 metre strike length char-acterized by intense clay-hematite altera-tion. It is precisely these hydrothermal alteration zones and fault structures that are associated with unconformity style uranium mineralization in the Athabasca Basin.

Peter Dasler commented, “The latest drill results are highly encouraging as they continue to confirm the geological model for uranium deposits. Additional drilling will enable initial drill-testing of multiple targets in search of high-grade uranium mineralization.”

The aforementioned hole MG15DD- 0012 penetrated the central portion of a large ground gravity low with IP-resistiv-ity conductive anomalies coincident with anomalous radon-in-water (the hole was drilled with large HQ core through ice at a bearing of 320 degrees and an inclina-tion of 55 degrees, bedrock being inter-sected at 26.1 metres and the hole con-tinuing to 350.35 metres).

The 164-238-metre anomalous zone was hosted in sericite and clay altered calcsilicate, massive radioactive clay and radioactive granite bracketed by very strong clay alteration. The highest radioactive anomaly (approximately 55 times background) in this section is at-tributable to a 330-millimetre silicified breccia with rounded granitic and exotic clasts cutting radioactive granite. This anomalous intersection exists within an extensive regional southwest to north-east trending steeply northwest dipping fault zone.

The 285-347-metre zone ranges to


URANIUM SPECIALCANALASKA URANIUM LTD.

over 65 times background and is attrib-utable to a pegmatitic dyke cutting un-altered pelite to a depth of 311 metres. Here massive unaltered pegmatite was intersected to the end of the anomalous zone at 347 metres. Lying 120 metres southwest of MG15DD-0012 was hole MG15DD-0013, also drilled at 320 de-gree azimuth and 55 degree inclination; the hole was designed to test an IP and resistivity conductive anomaly at 100 metres depth and a strongly conduc-tive anomaly at 150 metres. In fact, MG15DD-0013 was ended early due to deteriorating ice conditions onsite.

The conclusion was that far stronger uranium mineralization was found at MG15DD-0012; at MG15DD-0013 a down hole gamma ray log to 211 me-tres returned only weak radioactive spikes at 90 and 150 metres. What is more, higher-grade mineralization at MG15DD-0012 is supported by a re-cent RadonEx survey which returned higher radon-in-water results.

And the future?Drilling is now underway on hole

MG15DD-0014, 120 metres northeast of MG15DD-0012, and on other holes. MG15DD-0014 targets the centre of a gravity low previously tested by a hole that was lost before surveying could be completed, and a conductivity anomaly

at 100-metre depth, as well as the anom-alous radon-in-water results from the RadonEx survey.

In addition, at least four additional lake targets and seven additional land targets remain to be tested. These anomalies are based on the results of ground gravity, IP and resistivity sur-veys, airborne electromagnetic surveys, RadonEx radon-in-water surveys and AlphaTrack radon-on-land surveys.

All these targets are up-ice of uranif-erous boulders (up to 66 per cent U3O8)

discovered in a prospecting programme by CanAlaska geologists. RadonEx Ex-ploration Management has completed an infill radon-in-water survey and a ground gravity survey to better define these tar-gets. A second large diamond drill rig is presently being mobilized to help with drilling the lake and land targets.

Finally, Peter Dasler strikes an optimis-tic note on the subject of financing, ”There has been a lot of money raised for ura-nium exploration in the Athabasca even during the current market downturn.” 8

Phone: (204) 462-2159Toll Free: 1-888-299-8307Fax: (204) 462-2830Store: (204) 462-2283

Box 460St. Theresa Point Manitoba R0B [email protected]

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If passion and perseverance are the hall-marks of a true prospector, there was no truer prospector than Jim Camp-

bell. The prospecting bug that bit Jim as a boy showed no signs of letting during his long career.

James W. Campbell was born in Win-nipeg on November 18, 1926, and raised in the small Ontario town of Quibell, just north of Vermillion Bay. The oldest of four children, Jim took to prospecting early when his grandfather took him out when he was about 11 years old.

“My grandfather was a prospector and had the latest technology at the time, a magnetometer and a dip needle. I thought ‘this is great’ and I knew at that age it was what I wanted to do,” he mused in an in-terview with Manitoba Mining Magazine.

At 14, Jim and his family moved to Ke-nora, and he went to high school there and in Thunder Bay. Having assumed the role as head of the household after his fa-ther passed away when he was young, Jim worked nights loading the railway bag-gage cars for POWs during World War II to make a living while going to St. Pat-rick’s High School in Thunder Bay.

TRIBUTE

You’ve got to Keep Trying Jim Campbell’s life as a prospectorBy Lyndon McLean

After high school, Jim moved on to the Provincial Institute of Mining in Hailey-bury and then the University of Toronto, where he graduated in 1950.

“I worked in the mines at Red Lake in the summer after I graduated from To-ronto, and I also worked in mines near Val D’Or, Quebec,” said Jim, who spent about five years there as part of his engi-neering training.

Moving into exploration work, Jim took a job drilling for zinc at Barraute, north of Val D’Or, where he soon met his future wife. “I was having trouble speak-ing French, and she was bilingual, so she helped me out,” he recalled.

It wasn’t long before Jim’s home prov-ince called, and he took a position with Prospector Airways in Elbow Lake, near Flin Flon, in 1956. In charge of a gold ex-ploration camp, he eventually ended up opening a company field office in Flin Flon, carrying out exploration. When the company was taken over by Kerr Addi-son, the largest gold company in Canada at the time, he was put in charge of west-ern Canada (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northwest Ontario) until 1967.

November 18, 1926 – October 19, 2014

It was with Kerr Addison that Jim got to see the world and meet and help people.

“I went up north, and one thing that strikes me is there’s no trees up there; you look around and think ‘my god, does this country go on forever?’”

Kerr Addison also sent Jim all around the world, including to Papua New Guin-ea, Australia, Alaska, Arizona, and New Mexico.

“That’s a strange place. There’s little tunnels in there with silver veins, and those guys are still mining them after generations,” said Jim. “I enjoyed going down there – there are a lot of characters in the hills.”

On one trip, Jim was checking out properties with a couple of geologists in the hills near Albuquerque. “They carried guns, and I said, ‘what do you carry those for?’ and they said ‘you’ll see’. We were going up a mountain and didn’t get very far when they stopped the truck, took out their guns and shot a rattlesnake in the road. That was an awful sight itself, reared up, trying to bite the jeep, but they told me they had to watch out for the Mexi-cans crossing the Rio Grande too.”

Jim was philosophical about his trips and the work of a prospector in general. “Exploration looks easy, but most things didn’t turn out well. Luckily I had some underground experience to understand what it takes to make a mine. you have to have something, and I had education and training. Most of the time you go into


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these places they don’t turn out, but you never know – the rewards can be really good if you find something. you can’t be disappointed; you’ve got to keep trying.”

After opening up a Kerr Addison field office in Kenora and exploring there and in Sudbury, Jim got an offer in 1980 from a group in Winnipeg to form a company – Gossan Resources Limited – and he started staking claims for them and open-ing up properties. “They had a limited amount of money to start, but I looked around and acquired some pretty good properties – a significant magnesium property near Inwood, a nickel prospect near Lac Du Bonnet, and a silica sand property near Manigotagan.”

In his years with the company he saw a lot of changes in the industry, noting that he was most impressed by changes in technology and in geophysical explo-ration throughout the 1980s and 1990s. “The big producing companies could cover large areas, and even though it cost millions of dollars, their return was in the tens of millions.”

Jim held the position of president from 1980 until he retired in 2003, and he re-mained Gossan’s honourary chairman until his passing in October 2014. Even though he had left the company years ago, he still had his mind on the business.

“When my grandfather took me out, he was 85, and here I am, almost 87, but I still feel I can do it,” he said in the fall of 2013. At that time he had been working with other prospectors, looking at prop-erties in Manitoba, and he said he had his eye on a potential diamond project. “Good properties are hard to find, some-thing people are willing to invest in.”

So what kept Jim going after all these years?

“I’ve always been interested in it, and because of that, nothing else matters. I can’t remember names but give me a property or a mineral showing and I know where to go – you have to turn down most you see, you have to have a lot of experience to know when and how to do it. Sometimes I’d look at a show-ing and it may not seem to have a lot of

significance, but there’s sometimes more to it than meets the eye. you have to look at the bigger picture, the structure, and the more experience you have, the more you know.”

Those who knew Jim could see his passion for prospecting and geology immediately. Always quick with a joke or a smile, Jim made an impression on everyone he met, his easy-going nature and genuine interest in other’s lives and particularly their opinions on prospect-ing and geology usually made him fast friends with everyone, everywhere he went. 8

The members of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association extend their condolences to Jim’s family, as well as his friends and co-workers at Gossan Resources Limited. The loss of a true prospector will be felt.


THE TOWN OF LyNN LAKE

The Town That Can

One of the best-kept secrets in Can-ada, the most populous commu-nity within 150 kilometres in any

direction, and the northern most road-accessible community in Manitoba, Lynn Lake is centrally located as a service hub for the region.

Mineral wealthThe region, and area around Lynn Lake

in particular, has proven reserves from previous mines:• nickel, copper, zinc, and gold at the

Lynn Lake Mine from 1953 to 1976;• copper at the Fox Mine from 1961

through 1985;• gold at the MacLellan Mine during the

1980s;• gold by Black Hawk Mines from 1997

through 2000;• copper and zinc at the Ruttan Mine off

of the neighbouring community of Leaf Rapids from 1971 through 2002Lynn Lake and its vast outlying area

continues to catch the eye of exploration companies that return year after year to survey and drill core samples:• Victory Nickel Inc. is currently survey-

ing nickel deposits around Lynn Lake through Prophesy Platinum Corp (ac-cording to Victory Nickel Inc.’s website);

• Trevali Mining Corporation is survey-

ing remaining copper-zinc deposits at the Ruttan Mine off Leaf Rapids (Tre-vali Mining Corp.’s website);

• CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. is engaged in exploratory operations of numerous uranium deposits north of Lynn Lake (CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.), and;

• Alamos Gold Inc. is in the process of developing a gold mine near Lynn Lake, following up on one of several exploratory projects Carlisle Goldfields has had in operation around the com-munity. Alamos is currently funding a $20-million feasibility study on two near-surface gold deposits around Lynn Lake, at the MacLellan Mine and Farley Lake Mine (Alamos Gold Inc.).

InfrastructureAlamos Gold’s prospective Lynn Lake

project boasts, “Lynn Lake represents a significant opportunity as one of the highest grade open pit gold deposits in Canada with excellent infrastructure al-ready in place.” Indeed, in addition to mining infrastructure from previous mine operations, with Lynn Lake’s hos-pital, school, arena, airport with a 5,000-foot runway, accommodations, restau-rants, retail establishments, dozens of empty commercial and residential lots owned by the town with hydro-electric,

sewer, and communications infrastruc-ture intact, Lynn Lake is equipped to wel-come all manner of new developments to the area.

The town that movedAlso known as “the town that moved”,

the history of Lynn Lake began in the 1920s as the town of Sherridon, 200 ki-lometres to the south. Sherridon was es-tablished around a rich body of copper ore by Sherritt Gordon Mines Ltd., but as the ore began running out, the company searched the area for other mineral de-posits. In 1945, Sherritt laid claim to one of the world’s richest nickel strikes in the area that would come to house the town of Sherridon beside Lynn Lake. Over a three-year period in the early 1950s, 146 buildings were transported one by one, building by building, along 265 kilome-tres of makeshift winter roads. In total, 50,000 tonnes of buildings and materials were moved from the site of Sherridon to where Lynn Lake stands today.

Outdoor recreationIn addition to Lynn Lake’s mining pros-

pects, infrastructure, and rich history, what keeps people in Lynn Lake is its natural beauty and abundance of outdoor opportunities. Residents are minutes away from ice fishing during the winter via snowmobile, and minutes away from the best sport fishing the country has to offer in the summer. A network of trails exists for use by ATV, snowmobile, walk-ing, or hiking. Whether hunting, fishing, or canoeing, lodges throughout the region offer a range of services with road-acces-sible campgrounds and boat launches.

Guided by a sense of adventure, Lynn Lake is a small yet diverse, close-knit yet welcoming community in a vast territory still rich in untapped resources. 8

The town of Lynn Lake offers ample mining opportunities with the infrastructure and lifestyle to support it


Manitoba North

The town of Snow Lake continues to thrive

By Shelley Powell, community economic development officer for the Town of Snow Lake

Snow Lake is a community of ap-proximately 723 residents locat-ed on a lake in the boreal forest

of Northern Manitoba, 700 kilometres north of Winnipeg on Highway 6. De-spite the appearance of remoteness, Snow Lake is central to, and a reason-able driving distance from, the major northern centres of Flin Flon (200 ki-lometres), Thompson (250 kilometres), and The Pas (200 kilometres). With a municipal area of 1, 212 square kilome-tres, Snow Lake is almost three times larger than the city of Winnipeg. It is estimated that water bodies account for 182 square kilometres, or 15 per cent of the municipality. Snow Lake was found-ed on mining in the late 1940s, and min-ing remains the main economic driver for the town and region with HudBay Minerals Inc. being the community’s largest employer.

In summer 2015, the town of Snow Lake won Manitobaville, beating out nine other challengers to become this year’s champion. With the win, the community’s Beach Enhancement Committee (BEC) will receive a cheque in the amount of $25,000 that will be

added to other funds they have raised, along with municipal contributions, to be used to make crucial improvements to play structures and add to the splash parks at the town’s Sunset Bay Beach. Upgrades have already started with the local Home Hardware donating 10 trees to the beach, which were planted in Au-gust. The town was awarded financial assistance under the Canada 150 Com-munity Infrastructure program. That will see the Town, BEC, and the federal government cost share repairs to drain-age and the dock.

Snow Lake is also home to a Manito-ba Star Attraction, the Mining Museum, and on September 1, 2015, two new exhibits were unveiled - The Rock and Mineral Exhibit and The Exploration Exhibit. There were many people on hand for the ribbon cutting and plenty to do for all ages.

Golden Vista Condo is a new multi-level housing complex in Snow Lake that celebrated their grand opening on June 27, 2015. The Golden Vista was always envisioned as a complex for ten-ants ages 55 and up. With underground parking, an elevator, wheelchair-friendly

washrooms, wide doorways, and a com-mon room, it meets a variety of needs that arise as age takes hold. This project was a joint venture with the main goal being to improve housing for seniors in Snow Lake. Seniors occupy some of the suites and HudBay leases the rest while intending to turn those leases over to tenants as the demand arises. The name of the complex is appropriate as great views (vistas) and mining (including gold) merge. 8

THE TOWN OF SNOW LAKE


POTASH PRODUCTION TAX

Making ChangeAmendments to Potash Production Tax signal new changes for industryBy Melanie Franner

The province of Saskatchewan currently has 10 operating potash mines, with another one under

construction. According to the Gov-ernment of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Economy, these mines produced 10.27 million K20 tonnes in 2014. The total revenue from the 11.22 million K20 tonnes sold in that same year amounted to $5.7 billion – a record year for sales volume and among the highest years for production.

And a great time to think about im-plementing changes to the Potash Pro-duction Tax system – as witnessed in the March 2015 provincial budget.

These changes, which became effec-tive January 1, 2015, defer capital ex-penditures for capital spending for fu-ture years. As a result of the changes, all capital expenditures will be allowed to accrue at the 120 per cent rate, but will be deductible from annual gross sales revenues at a declining balance of:• 20 per cent for mine operation and

maintenance expenditures; and• 60 per cent for mine expansion or new

mine development expenditures.“As part of the 2015/2016 budget,

the Government of Saskatchewan an-nounced changes to depreciation rates on capital,” states Laurie Pushor, deputy minister, Ministry of Economy, Govern-ment of Saskatchewan. “This techni-cal change was intended to provide the Government of Saskatchewan with an immediate temporary increase in reve-nue from the potash industry by reduc-ing the accelerated depreciation rate to rates closer to other industries.”

Industry pundits suggest that the in-creased provincial revenues from the potash industry will help offset the $661-million decline in oil revenue from last year’s budget.

“In the 2015/2016 fiscal year, the pot-ash industry is currently forecast to pro-vide the Government of Saskatchewan with over $800 million in direct resource revenue through the Crown Royalty and

Potash Production Tax,” states Pushor, who adds that the Potash Production Tax has been in place since 1990, and has un-dergone multiple changes since then, pri-marily as a way to grow the industry and to improve competitiveness with other potash-producing jurisdictions.

An objective viewJack Mintz, president’s fellow, School of

Public Policy, University of Calgary, has often written on the subject of Saskatch-ewan’s Potash Production Tax system.

“The Saskatchewan potash tax is one of the most complex systems I have seen in the world, not just for potash, but for oth-er non-renewable resource tax systems,” he says. “The complexity not only reduces transparency for voters and taxpayers but also increases the economic, compliance and administrative costs in running the system.”

Mintz credits the NDP government with “morphing” the potash produc-tion tax into an “illogical” system in 2002 when potash prices were low.

“It created a system whereby the regime varies depending if the project existed before 2002 or not,” he says. “As a transi-tion measure, that may work for a while. But it is not something one wants to have for long periods where one project has a more favourable tax regime than another.”

The proposed Potash Production Tax system does little to eliminate the com-plexities inherent in the current system, says Mintz.

“One of the major distortions was too much tax support for exploration and de-velopment, with a 120 per cent write off of costs,” explains Mintz. “It would have been appropriate to expense capital costs in profit-based royalty systems, like the

Jack Mintz, president’s fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary.

Laurie Pushor, deputy minister, Ministry of Economy, Government of Saskatchewan.


POTASH PRODUCTION TAX oil sands and Norway’s oil and gas. But 120 per cent write off was too rich. The government now requires assets to be depreciated based at this 120 per cent rate getting closer to expensing. How-ever, I would have preferred a simpler approach of just having a 100 per cent write off.”

Mintz believes that the new changes to the Potash Production Tax will undoubt-edly provide less incentive for companies to invest. But, at the same time, he says that companies were over-capitalizing projects anyway because they were given too much of a tax write-off.

“A better balance is achieved by reduc-ing distortions among assets and differ-ent players,” he says. “It will reduce the incentive to over expand those projects getting a better economic return.”

Pushor admits that there are a variety of potash production tax systems being used throughout the world. The one cur-rently being proposed by the provincial government falls into the range of appli-cable systems.

“Saskatchewan is the world’s largest producer of potash and produces about 95 per cent of the potash in Canada,” he says. “The royalty regime in New Bruns-wick, the only other potash producer in Canada, is a private agreement between the producer and the Government of New Brunswick, for which details are not publicly available. Worldwide, simi-lar profit-based systems have depre-ciation rates on capital, which can vary widely from no capital recognition up to and above 100 per cent.”

Next upThe reaction from existing potash pro-

ducers in Saskatchewan is generally one of concern. And, according to Pushor, will be discussed during a Potash Royalty and Tax Review process.

“As announced in the budget, the changes are an interim step that will be followed by a broader review of the en-tire potash taxation regime,” he states. “The review process is currently under-way and will involve both the existing producers and potential new producers.”

This review process, adds Pushor, is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

Rich resourceAccording to Pushor, close to 5,000

people were directly employed at the potash operating mines in Saskatch-ewan in 2014. There were several thousands more people either directly employed in construction of potash projects or employed through indirect

jobs supported by the potash industry.There is little doubt that the potash

industry is a strong factor in the provin-cial economy – and government coffers – and will continue to be so.

“Although demand can vary from year to year, continued population growth and improved diet throughout the world will require increased and more efficient use of fertilizers,” concludes Pushor. “Potash demand is forecast to continue to increase in the years ahead.” 8

This year marks the centenary of the Flin Flon deposit. In the hundred years since its discovery in 1915, the Flin Flon deposit has produced a company, a town, and an economic engine that continues to thrive. Present day Hudbay took root in northern Manitoba, launching a long road of growth that today also leads to Peru and Arizona.

Visit flinflon100.com to revisit this remarkable part of Manitoba history.

hudbayminerals.com

1915 WAS A DEFINING YEAR IN

CANADIAN MINING.


SASKATCHEWAN WILDFIRES

It was a hot summer in Northern SaskatchewanBy Melanie Franner

Saskatchewan faced an expansive number of wildfires this summer. As of August 12, 2015, there had

been 677 of them within the province compared to the 362 fires recorded as of the same date in 2014. The raging wild-fires not only called for special govern-mental measures in terms of evacuating and protecting the more than 50 com-munities directly impacted by the fires, it also called for special measures for the many mining companies located in the north – and perhaps more important – the people and families who work there.

Full impact“At the peak of the emergency in early

July, more than 50 communities were affected by the wildfires,” states Steve Roberts, executive director of Wildfire Management Branch, Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment. “Several of the fires that threatened communities covered more than 100,000 hectares each.”

According to Roberts, several com-munities had to be evacuated as a result of being under direct threat of fire, in-cluding La Ronge, Hall Lake, Sikachu, Clam River Bridge, Montreal Lake, and Weyakwin. Additional communities

had to be evacuated due to threat of fire or to the threat of the smoke resulting from the wildfires.

Roberts adds that as of August 12, just over 720,000 hectares had burned in the full response zone in Saskatchewan.

“The unprecedented wildfire emer-gency began to escalate in late June and continued for most of July,” says Rob-erts. “The number of fires peaking on July 16, when there were 127 active fires burning in the province. As of August 12, there were 46 active fires burning in Saskatchewan, with five of them not contained.”

