Archive | Mining Education and Innovation

Feds kick in $5M for ‘innovative’ all-electric Borden Mine – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – October 29, 2018)

October 30, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Goldcorp Inc., Green Mining, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.timminspress.com/

With Goldcorp betting hundreds of millions of dollars on the future of its new Borden Lake gold mine project near Chapleau, the federal government has chipped in with $5 million to show its faith in the project and others like it.

CHAPLEAU – With Goldcorp betting hundreds of millions of dollars on the future of its new Borden Lake gold mine project near Chapleau, the federal government has chipped in with $5 million to show its faith in the project and others like it.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi toured the new mine facility on Monday with Goldcorp officials and technical representatives of the mining equipment manufacturers who are working to make it the first all-electric underground mine in Canada, which is considered a major environmental improvement for the mining industry. Continue Reading →

Want to innovate? Abandon current models, says mining executive – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – October 22, 2018)

October 23, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Managing director of McEwan Mining tells Sudbury audience real industry change comes from original ideas

Is there really innovation in mining? And if not, how can the industry really foster technical changes for its long-term future?

Those were the main topics of discussion at the Student Night event of the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Institute of Mining on Oct. 18, with speaker Nathan Stubina, managing director of McEwen Mining, Inc.

He gave an interactive discussion on whether or not mining innovation is an oxymoron, fielding questions from the audience to gauge perceptions and opinions. The at-capacity audience at Dynamic Earth included about 90 students, most of them in mining and engineering programs. Continue Reading →

Vale touts collective future of mining – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – October 5, 2018)

October 5, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Education and Innovation, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Company executive gives update on progress of technology upgrades focusing on Sudbury operation

The hive mentality is coming to mining, with the intention of making the industry more efficient, safer and ultimately sustainable. Vale Canada’s progress in that area was the subject of the season opening meeting of the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Institute of Mining on Sept. 20.

Samantha Espley, Vale’s general manager of mines and mills, technical services department in Sudbury, gave the featured presentation on the company’s road map for its operations.

The physical and technological changes are part of a grander plan to change the behaviour of how different sections work in the mines, bringing them together to work as one large hub, all sharing data to make operational decisions in real time. Continue Reading →

Innovators talk Sudbury’s technology future – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – October 2, 2018)

October 2, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Gribbons had a more pragmatic approach. He explained the city should
be working with its strength in mining. Sudbury is known worldwide as
a hard rock mining centre with decades of experience in the basin.
“We have mining intelligence that you don’t see anywhere else in the
world,” he said. “So when you look to playing with your strengths,
you try find an unfair advantage. We have one in mining technology.”

Growing Sudbury’s technology sector means entrepreneurs must create marketable products and investors must be there to support their efforts. A Sept. 20 forum, hosted by Sudbury CodeOp, featured three different perspectives on doing business in Sudbury as an entrepreneur in the region’s technology sector.

A panel discussion featured Peter Dal Bianco, founder of Bianco’s Group of Companies; Michael Gribbons, vice-president of sales and marketing for Maestro Digital Mine and founder of Synergy Controls Corporation; and Kyle McCall, manager of the NORCAT Innovation Mill. Continue Reading →

The future of mining: eight bold industry predictions – by Talal Husseini (Mining Technology – September 26, 2018)

October 2, 2018 in International Media Resource Articles, Mining Education and Innovation

https://www.mining-technology.com/

Technological advances in the areas of artificial intelligence, automation and blockchain are beginning to permeate the age-old profession. Mining Technology asks industry experts to give their insight into how such developments will shape the future of mining.

The clever implementation of digital technologies like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and automation could transform mining, making it safer, more productive, efficient, sustainable, and profitable, and therefore better able to take on the challenges it faces.

When we consider that over the last 15 years, the average cost of producing copper has risen by more than 300%, while the grade has dropped by 30%, these new efficiencies offer a cost-effective way to increase profitability. Continue Reading →

McGill receives $5-million gift from noted Canadian geologist Bob Wares (McGill University News – September 26, 2018)

October 1, 2018 in Gold and Silver, Mining Education and Innovation, Quebec Mining

https://www.mcgill.ca/

Donation will support Faculty of Science and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

As an entrepreneurial geologist, Bob Wares, (BSc’79, DSc’12), became a mining rock star when he discovered one of Canada’s largest gold deposits in the Abitibi region of Quebec. Now, he is bringing that Midas touch to his alma mater in the form of a landmark $5-million gift that will support research programs, fellowships, innovative research, a lecture series and outreach efforts in McGill University’s Faculty of Science, with a particular focus on his home department, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS).

