CMIC Newsletter - November 2010
Exploration Initiative Consortium
Champions: François Robert
Board link: James Franklin, Richard Moore
The CMIC Exploration Innovation Consortium (EIC), consisting of 15 major and junior mining companies, NRCan, and PDAC, have identified three themes critical to the discovery of new mineral resources that are in need of new innovation in approaches, knowledge, technique and technology in the coming five to 10 years.
The 3 critical research themes are:
1- Discovery Criteria
2- Discovery and Delineation Technology
3- Data to Knowledge
In essence, innovation is required to provide criteria for where to explore, how to find the deposits in the Canadian environment, and how to translate the abundant geoscience data into knowledge that allow more efficient exploration.
Critical to success is a structure to coordinate the collaborative R&D projects to be established across Canada to ensure delivery, success, and rapid translation into the exploration industry. An industry technical board composed of CMIC partners will work with an Exploration program director to define project areas of critical importance that will constitute a basis for establishment of collaborative research initiatives.
In November and December of 2010, the goals of the CMIC Exploration program will be presented across Canada at regional exploration meetings. Establishment of formal project areas is expected early in 2011.
For further information, please contact:
François Robert, Chair - EIC at frobert@barrick.com
Dick Tosdal at rtosdal@gmail.com
Green Mining Initiative
Champions: Louise Laverdure
Board link: Engin Özberk
NRCan's Mining and Minerals Sciences Laboratories (CANMET-MMSL) have focused their Green Mining Research (GMR) Programs on four broad-based pillars of interrelated research, aligned with CMIC priorities.
Footprint Reduction aims at reducing mine waste at the source, during both the extraction, i.e. minimizing the amount of waste rock that is mined, and the processing, i.e. recovering the maximum amount of metals with minimum chemical release.
Aligned with the Energy priority of CMIC, it is also developing better ways to significantly reduce energy consumption underground with projects such as the hybrid vehicles and for comminution which consumes about 50% of total energy used in mining.
Mine Waste Management involves research on processes and technologies to develop better ways to handle the waste in the environment. That means advancing zero-discharge processes by "re-mining" existing waste materials to recover valuable metals and minerals, yielding both economic and ecological benefits.
The program is also currently strengthening its partnerships to contribute expertise to the management and rehabilitation of oil sands tailings.
Ecosystem Risk Management is about increasing our understanding of the ecological impact of mine waste. That involves issues such as metal toxicology and the biological impacts of submerged tailings.
Mine Closure and Rehabilitation is looking at ways to leave healthy ecosystems at the end of the mining cycle for future generations.
In partnership with CMIC, governments and academia, the GMR promotes competitive and responsible mining practices at every stage of the mine life cycle.
It is about finding innovative ways to produce valuable materials while minimizing the waste produced by mining and leaving behind only clean water, rehabilitated landscapes and healthy ecosystems.
Highly Qualified People
Champion and Board link: Malcolm Scoble
Special collaboration - Brian Gordon, Director, Business Development, MITACS Inc.
Is your company in need of research expertise?
Companies in need of engineering research expertise need look no further than MITACS Accelerate. This national program connects companies with graduate students and university faculty members in any discipline through short or long-term research projects aimed at addressing a company's need.
During a MITACS Accelerate internship, a highly-skilled graduate student spends approximately half of his time onsite with the company, collecting data and interacting with staff; the balance of his time is spent at the university, developing innovative approaches to solving the research challenge.
For each four-month internship unit, the company must contribute $7,500. But not to be missed is that MITACS Accelerate matches a company's contribution dollar-for-dollar; a $7,500 investment instantly becomes $15,000. This is possible through the support of the federal and provincial governments including the Alberta Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology.
For more information, interested companies should:
Visit MITACSAccelerate.ca
Contact: Brian Gordon at bgordon@mitacs.ca
Accelerate is administered by MITACS, a national, not-for-profit research corporation which connects academia and industry through collaborative research projects. For more information, visit ww.mitacs.ca.
Special collaboration
The Natural Resources Canada Science and Technology Internship Program provide opportunities to recent graduates in natural sciences to gain relevant and meaningful work experiences within their field of study.
The Science and Technology Internship Program can provide eligible businesses and organizations with a contribution of up to $13,200 for 52 weeks to hire a new graduate to work on projects in natural sciences.
The Program currently has funding available to support 35 additional internships for 2010-2011!
If you, or someone you know, could benefit from this opportunity:
Visit NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca for information and instructions on how to apply.
Contact:
Suzanne Deluney, Program Manager
Tel: 613-996-6199
Email: STIP/PSST@NRCAN-RNCAN.gc.ca
Cyanide Code
Champion: Tom Hynes
Board link: Peter Kondos
On October 15, 2010, CMIC co-sponsored a workshop in Vancouver on the International Cyanide Code. Other sponsors were the International Cyanide Management Institute (of Washington, DC), the Mining Association of Canada, and Natural Resources Canada.
I would also like to acknowledge the active support of Barrick Gold in hosting the workshop. It is the first time that the Cyanide Code workshop has been presented in Canada, despite interest by MAC and others in trying to arrange this previously.
There were about 25 attendees at the workshop, and it was considered by attendees and organizers as quite successful.
In addition to the presentation on the Cyanide Code itself, there were presentations on the experience of two mines in recently implementing the Code in Canada (Barrick and Goldcorp), and presentations on cyanide-related research by NRCan (MMSL) and AMIRA (Curtin University).
There were also presentations on GMI by NRCan (MMSL) and on corporate cyanide experience and concerns by Barrick Gold.
The International Cyanide Management Institute was quite pleased with the workshop and is prepared to consider co-sponsoring with us another workshop in Canada in 2011.
For further information, contact:
Tom Hynes
Email: t.hynes@cmic-ccim.org
Request from Canadian Museum of Science and Technology
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is working on a new, long term exhibition on energy, economy and the environment. The goal of this exhibition is to showcase new technologies developed and used in Canada in energy related sectors. They are looking for some items to include in the fossil fuel or mineral exploitation sections:
- Remote mining equipment, for example, a remote controller to be displayed with an Atlas Copco remote mining video
- Drill bits, preferably produced in the last five years, to be displayed with older bits from their collection.
If you can help, contact:
Anna Adamek, Curator at
Natural Resources and Industrial Design, Canada Science and Technology Museum
P.O. Box 9724, Station T.
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 5A3
Tel: 613-991-3077
Fax 613-990-3636
Website: Technomuses.ca