Roberts attributes the majority of the wildfires during July 2015 to lightning.

“The extremely dry conditions meant that lightning fires ignited easily and grew very quickly,” he says.

In late July, Premier Brad Wall public-ly estimated that the cost of the wildfires would reach $100 million.

Mining mattersAccording to Neil McMillan, presi-

dent of the Saskatchewan Mining Asso-ciation, northern Saskatchewan is home to three major uranium mines and three milling operations, along with a number of major exploration projects.

“Mining in northern Saskatchewan was affected by the fires in a number of ways,” says McMillan. “The first of these is in relation to the mine personnel in northern Saskatchewan. These mines employ a high number of northerners, probably about 1,200 to 1,500 northern-ers in the uranium industry alone. This means that there are a lot of families resident in the north who have either one or both principals working directly in the mining sector.”

Although McMillan states that no mine was directly impacted by the ac-tual fires, he is quick to add that the companies were affected by the fact that so many communities were evacuated.

“The mining companies were very flexible with their employees and their employees’ families,” he says. “They sometimes changed the pick-up points so the employees could join their fami-lies – wherever they happened to be. They also allowed those employees who opted to stay and help protect their communities the extra time off they needed.”

According to McMillan, the mining companies had three main priorities during the course of the fires.

“Their first priority was the safety of

Ring ofFire

PHOTO COURTESy OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SASKATCHEWAN


SASKATCHEWAN WILDFIRES

their employees,” he says. “The second was to provide what they could for the families of their employees. And the third was to provide what they could to the communities. For example, Cameco provided a portable generator to the Vil-lage of Pinehouse to protect perishables in the local co-op store after power to the community was lost.”

In the trenchesCameco Corporation’s operations in

northern Saskatchewan weren’t directly threatened by the forest fires but some accommodations were made as a result.

“Since highway travel at the time was intermittent, we decided to halt the de-livery of yellowcake until the forest fire situation had improved,” says Robert Gereghty, manager, media relations. “Uranium shipments from northern Sas-katchewan were halted on June 29 and resumed on July 20. There was no impact on production.”

Mine personnel, however, was anoth-er story.

“It was more of a logistical challenge for us,” says Gereghty. “About 50 per cent of the people we employ at our northern

operations are from northern Saskatch-ewan and their families formed a large part of the huge number of people dis-placed in northern Saskatchewan. Keep-ing track of our people and bringing sup-plies onsite were our two big issues.”

Claude Resources Inc.’s Seabee Gold Mine was also impacted by the situation.

“There were several uranium mines af-fected by the northern road and airport closures,” says Brian Skanderbeg, presi-dent and CEO. “The road and northern airport closures affected the shipments of supplies in and out of several mines. The Seabee Gold Operation was the only mine evacuated/temporarily suspended.”

The Seabee Gold mine employs about 250 people. It has been operational since 1991, and this is only the second time in its history that operations had to be tem-porarily suspended.

“The mine was suspended as a precau-tionary move in case the fire grew larger and/or reached areas where our employ-ees work and stay,” continues Skander-berg. “The mine was primarily affected by the smoke from nearby fires.”

The Seabee Gold mine was shut down for approximately seven days, although

milling operations continued during this time with limited personnel on site.

“The shut down was a precautionary move that we made for the safety of our employees,” adds Skanderberg.

End of seasonWith fall fast approaching, many north-

erners working in the mining industry are breathing a sigh of relief and are hopeful that the worst is over.

“I don’t think this fire season was a re-cord as far as the number of fires but it was unprecedented in terms of the number of big fires,” concludes McMillan. “The sig-nificant issue this year was the number of so many northerners who were evacuated for precautionary measures.”

Although this past summer may not be remembered as a good one for the mining industry, it certainly provided the oppor-tunity for industry to showcase its com-mitment to the people and families who make the work possible.

“This was a real pulling together,” he says. “It wasn’t a common experience or a pleasant one but the companies were well prepared and were extremely selfless in helping their employees.” 8

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DAVID COLLINS TRIBUTE

Honouring HistoryThe David Collins Committee unveils a plaque to mark the role of the pioneering Aboriginal prospector

On September 27, 2015, the Da-vid Collins Committee and representatives of the family

of David Collins gathered to unveil a bronze plaque honouring David Col-lins. Set on a granitic boulder beside the Neighbours of the North park on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border in Flin Flon, the plaque reads, “David Collins 1866-1931 Near this spot in the winter of 1914-1915, local trapper David Col-lins showed prospector Tom Creighton a rock outcrop containing significant mineralization. Creighton went on to stake the property, and this was the start of the world famous Flin Flon Mine. In 1919, Collins staked claims in the Sour-

dough Bay area over what in the early 1950s became the North Star and Don Jon mines. Dedicated September 2015.”

In bringing the truth to the public after nearly a century, the plaque may be the first to highlight the role of na-tive people in Manitoban mineral dis-coveries. While Duncan “Two Hearts” Ninjmitehan’s 1911 find at Rice Lake and Philip Sherlett’s 1922 find at Camp Lake reportedly led to small pensions for them, David Collins never received more than a brief mention in E. L. Bruce’s 1918 report in the Geologi-cal Survey of Canada, Memoir 105, “In 1915, Messrs. Creighton, Mosher, Dion, and their associates, who had meantime

discovered and stripped a large but low grade quartz vein near Wolverine lake, were shown some pieces of sulphides by an Indian named Collins, whose hunt-ing territory lay about the north arm of Athapapuskow lake. They recognized the possibilities of mineral such as he showed them and guided by him they found and located the sulphide bodies at Flinflon lake. The news of the discovery was kept quiet until enough trenching had been done to make sure of its ex-tent. It was not until very close to freez-eup that the claims were recorded.”

In contrast, the unveiling of the Da-vid Collins plaque was not kept quiet. With a large crowd as audience, and

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DAVID COLLINS TRIBUTEhoop dancers, drummers, and honour singers in attendance, the star blanket concealing the plaque and boulder was removed by Margaret Head-Steppan, a great-great granddaughter of Collins, and Cal Huntley, the mayor of Flin Flon. Among the many speakers that day, lo-cal historian Gerry Clark emphasized that, “For the first time, the Collins fam-ily, the family of Namekus (David Col-lins’s Cree name), can feel their ancestor has received the unqualified recognition he deserved.” Head-Steppan in address-ing the crowd said, “I know he’s look-ing over us today and saying, ‘It’s about time,’” and explained, “we just wanted our great-grandfather to be recognized for his contribution.” Head-Steppan’s sister, Cindy O’Nabigon, who had led the drummers in the honour song for Collins, spoke as well.

Kelleen Blouin, great-great-grand-daughter of Collins, gave everyone a huge welcome and spoke at length on the efforts 40 years ago of her late grandmother, Granny Emilia McNichol, her late father, Ted Mackonka, and her mother, Agnes Mackonka to bring the Collins story to the public. Blouin ex-plained how she was an eyewitness to their interviews of different descendants and their travels across the region to establish oral history; to certify that the stories of David Collins remained the same. The David Collins Committee’s work was acknowledged by Blouin, “The David Collins Committee started long before I joined. This group of people came together for various reasons: to honestly reflect the historical role played by David Collins; to harness the love of history; conservation; so that the history of the north is not forgotten; to honour a worthy cause; the love of rocks; to keep a promise to family members that have passed on that there would be recogni-tion; and because it was always some-thing that should have been done. To tie it all up, one committee member thought this cairn memorial is a col-laboration of past, present and future.” Blouin mentioned Ted Mackonka’s con-tention that Creighton, Saskatchewan

should be named after Collins. Left un-mentioned by Blouin was that in August 1979, the deputy mayor of Creighton had asked Mackonka, “Of what benefit would it be for Collins to be more fully recognized as the discoverer of the ore body?” Mackonka’s reply, “It would be the truth.”

Throughout her speech, Blouin had been holding a blue enamelled metal cup, the kind that is familiar to many who have spent time in the bush. She set

the stage with words from her Granny Emilia’s stories, “David Collins would say, ‘I’m still waiting for my sugar to put in my tea that Creighton promised me,’” and continued with, “She said that he would always laugh and say that there was no harm in waiting for his sugar.” Then Blouin lifted the tin cup and said, “One last thing: I want to offer Collins some sugar on behalf of all of us who are here to recognize the sweetness that is in historical truths. To David Collins.” 8

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DRONES IN EXPLORATION AND MINING

A Welcome Disruption How drones are changing the way we explore and extract resources

By Kylie Williams

Drones are becoming routine exploration and mining tools, from early reconnaissance and target delineation through to mine site monitoring and land reclamation.

They are a truly disruptive innovation for the resource industry, combining big data, automation, and battery technology to cre-ate new business models, suppliers, and services.

Over the past decade, drones have become smaller, lighter, and faster than ever. Also known as unmanned aircraft system (UAS), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or remotely piloted air-craft (RPA), a drone is a small aircraft with no pilot onboard, operated remotely by a person on the ground below or autono-mously from further away.

All industries are now employing drones, from agriculture and forestry, to emergency response and law enforcement, and of course photography and entertainment. Already the resource

industry are using them for land surveying, target delineation, geophysical surveys, mine site and ore transport monitoring, and environmental observations.

Early daysIn the yukon, Shawn Ryan, a successful explorer whose name

is synonymous with discovery, has been using drones in grass-roots exploration since 2012. As one of the first in Canada to operate drones commercially, Ryan and the team at Ground Truth Exploration have now flown over 700 drone surveys.

“We use the drones to get the lay of the land, but there’s more to just seeing what the ground looks like. There are lots of ap-plications,” says Ryan, explaining they use drone imagery for checking land access, mapping and sampling, placing drills and camps, quantifying the environmental footprint of a project, and to create imagery for project marketing, promotion and fundraising.

Junior companies use drones for quick, high-resolution aerial surveys of their properties. Quebec exploration company, Ad-venture Gold, announced a UAV survey of their Val-d’Or East project in June 2015. The drone acquired an accurate 3D-like terrain model and high-quality aerial orthophoto data. They processed the data to create 3D maps and integrated it with the company’s geological and block models for more accurate target delineation.

Faster, cheaper geophysicsDrones are being developed and modified to carry geophysi-

cal acquisition equipment too. Since Fugro introduced their GeoRanger UAV in 2004, drones have become smaller and faster, and the geophysical equipment they carry lighter, com-bining to make geophysics by drone more accessible.

In May 2015, Abitibi Geophysics and GEM Systems an-nounced their new drone magnetic survey system and were overwhelmed by the high level of interest and requests for quotes. Their AeroVision system is a UAV carrying magnetom-eters for quick, low cost, low altitude magnetic surveys, but with similar resolution to a ground magnetic survey.

“Drones are basically a way of carrying your instrumenta-tion around quickly and more efficiently than doing it on the ground, and in some cases at a lower cost and lower overhead than with helicopters and aeroplanes,” explains Daniel Card, principal geophysicist of applications and research at Abitibi Geophysics.


DRONES IN EXPLORATION AND MINING

Marcotte Mining Machinery Services Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Alicia Woods as General Manager effective immediately.

Mrs. Woods has over 15 years of experience in the mining supply and service sector and previously worked in various capacities from accounting and administration to sales and service.

In her new role Mrs. Woods will oversee operation of Marcotte Mining including engineering, production, sales and support while providing leadership and vision.

“I’m up for the challenge,” she says and “there’s opportunity here”. The Marcotte name has always been synonymous with innovation, quality and excellent customer service.

Mrs. Woods is committed to moving the company forward to regain its position in the mining industry.

The appointment marks the return for Mrs. Woods, who worked at Marcotte Mining from 2000 to 2008. But her relationship with the company started long before. Her late grandfather Raymond Marcotte and father Paul Marcotte along with his brothers founded the company in 1979.

Mrs. Woods is also founder of Covergalls, the first coverall designed by women for women. She is a member of the board of directors for SAMSAA and plays an active role in Women In Mining Canada.

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Rather than replacing aeromagnetic surveys, which are usu-ally cheaper per line kilometre using helicopter or aeroplane, drone magnetic surveys will replace labour-intensive ground surveys. With fewer people needed onsite and no lines to cut through the bush, magnetic drone surveys are cheaper and quicker with a much smaller environmental footprint and less community disruption.

“If you have a small survey of a few hundred kilometres, say a three to five day job, you don’t really want to pay the tens of thousands of dollars to get an aircraft onto your site, house an aircraft engineer and a pilot and crew,” says Card.

Research into applying drone technology to other types of geophysical surveys is underway; the weight of the payload may be the only limitation. In theory, any geophysical survey system could be adapted to drones, for example spectrometer for ra-diometrics, or an EM sensor.

“There’s a lot of research going into airborne IP right now, which requires the aircraft to fly in sync at a fixed distance from each other, which might be easier by automated aircraft where the flight paths are defined digitally, rather than trying to sync up two pilots operating together,” says Card.

Eye in the skyProducers are using drones for a range of purposes too. Rio

Tinto, for example, are using drones in Australia to inspect the powerlines which run for hundreds of kilometres, reducing the

need for helicopters to fly, or workers to drive, long distances across the desert.

Rio Tinto are also employing drones at mine sites for geo-technical monitoring of open pit walls and stockpiles. In 2014, German drone manufacturer Aibotix, together with CADS Sur-vey and import company C.R. Kennedy and Co., announced the results of a drone survey at Rio Tinto’s giant Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia.

Equipped with a high-resolution digital camera, the team used an UAV to generate an orthophoto, a point cloud and a 3D model, all with a ground sample distance of two to six cen-timetres.

Sam van Eldik, survey division manager for civil and aerial at CADS Survey, was impressed by the accuracy of the gener-ated data. “Using the Aibot X6, we are able to generate data of the open pit mine with an accuracy which would not have been reached with a common airplane,” he said in the September 2014 release.

Time for take offAs drone technology evolves, the industry is thinking of ben-

eficial ways to use drones to add value to resource projects. With the downturn driving innovation across the industry, now is the perfect time to test drone technology.

As Card ironically states, “It’s literally just getting off the ground.” 8


GEOPHySICS AND LIGHTNING

Assessing the Safety RisksElectrical geophysics and lightningBy Dennis Woods

The risk of electrocution from high-powered generators and transmitters is one of the primary

considerations when assessing safety in electrical geophysical surveys, along with all of the other common safety risks inherent in mineral exploration field work - driving accidents on remote back-roads and trails; turning an ankle, or worse, while hiking through the bush; dangerous situations around helicopters and drill rigs; boating accidents; the list is long. However, one of the most significant risk factors of field work, and one that is often overlooked, is be-ing hit by lightning. This is particularly true for electrical geophysics surveys because such surveys inherently have a lot of wire strung out across the coun-tryside. All this wire naturally acts as perfect grounding for lightning, there is no way around it, and since a single bolt of lightning contains enough energy to power a typical geophysical survey for about a half a year, it is easy to see the danger posed by lightning for an electri-cal geophysics survey crew.

Worldwide, lightning is the cause of about 24,000 deaths per year, and for each death, an additional 10 people are injured. While injury and death by lightning is still relatively rare, it cannot be ignored for field workers or anyone spending a majority of their time out-doors, and especially for workers on electrical geophysical surveys.

To better understand the risk, we need to look deeper into the numbers. Canada receives over two million light-ning strikes per year on average – that’s almost four strikes every minute of ev-ery day on average. But the vast majority of these strikes occur over the summer months, with July being the most active month.

Worldwide, the lightning death rate

ranges from 0.3 to six deaths per mil-lion people per year. And the statistics are clear – the more time spent outside in the summer months, the greater the risk. While lightning represents a very small risk compared with others such as vehicular accidents, when your plans and activities take you outside in the summer months, you are wise to con-sider lightning safety.

The Canadian government website offers the following suggestions for lightning safety:• To plan for a safe day, check the weath-

er forecast first• Watch the skies for developing thun-

derstorms and listen for thunder• Get to a safe place• Do not handle electrical equipment,

telephones, or plumbing• If on water, get to shore as quickly as

possible• If caught outdoors far from shelter,

stay away from tall objectsFor a business whose specialty it is to

collect electrical and electromagnetic data, often in remote locations, some of these safety measures are particularly

challenging. Electrical resistivity geo-physical surveys involve the placement of many kilometres of insulated wire, and the use of a high-power generator and a transmitter. This electrical equip-ment, and in particular, the wire, can act as a collection system for electrical en-ergy - the wire is, after all, designed to transmit electricity. So when lightning strikes anywhere along or near to the path of the wire, a part of the energy can easily be carried through the wire to the entire working area. And since our field crews are almost always working in the vicinity of the wire, this creates added risk to the crew members. In addition, it is common for a field crew to be work-ing in areas where there a lots of lakes and swamps, so the need to evacuate from a lake may be required.

Lightning strike incidentA couple of years ago, one of our

survey crews was in the early stages of carrying out a large electrical resistivity survey in the Athabasca Basin of North-ern Saskatchewan. For this survey, called “pole-pole resistivity”, two long wires

Figure 1


GEOPHySICS AND LIGHTNINGextend from the survey towards the east and west, to locations approximately 10 kilometres on either side of the working area. In this way, the “footprint” of the survey is approximately 20 kilometres.

The crew was just completing produc-tion across a large lake near the centre of the survey grid (see Figure 2) when an electrical storm hit the area. One of the two boats required to complete the lake work was on the lake and the other was already on shore. Recognizing the risk, the field crew stood down, disconnected the wires from the equipment, and the boat returned to shore.

After waiting out the storm, the field crew returned to their positions to re-sume production. The trailing boat, with two crew members in it, pushed out onto the lake again. Within a few minutes, a rogue lightning bolt struck somewhere in the vicinity of the current wire (red line in Figure 2), and energy from the strike entered the current wire and travelled along the wire to the lake and into the boat where the two crew members were seated. The current op-erator was positioned very close to the current wire and was leaning against the metal gunnel of the boat. The light-ning energy jumped from the wire and went through the arm and back of the operator. We know this, because he sus-tained burns to his right arm and back. In addition, the current that entered his body interfered with his own electrical system, and he had to be resuscitated by the other crew member in the boat. He has fully recovered from this incident.

As far as we know, this was not a di-

rect lightning strike, but the energy was enough to seriously harm a person and could have resulted in a fatality if first aid had not been quickly administered. There are many lessons to learn from this situation. A full review of the facts and the circumstances surrounding the incident has led to several important improvements to our lightning safety protocol.

Lightning safety measuresWhen electrical storms occur, as we

know they will, we employ lightning de-tector systems that provide early warn-

ing of the presence and approach of lightning. These handheld systems can detect lightning to a distance of many 10s of kilometres. A detection at 50 ki-lometres is an appropriate warning level for a field crew to stand down and take cover. And 30 minutes is an appropri-ate time to wait after the last instance of lightning or thunder. Lightning detec-tion systems have their limitations, such as topography and rogue strikes, so ad-ditional measures are needed to protect the crew.

We have redesigned the way that connections are made at junctions and at wire spools. We have minimised the number of exposed wires by utilizing specialized electrical connectors. But because it is never possible to eliminate all exposed wire, we have established strict new protocol for all crew mem-bers to stand well away from all wires, winders, spools, and electrodes, wheth-er actively in use or not. While these measures help, the risk remains for elec-

trocution from rouge lightning strike energy entering wires and other equip-ment while in use by crew members.

To minimize this risk, Discovery Geo-physics has developed a new technology called a lightning shunt. This small elec-tronic box is designed to divert or shunt, sudden high-voltage energy from a wire, into the ground. If extremely rapid, high-voltage, lightning energy enters the sur-vey wires, it will be instantly detected by the lightning shunt, and some or some or all of the energy will be rerouted di-rectly into the ground. We place several of these shunts along the wires through-out the survey area to protect both our crew members and the equipment, at lo-cations where it is possible to make good electrical contact with the ground .

A happy endingIn prime lightning season last sum-

mer, we had another lightning incident. In this case, the crew members detected an approaching storm and were able to stand down before any sign of lightning and took shelter from the hail storm. However, they did not have time to disconnect the survey wires from the equipment. Upon returning to their po-sitions, the crew discovered that there had been a lightning strike in the vicin-ity of the survey wires. The lightning shunts had done their job because sev-eral shunts were tripped and the wires around the shunts were burnt, but no other equipment had been damaged. The equipment had been protected by the lightning shunt technology. We are pleased to say with confidence that our new lightning safety equipment and procedures have significantly reduced the risk to our field crews. And we urge everyone to be safe when spending time in the great outdoors. 8

Figure 2


Weak commodity prices have softened skills shortages and gaps over the past few years,

but labour market issues persist for Canada’s mining sector.

The 2015 report, Canadian Min-ing Industry 2015 Employment, Hiring Requirements and Available Talent 10-Year Outlook, includes new information that highlights some of the challenges and inefficiencies in Canada’s mining labour market. The report outlines that the mining labour gap is closing - but not because we’ve solved the problem.

The findings, published by the Min-ing Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR), show that the mining labour market is much tighter than other sec-tors. For every job vacancy in mining, there are less than three potential job seekers across Canada, compared to the average of six job seekers per vacancy

for all other industries. Less competi-tion among job seekers is an issue for the mining industry, but a good news story for people considering a career in mining.

