Post by
rolfoto on Dec 19, 2005 3:29am
Cortez Trend - Rob McEwen
https://www.usgold.com/docs/ann_world.pdf
THERE are two good reasons for catching up with Ann Carpenter at her Reno, Nevada, base. Firstly, she is joining Rob McEwen at US Gold , the small exploration company where Mr McEwen recently bought eff ective control. Ms Carpenter is taking over as USG’s president and chief operating offi cer. Also, at a time when the gold industry is again under attack in the US with the launch of the ‘dirty gold’ campaign by the Earthworks environmental activist organisation, it is worth catching up with one of the lobbying groups that for more than ten years has successfully been putting the mining industry’s side of the story: the Women’s Mining Coalition. Ms Carpenter became a very active member of the WMC shortly after it was founded in 1993 by three geologists, Kathleen Benedetto, Ruth Carraher and Debra Struhsacher. For some time Ms Carpenter and Ms Carraher, who is vice president – project development for Golden Summit Corp , have been eff ectively co-managers of the WMC’s outreach programmes. The three founders started the organisation because more women were being elected to the US Congress and the trio believed they could present mining’s positive side in a diff erent way. Ms Carpenter says the industry at that time seemed to be focused entirely on the issue of mining law reform, a “metals- mining” issue. “We still feel we need to talk more about what we do, and to emphasise the diversity of jobs off ered by mining.” In the early days, membership was drawn from the western, hard-rock mining states. But for the past fi ve years, women who work for coal-mining, iron-ore, industrial-minerals and construction-materials companies, along with mining-industry suppliers across the US, have joined in. The message the WMC drives home is that a strong mining industry is vitally important to the US, that jobs right across the country depend on mining, and that today’s regulations and modern technology ensure state-of-the-art environmental protection at
US mines. Ms Carpenter says there were many misconceptions among Congress members and staff about mining. Some seemed to think the industry was confi ned to Nevada and still involved people wandering about on donkeys, and carrying picks and shovels, rather than being at the forefront in the use of many new technologies. Sometimes there were exchanges like this. “So, you are miners’ wives?” “No. We are miners.” As well as regularly trekking to Washington to meet members of Congress – and often to give testimony at congressional committee hearings – the WMC arranges visits to mine sites. Ms Carpenter says the sight of a petite woman expertly driving a 150-ton or larger haul truck still seems to make a big psychological impression on some visitors. Ms Carpenter herself has been working in the industry since the early 1980s, mainly with her own consultancy. She grew up with six brothers in Montana, and her main concern at fi rst was to have employment that would take her into the open air rather than confi ne her to an offi ce building. She gained her BSc degree in geology in 1980 at Montana State University, and stuck with geology because her professor, Steve Custer, “was so great”. In 1981-83, Ms Carpenter took advanced degree studies at the Mackay School of Mines in Reno – her family had moved to the town. Since then she has worked in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Peru as well as the US, and for a while was a consultant for Pegasus Gold in Tanzania. So she can call on a great deal of experience when talking to members of Congress. The WMC, she suggests, “is a very eff ective tool to promote understanding of the mining industry. The membership covers all aspects of the industry, all types of jobs, not just senior management. We can illustrate through our experiences. We can illustrate how the industry has evolved and the opportunities it offers.” The WMC’s objective “is to meet as many members of Congress as is physically possible, and to provide testimony as often as we can at congressional hearings in order to advance the environmentally responsible production and utilisation of US mineral and energy resources”. This year these meetings will give the WMC a chance to refute some of the charges hurled at gold miners by the ‘dirty gold’ campaign, started by Earthworks and which has prompted a long series of mainly negative articles in the New York Times and a ‘Frontline’ television documentary in the US. Mr Carpenter says she knows the Earthworks people, and finds the campaign a little disheartening. “It certainly is not a fair representation of the industry today.”
The WMC gets some advice on strategy – and about the messages the industry needs to put across – from the US National Mining Association, which also helps it out financially. As for her move to US Gold, Ms Carpenter, now 47, says that, in spite of being very busy with her own consultancy work, she couldn’t resist when she was offered the job. She was put in touch with Mr McEwen by a mutual contact, Michele Ashby, the former chief executive of the Denver Gold Group who is also joining the USG board (MJ, October 28, p16). It is, says Ms Carpenter, “a fabulous opportunity to work with one of the industry leaders and someone who is an innovative thinker.”
She is also enthusiastic about USG’s Tonkin Springs project. This is on the so-called Cortez Trend in north-central Nevada, which has been a hot topic since April 2003 when Placer Dome revealed details of its Cortez Hills project – one of the most important gold discoveries in the US in the past decade. At the end of 2004, Cortez Hills had proven and probable reserves containing 14.8 Moz, and last year produced more than 1 Moz. Ms Carpenter says her role will to be to push Tonkin Springs ahead as fast as possible, and this will given Mr McEwen more time to introduce USG to the North American financial community.
Part of the deal is that she is able to continue her WMC work. “Rob knows how important that is.”
She says plans are in hand to make the WMC even more effective. This might involve employing for the first time an administrative consultant, “to look after the day-to-day affairs of the WMC, to make sure we are at the meetings we should be present at, to help with the organisation of our annual trip to Washington DC, and so on.”