Mining excellence centre officially launched.

Greater Sudbury's push to create Canada's first centre of excellence in deep mining and exploration has gone from concept to reality.

After three years of behind-the-scenes discussions, the much-anticipated Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) was formally launched at a Dec. 16 press conference in the Nickel City.

As Northern Ontario Business reported in its December issue, John Gammon, the well-respected former assistant deputy minister of Northern Development and Mines, was officially named Laurentian University's director of mining initiatives. He will lead the charge in establishing the university as a world centre of industry-driven mining research.

CEMI will be situated on the 750-acre campus and will focus on five key areas of research: exploration, tele-robotics, mine process engineering, deep mining and environmental reclamation.

Sudbury MPP and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci called the CEMI announcement an "exciting moment in history" for Ontario mining and the Sudbury mining district.

"We have to ensure the (mining) cycle we're on continues" by keeping Ontario among the top 10 mining jurisdictions in the world, he said. "CEMI is going to depend upon large numbers of people coming together in a collaborative mode to reach this objective."

Bringing the proposed $30-million institute to fruition will rely heavily on those private and public partnerships.

Supporting the project is Inco president of North America/Europe operations, Mark Cutifani, who was named to an advisory board consisting of government, education and industry types. Cutifani will be joined on the board by Falconbridge's vice-president of mining, Allen Hayward, and De Beers Canada's vice-president of aboriginal and environmental affairs, Jonathan Fowler.

They will select a permanent board and address CEMI's governance structure.

Cutifani says Inco wanted to be part of CEMI's attempt to bring the industry's "best and brightest" together inside one of the most robust mining camps in the world.

"After more than 100 years of mining in Sudbury, the ore that's easy to find has been found," said Cutifani. "Mining that is deeper than any metals mining district in the world requires innovation and new solutions to create the next 100 years. CEMI, by pioneering progressive deep mining technologies, will help provide those solutions."

The press conference was long on support from Queen's Park, City of Greater Sudbury and Inco, but no dollor figures were announced.

Laurentian University has already committed $200,000 towards the creation of CEMT's mining initiatives office.

Cutifani says Inco is working with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, and Bartolucci's office on a funding proposal.

"We're still taking a good look at that," said Cutifani following the press conference. "We've already put forward some proposals on work we're doing, but in terms of funding, we're still looking at what we should do and how we should best support it."

In Newfoundland, Inco committed $13 million toward a mining research institute at Memorial University as well as $1 million annually in operating expenses for the first seven years.

While the mining sector is a highly competitive and bottom-line drive industry, Cutifani says Inco should have no problem sharing about 80 to 90 per cent of their research and development work in exploration, deep mining and mining processes with other partners.

"Some work we will keep proprietary, but overwhelmingly0 there's a lot we can learn from others on deep mining. From our point of view, anything related to safety, we share with everybody in industry."

Laurentian University president Judith Woodsworth said Sudbury has all the ingredients to create an international economic cluster with several mining-related research centres on campus and a stable of researchers who travel the world sharing their expertise.

"(But) still have a ways to go" to convince policymakers that mining is more than an "old economy" activity and needs to be recognized on the national research agenda, she said.

"We've got the plan, direction, intellectual capacity, consensus and leadership. We need government and industry partners to make that happen."

Woodsworth said they hope to develop links with northern mining camps in Timmins and Red Lake, along with other post-secondary institutions including Queen's, Alberta and Memorial Universities.

www.laurentian.ca

www.inco.com

By IAN ROSS 

Northern Ontario Business