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Mining Education and Innovation

Sudbury’s Mining Reseach Hub Gets $10-Million Rio Tinto Investment – by Nick Stewart

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. This article was posted on the newspaper website on January 11, 2011.

“While this is a real game-changing technology that’s developing, we still need to
do drill and blast conventional advances, and that has to happen at a higher
speed too.” (Dr. Peter Kaiser, CEMI President and CEO)

Sudbury, Canada turning into Silicon Valley of hardrock mining reseach

A $10-million research effort funded by Rio Tinto and coordinated through the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation will first be tested at the mining giant’s Northparkes Mine in New South Wales, Australia.

A $10-million investment in one of Sudbury’s major mining research nodes by Rio Tinto in December may well benefit other mining operations in Sudbury and around the North, according to project leaders.

The U.K.-based company’s partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) will target the high-speed construction and development of underground mines and the development of ground support systems.

As the company seeks to rapidly move away from open pits to these new underground environments, Rio Tinto will focus on its own mechanized tunnelling and shaft sinking systems, whose issues are common across many Sudbury-area projects, said CEMI president and CEO Peter Kaiser.

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OMA Contributes to Skills Canada Ontario Career Blog

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.
 

The Ontario Mining Association is participating in Skills Canada Ontario’s blog www.skillswork.blogspot.com/ to promote awareness in skilled trades and technology career paths in the mineral industry.  The OMA is contributing to this communications forum to help students better understand the employment prospects offered by the mining industry.

“The OMA has been an active partner with Skills Canada Ontario for more than five years.  In 2010, the OMA celebrated its 90th anniversary and it is one of the longest serving trade organizations in the country,” said the OMA.  “We represent companies engaged in responsible exploration, extraction and processing of Ontario’s mineral resources.”

“Like other sectors, mining foresees a future demand for technologically smart and skilled people.  The flip side of this need for industry is boundless opportunity for young people embarking on training for future employment.  In some ways being a partner with an educational organization like Skills Canada Ontario is like being a member of a health club – the more you use it, the more you get out of it.” 

Sudbury Mining Research Centre CEMI Recruits Star Candidate – by Norm Tollinsky

This article was originally published in the December, 2010 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) is a world-class mining research and innovation centre located in the hardrock mining heartland of Sudbury, Ontario.

The new deputy director of the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) sees an urgent need to “broaden the base of the intellectual capacity that’s applied to mining issues.”

Doug Morrison, formerly global mining sector leader with Golder Associates, says in light of the lack of highly skilled personnel entering the mining industry, more effort has to be made to enlist researchers in other related disciplines to focus on mining issues.

“I don’t think there’s a long lineup of people waiting to join the mining industry these days, so what we need to do is create as much of a critical mass as we can by being much more collaborative.

“Every university has research being done. The vast majority of these researchers have no idea of the challenges that the mining industry faces, but many of them are working on issues that could be of value to the mining industry,” he said. As examples, Morrison cites researchers focused on environmental sciences, chemistry, physics and biology.

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Why Sudbury is An Unlikely Magnet for Global Education – by Globe and Mail Columnist Adam Radwanski (Originally Published August 21, 2010)

Adam Radwanski is the Queen’s Park columnist for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media. This article was orginally published August 21, 2010.

International students are increasingly attracted to the Big Nickel to study, but the real problem is getting them to stay after graduation

Peter Luk admits it’s not an easy sell.

Twice a year, the dean of Laurentian University’s management program travels to China in an attempt to persuade students and their families that Sudbury is the place for them. For most, Canada ranks below several other countries as their choice of where to study abroad. A small northern Ontario city known for nickel mining isn’t even on the radar.

And yet, with students drawn by everything from smaller class sizes to the prospect of a more “Canadian” experience than they’d get in a multicultural metropolis such as Toronto, Mr. Luk is finding takers. In 2008, his first year at Laurentian after nearly three decades at Toronto’s Ryerson University, he recruited four Chinese students. The next year, it was eight. This year, it was 25.

