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Inside AME BC - Mineral Explorers Welcome New BC Premier and Cabinet
- AME BC 2011 Corporate Membership
- AME BC Congratulates the Winners of the 2011 PDAC Awards
- Follow AME BC on Twitter and Facebook!
Health & Safety - AME BC/PDAC Health and Safety Survey Back Online – Complete it Today!
- AME BC Exploration Safety Workshop for Project Managers
Mineral Exploration News - APEGBC Challenges Closure of Air Photo Library
- Participants Needed: Mining Industry Human Resources Council Research Study
- Government of Canada Invests in New Technology and Commercialization Initiative for Mining Industry
- BC Mineral Development Office - Position Posted for Director, Vancouver
Geoscience BC News - Report 2011-4 "Regional Stream Sediment and Water Geochemical Data, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Employment Opportunities
Courses & Education
Upcoming Events and Conferences |
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| Inside AME BC |
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| Mineral Explorers Welcome New BC Premier and Cabinet |
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| On March 14, 2011 AME BC welcomed Premier Christy Clark as Premier and the new British Columbia provincial cabinet upon today’s swearing-in ceremony. “Premier Clark has made commitments to building a stronger, more prosperous economy by building on BC’s wealth of natural resources for the longterm betterment of families,” said Gavin C. Dirom, President & CEO of AME BC. “The new cabinet reflects a time of change and optimism for the government,” continued Dirom. “We will build on our strong relationships with government and First Nations to advocate for key mineral exploration policies that will increase prospecting and mineral development activities, improve investor confidence and opportunities, and lead to greater prosperity for all from responsible mineral resource development.” The new cabinet will include a Ministry of Energy and Mines, led by the Hon. Rich Coleman, which will focus on mines and minerals policy, the geological survey, and permitting and inspections of major projects; and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, led by the Hon. Steve Thomson, which will cover mineral tenure as well as permitting and inspections of mines and minerals in general. Former Minister of State for Mining Randy Hawes will serve as Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resource Operations Review. “Geoscience, mineral exploration and mining provide safe, family-sustaining jobs in all regions of the province, with salaries and benefits averaging $112,800 per year,” added Mona Forster, Chair of AME BC. “We look forward to working with Premier Clark and the new cabinet to create innovative and successful mineral exploration and development policies that will sustain the sector and support families and communities throughout rural and urban BC.” |
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| AME BC 2011 Corporate Membership |
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| If your AME BC 2011 Corporate Membership fee is received by Friday, April 1, your company will be listed in the coveted Mineral Exploration magazine summer issue “buyers guide” distributed to over 5,500 people! Signing up online is quick and easy! Or you can also fill out a manual form and mail or fax it to the AME BC office. Corporate Membership at AME BC is a great way to engage with and support the mineral exploration industry, while realizing the benefits associated with Corporate Membership. Benefits Include: AME BC Publications - Mineral Exploration Magazine: complimentary subscription
- AME BC News e-newsletter: complimentary subscription
Member Recognition - Online member directory: complimentary listing (logo and 50 word description)
- Online member directory: unlimited access
- Logo and link to corporate website from AME BC website (from online member directory)
- Recognition as new or renewed Corporate Member in AME BC News, and at Speaker Series events
- Free listing in annual Mineral Exploration Magazine Buyer’s Guide (summer issue)
- Complimentary articles on professional development opportunities, and social events in AME BC News
- Complimentary articles on award recognition in AME BC News
Member Services - Access to AME BC staff regarding mineral exploration policy, government relations, aboriginal relations, health and safety, and other issues
- Exclusive discounts in member-to-member service programs
- Opportunities to offer exclusive discounts in member-to-member service programs
Events - Free entry to annual Open House
- Free entry to Corporate Member mixers
- Discounts for all employees of your organization on special events and workshops organized by AME BC
- Complimentary posting and 50% discount on subsequent employment postings on the AME BC job board
Renewing or purchasing AME BC Individual Membership is also available. For more information on membership at AME BC, visit www.amebc.ca/membership/overview.aspx. Questions? Contact Shannon Norris, Director, Member Relations and Events at snorris@amebc.ca. |
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| AME BC Congratulates the Winners of the 2011 PDAC Awards |
