Gordon Bogden looks to the future for opportunities to innovate in a changing industry

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Oakville, Ontario, Gordon Bogden went on to study engineering geophysics at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and then headed west. “I thought my studies would take me to do seismic work in the South Pacific—instead I woke up in the middle of the bush in North Saskatchewan.”

After logging time doing typical post-graduation summer bush work, he emerged with a feisty appetite for travel.

“I got my first job in southern Africa,” he said. “I spent about a year there running a crew of 14 people contracted out to different mining companies.”

A year later he moved to Australia where he did the same work and looked into buying the contracting company he was working for.

“The owner said 'No,' so I started my own company called Quantec,” he said. “I spent 10 years as a geophysicist and have worked in 14 or 15 different countries.”

After this, the travel bug was more or less satiated so he sold Quantec and followed a friend’s advice to look into investment banking. Starting with Wood Gundy’s mining team in the 1980s, Bogden spent the next 23 years working for various institutions as a mining-focused investment banker learning the ups and downs of a cyclical industry.

“There was the recession in the late '80s and again in 2002 to 2003, a slight dip in 2008 to 2009, which we rocketed out of, and then we are in a bit of a hangover from that now,” said Bogden. “I’ve been through a few cycles before.”

Writing a book

With a wealth of experience behind him, he decided to retire in 2012 and write a book—Mining in Canada: The Next 50 Years.

“It is easy to look back 50 years and see what has happened, but how do we look forward?” askd Bogden. “I was looking at what that is going to be like as the industry changes.”

Research for the book covered multiple facets of mining—history, technology and regulation to name a few, all under a common banner—it is time to innovate.

“It can take as many as 15 years, from exploration to production, to get a mine up and running in Canada, which is twice as long as in other places,” said Bogden. “That process will keep new mining developments out of Canada, and mining is responsible for 12 per cent of our GDP, including all of the indirect business that flows out of it.”

Elbow deep in research for the book, Bogden came across a new possibility.

A new opportunity

“An opportunity came up on the board of Avanti Mining in November 2012, and a year later the CEO stepped down,” he said. “I was already on the nominating committee for Avanti, so I was approached.”

After the company took a brief pause, Bogden accepted the CEO position, viewing the way forward as full of opportunities to put into place his ideas about building the mine of the future here in Canada.

“Mining is stuck in the '70s and needs a makeover,” he said. “We only come out when there is bad news—the Mount Polley spill, a community dispute, or a facility lays off 400 workers. We are not being loud and proud of the contributions we make.”

Looking back he says the industry’s globalization is the biggest change reshaping the mining landscape.

“Globalization has moved away from single-asset companies to complex companies working in multiple jurisdictions around the globe,” he said. “As a result, mining is going into areas and being more proactive about increasing the standards of development and actually ridding people of poverty.

“The old, colonial style that went on for 100 years before has gone away and what is happening now is far more considerate of the communities and with consideration for environmental stewardship at the same time.”

Though his experience is global, it is a sense of community that has kept him interested in mining over the years. “I find it such a wonderful, rich business,” he said. “It is large but small; there seems to be two degrees of separation every time I meet someone for the first time. So there is a wonderful linkage.”

It also helps that Canada, and specifically, Toronto, have been the centre of development from a capital investment perspective. “It is rewarding to see it build out,” he said. “This is a critical business, and not the low-tech, lumbering thing it used to be. It has been around for 2,000 years and will be around for more.”

Mining in the future will continue to be challenged by getting environmental and social relationships right from the get-go.

“The industry is not the same as it was 30 years ago. The level of care for the environment is top of mind. Is it in the industry’s DNA yet, like safety is? Not quite. But it is getting there.

“The biggest challenge now is corporate responsibility on community engagement and moving in with a shared purpose and shared prosperity, while being environmentally responsible. It isn’t just in Canada, but in Africa, South America and everywhere they are doing resource development and extraction.”

Bogden said commitment and a fearless approach to collaboration and moving into the future is essential for companies that want to stay alive in a changing industry.

“We put this in place by asking communities, ‘What is important to you?’ and by working with communities and NGOs in different countries. It must be a collaborative approach, with stakeholders, communities and companies collaborating towards a shared purpose and profitability.”