Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), also known as Postglacial Rebound, describes how the Earth responds to different loading/unloading processes, through deformation and vertical motion. One important loading/unloading process includes the Wisconsinan Glaciation Episode and the last glacial maximum, approximately 21ka BP. The unloading processes since led to vertical motion centered around James Bay/Hudson Bay, Canada, with […]

Aluminium smelters are energy intensive and not particularly energy efficient, as most of the energy required to produce aluminium is lost along the production line. This is the reason why it is mandatory to perform a detailed analysis of the thermal wastes produced in these factories. The main objective of this project is to investigate […]

When waste rocks generated by mining activities are exposed to the air and water, various toxic elements may be released to receiving waters and soils. Arsenic (As) is known as one of the most toxic pollutants which can cause damage to the environment and human health. To implement effective source control, it is essential to […]

Arsenic (As) is a toxic metalloid that is widespread in the environment. Anthropogenic mining activities result in As being released from rock via mining activities in mine tailings, waste rock and process waters. AREVA has a proposed mine site expected to produce up to 6 million tonnes of waste rock containing As. This waste rock […]

Les exploitations minières génèrent des quantités importantes de rejets miniers sans valeur économique. Parfois, ces rejets miniers contiennent des phases minérales qui peuvent s’altérer sous l’effet des conditions météorologiques. L’altération de ces rejets peut causer des problèmes environnementaux (contamination des eaux). Ce projet recherche vise à tester des scénarios de stabilisation des rejets problématiques en […]

This MITACS Accelerate project supports the development of new MR/MRI methods of interest and importance to the international petroleum industry. The project joins the UNB MRI Centre, the leading academic research lab in MRI of petroleum reservoir core plugs, with Green Imaging Technologies, the market leader internationally in the provision of MR/MRI methods for laboratory […]

The August 2014 tailings dam breach at the Mount Polley Mine, BC severely disturbed downstream forest ecosystems through erosion and tailings deposition. The impacted area presents an opportunity to research using ecosystem legacies (components that survive a disturbance) to rehabilitate disturbed sites. A field trial at Mount Polley is testing seedling establishment and soil food […]

This project will attempt to improve knowledge of the condition of the roof of mining rooms in potash mining. Typically a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems pointing overhead and connected to a mining machine is used to assess the conditions of the roof. This is important in order to avoid rock falls which endanger lives, […]

The broad objectives of this research include: (1) to develop an accurate picture of the extent to which digital technologies have been adopted by extractive industries, (2) to understand factors that have impacted on the pace of digitalization, (3) to develop an understanding of how further digitalization could transform extractive industries and the communities and […]

One of the most challenging issues in the gold mining industry comes from the carbonaceous ore components adsorbing gold ion complexes, resulting in up to 90% gold loss during cyanide leaching process. The addition of chemical reagents as blinding agents is one of the most promising methods to blind the organic carbon content of ore […]

The benefit of ore sorting is rejecting waste material prior to downstream processing. This results in reducing material handling costs and environmental liability, lowering energy consumption, and feeding more consistent and higher ore grades to the concentrator. Sorting allows for a lower cost bulk mining method resulting in lowering the cut-off grade and increasing the […]

In-situ recovery methods for oils sands are applied to reservoirs containing bitumen that are too deep for mining. To date there has been only one commercially viable in-situ recovery method, Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), involving high pressure steam injection and bitumen production using horizontal well pairs located near the base of oil sands formations. While […]