Mining Education and Innovation – Page 23

NEWS RELEASE: CEMI awarded $15 Million for Ultra-Deep Mining Network

January 24, 2014January 22, 2014

(L to R) Samantha Espley, Vale; Janet Walden, NSERC; Douglas Morrison, CEMI; Minister Greg Rickford; Irene Sterian, ReMAP; Sylvain Cofsky, GARDN; Loretta Renard, ReMAP; and Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk

Sudbury, ON (January 22, 2014) – The Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State (Science and Technology) was in Sudbury to announce winners of the Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program. The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) was selected as one of four recipients for its Ultra-Deep Mining Network (UDMN) proposal awarded $15 million, the largest grant recipient of the 2014 competition.

In conjunction with $15 million received from the BL-NCE, the UDMN has also received significant partnership commitments of $31 million in leveraged cash and in–kind contributions. The UDMN is a $46 million business-driven network, founded and funded by members of the mining and oil & gas industries, with the active participation of small to medium sized enterprises, industry agencies, research facilities and academia.

Managed through CEMI, the UDMN will lever collaborative, networked solution teams to solve critical private sector research and development challenges that impact resource extraction in ultra deep mining environments, as well as in deep, tight shale-hosted hydrocarbon reservoirs. Addressing these development and operational challenges in some of the deepest mines in the world will result in increased productivity, decreased risk to workers, lower energy utilization, as well as lower capital and operating costs, achieved through performance and efficiency improvements.

BRAZIL’S VISION: BUILD HUMAN CAPACITY IN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: Impacting Laurentian University – by Dick DeStefano (January 2014)

September 7, 2018January 10, 2014

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca

Science without Borders (SwB)

Funded primarily by the Brazilian Government, the SwB scholarship program was launched in July 2011. The program to send 101,000 Brazilian students to study internationally in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects by 2015. The Government of Brazil is funding 75,000 scholarships and a further 26,000 are being funded by the private sector.

During his official visit to the Federative Republic of Brazil from April 22 to 28, 2012, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, announced that Canada will welcome 12,000 Brazilian students at the undergraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral levels under the SwB program by 2015.

I would like to applaud the vision and commitment Brazil has demonstrated by implementing such an innovative and brilliant strategy that will make them a major force within the next decade in the global marketplace.

In the past ten years as executive director of SAMSSA I have attended workshops and seminars lamenting the lack of solutions we have in Canada to rebuild our human capacity and solve our long term need for new highly skilled personnel. The Brazilians are showing us that the answer lies in a concentrated investment in its newest generation of undergraduate students.

Sudbury firm eyes role in lunar mining mission – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – December 17, 2013)

December 17, 2013

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

INNOVATION: Deltion partners with NASA contractor

A city once described as a moonscape now boasts expertise to mine the real lunar surface. Sudbury’s Deltion Innovations Ltd., formerly affiliated with the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology, has been developing space mining systems for over a dozen years and is now a step closer to putting its high-tech drilling and excavating equipment into orbit.

Last week, the company announced a new partnership with Neptec Design Group Ltd. of Kanata to collaborate on projects involving space flight systems.

The two companies have worked together in the past, but now have what Deltion CEO Dale Boucher describes as a “strategic alliance.”

The Kanata enterprise has been a prime contractor for Canadian Space Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration projects, providing flight machine vision systems and supporting shuttle missions. “They built a laser system to inspect the shuttle before coming down,” notes Boucher.

Timmins, Saskatchewan colleges sign agreement – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 3, 2013)

December 4, 2013

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Northern College in Timmins and Northlands College in Saskatchewan have signed an agreement to train students through the mining engineering technician program at the Haileybury School of Mines.

The new agreement is built upon an established relationship between the two colleges. Northlands has delivered the program in the past, offering enrolment once every two years. The new agreement, which will be valid for seven years, will see six consecutive intakes of first-year students.

Earlier this year, an agreement was established with Confederation College to allow graduates of Confederation’s mining techniques program to take the second year of the mining engineering technician program at Confederation.

“The fact that Haileybury School of Mines programming is being delivered by multiple colleges in both Ontario and Saskatchewan is a testament to the quality of our mining programs,” said Fred Gibbons, president of Northern College, in a news release.

Space mining is bedrock of Sudbury research venture – by Laura Gregorini (Northern Ontario Business – October 29, 2013)

November 19, 2013

From space mining suits to terrestrial robotics, Sudbury’s Deltion Innovations is immersed in groundbreaking research and development of space mining technologies and techniques.

Although the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) eliminated its Innovation and Prototype Development Department earlier this year, the same work it started in 1995 will continue under the new for-profit corporation, said Deltion CEO Dale Boucher.

“There was no longer any interest by NORCAT to carry on space activity and so we thought there was a good opportunity here for Sudbury. We had developed a good global image and so to continue the work of the department we elected to create this company.”

Among the work it will continue is the RESOLVE project (Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction), started in 2005, which will confirm the presence of hydrogen, potentially in the form of water ice on the moon. The intent is to use the drilling technology developed here in the 2018 Resource Prospector mission to the moon.

