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Mining Education and Innovation

Ontario Mining Association Teachers mining tour doubles in capacity for 2013

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

For the past three summers, the Ontario Mining Association has been involved in a week-long educational program called the Teachers’ Mining Tour. This year, the program is being held twice, which doubles the number of teachers to 60 who will gain a first-hand glimpse of modern mining in Ontario.

The programs are being held at the Canadian Ecology Centre, near Mattawa. Thirty teachers from across the province will participate in each of the educational workshops being held July 29 to August 2 and from August 19 to 23, 2013.

“Seeing is believing and this fully sponsored professional development opportunity presents informed choices for educators,” said Bill Steer, General Manager of the Canadian Ecology Centre. “The Teachers’ Mining Tour is an opportunity to bring modern mining into the classroom curricula.”

Lesley Hymers, OMA Environment and Education Specialist, will be supporting the program and making presentations throughout both weeks on OMA education and outreach initiatives. These include the OMA’s high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining and the OMA’s collaborative activities with Skills Canada Ontario, which promotes trades and technologies as career options for students and other organizations.

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Lakehead University launches mineral research centre – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Lakehead University’s mineral exploration research centre is up and running. President Brian Stevenson announced at an alumni breakfast at the Prospectors and Developers show in Toronto, March 4, that the Thunder Bay institution is staking its claim in the mining game in northwestern Ontario.

After a year of planning and laying the administrative groundwork, the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mining and Exploration is now officially open. The centre will be focused on mineral exploration, the environment, and First Nations engagement.

“The key word is sustainable,” said geology professor Peter Hollings, who was named the centre’s director. “It’s not just about mining and exploration, it’s about doing it in a manner with minimal impact.”

Intended to be a truly interdisciplinary institute, it will utilize all the available faculty expertise from across campus in engineering, natural resources management, chemistry, anthropology, First Nation studies, and other groups. “What excites me about this centre is that it goes beyond the geology department,” said Hollings.

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NEWS RELEASE: BMO FINANCIAL GROUP INVESTS IN GOODMAN SCHOOL OF MINES


(L to R) Tracy Macleod, Director of Development, Laurentian University; Ilan Bahar, Vice-President, Global Metals & Mining, Toronto, BMO Financial Group; Bruce Jago, Executive Director, Goodman School of Mines; Ned Goodman; Jonathan Goodman; Dominic Giroux, President & Vice-Chancellor, Laurentian University; Terry MacGibbon, Chair, The Next 50 Campaign, Laurentian University (PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Owen Halper)

Bank supports ‘life-long learning’ through Laurentian University

TORONTO, ON (March 5, 2013) – BMO Financial Group announced a donation of $250,000 in Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines. The gift was presented at BMO’s offices at First Canadian Place, at a gathering held during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada International Convention and Trade Show.

“We are delighted to count BMO Financial Group among the significant private sector supporters of our Goodman School of Mines,” said Laurentian University President and Vice-Chancellor, Dominic Giroux. “I believe that we share a sincere conviction that both graduate education and life-long learning for mid-career professionals will enrich and strengthen the mining industry in Canada and abroad.”

“At BMO Financial Group we believe in personal growth and achievement through continuous learning and access to education. We’re impressed with the vision of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University, and with its focus on training the next generation of mining professionals in Canada,” said Jason Neal, Managing Director & Global Co-Head, Global Metals & Mining, BMO Capital Markets.

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Tech titans crucial to next wave of space exploration – by Ivan Semeniuk (Globe and Mail – March 8, 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.

The O’Neilleans are coming. In the 1970s, fed up with government bureaucracy, the Princeton University physicist and space advocate Gerard K. O’Neill became convinced that free enterprise was the key to extending humanity’s presence beyond Earth.

Now, as a flurry of newly formed companies unveil plans to mine the moon and asteroids, and a non-profit foundation seeks to launch humans to Mars, Dr. O’Neill’s entrepreneurial vision as well as a big dose of Silicon Valley wealth looms large behind it all.

“It’s the expansion of the economic sphere outward to where the resources are,” said Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, a Bay Area company that seeks to place the first privately financed lander on the moon.

Mr. Richards left Canada in 2009, discouraged by a lack of momentum in a space industry reliant on government contracts, but still dreaming about the Apollo moon landings that inspired his interest in space. After spending time among California’s venture capitalists, he realized he had arrived at the right place at the right time.

“I found the tribe that can do this and I never left,” said Mr. Richards, who spoke in Toronto on Thursday at a conference on commercial space development.

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Mining for gold in deep space? – by Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew (Toronto Star – March 8, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact, it’s already here says a growing list of mining and aerospace companies.

Mining in space? It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact, it’s already here. A growing roster of Canadian aerospace and mining companies is setting its sights on asteroids as the next frontier for precious metals and reserves of water on the moon that could make it an ideal pit stop on the way to the deeper reaches of space.

That’s what brought several dozen representatives from aerospace and mining companies, as well as geologists, academics and legal experts to the 6th annual conference put on by the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Thursday.

