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2016/17
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LEXPERT 33
Pletcher, Fred R. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
(604) 640-4245 fpletcher@blg.com
Mr. Pletcher advises on all aspects of corporate finance, M&A,
commercial transactions, corporate governance and continuous disclosure,
with a strong focus on public companies in the domestic and international
mining industry.
Podowski, Darrell W. Cassels Brock &
Blackwell LLP (604) 691-6129 dpodowski@casselsbrock.com
Mr. Podowski's practice concentrates on the mining and resource
industries. He advises Canadian and international companies on all their
resource, corporate finance and M&A law requirements with a focus
on Latin America.
Raffin, Leo McMillan LLP
(604) 691-7450 leo.raffin@mcmillan.ca
Mr. Raffin practises securities and corporate law, acting for technology,
industrial and natural resource issuers. His experience includes public and
private offerings, mergers, acquisitions and take-over bids, proxy contests,
corporate reorganizations, business alliances, licensing transactions
and corporate governance matters.
Redford, David Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
(604) 691-6125 dredford@casselsbrock.com
Mr. Redford focuses primarily on securities law and related corporate law.
He works extensively with mineral resource issuers and has a depth of
experience with respect to the disclosure and securities law requirements
for mineral resource issuers.
Reid, David R. DLA Piper (Canada) LLP
(604) 643-6428 david.reid@dlapiper.com
Mr. Reid is Global Co-chair of the firm's Mining sector. He practises in the
areas of securities law, corporate finance, M&A, mining law and related
corporate transactions. He advises clients on sophisticated Canadian
and international mining transactions of all types, including options, joint
ventures, royalties, mine financing, reclamation and mine closures.
Richards, J. Gregory WeirFoulds LLP
(416) 947-5031 grichards@weirfoulds.com
Mr. Richards has litigated significant cases in a broad range of fields
that have included corporate and commercial matters, complex contract
issues, fiduciary duties, joint ventures, property disputes, and other claims
for resource companies and other clients. He has also chaired a panel of
arbitrators that resolved a wide-ranging dispute over an offshore mineral
exploration property.
has implications. Even if you still have every intention
of doing all the great things you need to do to maintain
your CSR commitments to the outside world, it's going
to look like you are doing less, even if you eventually do
the same things you've always promised you'd do."
So it's important, says Chamberlain, that even when
markets are down mining companies maintain relation-
ships they've fostered in the communities where they
operate now or plan to one day. e concept of social
licence to operate (SLO) aer all – that tricky and rap-
idly intensifying necessity to gain the trust and consent
of local and indigenous communities to operate on their
turf – is both hard to earn and easy to lose.
Smart, responsible companies know that, says Robin
Junger, who co-chairs the Aboriginal and Environmen-
tal practice at McMillan LLP in Vancouver. A chief
treaty negotiator and former Deputy Minister of En-
ergy, Mines & Petroleum Resources as well as Energy
and Clean Technology in the British Columbia govern-
ment, Junger helped develop some of the province's key
environmental legislation. He's helped major project de-
velopers in LNG and mining reach benefit and capacity
funding agreements with Aboriginal groups.
From what he has observed so far, mining compa-
nies are "working very hard to keep a focus on CSR
even though the financial challenges make it difficult at
times. What I have seen is them having open and hon-
est discussions with communities about how spending
is down, their treasuries are down, but that they want to
preserve a relationship."
e notion of CSR and concept of social licence to
operate in the extractive sectors, says Junger, are no lon-
ger flavours of the day. Put on an evolutionary scale, says
Chamberlain, you could say that in the mining indus-
try CSR practices are finally walking erect. "We are not
knuckle dragging. … We have probably evolved as far as
we need to. ese are practices that are well understood
and I think well used by many."
Many, but not all. You get SLO through well planned
and rigorously applied corporate social responsibility
policies and initiatives. But recent global history is re-
plete with examples of mining companies whose weak
or non-existent CSR resulted in delayed, blocked or
shut-down operations.
When they failed to engage the participation of lo-
cal communities or people in their projects, mitigate
environmental and social impacts in conjunction with
them and deliver meaningful benefits such as training
and jobs, things went badly sideways. With about 75
per cent of the world's mineral exploration and devel-
opment companies based in Canada, Canadian mining
firms have had their share of SLO blunders.
In Guatemala, HudBay Minerals Inc. faces allegations
in three separate civil suits that its security personnel
were involved in the rape and murder of local Mayan
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