The trend is reflected across campus. With an aggressive recruitment strategy driven by an ambitious new administration, Laurentian reports that it received 952 international applications in 2010, more than double the total from three years earlier.

All this should warm the heart of Dalton McGuinty, who has said he wants to increase international enrolment at the province’s universities by 50 per cent. But it will also test just what the Ontario Premier’s push for foreign students really means, and what its legacy will be.

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On The Brink – How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect [Canadian] Post-Secondary Education – Executive Summary (February/2009 Policy Paper)

The Educational Policy Institute is an international, non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with offices in Winnipeg, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. The mission of the Educational Policy Institute is to “expand educational opportunity for low-income and other historically-underrepresented students through high-level research and analysis.”

The Report is available here: On the Brink: How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect Post-Secondary Education

The institutions that will prosper will be ones that can fundamentally
restructure their costs and develop major new revenue streams, such as overseas
education (that is, not just bringing students to Canada, but the much tougher job of
bringing Canadian education abroad). The challenges of such an environment are great,
and institutions need to consider their responses to it as soon as possible.

Executive Summary

With the global recession in full effect, post‐secondary education in Canada is about to face some very significant challenges. The purpose of this report is to outline the likely main effects of this global recession on the Canadian post‐secondary education (PSE) sector, as well as suggest a series of measures that governments can take to help institutions survive the worst of the crisis.

The most immediate challenges facing the system over the coming years include:

• Decreasing Institutional Revenues – In the short‐term, with global markets in decline, university endowments will produce lower levels of revenues in the foreseeable future. The lack of endowment revenue will impact discretionary income at institutions and force institutions to allocate resources more strategically. In the medium‐term, as governments inevitably try to bring their budgets back into balance, PSE institutions will be hard‐pressed to maintain their current funding levels to post‐secondary institutions. Cuts – possibly quite significant ones – are highly likely starting in 2011.

• Increasing Institutional Costs – Institutional defined‐benefit pension plans have also been greatly affected by the financial crisis; PSE institutions will have to spend more to cover their deficits. Faculty and staff who have seen significant losses in their RRSPs will also be less likely to retire; this means that institutions will have to pay more for older, more expensive staff instead of replacing them (as they do on a regular cycle) with younger, less expensive labour.

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News Release: Educational Policy Institute Releases Report on the Recession’s Impact on [Canadian] Post-Secondary Education (February 25, 2009)

The Educational Policy Institute is an international, non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with offices in Winnipeg, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. The mission of the Educational Policy Institute is to “expand educational opportunity for low-income and other historically-underrepresented students through high-level research and analysis.”

The Report is available here: On the Brink: How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect Post-Secondary Education

TORONTO, ON, February 25, 2009 — Warning that post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada is about to head back towards conditions last seen in the mid-1990s, the newest publication from the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), On the Brink: How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect Post-Secondary Education, takes an in-depth look at the profound affects the recession will have on both revenues and expenditures in the PSE sector. The report’s authors suggest how governments and institutions might respond in order to not only survive this crisis, but perhaps even be in a position to thrive once the recovery arrives.

“It is clear that post-secondary education is facing difficult times as a result of this recession,” said report co-author and EPI Vice-President Alex Usher. “There is, however, still time to save the system from decline if university and college presidents and premiers react quickly and make wise choices on policy and budgeting.”

The report briefly outlines the key effects of the recession on Canada’s system of post-secondary education:

-The collapse in equities affects institutions’ endowments and pension liabilities thus reducing income and increasing expenditure in the short-term;

-The real-economy recession will create new patterns of post-secondary attendance (rising college and graduate school enrolment; falling apprenticeship registrations) which will both raise institutional costs;

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Ontario Report: The Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector – Executive Summary and Preamble

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario.  The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: The Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Ontario university sector is already somewhat differentiated. A policy decision to increase the differentiation of the postsecondary system brings the following benefits:

• Higher quality teaching and research programs
• More student choice with easier inter‐institution transfer and mobility
• Greater institutional accountability
• A more globally competitive system
• A more financially sustainable system

