Bringing Sudbury mining knowledge to South African university.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: TRAINING & EDUCATION

As a South African university seeks to begin empowering its local population through mining-related knowledge, it is reaching out to Sudbury's Cambrian College to assist them in their efforts.

The university intends to open up a geology degree program to 25 students in 2008, with the same enrolment numbers open to degree programs in mining, metallurgy, metals processing. Various advanced certificates related to these same programs will also be offered, which is where Cambrian's expertise comes in.

"Cambrian College has been involved with mining activities for several years, and we can learn a lot from them through this venture," says Dr. Georges Ekosse, coordinator, Geology, Mining and Minerals programs, University of Limpopo.

"So we are looking at strong collaborative efforts in the area of geology, mining, metallurgy and minerals processing. We are looking at getting faculty involved on an exchange basis, and we are now in the process of jointly developing the curriculum, and we are also looking at some sort of collaborative research as well."

With some of the largest deposits of platinum, vermiculite and coal in the world, the South African province of Limpopo is, like Sudbury, an area rife with mining activity, Ekosse says. As a result of this shared industry, as well as Cambrian's involvement in similar programs throughout Tanzania, India and Latin America, the college seemed like a natural choice for a partnership, he adds.

"Part of our programs here involve a lot of hands-on activity, which is not always the case in other countries," says Geoff Dalton, dean of Computing and Engineering at Cambrian College.

"So the model that we have here and some of the things that we do here are some of things that [the University of Limpopo] would like to incorporate into their program."

As an example, he points to Cambrian's use of the local NORCAT mine for its common core training, a system which is being examined as a potential model for such studies at the University of Limpopo.

Additionally, the university is examining the relationships between Cambrian College, industry partners such as CVRD Inco and Xstrata Nickel, and various levels of government.

As the partnership develops, the two schools will exchange faculty as well as students. In a similar system to what the college already shares with the educational training institute of Tanzania, staff and students will travel between the two countries to share their knowledge as well as their...