Some larger buildings measuring 20 by 30 feet (7 by 9 meters) or 30 by 40 feet (9 by 12 meters) were erected on steel perimeter skids, while others rested on concrete pads or even timbers in the case of smaller structures meant to be relocated. From purchasing steel packages at the start, the company soon moved into its own manufacturing.

“A lot of those first buildings are there to this day,” says company owner Doug Atwood. Maintaining its oilfield clients and expanding into agricultural and commercial projects over the years, D.A. Building Systems is a locally owned steel-building manufacturer with design, fabrication, and construction capabilities, and the first choice for many local businesses.

For over two years, COVID-19 has caused material shortages and disrupted the supply chains of many construction companies, yet D.A. Building Systems has been relatively unaffected.

“The pandemic made us a little more creative in how we build projects, do the ordering, and things like that,” says previous owner Scott Grenier, who still assists the company.

“One of the things we’ve seen is that some of our competitors – who don’t manufacture their buildings – are having a harder time getting a building from a large supplier, whereas we just need the raw steel and then we can build our own buildings.”

Known for being “Canadian-Made with Alberta Pride,” D.A. Building Systems is the only Southern Alberta business sourcing local materials, fabricating in its own facility, and constructing with its own crews. To date, the company’s staff of 33 has grown to include journeyman welders, draftsmen, metal-systems building erectors/ironworkers, and certified carpenters.

“We’re a steel building contractor, but if somebody needs a full project, we will get them set up with a general contractor,” comments Grenier. “We are not a general contractor, but we are definitely a one-stop building shop.”

Erecting the steel portion of a building project, the company works with trusted general contractors who provide the additional work, such as electrical, plumbing, concrete, wood framing, or drywall.

Working in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia – and parts of the United States in the past – D.A. Building Systems can manufacture steel structures that meet the needs of the biggest clients in the oil and gas, agriculture, and commercial sectors.

As a leader in agriculture/rural steel buildings, the company has taken on everything from potato storage sheds to dairy barns, hay barns, heavy equipment shops, and custom farm/Hutterite colony buildings. Its work for its many commercial clients includes factories, auto dealerships, aircraft hangars, and other custom buildings.

Getting its start erecting steel buildings for the oil and gas sector, the company has built structures including a 1,000-foot long (304 m) building for trains in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, and a variety of others including well-head buildings, very small structures, and even pipe insulation.

Sometimes a pipe that extends from a storage tank or a load line needs to be protected from the elements. “We’ve gone as small as 2 feet by 2 feet (0.60 m by 0.60 m) for a structure, with a little door in the front enabling it to not freeze, the little spout they need to load trucks with,” says Rick Caruso, who handles sales. “We’ve done quite a few of those.”

Like all structures made by the company, these are completely customized to whatever size the client requires.

About 15 years ago, D.A. Building Systems gained CSA-A660 Quality Certification for Steel Building Systems (SBS). Mandatory for all steel building system manufacturers supplying buildings in Canada, CSA-A660 ensures buyers receive quality, certified buildings. This certification also assists code enforcement officials review SBS permit submissions.

“One of the reasons it’s important is because you cannot manufacture without being certified,” says Grenier.

According to the CSA, “This Standard requires that the manufacturer’s production facilities, staff, and quality assurance systems be capable of reliably producing acceptable steel buildings. To ensure that these design and production capabilities are met and maintained, the Standard requires a manufacturing facility to be certified by a certification agency.”

Dependable, fire-resistant, cost-effective, and built to last, steel holds many benefits over other types of construction, including wood.

Widely used in the past, wood had its place; but as buildings became bigger and bigger, these structures weren’t able to withstand the sometimes brutal weather western Canada threw at them.

One of the biggest checkmarks in steel’s favour is the ability to make enormous structures requiring clear spans. And with lumber prices reaching record highs during the pandemic, the benefits of steel compared to wood have become even more apparent.

“Wood was always a good thing if you were building small buildings,” says Caruso, “but when you get bigger, not so much. We can clear-span easily; wood can’t do that. The trusses get so big and so clumsy that you need truckloads and truckloads of lumber to keep them up, so wood is not very cost-effective anymore. You can do a much bigger clear span building with steel.”

This is especially true in the agricultural sector, with potato buildings and hog and dairy barns, which are all affected by high humidity. Unlike wood, steel can be galvanized, adding to its longevity.

“It’s just a better system all around. At the end of the day, customers might pay a few percentage points more for our steel building, but they’ve got an asset and not a liability – wood becomes a liability the day it’s built.” Another advantage: outside panels of steel structures can be replaced or re-skinned, and look brand new again.

In line with surging demand, D.A. Building Systems is investing in the company.

This includes a new building under construction, which will be ready by May. Once completed, it will see the company install a beam cut system, which will take care of much of its fabrication of wide flange and tubing. Also, in the coming months, the company plans to purchase a shot blaster to clean steel, making the process faster and more efficient than doing it by hand.

The place to go for pre-engineered steel structures, D.A. Building Systems Ltd. continues to serve the buoyant agricultural sector and is seeing growth in the oil industry, too.

“We’ve seen some growth here in the last year, and we see that there is more growth yet to be had, specifically in southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan,” says Atwood. “There is planned irrigation expansion in both locations, and we feel we are very well poised to be a big part of that market.”

The post Steel Structures Made to Work & Made to Last<p class="company">D.A. Building Systems Ltd.</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The word “sustainability” is used a lot today for everything from running a business to green energy such as wind and solar power, but what does it really mean?

Investopedia defines sustainability – in the broadest possible terms – as “the ability of something to maintain or ‘sustain’ itself over time.” Others say it’s the ability to exploit natural resources without destroying an area’s ecological balance.

Although the term is vast, many experts agree sustainability must be supported by three pillars, which can be described as environmental, economic, and social, or more snappily identified as planet, profits, and people.

In agriculture, sustainability takes on an even greater meaning.

Everything from crop-destroying insects to floods, fires, and drought that turns soil to dust, makes the difference between farmers surviving, or sinking into bankruptcy. And while weather has never been predictable, climate change has made agriculture more of a would-be calculated guessing game than ever.

For countries such as Australia, drought is not new, but that doesn’t make it any less devastating for farmers and the entire agricultural sector.

According to National Museum Australia, there were 27 drought years between 1788 and 1860, and another 10 major droughts or more in the years from 1860 to 2000. In the century and a quarter since enduring the worst drought – from 1895 to 1903 – in the history of the country since European settlement, the land down under has had to deal with the ‘millennium drought’ from 2001 to 2009, and another major drought in 2017.

These prolonged dry spells have spurred further efforts from the government to recycle water and increase desalination.

While it is impossible to ‘drought-proof’ an entire continent, it is possible to make areas prone to extended dry spells less vulnerable through calculated, sensible water conservation strategies.

In 2012, just a month before they declared Australia drought-free, the government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry issued a report, Drought in Australia: Context, policy and management. Other reports followed in the coming years, including Drought in Australia: Australian Government Drought Response, Resilience and Preparedness Plan.

Although not as prone to drought as Morocco, Uganda, Pakistan, or Ethiopia, Australia has experienced its share of arid conditions. Over the decades, Australia has taken the many hard lessons it has learned and used them to mitigate the devastation of people, animals, and crops.

In March, the Australian Government announced the Future Drought Fund. A $29 million initiative, innovative projects designed for drought preparation will share portions of the money, funded through the Government’s $5 billion Future Drought Fund (FDF).

“We want Australian farmers, and the communities that depend on them, to thrive through future droughts,” says Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud in a media release.

Funding projects including aerobic rice production, managing dams, different crop rotations, and determining least amount of water needed for almond trees, the Minister says that Australia is “investing in projects that will enable drought-related technologies and tools to be used by farmers and agribusinesses around the country.