Ontario’s postsecondary system can transition seamlessly and incrementally to greater differentiation with the judicious and strategic use of funding strategies already familiar to government. This transition to a more differentiated university sector is guided by principles including:

• Equal value on the teaching and research functions of universities
• Forging a contemporary relationship between Ontario’s colleges and universities
• Linking the differentiation policy to funding decisions
• More effective use of multi‐year accountability agreements and performance indicators to evaluate whether universities are meeting expected goals and targets

A roadmap is provided indicating how the government can advance the current university system to a more differentiated one. The cornerstone of this transition is a comprehensive agreement between each university and MTCU identifying the expectations and accountabilities of each institution including its expected enrolment and student mix, its priority teaching and research programs and areas for future growth and development.

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Time for Ontario Universities to Specialize in Programs They Do Best: [Ontario Provincial] Report – by Ciara Byrne (October 26, 2010)

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario.  The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: TheThe Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

Ciara Byrne, The Canadian Press: Tuesday, October 26, 2010

TORONTO – Ontario universities should play to their strengths instead of trying to be everything to everyone, the head of an advisory body on higher learning said Tuesday, as he called for schools to focus on the programs they do best.

A report commissioned by Ontario’s deputy post-secondary education minister by the Higher Education Quality Council is calling on universities to pick a specialty and stick with it, meaning Specialty U could be the future in Ontario.

“You will have the institutions doing what they do best, not trying to do what everybody else is doing,” council president Harvey Weingarten said Tuesday.

Tough economic times and a crush of students pouring into universities has schools spreading themselves too thin, Weingarten said. They need to shift their focus if they hope to be competitive.

Weingarten said the government should coax universities to run specialized programs by offering additional funding for those who do it well.

He has recommended the Ontario government start the transformation by asking schools in Toronto to distinguish themselves from one another.

In July, Deborah Newman the deputy minister of Training, Colleges and Universities asked the council to explore whether a differentiated set of universities would improve the overall performance of the system.

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Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario News Release: University Report: Strengthen System Quality, Sustainability and Accountability – October 26, 2010

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario.  The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: TheThe Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 – While several of Ontario’s 20 universities are internationally ranked, pressures on the postsecondary system are palpable. Increased enrollment is jeopardizing the range and quality of programs while a changing labour market demands postsecondary credentials. How can Ontario’s universities improve access, quality and international competitiveness while ensuring a system that is both sustainable and accountable?

A new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) says universities should set measureable goals based on their strengths, and the provincial government should base new funding on whether those goals are met. The results, according to The Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector, would produce a postsecondary system that is more cohesive, more fluid, more sustainable and higher quality.

HEQCO president and CEO Harvey Weingarten, with report co-author and HEQCO research director Fiona Deller, embraced the provincial government’s challenge to explore whether a more strongly differentiated set of universities would help improve the overall performance and sustainability of the system, and help Ontario compete internationally.  With input from student groups and university and college leaders, the report builds on HEQCO’s research and best thinking on the postsecondary sector.

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Mining Scholarships Support the Industry’s Future Workforce

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.

The mining sector provides hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to university and college students studying in related programs to support tomorrow’s industry.  There are numerous sources of these scholarships but for students willing to do their homework, there is a range of financial assistance available.  

For young people looking for future careers in mining engineering, geology and mine technology areas, a good place to start looking is the Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Foundation (CMMF), which was founded in 1972.  It has information on scholarships and bursaries offered by the national Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, CIM Branches and CMMF worth more than $220,000 annually.

“The mining industry wants you – do you want a scholarship.  The CMMF promotes mining as an enviable career choice and offers scholarships to encourage students to apply for studies in fields related to mining,” said Deborah Smith-Sauve, Manager of  CMMF.  “To maintain its leadership in the mining world, Canada requires he best educated workforce possible to develop new technologies and apply them in the most effective manner.”

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Rio Tinto News Release: Rio Tinto Announces New Global Centre for Underground Mine Construction in [Sudbury] Canada

26 November 2010

Rio Tinto has announced a key strategic partnership in Canada, teaming with world leading researchers to create the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction.