“A tight labour market puts upward pressure on wages and salaries, as em-ployers compete for a limited supply of skilled workers. According to data from Statistics Canada, earnings in the min-ing sector have increased nearly 40 per cent in the last decade – significantly more than the average for all sectors in Canada. Layered on to this is mining’s volatile business cycle and the chal-lenges of recruiting people to rural or remote mining operations,” says MiHR Executive Director Ryan Montpellier. “If unresolved, this labour market tightness has the potential to undermine the com-petitiveness of Canada’s mining sector when the cycle does rebound.”

The report also found that the indus-try is highly dependent on a commuter workforce – those who live in one prov-ince but work in another. This is a min-ing-specific challenge that employers have made significant efforts to address by building a local workforce through the attraction of Aboriginal peoples, however, MiHR research shows that this effort is constrained for a variety of reasons including that up to one in four Aboriginal people of working age do not actually participate in the labour force.

MiHR is estimating the total hiring requirements for the coming decade will be between 86,000 and 126,000 workers, depending upon the economic outlook and industry performance, but it is important to note that the majority of the hiring requirements are to replace existing workers, leaving the sector to retirement or to other industries.

In light of this, mining will create between 11,000 and 21,000 new jobs over the next 10 years, depending upon current trends and projected industry growth. Should economic conditions worsen, the industry is expected to shed around 6,300 jobs but will still have significant replacement hiring require-ments.

Mining sector employers have to look harder to find the right people as there

MiHR

Several indicators point to a malfunctioning mining labour market

Finding the Skills


MiHR

is fierce competition for skilled and ex-perienced workers. Each round of hir-ing is associated with costs including the search for candidates, interviewing, on-boarding, and training costs – all of which add to the cost to keep production levels up and maintain safety standards.

What does this mean for mining employers today?

It means working together to create the future supply of skilled workers and to minimize the inefficiencies in the current labour market. It means being strategic about retention efforts and finding ways to invest in employees, such as through professional development and certifica-tion – even during a closure or downturn situation – because the employees that can support a company through a suc-cessful closure today are also industry’s future talent during an upturn.

MiHR has developed many programs and resources to assist employers in ad-dressing these HR challenges: a national mining worker certification program, a pre-employment training program for Aboriginal peoples, and a mining ca-reer brand and a suite of diversity tools, to name a few. Employers are actively involved in adopting new strategies to address their unique HR challenges, but in order for the industry to remain com-petitive, emphasis must be placed on in-dustry-wide strategies and solutions that can create long-term change across the sector.

“MiHR’s research demonstrates the immediate need for governments, educa-

tors and employers to work together to address the major human resource chal-lenges facing Canada’s mining industry,” says Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada.

To request a copy of Canadian Mining Industry 2015 Employment, Hiring Requirements and Available Talent 10-Year Outlook, visit www.mihr.ca or email [email protected]. 8

The mining LAbOur mArkeT is TighTer ThAn OTher secTOrs

A “tight” labour market describes a situation in which the number of available jobs is high, relative to the number of people available to fill them. Employers’ demand for workers has outpaced supply – likely causing wages to rise and unemployment to fall.

• For every job vacancy in mining, there are less than three potential job-seekers across Canada, compared to construction which has more than seven from which to choose.

• The average for all industries across Canada is six job-seekers per vacancy.

• With the exception of 2009, the unemployment rate in the mining industry has remained consistently lower than the Canadian average since the late 1980s – career seekers need to know this information.


SASKATCHEWAN RESEARCHCOUNCIL

Indicator Mineral Recovery usingDense Medium Separation (DMS)Editorial and photos provided by the Saskatchewan Research Council

Dense medium separation (DMS) is a process of mineral benefi-ciation based on specific grav-

ity. There are two key components of DMS separation: the dense medium and the cyclone. The dense medium most commonly used in mineral processing is a slurry of ferrosilicon suspended in water. The ferrosilicon-water slurry is mixed with the mineral particles to be separated and injected tangentially into the cylindrical portion of a dense me-dium cyclone. The centripetal accelera-tion and tangential inertia of the slurry and mineral particles create a core of relatively low-pressure air in the centre of the cyclone. The denser “heavy” min-erals pass through the slurry and move along the wall of the conical section of the cyclone and are ejected out the nar-row apex of the spigot. The less dense mineral particles are carried towards the low pressure core in the cyclone and are ejected out of the vortex at the top of the cyclone. Because the net motive force acting on the mineral particles is

centrifugal rather than gravitational the rate of mineral separation is greatly in-creased.

Many mining operations use DMS for pre-concentration prior to process-ing or milling to reject barren material and improve downstream recovery effi-ciency. Using DMS technology in min-eral exploration, for example recover-ing indicator minerals, however, is still relatively new. DMS plants used in min-eral processing are typically designed for large volumes (tonnes per hours) and coarse particle sizes (millimetres to centimetres). Attempts to scale down processing plants for recovering heavy minerals from sediment samples have thus far met with limited success. With this technology, the two major chal-lenges that must be overcome when modifying a large-scale DMS plant into a micro-DMS are the small size of the target grains and the potential for cross-contamination between samples. Indi-cator minerals commonly sought after in exploring for new mineral deposits

are small – typically 0.25 to 0.6 milli-metres. For the smallest mineral grain sizes, the high slurry viscosity becomes a significant factor requiring longer cy-clone residence times for efficient sepa-ration. Additionally, small grains can get caught on horizontal or near-horizontal surfaces in pumps and pipes which can cause cross-contamination if they are not completely cleaned out between samples. This can lead to false posi-tives and can result in wasted time and money.

Over the last two year, research at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) has focused on resolving these challeng-es and designing a new type of micro-DMS purpose-built for recovering mi-croscopic indicator mineral grains from sediment samples. The prototype mi-cro-DMS at SRC addresses the above-mentioned challenges by focusing on processing small samples (grams to ki-lograms) in batches. One necessary de-sign limitation of the batch-fed micro-DMS method is that the cyclone must


SASKATCHEWAN RESEARCHCOUNCIL

be fed gravitationally. The gravity-fed system eliminates the slurry feed pump used in most large-scale DMS plants which is the most significant source of potential cross-contamination. The design of most slurry pumps makes it nearly impossible to be sure that all sample material has been cleared before adding the next sample. The gravity-fed batch method involves mixing a single sample and quality control tracers to the dense ferrosilicon slurry which is fed into cyclone. After a sample has been processed the entire feed-cyclone plumbing system is cleaned and the heavy mineral concentrate is visually checked for the quality control tracers. Any grains trapped in the micro-DMS, regardless of specific gravity, will re-port to the recovery screen and thus no grains are lost and the possibility of cross-contamination is eliminated. The

heavy indicator minerals and quality tracers are removed from the recovery screen for further processing that may include electrostatic, magnetic and heavy liquid (e.g. methylene iodide) sep-aration followed by mineral observation and mineral chemical analysis.

Using micro-DMS for recovering heavy minerals from sediment samples offers several key advantages. The first is speed of processing. In the prototype micro-DMS currently in operation at SRC a sample up to five kilograms can be processed in five minutes. A new micro-DMS facility being built at SRC will have multiple cyclones to triple the throughput for even faster sample pro-cessing. The second advantage of mi-cro-DMS is that, unlike Wilfley shaking tables and panning, obtaining reproduc-ible and consistent mineral separation using DMS does not rely on the skill of

the operator. Indeed, when the micro-DMS plant is properly tuned and bal-anced it will quickly return to a steady state following density perturbations. A third reason to use micro-DMS for indi-cator mineral recovery is that it can be used to target specific mineral deposits based on the density of their respective indicator minerals. Lithium deposits, for example, have indicator minerals that have lower specific gravity than dia-mond indicator minerals. Alternatively, micro-DMS can be used to recover in-dicator minerals for all deposit types simultaneously thereby maximizing the amount of information that can be ex-tracted from each sample. Thus a pro-gram focused on exploring for diamond deposits can also be useful for discover-ing gold and platinum, base metal, rare earth element, and uranium deposits without any additional expense. 8


ULTRA-DEEP MINING NETWORK

Pulling Together for ProductivityThe Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation’s Ultra-Deep Mining Network

The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in Sudbury has been a Canadian

repository of best practices in mining innovation since 2007. In 2014, it added an exciting, new dimension to its work.

With an injection of $15 million from the federal government’s Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program, the Ultra-Deep Mining Network (UDMN) was established. This network – composed of mining and oil and gas companies, mining service and suppliers and academic institutions from across Canada – are developing new techniques, technologies, and pro-cesses associated with mining at depth, 2.5 kilometres below the earth’s surface. Essentially, the UDMN’s goal is become a global leader in ultra-deep (below 2.5 kilometres) bulk-mining research and innovation, solving the challenges that impact resource extraction in these environments, explains Bora Ugurgel, UDMN managing director.

This will be important to enliven an industry which is currently in a bust cy-

cle. However, deep underground metal mines are the source of the specialized metals including nickel, chrome, molyb-denum, lead, zinc, platinum, and palla-dium – that are essential for the modern industrial economy. While the supply of commodity metals such as iron, alumi-num, and copper generally come from very large open-pit mines, the special-ized metals are largely produced by deep underground mines. The need to fundamentally shift the design, develop-ment, and financially feasible operation of underground metal mines is driven by three converging factors: the need for many of the large open-pit copper mines in the world to go underground while sustaining unchanged production levels; the need to pursue specialized industrial metals to ever greater depths; and the need to attract a new genera-tion of well-educated, socially-diverse employees.

Therefore ultra-deep mining is being examined as a way to boost productiv-ity in the industry, reduce costs, and re-capture Canada’s competitive edge globally. Currently there are three of the deepest mines operating in Canada: Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Kidd Op-erations in Timmins, and LaRonde in northwestern Quebec all of which are working with UDMN.

With mining at greater depths comes significant challenges. The network has identified four areas which need to be tackled to ensure safety and security of such underground initiatives:1. Rock stress risk reduction: improve

the control of stability in deep under-ground excavations. Projects in this theme explore ways to better mea-sure, anticipate, mitigate, and manage and even modify built up stresses in the rockmass.

2. Energy reduction: the 40 per cent mine; improve the energy consump-tion profile of deep mines. This aims to reduce the energy consumed by mines, specifically for cooling.

3. Novel methods of material transport and productivity; increase the rates of development and production in mines. Mining companies continu-ously strive to improve each of the processes involved in getting their product to the mill. As their opera-tions expand further underground, it becomes more critical to find these improvements, because it will take longer to transport workers and ma-terials into the mine and to the work place.

4. Improved human health and effec-tiveness; enhance the human envi-ronment in deep mines. There is a need for the development of effective personal protective gear that will help keep people working within appropri-ate occupational conditions. Devel-oping systems and technologies that improve communication, navigation and the overall well being of the ultra-deep workforce is a priority.The network has solicited project

ideas from across Canada to meet these challenges at and to put the viability of deep mining into action. The call for proposals received 65 applicants and se-lected 28 projects that are underway. To make their selection, they used a tech-nology readiness level – a rating of one represents a pure-research/theoretical idea and a rating of nine means the idea is ready for use. Selections were made based on mid-range ratings.

Implementation of these projects will to deliver a return on investment to the mining industry. Theme leaders, change management services, and commercial-

Bora Ugurgel, Ultra-Deep Mining Network managing director


ULTRA-DEEP MINING NETWORKization support services will help these initiatives come to fruition; an industry consultation group has also been estab-lished to ensure ideas and updates are shared between the network and the in-dustry, adds Ugurgel. “This will be criti-cal to establish a working relationship among all parties and the level of trust required to achieve our mutual goals and ensure the network tackles indus-try challenges.”

Network members have contributed an additional $31 million to the net-work’s five-year operational plan. That is a lot of incentive to get it right. “By supporting solution providers capable of creating the industry-needed tools and technologies in the short term, UDMN will lead the way in helping ultra-deep mines to operate more effec-tively and safely, generate more value, improve the human environment, and enhance mine productivity,” remarks Ugurgel.

As projects develop progress project details will start to be presented at vari-

ous conferences and lectures. For now, reporting on the network’s successes and learnings will be contained within the network and industry as the intellec-tual property will rest with the compa-nies who design the project work.

“It is really about creating maximum benefit for those who are supporting the network to achieve its mandate,” he says. And those who are onboard can be proud; this is an important and unique network in the world.

Ugurgel concludes, “the network will help close the commercialization gap by providing members with access to commercialization support services and

a chance to carry out prototyping and testing at actual mine sites. The private sector will further benefit from the vali-dation of research findings and sharing of knowledge through collaboration with the SME and research teams, fur-ther increasing the relevance of research projects and the potential for project outputs to be implemented. This will increase industry’s capacity and capa-bility to advance innovations to market. Ultimately, the UDMN will lead the way for innovations to be commercially vi-able and build capacity to deliver new technologies to the Canadian and global mining industry.” 8

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By supporting solution providers capable of creating the industry-needed tools and technologies in the short term,

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human environment, and enhance mine productivity.


Soil – it’s our world’s silent, but often overlooked part-ner in food production; a renewable resource we usually take for granted.

The United Nations decided this needed to change and de-clared 2015 the International year of Soils. With 95 per cent of the world’s food coming directly and indirectly from soils, there’s no escaping the fact healthy soils are needed to achieve global food security.

Keeping soils healthy is the cornerstone of PotashCorp’s business. It is the world’s largest fertilizer company by capacity, producing the three primary crop nutrients: potash (K), nitro-gen (N), and phosphate (P). Its operations include five potash mines in Saskatchewan and two in New Brunswick, with ad-ditional operations and business interests in the United States, Trinidad, Jordan, Israel, China, and Chile.

With the integral role it plays in food production, Potash-Corp is mindful of projections for population growth – with the latest estimates showing that there will be an additional two billion people to feed by the year 2050.

“With fertilizer accounting for 50 per cent of the world’s food production, we know PotashCorp can make an important con-tribution to global food security,” says Denita Stann, vice-presi-

dent of Investor and Public Relations. “When 2015 was named the International year of Soils, we felt it was a perfect opportu-nity to reach out to our stakeholders and the broader commu-nity to explain how we all benefit when soils are healthy.”

The company’s 2015 ad campaign highlights the fact that when PotashCorp’s crop nutrients improve yields, the benefits are many: jobs are created, businesses grow, and community in-vestment increases. And all of this nourishes human potential.

The message was delivered in a variety of print ads, bill-boards, and a memorable radio ad, delivered from the point of view of soil itself – “Hello there. I’m Soil. Some people call me dirt, but sticks and stones, you know? They’re just jealous be-cause 2015 is the International year of Soils. I call it the Inter-national year of Me.”

Soil also had a starring role in the campaign’s television ad – though in its more traditional form. It is front and centre as three children gleefully make mud pies, jump into deep, brown puddles, and drive toy machinery through the muck.

The kids – Ava, Carter, and Haleigh – are children of em-ployees who work at PotashCorp and they obviously relished their roles as they played in the mud. The underlying message? PotashCorp’s 5,100 employees still have that same enthusiasm

POTASHCORP

The year 2015 has been dubbed the International year of Soils, and rightfully so

Dig UpDirt


POTASHCORP

for their work, which is to get soil the nutrients it needs to grow food and nourish human potential.

“Not only was this a fun ad for us to create, it carries two im-portant messages,” says Stann. “Despite the size and complexity of our company, we never lose sight of our role to help farmers produce the food that the world needs. And, it celebrates our workforce, the people who we know are ultimately the key to our success.”

Thanks to its memorable message and cast, the ad – dubbed “Boundless Potential” – generated significant traffic to Potash-Corp’s youTube channel and became its most popular video by far, with nearly 30,000 views by fall 2015. 8

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COPPER REEF

Copper Reef Mining Corporation, based in Flin Flon, Manitoba, holds exploration properties throughout the Lynn Lake and Flin Flon Greenstone Belt both in Mani-

toba and Saskatchewan. Copper Reef is Developing New Tar-gets in The Flin Flon Belt where it Holds next to Hudbay, the Second Largest Claim Base in the Main Camp. Hudbay’s Triple Seven Mine has 4-5 years left and the Reed Lake Mine even less. A new Discovery is needed Urgently. Copper Reef Holds a Number of Deposits of Cu-Zn-Ag-Au and has developed new Targets in the Albert’s Lake Area 20 km East of the Flin Flon Mill and Processing Plant.

Three VTEM targets, the Alberts, Aimee Lake and Z4 anomaly in the Alberts Lake area have been chosen for pos-sible drilling this winter . The Alberts Lake Anomaly is the largest and lies in felsic volcanic rocks just north of North Star and Don Jon and Centennial mines as well as the Pine Bay, Leo Lake, Sourdough and Cabin deposits The small Leo lake deposit for scale barely shows as a blip on the VTEM survey although representing a (historic 70,000 tonne high grade zinc-copper deposit).Compared to this, the very large Alberts Lake Anomaly is a huge target and will be drilled tested this winter. See Diagrams to the right.

The Company feels that this may be one of the best oppor-tunities for a discovery in the main Camp Area. The Target is in the same rocks that host the Mines to the south as well as sitting on top of a huge intense Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide alteration zone that is indicative of a large deposit in the area. The strike length of the anomaly is similar to the Trout Lake Mine target before it was discovered and the Trout Lake Mine ended up producing more than 20 million tonnes. This target

if it proves to be a deposit could change the fortunes of the area and certainly will remain a Copper Reef Priority given the need for more ore to be discovered soon.

Gold PropertiesCopper Reef has six primarily gold properties, three of which

are inactive. The three active projects include the: Otter Lake Property on the Gurney-Century Gold Mine Trend, the Alberts Lake Property both in the Main Flin Flon Camp, and the Gold Rock and North Star Projects in the Snow Lake Camp. Cop-per Reef will concentrate mainly on its high grade Gold Rock Group. Copper Reef has a gold producing company reviewing the large data base and have planned to visit the property in the spring of 2016.

Diamond Targets in Saskatchewan’s Pikoo CampCopper Reef continues, as part of its diversified, portfolio to

pursue a kimberlite discovery in a new emerging camp. Pikoo is a new diamondiferous kimberlite district located in east cen-tral Saskatchewan, associated with the Archean-aged Saskatch-ewan Craton. On November 6, 2013, North Arrow announced the discovery of two distinct kimberlite indicator mineral trains in the area and, in follow-up drilling, the PK 150 kimberlite, which returned 745 diamonds larger than 0.106 mm, including

Options OpenCopper Reef Mining Corporation hold a varied portfolio in Manitoba

VTEM Airborne Electromagnetic Anomalies – Leo Lake Alberts Area.

HEAD


Gold Rock and North Star Properties

Selected Drillholes from Gold Rock 2010 Winter Drilling

Hole # Au (g/t) Length (m) From (m) To (m)

GR-10-114 14.41 3.3 23.0 26.3

GR-10-115 15.65 1.5 65.0 66.5

GR-10-119 7.79 2.1 114.3 116.4

16.31 0.9 119.2 120.1

GR-10-122 2.94 3.65 249.05 249.45

GR-10-125 7.01 2.3 143.4 145.7

COPPER REEF

The North Star Gold Property is located 36 km west of Snow Lake, Manitoba. At both the North Star and Gold Rock properties gold mineralization is hosted in gabbro within a typical Proterozoic shear zone system. Gold-rich quartz veins are within an extensional structural domain and weak mineralization occurs along a contractional domain.

Gold Rock Property is 800 meters northeast of the North Star Property. Selected Drillholes from Gold Rock 2010 Winter Drilling are Listed in the Table Below:

23 diamonds larger than 0.85 mm from a 209.7 kg sample of drill core. To date, seven discrete kimberlite occurrences have been identified. In addition, other publicly-traded companies have recently identified distinct kimberlite indicator mineral trains in the Pikoo area.

Copper Reef has four properties in the camp based on mag-netic anomaly clusters and targets similar to kimberlites which can host diamonds.

On the B1 property, last year’s work consisting of an airborne

magnetic survey followed by till sampling and ground magnetic surveys turned up a number of strong circular magnetic targets typical of kimberlites with corresponding till samples contain-ing kimberlite indicator minerals. This fall additional follow-up till samples were collected and the anomalies prospected.

On C2 and C3 preliminary work consisted of till sampling for kimberlite indicator minerals down ice from 10 separate circular airborne magnetic anomalies. Two promising anoma-lies and one minor anomaly, possibly a dipole, are located on

B1, C2 and C3 Properties with Kimberlite Targets

HEAD


the C3 property. A cluster of four promising anomalies with three to four minor anomalies are located on the C2 property. Prospecting and magnetic susceptibility readings on outcrops will be conducted over the magnetic targets in order to try to ascertain the source of these anomalies.

Copper Reef Mining Corporation has an underlying royalty of $0.75/t from the McIlvenna Bay Deposit (estimate of cur-rently with an estimated of 16.3 million tonnes grading 1.82% CuEq in the indicated category and a further 13.1 million tonnes grading 1.87% CuEq in the inferred category, both at a $45 (U.S.) per tonne NSR cut-off.) and a 2% NSR on the Big-stone copper deposit (historic estimate 3.75mt grading 2.03% Cu at a 1% Cu cut-off) , the Balsam deposit, the Hanson prop-erty, the Sam property and the Comeback property. Copper

Reef ’s 100% owned Hanson Lake Property is on strike with the McIlvenna Deposit and is the site of the past producing Han-son Lake Mine (production 147,000 tons grading 10% Zn, 5.8% Pb, 0.5% Cu and 137 g/t Ag). Outside strictly royalties T Cop-per Reef ’s 100% owned Hanson Lake Property (shown in red below) is on strike with the McIlvenna Deposit is the site of the past producing Hanson Lake Mine (production 147,000 tons grading 10% Zn, 5.8% Pb, 0.5% Cu and 137 g/t Ag).