Campus talk raises ethical concerns about UBC’s role in new mining institute – by Vinicius Cid (The Ubyssey – November 12, 2013)

November 15, 2013

http://ubyssey.ca/

On Thursday, Nov. 7, the Social Justice Centre hosted a talk debating UBC’s role in a new mining institute, as well as broader ethical implications associated with the mining industry.

The Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development (CIIEID) will be funded by a $24.6 million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) which will go to both UBC and SFU. The institution is intended to help educate people in developing countries about the best practices for mining.

Yves Engler, a Montreal-based writer and political activist who has written several books critical of Canadian foreign policy, led the talk. Sam Stime, a UBC civil engineering graduate student involved with “Not From My Campus,” a blog critical of the CIIEID, opened the talk. He introduced the audience to the moral and ethical concerns surrounding overseas mining by Canadian companies and the implications of establishing the CIIEID at UBC.

“This is our time to ask tough questions to our government and universities,” Stime said. “Through this institute, there is now a link between us and the federal government’s agenda of imposition.

NORCAT gets $1-million mining equipment simulator – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – November 14, 2013)

November 14, 2013

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

Northern Ontario miners will soon have a hands-on, off-the-job training opportunity. The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) announced a partnership with the Ontario government, mining companies and Laurentian University to create a mining simulation training centre during a press conference at NORCAT’s facility on Maley Drive in Sudbury on Wednesday.

With provincial funding of $1 million through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, along with contributions by Vale, Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Glencore) and KGHM International, NORCAT will acquire a 360-degree mining equipment simulator.

“Imagine coming to sit in a physical pod, to sit in a chair and you’ll have physical controls that might simulate a scoop,” NORCAT CEO Don Duval said. “Your chair will have movement, vibration reality, you’ll have a 360-degree, high-resolution virtual reality screen and it will visualize you moving the scoop, going forward, in reverse.

“It will have scenarios, brake heating … to have that outside of the operation training opportunities, for skilled labour to practise, to get the muscle memory, understand how to do these elements, it’s an exciting complement to some of the existing training programs that some of the private sector has, as well as what we offer at NORCAT.”

Miners partner with colleges to graduate skilled workers – by Simon Avery (Globe and Mail – November 12, 2013)

November 12, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Despite being at the forefront of Canada’s job growth over the past three years, the mining sector will not be able to grow at its full potential in the next decade because of a lack of trained workers, those in the industry say.

The resources industry has begun to work closely with governments, colleges and universities to try to address the looming shortage it fears. The mining industry will need more than 145,000 workers by 2023 to fill new positions and to replace individuals leaving the sector. That is a tall order, given the figure represents more than 60 per cent of today’s work force.

The expected shortfall is based on modest forecasts, says Ryan Montpellier, executive director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council, which made the calculations.

The problem may have been obscured in the last couple of years as mining companies cut jobs and cancelled multibillion-dollar projects around the world in response to falling commodity prices.

Sudbury High school program dispels mining myths – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 8, 2013)

November 8, 2013

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Specialist High Skills Major in mining offered at three local schools

Most people have a skewed idea of what the mining industry involves, but one goal of the Specialist High Skills Major in mining is to dispel those myths, said Leo Leclair, the Rainbow District School Board’s lead for the program.

“It’s technology now,” Leclair said about the current reality for the mining sector. “It’s not pick and shovel, it’s not dark and dirty.”

Three Rainbow District high schools – Lockerby Composite School, Lively District Secondary School and Espanola High School – offer the Specialist High Skills Major program for mining.

The Ontario Ministry of Education started the Specialist High Skill Major program in 2006. At that time, 600 students across the province took courses in the program.

Today, more than 42,000 Grade 11 and 12 students in Ontario are enrolled in Specialist High Skill Majors that cover areas ranging from mining, to business, to mining, sports, manufacturing and hospitality.

Mining academy equips students with high-tech know-how – by Nick Martin (Brandon Sun – October 21, 2013)

October 21, 2013

http://www.brandonsun.com/

‘Hands-on applied learning’

FLIN FLON — No, a pickaxe isn’t on the list of school supplies. Not like when Dallas Mihalicz’s forebears went down into the mines.

The 18-year-old from Flin Flon wants to follow them, but she’d be operating with sophisticated technology or working the controls of a 50-ton loader two kilometres below the rugged Canadian Shield.

Though, more likely, Mihalicz wouldn’t get near the underground until she’d put in her time working on the frozen tundra at an exploration camp searching for the next motherlode. “I’ve been growing up around mining, my father, grandpa, uncle. My dad’s a geologist,” said Mihalicz, who graduated from Flin Flon’s Hapnot Collegiate in June.

Most of her current 11 classmates took far more circuitous routes to University College of the North’s Northern Manitoba Mining Academy, which opened only a year ago in downtown Flin Flon, next door to the hospital and practically in the shadow of the HudBay Minerals mine.

