Posted by Sudbury Northern Life 
Premier McGuinty should consolidate the province's scattered
post-secondary mineral education programs at Laurentian
University and establish a world-class centre of excellence - a
Harvard of the Mining Sector.
In one visionary initiative, the Premier could give Sudbury an
economic boost, help resolve mining skilled labour shortages,
spend university funding more efficiently and be in sync with
the recently published provincial report "Ontario in the
Creative Age" by Richard Florida and Roger Martin of the Rotman
School of Management.
Notwithstanding the current commodity slump, there is a
demographic time bomb ticking in the mineral sector as the baby
boomers get ready to retire. It is believed that 60 per cent of
geo scientists - the people who find new mineral deposits - in
Canada will be 65 or older by 2015.
In early 2008, the Mining Industry Human Resources Council
(MIHR) projected that mining industry yearly labour
requirements face three scenarios: high-growth (9,200),
no-growth (6,200), and industry contraction (4,600), until
2016. These were only based on retirements.
Without a steady supply of adequately trained skilled workers,
the Canadian mineral sector's ongoing competitiveness and
expansion will be severely affected.
Once the recession is over, the mining industry will be the
first to bounce back as vital mineral commodities will once
again be in demand by China, India and other developing
countries that will continue to industrialize and urbanize at a
phenomenal pace never before seen in the history of the world.
On the other hand, southern Ontario's manufacturing and auto
sectors will continue to struggle due to lower cost off-shore
producers, ensuring that the mineral industry's importance to
the provincial economy continues to grow. It is in Ontario's
best interests that the training of skilled mining
professionals be given much more attention. As the recent
provincial report, Ontario in the Creative Age states, "We must
build a talent and education system attuned to the demands of
the global creative economy. The province must become the
world's leading talent and educational province."
According to the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers
(CCPE) there were about 23,000 engineering students in
Ontario's universities in 2007. The three institutes that
offered mining engineering - Sudbury's Laurentian, Queens
University in Kingston and the University of Toronto - had only
255 students enrolled.
There are 12 geo-science departments across Ontario with about
620 students enrolled in 2005. They include U of T, Queens,
Laurentian and nine others. Of these, only 230 have the
academic background courses to qualify for registration as a
professional geoscientist in Ontario.
The major challenges in providing mineral education programs
are the high cost of technology and equipment, combined with
low student numbers. Funding is enrolment-driven, and with the
small number of students scattered in three mining engineering
and 12 geo-science programs across the province, it is
increasingly difficult for institutions to maintain the
curriculum to produce graduates with the necessary skills. In
many instances, mining programs have been placed within other
departments, producing a loss of mining focus and decreased
relevance to the industry.
Although Laurentian may be one of the smaller universities in the province, it has a strong commitment to mineral sector research.
Why Sudbury's Laurentian University?
The Sudbury Basin is the richest mining district in North
America and among the top ten most strategic globally. It also
has one the world's highest concentrations of hard-rock mines
with an ensuing level of underground technical expertise that
is augmented by Laurentian - the only university in Canada
located within a mining region. Half the province's mining
activity and revenue are generated here and Sudbury is also
located within a five-hour drive of three of Northern Ontario's
four other major mining camps: Timmins, Kirkland Lake and
Hemlo. The community also has the third largest cluster of
mining supply and service companies in the country. Most
industry experts predict that the prolific Sudbury Basin will
still be producing nickel, copper and platinum group metals a
century from now.
Although Laurentian may be one of the smaller universities in
the province, it has a strong commitment to mineral sector
research. The university's vision statement says, "Laurentian
University will become the national centre of expertise in
geosciences and mining innovation - education, research,
technology and commercialization - by energetically building on
acknowledged strengths in mineral exploration, mining
engineering, robotics, and environmental sciences." No other
university in Canada has a mission statement that explicitly
expresses its research and teaching commitment to mining and
exploration.
Currently, Laurentian's Earth Sciences geology department's
Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) represents the
largest cluster of geoscientists conducting ore deposit-related
research of any university in North America.
Laurentian's Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI)
will be focusing on key areas of research in mining
tele-robotics, mine process engineering, deep mining and
environmental reclamation.
A large engineering school with well-funded research programs
anchors every internationally successful technology cluster.
Clusters are concentrations of related companies and service
providers present in a specific city or region. Many economists
believe clusters are the future key to wealth creation and the
establishment of high paying jobs, primarily through the global
export of goods and services.
The best example of this is California's Silicon Valley and its
strong connection with Stanford University's renowned
engineering faculty. The technology-related sectors of science,
math and engineering are the value-added wealth creators of any
society or country. These connections support cluster
businesses that create and apply new technologies and
successfully compete globally. In most technology clusters,
many of the start-up firms are spun-off from university
research activities.
"The concentration of people and industries is one of the most
powerful of all economic forces" states the recent provincial
report Ontario in the Creative Age. "The great economist Alford
Marshall noted the power of clustering or what he called
agglomeration. Economists had long understood that industries
and economies can and do benefit from 'economies of scale,' but
what Marshall discovered is that a similar kind of productivity
gains can come from businesses and people that work together in
a place together."
Resistance from Queens and U of T's Lassonde Institute
Many people in the mining sector know that the current system
of mineral education in Ontario is not sustainable.
However, a serious stumbling block for consolidating the
programs into one world-class facility with critical mass is
the alumni, especially from the two oldest mining faculties -
University of Toronto and Queens. The alumni provide enormous
amounts of money to these institutions and would resist the
closing of any mineral departments.
In particular, the Lassonde Institute for Engineering
Geoscience at the University of Toronto would vehemently fight
its relocation to Sudbury. A little background on the Lassonde
Institute is in order. Pierre Lassonde is one of Canada's most
successful and high-profile mining entrepreneurs. In 1997, at a
time when the industry was in the doldrums, he generously
donated $5 million to establish the Lassonde Geological and
Mining Engineering program. But many in the industry will
confess that the Lassonde Institute has been diluted from its
original mining focus to encompass other engineering faculties.
The consolidation of all these smaller mineral departments into
one location would enormously benefit the entire mining sector.
It may also entice significant new funding from the industry,
as one centralized facility could take advantage of economies
of scale by teaching all of the province's future mining
engineering and geology students. This critical mass of mining
expertise would draw students from around the world, like the
legendary Colorado School of Mines at its peak a generation
ago.
"The concentration of people and industries is one of the most powerful of all economic forces."
In 2008, for the first time in human history, more than half
of the global population will be living in cities, resulting in
unprecedented demands for mineral products to build the
necessary infrastructure. An explosive demand for skilled
mining geologists and engineers to find and develop the future
mineral deposits, as well as keep the present ones running,
will be one of the most significant global challenges the
mining industry faces. Individually, the engineering and
geology departments within the Ontario university system do not
have the resources necessary to modernize due to low
enrolments.
With provincial billion-dollar deficits for the next few years
and an underfunded university system in desperate need of more
resources, consolidating the post-secondary mineral education
programs into one world-class facility at Laurentian and
turning that institute into the Harvard of the mining sector
would contribute enormous benefits to Sudbury and the entire
mineral sector.
As "Ontario in the Creative Age" states, "Now is the time for
Ontarians to take bold actions to ensure our future prosperity.
... Productive and future oriented investment will generate
prosperity for the long term. Our future advantage in the
creative age will be based on facilitating and encouraging the
geographic clustering and concentration of industries and
skills."
Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based executive speech writer and communications consultant who produces a mining blog.www.republicofmining.com