“We are also seeing atmospheric water harvested for community drinking water and cultivating drought-resilient native crops, such as edible wattle seeds, perennial grasses, and wild yams, for use as gluten-free flour and foods. These are just some of the innovative ideas with the potential to deliver broad-scale agricultural change.”

For the agricultural sector to not only survive but thrive requires tenacity and planning for droughts before they happen.

Some places experience longer, more severe droughts than others, lasting not just months but years. This is not only harmful to farmers and their productivity, profitability, and physical and mental well-being but can also crush entire communities.

Less being earned means less to spend anywhere. In Australia, where prolonged dry spells are the norm, not the exception, the government has many plans in place to support agriculture.

These include the National Drought Agreement (NDA). Replacing an earlier agreement, the 2018 NDA serves as a commitment to Australia’s state and territory governments “to develop policies and programs that position farmers to plan for and manage risk; and prepare for, manage and recover from drought,” according to the Drought in Australia report.

Wide-ranging objectives include drought preparedness, consistency of drought policy, natural resource management, services to mitigate the impact of drought on farmers and farming communities, and much more, including time-limited support payments, tax concessions, and loans.

Far from being a handout to the agricultural sector, the NDA states’ industry organizations and leaders provide information to farmers on drought preparedness – including with regard to their business, families, and workers; on drought management and recovery; on developing, implementing, and maintaining drought plans; and on keeping themselves informed about any new measures.

With an attitude born of necessity, Australians have taken a sensible approach to water for years.

Leaders in water use and conservation, Australians are also pioneers in greywater. Instead of running taps to wash dishes, do laundry, and then watch the water disappear down the drain, many households have sand and other filtration systems.

These remove detergents and reclaim the water to a holding tank. It can be used to irrigate gardens, or wash farm vehicles.

With better – and costlier – systems, the water can be reused to flush toilets and wash clothes. It is estimated just one Australian household produces 400 liters of greywater every day. Cleaning and re-purposing save not only water but money.

Global climate change and extreme heat, cold, floods, and droughts are forcing farmers to rethink the use and conservation of water. This is especially true in California, which requires year-round irrigation since summer rainfall can be as measly as a mere quarter-inch (six mm).

Recent years have seen more changes in how the agricultural sector handles this precious resource. In her book Agricultural Finance: From Crops to Land, Water and Infrastructure, mathematician and professor Hélyette Geman notes trends in irrigation.

These include greater efficiencies through pressurized irrigation and more efficient methods such as drip/trickle systems. While requiring more capital investment, drip/trickle systems, “reduce the amount of water needed for a given crop yield and lower the amount of energy required in pumping the water to the destination site,” she writes.

Other systems, such as subsurface drip, provide uniform land irrigation, while central pivot systems – the main irrigation method used on corn in America’s Midwest – do not irrigate all the land in a specific area as the system rotates.

In agriculture, water-use efficiencies take on many forms, from the rudimentary (collecting rainwater for irrigation) to expensive technological systems.

In developing countries, agricultural water management (AWM) is vital to ensuring that crops and animals receive the amount of water necessary to ensure food security while balancing productivity and conservation.

According to the World Bank, “Irrigated agriculture represents 20 percent of the total cultivated land and contributes 40 percent of the total food produced worldwide. Irrigated agriculture is, on average, at least twice as productive per unit of land as rainfed agriculture, thereby allowing for more production intensification and crop diversification.”

Factors such as global population increases, climate change, and urbanization will place greater demands on the agricultural sector – and the need for clean water to grow crops, and maintain life.

Fast disappearing are the days of farmers irrigating fields and hoping for a bumper crop.

Today’s agricultural sector demands a combination of science and experience to ensure correct management of soil-water-plant nutrients. It requires advanced irrigation systems such as drip irrigation, crop-specific scheduled irrigation, and even soil moisture neutron probes – a device containing americium-241 and beryllium – to measure the amount of water in soil with pinpoint accuracy.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which spearheads global efforts to fight hunger and bolster food security, food production will have to increase 60 percent to meet our growing population – and wise water use will play a key role.

The post Counting the Drops<p class="company">Wise Water Use in Agriculture</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

As businesses around the world struggle to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Badinotti finds itself positioned for growth. Over the last two years, the company was forced to redirect its effort toward building and implementing new processes and technologies to accommodate the challenges of pandemic life. As a result, Badinotti Canada has come out of it ready to grow and is already looking to expand its East Coast presence.

In these challenging couple of years, the company has learned to be adaptable and has developed a plan to be proactive going forward. “Adaptability is the biggest key strategy here as far as the amount of challenges we’ve faced during COVID and being able to pivot quickly and find ways around them,” says Director of Sales and Marketing Marc Halverson.

Although still headquartered in Campbell River, British Columbia, the company’s expansion to the East Coast is now underway, and it expects to establish a physical presence to grow there.

At well over one hundred employees, Badinotti has continued to expand its skilled team and there are no plans to slow down. “We’re looking at expanding not only our services, but our product lines and our overall strategies, and it is only going to become realized and possible with a bigger team,” says Halverson.

A common trend in organizations is to have employees wear many hats, which can be beneficial because it allows people to fill in for others or provide quality assistance as needed. However, the Badinotti leaders find that it can also prevent people from further developing their primary strengths. The solution to this problem is simply to have more people on staff and allow them to do what they are best at, rather than attempting to spread their talent too thinly across multiple specialties. This is part of the company culture at Badinotti, and it has resulted in more efficiency and better performance overall.

Many other factors help make Badinotti a great place to work for eager, young professionals. Halverson has had the experience of working with several manufacturers, ranging from multi-billion dollar companies to smaller privately-owned businesses. This well-rounded knowledge made it very clear to him that Badinotti was the right fit for him.

“From the moment I started with Badinotti, it’s been very apparent. It’s a great working environment; the people are listeners, and everybody’s open-minded. We’re not afraid to give our own two cents to an issue or a subject, but we also take in everyone else’s perspectives, helping us to get the best possible action or decision.”

When people are in a position to complete work they are passionate about, it keeps their morale and motivation high. It is a successful strategy because happy employees tend to stick around.

As the company has dealt with a particularly taxing last couple of years, Badinotti became even more firm in its commitment to be a considerate and supportive employer. “We’re very accommodating, completely understanding of people’s personal needs and how that translates into their work efforts and their performance,” explains Halverson. “Open lines of communication are important. I have always said to my team that there’s literally no subject that you can’t bring up to me.” The leaders have successfully created a positive and enjoyable workplace environment through transparency with their people.

Working at Badinotti is particularly exciting due to the innovative nature of its work in aquaculture. The company is looking forward to new and upcoming projects currently under development, and it is hoping to have a more formal announcement on these later this year.

There are two major challenges in the aquaculture industry: finding sustainable options to help cut costs in net washing services and sea lice mitigation. Dealing with sea lice is a new area for Badinotti, and the team is discovering innovative technology and strategies to help alleviate the problem. The issue is particularly troublesome on the East Coast, where these small but intrusive crustaceans are responsible for killing off millions of dollars of fish for Badinotti’s customers.

As far as net washing, Badinotti is looking at alternatives to reduce the costs of its services and finding new products to help increase the efficiency and longevity of its nets. The company is also focused on improving the reputation of the industry through more sustainable efforts.

“What the industry needs and what we’re trying to spearhead is an effort in being more sustainable in our materials and transparent with the public too. Among some groups there can be a negative connotation to fish farming and aquaculture in general. It may be perceived by these people as irresponsible action or environmental damage,” says Halverson. “So we’re trying to get in front of that and promote our industry as new and sustainable through the use of current efforts such as bio-based recycled fibres, systems that are easier to track and relocate if something happens on a site, eliminating debris, and also clear end-of-life strategies for equipment,” says Halverson.

The end-of-life strategy refers to how the materials and nets are handled when they need to be taken out of service and disposed of. Once the product’s usefulness has been reached, Badinotti offers to take back the material so that the customer does not have the burden of disposal. To improve sustainability in the industry, Badinotti then finds ways to recycle that material, rather than sending it to a landfill, which is the worst-case scenario for such a large product.