Copper Reef also holds royalties in Callinex’s Pine Bay, Cabin Zone and Sourdough deposits in the Flin Flon Greenstone Belt.

More information on any of the active projects can be found at our website. www.copperreefmining.com. 8

COPPER REEF

Corporate InformationAddress 12 Mitchell Road, PO Box 306 Flin Flon, Manitoba R8A 1N1Phone 204-687-3500Fax 204-687-4762Email [email protected] Date Friday, February 22, 2008URL www.copperreefmining.comAuditors McGovern, Hurley, Cunningham LLP, in TorontoSolicitors Taylor McCaffrey LLP in Winnipeg

Directors and OfficersRobert N. Granger, Q.C. Chairman & DirectorStephen Masson, MSC., P. Geo Pres., CEO & DirectorDavid W. Kendall, FCA CFO & TreasurerKelly Gilmore DirectorHarry Barr DirectorWilliam J. Phillips Director Laara Shaffer Corporate SecretaryWilliam J. Jackson, B.A.Sc. Assistant Secretary

Royalty Holdings (Hanson Lake Belt, Saskatchewan) & (Flin Flon, Manitoba)

Transfer Agent Equity Transfer and Trust Co, in TorontoInvestors Relations 204-687-3500 in Flin Flon, MB

Shares Issued and Outstanding 120,861,300Warrants Outstanding 2,980,000Options Outstanding 5,050,000Fully Diluted 128,891,300

Share Information

Focusing on Diamonds in Saskatchewan, as well as and Base

Metal Projects in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt

Copper Reef Mining Corporation headquartered in Flin Flon, Manitoba has four diamond properties currently being explored in the Pikoo discovery area in Saskatchewan, drill ready base metal targets on the Alberts Property (Aimee Lake Anomaly and the Alberts Lake Anomaly) and the NorthStar /Gold Rock Gold Property located in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt .

www.copperreefmining.com North Star Gold Property

Gold Rock Property

Royalty Holdings

Copper Reef Mining Corporation has an underlying royalty of $0.75/t from Foran’s McIlvenna Bay Deposit (currently with an estimated of 16.3 million tonnes grading 1.82% CuEq in the indicated category and a further 13.1 million tonnes grading 1.87% CuEq in the inferred category, both at a $60 (U.S.) per tonne NSR cut-off.) and a 2% NSR on the Bigstone copper deposit (historic estimate 3.75mt grading 2.03% Cu at a 1% Cu cut-off) , the Balsam deposit, the Hanson property, the Sam property and the Comeback property. Copper Reef’s 100% owned Hanson Lake Property is on strike with the McIlvenna Deposit is the site of the past producing Hanson Lake Mine (production 147,000 tons grading 10% Zn, 5.8% Pb, 0.5% Cu and 137 g/t Ag).

Copper Reef also holds royalties in Callinex’s Pine Bay, Cabin Zone and Sourdough deposits in the Flin Flon Greenstone Belt.

Gold Rock Drillhole Map with Mineralized Intercepts 2010

Issued & Outstanding 120,861,300

SYMBOL: CZC : CSE EXCHANGE

Hanson Lake Belt, Saskatchewan

Kimberlite Targets -‐ B1, C2 & C3 ProperFes

New Base Metal Targets in Airborne Surveys


MACPHERSON LESLIE &TyERMAN LLP

Working WiselyBeware of the legal pitfalls of contract workersBy Kevin C. Wilson, Q.C., MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP, Saskatoon

Courts and labour tribunals typi-cally categorize workers using two terms: independent contrac-

tors and employees. For the purposes of liability, organizations are generally held liable for unpaid payroll taxes, are at risk for wrongful dismissal claims, and are required to provide the minimum stan-dards under the applicable employment standards legislation to employees. Inde-pendent contractors are not entitled to these same protections. They also enjoy some tax advantages that employees do not. As a result of those tax advantages, individuals often have a preference to be designated as independent contractors.

Unfortunately, simply designating an individual as an independent contractor is not sufficient to avoid the above noted employee obligations.

There is no set formula to determine if someone is an employee or an indepen-dent contractor. Canadian courts have provided numerous factors which are to be taken into consideration. Some of these factors include:• The degree or absence of control exer-

cised by the worker• Ownership of the tools used to com-

plete the work

• Whether the worker has a chance of profit or risk of loss

• The level of integration of work into the employer’s business

• The parties’ intentionsAdjudicators will examine the real

substance of the relationship as it op-erates on a day-to-day basis. Gener-ally speaking, if an individual is acting in their own business, exercises a great amount of control over the work com-pleted, owns the tools that are used to complete the work, bears the risk of loss and chance for profit and the work is merely an accessory to the employer’s business, they will typically be viewed as an independent contractor. Conversely if an individual has little to no control over the work performed, is perform-ing work that is an essential part of the employer’s business, bears no risk of loss or chance for increased profit and does not own the tools or equipment used, they are likely to be categorized as an employee.

A party may be liable for significant wrongful dismissal damages if it has improperly characterized the contrac-tual relationship as one of independent contractor when in reality it was em-ployment. To further complicate things, even if it is not determined to be an em-ployment relationship, damages similar to wrongful dismissal severance can still occur, if a court determines that the re-lationship is one of “dependent contrac-tor”.

For example, in Keenan v Canac Kitchens Ltd, 2015 ONSC 1055, the On-tario Superior Court held Canac Kitch-ens Ltd. liable for $124, 484.04 in wrong-ful dismissal damages for terminating independent contractors that the court found were in reality more properly characterized as “dependent contrac-tors”. Lawrence and Marilyn Keenan had

worked for Canac as employees from 1976 until 1987 installing kitchen cabi-nets. In 1987 they were told by Canac that they would carry on their work for Canac as independent contractors. The Keenans signed an agreement character-izing them as subcontractors.

The Keenans never incorporated their own business but did register a busi-ness name “Keenan Cabinetry”. They obtained the insurance required by their agreement with Canac and registered with WCB. Although the Keenans were responsible for cutting cheques to the installers they supervised, the install-ers were not their employees. Further, “Keenan Cabinetry” never registered as an employer with the Canada Revenue Agency. With the exception of a few jobs on weekends, the Keenans worked al-most exclusively for Canac.

The Keenans considered themselves loyal employees of Canac. They enjoyed employee discounts, wore shirts with company logos, and had Canac busi-ness cards. To the outside world, and in particular, to Canac’s customers, the Keenans were Canac’s representatives. In March 2009, the Keenans were told that Canac was going to close its opera-tions and their services would no longer be required. Canac took the position that it was not required to give the Keen-ans reasonable notice that their services were being terminated because they were independent contractors.

The court found that the Keenans were not independent contractors but rather “dependent contractors” entitled to reasonable notice of termination, sim-ilar to employees. Lawrence and Mari-lyn, respectively, were found to have given Canac 32 and 25 years of service. The court concluded that 26 months severance was reasonable for each.

To mitigate or reduce the risks of an


MACPHERSON LESLIE &TyERMAN LLP

improper classification such as what oc-curred with Canac, a contracting party has two main options. First, the rela-tionship can be characterized as that of an employee/employer from the outset if that is the accurate description. This places additional financial and admin-istrative burdens on the employer, and minimizes certain tax advantages that may be available to the worker, but al-lows for certainty that the above noted risks will not unexpectedly come into play.

Second, the worker can be hired as an independent contractor and the con-tracting party can structure the relation-ship and day-to-day activities so that a majority of factors listed above support the conclusion that the relationship is truly one of an independent contractor. The contracting party should also at-tempt to protect itself through contrac-tual indemnities given by the indepen-dent contractor.

Contractual provisions that support a finding of an independent contractor relationship include those that define

the worker as an independent contrac-tor, define the term of the relationship and limit its permanence, and expressly state the contractor is responsible for all tax obligations. The relationship should not be exclusive, allowing the contrac-tor to work for others (subject perhaps to some reasonable limitations such as confidentiality and conflict of interest policies). Payments should be made in accordance with invoices rendered rath-er than being similar to salary. Ideally, the contractor should not be reimbursed for expenses as they are part of his “cost of doing business”. Where possible, the contractor should also be required to

provide his own office, tools, equipment, vehicle and staff.

Other contractual provisions that will help to limit the risks associated with an improper characterization include a properly worded termination provision that limits the damages owing for termi-nation without cause, repudiation and breach of contract, even if the worker is later characterized as an employee or “dependent contractor”.

Some careful planning and structur-ing of the working relationship and care in drafting the agreement can avoid or limit the risks of adverse consequences down the road. 8

Contractual provisions that support a finding of an independent contractor relationship include those that define the worker as an independent contractor, define the term of

the relationship and limit its permanence, and expressly state the contractor is responsible for all tax obligations.


WESTERN HERITAGE

Building Foundations of TrustAchieving mutually beneficial outcomes through cultural engagement

By Josh Glew

The duty to meaningfully consult with all affected com-munities is one of the most important stages in devel-oping a secure, long-term project in the extractive in-

dustries. Obtaining a social licence to operate is increasingly complicated for companies around the world, and indeed here too in Canada. An ambiguity around the definition of mean-ingful engagement has left many companies unsure of how best to meet this obligation, and as a result many projects have suffered, sometimes irreparably. Community engagement is a key element of any corporate social responsibility plan, and be-cause of this, it is more important than ever to collaborate with experienced and trusted firms.

When many organizations discuss designing sustainable plans, they focus on three main pillars: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. There is

however a fourth pillar that is rarely considered; cultural sus-tainability. The way any community views the land and the en-vironment is deeply rooted in their culture and history. We see a mountain, Andean people may see an “Apu”, and they are not the same.

Building on our background in archaeology and cultural and heritage management, Western Heritage applies our Cul-tural Landscape approach to our engagement process. Cultural Landscapes incorporate both tangible and intangible values of cultural and natural features, as well as the interactions be-tween people and their surrounding environment.

The Western Heritage process for community engagement follows four main stages:• Building relationships and trust• Building community knowledge

Building shared knowledge and training local community members.


WESTERN HERITAGE

• Building shared value• Building sustainability

The most critical step in working with any community is building relationships and trust. Our approach is based on working with communities and providing them with the knowledge to fully understand proposed developments, along with the knowledge for effective conservation and manage-ment planning. We believe in the importance of working with communities to create shared value, and we believe strongly in the importance of building sustainability into any community plans. To do this, Western Heritage uses its own experienced staff, expert associates, and community members. The value of this approach is best explained with an example.

At a recent project Western Heritage was involved in, the de-veloper had consulted with a local first nations group, and had engaged on environmental, economic, and social levels. The developer believed they had meaningfully engaged, but when Western Heritage arrived to conduct archaeological work, we found a very different situation. The developer was unaware that a separate first nations group had significant history on the land, and the proposed development housed a site they considered very culturally important. The group was aware of the environmental impacts, as well as the economic and so-cial benefits, but did not want the project to proceed, because they felt the impact to their culture had not been addressed. Western Heritage hired individuals from the local community to work as part of the archaeological team, in the process build-ing trust and most importantly, community knowledge about the site in question. During the course of the work, the com-munity learned about how the site would be impacted, but also about the mutually beneficial outcomes that the project would produce. A framework was developed for ongoing consultation with all the relevant stakeholders, including cultural concerns with both groups. Even though the site had to be excavated for development to proceed, the group was satisfied that their concerns had been addressed, and that the history and cultural significance had been preserved for future generations to learn from. In the end, the project closed with a blessing ceremony for the project, attended by the developer, the local communi-ties and government agencies.

Whether you represent the interests of a resource develop-ment company, a community involved in development, an Ab-original or indigenous group, or a government agency, Western Heritage can work with you to develop a sustainable commu-

nity engagement plan to align the goals of all stakeholders.Building shared knowledge and training local community

members.Closing ceremony commemorating community involvement

on an infrastructure project. 8

Closing ceremony commemorating community involvement on an infrastructure project.

Heritage Management Services

• Development Screening and Historical Overviews

• Heritage Resource Impact Assessments (HRIAs)

• Archaeological Excavations

• Mitigation of Conflicts

Near Surface Geophysics

• Non-Invasive Studies

• Ground-Penetrating Radar

• Magnetometry

• Geo-Archaeology

Geomatics Services

• Satellite Imagery Sales and Interpretation

• Route/Site Development and Planning

• Environmental Footprint Monitoring

• Custom Solutions

Community Engagement

• Culturally Sustainable Development

• Aboriginal Engagement

• Conflict Resolution

Proven Experience. Trusted Expertise. Innovative Solutions.

www.westernheritage.ca [email protected]

Building on our background in archaeology and cultural and heritage management, Western

Heritage applies our Cultural Landscape approach to our engagement process.


EMERSON

How to “Extract More” in MiningEmerson’s five specialized business platforms

In today’s “pinched” commodities markets, Emerson mining special-ists are working with miners who

have come to understand that running a safe, effective, and efficient mine, mill, and refining process goes a long way to-wards improving the bottom line. Using modern technological innovations cre-ates a more effective and secure busi-ness for employees and operators. A safer, “uptime engineered” mine helps mitigate operational and financial risk for owners and shareholders alike.

Miners globally are implementing the latest Emerson technologies including: energy efficient mechanical and electri-cal drive systems, wireless communica-tions, advanced sensing like sonar and radar, industry leading efficient comput-er power and cooling, and machinery health monitoring. These are just a few of the innovations currently available to the mining industry. Emerson also pro-vides design and diagnostic tools that

are supported by thousands of applica-tion specialists and engineering staff; expertise that is available worldwide.

Emerson invests in innovation, regis-tering over 1,000 patents per year, and offering hundreds of tried and tested advanced systems and technologies to help facilitate the miner’s goals. These mining solutions are available through each of the Emerson five specialized business platforms.

Trusted brands such as Fisher valves, Rosemount analytics, DeltaV and Plant-web are well-known technologies un-der the Emerson Process Management platform. They are known for control-ling and monitoring essential systems in real time. Also within this platform is CSI, designed to predict and prevent unscheduled shutdowns due to equip-ment failure.

The term “reliability” could be used to describe the brands within the Em-erson Industrial Automation group. Le-

roy Somer/KATO Engineering, Control Techniques, Appleton, and ASCO Nu-matics are just a few brands with spe-cialized mining expertise.

Emerson Network Power provides data-centre solutions, anywhere. Tele-communications and data management infrastructure are essential to a suc-cessful mine. Liebert, Asco Power and Emerson Energy Systems are just a few brands within this platform that special-ize in grid to chip connectivity. Chloride Industrial offers connectivity assurance in harsh environments.

Vilter and Copeland compressors are well-known for their industrial gas compression capabilities. These hard-working Emerson Climate Technolo-gies brands bring efficiency to the mine through their innovative heat moving capabilities.

Rounding out the five platforms is the long-established RIDGID tool brand. Professionals in mining have relied on these hand and advanced diagnostic tools for decades.

These are just a few examples of the multiple brands within the five Emerson platforms that are dedicated to provid-ing efficiencies and increased reliability in mining. Supporting uptime is the fo-cus of Emerson in mining; uptime that will help the mine extract more.

In 2015, Emerson celebrates their 125-year anniversary and takes the time to reflect on the positive impact they have had on the world. Today, they are well positioned to ensure they meet their goal of leaving the world a better place than they found it. Through solv-ing their customers’ more complex chal-lenges to supporting the communities where people live and work, Emerson will continue to tackle the challenge, celebrate their successes, and “consider it solved” for another 125 years. 8


SASKATCHEWAN ASSOCIATION OF OPTOMETRISTS

Cameras on the WorldEducate to eliminate eye injuriesBy Darren Mirau, LO, LCLP, occupational vision care (OVC) coordinator, Saskatchewan Association of Optometrists (SAO)

Education on the anatomy of the eye and how it works is the first step to understanding why its

protection is critical. Consider your eyes as cameras. They provide you with im-ages of the world around you. The front structures of the eyes are the lenses of your cameras that focus light rays through to the back surface. The camera body is the eyeball and the processing chip or film is the rear inner surface that captures the light to be processed. The eye works similarly in that the tears, cor-nea, and lens focus the light through the vitreous gel in the middle cavity to the retina at the back of the eye. The optic nerve mimics a processing cable which delivers the data to the brain to create the final image display.

The cornea is the clear, round, dome-shaped outer membrane of your eye. It has no blood vessels and receives most of its oxygen from the air. A small scratch on the cornea can be very painful as it is made up of more fibres per unit area than any other place on the body.

The anterior chamber is the space be-hind the cornea and in front of the iris that contains a clear, nutrient fluid. The trabecular meshwork is a circle of spe-cialized tissue where aqueous humour drains out of the eye. It is located at the intersection of the cornea, the sclera (the white part of the eye), and the iris.

The pupil is an opening in the paper thin iris. The iris is one part of a layer which wraps itself around the inside of the eye called the uvea. The iris contains a circular muscle that constricts the pu-pil in brighter light, and radial muscles that dilate the pupil in lower light. These abilities allow for clear vision in most lighting conditions. The pigmentation of the iris determines the colour of your eyes.

The lens is shaped like a round magni-fier and is located behind the pupil and iris. In conjunction with the cornea the lens will focus light rays through the vit-reous to the back of the eye.

Vitreous, also known as vitreous hu-mour, is a sticky gel with several firm at-

tachments to the retina, is virtually clear, and makes up the vitreous cavity of the eyeball.

The white area of the eye consists of several layers including a clear protective layer, the conjunctiva, a white layer, the sclera, a pigmented layer, the choroid, and finally a thin film of tissue that coats the inside of the eye, the retina. Each cell in the retina is connected to a nerve fibre and all the nerve fibres come together in a bundle called the optic nerve.

With this knowledge about eye anat-omy and function, you can understand why protecting these “devices” is re-quired for a lifetime of use. your eyes can be exposed to dangers not only in the work environment but around the home, in the yard, while playing sports and during other physical activities. Awareness of potential dangers and an ongoing assessment of eye safety risks associated with your lifestyle along with the use of the proper protective eyewear are required.

If you wear corrective lenses, you may obtain prescription safety glasses through your local optometrist. These products are manufactured to follow specific industry safety standards and must include impact resistant indus-trial thickness lenses. A wide variety of frames and lens styles are available to en-sure protection of your “cameras”.

For information about a comprehensive Prescription Safety Eyewear Program, personalized for you company, please contact Darren Mirau, OVC Coordinator at the Saskatchewan Association of Optometrists (SAO) at 306-652-2069. 8


GEOMETRICS, INC.

Expanding ProductivityNew innovations in geophysical mining explorationBy Doug Groom, director of GeoElectrical Products, Geometrics, Inc.

M ining exploration can be costly and time consuming. In times of lower investor support of ex-

ploration it is more important than ever to increase exploration productivity and lower costs.

The Geode EM3D (GEM3D) is an in-novative extension of the geophysical exploration techniques known as Con-trolled Source Audio Magnetotellurics

(CSAMT) and audio magnetotellurics (AMT). The distributed GEM3D system is a network of synchronized receivers providing high-data density surveys to characterize mining prospects. The CSAMT technique uses a transmitter to generate currents in the ground that are measured by the CSAMT receivers at the survey site. AMT uses naturally-oc-curring currents flowing in the ground.

The electric and magnetic fields gener-ated by those currents are measured simultaneously. From the measurement one can produce a map of the under-ground geologic structure and use that to better interpret the most likely spot for drilling and excavating. Each six-channel receiver acts as a node on the network for synchronization and data communication. For CSAMT, a power-ful geophysical transmitter provides the source of the measured signals. A typi-cal CSAMT transmitter sequence takes from 30 to 60 minutes depending on the requirements of the survey. A tra-ditional CSAMT survey only measured one station at a time, so the transmit-ter needed to be run multiple times. To get data from 50 sites (50 stations) the transmitter would have to be run 50 times. That means the survey would re-quire from 25 to 50 hours of transmitter time, not including the time for setting up and moving the gear 50 times. The survey time is greatly reduced using a network of stations all acquiring data at the same time. After all stations are set up only one transmitter sequence is re-quired. That means all 50 stations could be measured with a single one-hour transmitter run instead of requiring up to 50 hours to do the same acquisition one station at a time.

A system could consist of a single six-channel receiver, two magnetic coils, a ruggedized laptop controller, and a transmitter; or it could consist of up to 40 six-channel receivers, 40 magnetic sensors, a geophysical instrument con-troller, GPS, and transmitter for a large 240-channel network of CSAMT re-ceivers.

In simple layered environments many electric channels could use a single set


GEOMETRICS, INC.referencing” to help eliminate noise in the data processing. With two parallel coils making magnetic field measure-ments one can be used as a reference for the other. If both coils are seeing the same frequencies it is more likely to be actual signal and not instrument or lo-calized noise.

