Safety important issue says new CDDA President

C.D. (Bud) MacDonald has been president of the Canadian Diamond Drilling Association for only several weeks, but already he expects that safety will be one of the more important issues to be dealt with in the year ahead. Elected during the Association’s 47th annual meeting, held recently in Vancouver, MacDonald said a push will be made to improve the safety records of member companies so that workers compensation rates can be reduced.

“All the provinces are coming up with individual assessments based on penalty points for each company’s safety record,” he explained. “That’s partly why safety is going to be such an important issue.”

MacDonald also expects that revenues to the association may ease this year because of the current slump in exploration activity. Dues are based on hours worked by the member companies, (between forty and fifty), and hours have declined dramatically during the past year.

“The impact is being felt more in Eastern Canada because there is such a large number of drill rigs out there, and because most of the work has been done by major contractors.”

MacDonald, president of British Columbia-based Advanced Drilling, said member companies in Western Canada aren’t having an easy time either. Many are finding it tough to compete for jobs with smaller drill contractors which have always had a large market share in B.C. and the Yukon.

“There’s tremendous pressure on the price of core drilling out here,” he said. “It would appear that some of these people are operating at, or even slightly below, the break-even point.”

MacDonald said delegates from across Canada as at any other industry convention, compared notes on price levels in their respective areas this year.

“The fluctuation in price levels has been as great or greater in Western Canada as they were in the East,” he said. “I would say prices are off on the order of 35% in the West, and I would expect it’s probably of a similar magnitude in the East.”

MacDonald also noted that the level of exploration activity generated by junior companies, in contrast to recent years, has fallen dramatically.

“Work now is being funded primarily by major companies,” he said. “Most of the big projects in this province have a senior company somewhere in the background.”

To make his point, McKenzie said the three major projects in British Columbia — Mt. Milligan, Windy Craggy and Eskay Creek — all involve major companies, either directly or indirectly. These include Corona, Northgate, Cominco, BP Resources, Rio Algom and others.

In an industry where the future is always unpredictable, the affable MacKenzie doesn’t appear to be daunted by the challenge of taking over the reins of the association during tough economic times.

“Any time is a challenging time,” he said.