Keynote & Signature Lectures

Keynote: Embracing ESG to Build Trust in Mining Investments – A Panel Discussion
Monday, February 27, 2023 | 8:30 am, Colorado Convention Center

Moderators:
Kim Morrison, Senior Director, Global Tailings Management, Technical Services, Newmont
Kelly Ward, Vice President, Mining, Metals & Minerals – U.S.Practice Leader

Panelists:
Ryan Bond, Head of Climate and Sustainability Insurance Initiative, Marsh
Aidan Davy, Chief Operating Officer, International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM)
Daniele La Porta, Global Head of Sustainability and ESG, Gerald Group
Casey Nault, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief ESG Officer, Coeur Mining, Inc

ESG – environmental, social, governance – and the issues it encompasses has come to the forefront of the mining industry. External influencers such as institutional investors are demanding increased attention on ESG drivers and looking beyond financial performance, while insurance companies also consider ESG performance in their coverage pricing and terms. Further, new standards and frameworks have been introduced against which mining companies are being measured. Against this background it can be difficult for mining companies to navigate what is important and how best to report their performance, with numerous issues on the ESG agenda for the industry including tailings management, climate change and resiliency planning, mine closure, human rights, stakeholder engagement, and transparency, among others. This panel discussion dives into these issues from the perspectives of the mining, investment, and insurance communities.

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Lecture: Murray Innovation Award Lecture

Speakers:
Phillips S. Baker, Jr., CEO and President, Hecla Mining Company
Chris Neville, Operations, Lucky Friday Mine

Hecla’s Commitment to Innovation Transforms Mining at the United States’ Deepest Mine.
Hecla has been mining for more than 130 years making innovations both large and small. The most recent large innovation manages the seismicity at the United States’ deepest underground mine with a new patent–pending mining method called Underhand Closed Bench. As a result, the 80–year–old Lucky Friday mine is mining the most tons and will produce the most silver ounces in its history. This presentation will tell how Hecla approaches innovation and how the new method works.

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About the Speakers

Ryan Bond
Head of Climate and Sustainability Insurance Innovation, Marsh

With more than 20 years’ insurance industry experience, Ryan is responsible for leading the global development of insurance solutions that support Marsh’s clients through the climate transition and help them achieve their commitments around sustainability and climate change. Prior to his current role, he was most recently Chief Executive, UK and Ireland, of Bowring Marsh, Marsh’s international placement business. Mr. Bond is a board member of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) and is also Chair of BIBA’s International & Wholesale Advisory Board.

 

 

 

Aidan Davy
Chief Operating Officer (COO), International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM)

Aidan Davy joined ICMM in June 2007. As COO, he is responsible for strategy development and implementation and lead the work to develop ICMM’s Mining Principles, which define good practice environmental, social and governance requirements for the mining and metals industry. He also leads ICMM's work on environmental issues, including the management of issues relating to biodiversity, climate change, mine closure, tailings and water. Prior to assuming the role of COO in 2015, Aidan led ICMM's work on social and economic development, investor engagement and sustainability reporting.

Aidan has 34 years of cross-sectoral experience on sustainable development issues, working with a range of private, multi-lateral and not-for-profit organizations, including the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC. For the first decade of his career, Aidan primarily worked on environmental issues, within an international consulting company, a multinational manufacturing company and at the World Bank. He then shifted his focus to social responsibility and accountability issues, with a strong emphasis on the extractive industries for almost two decades. More recently, his focus has shifted back to environmental matters recognizing that these are closely connected to social responsibility and accountability issues.

 

Daniele La Porta
Global Head for Sustainability and ESG Gerald Group

Daniele La Porta is the Global Head for Sustainability and ESG for Gerald Group. In this role she is leading the Group’s efforts in advancing a more sustainable metals trade through the implementation of the company’s Sustainability strategy. Through her work, she seeks to identify long-term solutions and returns associated with environmental, social, and governance issues, integrating them throughout Gerald’s portfolio.