“Whatever we’re putting in the water, we want to make sure it comes out and doesn’t leave any sort of negative impact when it is in there. That means eliminating chemicals and degradation of any sort, so bio-based recyclable fibres are important, and then also being able to have a strategy to take the burden of that product off the hands of our clients when it’s done,” says Halverson.

Committing to the ongoing effort to improve the aquaculture industry’s environmental impact is an everyday endeavour at Badinotti. People are more impassioned than previous generations and are more willing to participate in helping to improve environmental behaviours than ever before.

“I think that if you have stereotypes or false perspectives on what it is that we do, it’s up to us to correct that misinformation, and the only way to do that is to be more transparent in what we are doing. So we’re meeting literally daily, on some level, regarding our sustainability efforts, and being more environmentally friendly,” explains Halverson.

Another reason that aquaculture is an exciting industry to be a part of, is that fish farming is one of the only scalable protein sources. The negative environmental impacts of red meat have been well documented, and one protein source that can be scaled up in production to feed people all over the world is fish. We are on a planet where water makes up almost three-quarters of its surface. There are more suitable locations to find protein in the ocean that will cause much less of an environmental impact, and Badinotti strives to increase awareness about fish as a more viable option as our population on planet Earth grows.

The team is excited to find innovative solutions to the new challenges in the industry such as sea lice. Already standing behind its significant industry improvements, the company will continue to move aquaculture and fish farming into the future as a quality, sustainable protein source. Halverson expects to see an uptick in demand for seafood and a larger presence of fish farming, especially as more of the environmental initiatives continue to show progress.

“We are changing the perception and being more open with what our effort is. We’re doing things that we believe are the best way to not only provide a source of food for the world, but we’re also doing it in the most environmentally responsible manner,” concludes Halverson. “One of our biggest focuses is getting some of these new developments and exciting new technologies out in the open, and we are convinced it will change what people think.”

The post Raising the Bar on Sustainability in Aquaculture<p class="company">Badinotti Net Services Canada</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The pandemic’s ongoing uncertainty and upheaval has led to an array of issues for both employees and employers. So it’s no surprise that Managing Director, Brian Gooding wants to first address the challenges the company – and industry at large – is currently tackling.

“Right now, it’s dealing with employees and making sure they’re safe, making sure mentally they’re in a good spot,” he says.

“I’ve never seen this number of folks in EAP [Employee Assistance Program],” says Gooding. “And for a variety of reasons. Some people have shared with me that they’re in EAP and I say good for you. You’re brave, you’re a better person for using it. You need to talk to someone that’s a third party, so you have an objective view on things.”

The number of mental health-related issues popping up in the workplace is at a record high, he adds. People are extremely stressed for many reasons, whether from COVID, hyperinflation, or uncertainty about the future, and that now includes the long-term implications of the war in Ukraine.

“We’re having to deal with this in the workplace,” he says. “It’s great we have an EAP program to help us, but certainly one of the biggest challenges we’ve had is helping people going through some extremely stressful times.”

The direct impact of supply-chain issues and trying to obtain product of any sort right now is another stress for the industry at large.

“The number of hours I spend during the course of the week talking to vendors, whether it’s about prime raw materials or even tertiary products – that can have a direct impact on your productivity level,” Gooding says. “I’ve never seen anything like this in almost 40 years in the workplace, where every day you have a new twist coming at you. You simply have to deal with it. Then the general inflation we’ve seen, all costs have skyrocketed.”

Saeplast’s main raw material is polyethylene resin, the same material used to produce garbage bags, the price of which is up 150 percent from two years ago to levels Gooding has never seen before.

“We’re trying to keep people calm and focused,” Gooding says. “That’s a full-time job in itself. These are unique challenges in what the business world has had to endure.”

Despite the issues, the company – and its employees – have done an outstanding job at not being distracted by things they can’t control. He says his team’s resilience and how they’ve handled the ongoing adversity is admirable.

“I’m extremely proud of their creativity in finding other vendors and other ways of doing things. Whether it’s raw materials, a process, or when something has gone sideways on us, the team has done an excellent job at figuring out how to get things done.”

The sales team has also learned how to sell value-added products virtually, while still conveying Saeplast’s value proposition. “We’re not about price, we’re about value,” he emphasizes. “Our product is kind of a ‘show me’ product. Our containers are big, they’re bulky, they have to be shown to folks, which is how we did it prior to COVID.”

Early on, the company sought out and adopted certain best practices as it grappled with the constraints of the pandemic, practices which have included virtual sales calls instead of driving or flying for hours to visit a customer.

Saeplast’s frontline production workers have also done an outstanding job dealing with disruption to family lives, while still helping other teammates where possible. “We’re really proud of our people,” says Gooding. “What we’ve had to do to keep the business running has been nothing less than exemplary.”

This includes a readiness to pivot when a raw material that used to have a one- to two-week lead time is now out 12 weeks. Previously, Saeplast had only one source for one of its key raw materials; now it has four sourced globally.

“There’s been a lot of hard work, research, and negotiations to find other supply channels,” says Gooding, but adds that the company hasn’t once had to shut down due to material shortage, which Gooding attributes to Saeplast’s employees.

“They’ve done an outstanding job at finding unique places in the world for substitute products so we can continue to make the best products in the world. Creativity has been first and foremost.”

Despite ongoing challenges, Saeplast hasn’t changed the two key elements of its core strategy: volume growth and diversifying business across the food segment.

“Our legacy business has been around fish and seafood,” says Gooding. “Those markets are quite strong right now, but fish and seafood based on quotas in the trading areas we deal with in the Americas can expand and shrink.”

While the quotas have been strong, pricing for Saeplast customers has also been strong, and most of them have been in investment mode for the last couple of years. That, together with Saeplast’s efforts to bring new solutions to the marketplace, has meant good growth over that time. “We want to continue that and actually take it one or two levels beyond where we’re at today.”

Beyond growth and diversification, the company is looking at expansion as well. It’s running its plant 24/7 and has done so almost since the beginning of COVID.

“Business remains strong and will continue to be strong moving forward,” says Gooding, and he’s quick to add that what sets Saeplast apart from other companies in the industry is its ability to provide solutions. Where other companies provide a “show and tell” of their product, Saeplast has moved in a different direction.

“We’re not about products,” Gooding says. “We’re about solutions, trying to understand what keeps our customers up at night. And sometimes our customers don’t know what should be keeping them up at night. It’s our job to educate them on best practices and better ways of doing things.”

In that respect, he says, Saeplast has shown tremendous market leadership setting itself apart.

“We want to lead, and it’s about creating solutions in the market around food safety and sanitization,” he says. “How do we take cost out of the equation, and not by just simply cutting a price, but how do we do things better and smarter? How do we reduce business risk or food safety risk for customers? That’s what we’re about, and that’s the biggest difference between us and our competition.”

Because of that mindset, Saeplast gets to market faster, often defining what a market wants to look like and the sorts of products that define the market, he says. While you never want to take your competition for granted, Gooding stresses that Saeplast offers a far more collaborative approach as opposed to simply providing product quotes.

Saeplast also makes the most impact-resistant product that’s still inherently sustainable available on the market.

“Why do we know this? Because we test all our competitor’s containers and we see the imperfections in what they’re doing,” says Gooding. “We spend 100 percent of our time in the space we deal with. We aren’t making insulated tubs and containers one day and something unrelated the next. This dedication to continuously improving our products is a differentiator.”

To that end, Saeplast focuses solely on what it does, and does it well.

“We have competitors who one day might be making septic tanks and the next making insulated containers. We don’t delve into unrelated business. We focus on what we do and what our customers are doing. We are laser focussed on material handling solutions for the food industry.”

That focus on sustainability and durability means products that last a minimum of eight to ten years. “We have bins in use out there that are well over 20 years old,” Gooding says. “So inherently they’re sustainable. But is that good enough? No.”