In short, the new instrument offers an opportunity to expand the capabilities of exploration teams for enhanced geo-physical characterization of prospective mine sites before a single borehole or excavation is started. Geophysical tech-niques are intended to enhance geologic and geochemical exploration, not re-place them. The goal is for geophysics to provide a rapid, accurate method to help the exploration team decide where to sample with other methods and ul-timately where to drill or dig. With continuing innovations like the Geode EM3D, mining enterprises can continue to compete even in difficult economic times. 8

of magnetic field measurements to cal-culate ground resistivity from up to 20 electric field measurements. In complex geology with lateral variations in struc-ture, the survey may best be served by having a set of magnetic coils for ev-ery 10 electric field measurements. In other words, a distribution of measure-ment stations allows the user to “tune” the survey parameters to the targets of interest and the environment of the prospect. Another advantage of having multiple, simultaneous magnetic field measurement is the ability to do “local


TEAM DRILLING

Innovative thinking is part of the drill

For Team Drilling, finding and implementing creative solutions forms part of their everyday op-

erations. And, with this forming as the core of its corporate culture, the compa-ny has come up with some innovations that are unique to the diamond drilling industry.

“We are always challenging ourselves to improve on every aspect of our busi-ness,” says Bob Fleming, CEO of Team Drilling. “Whether it’s providing a bet-ter service, improving on safety, or re-ducing our footprint on the environ-ment, we are constantly questioning things, listening to our employees for

their ideas, and when we do find a new solution, we put our successes behind us quickly to meet the next challenge.”

Equipment innovations and custom-ization have led to some big improve-ments in service. For example, the company has recently adapted their centrifuge system, which allows them to significantly reduce the amount of water and drilling mud consumed, sav-ing on both time and reducing environ-mental footprint. They have also built a track mounted reverse circulation drill which is ideal for any rapid-sampling job. This drill is also heliportable and easily converted over to coring, should

the need arise. Through the use of direc-tional work (mud motoring, steerable core barrels, and wedging), Team Drill-ing has recently completed a significant number of large and small-diameter holes to an accuracy of two-metre tar-gets. And drilling on water, by either the use of a barge or on ice, is a chal-lenge that the company has been quite successful at. Lightweight and powerful, Team Drilling’s drills are modified to ac-commodate different sizes, depths, and any other requirements for the project to deliver safe, optimal performance for every challenge.

Safety is another area that has ben-

TeamDrilling


Professionals to the Core.Industry-leading underground, surface and specialty drilling services.

We offer:•Acomprehensiveaward-winningsafetyprogram.

•Customizedequipment.

•Lightweight,highlyportabledrillsthatexcelindepthandpower.

•Highlytrained,skilledoperators.

•Minimalenvironmentalimpact.

Canadian DiamondDrilling Association

DC D

3035 Miners Avenue Saskatoon, SK. S7K 8A1 P 306.955.TEAM (306.955.8326) F 306.978.7432 www.teamdrilling.com

efited from innovative thinking.“Innovative thinking has had us elimi-

nate the need to work at heights when adding railings to the top of the drill by developing a system that allows us to

raise them into place from the ground,” says George Presseault, contracts man-ager at Team Drilling. “One major mod-ification we have added is an interlock-ing rotation guard. This safety device

stops all rotation and feeding on the drill head when the guard is opened to prevent the workers from moving into the line of fire.”

Continuously improving on safety is

TEAM DRILLING


TEAM DRILLING

something Team Drilling takes very seri-ously.

“As everyone who has been in the in-dustry for awhile knows, drilling can be dangerous work,” says Al Lamy, surface operations manager at Team Drilling. “But it also can be very safe work if it’s done properly and with the appropriate mechanisms in place.”

Recognizing the need for a standard-ized safety program, Team Drilling man-agement participated in forming the Drilling Excellence Certification (DEC) program put together by the Canadian Diamond Drilling Association (CDDA) to aid companies in creating safety stan-dards for the diamond drilling industry. Team Drilling is DEC certified, and in addition, they are the first and only dia-mond drilling company to have signed with Saskatchewan Health & Safety Lead-ership Charter and pledged to accept and

encourage Mission: Zero one task at a time, and are striving to make Mission: Zero a reality for all workplaces and communities.

It is this commitment and innova-tion that has helped Team Drilling have a current working record of over 550 days at Diavik mine site free of lost time incidents and medical treatment cases and a previous record of over 1,100 days.

Listening to employees not only fos-ters a good work environment, but it is also key to finding innovative solu-tions. In an industry that can have high employee turnover, Team Drilling has an impressive percentage of long term employees.

“We have great employees, probably the top employees in the industry,” says Presseault. “I think we attract a lot of employees because of our company’s

reputation and because of our open-ness. We listen to them, and if they have a good idea, we put it out there. And very often, good ideas come not from management, but from our guys on the ground.”

Embracing each challenge and know-ing there is always a solution, Team Drilling has earned its reputation as an industry-leading drilling company that gets the job done in any challenge. Which is why the company is trusted by some of the mining industry’s biggest companies to provide safe, long-term, and productive drilling services.

“After we find one solution, we don’t stop there,” says Fleming, “We are always looking for new ideas, because we want to make sure we prove over, and over, and over again that we are very good at what we do.” 8


SRK CONSULTING

Earthly ConsiderationsWhen is the right time to start environmental and social programs for an advanced exploration program?

W ith the exception of various ad-vances in technology, the most significant change to explora-

tion in the last 20 years is an increase in environmental and social regulations. Companies must adhere to these regula-tions before, during, and after their ex-ploration programs in most, if not all, ju-risdictions allowing exploration. Many of these requirements are well documented in provincial, territorial, and federal regulations and, in some cases, guidance documents, so it is possible for explora-tion companies to obtain the necessary permits before the desired start times of their programs. However, with a hand-ful of exceptions around the world, most jurisdictions have few to no regulations about when to start the more advanced environmental and social studies for a given project.

The key is to advance these “other pro-grams” early enough that they do not hold up a project’s progress, but not so early that valuable project dollars are spent on completing environmental pro-grams that may eventually be needed, but not until the project has advanced to a prefeasibility or feasibility stage, which may be many years in the future. This is especially important in the current mar-ket. Spending limited resources on envi-ronmental programs too early in a proj-ect’s evolution precludes spending those resources on additional drill holes or valuable technical studies such as struc-tural evaluations. These programs could make the difference between whether or not a project is advanced from a resource estimate to the engineering studies need-ed to move it towards production.

SRK prides itself on advising clients, at each stage of a project’s evolution, about the appropriate level of environmental data collection for that stage. It is not nec-essary to complete a full environmental baseline program for a project during the development of a resource estimate or a Potential Economic Assessment (PEA)

and following advice to the contrary will result in unnecessary expenditure too early on. Furthermore, one of the key re-quirements for a project’s future success is to develop a strong relationship with stakeholders as soon as possible in the project’s evolution; this will help build the social license needed for the project to advance to the next stage.

During the early project phases, activi-ties of a technical nature can also be car-ried out to obtain data that will support both the future mining of an orebody and the environmental data needs. One such activity is coupling hydraulic testing with exploration drill holes at key locations of a deposit. This enables the gathering of hydrogeological, rock mechanics, and resource data in the same program. In addition, depending on the nature of a deposit, early stage environmental geo-chemistry on core could go a long way to-wards understanding the deposit’s metal leaching and acid rock drainage potential.

Fundamentally, the key to gathering the correct environmental data for each

stage of a project is to include the right environmental specialist on the proj-ect team; one who understands the ex-ploration and engineering phases of an exploration or mining project as well as the regulatory needs of the jurisdiction in which the project is located. Doing so satisfies the geological interpretation, engineering, environmental, and social requirements of a project at the appro-priate time which, in turn, allows the lim-ited resources available to be allocated to the activities where they will have the most beneficial impact at the early stages of a project.

About SRK ConsultingSRK Consulting is an independent, international consulting practice that provides focused advice and solutions to clients, mainly from earth and water resource industries. For mining projects, SRK offers services from exploration through feasibility, mine planning, and production to mine closure. Please see www.srk.com for more information. 8

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September 2015, marked the 15th anniversary of Transwest Air, which signals a point in their cor-

porate history to be very proud of. How-ever, what many do not realize is that when you look back into the period be-fore the merger that created Transwest Air, you will see that they have actu-ally been operating continuously within Northern Saskatchewan for 60 years.

Now, 60 years is a very long time to be conducting continuous aviation op-erations in what is often an unforgiving environment, and in many ways this long formation process has allowed Transwest to really “grow up” and evolve alongside the region they serve. Consider that what began as a two-man, single-aircraft op-eration in 1955, has today developed into a group of five companies that op-erate nearly 40 aircraft and employ 225 personnel, 75 per cent of which live and work north of Saskatoon. What’s more is that this growth and expansion has

not been random, but has instead always been in direct response to the evolving service needs of the region. For instance, Northern Saskatchewan is a beautiful but predominantly remote wilderness, and so Transwest has a large fleet of helicopters and ample amount of fixed wing aircraft do not require a runway to land. Also, as it is often difficult to support ongo-ing remote operations here, Transwest’s fuelling company has developed so that it does not only provide fuel services at airports and aerodromes, but is robustly capable of delivering large quantities of petroleum to almost any location where it may be needed. So in many ways, Tran-swest Air and the Transwest Group of Companies has become a bespoke aero-space company for this region.

Of course, the company believes all of this is good news for mining. Developing a mining operation is an exceptionally complicated and capital intensive ven-ture; and so Transwest believes that the

synergies that exist within the Transwest Group, where airline, float, ski, helicopter, and fuelling services all exist together un-der one corporate umbrella, will provide an overall value in support to mining op-erations that simply cannot be matched by any competitor who is not similarly diversified.

This is particularly exciting for Tran-swest because as they survey the mining landscape they are seeing clear signs that mining operations in Northern Saskatch-ewan should be set to boom in the very near future. While for now mineral and resource markets remain depressed, the weak Canadian dollar is helping to offset the effects of this market depression, and so Transwest anticipates the expected rates of return on mining ventures should soon surpass the threshold required for development projects to commence. This is one of the reasons why the group has also been quite aggressive in acquiring strategic ground stations to best serve

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these anticipated mining developments.For instance, within Northern Sas-

katchewan’s western region, their recent purchase of the hangar, terminal, and fuelling installations at Buffalo Narrows means support to mining operations in this region can now be accomplished much more economically, because they will no longer be required to transit air-craft all the way from La Ronge in order to do work here. Then, within the east-ern region of the province, their recent purchase of the aerodrome at Southend should pay similar dividends for any mining operations looking for aerospace support in eastern Saskatchewan and/or Western Manitoba. It is true Transwest purchased the Southend aerodrome

for the primary purpose of returning much needed MEDEVAC capabilities to this community, but they now have additional plans to further develop the runway there in order to enable a greater variety of aircraft to operate here, and so open this community up for greater economic opportunity and employ-ment. Specifically, any mining compa-nies whose current or future employees are based in Southend will now be able to access air transportation and charters from this location that were previously impossible, and it is the company’s sin-cere hope this greatly improved access will invigorate many much needed em-ployment and economic opportunities for the community of Southend.

So from the vantage of Transwest’s 15th anniversary, as they look back on all that they have accomplished and all they are doing, Transwest feels very proud of how well they have established themselves to support the resurgence in mining activity that everyone is hoping for. With a diverse operational offer-ing that is able to work synergistically within a family of companies to pro-duce uncommon value, and now en-joying major infrastructure footprints in Saskatoon, Prince Albert, La Ronge, Wollaston Lake, Stony Rapids, Fond du Lac, Buffalo Narrows and Southend; if your mining operation is ready to soar, you can trust Transwest to get you air-borne. 8

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Exploration companies are looking for more ways to construct safe, strong, and reliable site build-

ings for the exploration, processing, and storage of commodities, as well as equipment storage buildings, and even worker housing for remote sites. Plus, it is becoming increasingly more impor-tant to leave exploration sites in their natural state.

Conventional buildings, such as steel buildings, have traditionally been the choice for these sites, but are they the best choice? These buildings can be costly, difficult to ship to remote areas, can be time consuming to construct, and are essentially permanent struc-tures. None of these are ideal in an in-dustry that often requires buildings to be rapidly constructed, has a variety of building uses, and may, at some point,

have to be moved to a new work site.One of the first things that make fabric

buildings a preferred solution for min-eral exploration companies is that they can either be permanent, temporary, or entirely portable. This is achieved by of-fering a number of foundation options, from concrete blocks, shipping contain-ers, or a base rail foundation. These are all options for temporary or portable-building solutions, in addition to the many permanent options. Fabric build-ings can be completely deconstructed and moved or stored when a site is fin-ished with it, creating little environmen-tal interference.

Using shipping container foundations allows fabric building manufacturers to create hybrid-building solutions, that are particularly ideal for the explora-tion industry, because the containers

themselves act not only as a foundation for the building, but as functional space used for employee housing, change rooms, washrooms, workshops, stor-age, etc. This really allows fabric build-ing owners to maximize the use of their buildings.

In addition to the foundation options, fabric buildings are also completely cus-tomizable, from door sizes and types, insulation option, and length, width, and height.

What would you use a fabric building for? Just about anything. The buildings can be used for warehousing, work-shops, vehicle, equipment and com-modity storage, and coverage for work-ing machinery. The possibilities really are endless. The extra high clearspan design of the buildings allow for large and heavy equipment and machinery

BRITESPAN BUILDING SySTEMS INC.

Remote building solutions that leave operating sites in their natural state

By Amanda Monaghan, marketing manager, Britespan Building Systems Inc.

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SySTEMS INC.to operate within the building without issue. Fabric buildings also increase the longevity and maintain the condition of equipment and machin-ery, by protect-ing them from the elements.

Employee safety and creating a healthy working environment is another reason fabric buildings far exceed tra-ditional buildings. Customers of fabric covered buildings often say the environ-ment is the most comfortable and saf-est environment for their workers, with superior air quality and ventilation, and the floods of natural light create a shad-ow-free, safe working environment.

And of course, another reason fabric buildings are the ideal solution for ex-ploration companies is that they can be constructed anywhere. No matter how remote the location. They are often built in less time than traditional buildings, making for almost immediate job sites.

Customer overviewWith one of the heaviest snow loads

in British Columbia, a customer out of Terrace, B.C. required a building in a remote location that could withstand the snow load of 5.4Kpa. The building would be used as a warehouse for storing heavy equipment used to build a future pipeline. This customer worked with Britespan Authorized Dealer SpanMas-

ter Structures Ltd. out of Tappen, B.C. Together, SpanMaster and the customer decided the right building solution for the remote site was a 60-foot wide by 300-foot long Britespan Apex Building Series on a solid row of concrete blocks.

Under permit conditions, the block foundation and structure was built on a compacted gravel pad. By using the block foundation, SpanMaster was able to provide the customer with a building that had little to no environmental im-pact on the site, should the operations decide to move the building to another location. The building could be decon-

structed and removed without any last-ing changes to the land, its surround-ings, or the environment.

Britespan and SpanMaster were able to ensure the rigorous standards and guidelines of the operating com-pany were met prior to the construc-tion. Structural drawings and letters of assurance regarding the process and schedule were supplied. SpanMaster provided the customer with a complete and turnkey building ready for use with a construction timeline of 10 days from start to finish.

SpanMaster has a reputation across British Columbia for providing their customers with quality installations and the best fabric building solutions from Britespan. Both companies are 100 per cent Canadian owned and op-erated, providing Canadian manufac-tured products to Canadian customers.

As winner of the Industry Supplier of the year Award for the 2015 Canada Oil & Gas Awards, Britespan is always striving to provide the best building so-lutions to exploration companies across North America, and growing and in-novating with them as an industry partner. Working with expert dealers like SpanMaster Structures Ltd. allows them to meet and exceed customers’ needs and requirements, as well as the environmental demands of the operat-ing sites. 8

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FORTIS MININGENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING

your partner in providing mining solutions

By Karen Cowan

Fortis is building a name for itself by innovating like no other min-ing company in Canada.

What began as a fabrication and ma-chining business as part of its parent company, Northern Strands, Fortis has evolved to become a remarkable turn-key operation serving the mining indus-try.

Fortis develops procedures to safely perform hazardous/high-risk work, de-signs and builds customized equipment to perform work safely, solves problems, manages budgets, and provides project management. Fortis is unique because it has access to the specific skill sets need-ed to complete all aspects of a job under one roof or through its affiliation with its parent company, Northern Strands.

The company’s first milestone project was in 2009, at the PotashCorp Cory mine, where Fortis employees de-roped and re-roped the entire mine shaft. For-tis played a significant role in upgrading hoisting arrangement and capacity from 35 to 50 tonnes.

“It was a big job,” says owner Garry Clarke, adding there was urgency to complete the project because the mine was not operating during the upgrade and losing production time. Fortis tack-led the specialized work no one else in the country was interested in doing – from developing the equipment that allowed the job to be completed safely, to creating and implementing the pro-cedures.

Fortis is intrinsically involved in one

of Saskatchewan’s most prolific resourc-es: potash. The company has mining contracts at nearly every potash mine in the province. Fortis’ next big project is at PotashCorp’s Scissors Creek, which is the new mine shaft location near Ro-canville. Working in a mine shaft 3,600 feet deep, employees will install ropes, conveyances and guides starting in Au-gust 2015.

Fortis has six divisions that operate in conjunction with each other. From a uranium mine at McArthur River, to gold mines in Northern British Colum-bia and Manitoba, the mining division is made up of crews doing various un-derground or surface work at site, from construction to site rehabilitation. For-tis has worked to repair mine shafts that

Fortis



were caving in, installed structural steel, poured concrete liners, and installed electrical cables through boreholes. The company has also done presink-ing work, belt conveyors upgrades, and hydro-electric dam refurbishment.

The manufacturing division includes a machine shop and a fabrication shop. One of the machine shop’s major ac-tivities is producing mine attachments exclusively for Northern Strands. For-tis installs and changes out these mine attachments located at every rope ter-mination. The fabrication shop builds and produces custom steel products, such as grout buckets, standalone reel-ing machines, shaft brackets, shaft steel, spreader beams, monorails, and man and material baskets in its CWB-certi-fied welding shop.

The manufacturing division is known for its ability to build quick solutions to address a problem. If you can dream it for your mine site, Fortis can build it. If you have a problem, the fabrication di-vision can create a solution. Solutions created by Fortis are apparent in mines today.

For example, over a decade ago, a mining company was having an is-sue with a cable snapping when it was tightened because the workers didn’t know how much weight was being ap-plied. Fortis created a safe solution that is now so entrenched in everyday mine work, it is overlooked as modern inno-vation. The solution allows the cable to be properly tensioned without jamming, and includes a weigh scale to indicate when the rope has reached the desired tension. Clarke recently saw the prod-uct on site and innocently asked the unknowing workers what they thought of it. The response? The chorus of em-ployees raved about the product. It was a subtle reminder to Clarke of his com-pany’s innovation and relevance in the industry.

“We find a problem and make the equipment to fix it. years later, it’s still there,” says Clarke.

Fortis has dozens of examples of unique products. For example, its mo-

bile reel handler – a machine that can be driven underground in a mine shaft, and has the power to lift the reels of wire rope and move them around in the shaft area – is in constant demand.

Mine sites across the province often experience similar problems. It’s not uncommon for Fortis to create a piece of equipment for one site, only for it to have mass appeal with other companies. The concept doesn’t stop at first draft ei-ther; Fortis is continually improving its prototypes to accommodate the needs of the industry.

Everything created at Fortis, which sits in the heart of Saskatoon’s industrial area, is stringently tested using massive hydraulic test beds to ensure the equip-ment meets safety factors and will not

fail. As Clarke puts it, workers using rig-ging such as slings can rest easy know-ing every sling used for hoisting equip-ment is carefully tested to ensure safety standards are met.

Prior to the unique product designs being sent to the manufacturing divi-sion, the engineering and drafting de-partment create and refine the plans. The work includes the drafting for equipment used for material and per-sonnel handling and lifting devices. They also provide drafting for plant and shaft layouts as well as developing criti-cal lift plans.

Often, a machinery manufacturer or a mine site does not have the manpower to reassemble a piece of equipment in a mine after it’s taken apart on surface and

your partner in providing mining solutions



sent underground. That’s where the me-chanical division steps in. Fortis sends highly qualified trades people to the site to disassemble and reassemble equip-ment for the mining company. In addi-tion, Fortis’ tradespeople will perform overhaul and repair services on surface and underground for customers.

Health and safety is a priority through-out Fortis. The company is continually working to exceed the expectations of the customer and Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) regulations. Fortis has a reputation for writing detailed job procedures for dangerous work, making safety the number one priority. It places a high priority on training its workers and auditing itself to ensure continu-ous improvement in safety procedures followed both in the warehouse and at a site.

Several years ago, Fortis undertook the initiative to obtain ISO Certifica-tions in Health & Safety (18001), Qual-ity (9001) and Environmental (14001) management. There were no clear rules

for planning for safety and quality, and there were no systems in place. ISO en-abled Fortis to spell out its procedures to audit whether or not it was meeting the standards it had set. This meant not just meeting, but exceeding, minimum standards for health and safety, qual-ity and environment. It is important to Fortis to manage the company’s en-vironmental impact. Clarke says, “We are always looking to improve the site environment and leave it better than it was before.”

The landscape of trained work-ers has shifted in the last six months. Skilled labourers from other projects, industries and provinces which have slowed down are here and looking for work. Experienced tradespeople are choosing to stay in Saskatchewan after their contract jobs are finished.

“It was brutal before,” says Clarke, adding it’s a completely different sce-nario today. “People like it here and want to stay working here.” This wealth of skilled workers in Saskatchewan

gives Fortis the opportunity to hire the best.

