Celebrating Mining Week in British Columbia and across Canada

BC Mining Week is held from May 14 to 20, 2017

Fording River Operations, located in the Elk Valley, is one of five steelmaking coal operations owned by Teck. — Photo courtesy Teck

Remember these dates, May 14-20, 2017, because over this seven day period BC Mining Week will once again be celebrated. Mining is one of BC’s largest and oldest industries and BC Mining Week is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the importance of the modern industry to British Columbians.

BC Mining Week also will see the Mining Person of the Year Award handed out.

The Mining Person of the Year Award is an initiative of the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) to publicly recognize an outstanding individual who has shown leadership in advancing and promoting the mining industry from, or within, British Columbia during the past year.

This celebration has a long history in BC, the first BC Mining Week took place 25 years ago in Vancouver!  The BC Mining Week committee, chaired by the Mining Association of BC, is comprised of volunteers from a variety of companies, associations and institutions associated with the mining sector in BC. The dedicated hard work of the committee members and the strong support from our sponsors has fueled the ever-growing success of BC Mining Week celebrations each and every successive year.

What began as a celebration in Vancouver many years ago has now spread province-wide across communities across the province who want to participate in the recognition of the contribution of the mining sector in BC!

According the Mining Association of Canada, the Canadian mining industry is:

A major employer:

• The industry directly employs more than 373,000 workers across the country in mineral extraction, smelting, fabrication and manufacturing, and indirectly employs an additional 190,000.
• Mining is the largest private sector employer of Aboriginal peoples in Canada on a proportional basis, and employment is poised to increase.
• Canada has one of the largest mining supply sectors globally with more than 3,700 companies supplying engineering, geotechnical, environmental, financial and other services to mining operations.
• Those who work in mining enjoy the highest wages and salaries of all industrial sectors in Canada with an average annual pay exceeding $115,000, which surpassed the average earnings of workers in forestry, manufacturing, finance and construction by a range of $32,000 to $43,000 for those sectors.

An economic engine:

• Mining contributed $56 billion to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015.
• The industry accounted for 19% of the value of Canadian goods exports in 2015.
• Canada’s value of mineral production was $42.8 billion in 2015.
• The mining industry's payments to Canadian federal and provincial governments total $71 billion in taxes and royalties over the last decade (2003-2012).

A global leader:

Thanks to its rich geology, Canada is one of the largest mining nations in the world producing more than 60 minerals and metals.

Canada ranks in the top five countries in the global production of 13 major minerals and metals:

• First in potash
• Second in uranium, nickel and niobium
• Third in cobalt, aluminum and platinum group metals
• Fourth in salt, sulphur and tungsten
• Fifth in diamonds, graphite and gold

For more information or scheduled events check out: http://miningweek.ca