The no-nonsense CEO of Tacora Resources doesn’t mince words when asked to sum up the Wabush, N.L.-based iron ore mining company’s core value. “The top priority is our people, to ensure a safe and healthy workplace so that our business operations and organization can achieve their full potential and contribute to the economic development of the communities where we operate,” he says. “It’s all about safety, sustainability, teamwork, determination, and winning.”

That last one may be especially important to Joe Broking. Since 2017, when the small but world-class collection of private mining interests – including Proterra Investment Partners, a subsidiary of Cargill Inc., Aequor Holdings and MagGlobal (subsequently adding Orion Mine Finance and the Tschudi Group) – purchased the Scully Mine in this western Labrador community, Tacora has emphasized both business performance and human priorities. That’s why he takes great care to explain what that word, winning, says to him.

“Do the very best we can to achieve the highest level that we possibly can,” he says of the company whose fully modernized, 60-year-old plant supplies 375 jobs in a community of roughly 15,000. “If we do that every day, then together, we will win.” 

Indeed, with two mining and processing facilities (the other one is Sydvaranger, in Kirkenes, Norway), Broking is laser-focused on what he calls “the green steel revolution” that’s underway around the world. At Tacora, that means pursuing distinct, yet complementary, objectives: Acquiring, developing, and operating iron ore reserves and assets for high-grade iron fines sales to customers globally; and operating a highly innovative, human-focused company with an appetite to grow and the ability to evolve.

Already, Tacora specializes in a high-grade product that’s high in iron, and low in gangue content – allowing steel makers to become more efficient while they reduce carbon emissions per tonne of steel produced. 

Says Broking: “We’re invested in our people, empowering them to make a difference and improve their life at work. One way we do that is through implementing a high-performance work culture that uses a high degree of variable compensation to align all stakeholders in the business – from our owners to our operators. We have an incentive system that allows everybody in our company to earn up to a 40 per cent bonus on a monthly basis.”

 

 

Tacora also engenders a corporate culture of innovation that keeps its workforce enthusiastic. Employees like Health, Safety and Environment Manager Kimberly Taylor. “At Tacora Resources, employees are not just a number,” she says. “Everyone is well known to each other. The willingness to learn, teach and participate is one of the biggest things that stands out for me. The personal and career growth opportunities are endless.”

In fact, awareness and safety instruction is taught every day to ensure employees are always prepared to identify, assess, and manage any hazards in the mine’s operations. Training topics include: first response, hazardous materials management, lockout, confined space, fall protection, and other programs aimed to provide the necessary tools to maintain a safe and healthy team.  Tacora is also focused on building a best-in-class mental health and wellbeing program that offers mental health first aid training and wellbeing workshops.

Meanwhile, the company continuously deploys innovation to improve its assets. It is currently investing in the Scully mine to enhance cash flow, safety, quality, and sustainability. “All of our baseload power comes from clean hydroelectric power,” Broking says. “There’s a tremendous focus now on ESG standards. And this has been evolving over several decades. I’m happy to say that both of our operations are very positive about this in terms of how we fit as a more sustainable, carbon-neutral supplier of iron ore to steel producers.”

He adds: “These are things that we want to continue to develop and continue to improve. We also have the teamwork, the will and the determination to win in a changing and challenging time.” •