Fortis employs a plethora of skilled workers, ranging from heavy-duty mechanics, mechanical technicians, millwrights, machinists, welders, structural and mechanical engineers to highly-skilled miners, business admin-istrators and health- and safety-trained personnel. These employees bring plenty of experience from previous jobs. Clarke says, “We have the right people in place onsite and in the office.”

Fortis is steadily adding Aboriginal employees to its workforce. Aborigi-nal employees with strong leadership qualities are playing a significant role in recruitment while Fortis’ revered working environment does its job with worker retention. Fortis works to con-tinually build its relationships with the aboriginal community as well, collabo-rating with Aboriginal-owned and run companies.

Fortis has a remarkable commit-ment to the community. year-long



campaigns at the office focus on rais-ing money to make one child’s wish come true through company barbecues, bottle drives and even selling scrap ma-terials from the shop. Fortis is proud to support Children’s Wish alongside its sister company Certified Mining & Construction Sales and Rentals and its parent company Northern Strands.

In 2015, the Northern Strands Group of Companies employees helped grant the first ever Super Bowl wish in Sas-katchewan through Children’s Wish by sending Jared and his family to the most anticipated NFL event of the sea-son. Jared was a talented young football player before he was involved in a car crash that claimed the life of his friend and left Jared quadriplegic. As the re-cipient of a Wish, Jared chose to make the now difficult trip to Phoenix to see the Super Bowl live – in memory of his friend, lost too soon, and honouring his own dream to go. Fortis is privileged to have been involved with Jared and his family’s journey and is working to pro-

vide future opportunities to enrich the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

As Fortis continues its commitment to local causes, it is maintaining its reputation on a larger scale. An emerg-

ing privately-owned company, Fortis is leaving its footprint in the mining in-dustry through quality workmanship, cutting-edge innovation, and a commit-ment to health, safety, environment, and community. 8

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McCANN EqUIPMENT LTD.

McCann Talks TorqueMcCann Equipment Ltd. has become synonymous with torque

A t the age of five, James McCann emigrated from Glasgow, Scot-land to a new land, and a new

future. He grew up in Montreal and managed to complete his fifth grade of schooling before heading off to work to support the family. In 2015, the com-pany he founded celebrated its 40th year in business.

With a sales and service background, notably in the electric power tool indus-try, at the age of 51 he set out on his own. Having had seven children, this decision did not come easily. But a growing con-fidence, entrepreneurial spirit, passion, and dedication to succeed propelled him to take on this challenge. The first day of business was St. Patrick’s Day in 1975.

Sometime in the early years of Mc-Cann Equipment Ltd., quite by acci-dent, an opportunity for a pneumat-ic-torque wrench was uncovered to satisfy a particular bolting application. That tool was a Pneutorque by Nor-bar Torque Tools of Banbury, England. To this day, McCann Equipment still proudly represents the complete line of Norbar products exclusively in Canada. Along the way, the company has added several other complementary product

lines to enhance its portfolio of torque tools: TorcUP offers hydraulic torque wrenches, pumps, and pneumatic torque wrenches; TONE Tool Co. pro-duces electric torque wrenches; while Skidmore-Wilhelm offers the industry’s prominent tension calibration tester. These leading manufacturers have tools and equipment to address any number of bolting applications that the mining industry (or any other industry for that matter) can throw at it.

Further, the firm offers tensioning tools where threaded fastener stretch is required.

McCann has directed his company to become the leading torque tool specialty distributor in Canada. With six branch operations, each branch is ISO17025 accredited, and can calibrate and certify torque products up to 25,000 pounds per foot.

McCann Equipment has become synonymous with the word “torque”. Torque has proven itself to be a practi-cal means of achieving clamp load in a fastener. And there are plenty of options from which to select the most appropri-ate torque tool for the job.

Norbar is the pioneer of pneumatic torque tool technology in industry. The

notion of mating an air motor to a plan-etary gear system took form and this combination became known as a “pneu-torque” or pneumatic torque wrench. Today, there are many companies of-fering such a product, each with their own twist on the type of air motor, air consumption, speed of rotation, decibel level of performance, etc. A broad ar-ray of products is available. Their shape and size vary quite significantly, but, in short, if the tool fits and can produce the requisite torque, then it’s a go. Where one type of torque tool won’t fit, another will.

Progress is wonderful. years ago tools were bigger, heavier, slower, and less safe to operate. Today’s products are lighter, faster, safer and, generally, more user-friendly. An aging workforce can truly appreciate these advancements. The


McCANN EqUIPMENT LTD.

JAmes mccAnnyounger workforce simply accepts that this is the norm.

Where there is no available air sup-ply, there are other options to consider. If there is an electrical outlet handy, then consider an electric-operated hydrau-lic pump to power a hydraulic torque wrench, be it a square drive tool or a low-clearance ratchet link style. Maybe even an electric torque wrench. There’s always the option of manually using a torque wrench in conjunction with a multiplier. However, this is generally more physi-cally demanding and time-consuming. It’s easier to pull a trigger or toggle a pendant control switch rather than exert strenu-ous energy using a multiplier. Not that multipliers are bad, quite the contrary. It all depends on how many and how much, i.e., how many fasteners one needs to torque and what the budget will allow. This being said, the chief consideration should be the cost, not the price.

React. Every action results in a cor-responding equal and opposite reaction. Power torque tools require a suitable re-action against a stable object to ensure

the effectiveness of the gearing that is producing the torque. Although stan-dard reaction arms are provided with torque tools, many different configura-tions are available. Reaction arms can be customized to suit any given application. Without proper reaction members, no tool can produce the power and torque output to get the job done. Safety is al-ways a major concern. One cannot un-derestimate the power of these torque tools. Exercise care in the safe operation of these products. Ensure proper training and safe working conditions. It’s never a bad idea to read the operator’s manual.

Five of Jim McCann’s seven kids are engaged in the family business. The firm is honoured to have many long-term key management, sales, and technical staff who have contributed to the growth and success of McCann Equipment.

McCann Equipment can be found on the web at www.torquetools.com. It’s corny, but they proudly state the moni-ker, “Now you’re Torquing”.

And, yes, James McCann is still going. 8

A WWII veteran, McCann was a member of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, 6th British Airborne Division. A proud Canadian, McCann has been a long-standing member of the Royal Canadian Legion.

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VMS VENTURES INC.

On the MoveVMS Ventures Inc. advances several projects and exploration

E ight years ago, VMS Ventures Inc. announced the discovery of massive sulphide mineralization

at its Reed Copper Project. On March 31, 2014, the Reed Copper Project ad-vanced to mine status after achieving commercial production.

The Reed mine is located 45 kilome-tres west-southwest of Snow Lake and 120 kilometres east of Flin Flon, Mani-toba, and represents a joint venture between Hudbay Minerals Inc. (70 per cent) and VMS Ventures Inc. (30 per cent).

In 2012, the Reed mine verified a probable mineral reserve of 2,157,375 tonnes grading 0.477 g/t gold, 6.02 g/t silver, 3.83 per cent copper, and 0.59 per cent zinc in three lenses.

In 2014, mine production was 415,736 tonnes grading 0.734 g/t gold, 8.993 g/t

silver, 2.511 per cent copper and 1.554 per cent zinc, with most of the mining from zone 30 which is higher-grade zinc and lower-grade copper. Production continued in the first half of 2015 and accounted for approximately 231,150 tonnes grading 0.601 g/t gold, 6.450 g/t silver, 2.959 per cent copper and 0.801 per cent zinc.

VMS continues to explore its 100-per-cent-owned properties and its joint ven-ture properties with its partner Hudbay Minerals. In August 2015, the company announced a seven hole, 4,000-metre diamond drill program testing geo-physical anomalies on the joint venture properties. Drilling is currently on-go-ing and is anticipated to be completed in early November.

The company recently announced the acquisition of the Assean Gold proj-

ect in Northern Manitoba. Historical drilling of 183 diamond drill core holes totally 28,566 meters has been com-pleted, with the Hunt zone hosting considerable fine, visible gold in quartz veins where grades reach as high as 27.22 g/t Au over 4.27 meters. Com-pilation work is ongoing including re-logging of drill core.

In addition, VMS Ventures is ex-ploring a large prospective property package in Manitoba and investigat-ing other corporate development op-portunities to build on our success at Reed. The company also holds ap-proximately 14.5 per cent of the shares of North American Nickel (TSX VEN-TURE: NAN) which is exploring a new district scale nickel-copper-cobalt PGE deposit belt in southwest Green-land. 8


WEST WIND AVIATION

Spread Your WingsWest Wind Aviation fosters relationships between airline and communityBy Ed Jozic

F lying into remote regions of Can-ada’s North conjures up romantic images of bush planes, on floats

or skis, and pilots with nerves of steel navigating through blinding storms to bring much needed supplies to remote and isolated communities. Strong rela-tionships between these pilots and the communities they flew into was not only essential to success, but survival. Small planes on floats and skis are still integral to the northern transporta-tion system, but are not the only type of air transport in the Athabasca Basin today. A new breed of fast and efficient aircraft, like the eight-seat King Air, 19-seat Beechcraft 1900, and the 44-seat ATR42, move most of the people and supplies to and from the North. The el-ement that has remained unchanged is the strong relationship between airline and community.

West Wind Aviation is a company that fosters those relationships. In addi-tion to being a 30-year veteran of work-

force transportation in Saskatchewan, West Wind is also a platinum member of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Compa-nies. The company was founded in 1983, when it recognized the need for an avia-tion service that was focused on a high standard of safety, service, professional-ism and strong relationships. Using this model the company grew from an eight-seat King Air and two pilots to the 250 employees and 28 aircraft company it is today. This growth included expanding the original workforce transportation mandate to include a charter and sched-uled flight division. This commitment to excellence has earned West Wind the designation of approved carrier for Cameco, AREVA, and Rio Tinto, as well as the only Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS)-approved carrier in Western Canada.

Through all the growth and change that has occurred over the last 30 years West Wind Aviation has remained true to its Saskatchewan roots, and to the re-

lationships and communities that have supported that growth. As Saskatch-ewan’s only first nations-owned airline (80 per cent first nations owned and 20 per cent employee owned) West Wind ensures that all stakeholders benefit from the opportunities that are plenti-ful in the province today and well into the future.

The long list of airlines that have come and gone to Saskatchewan’s North is a testament to how difficult and challeng-ing it can be. West Wind’s connection to the remote communities and the people of the North through ownership is a key component of its long term success. Al-though flying in the North has changed significantly from the early bush flying days, success and survival are still tied to strong relationships between com-munities and the airplanes that connect them. West Wind will continue to grow those relationships into the future. 8


CERTIFIED MINING &CONSTRUCTION SALES & RENTALS

Safe Solutions Certified Mining & Construction Sales & Rentals

By Tonya Lambert

Certified Mining & Construction Sales & Rentals (CMC) in Sas-katoon is a unique, solutions-

oriented company that sells, rents, and recertifies equipment for the mining, construction, utilities, and agricultural industries across North America. They stock only the best brands, including Thern, 3M, Vitali, Atlas Copco, Mul-tiquip, and Wacker Neuson.

“We have a wide array of custom-ers who rely on us for those niche-type products that no one else has. Every-thing we have is for rent and for sale,” notes Scott Frey, general manager. “We get lots of customers who will rent a piece of gear and then later come back to us and decide they want to buy it be-cause their needs have changed or for other reasons.”

CMC rents equipment on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Once rented, CMC will transport the equipment to

the job site ready-to-go within 24 hours, complete with paperwork and a mainte-nance program.

Innovative solutionsCMC is not like any other rental com-

pany. “We’re more of a solutions pro-vider,” explains Frey. “We sit down with the customer and provide complete so-lutions to the complex problems they have. If a customer needs a unique piece of gear, we’ll find it or make it. As part of the Northern Strands Group of Compa-nies, we have the ability to access exper-tise in myriad areas and we can use this expertise to develop and build a piece of gear from scratch to solve your problem. We’ve done this in many situations.”

An example of such an innovative solution is the company’s Mobile Reel Handler. “It was an idea that came up to solve a problem — moving heavy reels underground in tight spaces,” says

owner Garry Clarke. “The Mobile Reel Handler is self-propelled with a very tight turning radius. you simply drive up to the reel, pick it up and drive away. It can operate on level surfaces, inclines or declines. It speeds up the process of lift-ing these reels and makes it safer. There’s nothing like it anywhere else and we can build one for you in whatever size you need.”

Managing maintenanceCMC has a fully-licensed mechani-

cal shop where they service all makes and models of vehicles, heavy-duty ma-chinery, and underground equipment. In addition, they offer fleet mechanical services, including oil changes, inspec-tions, tune ups, mechanical work, and rough terrain vehicle service. Emergen-cy support is available 24-7.

CMC offers a variety of other value-added services to help ensure their cli-ents’ operation continues to run safely and smoothly. The company has devel-oped a chain hoist and lever hoist ex-change program whereby used hoists are regularly exchanged for new ones to ensure they are always in safe working condition. Maintenance programs are also put in place for every item rented or sold with courtesy reminders sent out. When the tools are in being repaired and recertified, CMC supplies their clients with fully recertified replace-ment parts. Likewise, CMC will also retest and recertify older equipment to ensure it meets current safety regula-tions, supplying replacements while do-ing so. CMC has recertified equipment for mines, construction companies and other rental companies in need of their services. CMC is the only equipment rental company in Saskatchewan that

MOBILE REEL hANDLER.


CERTIFIED MINING &CONSTRUCTION SALES & RENTALS

ensures all equipment is underground ready at no extra cost to the client.

Safety firstAt CMC, your safety is their number

one priority. They know mining and con-struction are dangerous activities which, if done using improper procedures or faulty equipment, can have dire conse-quences. This is why CMC, a fully-ac-credited recertification facility, ensures every piece of equipment they rent has been stringently tested using pull test-ing done in massive hydraulic test beds. CMC will supply all recertified equip-ment with an official recertification cer-tificate.

“We recertify to the highest standard,” states Frey. “We make sure we consis-tently exceed customers’ expectations and also government regulations and even the manufacturer’s recommenda-tions. We go above and beyond to ensure our customers don’t have any concerns when they get the equipment on site.”

“When you’re dangling from the roof of a tall building or working thousands of feet underground, it’s critical the tools you use have been carefully tested and are certified to be mechanically sound,” says Clarke. “When you recertify equipment for mining or construction, you have to assume that someone’s life is depending on what you do because, as a rule, it is.”

This is why at CMC, they ensure the equipment they sell and rent is not only capable of doing the job it was intended to do, but 50 per cent more. CMC under-

stands the cost to a customer if a site is shut down due to safety concerns.

Every employee at CMC knows the current Occupational Health & Safety rules and regulations. They are also well-versed in Saskatchewan mining regula-tions along with those of other provinces and states. CMC maintains strong ties with mine inspectors and OH&S officers to ensure they are meeting and often ex-ceeding current health and safety regu-lations.

“We are ISNET-certified,” notes Frey, “which is a testament to our safety cul-ture and our safe work standards. We also expect to receive our COR certi-fication by mid-November. This sum-mer, we signed on as a charter member of Mission Zero further committing to workplace safety — the safety of our workers, the safety of our gear, and the safety of our customers. We take safety very seriously. It’s a cornerstone of our everyday decision-making.”

To ensure the equipment they rent is properly certified, CMC extensively questions clients to ascertain exactly where and how it will be used — the lo-cation of the site, the depth of the shaft and more. This is important because, as rules change, companies are often not aware of all the regulations governing safe usage.

Competent user training can be pro-vided for equipment being rented. “We will also train workers on the safe use of the equipment either at our office or on the job site,” says Frey. CMC will go so

far as to provide mines with engineered lift plans for lowering equipment safely down mine shafts.

Charitable endeavoursCMC and the entire Northern

Strands Group of Companies has a strong sense of corporate social re-sponsibility and has been supporting The Children’s Wish Foundation of Saskatchewan over the years, as well as a number of local events and sports teams. Last year, the Northern Strands Group of Companies helped grant one child’s wish to see the Super Bowl and, the year before, another child’s wish to visit Disney World. Just recently, the Northern Strands Group of Compa-nies sponsored the Agrium Delisle Ro-deo. Owner Garry Clarke feels strongly about the Northern Strands Group of Companies and its employees support-ing the community. Clarke wants every employee to be proud of their fundrais-ing efforts. “They volunteer their time to raise money by have BBQs and col-lecting scrap metal for recycling,” he says.

CMC has recently moved to better serve the needs of their customers. “We are still in close proximity to North-ern Strands and Fortis so we can share our expertise to benefit our clients,” says Frey. “Our new facility at 810 57th Street East consolidates our mechani-cal and testing sites under one roof. It’s been a great move for us, allowing us to be more efficient for our customers.” 8


NORTHERN STRANDS

45 Years and Five Divisions StrongNorthern Strands is growing with Saskatchewan

By Paul Sinkewicz

M ining and construction – two of the heavyweights of the Sas-katchewan economy – rely on

largely unseen, critical systems to func-tion properly. Northern Strands is a key supplier of those systems.

Like the bones, sinew and muscle of a body, wire rope, fittings, and riggings are the moving parts that make industry work. They keep underground treasure like potash flowing to the surface, and help hoist construction materials sky-ward as buildings take shape.

With health and safety in mind, Northern Strands has been supplying industry since 1970, evolving into five major divisions that offer needed tools and technical knowledge in mine hoist-ing and attachments, general rigging, engineered fall protection, suspended access, and training.

Owner Garry Clarke insists his team members have a technical base of knowledge to properly assist their cus-tomers, right down to the staff working the order desk in the Saskatoon and Re-gina offices. Clarke says he doesn’t want

to just sell product, but provide techni-cal knowledge that will give his clients what they need to get their work done. The motto is “exceed their expectations”.

“When clients ask our sales staff for a product, we are going to politely inter-rogate them to make sure they are get-ting what they need,” says Clarke. “you

might find out you are missing some-thing. Maybe it will be something like not having the correct factor of safety for a particular job. So for example, if you are hauling workers, you need a 10:1 factor of safety. They will know that and help you get what you need. These are trained rigging people who could prob-ably teach rigging courses themselves. They know the right questions to ask.”

That respect for technical knowl-edge permeates the culture of Northern Strands.

When owner Clarke speaks about the company’s co-founders, such as his long-time friend and mentor Larry Mote, it is with a tone of reverence. When that group banded together in 1970 to serve the needs of Saskatche-wan’s burgeoning potash mining indus-try, each brought years of experience to the table. Right from the start, Northern Strands had secured the rights to dis-tribute France’s Arcelor Mittal mining rope in North America.

Mote had done so well selling that by the mid-1970s he was the sole owner of the firm. He began to expand the prod-uct line to include wire rope and rigging, and eventually the attachments used on the ends of the ropes.

Tracking the firm’s sales soon re-quired a map of the world, not just Sas-katchewan, as Northern Strands sup-plied mines and dams from Colorado to yellowknife and Timmins to Mongolia. “He [Mote] really knew his customers and had good relationships with them,” says Clarke. By the early 1980s, Mote spotted new opportunities in areas re-lated to hoisting, and set out to further diversify the product line and expand his customer base.

That was instrumental in helping Northern Strands weather a downturn in the economy. Things began to pick up and in the early 1990s they started to sell a variety of warehouse products such as chains, rigging, slings and shackles. In 1998, Mote and his son and partner, Darrell, began to look for someone to come on board to promote these ware-house products. That’s when Clarke found his home at Northern Strands. He had been working for mining ser-vice companies all over Saskatchewan, but was looking to settle into Saskatoon with his young family. His career had already included installing and servic-ing Northern Strands ropes in working mines, so he was well versed in their products.

Clarke added his own extensive

knowledge to the small four-person team, using it to bring new opportuni-ties to the firm. The company was soon rehabilitating and refurbishing attach-ments and fittings to meet the demand of an expanding mining industry. When that side of the business took off, it spurred an expansion of the office and the installation of a showroom in their original Millar Avenue location.

“We went great guns, because at the same time all this was happening, the rules governing mining were getting stricter, rules about fall protection, rules about mining attachments being recerti-fied,” says Clarke. “So we watched those new regulations and focused our energy on meeting those new needs. Whenever I went out to the mines, I would buy any surplus gear I could find.”

Items such as mining attachments and small hoists gave him a chance to rehabilitate and resell equipment, and it was a deep understanding of provin-cial regulations that was the key. By di-

verting equipment previously destined for the garbage bin, Northern Strands was saving money for its customers, who no longer had to buy new or send items overseas for recertification. Today, Northern Strands is still a leader in sup-plying major ropes and attachments to mines around the world.

The years between 1998 and 2001 marked significant change at Northern Strands. Many new opportunities pre-sented themselves, and Mote and Clarke were quick to take advantage of them. Clarke began buying into the firm at that time, believing there was a great oppor-tunity at hand.

“We really knew what the rules were, because of Larry, and we really dug into things,” says Clarke. “We talked to the mine inspectors; we went through the Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Act and we knew that stuff inside and out.”

They started exchange programs for the mines, guiding them through the im-plementation of scheduled replacement programs and work plans. Northern Strands even began helping mines write up the procedures that would guide their maintenance programs into the future.