The gift will provide immediate impact for students and faculty in five targeted areas:

– the Wares Science Innovation Prospectors Fund, designed to support innovative, high-risk research by funding up to four promising projects a year from researchers across the Faculty of Science;

– a Recruitment and Outreach Coordinator Fund, supporting the activities of a coordinator to liaise with CEGEPs and high schools in an effort to attract more students to EPS studies at McGill; Continue Reading →

Wanted: Canadian moon rover, space mining technology – by Jim Bronskill (CBC News Technology – September 25, 2018)

September 26, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Education and Innovation, Space Mining

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/

With an eye on future lunar exploration, Canada’s space agency is calling on companies to present their ideas for everything from moon-rover power systems to innovative mineral prospecting techniques.

The Canadian Space Agency issued the tender this week for projects that will put Canada in position to contribute to future space missions involving human and robotic exploration of the moon.

The idea is to demonstrate technologies at agency headquarters in Saint-Hubert, Que., next year with possible follow-up testing in the Canary Islands in 2020. Canada is already quietly working with space agencies in Europe, Japan and the United States on the next phases of exploring the final frontier. Continue Reading →

Vale to automate iron ore mine to improve safety and production – by JP Casey (Mining Technology – September 13, 2018)

September 13, 2018 in International Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Latin America Mining, Mining Education and Innovation, Vale

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The world’s largest iron ore miner Vale plans to operate its Brucutu iron ore mine in Brazil with a fully autonomous fleet of vehicles next year, following a successful trial of driverless technology, to improve production and safety at the operation.

The trial involved the deployment of seven Caterpillar 793F CMD fully-autonomous trucks at the mine for a month, following six years of research and development.

The project cost $62m and the site saw a 26% increase in the volume of ore transported during the trial, results that the company’s ferrous planning and development director Lúcio Cavalli called ‘promising’. Continue Reading →

Winter workers: How cold-adapted bacteria can benefit miners – by Christopher Pollon (CIM Magazine – September 06, 2018)

September 7, 2018 in Biomining and Bioremediation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Education and Innovation, Sudbury Basin, Women in Mining

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

Nadia Mykytczuk, Industrial Research Chair in biomining, bioremediation and science communication at Laurentian University, spends a lot of time studying how micro-organisms like bacteria can be used to extract minerals and re-process legacy mine waste, all of which can reduce the environmental liabilities of mining.

As one of the few mining microbiologists focused on cold environments like Canada, she is working to create a Centre for Mine Waste Biotechnology that will nurture the next generation of scientists, companies and microbial mining tools.

CIM: What path led you to your current work at Laurentian University?

Mykytczuk: Very early on I was focused on how microbes work in various environments. While I was an undergrad at Carleton University, I got a co-op placement at the National Research Council looking at vaccine development for various pathogens; for my PhD at Laurentian, I looked at the adaptation of acid mine drainage (AMD) bacteria to acidic and cold environments. Continue Reading →

[Nevada Mining] Mineral extraction pioneer rethinks metallurgy – by Suzanne Featherston (Elko Daily Free Press – September 7, 2018)

September 7, 2018 in Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Education and Innovation, Nevada Mining

https://elkodaily.com/

A pioneer of the state’s cyanide heap-leach technology is now testing a cleaner, zero-waste approach to mineral extraction that could revolutionize the industry.

The process has potential to unlock unrealized resources in previously mined material, and some proponents hope in its ability to extract precious metals from virgin ore.

Testing of an extracting liquid began on previously leached material from Comstock Mining Inc.’s nonactive Lucerne Mine in August 2017. Results a year later show that the technology can reduce cyanide while extracting valuable minerals, including silver and gold. Continue Reading →

Which mining supercycle? – by David Robinson (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – August 20, 2018)

August 29, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Commodity Super-Cycle and Decline, Mining Education and Innovation, Mining Supply and Services Sector

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

Growing talk of a new supercycle for mining is encouraging, but a totally different kind of supercycle may be more important for mining supply firms.

