Technology vital in competition with low-cost mineral producers.

Canadian mining companies must rely more on technology if they are going to successfully compete with low-cost mineral producers in other countries.

"High-tech is the only way we can compete. It is going to be the change in the mining industry," says Timiskaming MP John MacDougall, the junior minister for Energy, Mines and Resources. "The days of a person going underground with a pick and shovel are over."

Frank Pickard, president and chief executive officer of Falconbridge Limited, explains that developing nations have the advantages of lower wage costs and fewer environmental restrictions on mining.

"Chile is essentially open-pit mining. We have higher grade deposits which are deeper and cost us much more to mine than in Chile," he adds.

Meanwhile, while the Soviet Union is no longer a military threat, Pickard notes that the new Commonwealth States could become a threat to Ontario's nickel mining industry.

"There is a tremendous amount of nickel coming from the Soviet Union. There is no military or internal consumption there," he explains.

"They are not a threat until their economy stabilizes and they go back into domestic production again. The Russians are very self-sufficient, and they have a lot of unused capacity."

In the light of this increased competition, manufacturing firms such as BLM Mincon of Sudbury are playing a more vital role in the Canadian mining industry.

"We are introducing a number of new products," says company general manager Stephen McMurray. "You have to develop new technology to do it (mining) more cheaply and efficiently. We have to do this to compete."

One of the new products being introduced by BLM Mincon is a device for measuring the amount of vibration and energy produced by blasting.

"The purpose of this device is to optimize the cost of blasting," says McMurray.

BLM Mincon also recently completed an agreement with Hagglunds of Sweden to assemble and distribute that company's new cablebolting mechanization equipment.

"We've seen a lot of things developed in Canada, but we must recognize that there are a lot of people who have been in the game a lot longer than we have," McMurray explains.

SYNTHETICS

However, technology also appears to be working against the mining industry.

Aluminum, for example, is replacing copper in underground cable, and fibre optics is replacing copper wire.

Advances in plastics and ceramics are making these materials more common in the manufacture of automobiles.

However, mining industry officials are still confident that the demand for base metals will continue.

"They (ceramics) may have an impact on the market and displace some metals, but metals are the most recyclable product there is," points out Patrick Reid, president of the Ontario Mining Association. "They can be recycled forever, without losing their characteristics."

Andrew Caddell, the public affairs director for the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, reports that several Canadian metal producers are investigating composites made up of metals and ceramics.

"They are also examining use of light metals such as aluminium and graphite," he adds.

Caddell is confident that the need for base metals will not be eliminated.

"The secondary producers and people that use these metals, despite the advances in technology, will be the main consumers," he says.

Ray Goldie, a mining analyst with Richardson Greenshields in Toronto, reports that the demand for copper has increased steadily over the past 20 years.

"Fibre optics are a reality, but aluminium is not," he comments. "People keep coming back to copper because of a number of reasons."

One reason, according to Goldie, is that aluminium received a poor reputation as a result of bad applications within the trades.

Pickard, meanwhile, notes that copper demand is being fuelled by the number of developing countries which are coming into the electrical age.

"Zinc is very dependent on the auto industry," he adds. "It is used for rust-proofing and in die-casting.".

Industry associations such as the Nickel Development Institute have been lobbying for more use of base metals by the manufacturing sector.

"We have been very successful in showing people the qualities nickel has," says Pickard.

"Sixty per cent of all nickel production is consumed in stainless steel. There is still great potential in stainless steel as Third World nations join the developing world.'