“In the old days, there were no writ-ten procedures,” says Clarke. “Mining re-quires them now. The great thing about a lot of the people that work here is that we’ve been all over. We’ve worked in places like Ontario where modern op-erational and safety regulations came in earlier than Saskatchewan. So what we’ve done as a company is adopted the best of the rules and we use them.”

NORTHERN STRANDS



NORTHERN STRANDSBy 2001, Northern Strands had start-

ed a successful branch in Regina, and it was becoming clear the company would need more focused expertise as it grew.

“When you’re first building some-thing like this, you need multi-skilled people,” says Clarke. “But you get to a point where your focus has to change and you go out and get the people who can concentrate on the one area they really know well.”

Clarke began bringing in people to specialize in swing stages, mining at-tachments, warehouse operations and engineered fall protection.

Another leap forward came when Northern Strands began fabricating many of the products it used to buy from overseas to resell. By making them here in Saskatchewan, Clarke could ensure they would meet custom-er needs. “We seriously try to listen to our customers and find out what they are looking for. When you watch them and realize something is a real pain for them, it’s an opportunity for us.”

In 2006, the firm bought its new 18,000-square-foot building on Millar Avenue, and expanded its manufactur-ing ability, including bringing in more highly talented staff. “It really helped us a lot,” Clarke says. “It gave us the room we needed for manufacturing, storage and, of course, better customer access.”

In 2007, Northern Strands started the engineered fall protection division, recognizing an industry need for work-ing safely on roof tops. “Overseas this was quite a common thing, so we did some research and got our suppliers to come over here and train us. That was one of our major expansions, into fall protection and life lines.” It was around this time that provincial regulations be-came more robust to keep workers safe when working at height.

“When we started into all this, you could hook onto anything you could find, but then OH&S started question-ing industry methods and requiring certification of anchor points, regular inspections and pull testing.” Northern

Strands started providing the anchor-ing products and services other com-panies didn’t want to be burdened with from both a technical and liability point of view. When suspended access rules changed so companies couldn’t just build their own suspended stages for working at height, Clarke recognized another opportunity, and Northern Strands began supplying suspended ac-cess companies with equipment.

“In the course of probably two years, I found the guys I needed, and bought all the right equipment, and we started to take those jobs. It just grew from there,” he says. The suspended access division now offers training, rentals and equip-ment installations. “We’re very likely the largest suspended access supplier in Western Canada, and are really well respected.”

With a commitment to safety already embedded in the culture of the compa-ny, it was logical for Northern Strands to parlay its expertise into a training di-vision.

Its fully-certified training staff know the latest OH&S regulations, and can educate workers in fall arrest, tug-ger safety, First Aid and CPR, wirelock

socketing, and rigging. The training seminars are offered either on-site or at Northern Strands’ facilities.

“The industry did lots of wrong things with rigging in the old days. There is no excuse for that in this day and age,” says Clarke. “Nowadays, you have a critical lift plan, a rigging plan. We didn’t have it back then.” The company is a member of the COR program, which provides Northern Strands with an effective safety and health management system. Safety has always been the cornerstone of Northern Strands. It was important for Northern Strands to become a COR member and show that they not only talk the talk – they walk the walk.

As a mature company, Northern Strands has a strong sense of corporate social responsibility and has been sup-porting children’s wish charities over the years as well as local 4-H programs. When the company makes a donation, Clarke insists it be one of the other team members that make the presentation because they are all integral to the dona-tion. “I want them to know it’s not just me as the owner; it’s the company. We did this. We are making this province a better place.” 8

WIEBE’S STEEL STRUCTURES

From Little to BigWiebe’s Steel Structures expands into larger markets across Canada

W iebe’s Steel Structures is a Manitoba-grown business that has been providing services with integrity for over 10 years. The company was started as Wiebe’s

Welding Works in 2006, when owner, founder, and CEO Barry Wiebe first went out on his own and started a welding shop to provide service to local businesses and farmers. His ideas and goals expanded far beyond what he ever imaged.

Opportunity presented itself when a friend and local business owner had dreams of expansion and asked Wiebe’s Welding Works to put up a steel building. That project went extremely well and fed the idea of expanding the small company into a company that now employs 15 full-time employees. Crediting God’s providence they were excited when steel building suppli-ers started sharing leads with them and they quickly outgrew

the title of “welding shop”.Leaving the welding shop behind Wiebe’s Steel Structures

has left its footprint all over central and Northern Canada with projects completed in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Al-berta, and Nunavut.

From the humble barn, to the elite riding arena; from grain storage to air plane hangars to schools; from the machine shop to the commercial building, each project is tackled with enthu-siasm and gives the employees of Wiebe’s Steel structures an opportunity to be a part of people’s lives.

With a few projects already confirmed for 2016, the future looks bright and Wiebe’s Steel structures looks forward to ex-panding into even larger markets to provide a quality product for larger corporations. 8



MASSLOAD

Enhancing Mine Safety with Load CellsHere’s what you need to know about measuring weight or force with load cells, load pins, and tension links

In industries from mining and manu-facturing to construction, transpor-tation, and agriculture, the need to

weigh or measure inputs, outputs, and applied force has grown in recent de-cades to improve production safety and control costs.

“Design engineers are responding as complex systems such as mine lift equipment, construction cranes, indus-trial tanks, grain silos, and locomotives, which may have lacked weight or force sensing capability in the past, are be-ing upgraded to include load cells, load pins, and tension links,” says Riley Phil-lips, a mechanical designer at Massload, a Saskatoon-based manufacturer of quality load cells and weighing systems. “These sophisticated weight and force sensing devices can help to maximize

production load efficiency while offer-ing some of the enhanced safety features that are increasingly required by regu-lation, such as automatic shutdown if a load exceeds capacity.”

Here’s a quick look at measuring weight or force with load cells, load pins, and tension links (also known as tension cells).

The BasicsA load cell is a transducer that

changes force into a measureable elec-trical output. There are many variet-ies of load cells, of which strain gauges are the most common. Load cells can range from versatile single-ended shear beam, which can be used in weighing applications such as blenders, hoppers, and floor scales, to double-ended shear

beam which can be used in applications such as tank weighing and large capacity platforms.

“Load pins and tension links are sub-categories of load cells,” explains Phil-lips. “Load pins can be substituted any-where there is a pin and there’s a need to know the shear force on it. Tension links are a type of strain gauge trans-ducer that measures force in tension ap-plications such as wire rope, chains, and pulleys. These are often used in lifting, pulling, and winching applications such as for cranes and mine lift equipment.”

Standard load cells and tension links are typically used if the system is stan-dard or an engineer can adapt the sys-tem to an off-the-shelf item. This tends to occur in applications where there’s some system design flexibility in the


MASSLOAD

early stages of design. Most load cells, load pins, and tension links are custom designed when they must be adapted to fit existing systems. However, designers should consider the potential for custom load cell solutions even for new designs where their use enhances the overall system integrity, safety, or performance.

How to Avoid PitfallsPlanning a superior weighing system

or retrofitting an old one on existing equipment can present challenges to even veteran design engineers. Bringing in your weighing system vendor dur-ing the planning stage can allow you to improve safety and control costs while meeting specific code requirements.

“A lot of issues need to be consid-ered,” says Larry van den Berghe, presi-dent and CEO at Massload, which has refined its custom design flow over the past decade. “It is important to look at the design process upfront to ensure reliability and manufacturability while controlling costs.”

“For instance, fit is critical on load pins because they normally have to in-terface with tight tolerances,” adds Phil-lips. “Depending on where the load is applied, if the supports, loading area, pin diameter, or other factors are off, the load pin may not work as expected.”

To avoid pitfalls, insist on a regulatory approved quality management system

that traces the load cell manufacture at each critical step from start to finish and request a design flow checklist from the weighing system vendor to ensure that critical steps are not omitted.

“CAD modelling is not always straightforward, and sometimes you have to think beyond software’s presen-tation,” adds Phillips. “A stress concen-tration in the CAD modelling may look artificially high in one area, but may be masking a stress pattern in another area. you need accurate data on stress pat-terns throughout the component.”

Ask the weighing system vendor to

validate the output of their load cell component against simulated real world conditions. This validation could be achieved through a digital photo of the test set up for enhanced accountability.

The design specifications, loading, testing, and application must be aligned explains Phillips.

“It’s critical to get accurate CAD modelling and test data because that’s how the product will act, but it must be backed up by actual testing,” he states. “A mistake as simple as using the wrong supporting restraints could artificially strengthen load pin CAD results, and if real-world testing doesn’t catch it, the component may not have its stated ca-pacity.”

To ensure output stability, engineers also need to know how the load cell output may vary depending on material strain over time, according to Phillips. Conducting a creep test to determine how stable the output is over time can also be important.

Because the accuracy of any load cell is only as good as its calibration, it is vital that the reference cells in any testing system be traceable to a trusted standard such as that of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). To guarantee that your sup-plier complies with the Verified Con-


MASSLOAD

formity Assessment Program (VCAP), a program implemented by the National Conference on Weights and Measures, it is also a good idea to ask for a copy of the VCAP auditor’s report.

“When warranted, it’s advisable for a vendor to cross check their results against an independent, third-party engineering firm as an added layer of reliability and quality assurance,” adds Phillips.

The right vendor partner will also pay attention to small details that will streamline manufacture of the weigh system component, such as bonding, grounding, sealing, and gauge selection to ensure lasting performance and resis-tance to water intrusion.

Phillips notes the importance of knowing the correct location where load cells, load pins, or tension links are supported “because if you over-support a load cell it won’t have the output you’d expect.” Placement of internal electronic components such as bondable or trim-mable resisters can also affect device performance, he says.

“Even details such as putting scribe

lines on where to place components can ease manufacturing,” says Phillips. “When these sorts of details are over-looked, they can require the manufac-turer to rebuild a load pin or load cell before it’s done right.”

Details such as the types of bolts used should not be overlooked.

“The customer may require a coun-tersunk bolt arrangement to hold lids on, if they’ve found that during opera-tion bolt heads have been knocked off because they’re close to walls or equip-ment,” he explains.

The right weigh system vendor part-ner will also consider finer points that will affect field performance and main-tenance.

“It’s important to include loading di-rection arrows because once a product like a load pin is sealed and symmetrical, the customer won’t know which way to place it in their equipment otherwise,” explains Phillips. “To enhance field per-formance, it’s also necessary to specify the right type of connector, whether hard wired, wireless, or quick discon-nect.”

As design engineers respond to the growing need to weigh or measure in-puts, outputs, and applied force to im-prove production safety and control costs, working and consulting with the right vendor partner can be a critical choice in designing weigh systems with the optimum load cells, load pins, or tension links. 8


The Metal Building Group has been servicing the construction industry offering pre-engineered

metal building solutions since 1981. With experienced and dedicated people supporting a team approach, they are a company that has grown to become a leading design build metal building con-tractor.

The Metal Building Group has com-pleted projects throughout Western Canada, central Canada, the yukon, and the Northwest Territories with pre-engineered steel buildings shipped from any one of six VP manufacturing plants located from coast to coast.

Engineering, design, manufacturing, and installation was provided for the pre-engineered metal buildings that MBG contributed to the award-winning Jansen Discovery Lodge for BHP Bil-liton’s Jansen Potash Project. In winter 2012, MBGs field crew mobilized on site and began the 2,400-square-foot

maintenance building. The maintenance building features a 24-gauge standing-seam roof, and a 24-gauge reverse-rolled panel rib wall. The building also features three overhead doors and three man doors with heavy duty, man-door cano-pies fit for Northern weather conditions.

In August 2013, work continued as the 23,000-square-foot sports complex was erected. The sports complex fea-tures a 125-metre elevated running track around the perimeter of the building, and an 14,000-square-foot mezzanine that accommodates five multipurpose flex rooms, a wide range of weight and aerobic equipment, two squash courts, along with men’s and women’s steam rooms. The walls feature an architectural vee-rib panel, with multiple triple-pane, low-energy, thermal windows and the roof features an R40 insulated standing seam roof with sub purlins and liner, which includes roof support for ceiling mounted basketball backstops.

The Metal Building Group under-stands the stringent requirements for commercial and industrial projects. Their quality management program can handle the large amount of infor-mation and coordination required for these projects. Their QC/QA includes a comprehensive inspection and test plan covering design, procurement, supply, and installation. Regular inspections, checklists, reporting, and logbooks are required through all phases of the con-struction process to eliminate error and ensure customers receive the highest possible quality.

The 10,480-square-foot, 200-seat the-atre, used as a lecture hall for staff train-ing and seminars during the day, and a movie theatre during the evening fea-tures the same roof and wall system as the sports complex.

The bus shelter is a 23,000-square-foot, conventional, steel building that was fabricated by a company in Calgary,

METAL BUILDING GROUP

The Metal Building Group has grown to become a leading design build metal building contractor

Raise theRoof


METAL BUILDING GROUP

Alberta, and features a basic screw-down, open-web roof. All of the build-ings feature ice rakes and roof top safety stanchions.

The Metal Building Group has the ex-perience and skills to build quality metal buildings suited to fit any industry or ap-plication, large or small. After almost a year of frigid winter construction, MBG completed six kilometres of trim, and

6.2 kilometres of eaves trough on the dormitories throughout the 2,586 per-son camp, and installed a 6,000-square-foot fold-away metal building before demobilizing.

The Metal Building Group strongly believes in promoting a corporate cul-ture with values that include teamwork, trust, fairness, and recognition so that their team is energized to do work that

is rewarding and that they are proud of. By bringing this philosophy to all of their projects, they feel their clients are being best served. MBG has a dedicated and professional design and management team, reliable, and skilled pre-qualified erection crews. They work closely with their customers to safely bring their projects to successful conclusion on time and within budget. 8

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

PRE-ENGINEERED METAL BUILDINGS


PERIMETER AVIATION

Connecting HorizonsPerimeter Aviation offers a variety of services to the mining community in Manitoba and other industries across the country

E stablished in 1960, Perimeter Avi-ation is a Manitoba-owned and operated regional airline that has

been providing essential flight services across Manitoba and surrounding areas for the last 55 years.

With main bases located in Winnipeg and Thompson, Manitoba, and satel-lite offices in over 20 Northern Mani-toba communities, Perimeter currently has more than 550 employees, includ-ing 110 pilots, and roughly 130 aircraft maintenance professionals.

Considered the largest Metroliner aircraft operator in Canada, Perimeter currently has 30 aircraft in its fleet (five different types) capable of transport-ing between six and 50 passengers per flight.

To serve the needs of its custom-ers, they currently offer flight services in four distinct segments: chartered flights, scheduled flights, cargo shipping and Aeromed air ambulance.

Chartered flightsSince 1964, Perimeter Aviation has

been providing safe, reliable, cost-effec-tive chartered flights to any destination in North America. Successfully com-pleting over 1,000 chartered flights per year, Perimeter provides regular passen-

ger charters, cargo shipping charters, medical evacuation charters, funeral charters, and executive business class charters, just to name a few.

Being geographically located in the centre of Canada has proven to be a dis-tinct advantage for the Perimeter char-ters division, especially in support of the mining and exploration industry.

Over the last few years, Perimeter has provided extensive chartered flight services for various companies in the mining and exploration industry across Canada. Whether it’s flying crews in-and-out of oil fields in Alberta, support-ing gold mining operations in Ontario, or transporting crews and equipment for mining exploration efforts in North-ern Manitoba, Perimeter has proven itself to be a reliable, affordable, and easily-scalable transportation solution for the industry.

In addition to supporting various mining and exploration efforts, Perim-eter is also very involved in providing flight services in support of new power generation and transmission construc-tion projects in Northern Manitoba, where they have over 50 years of unique experiences flying into-and-out-of re-mote northern communities with short gravel runways.

Scheduled flightsCompleting over 30,000 flights per

year, Perimeter currently provides daily scheduled flight services to 23 commu-nities across Manitoba and Northern Ontario. From larger urban centres like Brandon and Dauphin, Manitoba to small remote communities like St. The-resa Point and Island Lake, Manitoba, Perimeter works hard to meet the travel needs of its northern customers.

Cargo shippingTransporting more than 10 million

pounds of freight per year, the Perim-eter cargo division is a huge part of the company’s success.

Currently offering regular cargo ship-ping to all 23 communities in Manitoba and Northern Ontario where regular scheduled flights are provided, they also provide cargo shipping services to any destination in North America through their highly regarded charters division.

Aeromed air ambulanceIn addition to providing chartered

flights, scheduled flights, and cargo shipping, Perimeter is also a licensed air ambulance provider with the Manitoba Health Emergency Services Branch, ca-pable of providing air ambulance servic-


PERIMETER AVIATIONes for patients anywhere within Mani-toba 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Currently, they have five Aeromed bases strategically stationed across Northern Manitoba, with six aircraft specially equipped with medical equip-ment to ensure patients receive proper care while being transported, includ-ing a removable stretcher with custom stretcher lift for loading and unloading patients, which is capable of supporting up to 800 pounds.

Establishing a culture of safetyOver the last decade, Perimeter has

made extensive changes to improve the safety of its operations. In 2006, Perim-eter developed an in-house Safety Man-agement System (SMS) to help identify, assess, manage, and mitigate potential safety issues being experienced by em-ployees and customers.

One of the more recent safety ini-tiatives taken by Perimeter is to install Garmin 950 (G950) Glass Cockpit avi-

onics packages into Metro 3 aircraft, with intent on installing the same pack-age on their Metro 2 aircraft in the near future.

The G950 Glass Cockpit improves safety by providing enhanced situational awareness, which includes:• Synthetic vision (provides a 3D view

of terrain, obstacles, and traffic, which greatly enhances situational awareness for pilots during night and instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)).

• Direct messaging capabilities with Systems Operational Control Center (SOCC)

• Flight and engine data monitoring• On screen navigational charts• Traffic Collision Avoidance System

(TCAS)• Terrain Avoidance Warning System

(TAWS)• Weather radar• Global Positioning System (GPS)• Live in-flight weather updates

Recently, Perimeter has taken initia-

tive to start implementing Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) in the cockpit (pending Transport Canada approval). EFBs allow flight crews to use a hand-held tablet (iPad Mini) to access im-portant flight manuals, charts, weather data, and other valuable flight related information without ever having to leave their seat in the cockpit. Not only does the EFB eliminate hundreds of pounds of paper from the airplane (allowing Perimeter to carry more passengers and baggage per flight), it helps flight crews quickly find impor-tant flight information when they need it, leading to less-distractions, quicker decision making, and overall improved safety while flying the aircraft.

To book a flight, or to learn more about what Perimeter Aviation has to offer, please visit their website at www.perimeter.ca, or call their Reservations division at 1-800-665-8986. 8

www. p e r i m e t e r . c a

Come fly with us.

With over 50 years in aviation we can confidently say Perimeter Aviation will meet your charter needs. Our success is contingent upon flexibility, knowledge, innovation in the industry and our “can do” attitude.

With a fleet offering a first class executive aircraft, a comfortable 50 passenger full-service aircraft, and an efficient cargo-only aircraft – with many options in between, chartering has never been easier.

Toll free: 1-800-665-8986

Phone: (204) 480-4023

E-mail: [email protected]

Charters-GeneralAd-2014.indd 1 2/24/2014 10:08 AM


POINTS NORTH GROUP

On PointPoints North Group provide key services and develop relationships in the North

When Points North Freight For-warding was incorporated in 1984, the ownership was split

between Dawn Air and Nipawin Air. Dawn Air owners included George and Andy Eikel, both Norcanair veterans. Points North President George Eikel re-calls, “When we started times were hard in the North and it wasn’t the best time to be in the aviation business. Here we were in the North and in aviation. But we saw a need we could fill and we be-lieved in the future.”

The first step was the company’s facil-ity at Points North Landing. Andy Eikel recalls the location as “just bush, trees, rock, and a little lake. But we knew if we moved to the end of the road we could build something that could grow.” The resulting warehousing and distribution facility fit the government’s vision and saw solid support from the mining in-dustry.

Facilities at Points North Landing grew through the late 1980s and early 1990s. The airstrip was lengthened twice, and accommodation capacity was increased. The company also completed a 12,360-square-foot hangar.

In the late 1990s, a major new aircraft investment, a changing northern econ-omy and alternatives to air freight led to major financial challenges. Points North has since recovered from a difficult start to the new century. Customer demand has led to growing fuel and accommo-dation business. In 2006, the Athabasca Basin Development Limited Partner-ship acquired 50 per cent ownership in Points North Freight Forwarding, providing capital to support future ex-pansion, as well Prince Albert Develop-ment Corporation and Peter Ballantyne Developments Limited Partnership also came on board in 2009.

Points North Group has prided itself on exceptional customer service. Origi-nally starting with four main services provided directly at Points North Land-ing, they have ensured their customers do not need to look very far for anything they may need.

Points North Camp which has a new modern kitchen and dining room is equipped to seat 60 people at a time and they have extended breakfast and sup-per hours to help serve any guests that may not have a flexible work schedule. Points North Bulk Fuel which can supply a wide variety of fuels and oils including gasoline, diesel, heating oil, propane, av-gas, and jet fuel, as well as a large selec-tion of lubricants. Points North Repair Services has a fully-equipped modern shop that can provide most mechanical and welding services required by their clients.