Saeplast is now embarking on a program with a resin vendor to bring out a new generation of polyethylene resin with opportunities for even more sustainability, using less heat to form containers and thinner, lighter materials with less plastic.

“We’re doing a number of those things in our products now to have less of a carbon footprint,” Gooding says. “Smooth walls and the lack of indentations and nice radiuses in the corners allows our customers to use less water, sanitizer, and soaps. The trickle-down effect of that going down sewers supports the sustainability initiatives we’re trying to do.”

Whether customers request it or not, Gooding feels a strong responsibility to continually improve product stewardship. “We’re going down this road anyway because it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “People view our containers differently because they last so long, but that doesn’t absolve us from looking at better technologies and improved raw materials to make them lighter and stronger and last longer.”

That attention to eco-awareness extends to the plant itself, from insulating its walls to a recent LED-lighting upgrade that’s brought a significant drop in electricity consumption. The company’s also doing a major heat recovery project with the University of PEI’s fifth-year engineering students.

Whatever the company can do to reduce its carbon footprint and operating costs is an ongoing priority, says Gooding.

“We’ll always be focused on this,” he adds. “We want to do the right thing. If you think this business is about products, you’re so wrong. It’s not product focused. It’s solution based and it sets us apart from everyone in this space.”

The post The Polyethylene Pivot – Leading the Way to Sustainable Solutions<p class="company">Saeplast Americas</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Far from being an ‘old school’ industry, the fish farming sector is innovative and forward-looking, says Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA) Executive Director Susan Farquharson. Cutting-edge technology is used to feed, monitor, and measure the growth of fish in underwater pens, and sustainability is a key focus for fish farms, which are less harmful to the environment than terrestrial (land-based) farms, she adds.

Headquartered in Letang, New Brunswick and industry-funded, the ACFFA was profiled in the June 2021 issue of Resource in Focus. The association operates a marine facility in Letang called the Limekiln Wharf Service Centre, advocates for members, and educates the public about the benefits of raising aquatic species for food in underwater farms (aquaculture).

The association currently has 81 members, whose ranks include “farmers, feed companies, pharmaceutical companies, a range of service providers, First Nations, and research organizations,” according to Farquharson.

Many member companies offer innovative products or services that can enhance revenue and the marine environment. With a touch of pride, she cites just a few member companies with futuristic solutions.

Among these is Innovasea, a Bedford, New Brunswick firm with 250 employees around the world. Innovasea specializes in advanced fish monitoring systems that incorporate sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and high-resolution cameras. “Our integrated solutions deliver unprecedented insights into how your farm is operating—from measuring oxygen levels to ensure fish remain healthy to accurately estimating biomass to reduce feeding costs,” says Innovasea.

Another is Aquabyte. Based in San Francisco, Aquabyte has developed a “holistic software platform,” in its own words, that fish farmers can use to count sea lice, estimate biomass, and detect fish appetite, among other functions.

Skretting is another member company. This self-described “global leader in providing innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions for the aquaculture industry” boasts production operations in nearly twenty countries around the world. It produces over 2.5 million tonnes of fish food a year, made from aquatic and poultry meal, plants, and fish oil.

The ACFFA is eager to dispel myths and misconceptions about fish farming. Some critics claim, for example, that fish farms are overcrowded and unsanitary, filled with penned-in salmon that are stuffed with chemicals. In truth, salmon farming is highly regulated, sustainable, and eco-friendly, says Farquharson.

“Site assessments are conducted before any farm is established. There is environmental monitoring that is conducted as per regulations all the time. Cameras and computers are used when feeding the fish and to minimize feed waste,” she states. “We have the lowest antibiotic use of any protein producer. It is never used proactively and when needed it is overseen by a veterinarian.”

Government regulations stipulate that fish farms are subject to regular inspections. Also, “we fallow, just like terrestrial farmers.”

The ACFFA posts detailed information about fish farming on its website and social media platforms. The association also spreads the word about fish farming via media interviews, fish farm tours, and its annual fall forum. This event typically features lectures, seminars, networking, and presentations by industry experts, government officials, academics, and business leaders.

Due to COVID restrictions, the 2020 fall forum was conducted virtually. Last October, the association opted for a hybrid model, featuring online and in-person events, the latter taking place at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. People who attended in-person events adhered to COVID health precautions, including social distancing. This blended forum drew 155 people, 88 of whom participated virtually.

“Health precautions dictated that we had to limit the number of people attending, so we went ahead with our first hybrid conference. It was good. Lots of different people attended; there was lots of new information, new technologies, innovation,” reports Farquharson.

Conference highlights included a presentation about the Inner Bay of Fundy salmon recovery project. This is a massive initiative involving the ACFFA, federal and provincial officials, First Nations, academics, and Parks Canada. The goal is to replenish depleted wild salmon stocks by raising wild smolts—salmon of intermediate age that can survive in saltwater—in customized ocean pens, then releasing them back to home waters.

“In 2021, the project released 1,500 salmon in the inner Bay of Fundy rivers. We saw over 110 salmon from previous releases return to the Fundy National Park and over 30 on the Petitcodiac River system from previous releases. The project is now being looked at in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland,” she says.

An online discussion by Dr. Martin Jaffa, a UK academic and conference guest speaker, was another highlight of the 2021 fall forum. Dr. Jaffa offered insights from an investigation he conducted regarding the decline of wild salmon catches in Western Scottish rivers. There has been speculation that fish farms on the western coast were to blame for the decline.

After reviewing data going back centuries, Dr. Jaffa noted that wild salmon numbers had also dropped on the east coast of Scotland, despite a lack of fish farms in the region. The doctor concluded that changing sea temperatures, predators, recurring natural events, and other factors were responsible for the wild salmon decline, not fish farms. His findings were published in the peer-viewed independent journal Aquaculture and Fisheries Studies.

The ACFFA is discussing what a 2022 fall forum will look like with an expected draft agenda available later this year.

“I think we’ll do a hybrid forum for the foreseeable future. We liked it. We learned that it allows many more people to participate from around the world. There were reduced costs for participants, and of course, we continue to do our part for climate change when you don’t have to put people on a plane or make them drive,” notes Farquharson.

The ACFFA will also be participating in the Aquaculture Canada and WAS America conference in St. John’s Newfoundland this August. WAS is the World Aquaculture Society.

“We plan to be there to support the conference and our members that are there. As with all conferences, it’s all about networking and exchanging information, and they always have a trade show which is different than our annual conference. We really focus on science and research and technology, so [the WAS conference] trade show component allows our supply sector to highlight their technologies and innovations,” she states.

The ACFFA shares valuable independent research in the salmon fishing industry. This includes a December 2020 study by Dr. Stefanie Colombo, assistant professor of Aquaculture at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, regarding the nutritional value of salmon.

“Six types of salmon were analyzed: farmed Atlantic, farmed organic Atlantic, farmed organic Chinook, wild Chinook, wild Pacific (pink) and wild Sockeye. Protein, fat, fatty acids, amino acids, potassium, iron, cholesterol, and mercury were analyzed,” Colombo wrote in a report published 2020 in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research.

While wild salmon is often perceived to be healthier to eat than farmed salmon, Colombo discovered this simply is not the case.

“It’s really the species of salmon that makes the biggest difference in nutritional quality—not whether it was farm-raised or wild-caught, or whether it’s certified organic or environmentally certified,” said Colombo in a July 9, 2020, Dalhousie News story.

In her report, Colombo also observed that “for frequent consumption, farmed Atlantic salmon is an excellent option due to nutrient density, low mercury, affordability, and availability.”

Such positive conclusions, arrived at by an objective academic conducting an independent review, help bolster the credibility of the fish farming sector, says Farquharson. Similarly, each year the ACFFA commissions a polling company to query Atlantic based consumers about fish farming.

