BY CRAIG GILBERT
Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci hopes centralizing Laurentian University's mineral exploration departments under one roof will strengthen Sudbury's standing as a Â?centre of mineral excellence.Â?
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Bartolucci, also chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), announced he will provide $2,528,600 to the school to help centralize the departments at the Willet Green Miller Centre. That building is on -campus, but owned by the province. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Northern Development and Mines have offices there.
Â?By promoting the collaboration between academics, researchers, government and industry, we are fostering the development of Sudbury and Northern Ontario as a centre of excellence for mining, mining products and services,Â? the Sudbury MPP said.
Laurentian University will receive the NOHFC to move the Department of Earth Sciences and Central Analytical Facility into the Willet Green Miller Centre (WGMC), also located on campus.
The move serves to strategically locate mineral exploration research and development activities under one roof while freeing up space in the science building for other university initiatives.
The move will add to the mineral development excellence already housed in the WGMC, including the Mineral Exploration Research Centre, the MIRARCO mining innovation corporation, and the Ontario Geological Survey, and will add another element to the regionÂ?s continuing development as a mining research and development cluster.
Â?This undertaking will strengthen Laurentian UniversityÂ?s capacity to offer a first-class mines and minerals program and facilitate the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment,Â? said Laurentian University President Dr. Judith Woodsworth.