Prior to joining Gerald, Daniele was a Senior Mining Specialist with the Energy and Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank, for over 10 years where she worked on mineral sector governance and sustainable development in mineral rich developing countries. She also founded and led the Climate-Smart Mining Initiative, which focuses on improving the sustainability of the supply chains of the critical minerals needed for the energy transition.

Daniele is Brazilian with degrees in Geology and Environmental Management.

 

Casey Nault
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief ESG Officer, Coeur Mining, Inc.

Casey Nault has approximately 25 years of experience as a corporate and securities lawyer, including prior in-house positions with Starbucks Corporation and Washington Mutual, Inc. and law firm experience with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. His legal experience includes securities compliance and SEC reporting, corporate governance and compliance, mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings and other strategic transactions, general regulatory compliance, cross-border issues, land use and environmental issues, and overseeing complex litigation. In addition to leading the legal function, since 2018 Casey has overseen the Company’s ESG initiatives, and he also has executive responsibility for several other corporate functions including compliance, internal audit, cybersecurity and IT infrastructure, government affairs and land management. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Washington and a law degree from the University of Southern California Law School.

 

Moderators:

 

 

 

 

DREYER LECTURE | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27 | 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

A 50-Year Evolution in the Metallogenic Understanding of Accretionary Orogens

Richard H. Sillitoe, Dreyer Award Recipient and Lecturer:

Richard Sillitoe graduated from London University in England where he went on to earn a Ph.D. degree in 1968. After three years with the Geological Survey of Chile and a Shell postdoctoral research fellowship at the Royal School of Mines in London, he has operated for five decades as an independent consultant to mining companies, international agencies, and foreign governments. He has worked on a wide variety of mineral deposits and prospects in 100 countries worldwide, but focuses on the epithermal gold and porphyry copper environments. Published research has earned him awards in Europe, Australia, and North and South America, including the SGA-Newmont Gold Medal and the Penrose Gold Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists, of which he was President in 1999-2000.

 

 

 

 

Antoine M. Gaudin Award Lecture | MPD Plenary | Monday, February 27, 2023 | 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Review of Major Developments in our Understanding of the Chemistry of Flotation since the 1st IMPC in London in 1952

C.T. O’Connor
Centre for Minerals Research, Cape Town, South Africa

Since the 1st International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC) took place in London in 1952 there have been many major developments in our understanding of flotation both in terms of chemical and physical factors influencing the process. This lecture attempts to highlight those developments that have contributed toward extending our understanding of especially the effects of chemical factors on flotation. It is well known that the ‘pull’ of practice has often preceded the ‘push’ from laboratory–based research and that there remains an ongoing need to bridge the gap between fundamental research and plant practice through the effective transfer of this knowledge into the domain of operations of this complex process.

 

 

 

 

Milton E. Wadsworth Award Lecture | MPD Plenary | Monday, February 27, 2023 | 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Alternatives to Cyanide for Gold Extraction

Y. Choi
YaKum Consulting Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada

Cyanide has been used for over 100 years for extracting gold and is still used in most gold operations. However, due to increasing social awareness and environmental concerns over cyanide gold extraction, the development and implementation of alternative hydrometallurgical processes to cyanide has been a focus of various research institutions and gold companies. This presentation will review some potential alternative hydrometallurgical processes to cyanide.

 

 

 

 

Robert H. Richards Award Lecture | MPD Plenary | Monday, February 27, 2023 | 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

A Global and Mining Industry Perspective of the Role of Comminution in the 1.5°C Future

S. Morrell
SMC Testing Pty Ltd, Queensland, Australia

The commitment of many countries to achieve a so–called 1.5°C future to combat global warming has put the mining industry under intense pressure to reduce carbon emissions. This has led to most mining companies committing to significant reductions in their operational carbon footprint – in many cases by up to 30–40% in the next 10–15 years – and to place themselves in a net–zero scope 3 emissions position by 2050. In many hard–rock mine sites, comminution constitutes over 50% of the total energy consumption, and there are claims in published papers and the popular press that comminution in the mining industry may consume upwards of 7% of global electricity use. This lecture explores what is the true contribution of comminution to greenhouse-gas emissions and the consequences of improving its energy efficiency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health & Safety Division Breakfast | Tuesday, February 28, 2023 | 7:30 am – 9:00 am

