Flin Flon to get mining academy

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This article was published 10/04/2010 (5739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A consortium of industry and public-sector partners is about to unveil plans for a state-of-the-art training academy in Flin Flon to help build much-needed capacity for the next wave of mining development in the north.

Sources say the Northern Manitoba Mining Academy, which will operate as a department of the University College of the North, may include the latest technology in automated underground mining equipment simulators that cost as much as $800,000 and have never before been available in the province.

The new academy will provide facilities for training and research in mining, including a geology lab, a multi-purpose wet lab, video-conference facilities and a library specializing in mining and geosciences.

The federal department of Western Economic Diversification Canada has already announced it’s committed to investing $920,000 in the project.

Provincial Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade Minister Peter Bjornson, said the province is planning to announce details of its participation — which could be $2 million or more — in the next few weeks.

"It is a fascinating and a very exciting opportunity for northern Manitoba," Bjornson said. "The main thing is the assurances that the industry needs that the labour supply will be met."

The two traditional large northern Manitoba mining operators — HudBay Minerals and Vale Inco — are both in the midst of major new developments that will ensure substantial ongoing operations for at least another 25 years.

But both companies and the industry at large are also trying to plan for growing labour-force challenges on the horizon.

HudBay is well underway with the development of its $450-million Lalor copper, gold and zinc mine near Snow Lake that it expects could eventually employ about 400. And Vale Inco is investing more than $150 million in a modernization project and already has more than 100 positions that it is trying to fill.

"We estimate we will need 250 new hires just for our (underground) mining operations over the next three years in order to fulfil our production plans," said David Markham, a spokesman for Vale Inco’s Manitoba operations.

Lynne Yelich, minister of state for Western Economic Diversification, said the federal investment is all about job creation.

"We think this is something that the aboriginal people will benefit well from," she said. "Mining is very important in the north."

Part of the rationale for the training academy is an effort to recruit more northerners — including aboriginal people — into the industry.

Markham said Vale Inco’s experience is that their northern Manitoba recruits are more likely to stay with the company for the long term than workers who have been recruited from outside the region.

"For us to be successful, we are going to have to be looking at training more northern people for our future northern operations," he said.

Cal Huntley, a Flin Flon city councillor who is part of the group working on the mining academy, said, "The city is unbelievably excited about it."

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca