Mining Education and Innovation – Page 30

NEWS RELEASE: Cementation recognized as leading apprenticeship provider in Ontario

June 21, 2012

June 20, 2012

NORTH BAY – Cementation Canada is one of four Ontario employers to be recognized for their dedication to training the province’s next generation of skilled workers. The annual Ontario Minister’s Awards for Apprenticeship Training celebrate employers that show leadership in training apprentices, support the apprenticeship training system, and promote careers in skilled trades. Through apprenticeship programs employers have the opportunity to make an important contribution to the success of their businesses and industry as well as Ontario’s economy.

In a luncheon held Tuesday, June 19, 2012, in North Bay, Cementation Canada was recognized as a top 2012 apprenticeship provider for Northern Ontario by the Ontario Government. In a time when the mining industry is concerned about the future labour pool and attracting young people into the industry, Cementation has taken positive steps in bringing young trades people into the mining sector through a well-developed apprenticeship program.

Eric Hodgins, Personnel Manager for the company, stated that “The employees involved in the program are committed to advancing their careers and they are all grateful for the opportunity. This program benefits both the individual and the company and we appreciate this recognition from the Ontario Government.” Cementation presently has 17 employees involved in the company’s apprenticeship program in the mechanical and electrical fields throughout Ontario, and an additional 7 apprentices working on projects in other regions of Canada.

Mining school celebrates its 100-year legacy – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – June 19, 2012)

June 19, 2012

Alumni gather for celebration

The roots of the mining industry in Northern Ontario sink deeper than the countless resulting mine shafts do. From Cobalt to Red Lake, mining is more than just a livelihood, it is a mindset, a way of life, one that can be taught and has been since 1912.

The Haileybury School of Mines has been an integral key in the development of mining operations around the globe, known and celebrated for the quality of its graduates and the accomplishments the school and it’s students have achieved.

The school celebrated 100 years over the weekend, bringing countless alumnus thousands of kilometres to celebrate their alma mater.

“It is incredibly important to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this world class institution,” said Haileybury School of Mines alumni president Brian Dobbs. “There have been graduates from this school who have worked in virtually every corner of the globe. It is a proud moment for us here.”

Sudbury plays host to world’s miners – by Heidi Ulrichsen – (Sudbury Northern Life – June 11, 2012)

June 12, 2012

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Mass mining makes low grade deposits profitable

The fact that Laurentian University is hosting the International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining June 10-14 is a pretty big deal, according to the chair of the conference.

“Getting this conference into Canada is a huge deal,” Greg Baiden, a Laurentian University engineering professor and the owner of a local mining technology firm called Penguin Automated Systems, said. “The fact that Sudbury and Laurentian got to host it is an even bigger deal. All the big mining schools were vying to get access to it.”

About 700 delegates and exhibitors from more than 30 countries are attending the conference, which is being held in Canada for the first time. Federal Minister of Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was on hand to open the conference.

He highlighted the importance of the mining industry to Canada’s economic growth and long-term prosperity, adding that Greater Sudbury is a centre of job creation and innovation in the mining sector.

Deep dive on mining innovation [Sudbury mining research]- by Denise Deveau (National Post – June 12, 2012)

June 12, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

{ISSUE} Deep mining has been identified as one of few means to meet the unprecedented demand for base metals over the next 25 years, but the practice comes with risks

{SHIFT} Engineers, academics and mining companies are collaborating to develop new means of monitoring underground rock activity to make deep mining safer

The mining industry is looking deep for reasons that have everything to do with supply and demand. Despite a wealth of reserves on the planet, easy-to-access reserves in open-pit and shallow, underground mines are declining.

It’s the shift to deep mining that is drawing a team of the country’s best mining researchers and leading mining operations to the table in an Ontario-based project that members say could dramatically improve global mining activities.

The SUMIT (Smart Underground Mining and Integrated Technologies) for Deep Mining project was launched in 2010 under the auspices of the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).

Will SYTYKM winners today be celebrities tomorrow?

June 6, 2012

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.

So You Think You Know Mining (SYTYKM)

The filmmaking, writing, musical, comedic and overall artistic talents of a number of high school students from different regions of the province were given a well-deserved spotlight this evening at the Ontario Mining Association’s So You Think you Know Mining awards gala. The event, which attracted more than 200 invited guests, was held at the Royal Ontario Museum on June 5, 2012.

The potential of all the winning student filmmakers was front and centre at the award ceremonies. The Best Overall winner was Scott Keyes from H.B. Beal Secondary School in London for his production “The Melodic Miners.” He received $5,000 and his school will also receive a $500 donation to support future filmmaking.

There were two excellent close contenders for the top honour. Brooklyn Vercruyssen from St. Anne’s in Clinton was First Runner-Up for “Surviving the Storm,” which included spectacular footage of a tornado lashing Goderich’s beach area on Lake Huron. Second Runner-Up was Jeremy Keith from Canterbury High School in Ottawa for the whimsical “Billy’s Breakfast Bash.” Each runner-up received $1,250.

