[IAMGOLD] Co. funds university pit-mine position – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – January 15, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A mining company called IAMGOLD Corporation has donated $1.25 million to Laurentian University to fund Canada’s first research chair in open-pit mining over a five-year period.

IAMGOLD will soon start mining operations at its Cote Gold project, an open-pit gold mine located near Gogama, about 180 km north of Sudbury.

“This is going to be a large mine that is going to require a lot of talent to operate,” said Gordon Stothart, IAMGOLD’s vice-president and chief operating officer. “Part of how we run our operations is to look around locally for who you can start to source talent.”

Laurentian has started a global search to find a suitable candidate for the research chair position, and is expected to make a decision as early as July.

“The main thing is we need someone with experience in open pit mining,” said Ramesh Subramanian, director of Laurentian’s Bharti School of Engineering. The school of engineering will establish the openpit mining research chair and choose the candidate for the position. Subramanian said about 75% of the world’s mines are openpit, but most mines in Canada are underground.

The Cote Gold project is expected to be one of the biggest open-pit mines in Canada, and will be 400 to 500 metres in depth. Stothart said the mine will move around 200,000 tonnes of ore and waste a day.

The research chair position will be Laurentian’s first that is fully funded by the private sector. “We are especially proud to be associated with a company like IAMGOLD, whose corporate philosophy enshrines the highest standards in human health, environmental impacts, social responsibility and co-operation with host communities,” Laurentian president Dominic Giroux said in a release.

Subramanian said there are a number of potential research topics, ranging from mine safety to operations, for the research chair to focus on. Stothart added topics such as waste disposal, closure require-m ents, rock mechanics and mining economics are all worthy of study.

For the original version of this article, please go to the Sudbury Star website: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/14/laurentian-to-research-open-pit-mining