Mining legend [Robert Friedland] speaks to Sudbury students – by Staff (Sudbury Star – October 11, 2013)

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

Canadian mining companies have a responsibility to help people to make the goods they need to live in a smart and ethical way, one of the men who discovered Voisey’s Bay told a Sudbury audience this week.

Robert Friedland, chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation and executive chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., delivered Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines’ inaugural lecture series on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, he spoke to Laurentian students. “We’ll soon be sharing this planet with nine billion other inhabitants — most of whom, given a choice, would prefer to live in safety and comfort, drive cars, and have air conditioning and smartphones.” he said. “They also want clean air and clean water.

“In addition to its fundamental mission of finding and producing critical materials to support growing economies, the mining industry has a responsibility to present and future generations to develop and adhere to ethical and responsive practices, delivering effective management of the impacts of mining metals.”

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


(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.”

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Nickel price slide hurting local miners – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – July 11, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Slowing Chinese economy partly to blame

While nickel prices are as low as they’ve been since the recession, the founding executive director of Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines said he expects mining to “chug along” in this area.

But Bruce Jago expects smaller operators with high production costs may close mines, while larger companies such as Xstrata Nickel or Vale will begin to curtail production. Nickel prices have been something of a rollercoaster ride in recent years.

They’re currently hovering at around $6.10 to $6.20 a pound. That’s down from $8 a pound just six months ago, and $12 a pound two years ago. In 2008, during the recession, nickel prices dipped to as low as $4 a pound, plummeting from historic highs of $24 a pound a year before.

Laurentian University economics professor David Robinson agrees with Jago larger mining companies won’t be as affected by the lower prices. With large, integrated operations, it’s difficult to close mines, because the smelter depends on the ore coming from the mines, he said. “That’s one of the reasons I worry a little less than I would,” Robinson said.

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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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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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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: 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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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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