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| AME BC would like to congratulate the winners of the 2011 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Awards. These individuals and companies were honoured at the annual awards banquet on March 7, 2011, in Toronto, for their exceptional contributions to the mining industry. AME BC would like to congratulate the following members on their achievements: AME BC Individual Member Shawn Ryan - awarded the Bill Dennis Award for Canadian Discovery or Prospecting Success. This award was given to Ryan for his gold discoveries in Yukon. Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold found in the Klondike gold fields. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent takeover by Kinross. Ryan's efforts and eventual success have had a positive impact on exploration in the Yukon, with a six-fold increase in exploration spending from $30 million at the beginning of this decade to an estimated $183 million in 2010. AME BC Individual Member Phillip (Jerry) Asp – recipient of the Skookum Jim Award for Aboriginal achievement in the mineral industry. A former Chief of the Tahltan Band Council, Asp established the Tahltan Nation Development Corp. to provide construction and maintenance services to northern BC mines. He also negotiated two mining impact and benefits agreements, the first for the Golden Bear mine that set the template for later Tahltan projects, and the second for the Eskay Creek mine. AME BC Corporate Member Agnico-Eagle – Recipient of the Viola R. MacMillan Award for company or mine development. An ambitious four-year mine-building program initiated in 2006 has transformed the company. Today Agnico-Eagle has six operating gold mines in Canada, Finland and Mexico. Its gold reserves have increased significantly, and the company ranks among the top 10 gold producers in the world, based on market capitalization. AME BC Corporate Member Anglo American – recipient of the Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery. |
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| Follow AME BC on Twitter and Facebook! |
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| You can now follow AME BC on Twitter at @AME_BC. Our twitter feed features news, events, announcements, and is a great way of keeping up to date with our activities. AME BC is also now active on Facebook! Find us at www.facebook.com/pages/AME-BC/165991350102311 AME BC’s twitter feed and Facebook account is another one of the many ways that AME BC is striving to keep members informed and engaged. |
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| Health & Safety |
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| AME BC/PDAC Health and Safety Survey Back Online – Complete it Today! |
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| The Canadian Mineral Exploration Health & Safety Survey is back online for reporting on exploration work in 2010. We apologize for any inconvenience incurred because of a glitch in the electronic survey over the past two weeks; this has now been fixed, and AME BC and the PDAC invite all companies active in Canada to complete the survey.
AME BC and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) are conducting the 6th annual Canadian Mineral Exploration Health & Safety Survey for exploration work conducted in 2010. We are seeking your input to help plan safety programs and work toward a goal of zero fatalities and incidents with lost time. Complete the survey here: http://64.114.94.36/survey.aspx?survey=1&RD=1.
We respectfully request that all organizations active in mineral exploration in Canada take the estimated 5 to 10 minutes to complete the confidential questionnaire. To review the questions before filling out the survey, or to fill out a paper version of the survey, view the pdf survey at www.amebc.ca/documents/Policy/Health/2010-Health-Safety-Questionnaire-feb23.pdf. If you have any questions regarding the survey please contact Jonathan Buchanan at 604.630.3923 or jbuchanan@amebc.ca.
About the Survey The survey aims to capture all work carried out by mineral exploration companies, mining companies with exploration projects, government geological surveys, and diamond drilling companies in Canada.
The survey is strictly confidential and will be solely used by AME BC and the PDAC to develop our sixth annual Canadian Mineral Exploration Health & Safety Report (view the 2009 report at www.amebc.ca/documents/resources-and-publications/publications/current/full%20h-s%20report%202009.pdf). Companies who report no lost workdays will be eligible for the Safe Day Everyday Award. However, no individual company information will accompany incident reports.
For the fourth year, AME BC and PDAC have retained Greenfield Services Inc. for the fourth year to invite all companies active in mineral exploration in Canada by telephone to participate in the survey and ask questions regarding companies’ safety programs.
We again congratulate FNX Mining Company Inc. for receiving the Safe Day Everyday Gold Award for reporting 99,792 lost workday incident free hours in 2009, and the 97 other recipients of the Safe Day Every Day Award for having no lost workday incidents in 2009.