“We have consistently had an eighty percent approval rate for those polled in all four provinces. That’s a pretty good approval rate for any industry. So, I tend to believe that those people out there with misinformation and negative information are a very small group. Vocal, but small,” she says.

Into the future, Farquharson anticipates that the Atlantic salmon farming industry will “continue to innovate and grow,” with a need for “more employees in the area of science—computer, electrical, biology, chemistry.”

As for other benefits of fish farming, she highlights one final study, commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. Founded in 2018, the High Level Panel is a fourteen-country initiative that aims to manage the ocean sustainably.

The panel published its findings in a September 2019 report titled The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change. According to the report, clean coastal and marine ecosystems, aquaculture, and ocean-based energy generation through wind, tidal, and wave-power all contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Aquaculture, fisheries, and a trend towards fish-based meals represent a shift “away from emission-intensive, land-based protein sources (e.g. red meat) towards low-carbon, ocean-based protein and other sources of nutrition,” reads the document.

So, in addition to jobs, revenue, and sustainable protein, fish farms contribute to improving the environment for everyone, says Farquharson.

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Smith explains that there are key differences between aquaculture and fisheries. Whereas fishing is a large industry represented by ocean-caught fish and other seafood, aquaculture has to do with the practice of sea farming. This involves the raising of fish crops from egg to plate, much like a terrestrial farmer. Most farms in the province are family-run businesses and based in rural and coastal communities, to which the association strives to provide assistance in as many ways as possible.

The association provides industry support and advocacy, mostly through working with local and provincial governments as well as the aquaculture sector on regulations and a regulatory framework that serve to move the industry forward. As an example of this, he recounts that this includes attending community meetings about new farms being established throughout Nova Scotia. The association will regularly help with these types of meetings as well as getting out into communities and building public trust and social license around the province.

The AANS also runs many programs on behalf of both the industry and its members. The association has worked with the Atlantic Fisheries Fund to manage a financial assistance program for shellfish farmers. Using this, sea farmers can look to the AANS for funding support for expanding their businesses, infrastructure needs, and new technology developments.

The association also works with outreach projects like the recently completed, third annual Atlantic Canadian Oyster Export Café in New York City. Events like this help to introduce Atlantic oyster farmers to buyers, distributors, and restaurateurs on the eastern seaboard, a highly profitable market for sea farmers.

The aquaculture industry is no stranger to sweeping changes. In Nova Scotia, 2016 to 2017 was a time of major development, according to Smith, as a new regulatory framework for responsible and sustainable development of the province’s agriculture industry was introduced. The association works with its members to understand how these regulations impact aquaculture in Nova Scotia. The AANS also looks to provide advice on improvements that can be suggested to make the regulatory framework more efficient.

One way it supports this is through involved training programs that help farmers establish a farm management plan, which is a regulatory requirement in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia farms now also require security bonds to protect against any business that shuts down and leaves behind ‘ghost gear,’ as unused farming equipment is known. The AANS has developed a program to support this requirement.

The association now offers a fund to clean up this gear. “We don’t want aquaculture to be the cause of any problems related to debris on coastal communities,” Smith says. These ongoing projects are of great importance, and work is continuing with both government and association members to work with local communities on this program as well as develop community beach clean-ups.

He notes that getting applications through the new regulatory framework is a time-consuming and detailed process, with work still being done to process applications more quickly. Resource-based industries such as aquaculture are experiencing challenges in access to labour, which concerns the association. Association members want to get the aquaculture message out to a wider population with attention paid to young people, visible minorities, and women. Aquaculture “is no longer low-paying manual labour jobs,” Smith assures. “These are good, high-paying jobs for farm managers and workers, researchers, biologists, and technicians.”

To aid this, the association launched a program in 2021 with the Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills, and Immigration to encourage new entrants to the industry and to have them stay in the province. The pandemic has also had a significant effect on the aquaculture sector due to restaurants and retail stores scaling back and decreased sales of seafood products outside of Nova Scotia. Smith reports that the industry seems to be coming out the other side with incredibly strong business; in fact, there is now a pent-up demand for good quality seafood farmed in the province. “We need more product in the water and access to new leases and expansions,” which is a key driver of recent initiatives within the sector, he says.

Those within the association are excited about where the aquaculture industry is headed, as it has grown from a roughly $55 million industry circa 2017 to an over $100 million industry some five years later. Smith notes that there are 146 active aquaculture leases active in the province currently, with more than 57 applications for new leases and expansion in development. There is a great deal of interest in investing in Nova Scotia and expanding the aquaculture industry. He mentions an exciting research project in Cape Breton that is examining growing sugar kelp on shellfish lines, a move that will look to increase biomass on these lines. The cultivated seaweed industry is still emerging, and he feels it will be important for aquaculture developments.

The association’s plans illustrate the kind of work the aquaculture industry is most focused on in 2022. First, further efforts will be made in devising a plan to engage Nova Scotians in what aquaculture means from the standpoint of attracting and retaining labour. Smith cites a recently conducted public opinion poll in December 2021 which indicates that residents of the province strongly favour both the aquaculture industry and the provincial government supporting the industry, recognizing the economic and social impact of the industry, especially for rural and coastal communities.

The association is developing strategies to highlight farmed seafood in the marketplace, as polling shows that not all people understand the different products farmed in the province. To change this, the association will be launching a campaign to identify the products and companies that farm seafood products in the province.

The AANS will also be working with the Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture to produce the 2022 Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries/Sea Farmers Conference this coming October 12 and 13, which will be held in person this year in Halifax. Speakers will be invited to speak about aquaculture and fishery development around the world, highlighting the importance that the seafood sector has for Nova Scotia’s future.

Smith sees nothing but growth on the horizon for an industry that has come to be recognized as a vital part of the region. “The opportunity for sea farming in Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada is extremely strong. The opportunities going forward… will yield continued sector growth.” The Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia will continue to help sea farmers in Nova Scotia through strong program development and mentor initiatives to support the growth they believe is building in Nova Scotia.

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Sol-Ark’s solar engineering team is touted by Chief Executive Officer Tom Brennan as offering the top customer support and satisfaction rates in the solar industry. The company listens to its customers and continuously improves its software and products as well as its support and knowledge base. “We innovate faster than our competitors,” Brennan describes. “We are the standard that everyone gets compared to.”

Last year, Sol-Ark sported a single hybrid family of products. Today, it is introducing five hybrid families, including a varied line of hybrid inverters, micro-inverters, and load management software—the most powerful in the industry, according to Brennan. Of the new hybrid families, some are focused specifically on the Latin American market, a population that is very invested in low-cost solar solutions and three-phase power. For example, one of the products for the area is focused on being a whole-home backup solution for residential power, while another is focused on light commercial buildings like pharmacies or fast-food restaurants, an aspect of the solar power industry that Brennan feels has been greatly under-served.

Sol-Ark has also installed hundreds of kilowatts worth of solar power at its facility, including on a nearly one-hundred-square-foot building, as well as a massive array of solar panels. It has done this for two reasons: to reduce electricity use and overall dependence on the electric grid and to use the same items for testing, characterization, and development, simultaneously but in different ways. The company stands firmly by its solutions and has the inventory and results to back it up.

Brennan observes that, in 2022, customers in the solar industry continue to want bigger and better ESS systems to run more appliances and charge cars. Homes are energy-intensive, and more recently, home builders have been installing fewer natural gas systems in favor of purely electric-powered as these homes are easier and cheaper to build and install. To meet this demand, the hybrid ESS kilowatt size is growing. However, when the size of the inverter grows, so too does the size of the battery, and this can have a heavier cost.

Customers considering solar power are not only concerned with dollars and cents. Most homeowners who are thinking of going purely electric want to know if they can unplug from the grid, and if the grid goes down, can run everything they want to in their house. The answer to both currently is no, due to the expense of hybrid ESS systems, but Sol-Ark is changing that through AC-coupling in smaller hybrid and battery systems with AC-coupled micro inverters.

