Canada’s first diamond miner in the far north has a commitment to its people

Below is an excerpt from “Legacy of Learning,” an article about BHP Billiton’s workplace-education program that appears in the second issue of Canadian CEO. If you would like to receive a copy of the full article for reprint in a newspaper or newsletter, please contact ABC CANADA by e-mail at info@abc-canada.org.

Wayne Isaacs, CEO BHP Billiton

A diamond may be forever, but a diamond mine most certainly is not. Indeed, says Wayne Isaacs, President and Chief Operating Officer of BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc., the lifespan of a diamond mine is probably shorter than that of a gold operation. The Ekati mine run by his company is typical. Located about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T., Ekati opened in 1998 as Canada’s first diamond mine. Currently, it produces between four and five million carats of rough, primarily gem-quality, diamonds annually. Isaacs’ geologists are always on the lookout for more deposits, but current estimates suggest Ekati will be mined out in another 15 years or so.

When Isaacs thinks long term, therefore, he reaches well beyond the lifespan of the mine itself to address the problem of legacy — an important issue for the mining industry worldwide. “All mining operations leave a legacy, good legacies in some cases and bad legacies in some cases,” he says. “The legacy I hope to leave in this region after we’re gone are communities that are better empowered, and a lot better provided for from the standpoint of education, so they will be able to compete as they go forward to the next mine or the next industry that comes to the North.”

In negotiating its rights to mine the area, BHP Billiton, a division of Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton Group, made commitments that 62% of its workforce would be northern residents and 31% northern Aboriginal people, and that it would work to build a sustainable workforce in the North. That’s a huge undertaking, given that many of the employees are Aboriginal Canadians from tiny, far-flung communities hundreds of kilometres from the mine site. Land access to the mine is only available for about three months a year, thanks to a 400-km ice road built by the company. The rest of the year, everything has to be transported in and out by air, with 11 to 15 flights a week from Yellowknife or other communities in the region. The communities from which the majority of the mine’s employees are drawn are predominantly native, many of them located north of the tree line in an area of continuous permafrost. Like the mine itself, these communities are for the most part completely isolated from the outside world. “Get rid of your southern eyes,” says Denise Burlingame, Ekati’s senior external affairs specialist, of the company’s commitment to build the workforce. “Think about the barren lands of the Arctic.”