Axing outdated views: Mining Week gets an overhaul in Sudbury – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – May 2012)

May 30, 2012

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.

When it comes to modern-day mining, the pickaxe and shovel are out and robots and technology are in.

It’s a message the organizers of Sudbury Mining Week worked hard to promote this year as students from across the city participated in the annual event designed to raise the awareness of the importance of mining to the area and enhance its profile amongst would-be future miners.

The shift from traditional mining to a high-tech version has been occurring over a number of years, but many in the community aren’t aware of it, said Nicole Tardif, Sudbury Mining Week chair. The city needs to change long-held, outmoded perceptions of the industry if it wants to interest the next generation in mining as a viable career option.

“We have all these great companies and all these great things that are happening in our city,” Tardif said. “If we want those to continue when our baby boomers retire, who better to replace them than the people who have grown up in this area?”

Success is measured by the quality of succession [Sudbury’s Norcat]- by Michael Atkins (Northern Ontario Business – May 2012)

May 7, 2012

Occasionally, we do the right thing in Northern Ontario. We focus on the right stuff, stay with it, attract broad-based support, stop competing with one another long enough to get something done and we move the hash marks forward.

Usually this success comes from one person or a group of like-minded people who form a working trust and are determined, fearless, single-minded, often rude, sometimes arrogant and always in a hurry.

You see this in business, politics, sports and economic development. What you don’t see often is succession from one hard-driving generation to another. One of the reasons is that, just like entrepreneurs who start their own businesses, larger than life groups or individuals in the civil society suck up the oxygen in the room and there isn’t much room for successors to grow and spread their wings. Most great politicians who change a city, a province or the country don’t think they will ever lose an election. Most entrepreneurs don’t think they will ever die. Great leaders are often too busy, too focused, and too passionate about today to give much thought to tomorrow when they have moved on. It is just unimaginable to them.

Demand ‘unreal’ for mining jobs – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 30, 2012)

April 30, 2012

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

Jeff Lafortune teaches in the civil and mining engineering technologist program at College Boreal he graduated from 15 years ago. In that decade and a half, he has seen a tremendous demand build for skilled mining employees.

“When I graduated, there was one company in town … and there were 15 of us wanting that job,” Lafortune said Saturday. “Now, there are 15 companies wanting that one person. So it’s opportunity for the kids. It’s unreal,” said Lafortune, who was taking part in a career fair at the New Sudbury Centre as part of Sudbury Mining Week.

Lafortune was advising people who stopped at his booth about job possibilities after they graduate from the three-year program in which students learn skills such as surveying, ventilation, planning and designing, “and a whole realm of different work.”

He worked 15 years in the industry with several mining companies before heading to the classroom. “In mines, when I left, you could see it was hard to keep and retain” employees, said Lafortune. The mining industry is booming and skilled tradespeople have their pick of the best jobs.

Follow the development [Thunder Bay] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Jouranl Editorial (April 27, 2012)

April 28, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

IT SEEMS there is so much going on in Thunder Bay that it’s hard to keep track of. In one way, that’s a good thing. Thunder Bay needs development to complement what’s left of forestry, build on the next big mining boom and capitalize on the emergence of medical research clusters.

But citizens need to keep aware and be apprised of all these initiatives. It’s our community, our region, and the power brokers must always bear in mind who’s in charge. Grand plans cost money and it mostly comes from taxpayers.

There are two distinct camps among supporters of a proposed event centre. Those who favour a downtown waterfront site agree it will build on and feed off the city’s designated entertainment district surrounding it. Those set on Innova Business Park like the wide-open space to allow for on-site parking and access from adjacent expressways.

A letter writer today wonders if Thunder Bay and area’s notoriously fickle sports fans will troop to a new arena when so few fail to attend events like the Dudley Hewitt Cup.

Mining skills battle heats up – by Liezel Hill (Mineweb.com – April 25, 2012)

April 25, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Whether it be a junior, an intermediate or a major, it seems mining companies are scouting the world to find skilled workers for the latest mining boom.

TORONTO (BLOOMBERG) – Bruno Rizzuto’s father, Cesare, was 19 when he got off a boat in Halifax from southern Italy in 1951. With no coat, and “5 cents in his pocket” he headed for the gold mines of Timmins, Ontario, where he worked underground for 41 years.

Six decades later Rizzuto, a Calgary-based recruiter, is looking for people like his father, with a proposal to bring 10 to 20 miners to Canada from South America as companies scour the world to find workers for the latest mining boom.

“There are just simply not the people there, and I think it’s going to be the Achilles heel of the industry,” said Rizzuto, 38, managing partner at Cadre Staffing Inc. “A lot of these projects will not be able to get off the ground because they will not have either the management capacity to do so or the operational workforce.”

