New [Laurentian] school of mines to take a broad approach – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 7, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The Goodman School of Mines will explore all aspects of the mining industry

Nicole Tardif, the program co-ordinator for Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines, updated mining industry professionals in Sudbury on the school’s progress at the 2013 Ontario Exploration and Geoscience Symposium. Jonathan Migneault Northern Life.
Laurentian University’s new Goodman School of Mines has taken a multi-disciplinary approach to teach every aspect of the mining cycle.

Nicole Tardif, the Goodman School of Mines’ program co-ordinator, said staff have worked to offer students a wide variety of programs ranging from geology, to engineering and workplace safety.

Tardif addressed a crowd of mining professionals Wednesday at the 2013 Ontario Exploration and Geoscience Symposium in Sudbury with updates on the school’s progress since it was founded in 2012.

The school’s goal, Tardif said, has been to regroup Laurentian’s various mining-related courses to create relevant programs for mining students.

“We don’t have faculty in the Goodman School of Mines,” Tardif said. “Nobody reports to us.”

Instead the school has helped departments tailor their courses into a variety of mining-related programs.

For the most part, Laurentian already had the courses in place to create well-rounded programs that explore the mining cycle. Where needed, the School of Mines has provided the funding and administrative help necessary to fill in the gaps where particular courses may have been missing.

To that end, the school set out to create an endowment fund to support existing and new mining-related programs. Last October, Ned Goodman, the president and CEO of the Dundee Corporation, and the school’s namesake made a donation to Laurentian that brought the School of Mines past the halfway point for the endowment fund.

Tardif said different departments at Laurentian offer a variety of mining-related courses, but they haven’t always collaborated in the past.

“They don’t necessarily know what’s going on in another department,” she said.

Engineering students, for example, were not necessarily exposed to courses on occupational health and safety or indigenous studies.

Tardif said Laurentian offers a course where students spend 10 days living in a First Nation community.

“They learn about the culture and how First Nation communities feel about the environment,” she said.

That course would be useful to geologists or environmental scientists who will probably work closely with First Nations to help ratify agreements and develop collaborative approaches for resource extraction, she said.

The Goodman School of Mines also has plans to start a mining MBA program.

“We feel a focus on mineral exploration and mine management would be a niche here in Sudbury,” Tardif said.

The mining MBA will be part of the School of Mines’ slate of executive programs, which will be primarily offered to professionals who already work in the mining sector. The programs — and there are at least 12 in development – give mining companies the chance to enhance the skills of their workforce, especially at the top levels.

Other executive programs in development include mineral exploration and mine finance, mining project management, leadership in mining environments and resource evaluation.

To accommodate the executive programs, and offer a variety of resources under one roof, the school will develop an executive learning centre in Laurentian’s Fraser Building. The centre will include equipment for teleconferencing.

The long-term plan, Tardif said, is to have a stand-alone executive learning centre and office in a new building on the Laurentian campus. Early estimates for the building stand at $5 million, but no capital funds have yet been raised.

Another long-term plan for the School of Mines is to foster relationships with other institutions and even offer joint programs. Tardif said there have been some early talks with other universities but could not go into more detail.

“I’m excited to be part of this new initiative,” she said.