“It sounds like it’s a new area, but in actual fact, it’s been around for more than a decade, Dale Boucher, director of product design, prototyping and testing at the Northern Centre of Advanced Technologies, a Sudbury-based training and technology development centre for the mining industry.

NORCAT, as the facility is known, has developed rover chassis specifically designed for lunar mining activities. In the last decade, it has developed drills for the Canadian Space Agency and NASA.

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Miners, trades to be in short supply: Report – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – March 6, 2013)

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

The mining industry is facing a major human resource problem in the next 10 years as more workers will retire even as fewer students are getting skilled trades training.

Workforce Planning for Sudbury and Manitoulin has released a study that shows the mining industry in and around Sudbury will need more than 21,000 workers to fill vacancies over the next decade. And that’s after taking into consideration the recent slowdown in the industry.

Reggie Caverson, executive director of Workforce Planning for Sudbury and Manitoulin, said many factors are to blame for the projected labour shortfall.

“We’re dealing with the pending retirement of really knowledgeable and skilled people probably within the next five to 10 years and we also find we’re not seeing a lot of people going into the trades, specifically mining. We’re not attracting a lot of local talent to the profession. “When you combine those factors, we may not have enough people at the end of the road who are trained to be able to take over the jobs.”

Caverson says while mining has been in Sudbury for a long time, it still experiences an image problem.

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Accent: City builds rep as mining [research] hub – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – February 23, 2013)

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

A giant 3D television displayed two separate animations of coloured rectangle s that appeared at seemingly random areas on the screen. The coloured rectangles — and they covered the entire spectrum of a rainbow — represented different mine areas, and appeared on screen in the order they should be developed.

The animation was a visual representation of mine scheduling and showcased the differences between a schedule that was put together manually, and another that was created by an algorithm developed at Laurentian University.

Scheduling ore extraction at a mine may seem like a mundane task at first, but tweaking the extraction order for peak mine performance can increase the net value of a mining operation by up to 20%.

Researchers at Laurentian’s Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) developed a software solution called the schedule optimization tool, or SOT for short.

The technology helps mining companies save time and money before they start digging for minerals, and has been used by a number of companies, including Vale and Xstrata.

Lorrie Fava, MIRARCO’s program manager of ventilation and production optimization, said the program cuts down greatly on the amount of time companies need to dedicate to scheduling a new mine site.

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NEWS RELEASE: UNITED STEELWORKERS DONATE $50,000 FOR LAURENTIAN RESEARCH CHAIR IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY


(L to R) Caleb Leduc, CROSH Graduate student School of Human Kinetics; Dr. Michel Larivière, Associate Director of Laurentian University’s Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health and Associate Professor within Laurentian’s School of Human Kinetics; Alexandra Clement, Graduate student representative for CROSH; Tamás Zsolnay, Executive Director University Advancement; Rick Bertrand, president of Steelworkers Local 6500; Leo Gerard, President of the United Steel Workers and Chair of the CROSH advisory board.

Sudbury, ON (FEBRUARY 7, 2013) The United Steelworkers (USW) today announced a donation of $50,000 toward the establishment of a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety at Laurentian University.

The new Research Chair in the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) will lead research relevant to a broad range of workplaces. The Research Chair will work to make the Centre a national and international leader in occupational health and safety research, development, education, training, and global best practices. The CROSH Research Chair will be supported by a team of researchers, graduate students, and other personnel.

“Occupational health and safety is critical for the well-being of all workers and the overall economic health and productivity of our communities,” said Leo W. Gerard President, USW International. “The United Steelworkers is extremely pleased to be able to make this donation to help fund a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety at Laurentian University.”

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[Sudbury’s] Laurentian University to meet mining industry’s needs – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – January 30, 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.

Discovering a business’s competitive advantage, global marketing, export education, expanding market access: they’re the goals of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA), but they could easily be the founding principles of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University, according to its president.

Dominic Giroux was the guest speaker at SAMSSA’s annual general meeting Dec. 4, and he outlined the scope and aims of the new mining school, which was announced last year and is expected to get underway in 2013.

According to industry statistics, 40 per cent of mining-industry workers are expected to retire over the next few years, leaving a deficit of 60,000 to 100,000 workers across the country. Laurentian aims to close that gap by offering education in mining-related programs that will bolster Northern Ontario’s existing mining cluster and boost the number of skilled workers in Canada.

Canvassing SAMSSA members, Laurentian found business owners appreciated the technical skills of engineering and earth sciences grads, of which there is a current demand, but they also voiced a need for executive programs in the areas of project management, business acumen, and international business.

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Laurentian speeds past $50M fundraising goal to $64M – by CBC Radio Sudbury (January 22, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Sudbury university will wrap up two-year fundraising campaign by the end of March

Laurentian University has reached its goal of raising $50 million dollars ahead of schedule. Two years ago, the school began fundraising at the same time it celebrated its 50th anniversary. The university managed to raise $64 million, exceeding its target, with the help of donations from private companies and individuals.

“I’ve been very impressed … with the many gifts from other alumni, families in Sudbury and companies as well,” said Laurentian president Dominic Giroux. He noted universities from around the province now rely on the private sector for some of their funding.

