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Mining Education and Innovation

MNDM NEWS RELEASE: Enhancing Mine Operations Research in the North

Ontario Government Supports Mining Innovation

June 7, 2013 10:30 a.m. – Ministry of Northern Development and Mines

Ontario is helping to develop a new software tool to enhance the operation of mines.

With support from the province’s Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), the Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) is developing a new software tool to help mining companies generate short-term work schedules for crews and equipment.

This project will support four researchers and programmer positions and will benefit the mining sector by improving day-to-day operational scheduling decisions and help companies with their long-term business plans.

Investing in northern research is an important part of the Ontario government’s Growth Plan for Northern Ontario. A strong northern economy will help create a fair society and give the people of Ontario more opportunities for jobs and economic prosperity.

Quick Facts

Ontario is providing $100,000 to this project through NOHFC’s Emerging Technology program.
Since 2005, that program has invested $175 million in approximately 270 projects across the North, helping to create or sustain more than 1,900 jobs.

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NEWS RELEASE: Actua’s Innovative “Mining Minds” Program Inspires Youth to Explore Canada’s Resource Industry


“Launch of Actua’s new “Mining Minds” program at York University (CNW Group/Actua) (CNW Group/General Electric Canada Inc.)”.

TORONTO, June 10, 2013 /CNW/ – Actua, a national charitable organization providing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs to 225,000 youth annually, launched its newest initiative “Mining Minds” at York University on June 8, 2013. The program is designed to educate young people about Canada’s geology and mineral resources, while promoting the mining industry and related career opportunities.

Canada is a leader in the competitive global mining industry. As world economies continue to grow so does the demand for Canada’s mining expertise and the next generation of skilled workers. “Mining Minds” programs will be rolled out in communities across the country during the summer of 2013, engaging approximately 30,000 youth with a focus on those living in rural and remote areas where mines are located.

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Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Conference – Discovery 13: Mining Innovation Panel

On Tuesday, May 28th , 2013 at the Discovery Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Conference in Toronto, CEMI held a Mining Innovation Panel with guest speakers Douglas Morrison (CEMI), Dick DeStefano (SAMSAA), Dean L. Millar (MIRARCO), Daniel Campbell (MIRARCO) and Richard P. Fink ( Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.) to explore the potential for innovative solutions for hardrock mining in Ontario that can open up global markets at a time when the demand for metals worldwide continues to escalate.

Hardrock mining in Canada entails formidable challenges, but overcoming them through innovation would produce high-grade rewards. The high cost and availability of energy, geotechnical risk and stability, materials handling for both ore and backfill, and productivity levels in underground mines are all issues that are only exacerbated by remote locations far removed from established power and transportation infrastructure and excavation depths of up to 2.5 km.

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Sudbury: Masters of the Underground – by David Robinson (Mining Solutions Journal – June 2013)

Dr. David Robinson is an economist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. His column is from Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury.  drobinson@laurentian.ca

Management consultants quote Sun Tsu’s Art of War when they want to emphasize strategy and creative thinking. I plan to quote Wayne Gretzky about an idea that I think mining supply firms should be pushing.

Dr. Dougal McCreath has over 35 years of experience worldwide, teaching, consulting, doing research and managing projects. He is also the author of more than 50 technical publications, primarily in the field of rock engineering. Dougal’s crazy ideas are better than most people’s best work. This one isn’t crazy – it’s more like a very sneaky chess move.

Dougal wants to build an underground building. That’s not new, of course. The Gjøvik (pronounced Djuhveek) Olympic Cavern Hall, for example, seats 5,500 ice hockey fans under a mountain in Norway. Built for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, it is still the world’s largest underground cavern for public use. The arena was more expensive to build than a surface structure, but as the assistant manager of the project said: “There are no windows to wash or fix, no outside walls to paint, no roof to repair and it costs about half as much to heat as a regular building.” There are a lot of underground sports and recreational halls in Norway, where they double as civil defense shelters.

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International Minerals Innovation Institute – by Robyn Tocker (Regina Leader Post – May 25, 2013)

http://www.leaderpost.com/index.html

For L-P Specialty Products

In Saskatoon, a unique, non-profit institute funded by Saskatchewan’s mining industry and government that brings “market pull” to the design of education and training (E&T) programs and research and development (R&D) projects has been developed. International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII) “is focused on enhancing mining technology, processing technology, environment and safety management, exploration, social license and policy research, and economics of global commodities,” said Rodney Orr, executive director of IMII.

