By Pav Jordan
The Globe and Mail
There’s a bright side to the gloom over the mining sector.
Amid the felled chief executive officers, shelved projects, tens of billions of dollars that won’t be spent and the barren lines of credit, miners are finding a reason to smile. The very excesses that put them where they are today will help to ease their pain.
To be sure, the mining industry is witnessing a slow sea change, as signs emerge that its worst cost inflation in living memory is abating.
As massive projects have been cancelled, key supplies such as rubber tires, plastic pipes, chemical reagents, rock drills — and even monster trucks – are becoming cheaper, according to mining CEOs. Materials and machinery, they say, are becoming more readily available. Labour costs are flattening out — rather than falling — and it is easier to fill some positions.