Library virtual lab first of its kind.

Timmins is the newest site for a virtual reality lab (VRL) designed at Sudbury's Laurentian University to help mining engineers and geologists better analyse their exploration data.

Similar to Laurentian's Sudbury-based system and a smaller unit installed at Red Lake in northwestern Ontario last year, the technology takes complicated geotechnical datasets and projects a three-dimensional stereo image on a large screen.

Scheduled to open this September, the Timmins lab is the latest spinoff by Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corp. (MIRARCO), a non-profit research centre on Laurentian's campus.

As part of the provincially funded Northern Advanced Visualization Network (NAVNet) initiative, MIRARCO technicians plan to get the hardware installed in the Timmins Public Library in time for a September launch. The project received support from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. Corp.

"I think it will be the first virtual reality in any library in the world," says Andrew Dasys, NAVNet's project manager. "It creates a whole new way to look at information" with a strong educational outreach component aimed at getting young people interested in the sciences, engineering, geology and mining.

Two years ago, MIRARCO was awarded $1.7 million by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. to establish the two-year NAVNet initiative. The plan is to create a network of virtual reality labs across the North in Sudbury, Red Lake, Timmins and eventually Thunder Bay, for use by mining and exploration companies and for mining-related research.

The first VRL, which opened at Laurentian in 2001, has proven to be an enormous time saver for mining and exploration companies, helping them better understand their drill-hole data and interpret ground conditions, as well as the location and quality of mineral deposits.

The process enables engineers with 3D glasses to examine their data on a large radial screen and to take a virtual ride underground through mine workings.

It's been key for many companies in speeding up their decision making and strategizing where to spend their exploration and development dollars.

"Data is becoming more complex and having that third dimension helps you with interpretation," says Dasys.

In Thunder Bay, MIRARCO is working with Lakehead University's geography department to set up a VRL in their new Advanced Technology and Academic Centre.

Dasys says MIRARCO is interested in creating a VRL facility in the Kirkland Lake mining camp, but there hasn't been any significant community interest expressed so far.

But in the Far East, MIRARCO has built on a relationship with Shenyang University in northeastern China by recently signing a contract towards having a VRL facility in place in the near future.

Dasys says their leading-edge capabilities, thanks to the VRL, have allowed MIRARCO to generate business around the world. Australia's Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine is one example, and they are looking to do work with other major mining companies in the future.

They are working with some junior mining companies to integrate years' worth of bore hole data into one comprehensive model. They are promoting it as a Common Earth Model Visualization Concept.

Since exploration companies often change hands and drilling programs sometimes cease, Dasys says the result often is a "ragtag" collection of data sets. MIRARCO is working with those companies to integrate those data sets to create models from sometimes 30 years worth of data.

www.mirarco.org

By INA ROSS

Northern Ontario Business