The new Centre will be based at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in Sudbury, Ontario, and will focus on innovative rapid mine construction and ground control for mining at depth.

Rio Tinto is investing C$10 million over five years in the centre, completing a suite of five global long term Rio Tinto research centres around the world.

The work with CEMI will assist Rio Tinto’s development of new excavation systems through The Mine of the Future™ programme, focusing on significantly improving the construction and operation of underground mines.

As part of this programme, Rio Tinto will conduct a full scale performance verification trial in 2012 at Northparkes’ copper and gold mine in New South Wales, Australia, as the first of three new underground excavation systems.

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News Release: Rio Tinto Creates A New $10 Million Mining Research Centre at CEMI in Sudbury, Canada

Sudbury, ON – On November 25th, 2010, Rio Tinto announced the establishment of the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction (RTC-UMC) at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Rio Tinto will be investing $10 million dollars over five years to undertake research at the centre.

Rio Tinto is focusing on mechanized excavation including a shaft boring system (SBS) and tunnel boring systems (TBS). Rio Tinto has selected CEMI as the agent for collaborative research leadership in support of high speed construction associated with underground mine construction. For Rio Tinto, this investment reflects the company’s long term commitment to science, engineering and innovation, and is central to its approach to research partnerships. This is the fifth global long-term research centre to be established by Rio Tinto.

The Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction at CEMI will undertake research with respect to ground and machine performance. For this purpose, prototype test sites will be instrumented to improve ground characterization techniques and to develop innovative support systems to facilitate high speed, mechanized tunnel and shaft development technologies for underground mines in highly stressed ground and at depth.

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Doug Morrison Joins CEMI Team to Help Expand Organization’s Mandate for Mining Innovation

The Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) conducts research and development for the mining sector. CEMI strives to establish excellence in strategic areas of research such as deep mining, mineral exploration, integrated mine engineering, environmental and sustainability as highlighted in the 2009 Annual Report (www.miningexcellence.ca). CEMI is becoming an international centre for world-class, industry-focused research and innovation, advancing state-of-the-art concepts, processes and methodologies in support of the regional, national and international exploration and mining industries, and providers of mining services and supplies.

Sudbury, ON – On September 8, 2010, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), held its third Annual General Meeting (AGM) which highlighted the significant progress made by the organization in advancing mineral exploration and mining-related research during the past year. CEMI proudly announced that mining veteran, Doug Morrison will be joining the CEMI team as the Deputy Director. Mr. Morrison will begin his duties on November 1st, 2010.

As Deputy Director, one of Mr. Morrison’s objectives will be to build stronger relationships and effective collaboration among Ontario’s mining Research & Development (R&D) agencies, and from there, with national and international organizations. Over the years, he has worked with Canadian industry, academic and government research institutions, including CAMIRO, MIRARCO, and CEMI, to deliver innovation to the mining industry, and it is anticipated this will enable CEMI to expand the range of technical issues supported through R&D.

Mr. Morrison has 15 years experience in underground mine operations, and 15 years working as a consultant, including four years as global mining leader for Golder Associates, bringing international experience and a broad understanding of all of the issues confronting the industry globally.

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OMA to Help Educate Teachers About Mining at Mattawa Seminar

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.

The Ontario Mining Association is participating in a Teacher’s Mining Tour at the Canadian Ecology Centre near Mattawa.  Thirty teachers will participate in the sold-out course, which is being run from August 9 to 13.  The goal is to help educators learn more about the realities of modern, high tech, environmentally responsible mining in Ontario.

The Teacher’s Mining Tour is a professional development program for Ontario teachers and teachers in training.  Teachers taking the course will be able to earn a component of their Environmental Science Additional Qualification through Nipissing University and the Ontario College of Teachers.

Lesley Hymers, OMA Environment and Education Specialist, will be representing the Association at the event.  The themes for the conference include modern mining, environmental stewardship and sustainability, occupational health and safety and career opportunities within the industry.   

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