This will allow powering electric appliances during the day, as well as allowing for per-panel optimization and monitoring, rapid shutdown to quickly de-power solar panels for safety. It will also provide power during the day at one-sixth the cost of an ESS system. The price of an extra few thousand dollars to back up every piece of hardware might be, in retrospect, more ideal given how less resilient the grid is becoming.

Thanks to load management, Sol-Ark can also double the power of the ESS systems for both day and night at one-tenth the normal cost. Overall, Sol-Ark can triple the size of an ESS system while saving tens of thousands of dollars.

The biggest challenge in the market right now, according to Brennan, is the matter of backing up power, since what customers want is either too expensive or simply unobtainable. Sol-Ark is doing what it can to bring the cost of the hardware down by half, which has led to the development of larger inverters that offer twice as much power.

Brennan remembers how the company used to piece together batteries and other products from different companies in its earlier days, and installers might go to a single-provider solution such as Generac or Tesla or pick a solution with multiple vendors. Typically, installers want easy, single-provider solutions, which is why Sol-Ark provides customer support and an array of products. With these, it can provide a complete solution and support it from engineering to warranty.

Solar power has revolutionized the energy industry, but Brennan feels that there is currently not much innovation in the sector, with many businesses offering more of the same solutions. There also seems to be an increase in Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) use, meaning that some solar power companies are putting big brand names on equipment that is either not directly owned by them or coming from overseas.

However, there is a bit more innovation occurring in load management and especially in batteries, as the latter is seeing many newer technologies. Lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) batteries were once the standard for solar power use and are still regularly used but recently, rechargeable flow batteries are being relied upon as they can last for up to thirty years compared to the ten-to fifteen-year lifespan of LFPs. The solar industry was based on innovation, and that is still alive and well if one knows where to look.

In 2022, Sol-Ark will debut its eight products including hybrids, microinverters, and its new load management solution. The expansion across Latin America continues, as the company has hired around twenty-five bilingual solar engineers in just the past quarter. Development into optimizers and rapid shutdown technology is ongoing.

In 2023, Sol-Ark intends to move into a building at least three times as large as its present roughly 300,000-square-foot space to better house its engineers and products, with plans for more expansion in the future.

“It pays for itself over time. It’s one of the best investments you can make. It keeps your power going when there is no grid,” Brennan says of the state of solar power and its value today. “While a lot of things depreciate in value over time, solar power is known to increase in revenue. I think it’s a no-brainer.” As renewable energy becomes more desirable year after year, companies like Sol-Ark lead the way to a more sustainable future.

The post Leveraging New Inventory and Technology to Offer Renewable Power at Lower Cost<p class="company">Sol-Ark</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

A century later, Arizona maintains its position as a leader not only in the production of copper, but also in molybdenum, perlite, silver, sand and gravel, and gemstones such as turquoise.

Since the American Mining and Trading Company began copper extraction in the mid-1850s, and with the discovery of gold in the 1860s, Arizona has been a top-five mineral-producing state in the U.S.

“We are a mining state and have been dubbed the ‘copper state,’ says Steve Trussell, Executive Director of the Arizona Mining Association (AMA). “We have a copper star on the state flag, a miner on our state seal, and a copper dome on our capitol.

“Mining was taking place in the very beginning of Arizona’s history with indigenous people. Later, in the 1870s, there was a mining boom of gold, silver, and copper followed by another during the first and second world wars.”

Heavy metal

Nationwide, Arizona is the leading producer of non-fuel mineral resources – $9.96 billion in 2021 alone – and provides 74 percent of the nation’s copper: about 852,000 tons last year.

The fourth-largest copper producer in the world, the state is known as the place where ‘Copper is King,’ but it is clear, says Trussell, that “Arizona has achieved a position as a leading growth state due to a diverse base of mineral deposits.”

Trussell, who started with the AMA 25 years ago as an educational consultant, taught educators about the mining industry for about six years. Then, going to work in 2001 for the Arizona Rock Products Association (ARPA), where he represented the construction aggregates industry as communications manager, he became executive director in 2007.

A decade later, Trussell took on the post of executive director of the Arizona Mining Association where he now oversees the operations of both the AMA and ARPA.

For centuries, copper has proven itself to be one of the most useful and versatile metals. Mined and smelted by prehistoric peoples, it has been found in the ruins of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, China, and Europe, and was long known to Native Americans.

With its many desirable properties – resistance to corrosion; malleability and ductility; outstanding conductivity of heat and electricity – copper is used today for power wiring, electrical machinery, cooking utensils, coins, and more.

Thanks to its striking luster, copper is also popular with artists and sculptors. And as time and technology progress, the need and uses for copper keep growing.

“Copper contributes to every aspect of our daily lives, well-being, and safety and security,” says Trussell. “For example, cell phones, laptops, cars – especially electric cars – appliances, life-saving medical devices, microbial disinfectants, and national defense systems. The adage, ‘If it’s not grown, it’s mined,’ underscores how essential mining is to our standard of living and quality of life.”

In fact, copper is omnipresent both in the workplace and in the home. An average 2,100 square-foot house contains surprising amounts of copper, including 195 pounds (88 kg) of building wire, 51 pounds (23 kg) of plumbing tube, fillings, and valves, 47 pounds (21 kg) in built-in appliances, 24 pounds (11 kg) of plumbers’ brass goods, 12 pounds (5.4 kg) in builders’ hardware and 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of other wire and tubing.

Decades of foresight

Back in 1965, explains Trussell, a new awareness was growing amongst luminaries of the mining industry in Arizona – Phelps Dodge, Cypress, BHP, and ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) – of the necessity of education for the future of their thrusting industry.

Perceiving clearly that an essential way to maintain the viability of their industry would be to promote education in mining industry best practices – and especially safe and responsible practices and production – they created the AMA.

Today, 57 years on, the Arizona Mining Association keeps growing, sustaining its mission as an advocacy group for Arizona’s mining industry and stakeholders.

As a non-profit corporation comprising entities engaged in mining and mineral processing in Arizona, the AMA promotes legislation and government initiatives that serve to grow and support the industry.

It also develops programs and curricula, educates residents on the benefits of mining to their communities and state economy, and “engages Arizona communities to enhance relationships between mining operators and civilian stakeholders,” as the AMA puts it.

In addition to producing some three-quarters of the nation’s copper, AMA member companies mine considerable amounts of gold, silver, selenium, tellurium, and molybdenum. “The AMA is the unified voice of responsible, sustainable, and safe mining in Arizona,” says Trussell. “Through our advocacy, we help Arizona continue to be a premier location for mining investment in the U.S.”

Economic driver

Mining contributes to the Arizona economy both directly and indirectly.

In 2020, the state’s mining sector had a direct output estimated at $8.0 billion, creating 13,645 direct mining jobs. Arizona mining generated another $6.2 billion of indirect output through mining firms’ purchase of intermediate goods and services, and workers spending their incomes. This saw the creation of 33,617 jobs.

“The total economic impact of the Arizona mining industry was $14.2 billion of output and 47,262 total jobs with $3.6 billion total income in 2020,” says Trussell. He adds that the future, too, looks good, with the use of copper skyrocketing.

Compared to 1950, the world now uses 10 times the amount of copper annually. Even factoring in population growth, we use over three times more copper per capita than we did then. Arizona will need to help supply that demand.

Growing an industry

To get the word out about the multiple benefits of its mines to Arizona, the AMA uses – amongst other tools – social media, community presentations, hiring fairs, and Arizona Construction Career Day events.

The Association also works with schools through education programs, mentoring opportunities, joint technical educational districts, community colleges, and university partnerships.

Currently, the Arizona Mining Association has 146 members. Twelve are Producing Members, three are Developing Members, five are Exploration Members, and the remaining 126 are Consultants and Suppliers. All members benefit from industry advocacy and representation on community relations, and regulatory and political policy-related matters.