Points North Landing also offers ad-ditional services designed to fulfill the requirements of businesses and individ-uals. They operate a 6,000-foot airstrip which is used by AREVA for its McLean Lake Mine crew changes and by fishing lodges in the area. There are daily sched-uled flights provided by Transwest Air and Pronto Airways. They are also hap-py to be an agent of Osprey Wings Ltd. which offers float and ski plane service for the area. They have DHC-2 Beavers, DHC-3T Turbine Otters, and DHC-6 Twin Otters which station on a seasonal basis at Points North Landing.

The most recent and exciting ad-ditions have happened in the last five

years. Points North Group has not only continued providing services to the mining sector, but has added two new services lumber and freight. They were designed to focus on services that were needed to assist northern communi-ties build the foundation for economic growth and stability.

With the lumber and freight services available directly in the Athabasca Basin region, Points North Group has opened the northern communities to services and products at a more affordable cost. By doing so, it has made it easier for northern communities to move forward with projects that may not have been as easily attainable without them.

Points North Lumber has been one of the key components in successful proj-ects such as the design and construc-tion of the Hatchet Band Lake Store, the Wollaston fire hall, and the RTM homes for Wollaston Lake.

They have plans to continue to work with the northern communities and are in the start-up phase of new ideas. They will continue to help the North with products and services and have started working directly with the Aboriginal band members and council to try and help further economic growth.

Points North has also committed to moving forward with not only pro-viding services but becoming more involved in the community. We look forward to seeing what Points North Group has planned and to seeing their new projects develop and grow in the near future. 8

Points North Landing also offers additional services designed to fulfill the requirements of businesses and individuals.

45 Years and 5 divisions strong

MINING WIRE ROPE, AttAchMENts & EquIPMENt susPENdEd AccEssGENERAl RIGGING

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45 Years and 5 divisions strong

MINING WIRE ROPE, AttAchMENts & EquIPMENt susPENdEd AccEssGENERAl RIGGING

ENGINEEREd FAll PROtEctION tRAINING

For when you need a Lift…

Proudly Saskatchewan owned and operated since 1970

SaSkatoon 3235 Millar ave P (306) 242-7073 Regina 125 Henderson dr P (306) 352-7073 toll fRee: 1-800-242-7073 e [email protected] www.northernstrands.com

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DUNRITE RUBBER & PLASTIC

Bearing it AllDunrite Rubber & Plastic celebrates 30 years of providing customized customer solutions

This year marks Dunrite Rubber & Plastic’s 30th anniversary of op-eration servicing the bulk materi-

al handling industry. Dunrite specializes in providing hot and cold vulcanizing (splicing) services.

The company manufactures and dis-tributes a variety of product lines includ-ing conveyor belting, heavy elements, rubber lining, scrapers, idlers, pulleys, and other components. Combined with their installation and maintenance ser-vices they can offer a complete solution for most client’s needs.

In 2007, Dunrite’s Hamilton, Ontario operation expanded by manufacturing high-quality conveyor idlers under the Rite Idler Brand, ranging from CEMA C to CEMA F+ . Rite Idler’s manufactur-ing process not only allows the company

to provide clients with standard products but also custom-designed solutions to solve their conveying issues.

Rite Idler rolls are built better to last lon-ger. The rolls primary de-sign focus has always been the protection and proper lubrication of the bearings. This ensure’s a long and produc-tive life for rolls and the best value for customers. The manufacturing process of the seven component sealing system is how the company achieves this. Extra care and effort has been put into pro-tecting the bearings. Once the bearing housings have been stamped out they are machined to provide an interference

fit with

the bear-ings. The shafts

are also machined for an interference fit with

the inside of the bearings. This prevents any distortion of the bearings from either having a too tight of a fit or too loose.

The three interior (rear) seals pro-tect the bearings from interior con-tamination which is the leading cause of bearing failure. The outer seals, flinger,


DUNRITE RUBBER & PLASTIC

v-ring nitrile seal, and deflector caps protect the bearings from exterior con-tamination. Rite Idler pressure injects the entire bearing housing cavity with grease completely lubricating the open-faced ball bearings and acts as another layer of protection from contamination.

Rite Idler’s unique specialty shaft ends allows rolls to fit any existing frame on a clients system regardless of the manufacturer and without added cost.

Rite Idler has a number of specialty products including rubber and ceramic coated rolls, galvanized frames, invert-ed “V” returns, three-roll returns, and 16-inch diameter extreme duty impact idlers to conquer the toughest applica-tions. They manufacture in excess of 90 styles of idlers.

Rite Idler believe that local represen-tation, and support are essential to suc-cess. This is why they are currently set-ting up local distribution coast to coast and are presently focusing on Manito-ba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta’s potash, uranium, and gold mining operations.

For more information on products, and distribution you can check out Dunrite and Rite Idler’s websites at www.dunriterubber.com and www.rit-eidler.com or contact Dunrite Hamilton at (905) 578-6807. 8


ARROWHEAD HELICOPTERS LTD.

Arrowhead Helicopters Ltd. employs experienced and skilled flight and maintenance crews to ensure an excellent experience

A rrowhead Helicopters Ltd. is a family-owned and operated helicopter company located in

La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Founded in 2013, they have been steadily building a reputation as a company that provides safe and efficient service. The company’s objective is to serve the customer with whatever needs they may have and as-sist the client in planning and organiz-ing aspects of their project. The com-pany employs experienced and skilled flight and maintenance crews to ensure an excellent experience is accomplished while flying with Arrowhead Helicop-ters.

FleetArrowhead Helicopters Ltd. cur-

rently operates two aircraft: a Bell 407 and Bell 206B III Jet-ranger. Aircraft is maintained to very high standards; if you take care of your aircraft, it will take care of you and your customers.

Aircraft has many optional equipment items installed to make them more ef-fective, safer, and reliable. Each aircraft is deployed with an assortment of gear and accessories to ensure that the heli-copter performs as it should and meets the needs of the client’s job.

Built in 2002, the Bell 407 was first owned privately, flown conservatively, and serviced by Bell service centres. Ar-rowhead Helicopters later purchased it in 2013, and it has proven itself to be a very reliable, fast, and powerful ma-chine. Continuous maintenance and inspections ensure minimal chance of break-downs and “down-days” resulting in loss of time and money to customers. The company has invested in several optional equipment items to assist in providing customers with a safer more reliable helicopter than the standard Bell 407:• Upgraded engine air filter system: pro-

vides better filtration of fine particles

than the original Bell particle separa-tor. Great for the sandy/dusty condi-tions.

• Tanis Pre-Heat system: provides heat to vital components of the aircraft while it is parked for long periods of time to assist in winter operations.

• Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS): installed for additional safety and aircraft situational awareness.

• Auxiliary Fuel Kit: adds 20 more gal-lons of fuel for extended range

• Pilot Bubble Window: allows pilot bet-ter visibility for long-line/slinging op-erations

• Bleed Air Heater: very warm forced air heater, less window frosting in winter operations

• Air conditioning• Programmable VHF / FM TFM-138

Radio• GPS tracking system: provides flight

followers and ground crew the ability to continuously monitor the position,

Straight as anArrow


ARROWHEAD HELICOPTERS LTD.

altitude, and airspeed of the helicopter on a computer or smartphone.

• Iridium Satellite Phone: aircraft has 24/7 communications with Arrow-head Helicopters Operations Head-quarters.

• Passenger photo window: provides a large enough opening for a camera lens to protrude out the window to reduce the glare caused by the plastic.

• 300 pound Limit External Cargo Bas-ket: more room for luggage, provides storage for long/awkward items and great for placing dangerous items out of the cabin.The Bell 206B III JetRanger, built in

1976, began its life in India where it spent many years before being import-ed to Canada in 2001, where it went through a total rebuild. The 206 has a history of reliability and owns the best safety record among all single-engine helicopters. Arrowhead Helicopters Ltd.

has invested in several optional equip-ment items to assist in providing our customers with a safer more reliable he-licopter than the standard Bell 206B III JetRanger:• Upgraded Engine air filter system• Passenger Shoulder Harnesses• Intercom Systems• Range Extender• Bleed Air Heater: very warm forced air

heater, less window frosting in winter operations

• Programmable VHF / FM TFM-138 Radios

• GPS tracking system: provides flight follower and supervisions the ability to continuously monitor the position, altitude and airspeed of the helicopter on a computer or smartphone

• Iridium Satellite Phone: aircraft has 24/7 communications with Arrow-head Helicopter Operations Head-quarters

ServicesAt Arrowhead Helicopters they fo-

cus effort to provide the best service to clients, sparing no expense to be well equipped to handle the task profession-ally and safely. When you book a job with Arrowhead, helicopters are ready for client specific needs.

Being a small company allows Ar-rowhead to focus on the jobs at hand and have better control and knowledge of the day-to-day operational planning. This is beneficial to providing fast and organized service, and makes the com-pany a capable of providing an extensive range of services, including aerial con-struction, aerial inspection and surveil-lance, aerial harvesting, aerial mapping, geological support, aerial photography, search and rescue, wildlife manage-ment, mining support, exploration, ex-ternal loads, forest fire management, and fire fighting. 8


EXPEDITION CAMP SERVICE & LOGISTICS

Good Set UpExpedition Camp Service & Logistics offers everything from remote tents camps to hard-sided options

Expedition Camp Service & Lo-gistics (ECS) is a turnkey camp provider that has the capacity

to build and operate everything from fly-in remote tent camps to 1,000-per-son modular, hard-sided camps. ECS has been raising the standard of camp living conditions since they first be-gan in early 2000 by listening and pro-viding the specifications of what the client is requiring without compro-mising safety and regulations. Audits are performed to ensure compliance with occupational Health and Safety, Environmental and Building Regula-tions. ECS provides all the services

required for its optimal operation such as ongoing maintenance, camp management, and complete catering services.

ECS also has a rental inventory that includes generators from 1,000 watts to 500Kw, office trailers, water pumps, water holding tanks and trail-ers, black water holding tanks and trailers, special occasion tents, tem-porary dome structures, utility trail-ers, flat deck trailer, and UTVs.

The company provides camp and logistical support to sectors including mining, forestry, hydro, solar, site re-mediation, and emergency. 8


ROSS INDUSTRIES

Big Ice Products and ServicesBig Ice products and services are designed to keep you on top when working on ice covers

specialized ice development equipment.The scope of past projects include

high-capacity river crossings, road ways and stationery work platforms such as crane and large drill pads. Service pack-ages may include engaging an indepen-dent ice structural specialist to provide design detail, quality assurance, and quality control throughout the project.

Many resource companies recognize the value measured in safety and pro-ductivity when using Big Ice equipment and/or services while conducting opera-tions on water bodies.

For all your ice construction requirements call 1-888-249-8886 or visit www. BIGICE.ca 8

North American resource and utility companies are routinely required to conduct operations

on ice covered lakes and rivers which

present safety and operational challeng-es to say the least. Safety and operational risks can be minimized using purpose-built ice flooding equipment and or pro-fessional ice construction services.

Big Ice products are designed to add ice thickness quickly and efficiently to the work zone yielding more on ice work time without compromising the safety of work crews, equipment, or the en-vironment. Big Ice products have been proven over many years on ice projects from the Ottawa Valley through the Canadian North to the North slope of Alaska.

Big Ice services is equipped to execute your ice building needs using certified supervisors and technicians operating


NORTHERN FACTORy WORKWEAR

Suit UpNorthern Factory Workwear offer a wide variety of workwear and promotional clothing

Quite a bit has changed at North-ern Factory Workwear since Pam Beznoska began working

there in 1993. She started as a manager when the doors opened there that year and in 1999, bought the business out with her husband Neal. They have since expanded by opening a new location in

Saskatoon, as well as a dedicated Red Wing shoe store.

Serving the oilfield and many differ-ent industries along the way, they added embroidery to their services to help en-hance the images of companies. They can embroider logos on promotional clothing for events or for standard attire and business uniforms.

“So we bought some embroidery ma-chines and opened up a promotional embroidery department and continued to expand in that department, then in 2007, my husband joined me in the store full time as it was to much for me to han-dle. He took over the inventory and the floor while I looked after the employees and office and HR,” says Beznoska.

Beznoska says they carry a lot of brand names like Red Wing, Caterpillar, Timberland, Terra, Kodiak, Under Arm-er, and Columbia, as well as the largest selection of CSA footwear in Western Canada. They also carry a lot FR cloth-ing by brands like Action Wear and White Bear.

“We’re a one stop shop. you come in and buy your coveralls or jackets or

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shirts and we take them upstairs and the girls will put logos on by either embroi-dery or a digital garment printer,” she says. “We do banners, stickers, post-ers all in house. We don’t farm out our work, we do it all ourselves.”

According to Beznoska there are a few things that set them apart from other local workwear outlets, the main ones being the sheer volume of inventory they have on hand and the fact that they keep their prices lower than most of the competition. Selling quality clothing and footwear is important to the Beznoskas.

“We carry brand names and take ad-vantage of good buys, then pass on the savings to our customers,” she says, adding they always knew they could do a great job at offering clothing and the company just evolved and grew. “We’re just happy to be in a place that has given us the opportunity to do that. Lloydmin-ster has been very supportive over the years and the surrounding area. We love it. It’s something that everyday it’s some-thing new and it can be challenging, lots of hard work but the rewards are great when your customers leave the store sat-isfied.”

In 2009, Northern Factory won the Chamber of Commerce Service Award, an accolade Neal and Pam are proud of, and the business also sponsors nu-merous organizations and events in the community. 8

“We’re a one stop shop. You come in and buy your

coveralls or jackets or shirts and we take them upstairs and the girls will put logos

on by either embroidery or a digital garment printer. We do banners, stickers, posters all in house. We don’t farm out our work, we do it all ourselves.”

3-602 Circle Dr. E.Saskatoon, SK

306-653-48004006 50 Ave.

Lloydminster, AB

780-875-4800

Pam Beznoska


PDAC CONVENTION

Big ShowPDAC 2016 promises to bring another exciting event to TorontoBy Emily Pike

More than 23,500 people at-tended the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of

Canada Convention in 2015 from over 100 countries, making it an unquestion-able success – and they’re gearing up for another exciting event for 2016.

Scheduled for March 6 to 9, 2016, the PDAC International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange will again be in Toronto, marking the convention’s

84th anniversary of being held in Cana-da’s largest city.

The PDAC Convention is the world’s leading convention for people, compa-nies and organizations in, or connected with, mineral exploration. Since it be-gan in 1932, it has become the event of choice for the world’s mineral industry.

With access passes to satisfy every need – from student to senior, from one-day passes to VIP all-access passes

– there’s no reason to miss any of what the conference has to offer, as PDAC President Rod Thomas shares.

“The most popular offerings are the Aboriginal program, the CEO panel, the keynote session, the CSR event series, and the technical sessions,” he states, adding the themes of this year’s tech-nical sessions include coal, diamonds, securities, Nevada gold deposits, water and zinc, as well as many more.

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PDAC CONVENTIONThe Core Shack is also a proven draw

for attendees. It’s a place where drilling projects can display core findings free of charge to the attendees, highlighting new and exciting results and discuss-ing it with anyone who wishes to know more.

Last year, over 25 per cent of the at-tendees from conference were interna-tional travellers; people from 116 coun-tries around the world.

“Attendees came from as far as Aus-tralia, Peru, England, Mexico, Chile, China, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Germany and the United States,” says Thomas.

Last year there were 841 trade show booths and 492 speakers. The reason the convention is so big crowd is clear to Thomas, “It’s the largest industry event for mining and minerals in the world and the top destination for networking and learning.”

Part of the appeal of a convention’s location for an attendee is coming early, or staying late, or both for the truly ad-venturous. Thomas shares the statistics of Toronto’s undeniable attraction. “In a study we received from Tourism To-ronto, the convention injects about $70 million into the local economy.”

For the second year, the PDAC Con-vention will have a trade show floor in the North Building of the Metro Toron-to Convention Centre (MTCC), as well as the regular, larger show floor in the South Building, where companies, orga-nizations and governments can show-case their technology, products, services and mining jurisdictions to attendees.

It’s also the second year for the capital markets program, a specific stream of conference sessions aimed at education and discussion on financing mineral ex-ploration. Thomas talks about a new of-fering coming this year, “We are in the preliminary stage of putting together an International Mines Minister Summit at the PDAC 2016 Convention to bring together industry government leaders from around the world.”

If you’ve ever attended a PDAC con-vention, you know that the social events

are not to be missed, and this year is no exception.

“A few of the most popular events are the welcome reception, awards evening, gala, mining night and media reception,” notes Thomas.

If all of that isn’t enough, a few bo-nuses include a complimentary busi-ness tote for all-access pass holder, for their conference goodies and session handouts; an e-centre that provides at-tendees with internet access for the full

four days of the conference; preferred rates are offered for nearby hotels; and free water stations and even shoe-shine stands available at the conference.

But if you’re still on the fence about going, Thomas has some final words to lure you in, “It’s the Super Bowl event of the year for our industry! you’ll learn all about the latest trends, technologies and personalities shaping the mineral explo-ration and development industry. It’s a must-attend event.” 8

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3171 KingswaySudbury ON

P3B 2G5T: 705-560-9421F: 705-560-4663

www.darbymanufacturing.com

Your Seating Specialists

STRIKE GOLD WITHDARBY MANUFACTURING


index toAdvertisersAggressive Drilling Ltd. ................................................41

Alair MhA Enterprises Ltd. ..........................................59

Alex Macintyre and Associates .....................................17

Anglo American Exploration ........................................87

Arrowhead helicopters Ltd. .........................................32

Assa Abloy Entrance Systems Canada Inc. ...............107

Association for Mineral Exploration BC .........................6

Athabasca Fuel Service Ltd..........................................52

Becker Varis ..................................................................69

BKT Tires Canada Inc. ............................................42, 61

BPT Components And Parts ........................................35

Brandt Tractor ..............................................................25

Britespan Building Systems Inc.................................101

Calm Air International LP ............................................50

Cambridge house International Inc. .............................8

Cementation Canada Inc. .............................................44

Certified Mining & Construction Sales & Rentals ......21

Copper Reef Mines .......................................................85

Danatec Educational Services Ltd. ..............................13

Darby Manufacturing ..................................................137

Dimatec Inc. ................................................................109

Discovery International Geophysics .............................29

Dunrite Rubber And Plastic .......................................129

Emerson Canada ............................................................3

Expedition helicopters ...................................................9

Fabrithane Industrial Products Inc. .............................26

Flyer Electric .................................................................43

Fortis Corporation ........................................................19

Geometrics ...................................................................93

GMR Electric Motors ....................................................15

Grandeur housing Ltd. .................................................31

heli-Lift International Inc...........................................103

hitachi Mining ...............................................................27

hudbay Minerals...........................................................65

Legacy Building Solutions ........................................OBC

Leons Manufacturing Company ...................................20

MacPherson Leslie Tyerman ..................................... IFC

Manitoba Mineral Resources .......................................31

Marcotte Mining Machinery Services Inc. ...................71

Marsh Expediting ..........................................................50

Massload Technologies Inc. .......................................119

McCann Equipment Ltd ...............................................55

Metal Building Group .................................................123

Minetec .........................................................................38

Missinippi Airways ........................................................31

Norseman Supply Ltd.....................................................7

North Bay Machining Centre Inc. ................................79

Northern Factory Workwear ......................................135

Northern Strands .......................................................127

Northlands College ......................................................49

NTN Bearing Corporation Of Canada Limited ............45

Osprey Wings Ltd. .......................................................102

Perimeter Aviation LP ................................................125

Points North Freight .....................................................37

Potash Corporation of Canada .....................................34

Prairie Crane ................................................................26

Provincial helicopters ..................................................81

Roadpost and Inreach Canada .....................................53

Ross Industries Ltd. ...................................................133

Saskatchewan Association of Optometrists ................48

Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy ......................36

Saskatchewan Research Council ................................39

Sasktel ..........................................................................11

Scotts General Store ....................................................48

SCR Mines Technology .............................................. IBC

SIF Superior Industrial Frictions Ltd. ..........................51

Skyharbour Resources Ltd. .........................................57

SRK Consulting Canada Inc. ........................................97

Team Drilling ................................................................95

Terralogic Exploration Inc. ...........................................87

Town of Lynn Lake ........................................................28

Town of Snow Lake .......................................................63

Trans-Care Rescue Ltd. ...............................................13

Transwest Group Of Companies ..................................99

Tron Construction & Mining .........................................40

University College Of The North ....................................5

VMS Ventures ................................................................30

West Wind Aviation .......................................................14

Western heritage ..........................................................89

Western Urethane 1995 Ltd. ......................................109

Wiebe’s Steel Structures ................................................4

Winkler Canvas .............................................................47

In reality, there are wildly varying quality standards. Let’s start with the strength and agility of fabric and a rigid steel frame. Add the ability to compress a construction schedule plus complete customization and the result maximizes your business investment for years to come.

Legacy Building Solutions was the first to apply fabric cladding to a rigid steel frame. We changed the game in safety, engineering and client satisfaction. Seeing is believing. Visit www.legacybuildingsolutions.ca to see a drone fly-through video or contact Legacy to discuss your next project’s requirements.

The Legacy Advantage:• Concept to completion project management• Patented attachment system to ensure strength• Rapid installation up to 3X faster than conventional delivery• Relocatable; construct as permanent then move if required• Custom design, in-house engineering and installation services

MYTH: All fabric buildings are alike

Legacy Building Solutions Canada | Edmonton, AB | 780/341.4140 | [email protected]

northern prospector 2015-2016

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