Silvia Pikal

Journalist, Editor-in-Chief and Writer at Toast

Journalist and editor based in #YYC. Dog mom to a spunky rescue 🐶. Voracious reader, cheese 🧀 eater and coffee ☕️ drinker.

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Articles

Ottawa invests in Quebec’s critical minerals infrastructure

3 weeks ago | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Ashley Fish-Robertson

Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s minister of energy and natural resources, announced on Feb. 6 at a press conference at McGill University in Montreal that the federal government would invest up to $43.5 million in conditionally approved funding for critical minerals infrastructure and research in Quebec. He also announced the establishment of a collaboration table between the federal government and the province that would support the development of critical minerals projects.
Advancements in separation

2 months ago | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco |Eavan Moore

Miners increasingly have to do more with less, due to lower ore grades, more complex deposits and the pressures of cutting down on energy and water use. Sign Up Already signed up? Log In This is NOT A PAYWALL To access CIM Magazine, please create a free account (Note that by creating an account you are not signing up for a CIM membership.) If you are a CIM member or have already signed up, click here to log in Failed To Register.
The importance of collecting mental health data

Jan 13, 2025 | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Kelsey Rolfe |Anne Millar |Mary Wells

In April 2019, Michel Larivière, a clinical psychologist and a full professor at Laurentian University in Sudbury, presented the findings of a three-year study funded by Vale Canada called Mining Mental Health during the Mining Health and Safety Conference in Sudbury. The study surveyed 2,224 people working at Vale’s Ontario operations (Sudbury and Port Colborne)—which represented 56 per cent of Vale Canada’s workforce at that time—about their mental well-being.
Goodbye, Superstack

Oct 30, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Ashley Fish-Robertson

At 381 metres, the Vale Base Metals—formerly Inco—Superstack, which is part of the company’s Copper Cliff smelter complex, was Canada’s tallest freestanding structure when it was completed in1972. It later lost that distinction to the CN tower, but today it still stands as the tallest chimney in the Western Hemisphere.
Going electric

Sep 16, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Ashley Fish-Robertson

In the latest episode of The Safety Share webinar series from CIM Magazine and the CIM Health & Safety Society (HSS) on Sept. 12, panelists discussed the deciding factors behind implementing battery electric vehicles (BEVs) into their operations and what mining companies should consider when making the switch.
Benny’s Lookout

Aug 4, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Ashley Fish-Robertson

The Hollinger Open Pit Lookout, which offers not only stunning panoramic views of Timmins but also the opportunity for visitors to get a closer look at Newmont’s Porcupine gold operation, has a new addition: a bronze bust that pays tribute to one of the founding fathers of Timmins. On Oct. 9, 1909, young Benny Hollinger, a former barber hailing from Haileybury, came to the Porcupine area dreaming of striking gold with professional prospector Alex Gillies.
Canada’s rising gold exports to China, oil sands evacuations due to wildfires, and Teck-Glencore coal sale closes

Jul 11, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Ashley Fish-Robertson |Silvia Pikal

Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap, where we catch you up on some of the news you may have missed. This week’s headlines include new measures to prevent foreign takeovers of large Canadian mining companies, Teck receives an administrative penalty for oil spills in 2021 and Codelco eyeing a stake in Teck’s Quebrada Blanca mine.
Underground surveying gets an AR upgrade

Jul 10, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Ashley Fish-Robertson

NSS Canada, a Sudbury, Ontario-based mining technology company, has incorporated an augmented reality (AR) display into its underground surveying software. Its proprietary Miner Operated Survey System (MOSS) integrates mine design specifications and drawings, and supplies data in real time, so that users can complete markups of the mine face underground and create a blasting plan.
Export Development Canada project financing explained

Jul 10, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Silvia Pikal |Ashley Fish-Robertson

In late May, it was announced that Export Development Canada (EDC) had conditionally approved US$300 million in debt financing for Australian-listed company Arafura Rare Earths and its Nolans project in Australia, which is one of the world’s largest undeveloped neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) resources.
Online educational tool aims to simplify geology

Jul 10, 2024 | magazine.cim.org | Ashley Fish-Robertson |Silvia Pikal

A report titled “2023 Canadian Mineral Exploration HR Outlook,” from the Mining Industry Human Resources Council and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, found that the number of undergraduate students enrolled in geoscience programs declined by about 42 per cent from 2014 to 2020, decreasing from roughly 4,800 students to only 2,800 in that time.