Early in his geological engineering studies, Randy Smallwood was a recipient of a Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) scholarship. Now, several decades later, in a full circle moment, he has been elected CIM’s president for 2027–28.
Smallwood is known for being instrumental in building Wheaton River/Goldcorp (now part of Newmont), which became one of the world’s largest gold producers, as well as Wheaton’s successful streaming business model.
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Here, he discusses how the industry faces an unprecedented opportunity, and why, at this pivotal moment, he encourages his peers to become the change agents the industry badly needs.
Heidi Vella (HV): Congratulations on being elected incoming president-elect of CIM. Why did you want to take on this role?
Randy Smallwood (RS): CIM has always been a leader in technology and innovation. Its universally recognised regulatory framework – 43 101 – allowed Canada to be one of the leaders in responsible resource development and finance, giving investors confidence. That really comes back to CIM and its approach towards technical excellence, finding ways to instill confidence in the technical decisions and resource developments that allow investors and broader society to have confidence in how resources are developed. It is an organisation I have long had great respect for, and I am very excited and honoured to even be considered for this opportunity.
HV: What do you think are the biggest issues facing the Canadian, and wider, mining sector today?
RS: In the resources sector, we have got an incredible opportunity right now. I have been in the industry for close to 40 years, and I have never seen such an acceptance from broader society that we do actually need some mines – to electrify the world, to minimise the burning of fossil fuels, to try to improve efficiency in how we capture and use energy. The issue, I think, is that we need to step up to this opportunity and show the world we can deliver the resources needed with less of a footprint on our planet.
The world needs responsibly mined resources. I think Canada, which is incredibly wealthy with resources, can lead that opportunity and bring that forward. We should support the best locations to operate, where there are the strictest environmental and social licence requirements, and where we can deliver the best benefits and the best value back to the stakeholders around the assets.
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By GlobalDataHV: What do you think the new Canadian administration, headed by Mark Carney, could mean for Canadian mining companies?
RS: One of the most promising things that has come out of Mark Carney since he has become prime minister is his push towards simplifying the permitting process.
A challenge in Canada is that we have ten provinces and each has a different approach towards resource development. There are quite dramatic contrasts.
Mark has been pushing for a more consistent approach across the country. Anything that works towards streamlining the permitting and project reviewing process would be a benefit. Canada has suffered from much too much bureaucracy for a very long time.
HV: US tariffs are proving unpredictable and punitive to industries affected. How can Canadian mining companies, and those affected elsewhere, make themselves resilient to this ongoing market impact and uncertainty?
RS: I think these recent tariffs have helped wake Canada up to the fact that perhaps we shouldn’t be so reliant on our neighbour to the south; perhaps we need to make sure we have access to full global markets so we are getting the best return for our stakeholders on the resources that we choose to develop and move forward.
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Maintaining that flexibility to the broader global market gives us much more strength around how we decide to move forward; being reliant on trade with any one country isn’t recommended. We are surrounded by water outside of the US, so there shouldn’t really be any issues with getting our products to the broader world.
HV: You have said, “don’t be scared of being a change agent”. In what areas of the industry is change needed most and why?
RS: It is about recognising that we are part of a broader industry and we have a responsibility, as members of the same industry, to make sure that just because it is not your company, if you see something wrong try and fix it. We are all part of one big society; standing back and letting something happen that shouldn’t happen is not the right answer. So be the change agent: step forward.
If you see opportunities to help your peers be better and opportunities to unlock additional efficiencies, share that. Start thinking about it more from a global sense rather than an individual or a corporate sense. We all wear the same jersey, so to speak. We are part of an industry that will be judged by society, so don’t back away and say, well, that is not my problem. It is ultimately all of our problems.
HV: I imagine it is frustrating if you are trying to mine responsibly and improve the industry and other companies are doing the opposite?
RS: So much so. It is not only frustrating, it is embarrassing. I have had this happen where I have been part of a panel, and one of the CEOs of a company is right beside me, and then that company has a huge failure that we think could have been managed. It is frustrating and embarrassing because the technology, science and engineering is there, we should be able to do this with minimal impact.
At Wheaton we don’t actually operate mines, but we selectively finance around 40-odd mines globally, which we visit at least once a year. One of the mandates we have is to look for and share best practices, so we can help our other partners move down that path.
HV: To conclude, what’s your advice to other mining CEOs?
RS: Mining is an industry that has many members that tend to work in silos, on their own projects. There is not much cross pollination or cross communication.
I really encourage CEOs to support technical teams. In the end, it is the engineers and the metallurgists and the social scientists that are going to help create an environment that is conducive towards exploring opportunity and having success.
Share the successes. Share the challenges with your peers. Let’s talk about how this happened, why this happened and what we can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I always say the biggest challenge in life is to take your challenges and failures and to turn them into lessons and just be better the next time. We need to make sure we have platforms where we encourage that, are open to it, but also contributing and feeding into it.
