Mining Association of Nova Scotia
Mining in Nova Scotia has a long, storied connection to the people of the province. Mines built communities all over Nova Scotia, forged identities, and powered the province’s resource-based economy for generations. The notion of hardy coal miners “going underground” is steeped in Nova Scotian history and mythology.
Like a lot of perceptions, however, the reality has changed. The public perception of the mining industry needs a reboot. Mining is still an enormous driver of the provincial economy – pumping $500-million into the GDP every year. But now more than ever, it is an industry that explores, extracts, refines, and produces the minerals and rocks of Nova Scotia -- and then rehabilitates and reclaims the land for subsequent use.
That’s where the Mining Association of Nova Scotia comes in.
“We build modern lives in our industry,” says Michelle Landreville, Executive Director of MANS. “We extract, refine and produce the things in your daily life. Look around your home, your office. Whether it’s your windows or your floors, your walls or your countertops, your BlackBerry or your local playground, the mining industry provides the materials we all need to enjoy our lives.”
MANS represents the wide array of 6,300 people in the industry, from individual prospectors to well-established companies to engineers and consultants. The MANS office gives them a place to network, a venue to share information and feedback, and an opportunity to stay up to date with the latest industry issues and trends. MANS also is the industry’s unified voice in relationships with the public, governments, and other stakeholders.
“In many ways, our industry parallels the evolution of the Nova Scotia economy,” says Peter Oram, the president of MANS. “We started out simply as a producer of our natural resources, but as demand and society and technology have changed, so have we. There is no other choice.
“The way I look at it is like this: you can’t control the waves, but you can learn to surf,” says Oram, a geologist by training. “So that’s what we’re doing. We’re becoming smarter, we’re innovating, we’re using the latest technology and we’re environmentally responsible.”
Take Josh DeCoste and the work he’s doing at Lafarge Cement Plant in Brookfield. A mechanical engineer by training, DeCoste is now an environmental engineer at the plant, the only cement producer east of Quebec.
The plant employs 80 people and supplies much of the cement (from a nearby limestone quarry) used all over the Maritimes. And while the production of cement hasn’t changed much over the years, the Lafarge plant itself certainly has. DeCoste says a full 15 percent of the plant’s fuel now comes from alternate fuels, not just coal. That means waste materials that used to be destined for landfills, can now be repurposed into fuels that burn cleanly in the cement kilns 1500 degree Celsius burner. DeCoste says that includes things like old roofing shingles and used oil. Next on his alternate fuel agenda: a trial use of glycerine – a by-product from the process of another Nova Scotian innovator, Ocean Nutrition. The plant also uses byproducts from the steel and petroleum industries as alternate raw materials. In addition to keeping these materials out of the waste stream, their use reduces the need for virgin materials, reduces energy demand and
can improve cement performance.
One of DeCoste’s most rewarding innovations is the company’s creation of a new wetland and community recreation area in Brookfield. Lafarge needed to divert a brook to allow for its quarry to expanding. In return, it created the wetland nearby in consultation with the community. The people supported the plant and suggested boardwalks and walking trails. It made sense. Now, the area is a magnet for diverse wildlife habitat as well as the local community who use the 1.8 km of trails year-round.
The professional challenges and personal enjoyment add up to the kind of life DeCoste has always wanted to live.
“We live in Truro,” says DeCoste, a native of Antigonish County. “It’s great – about the right size, you can get anything you need. And when I walk down the street, I see someone I recognize. I lived outside Toronto for a while and you sure didn’t get that – just anonymous faces, no one smiling. I couldn’t stand it.
“I wanted to stay here in Nova Scotia. My wife is from here, I applied to work here and other places, but this job is great.”
Part of the mission of MANS is educating people about the past, the present, and the future of mining in Nova Scotia.
“This is not your grandfather’s mining industry,” says Landreville. “We are leaders in new technologies and production and also in environmental responsibility and reclamation. That’s the legacy we want to leave in our communities after the productive years of a mine or a quarry are gone.”
Nova Scotians need look no further than Dartmouth Crossing for an example of land that has been re-purposed after extraction of resources -- resources that might have never been developed if they had been beneath a housing development. The site used to be a quarry and provided hundreds of jobs for decades. Now it is perhaps the premiere shopping and eating destination in Atlantic Canada. All over the province there are former quarries and mines that have been transformed into wonderful public places, from ball fields to walking trails.
“In a sense, we are your natural resources at work,” says Landreville. “The mining industry takes Nova Scotia’s minerals and put them into action for people to use. And then when the time comes, we re-imagine and reshape the sites themselves to be enjoyed forever by the community.”