In recent years, the AMA has been the recipient of awards including the 2019 Honorable Mention Best Capitol Lawn Event – Mining Day at the Capitol, and the 2019 Honorable Mention Leader of the Year in Public Policy.

“The members were honored to be recognized by our peers for our collective education and policy efforts,” says Trussell, adding that the state’s traditional mining role will be pivotal in the world’s transition to renewable energy.

With the world’s population expected to rise to about 9,735 million by 2050, according to the United Nations, the demand for power will be greater than ever. And as renewable energy sources require more copper to function than do traditional energy sources, the U.S. is fortunate to have a strong domestic source of the metal, making it a leader in the clean energy transition.

In less than 30 years, the demand for copper will grow by 200-plus percent, while other minerals like lithium, graphite, and cobalt will increase by 450 percent. At present, China controls most of these reserves, including 80 percent of rare earths, 70 percent of graphite, and 59 percent of lithium.

The phasing-out of traditional gas-powered vehicles means their replacement by electric vehicles (EVs) that require four times more copper in their manufacture. And with a global push toward non-polluting, sustainable power, wind and solar technology is increasing demand for mined materials. PV solar panels contain about 5.5 tons of copper per megawatt (MW) of output. The storage of energy reserves requires massive amounts of copper. And grid energy-storage installations require between 0.3 and 0.4 tons of copper per MW. Fortunately, the state’s mining companies and the Arizona Mining Association will be on-hand to contribute to future demand.

“Mining is a very technical and sophisticated industry,” says Trussell. “Mining companies hire highly educated and degreed individuals to address incredibly complex issues. Worker output supports that, as we are on par with the aerospace, defense industry, and tech industries. Finally, folks may want to thank a miner for their quality of life, recognizing that ‘if it can’t be grown, it must be mined.’”

The post Copper is King, and Here’s Why<p class="company">Arizona Mining Association</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Resolution Copper, a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP, is spearheading a proposed underground copper mine near Superior, Arizona.

The mine is located beneath the now-defunct Magma Mine. Boasting an estimated copper resource of 1.787 billion metric tons at an average grade of 1.5 percent copper, it’s not only one of the richest undeveloped copper deposits in the world, but should also meet about 25 percent of U.S. copper demand.

Over its expected life, the mine will generate thousands of jobs, while producing up to 40 billion pounds of copper vital to essential products including electric cars, cellphones, and MRI scanners.

Dedicated to best practices
Determined to combat industry stereotypes, Resolution Copper is dedicated to employing best practices to ensure a safe, long-term, and environmentally responsible operation.

“We’ve just spent the last 15 years doing a lot of reclamation work and cleaning up some of the impact of [previous] mining in the community in Superior,” says Hesston Klenk, Senior Manager for Communities and Social Performance. “In conjunction with that, as we transformed the land, the communities around us have really transformed as well and have gone through their own renaissance.”

A depressed town 15 years ago, today Superior is bustling with both residents and visitors, a considerable accomplishment for the Town and Resolution.

When COVID hit, the company also responded robustly, donating more than $2 million to local organizations and community groups to support everything from school kids having access to devices and the internet, to senior centers keeping their doors open for Meals On Wheels delivery after losing government funding.

“The partnerships we’ve been able to build through the years really paid off during COVID because we had relationships in place, and without skipping a beat we provided that support in partnership with the community,” says Klenk.

“It wasn’t Resolution riding up on a white horse and saving the day, it was all of us working together to make sure these critical organizations had the resources they need to move forward.”

Previously director of the Department of Environmental Quality for Community in the Gila River Indian Community, Willard Antone III, now Senior Manager of Permitting and Approvals for the Resolution project, sees a noticeable difference in moving to the private sector.

Lightening the footprint
“What caught my eye was how mining really has a huge footprint that nobody really cares for,” he says. “There are so many negative things that people take away from it from an environmental perspective. Being able to look at the reclamation that was done was pretty interesting because I could see the big picture and what they’ve done. And it was a job well done.”

From a sustainability standpoint, the team is determined to help Superior be a community with a mine, not just a mining community.

“They shouldn’t be reliant on the mine themselves,” says Klenk. The sustainability spectrum touches on everything from water conservation and working with the community on riparian restoration, to economic development and diversification, including supporting local businesses so they’re able to function and operate without Resolution.

“If it’s a year from now or 70 years from now, mining is a finite resource and eventually the operation will close,” says Klenk. “It’s incumbent on us to make sure these communities can survive after we’re gone.”

To that end, Resolution is working on robust regional economic-development plans with the town so they have a say in their future, and providing them with the tools to make those decisions for themselves. That has included bringing in world-class economic development people focused on land acquisition and land development.

“It’s been hugely successful and a big reason why we are where we are today,” says Klenk.

Working with tradition
Another essential component includes working with the 11 tribal communities with historical connections to the area; those who might not experience direct economic benefits from the operation.

Resolution has used hydropanels to collect moisture from the air, providing the equivalent of three cases of water to a home per week to help communities with heavily polluted wells develop sustainable resources.

“Working on those kinds of projects across the board has been really important,” says Klenk. “It’s setting the groundwork for what we’re looking to do in the future around decarbonization and having a net zero carbon footprint when we get to operations, and better water stewardship. It all ties in on how we work together with these communities.”

While the tribes themselves have had a notable impact on the shaping of many parts of the project, Resolution also requires approval from federal, state, and local entities before building or operating the mine, including the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the federal body in charge of the approval process.

Resolution has made it a mission from the start to reclaim and restore the land once the mining was done, plus strive to protect water, air, and biodiversity in and around the project.

The USFS and other agencies began an additional examination of the plan after the public reviewed and commented on the draft EIS. The USFS produced a Final EIS in January 2021, and in March 2021, the USDA directed the USFS to cancel the FEIS to allow the agency to conduct a more thorough examination.

During this period, Resolution Copper will continue to discuss and collaborate with local communities and tribes to shape the project and the substantial advantages it will provide.

“We’ve looked at what was being said and how we can use this time until we move forward with republishing,” says Antone. “In the months since, we’ve really tried to focus on our dialogue and engagement with local communities and also tribal leaders, to listen and continue to build a mutual understanding of the project.”

Resolution has done that in multiple ways, including sharing studies, and inviting tribes to visit some of the private properties.

“We’re trying to gather their input so we can create a management plan that will look at those items from a different perspective,” Antone says. “We have a tribal monitors program that we’ve incorporated; monitors come in and provide a Native American perspective alongside the archaeological findings.”

Doing things differently
Culturally significant items are identified, helping Resolution gather information for management plans, while being sensitive to tribal concerns. With 11 different federally recognized tribes with ties dating back thousands of years, the challenge is formidable, but one that Resolution embraces.

Historic mining practices have cast a shadow over mining operations, and this is something Resolution Copper is committed to changing. “I think we’re still dealing with the legacy of mining,” says Klenk, “and it’s not going to happen overnight. We have to show we can do things differently.”

Mining is a generational industry, he adds. Most operating mines – especially open-pit – have been around for decades and generations, leaving few opportunities for new companies like Resolution, with new technologies operating under new and more environmentally friendly regulations, to flourish.

“We are making changes,” Klenk says. “Local, historic mining communities around Superior look at us and compare and contrast us to the way things were done in the past, and we hear a lot from our stakeholders that this is what a world-class operation should look like.”

Caring for water, caring for people
Resolution’s operation also includes using and managing water in an acceptable manner, and Resolution has already stored enough surplus water in the ground to sustain its operations for decades.

“One of the largest droughts we’ve been enduring is here, we’re living in it, and even though the state and tribes work together to ensure there’s water for future generations, we have to continue to move forward,” says Antone. “As technologies come along, we have to make sure we’re looking at and analyzing our water usage to reduce our intake as much as possible.”

In fact, Resolution will be the most efficient user of water in Arizona mining, using the fewest gallons of water per pound of copper produced.

