Canadian mining companies are seeking new technologies to help them offset an anticipated 40-per-cent workforce reduction over the next decade.

Paul Hébert, executive director of the Kanata, Ont.-based Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MIHR), says 81,000 miners will be needed over the next 10 years as Baby Boomers retire, new mines open and closed mines re-open.

"Technology plays a part in recruiting the people and showing the jobs," says Hébert, adding it can also offset shortages of skilled workers "because 81,000 is a big number."

New technologies are part of a multi-pronged solution that includes the hiring of more women, Aboriginals and new Canadians.

Wayne Chose, Business Edge
UBC mining engineering professor John Meech shows the miniature version of a robotic truck being developed by his CERM3 students for the industry.

MIHR is an industry-based group that collaborates with mining companies, professional organizations, labour groups and communities on strategies to recruit miners.

John Meech, a mining engineering professor who heads the University of British Columbia's Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals and Materials (CERM3), says technology is key to sustaining the centuries-old industry.

"It's what we need to attract young people into the business," says Meech. "Many people look at mining as being a dull, dirty and dangerous occupation. In fact, the opportunities to apply high technology are on the frontier, so it's very important for us to continue to develop the technologies simply from the viewpoint of bringing more people in.

"Moreover, we need technologies as ore bodies grow deeper, as we're required to mine more accessible places that would be closer to population centres, where people don't always like to have you dig a deep hole in their backyard.

"So we need to come up with technologies that are appropriate for these communities - and continue to supply the world with the raw materials that it needs," he adds.

Meech says more knowledge of the effect of metals on the environment (such as the potential harm of mercury), and growing demand from China and India are driving the development of new technologies. He and his students are developing robotic technology that can be operated via computers with the aid of sonar and other devices.

The UBC group has built and tested a full-sized self-driven truck, which Meech says can save costs by consuming precise amounts of fuel, while a tired driver may press down harder on the gas pedal later in the day.

CERM3 has built a miniature robotic demo truck that was on display at a recent Vancouver career fair - but it displayed a few obvious kinks as it crashed into objects and people's feet as students adjusted its computer coding. The group is also proposing to provide robotics that mine rocks on the moon for the U.S-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Meech predicts robotics will be used more frequently in the future as researchers conquer technical challenges and technologies become more affordable.

"It is going to change the way in which people mine," says Meech. "It is going to impact people that are working and driving a truck. They're going to work at maintaining the instruments that are on the truck, and the system will be able to communicate its fill to the maintenance people and the instrument people, to be able to keep the vehicle operating in a totally reliable way."

Paul Hebert

Meech says today's mining technologies are placing more emphasis on hydrometallurgical methods, which use water and other liquids to separate minerals from rock, and less emphasis on smelting, a process which involves melting ore and may produce sulphur dioxide, which can cause cardiac and respiratory illnesses.

Hydrometallurgical technologies allow producers to extract more low-grade ore, cost less, and reduce pollution.

Meech says new technological trends will feature materials that don't wear and are stronger (such as revised teeth on shovels and other digging equipment), along with materials that enable miners to operate in extreme cold or heat.

Having the ability to see, and understand, what is beneath the earth's surface give producers "better logistics in terms of discoveries," he adds. As a result, more tools that use radar and down-penetrating radar are coming into play.

Deep-mining technologies will also be critical to the industry's future, Meech says.

"We need to develop technologies that enable us to mine at depths approaching two to three miles below the surface," he says. "That may involve locating a processing plant underground or somehow integrating the movement of (ore) from deep in a mine to surface much cheaper."

Meanwhile, Sudbury-based Laurentian University has developed a mining-engineering centre as part of the Ontario government's Centres of Excellence program. Laurentian is developing simulation and virtual-reality software that enables miners to view ore bodies in three dimensions.

But not all Canadian technology developers are looking to serve the expanding domestic market or produce their wares at home.

Vancouver-based Gemcom Software International Inc. recently announced a friendly takeover of Australian software developer Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd. for $13.5 million in cash plus 13.5 million Gemcom shares.

Established in 1985, Gemcom provides mine-production management software services, training and support. Surpac develops and supplies software related to mine planning, engineering, geology, surveying and resource-modelling.

Officials from the two companies say the deal, which consists of a non-binding letter of intent and is slated to close July 6, will position Gemcom as a world leader in mining software and production management.

In addition to developing new technologies, companies are trying to revise old ones.

Ali Entesari, a research and development engineer with Langley, B.C.-based Knelson Gravity Solutions, which develops technology involved in 2,500 mining projects in 60 countries, says mining firms are more receptive to funding research projects than they used to be.

"Certainly, with the price of metals going sky high, I've found it much easier, from the (established) mining companies, or even the new ones, to get the funding for research and come up with new ideas and information," says Entesari.

Knelson, which is named after founder Byron Knelson and commenced operations in 1978, manufactures gravity-based concentrators that separate different minerals using centrifugal force. The firm also provides modelling software that determines the size of plant needed to recover ore in a given location.

When conducting research, Knelson collaborates with mining companies in its lab and at mine sites, and also works with UBC, McGill University and the University of Kentucky.

Recent advancements and increasing demand for metals have helped the company make larger versions of the concentrator, says company spokeswoman Laurie Ashley.

Meanwhile, Teck Cominco is mixing old and new technologies to mine metals from recycled computer equipment at its plant near Trail, B.C. The company crushes the computers in a separate machine and then feeds them into a furnace.

The intense heat melts the metals while the plastics disintegrate into carbon dioxide. The waste gas is "post-combusted" and cooled into steam that is used as fuel to heat processing tanks, while the collected zinc, lead, gold, nickel and other metals are blended with metals mined from other sources.

"Some recyclers separate the computer (components)," says Christa Barr, a Teck Cominco business development chemist. "We think that's very labour intensive and expensive, which sometimes makes it economically unfeasible."

Teck Cominco sells most of the metals to its longtime customers, primarily steel mills and lead-acid battery manufacturers.

But some metals also go to laptop-computer manufacturers, "so we're combining that closed-loop solution," says Colin Joudrie, Teck Cominco's business development manager.

"Not only do we start with (metal) at the mine, but we bring it through the refinery and smelter. It goes to the manufacturer, it goes into a computer product, comes back to us and we close the loop."

Teck Cominco is already processing equipment from Alberta recyclers through an arrangement with the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA.)

A program involving B.C. companies, in conjunction with the Recycling Council of BC will begin in August 2007.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)