The goals are simple: to support the attraction and retention of educated and skilled people; facilitate research and development; and provide leadership and capacity-building in the development of programs, technical certificate and undergraduate and post-graduate programs. IMII has already begun their work to meet the mining industry’s needs by entering into an agreement with the University of Saskatchewan to provide $1.68 million over a three-year period for the start-up costs of developing Mining Option classes for engineering students and to explore the delivery of an undergraduate mining engineering degree.

IMII was designed to fill the gap for skill development through industry-driven education and training programs and R&D within [the Saskatchewan] mineral industry. It is a unique approach.

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Future mines will be technology driven, [South African] Minister tells union – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – May 27, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Technological innovations would drive the mines of the future, which would need to be run by young people with the appropriate skills, Minerals Minister Susan Shabangu told South Africa’s biggest mining union at the weekend.

Urging the central executive committee of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to rise to the new challenge, Shabangu denigrated the current migrant labour system of recruitment as unsustainable, against the changed background of large numbers of unemployed young people now living on the doorsteps of many mines.

“The mines of the future will have to be modelled differently to those that have characterised this industry for the past 136 years. These mines will inevitably have to accommodate young people who will need to operate them, armed with the appropriate skills, technological knowledge and training.

“There’s no doubt that the mining industry of the future will be driven by technological innovations and research and development, and I’m sure NUM will rise to this challenge,” Shabangu said.

The headwinds from a fragile world economy had conspired to make the mining sector a difficult economic terrain, not just for workers and business, but also for government as regulator and policy maker.

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Sudbury Laurentian’s Ned Goodman School of Mines – by Dominic Giroux, President, Laurentian University (May 15, 2013)

Bruce Jago, Excutive Director of Laurentian’s Ned Goodman School of Mines; Ned Goodman, President and CEO of Dundee Corporation; Dominic Giroux, Laurentian University President

Dominic Giroux, Laurentian University President

http://www.laurentian.ca/content/goodman-school-of-mines

This speech was given by Dominic Giroux, during the Goodman School of Mines Cocktail Reception at the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, Ontario on May 15, 2013

Good evening – bienvenue – aanii, boozhoo. Thank you all for being here, to share in this special occasion. And thank you to our gracious host, Ned Goodman.

I will keep my remarks relatively short. My role tonight is to give you a snapshot of Laurentian University. And that’s exactly why I say “relatively short”, because when I start talking about Laurentian University or what I like to call the “academic resort of Ontario” – 750 acres surrounded by 5 lakes, a golf course, and a supervised beach – I can truly go on for hours.

We are one of the fastest growing universities in Canada: we’ve grown from six to ten thousand students in the past decade, while increasing our average entry grade.

We’re very proud of our small class sizes. What makes the student’s experience unique at Laurentian is this proximity, this interaction, with faculty. 17% of our students are enrolled in French language programs and 10% of our students are aboriginal students—an important and growing proportion of our student population).

We’re proud of the fact that our research intensity has been growing annually. We’re among the top 3 in Canada in terms of total sponsored research, largely due to our award-winning research centers and our exceptional faculty.

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Sudbury Laurentian’s Ned Goodman School of Mines – by Bruce Jago, Excutive Director (May 15, 2013)

 

Bruce Jago, Excutive Director of Laurentian’s Ned Goodman School of Mines

(L to R) Bruce Jago, Excutive Director of Laurentian’s Ned Goodman School of Mines; Ned Goodman, President and CEO of Dundee Corporation; Peter Munk, Chairman and Founder of Barrick Gold Corp.

http://www.laurentian.ca/content/goodman-school-of-mines

This speech was given by Bruce Jago, during the Goodman School of Mines Cocktail Reception at the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, Ontario on May 15, 2013

Thank you Dominic for your very kind introduction and thank you all for attending this celebration.

I would like extend particular thanks to Ned Goodman and Family for their generous investment in the educational future of Laurentian University under-graduate and graduate students but also in the future wealth and health of mining communities world-wide.

In addition, although I have only known Peter Crossgrove a very short time, I would like to express to him my sincere gratitude for introducing Ned Goodman to Laurentian’s President Dominic Giroux and for extending the invitation to this event to his many friends.

Many of you here today have some sort of tie to the mining industry but many of you do not. For those that do not have that tie, you should be aware that the mining industry is going through some transformative changes. We are still going discover and mine new deposits and put them bed once they are exhausted, that is still true, but the real change is going to be about changing how the next generation of mine industry workers are educated.

