Three perspectives on Canadian mining: Evolutionary, resource-based, and strategic

This research, comprised of three essays, considered the evolution of Canada's population of mining firms over much of the 2oth century, the resource characteristics of the firms that survived the industry shakeout, and the strategic positioning of the firms that ranked among the largest mining firms in the world. In the first essay, the forces responsible for the change in the number of Canadian mining firms between 1929 and 1999 were explored using a set of mathematical models designed to identify the underlying dynamic. Density, or the number of mining firms in the population, was found to be responsible for the industry's evolutionary profile. Organizational populations typically experience a significant decrease in membership at one point in their history. This phenomenon, known as a 'shakeout', occurred in the 1980s for the population of Car~adian mining firms. In the second essay, the survival of a cohort of 741 firms that were active in 1969 was tracked over a thirty year period. The firms that survived were no1 only the older firms and the firms with more financial resources but also those firms in possession of a portfolio of resourcebased assets in the form of deposits and mines. In the third essay, the strategic positioning of twenty-six of the world's largest mining firms, seven of which were Canadian, was examined. In an industry where little competitive or corporate strategic variety would be expected, the few firms that chose to position themselves somewhat differently than their competitors were found to outperform those who aligned themselves with the majority of firms.