Thank you again for completing the survey, and have a safe day, everyday during the 2011 field season. |
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| AME BC Exploration Safety Workshop for Project Managers |
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| The Health & Safety Committee of AME BC is presenting its inaugural workshop on exploration safety for project managers. The new workshop builds on the 27 year tradition of the Introduction to Exploration Safety workshop, but gives an additional focus on the regulatory environment of mineral exploration in British Columbia. We encourage project geologists and managers, camp managers, and health and safety personnel active in the mineral exploration sector to attend this one-day workshop. Our goals are to draw attention to safety awareness, particularly with respect to contractor and employee management, and to ultimately eliminate unsafe incidents and build a culture of safety in the workplace. Date: Friday, March 25, 2011
Time: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue (SFU Downtown Campus) Register Now+ Course Outline - Regulatory environment and what to expect of your employees and contractors
- Health and safety trends in the mineral exploration sector
- Helicopter safety
- Interactive field safety scenarios and strategies for dealing with them
- Safety around drills
- How to avoid bear problems
- Hypothermia and ice water survival
Who Should Attend? - Project geologists or managers
- Health and safety personnel active in the mineral exploration sector
Please direct any questions regarding the workshop to Jonathan Buchanan, Director, Communications & Public Affairs, at 604.630.3923 or jbuchanan@amebc.ca. We thank our members for their interest in the Introduction to Exploration Safety Workshop on Saturday, March 26; registration for the Saturday workshop is now closed. |
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| Mineral Exploration News |
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| APEGBC Challenges Closure of Air Photo Library |
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| Air photos are an essential tool in the work of professional engineers and geoscientists, as well other practitioners such as foresters, biologists, agriculturists, planners, geographers, and surveyors. Older air photos are particularly valuable and are used to study changes to the land and land development with time, and for long term monitoring (e.g., to study the effects of climate change). The Province of British Columbia has been taking stereoscopic air photos at various scales of portions of the province since 1936. Over the years, most of the province has been photographed at different scales at least a half a dozen times. Copies of these air photos were housed in the BC Air Photo Library, a part of GeoBC that recently came under the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations. These air photos were available for public viewing and purchase. In April 2010 the Air Photo Library was closed, and expectations to make its contents available digitally for purchase or online have not been realized. There is considerable concern that the library’s hardcopy holdings may be lost or destroyed. Other resources for air photos in the province, such private companies, hold small collections and do not allow the public to purchase copies of, or in some cases to access their holdings. UBC Department of Geography's Air Photo Collection is available to the public here: www.geog.ubc.ca/resources/gic/air_photo.html. At their February meeting, APEGBC Council approved a motion put forward by the Division of Engineers and Geoscientists in the Resource Sector (DEGIRS) to send letters to the minister responsible for the BC Air Photo Library and others requesting that the value and holdings in the former library be protected and made available to the public. Letters have now been sent to the Honourable Steve Thomson, Minister of Natural Resource Operations, as well as to the the Minister of Environment; the Minister of Forests, Mines and Lands; the Minister of State for Climate Action; and the Minister of State for Mining. |
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| Participants Needed: Mining Industry Human Resources Council Research Study |
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| The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) is undertaking an important research study on the mineral exploration sector and would like to request your participation. Unearthing Possibilities: Human Resources Challenges and Opportunities in the Canadian Minerals Exploration Sector Participants in this study should be students, workers, employers, or a key stakeholder in the mineral exploration sector. The purpose of Unearthing Possibilities is to provide reliable, relevant and timely labour market information to support strategic workforce planning and stimulate a proactive approach to the HR challenges facing the minerals exploration subsector. The Mining Industry Human Resources (MiHR) Council has hired independent market research firm kisquared to undertake this study. To participate please click here for the invite to participate, or send kisquared your name, telephone number, the city you live in and how you are involved in mining exploration to ki2@kisquared.com. Full details about the project can be found at www.mihr.ca/en/priorities/unearthing.asp |
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Government of Canada Invests in New Technology and Commercialization Initiative for Mining Industry
Government of Canada - Canada News Centre |
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| AME BC President & CEO Gavin C. Dirom attended the following announcement on March 17, 2011. Canadian mining companies are on the road to uncovering new mineral ore deposits, thanks to $1.8 million in federal funding announced March 17 by the Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification. Funding for Advanced Applied Physics Solutions (AAPS) will demonstrate new technology that will enable high precision mineral exploration of dense ore deposits. This technology will identify new underground mineral reserves early on in the mine development or exploration process, while reducing exploration drilling costs. “Mining is a major contributor to our resource-based economy. By investing in this project, our Government is ensuring that our key sectors develop the tools necessary to grow and provide highly-skilled jobs for Canadians,” said Minister Yelich. "Our Government will continue to do its part to help build a more globally competitive and productive mining sector.” With this investment, AAPS will develop and field test specialized equipment needed to demonstrate and help industry adopt muon geotomography – a leading-edge new technology for mineral exploration. Muon geotomography addresses many of the current challenges and limitations in mineral exploration. It relies on the detection of cosmic ray muon particles that infiltrate the earth’s surface. Similar to medical imaging machines, muon sensor systems are able to detect and differentiate regions of high density, from which 3D images can be created of potentially valuable ore. The results for Canada’s mining industry are substantial cost savings and increased international competitiveness, as well as a reduced impact on the environment. Continue Reading+ |
