MPP Mike Mantha’s Notes from the Park: PDAC and 2012 Canadian Mining Games
MPP Michael Mantha and MPP Grance Gelinas with winners. Photo courtesy office of Mike Mantha
by Michael Mantha, MPP Algoma-Manitoulin
As critic for Northern Development and Mines I had the opportunity to meet with folks from around the world this week at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Conference with my colleague France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt. PDAC represents the interests of the Canadian mineral exploration and development industry. Over 38,000 people attended the conference with over 1000 exhibitors.
I was able to speak with several companies about some of our interests and concerns here in Northern Ontario with regards to mining. I highlighted the importance of local job creation here, as well as the significance of refining in our province.
While at the Vale reception I met a group of young students from different communities in the North who are all attending Laurentian University. They informed me that they had just won the Canadian mining games competition.
Each year the Canadian Mining Games are held at participating Mining Engineering universities across Canada. The games involve academic challenges and hands-on competition between individual students or teams from each school.
The universities that field teams each year are: Laurentian University, Universitée de Laval, École Polytechnique, Universitée de McGill, Queens University, University of Toronto, University of Dalhousie, University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta and University of British Columbia.
The 2012 Canadian Mining Games were held in Sudbury, at Laurentian University from February 23 until February 26, 2012. Annually, 12 of the top Mining Engineering students from each university unite at a campus to compete for the national title, and bragging rights. A win for Laurentian University attests to the high level of education in their Mining Engineering program.
These games consist of 20 different events from jackleg drilling, to mine design, to mineral processing and ventilation. Each event has a practical or theoretical component, or sometimes both. Two to four members of each team compete in each individual event. This year, Laurentian placed top three in 12 of the 20 events leading them to finish in first place.
Being one of the main sponsors of the games this year, Vale decided to award the winning team with an all expense paid trip to Toronto for the PDAC convention.
I want to congratulate this year’s team from Laurentian University for their outstanding work. The team consisted of 12 competitors and two spectators: Dusty Nerpin (Captain), Graham MacRae (Assistant Captain), Gilles Guerin, James Gagne, Scott Ross, Jessica Dean, Sean Turcotte, Ryan Jakov, Ian Van Eyk, Ian Berdusco, Joshua Dufresne and Curtis Cameron. The two spectators were Pat Pilon and Micheal Stanford.