“The real key drivers to our future water consumption come from the mining industry itself: grade is king, and we have a high-grade ore body,” says Klenk. “By its very nature we use less water because we’re dealing with less waste than other mines.”

Resolution is also an underground operation, meaning it doesn’t use as much water for dust suppression, unlike an open pit operation on haul roads. “We’ve got a lot of new technologies we can apply here, helping us reduce water consumption over and above what those operations that have been in service for decades had when they started.”

What the world needs…
And then there are the benefits of the mine that themselves make the effort worthwhile: Copper is critical to climate action and a low-carbon future, and metals that help solve many of the world’s problems will be produced at Resolution, a source of great pride.

“Copper is in everything you use,” says Klenk. “Every cell phone in the world has copper in it. An electric vehicle uses three times the copper that a combustion engine uses. If all we did was produce copper for nothing more than electric vehicles, we could supply enough for 200 million electric vehicles.”

The copper mined at Resolution will help produce many terawatts of electricity – green energy – whether in wind turbines, battery storage, or solar panels, along with the production of rare earth minerals as a byproduct of the smelting process.

Making its mark
Once in full operation, the economic impact will be impressive: Even through the construction and operational phase, Resolution expects to hire directly about 1,500 workers, and the project will generate approximately 2,200 indirect jobs, producing up to $61 billion in economic value for Arizona over the 60-year life of the mine.

“As our project moves forward in the permitting phase, the town and community also have significant interest in seeing their footprint be able to move and grow,” says Klenk. “As we hire those 1,500 employees in the future, they want more ability to attract them to live in the community.”

There’s a big disconnect in mining, he adds, but when asked about the importance of metals in the green energy transition, he says that most of the population by far supports the development of new mining operations as long as these are done in an environmentally sensitive way. “I think the perception is starting to shift, but it’s going to take a long time to fully shift.”

Antone agrees, adding that Resolution is a company trying to set a higher standard and doing it right, something he wants to be a part of.

“Looking at all the competing values and the partnerships established with tribal communities, looking at what Resolution has done for them from an environmental perspective and setting those different standards, Resolution is trying to build a balance. That to me has been the biggest accomplishment for this project to date.”

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Well, if technology is the future of food, we might be more apt to say we digitize than digest.

With 2 billion more people living on the planet in the next 30 years, global population is expected to outpace current food production supply by as early as 2050. Compounding this situation is that in some countries, such as the U.S., irrigation-thirsty agricultural land is pumping groundwater faster than nature can replenish.

“Everything we think about regarding sustainability – from energy to agriculture to manufacturing to population – has a water footprint. Almost all of the water on Earth is saltwater, and the remaining freshwater supplies are split between agricultural use and human use, as well as maintaining the existing natural environment,” says California author and futurist Jamais Cascio.

Add in the realities – and the unknowns of climate change – plus the fact that only 40 percent of the Earth’s surface can support agricultural activities, and you have a market that is ripe for new technologies.

The good news is that digital technology, increased precision, and automated farming are reshaping the rural landscape. A potent combination of data-driven technology and biotechnology is creating substantial changes in the sector by introducing new processes or radically changing the way things have been done for generations.

An evolving industry

Understandably, with a third of U.S. farmers over the age of 65, adoption of technology in the industry has been slow. Many food growers who have relied on the same processes for a lifetime can be skeptical when it comes to new technologies. Once the primary driver of the U.S. economy, farming employed almost half the population in related businesses just over 100 years ago. Farming is now a $3 trillion dollar industry but employs only two percent of the workforce. Chalk that up to the marvels of technology.

Tools we take for granted, like tractors, revolutionized the amount of work that could be accomplished. A staple of the farming industry, the old two-row-horse-drawn planter could, in ideal conditions from sunrise to sunset, plant about five acres a day. The multi-row planter of today can accomplish the work of 300 farmers in a single day, planting 1,500 acres a day.

“Over a lifetime, farmers can expect to have about 40 growing seasons, giving them just 40 chances to improve on every harvest,” Howard G. Buffett writes in his book 40 Chances: Finding Hope in A Hungry World. With the technological changes that are occurring, farmers now have 40 chances every week to improve on what they are doing.

These days, the information revolution is squarely focused on agriculture and there are no clear winners yet (the farming equal of Amazon or Google). Some industry experts say the ag sector reminds them of the early days of the internet, with new startups sprouting daily.

“I think the sky is the limit. I think as far as the imagination can dream is where we’ll be, just give it time, especially when you look at how far we’ve came in the past 10, 20, 30 years,” Nick Elchinger, a farmer in Deshler, Ohio told AgWeb.

Indeed, agricultural technologies are evolving quickly. Smart irrigation systems optimize water use through the deployment of in-field sensors. Vision-enabled systems are allowing for precision seeding and weed application spraying, bringing about better growth outcomes with fewer environmental and health implications. However, there is a very real reluctance among many food growers who are not used to purchasing, yet alone using, these new advances in their daily jobs. And the vast number of tools and platforms available can be overwhelming for those who have relied on tried-and-true methods which have worked well throughout a career.

A robust demonstration of ROI is often needed to convince the skeptics. Farmers are a cautious bunch, and especially so of pitches offering “new and improved” but which may cost more than the value they generate.

What’s interesting, too, is that technologies are not only producing more and better crops; they are also driving up the value of farmland. As each acre of land becomes more profitable, the cost of land increases accordingly. Fruit-picking robots, for example, have helped to reduce labour costs, estimated at 25 to 75 percent of a crop’s value, leading to higher profits. When market prices are low, some growers opt to let fruit wither on the vine rather than harvest as labour costs make the crop unprofitable.

The 2019 USDA Farms and Land Summary indicated that while the total number of farms has declined, the average size of a farm has increased. More than 40 percent of farmland is operated by farms with sales volumes in excess of $500,000. Among the reasons attributed to this increase in sales is that technology has transformed what was once undesirable and difficult into productive and valuable land.

Ag goes high-tech

The technologies revolutionizing farming influence growing, harvesting and gene-editing the foods we eat – which gives a whole new ring to the push for farm-to-table eating.

With in-field sensors that constantly monitor moisture levels, smart irrigation systems can provide precise amounts water to improve crop growth. The volume of water delivered can be adjusted to the zone where the monitor is located, saving water and energy.

GPS guided soil-monitoring machines can collect soil samples at preset intervals from predetermined locations. Data can be collected during all seasons, from planting to harvest to winter dormancy, and reviewed and analyzed to get the best performance from soil. Although farmers have used GPS for years for farm planning and mapping, this technology is now used in autonomous vehicles for planting and harvesting. Fields are tended more efficiently with less worker involvement, and the net outcome is more profit and sustainability for farmers.

Drones are also becoming synonymous with farming and helping to monitor crops. Farmers are using this technology to study their fields and avoid costly yield losses. They can make real-time decisions on inputs like pesticides or fertilizers and pinpoint areas where resources are best directed.

Driven by data

With all this data, farmers are now relying on farm management software for important business decisions, including what inputs need to be applied to the land. This allows farmers to make decisions on the fly based on predicted earnings.

FarmLead online grain marketplace helps growers find the highest bidders for their crops. Buyers and sellers register anonymously and negotiate deals, so farmers can reach markets beyond their traditional trading area.

And big data isn’t just limited to soil, crops, and the business of farming. Biotech startups are also utilizing big data to make quantum leaps at the genetic and molecular level. Gene-editing tools use machine learning to make crops like wheat and soy drought- and disease-resistant, so less than ideal conditions aren’t as much of a challenge for producers.

These solutions are already having a profound impact on farming efforts in developing countries. Some African nations, for example, are now reaping improved harvests of biotech-guided corn, cotton, and black-eyed peas.

Crop advances provide a social and economic benefit to farmers, and make farms more environmentally sustainable. The production reduces greenhouse gases, soil and water pollution – and provides food security for billions.

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