Mineral Exploration

S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 11 involved in development of the Golden Bear gold mine and the Mount Milligan and Kemess South copper-gold mines, all in B.C. Today, he is president and CEO of Newmarket Gold Inc., a recently formed, top-20 Canadian-listed gold company with three wholly owned Australian mines producing more than 200,000 ounces annually. Forster says the biggest challenge fac- ing the industry is keeping a competitive edge. "With the [ongoing] bear market for commodities, we are losing a number of our talented geologists and engineers, and there are fewer entrepreneurial capital- markets-focused businessmen to lead the next wave of deal-making when the com- modity markets return." Nadia Caira, president of World Metals Inc., has worked continuously since 1981, albeit in 42 countries, with extended tenures in Indonesia, Central Asia, Mexico, Peru, Guyana, China and Tibet. "What other professions bring you to such exotic places?" she asks. Caira sees opportunities for juniors to produce the strategic minerals power- ing new technologies, but worries where the funding and skilled workforce will come from, given that "uncertainty in all aspects of our industry is abundant, with no end in sight." Ralph Shearing and co-graduate Paul Chung formed their first public com- pany in 1987. "Talk about trial by fire," Shearing says. "We listed two months before 'Black Monday' (October 19) and learned a lot of hard and quick lessons about public markets." As president of Telson Resources, Shearing is pursuing development of the Tahuehueto polymetallic project in Mexico. "Access to capital for early- stage exploration is non-existent, and it is only recently (2015) that there seems to be a bit more activity with capital being directed to advanced projects and expan- sion of existing producing mines." Linda Dandy, a consultant and direc- tor of Sultan Minerals, says the two most notable changes over the past 35 years are technological advances and increased regulatory regimes. "In the good old days, one was dropped off by a helicopter in a camp in the remote arctic/mountain- top/lakeshore and communications were limited to a quasi-reliable SBX-11 radio. In the field, you got out your compass and tight chain or hip chain to lay out your grid. GPS was still a couple of decades away. Nothing was digital! Maps were hand-drafted, reports were typewritten and whiteout was a necessity." All that changed with the introduc- tion of computers in the mid-1980s and rapid upgrades thereafter. "Now we have PCs and iPads and BlackBerrys in the field," Dandy says. Dandy gained B.C. experience at the Yellowjacket gold mine near Atlin and the Kena gold property near Nelson, and has noticed dramatic changes in permitting over time. She says 35 years ago, a notice of work was sent to the mines ministry seven days before start- ing a program. "Now it often takes sev- eral months to proceed through all the permitting requirements for that same program. And it seems each year or two additional items become regulatory, and additional applications and extended timeframes are now the norm. It some- times feels like there are more regula- tors and inspectors than exploration geologists these days," Dandy says. "At least the rocks have not changed over the years." ■ The classes of '81: In 1981, the year Mining Review was launched, these were the graduates from UBC's geological engineering and geology classes. Their experiences since have ranged from early- stage exploration through developing and operating mines, both in British Columbia and in numerous countries around the world.

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