Mining companies such as Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) are struggling to fill vacancies amid a skills shortage that stretches from the iron-ore pits of Western Australia to Chile’s copper mines and the gold deposits of Quebec.

Haileybury School of Mines marks 100th anniversary – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – April 2012)

April 16, 2012

International reputation

When Richard Spence was a young adult searching for the next step in his life, the Haileybury School of Mines was the answer.

“After high school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” he said. “My dad picked up a hitchhiker who was attending the school and he raved about it. So I called the guy and ended up here in 1966.”

The school celebrates its 100th anniversary this year with a weekend of activities and events from June 15 to 17. For former students like Spence, who currently lives in New Liskeard, the school prepared them well for a life-long career in the mining industry.

“I was originally from Thunder Bay and then spent my teenage years in southern Ontario,” he said. “I know I wanted to go back to school and come back North.” Although there were no girls attending the school at that time, Spence said he “became a statistic” when he fell for a local girl and ended up staying in the area.

Students: North America’s latest mining boom – by Julie Gordon (Mineweb.com – April 16, 2012)

April 16, 2012April 16, 2012

www.mineweb.com

With skilled labour in severely short supply, mining companies are paying over the odds for new skills and students are flooding to mining schools in a bid to get a piece of the action.

(Reuters) – When Travis Howard started his degree at the Colorado School of Mines four years ago he decided to pursue a double major in mechanical engineering and metallurgy to give himself the best chance of landing a high-paying job when he graduated.

Turns out he had nothing to worry about. The 21-year-old, who dropped his mechanical classes to focus on mining after his second year, has accepted a job with Kinross Gold Corp at a starting salary of $64,000 a year plus bonuses.

With graduation still a month away, “pretty much everyone is sitting on an offer or two,” said Howard of his classmates, adding that some students were juggling four or five offers.

In fact, students at the Colorado School of Mines are some of the most employable in the country – 94 percent of 2011 graduates from the mining engineering, metallurgy and materials, geological engineering, and geophysics programs have jobs.

All’s not lost, Ontario. The future is green, not black – by Thomas Homer-Dixon (Globe and Mail – April 7, 2012)

April 10, 2012

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.

Thomas Homer-Dixon is director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont.

Ontario, we’re told, is Canada’s new rust belt. The high dollar is pummelling the province’s exports. Big manufacturers are fleeing. The Liberal government is slashing spending to maintain the province’s credit rating. And to top it off, it’s wasting money promoting green energy. There’s just one problem with this pop wisdom: It’s largely nonsense.

Ontario certainly faces huge challenges. Its main trading partner – the United States – is only now emerging from the economic doldrums that followed the 2008-09 financial crisis. And since that crisis, the world economy has been struggling with depressed consumer demand, wary investors and aggressive deleveraging by households, businesses and governments.

Ontario wasn’t ready for this new reality. From the early 1990s to the mid-2000s, a weak loonie made Ontario’s products artificially competitive outside Canada, so companies deferred investment in new factories and technologies.

Research, innovation bolstered by federal budget [Sudbury mining innovation] – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – April 3, 2012)

April 3, 2012

It was an admittedly bittersweet occasion for Darryl Lake when FedNor Minister Tony Clement visited Sudbury’s Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) March 30.

Lake was pleased to guide Clement, a long-time friend and supporter, on a tour of the innovation centre, but it was also Lake’s last day at the helm of the organization, which he played an essential role in shaping. And the poignancy of the day wasn’t lost on Clement.

“There’s no way you can capture an understanding of NORCAT without feeling the passion and the commitment of Darryl Lake over the years,” he said in an address. “Really, it’s such a moment for this organization, but I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for everything you’ve put into this. You’ve put your body and soul into this organization.”

Clement, president of the federal treasury board, assured Lake and others that FedNor’s support of NORCAT—which, since 2008, has totalled $3.4 million—would be bolstered through Budget 2012 and the federal government’s Economic Action Plan.

Outlook 2012: Exciting times for mining – CEMI: 10 questions for Douglas Morrison, president of the Centre for Excellence in Mining

March 31, 2012

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

Q: What exactly is CEMI?

A: The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation is a not for profit organization of about 10 people that was established to help bring innovation in the areas of exploration, deep mining, integrated mine engineering, environment and sustainability to the mining industry of Northern Ontario by directing industry funding to universities and colleges, existing research groups, and the supply and services sector.

It is widely recognized that the era of cost-cutting to survive low commodity prices is gone and the present challenge is to meet the continuing demand of the global economy for metals given the demographics of the industry.
Companies such as Xstrata Nickel, Vale, and Rio Tinto fully recognize that this can be accomplished only by implementing new ideas that will redefine how the mining industry of the future will operate.

Q: What is its mandate?

A: Well, it is the centre for excellence because the mandate is to deliver solutions that can be implemented in the fields of mining operations, exploration, and sustainability. Most metal mines in Canada are underground mines that are getting deeper and hotter, and this presents huge challenges.