CIM Council

Samantha Espley has worked in Sudbury for most of her career and spent 30 years at Vale, most recently as the company’s director of mining technology and innovation, before retiring in October 2019. Over the course of her career, Espley has worked her way up the ladder, taking on management roles in engineering, mine technical services, mining and milling operations and technology. She’s also a staple of the Sudbury mining community, and a strong advocate for Canadian mining.

She has been a member of CIM since she was an engineering student at the University of Toronto in the 1990s and a dedicated Branch member in Toronto and Sudbury, serving on the Sudbury Branch executive for several years as well as a board member of CIM’s Global Mining Guidelines group.

Espley is very active in the mining community as a board member of MIRARCO and the Canada Mining Innovation Council and a past member of the executive board of Engineers Canada, Science North and the Sudbury branches of Women in Science and Engineering and Professional Engineers Ontario. She is the Vale industry representative with CEMI and UDMN with a strong focus on research and development projects to enable safe deep mining. Espley also gives back to her alma mater by acting as chair of the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University. 

Espley’s mission as CIM President is two-fold. First, to focus on how to expand the knowledge and value of mining to society. One of the ways to accomplish this is by gathering support to build a travelling science exhibit to tell the story of mining. Using a modular design, the exhibit will travel from city to city across North America to educate and engage members of the public. Second, the continued building of best practices and guidance documents. Espley’s goal is to tackle the emerging domain of “Mining 4.0” with topics such as innovative design, green energy, zero carbon emissions, risk elimination, tailings management, license to operate and more. In addition, she values health and safety and the development of best practices for new technologies, mental health and to deal with a pandemic.

Past President and Ex-Officio

Janice Zinck
CanmetMINING - NRCan

Audit and Risk Committee Chair

Mark Patterson
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Directors at large

Michael Allan
MJ Allan Consulting
Michael Cinnamond
B2Gold Corporation

District Vice-Presidents

Eastern District, Second Year

Allan Cramm
Anaconda Mining

Eastern District, Second Year

Dany Belanger
Bird Construction

Central District, First Year

Curtis Clarke
Golder Associates Ltd.

Central District, Second Year

Sarah Wilson
SGS Canada Inc.

Western District, First Year

Cameron Stockman
BHP Billiton

Western District, Second Year

Nancy Komperdo
CEC Mining Systems Corp.

Society Chairs

Canadian Mineral Processors Society

Stuart McTavish
SF McTavish Consutling Inc.

Geological Society

Dan Marhsall
Simon Fraser University

Maintenance, Engineering and Reliability Society

Jean Vavrek
American Biltrite

Metallurgy and Materials Society

Greg Richards
Teck Resources Limited

Management & Economics Society

Jacqueline Allison
Tethyan Resource Corp.

Mining Society of Nova Scotia

To be announced

Environmental and Social Responsibility Society

Karen Chovan
Consultant

Society for Rock Engineering

Doug Milne
University of Saskatchewan

Surface Mining Society

Ross Pritchard
Teck Resources Limited

Underground Mining Society

George Darling
Sand Storm Gold