Student workshop in the works

New Horizons

For two weeks next May, about 20 geoscience students will arrive in Sudbury, Ont., to participate in a Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada-sponsored student-industry mineral exploration workshop.

The workshop is being organized to encourage students to pursue a career in the geosciences and mineral exploration, which will face a human resources dilemma in the coming decade as the current workforce enters retirement. The PDAC hosts numerous events designed to lure students into careers in mining, including those at the PDAC International Convention each March in Toronto, the annual Mineral Exploration Roundup 2007 in Vancouver, and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s (CIM) Mining in Society program, which will be part of the organization’s annual meeting, slated for April 29-May 2, 2007, in Montreal.

A project of the PDAC’s student affairs committee, co-chaired by PDAC second vice-president Scott Jobin-Bevans and director Lynda Bloom, the workshop is designed to build a long-term positive relationship between geoscience students and industry.

The third- and fourth-year students, who will be nominated by their respective post-secondary institutions, will travel from regions throughout Canada to the city of Sudbury for the event, slated for May 5-19, 2007. All the student’s expenses will be covered.

The workshop will introduce students to the mining cycle, with a focus on grassroots exploration and economic geology. They will participate in lectures, presentations and hands-on learning that will include work on mineral deposits, exploration techniques, geophysics, careers in the geosciences, legal and regulatory matters, as well as environmental concerns.

There will be day trips to exploration projects and operating mines where the students will observe underground and surface activity.

The workshop is designed to enhance skills considered essential to the industry, such as observation, analysis, team-building and networking.

Several social events will allow students to network with industry participants. In order to be successful, the workshop will rely on volunteers to run the session. Individuals and companies who would like to participate are asked to contact Jobin-Bevans at scott.jb@cciconline.com.

The student affairs committee plans to evaluate the program’s success over the long term, says Jobin-Bevans. As such, the committee will keep in touch with the students throughout their final years of school to find out which industries they enter after graduation. In particular, the committee wants to learn how many students remain in mining.

— The preceding is an edited excerpt from In Brief, a quarterly publication of the Toronto-based Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.