The goal of the internship project with Quester Tangent Corp., a designer and manufacturer of software products and hardware systems that allow clients to manage large amounts of data, is to research and develop techniques for identifying and classifying the composition of sediments in core samples from the sea floor. Core samples are taken from […]

This project will explore the pedagogical usefulness of a visual programming tool developed by Business Objects, called Gem Cutter. It will be used to illustrate and teach computer programming concepts to new students. This is different from the traditional text-based model in which students are required to engage in text-based interactions with a computer as […]

Precix is a leading manufacturer of CNC routers, dispensers, engravers and laser cutting systems. The goal of this project concerns the optimal design of a robotic finisher which is, in part, a novel manufacturing process used to replicate and scale-up 3D models. Applications are mainly in the movie and art industries. In these fields, there […]

Industrial minerals are an important part of the economy in British Columbia, however, this sector faces several serious challenges due to lack of a national instrument for industrial minerals. “National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101)” is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and administered by the provincial securities commissions that govern how issuers […]

General Fusion is currently working to develop a relatively small, low-cost fusion reactor; work has reached the proof-of-concept stage. The reactor consists of an enclosure filled with molten lead, spun about one axis to create a plasma-filled cavity. A mechanically-induced shock wave travels radially inwards, focusing as it propagates and collapses the plasma cavity. This […]

Underground pre-concentration is an efficient stage in reducing the cost of mining operations. During this operation, extracted rocks are monitored underground and most of the waste rock is rejected while the ore is kept. In this project, image processing and pattern recognition algorithms will be employed to characterize different types of ores as well as […]

The Abitibi Sub-province extends from Timmins, ON to Val d’Or, QC and contains gold deposits with equivocal genesis, derived from either magmatic or metamorphic processes. The largest of the gold lode deposits precipitated at paleotemperatures and paleopressures indicative of depths 8-12 km below the surface. Metal-rich fluid flow at these depths through structurally deformed rocks […]

Mine ventilation is a process that accounts for 15‐22% of a company’s operating costs, and is responsible for up to 40% of energy consumed. With increasing pressure on mines to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, mining operations are forced to develop new design approaches and tools, and incorporate the latest mining technologies in […]

This study aims to improve a process to recover gold in artisanal mining operations by treating a gravity concentrate with cyanide in a closed circuit in a ball mill, trapping gold particles in a capsule of activated carbon in the mill. The main innovation of this process is the use of the activated carbon inside […]

Upon request by Huckleberry Mines Ltd. for further on‐site reclamation research towards preparation for the anticipated mine closure in 2010, a vegetation and soil effectiveness monitoring project was initiated in the summer of 2008. The objective of this project is to evaluate the performance of native vegetation within soil stockpile originated substrates and describe the […]

The internship with Wallbridge Mining Company Limited is directed toward unravelling the formation of copper]gold]molybdenum vein mineralization of the Rogers Creek Pluton in British Columbia. This will be achieved by measuring geological and structural information in the field to 1) identify the geometry of mineralized vein systems; 2) identify the mechanism of vein formation and; […]

As part of a program to improve the profitability of operations at Quebrada Blanca, Chile, Teck is testing an air sparging system in their industrial copper electrowinning cells. This represents a unique opportunity to measure the effects of gas sparging on product quality and metal production cost, and to generate a predictive model to help […]