The supercycle of the first years of our new millennium was a sustained period of rising commodity prices, supported by population growth and infrastructure expansion in emerging markets. The broader economic boom collapsed with the global financial crisis of 2007–2008.

The mining sector saw an orgy of investment and acquisitions that left major players over-extended and created excess capacity that held prices down for years. The past decade was nothing like a slump. Global output of metals continued to rise, only prices dropped. It is an oddity of GNP accounting that increased production can appear as lower GNP when prices drop. Continue Reading →

Taking teleremote to a new level: Musselwhite grows Ops Centre in Thunder Bay – by Graham Strong (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September 2018)

August 29, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Goldcorp Inc., Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

Goldcorp Inc.’s Musselwhite Mine is working toward becoming a full-fledged smart mine with all the safety, cost-savings, and other benefits that come along with it. Its new Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC), which opened in Thunder Bay in June, allows operators, communications/dispatch personnel and supervisors to work at the mine virtually.

Peter Gula, Musselwhite’s mine general manager, said that the most dangerous work such as loading and rock breaker operations are performed teleremotely. New technology including fibre-based networking has allowed the company to physically move operators out of the mine and into an office building in Thunder Bay, 500 kilometres to the south.

“I’ve had this vision of trying to get as many people offsite as possible,” said Gula, who transferred to Musselwhite in 2015 from Red Lake where he worked for 27 years. “Every person that we have up at site has about a $40,000 a year cost associated with it. That includes travel, housing, and all the staff and services that go to support the people working at Musselwhite.” Continue Reading →

Tailings to the rescue: UBC professor Greg Dipple aims to prove that tailings could be a mine’s secret weapon for reducing its carbon footprint – by Cecilia Keating (CIM Magazine – August 22, 2018)

August 24, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Education and Innovation

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

In order to avoid an increase of the global temperature by two and half degrees by 2100, the scientific consensus is that society must achieve net negative emissions ­­– in other words, pull more planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air than we produce.

According to University of British Columbia Bradshaw Initiative for Minerals and Mining professor Greg Dipple, the mining industry could become a major player in helping society achieve this goal. For over a decade, he has been researching a process in which tailings waste naturally draws CO2 from the air and traps it into new stone formations.

Dipple’s focus has been on how to accelerate and optimize the phenomenon and recreate it on a large scale at mine sites. Next year the findings of his research will be applied to active mines for the first time. Continue Reading →

Mining-polluted water a potential source of antibiotics – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – July 16, 2018)

July 16, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Education and Innovation, Sudbury Laurentian University – Mining Faculties and Research

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

University research reveals links between algae and health benefits

Research from Laurentian University in Sudbury is showing that waterbodies located within five kilometres of abandoned Northern Ontario mine sites could be a potential new source of antibiotics.

Led by Dr. J.A. Scott, a professor of bioengineering at the Bharti School of Engineering, the research was published in a recent issue of Phycologia, a journal that features work related to the scientific study of algae, or phycology.

Through his earlier work, Scott had studied microalgae to determine if they could be used to produce biofuel. But because of their beneficial attributes, he speculated the algae could also be used to produce health products, particularly antibiotics. Continue Reading →

Algoma University joins alliance, jumps into mining research – by James Hopkin (Soo Today – July 10, 2018)

July 11, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Chromium/Platinum Group Metals, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://www.sootoday.com/

Pan-Northern Mining Research Alliance conceived to address challenges in mining sector

The Pan-Northern Mining Research Alliance (PNMRA) will be meeting in Sault Ste. Marie this fall to identify and communicate its funding needs to both federal and provincial governments.

The alliance – which counts Algoma University and Sault College as members – is a collaborative effort between ten post-secondary institutions in northern Ontario.

“The alliance is going to seek industry engagement, supports and collaboration through targeted research opportunities,” said Dr. Pedro Antunes, who is the executive research lead and Canada Research Chair at Algoma University. “The idea is to positively influence government priorities and industry needs that will benefit all of northern Ontario.” Continue Reading →