The Ontario Mining Association is proud to represent an industry that provides the world with the building blocks of modern life and innovation. Minerals and metals are essential, irreplaceable components of everything from lifesaving medical devices to clean technologies, such as solar panels and EV batteries. We cannot have a clean, low-carbon future without responsible mining.
Ontario’s success as a global leader in mining is only partly due to our considerable mineral potential, which includes in-demand critical minerals. All the potential in the world would be nothing without the talent, resilience, innovative spirit and hard work of the people in this province, and in our industry.
Our people have transformed mining. They have built an exceptional safety culture, making us one of the safest mining jurisdictions in the world, and one of the safest industries in Ontario, achieving a 96% improvement in lost time injury frequency over 30 years.
Our approaches to relationship building and benefit sharing with communities are also evolving, with industry-Indigenous agreements creating local benefits for people beyond the lifetime of the mining operation. A more diverse talent pool is entering the industry, given career opportunities that offer high pay, mobility – in terms of both professional development and travel, and exciting lifestyle options that come with the adventurous life of an Ontario miner. Companies seeking to be more creative, more innovative and more profitable are making efforts to future-proof their workforce by becoming more inclusive and attractive to new generations of talent, including underrepresented groups like women.
Investments in new technologies and processes have improved our environmental performance, leading to dramatic pollution abatement and reductions in carbon emissions – although we are committed to continuous improvement, Ontario already uses less carbon than most places to produce minerals and metals. A poignant symbol of how far we have come is the dismantling of Sudbury’s iconic Superstack, and the re-greening efforts that have become a model of environmental hope for others to emulate.
Visitors to the 2019 Canadian National Exhibition sampled Marcel Boucher’s modern twist on bannock. Boucher is head chef with Windigo Catering, a solely Indigenous-owned catering company that feeds 500 people every day at Newmont’s Musselwhite Mine in northwestern Ontario.
In Sudbury and elsewhere across the province, OMA members are at the forefront of developments that will shape the mine of the future. In some ways, the future is already here. Ontario has opened its first all-electric mine, projects are breaking with the traditional idea of underground mining, and more operations are pioneering the use of battery electric-powered vehicles, digital, tele-remote and other advanced technologies.
Mining will continue to be driven by the need of other industries for minerals, and Ontario has every chance to become, not just the mining finance capital it currently is, but also the mining technology hub of the world and the supplier of choice of responsibly mined raw materials that are essential for the green economy at home and abroad.
In 2020, the OMA celebrated our centennial by inviting people to discover who we are through #ThisIsMining. Looking back at the last 100 years of mining in our province, we find ourselves as builders of communities, proud of our contributions to the cities and towns in which we work. With continued innovation and investments in our workforce, these are legacies that will live on, transforming the future.
Join us in discovering Ontario mining.
