Canadian institute of mining luncheon

Fotheringham&Fang Group's executive team attended the Canadian Institute of Mining Toronto Luncheon, hosted by the venerable National Club. The event's topic, Changing Landscape in the Mining Industry – How to Manage the Business and Projects in Uncertain Times, provided engaging and thought-provoking insights into the global mining industry's challenging situation, saddled with lower demand, lower commodity prices, and increased business and geopolitical risks. In the wake of Fukushima incident, the uranium industry, in particular, has been hit hard, with persistent oversupply and very low uranium prices, despite the aggressive building of new capacity in China and other parts of the world, and a brighter long-term outlook.

​Specific topics addressed: 
• Industry Situation: Global factors are adversely affecting the current commodity market, creating commodity prices and trends, business volatility and increased risks. The current energy mix (including the role of nuclear energy) and how it is expected to change over the next 20 years in order to meet climate change and lower-carbon targets will also be covered briefly.
• Challenges: Converting investment projects into successful producing mines (root causes of why projects overrun, remote location issues, corporate social responsibility, permitting, training, human resources, and capacity constraints) • Optimization: Reducing capital and operating expenses through disciplined value engineering processes, automation, data analytics and benchmarking.
• Driving Operational Excellence: Using smart technology, IT/IoT, employing industry best practices, ensuring effective stakeholder and employee engagement, and safety enhancement.