Niche markets? Context on “differentiation” in Ontario [university specialization] – by Melonie Fullick (University Affairs – October 15, 2013)

October 16, 2013

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/default.aspx

The current Ontario government has been formulating ideas for systemic change in higher education since at least 2005, when the Rae Review was released. Some of the issues raised in that review are still with us now – and one of those issues is university differentiation, which has come up yet again via a data set (PDF) from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) and most recently in the provincial government’s draft (PDF) of a framework for differentiation.

Differentiation refers to the idea that universities should each take on a distinct “mission”, one that sets them apart from other institutions, and that their activities and priorities should flow from the mission so chosen. The point of differentiation (PDF) in this way is to curtail or reduce costs through the elimination of activity that does not contribute to the university’s “mission”, and to increase quality by having institutions focus their various resources on a reduced range of programs and/or functions. Past discussions of teaching-focused universities (which already exist in some other provinces) were borne of the same logic.

Earlier in this process, the Ontario government required universities to produce Strategic Mandate Agreements outlining how they would take on specific roles in a larger provincial system. However, an “expert panel” who reviewed the results of this exercise concluded that universities had failed to generate mandates that show significant diversity. Since they haven’t been able to implement differentiation “from the bottom up”, universities are now haunted by the spectre of increased government intervention.

NEWS RELEASE: $65M largest-ever philanthropic gift launches campaign for UWA

October 16, 2013

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Business leader Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola will make history today with what is believed to be the largest single philanthropic donation in Australian history – $65 million to attract the best minds to Western Australia. The gift launches a $400 million fundraising campaign for The University of Western Australia.

Named at the request of the University, a new $50 million Forrest Foundation will fund scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships across all five WA universities. Another $15 million has been provided to build Forrest Hall, a creative living space for rising research stars rivalling the best residential colleges in the world. Forrest Hall will be affiliated with St George’s College at UWA.

Inspired by the global success of the Rhodes Scholarships and the Gates Cambridge Scholarships, the goal of the Foundation is to attract the brightest young minds from around the world as part of a plan to establish Perth and Western Australia as an international knowledge and innovation hub.

NEWS RELEASE: LAURENTIAN’S GOODMAN LECTURES LAUNCH WITH ROBERT FRIEDLAND

October 10, 2013

(L to R) Dominic Giroux, Laurentian University President; Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Mines; Ned Goodman, President and CEO of Dundee Corporation; Bruce Jago, Excutive Director of Laurentian’s Ned Goodman School of Mines

Famed mining financier inaugurates Goodman School of Mines lecture series

SUDBURY, ON (October 9, 2013) – Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines launched its inaugural lecture series today with two lectures by internationally renowned financier Robert Friedland, Chairman and Founder of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation and Executive Chairman and Founder of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

Mr. Friedland delivered a public lecture at Laurentian University on Wednesday evening, drawing on insights gained during his career in international resource development.

Mr. Friedland was introduced by Goodman School of Mines benefactor Ned Goodman, CEO of Dundee Corporation. Mr. Friedland said he was pleased to share the stage with Mr. Goodman, and to have the opportunity to expand on the role of mining in Canada and around the world. “Canadians are recognized in the international mineral resources sector as leaders and achievers of distinction,” he said. “I am honoured to have been invited to speak at Laurentian University, one of Canada’s premier centres of learning in the sciences of mining and minerals, and to share some of my experiences on the front lines.”

Specialize or risk losing funding, Ontario tells universities and colleges – by James Bradshaw (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2013)

September 18, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Ontario’s government has taken its boldest step yet to compel universities and colleges to make hard choices about how they spend their resources, circulating a draft policy designed to stretch limited provincial dollars by narrowing some schools’ missions.

The draft framework for greater “differentiation” between schools was sent to higher-education leaders for feedback on Tuesday, marked “Confidential” but obtained by The Globe and Mail. After spending a decade investing in massive enrolment growth, the government is trying to climb out of a record deficit, and the paper argues that, without change, “Over time the sustainability of postsecondary education may be at risk.”

The paper sets the province and its schools on course for tricky negotiations, which could kick off before 2013 ends and drive some difficult shifts in priorities. Universities are ultimately free to set their own course, but where the province disagrees with a school’s direction, it can steer behaviour with levers such as funding, allocating extra student spaces and approvals for new programs.

Space mining the new frontier – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – September 13, 2013)

September 13, 2013

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

Known worldwide as a mining town, Sudbury is poised to launch into the vast universe of space mining and intergalactic resource extraction.

Deltion Innovations Ltd., a local firm, started working under its new banner earlier this month. Previously a department within NORC AT (the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc.), Sherry Schmidt, Deltion’s chief administrative officer, says she and seven of her colleagues decided to go independent and for-profit when NORCAT opted out of aerospace work.

“If we’re going to have any long-term existence on the moon, whether for manufacturing or habitat, we need to be able to create items and use the resources that are actually there,” Schmidt says. “It’s very, very expensive to take anything from the Earth to the moon.”

Because fuel is so expensive, Schmidt explains it will eventually be cheaper to develop moon-based sources. Deltion’s current work focuses on the extraction of hydrogen and water from the moon for the manufacture of fuel.

“For us, the end goal is to produce hardware that can be taken to the moon and Mars,” Schmidt says.