“We look to private donors … to provide added value features to attract top students … to continue to attract top faculty,” he said.

Provincial funding per student has been decreasing in Ontario since 2007, Giroux added. While the school has already raised $64 million, it will continue its planned fundraising campaign until its conclusion at the end of March.

The money will go toward numerous programs and projects, including mining research, construction projects, graduate fellowships and scholarships.

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NEWS RELEASE: LAURENTIAN NAMES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GOODMAN SCHOOL OF MINES


(L to R) David Harquail, Chief Executive Officer and President of Franco-Nevada Corporation; Tracy MacLeod, Director of Development and Campaign Director; Bruce Jago, Executive Director, Goodman School of Mines, Laurentian University; Dominic Giroux, President and Vice-Chancellor of Laurentian University

Franco-Nevada invests $500,000 to support executive directorship

SUDBURY, ON (January 16, 2013) – Franco-Nevada President and CEO David Harquail today announced a donation of $500,000 to fund the Franco-Nevada Executive Director’s position of Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines. At the same time, University President and Vice-Chancellor Dominic Giroux announced the appointment of Dr. Bruce C. Jago as the School’s Founding Executive Director.

Dr. Jago is a Professional Geologist and experienced mining executive who has worked with such companies as Wallbridge Mining (Vice-President, Exploration), Inco Limited (Applied Mineralogist, Exploration Manager), Temex Resources (Project Manager, Diamonds) and Harry Winston Inc (Project Geologist). Most recently, Jago has been President, CEO and Director of Miocene Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver. His appointment follows an extensive global search.

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OMA member IAMGOLD donates $1.25 million to Laurentian University

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member IAMGOLD has donated $1.25 million to the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University in Sudbury. This gift is dedicated to establish Canada’s first research chair in open pit mining. The search for this position will begin soon and the aim is have the successful candidate in place by July 2013.

“The future of the mining industry depends of our ability to step up the pace of innovation and this has to start with educational programs and research opportunities specializing in advanced mining techniques,” said Stephen Letwin, IAMGOLD’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Creating Canada’s first research chair in the highly specialized field of open-pit mining positions Laurentian University as a leader in mining research.”

“We are honoured to support this unique and valuable program,” Mr. Letwin added. “With the Cote gold project in Northern Ontario as an open-pit mine, it is gratifying to know that we will be both helping to address the serious shortage of skilled mining professionals in this country and creating job opportunities for our future mining engineers.”

“This investment represents a critically important enhancement of our research capacity at the Bharti School,” said Ramesh Subramanian, Director of Laurentian University’s Bharti School of Engineering. “This new research chair will attract more cutting-edge knowledge to our mining engineering programs and will augment our international reputation in mining.”

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Another $500 K for Laurentian’s school of mines – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – January 17, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The founding executive director of Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines is no stranger to the city. In the past, Bruce Jago has worked as an applied mineralogist and exploration director at Inco Ltd. and as the vice-president of exploration at Wallbridge Mining.

Most recently, Jago, who holds a PhD in geology, served as the CEO of Miocene Minerals in Vancouver. “This is the third time I’ll have lived in Sudbury,” he said, speaking to reporters after a Jan. 16 press conference at which his appointment was announced.

“This opportunity came up to come back east, and our family is in Ontario. It’s an amazing opportunity. So, third time lucky. I think we’re going to stay here for a long time.”

The school of mines, created last June, will focus on developing interdisciplinary majors and minors, creating new executive programs for those already in the industry, networking with other schools of mines, doubling the enrolment in mining-related programs by 2020 and continuing to improve student experience.

Beyond introducing Jago, university officials announced at the press conference the school of mines executive director position is being funded through a $500,000 gift from Franco-Nevada Corp.

Franco-Nevada is an $8-billion gold royalty company. David Harquail, the company’s CEO, said he was convinced to provide the funding because the company earns about 10 per cent of its revenues from mines in the Sudbury area.

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Founding director [Goodman School of Mines] appointed – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – January 17, 2013)

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

A veteran mining executive has been appointed founding executive director of Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines.

Bruce C . Jago — most recently the president, CEO and director of Miocene Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver — was introduces as the new ED at a press conference Wednesday.

“We couldn’t be more pleased Bruce Jago will be bringing his vision to the Goodman School,” Laurentian president Dominic Giroux said in a release. “His experience in the field, in Canada and abroad, his work with First Nations, his deep roots in mining and his belief in the industry all make him an ideal choice for this important founding position.”

Jago is a professional geologist and experienced mining executive who has worked with such companies as Wallbridge Mining (vice-president, exploration), Inco Limited (applied mineralogist, exploration manager), Temex Resources (project manager, diamonds) and Harry Winston Inc. (project geologist).

” The world’s mineral resources must be developed efficiently, sustainably and equitably, so all stakeholders receive maximum benefit,” Jago said. “There is no better place in the world for this multi-disciplinary approach to mining education, and I am thrilled with the opportunity to lead this exciting venture.”

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[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.

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