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NEWS RELEASE: LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY TO LEAD UNIQUE $12M RESEARCH PROJECT

 

(L to R) Robert Krcmarov, Senior Vice President, Global Exploration, Barrick Gold Corporation; Dr. Patrice Sawyer, Vice President, Research and Francophone Affairs, Laurentian University; The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology); The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources; Carl Weatherell, Executive Director and CEO, Canada MIning Innovation Council; Janet Walden, Acting President, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Dr. Michael Lesher, Professor and Research Chair in MIneral Exploration and Principal Investigator, Laurentian University; Dr. Francois Robert, Vice President and Chief Geologist, Global Exploration, Barrick Gold Corporation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Largest ever NSERC-Collaborative R & D grant in support of “Footprints”

TORONTO, ON (May 14, 2013) – An innovative geo-science research project involving universities and mining industry sponsors from across Canada is being supported by the largest research grant ever awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) through its Collaborative Research and Development program.

Dr. Michael Lesher, Professor and Research Chair in MIneral Exploration and Principal Investigator Footprints Project, Laurentian University

The $5.1M NSERC grant was formally announced today by the Minister of State (Science and Technology), the Honourable Gary Goodyear. The NSERC funding is augmented by close to $7M in supportive funding from Canadian mining and related companies, acting through the Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC). The multi-year project will involve more than 40 researchers in geosciences from universities across Canada. The research is being co-led by Dr. Michael Lesher, Research Chair in Mineral Exploration and Professor of Economic Geology at Laurentian University and by Dr. Mark Hannington, Goldcorp Chair in Economic Geology and Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa.

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$12M mining project will focus on deep ore bodies [at Sudbury’s Laurentian] – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – May 15, 2013)

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

A Laurentian University professor will help lead a $12-million research project to develop new ways to discover deep ore and mineral deposits.

Michael Lesher, research chair in mineral exploration and professor of economic geology at Laurentian, and Mark Hannington, Goldcorp chair in economic geology and professor of earth sciences at the University of Ottawa, will co-lead the project, which has been dubbed Footprints.

“It’s certainly the largest mineral exploration project ever run in Canada,” Lesher told The Sudbury Star on Tuesday. Footprints will involve researchers from 24 universities across the country and 27 industry partners, who will provide logistical and technical support. “It’s truly an incredibly consortium of people working together,” Lesher said.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council granted $5.1 million to the project and industry partners contributed an additional $7 million.

Lesher said most new ore discoveries will be deep underground. Deposits like the Ring of Fire (located in northwestern Ontario), which are almost outcropping from the Earth, represent the exception to the rule, he said. Mining exploration companies will need new technologies and methods to discover deeper ore bodies.

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NEWS RELEASE: SOT+ case study kicks off at Vale – advancing mine plan optimization

Sudbury, ON, May 6, 2013 – MIRARCO continues to be a leader in adding value to underground selective mining operations through the use of the Schedule Optimization Tool (SOT). Building upon this commercial software, the SOT+ project dives deeper to enhance the capabilities of the existing tool. In partnership with mining companies Vale and Newmont, commercialization partners CAE Mining and Deswik, and project managed by the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), the first SOT+ case study is now underway, optimizing the economic value of a Vale mining operation in the Sudbury area.

The SOT software optimizes the net present value (NPV) of medium to long-term underground mine schedules for both development and production. As a result, it decreases financial risk, saves time and manpower, and facilitates the evaluation of alternative designs and strategic options along with a wide range of analyses.

The SOT+ project aims to advance the functionality of the software for selective mining and to expand the software to handle bulk mining methods. There are five research themes, each of which will be anchored by a three year case study. The research themes are: ore blending, ventilation constraints, geotechnical constraints, schedule optimization for bulk mining methods (block caving and/or surface mining), and advanced valuation.

The research team includes partners from MIRARCO, Laurentian University, Curtin University, and Chasm Consulting/Ventsim. A mine planning specialist is seconded to the mining company sponsor for each case study.

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A pot of gold at the end of Manitoba mine cleanup? – by Peter Kenter (Daily Commercial News – April 25, 2013)

http://www.dcnonl.com/

A Toronto environmental company is cleaning up a toxic Manitoba mine site at no cost to taxpayers. Its compensation? It gets to keep any gold it can extract from a stockpile of arsenopyrite concentrate.

