of technoloy. "Right now
we're working in Northern
Ontario to build one of the
rst fully electrical mines
in Canada," he says of an
underground and open-pit gold opera-
tion at Borden Lake. "There'll be very
little to no diesel consumption. So these
are the things that make it more appeal-
ing for the community to accept new min-
ing projects."
Of course, it's impossible to bring
broad transformation to a business that's
been around for as long as mining has
without some pushback.
"That's part of the conversation, just
around how jobs will change, because
they always have and they always will,"
says Bryan Cox, president of the Mining
Association of BC. "It's about engaging
our current workforce to let them know
that the jobs are still available and still will
be there. They're just going to change a
bit, and we need to support our employ-
ees like we always have."
Canepari concedes that the reluctance
to accept innovation is something he's
seen in the workforce. "There's always
a fear that if you use technoloy, you're
going to lose your job," he says. "But I
think that in the long term, these are tools
to make your job better and safer, and yes,
there will be some jobs that will change
by the use of technoloy, but I think the
main driver for all of this is making your
company more e†cient."
It's less about reducing sta‡ than giv-
ing people the tools to do their jobs better,
the Goldcorp exec insists. "How much of
your day is spent doing data gathering or
number crunching?" he asks. "How can
we change those activities to having a
machine doing it so you can spend more
time analyzing data and making decisions
from it?"
For the
MABC's Cox, it's about igniting
a passion in young people and encourag-
ing them to join an industry that dees its
traditional roots. "There's the Tecks and
Goldcorps that are out there and are very
public and focused on this, and the rest of
the industry is watching," he says. "The
real opportunity is engaging with learn-
ing institutions and others to get younger
people thinking, hey, a career in mining
can mean several di‡erent things."
Like hopping into a chair and feeling 12
years old again.
'
—with les from Nick Rockel
72 BCBusiness jULY/AUGUST 2018