ESG, Psychological Safety, and the New Valuation of Safety & Health

John Dony
Vice President, Workplace Strategy, National Safety Council

John is the Vice President of Workplace Strategy at the National Safety Council. In this capacity, he oversees the Campbell Institute, the global EHS&S center of excellence, as well as Safe Actions for Employee Returns (SAFER), NSC’s COVID-19 response initiative, Work to Zero, focused on serious injury and fatality prevention through technology, and the MSD Solutions Lab, an innovative new program focused on innovation in ergonomics and beyond. John also leads a variety of other research and impact initiatives including programs related to psychological safety, ESG & sustainability, and more.

 

 

 

 

Improving Miner Health through Communication Best Practices

Sadie Costello, PhD, MPH, Associate Adjunct Professor
Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Berkeley

Sadie Costello is an occupational and environmental epidemiologist at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She has studied a range of chronic disease outcomes, including heart disease and cancer, in relation to particulate exposures in light metal manufacturing, metalworking fluids in automobile manufacturing, and to diesel exhaust and silica in miners. Sadie has focused on methods to address healthy worker survivor bias and on using large administrative datasets to answer causal research questions.

 

 

 

 

 

COAL & ENERGY DIVISION LUNCH SPEAKER | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 | Noon – 1:45 pm

Lunch Keynote Presentation

John T. Boyd
President and CEO, John T. Boyd Company

John T. Boyd II is President and CEO of John T. Boyd Company (BOYD), an international mining, geological, and energy consulting firm headquartered outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with additional offices in Denver, Colorado; Brisbane, Australia; Beijing, China; and Bogota, Colombia. In addition to being an experienced lawyer on mining, environmental, natural resources, regulatory and contract matters, John performs comprehensive strategic, operational, and financial assessments, valuations, and market analyses for BOYD›s diverse client base.

 

 

 

 

ENVIRONMENTAL DIVISION LUNCH SPEAKER | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 | Noon – 1:30 pm

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Mineral Policy in the US

Ian Lange
Director of the Mineral and Energy Economics, Colorado School of Mines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WOMEN OF SME BREAKFAST | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2023 | 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Courageous Leaps

Sarah Armstrong-Montoya
President and Chief Executive Officer of Cordoba Minerals

John is the Join an eclectic group of SME members and guests and discover how to make courageous leaps in your career. Our amazing speaker, Sarah Armstrong-Montoya, is President and Chief Executive Officer of Cordoba Minerals. Sarah will share her story of how she became a fearless leader. Energize your career - lead with tenacity and the right amount of audacity and resilience to make your own courageous leaps.

 

 

 

 

MPD Luncheon | Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | Noon – 1:45 pm

Who is Going to Produce All these Metals?

Michael Moats
Missouri University of Science and Technology

The “green” energy transition, pandemic and growing geopolitical concerns have led to the recognition by countries that many metal supply chains are at risk. The tonnages needed to transform and decarbonize our energy systems are staggering. Which begs the question, “Who is going to produce all these metals?” This presentation will examine historic, current and projected trends for the United States to identify the greatest concerns including minor tonnage “critical” metals. Suggestions for how to produce the needed metals, including workforce development, will be provided.

 

 

 

 

 

JACKLING LECTURE | MINING & EXPLORATION DIVISION LUNCH SPEAKER | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1 | 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm

Adam White, Jackling Award Recipient and Lecturer
Chief Technology Officer, Deswik

Presentation: The Evolution of Mine Planning Systems

A mining engineer turned software enthusiast, Adam has over 25 years’ experience working in the mining industry from operations to mine planning consulting. His passion lies within the software space though, and it was this curiosity that led him to develop multiple mine planning systems throughout his career including Mine24D and Deswik Suite. Adam›s current role as Deswik›s CTO is a marriage between his industry experience and an eye for technology where he oversees the development of a range of software to solve real–world mining issues.