“As the price of gold and copper began to rise, we realized the possibility for extracting value from mine tailings,” says Ross Orr, president and CEO of BacTech Environmental Corporation.

The company is employing bioleaching technology, which uses microbes to extract valuable metals from undesirable materials.

“Bacteria digest the sulphides to break up the matrix of the tailings materials,” says Orr. “The arsenic and iron go into the solution and the precious metals go into a precipitate for which we can use conventional extraction methods.”

While the technology isn’t new, the application is. The plant would be the world’s first bioleaching facility for the remediation of toxic material. The company initially met with some resistance, however, when it presented its ideas under its other banner, mining firm REBgold Corporation.

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NEWS RELEASE: LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES “THE NEXT 50 CAMPAIGN”

Over $65M invested during university’s most successful fund-raising drive

SUDBURY, ON (Thursday, March 28, 2013) – Laurentian University today celebrated the success of the most ambitious fund-raising campaign in its history. Launched as part of Laurentian’s 50th anniversary celebrations, “The Next 50 Campaign” set a fund-raising target of $50M to fuel the university’s growth and drive creativity, innovation and prosperity. The campaign has exceeded its goal and has raised more than $65.2M in private gifts alone excluding investments made by governments.

“The support shown for The Next 50 Campaign, both by members of the Sudbury community and donors across the country, has been quite extraordinary,” said Laurentian University President and Vice-Chancellor Dominic Giroux. “There is a growing awareness of the strengths of Laurentian’s signature programs, the expertise of its faculty, and the quality of its graduates. The university is clearly succeeding in its objective to build a national and international reputation for excellence.”

At each donor’s request, funds received in support of The Next 50 Campaign were earmarked for a variety of university projects and initiatives, including the Vale Living with Lakes Centre, the Centre for Excellence in Mining, expansion of the Ben Avery Centre, the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre, the Goodman School of Mines, student scholarships and bursaries and cutting–edge research and studies. The tremendous momentum the campaign has generated will allow Laurentian’s Development staff to continue to identify and engage new donors in support of the university’s strategic directions.

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NEWS RELEASE: A Québec first in mining industry research – Launch of UQAT-Polytechnique research program supported by nearly $10 million in contributions from several industry partners

ROUYN-NORANDA, QC, April 24, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ – Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT and Polytechnique Montréal are launching a joint research program, the only one of its kind in Québec: the Research Institute on Mines and Environment – RIME UQAT-Polytechnique (UQAT-Polytechnique). The program will have several mining industry partners: Agnico Eagle, Osisko Mining Corporation, IAMGOLD Corporation, Rio Tinto, Fer et Titane inc. and Xstrata Nickel Raglan Mine. With a value of nearly $10 million provided over seven years, this innovative partnership will produce a top-notch research program and train highly qualified professionals.

For some 30 years, UQAT and Polytechnique Montréal have pooled their expertise by collaborating on various teaching and research projects, particularly since 2001 with the creation of the Industrial NSERC Polytechnique-UQAT Research Chair in Environment and Mine Wastes Management. This longstanding association has produced more than 150 highly qualified people, as well as research work whose results are currently being incorporated into mining practices in Québec, Canada and worldwide.

Johanne Jean, Rector of UQAT, says: “This major partnership announced today reflects UQAT’s development philosophy: that of joining forces. Because of the quality of the research teams in place and the cutting-edge facilities at the two institutions, this high-level scientific programming will foster knowledge development and enable the establishment of optimal solutions for mine waste management and site reclamation, thus meeting the needs of both industry and society.”

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Microbes could extract minerals – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 28, 2013)

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

A Laurentian University scientist is conducting independent research into “mining” decades-old tailing ponds in Copper Cliff that contain nickel and copper that, if reclaimed, would be worth billions of dollars.

Nadia Mykytczuk, an environmental microbiologist at Laurentian’s Vale Living with Lakes Centre, says Sudbury has tremendous potential to be leaders in bioleaching — a process using microbes to extract valuable minerals from ores in waste water.

In many parts of the world, bioleaching is the only source of mineral extraction from low-grade ore and waste, said Mykytczuk during a break at a forum Wednesday at the centre. Bioleaching would remove or extract from ores minerals that weren’t removed by the smelting process.

The microscopic organisms — bacteria, viruses and parasites — eat into waste water, feeding on chemical energy and breaking the water into its chemical components. Microbes don’t destroy those elements, but rather separate them from their mineral form, making them soluble.

Left alone, that water and the metals in it leach out as acid mine draining, entering waterways.

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