Science North and Dynamic Earth launched their $3-million capital campaign for the Go Deeper expansion project recently.
The Go Deeper project is not just an expansion of Dynamic Earth, it’s a project that can fundamentally shift someone’s experience regarding the mining industry. The mining industry is a huge part of Sudbury, as well as other parts of the north both culturally and economically. With the Go Deeper project, the goal is to provide a memorable experience and show mining in a modern, and realistic way.
“There's never been a better time than now to tell the modern mining story,” Ashley Larose, the director of development at Science North and Dynamic Earth, told Sudbury.com in a phone interview. “There is a brand new critical minerals strategy right now throughout the province of Ontario, and Northern Ontario has never been better positioned in terms of mining. Now, it's our job at Dynamic careers to tell the story of modern mining, but our current infrastructure doesn't let us do that.”
For example, at Dynamic Earth, they can’t properly tell a mining story right now with the current infrastructure.
“It's (the current mine display) not big enough. So one of the first things that we said was ‘okay, we need to create new drifts.’ So our visitors can understand what a modern mine looks like. At the end of the day, we want to inspire people to pursue careers in the mining sector. And if all they see as an example is a smaller, wet, dark environment, they may just bypass that altogether. But if we can show them this is what a modern mine looks like; It's bright, it's safe, it's clean,” Larose said.
The goal is also to show that modern mining involves the newest technology and engineering in order to create a safe mining space. Larose said a career in robotics and simulation can also be found in the modern mining industry. The new expansion will be able to portray the industry a little more accurately – and currently the project has a lot of moving parts.
The aim right now with the Capital Campaign is to raise awareness for the most part. This is a project that can extend to other parts of Northern Ontario and components can also be developed elsewhere as well.
“So there will be five major expansion components at Dynamic Earth, and then five others that are all focused throughout Northern Ontario as well. Some of those include taking exhibit components that will develop at Dynamic Earth and we'll be installing them permanently at other attractions in eight other Northern Ontario cities. So it's really about how do we take the awesome stuff we're doing here and broaden the impacts so that, no matter where you live in Northern Ontario, you'll be able to connect to this project,” Larose said.
Apart from creating a more accurate display of mines, the expansion will also include virtual reality components. VR simulators and games will be installed to illustrate training from a different perspective.
“So what we've done is we've partnered with CIM (The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum) and we're developing a digital video game, essentially, that is all about modern mining, critical minerals and careers in mining. And that will be rolled out across the country, with connections to curriculum in each province. So it's going to become a really strong resource for teachers,” Larose said.
To donate or find out more about the Go Deeper project, please visit the website here.
