Global
Canada and Africa:
a cross-pollination of ideas
Mining in Canada
and in Africa
share a number of
similarities, writes
Joe Keenan, MD of
BME.
[8] MINING MIRROR FEBRUARY 2018
F
rom a geographic and demographic
point of view, there are interesting
parallels between the conditions
under which mining companies operate
in Africa and in Canada. One of the
most obvious is the concentration of
people in urban areas while mining
takes place in remote and rural
areas, creating similar challenges for
logistics and communication.
As a Canadian native, I know that
Canada prides itself in being a multicultural
nation and has built its mining industry
on the skills of a range of countries and
cultures — including many from Africa’s
mining centres, such as South Africa and
Ghana. It is also interesting to note that, as
a continent, Africa currently rates highly
alongside Canada as among the world’s
more popular exploration destinations.
Canada is probably the largest investor
in Africa’s minerals sector, with a great
deal of focus on both exploration and
mining by Canada-based companies
— ahead even of China’s considerable
mineral investments in the continent.
In addition, the explosives markets in
Africa share with Canada a focus on
product differentiation, productivity, and
service. There is also a commonality of
the customers themselves, where many
companies own mines in Canada as well
as in African countries. This has led
inevitably to a positive cross-pollination
of ideas between markets.
From a technology point of view,
there is considerable crossover in
terms of technologies used and mining
methods, including long-hole stoping,
room-and-pillar, narrow vein mining,
and deep underground mining.
The mining sector on the continent of
Africa share a number of technologies and
experience around deep mining methods
and the challenges that these pose. There
is also a great diversity of commodities
in both regions, with Canada exploiting
many of the minerals found in African
countries — from gold, diamonds, and
coal, to copper, cobalt, uranium, and iron
ore — where they are mined by both
opencast and underground methods.