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| BC Mineral Development Office - Position Posted for Director, Vancouver |
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| The BC Mineral Development Office in Vancouver leads and directs initiatives to promote the province’s mineral exploration and mining industries both domestically and internationally; increase industry competitiveness in the global economy; and stimulate investment in the sector. This is a rewarding and exciting career opportunity in a dynamic, high-profile environment for a business professional with extensive experience in the mineral exploration industry. You will travel the province to visit the major mineral exploration, mine development projects and mines, attend conferences and interact with clients. As well, you will be involved with trade delegations, trade missions and international conferences. The Director is a key leader for the provincial government with respect to supporting and growing BC’s mineral exploration and mining industries. The Director acts as liaison between the ministry and stakeholders, advises senior industry representatives and plays a prominent role on trade missions to promote investment in mineral exploration and mining in the province. Superior presentation and communication skills combined with an effective collaborative approach are a must in this key role, as you lead and manage a multi-faceted technical campaign to highlight the province’s mineral potential and high quality geosciences databases. For more details and to apply for the position, go to the following web site: https://search.employment.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/a/highlightjob.cgi?jobid=3407 or call Sandra Botha at 250.415.3511. Posting closes on April 8, 2011. |
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| Geoscience BC News |
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| Report 2011-4 "Regional Stream Sediment and Water Geochemical Data, Vancouver Island, British Columbia |
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| Geoscience BC announced the release of Report 2011-4: "Regional Stream Sediment and Water Geochemical Data, Vancouver Island, British Columbia" by W. Jackaman, on March 16. This report is available for download through Geoscience BC's website at www.geosciencebc.com/s/DataReleases.asp. About Report 2011-4: Geoscience BC has supported the reanalysis of moss-trapped stream sediment samples originally collected in the late 1980s from creeks on Vancouver Island by the BC Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada. These samples have been recovered from storage and analyzed for 51 elements by aqua-regia digestion followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Pt and Pd by fire assay. This report contains results of the 2010 Vancouver Island Reanalysis project plus previously published data for gold, fluorine and loss on ignition in stream sediments and fluoride, uranium and pH in stream waters. This information has been provided in a variety of digital formats. PDF files include survey descriptions and details regarding methods, field and analytical data listings, summary statistics, sample location map, geology map and maps for individual metals. Raw digital data of original field and analytical information plus new reanalysis results are included in Excel (XLS) format. Included on the report web page are links to supplementary airborne magnetic maps and images for Vancouver Island. These are derived from Natural Resources Canada aeromagnetic data (http://gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/aeromag/index_e.php), with image processing performed by P. Kowalczyk. |
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| Employment Opportunities |
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| Want to Post an Ad on the AME BC Job Board? If you are an employer and would like to post a job, use the post a job function here. The cost for each posting is $200, which will remain active for 45 days. AME BC corporate members receive one free posting with a yearly membership or renewal, with all subsequent postings at a 50% member discounted rate. To use your free posting, please email the complete job posting information to mhughes@amebc.ca. To use your subsequent 50% discount, simply make sure you are logged in and let the payment calculator do the rest. |
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| Courses & Education |
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| AME BC’s tradition of education for the mineral exploration sector dates back to 1918, when it held its first prospecting seminar. Since then, thousands of students have received training in prospecting, mineral exploration, health and safety, and aboriginal engagement through AME BC. Click here to view AME BC’s Education and Professional Development section. Other Professional Development Opportunities Several of AME BC’s Corporate Members have professional development programs geared toward our diverse membership. Current offerings are available here. |
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| Upcoming Events & Conferences |
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| AME BC Events Calendar Exploration Safety for Project Managers
Friday, March 25, 2011
More information+ Exploration Safety Workshop
Saturday, March 26, 2011
More information+
AME BC Speaker Series
Late March and May
More Information+
19th Annual AME BC Invitational Golf Tournament and Fundraiser
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Mayfair Lakes Golf and Country Club
More Information+
Mineral Exploration Roundup 2012
January 23 to 26, 2012
More Information+ External Event Calendar AME BC helps to facilitate and promote external events that benefit our members. Use this calendar to see what events are on the horizon and get detailed information. |