Jobs waiting for diamond drilling graduates: increased exploration activity means Northern grads are a 'hot commodity'.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: TRAINING & EDUCATION

While Northern College is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017, its Northern School of Diamond Drilling has also reached a major milestone of its own.

The program is celebrating its 10th year of existence having graduated more than 230 students in Ontario and Nunavut, who enter the exploration field as diamond driller assistants.

"With the diamond drilling program, we're a hot commodity right now," said Rose-Lyne D'Aoust-Messier, a training consultant at the Kirkland Lake campus. "We're the only program in Ontario."

Thus far this year, D'Aoust-Messier said the college has enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate in placing their graduates in both surface and underground drilling jobs.

Another cohort is highly sought after by drilling companies as soon as they graduate from the Kirkland Lake campus at the end of March.

Activity in the diamond drilling industry has been steadily ramping up over the last year and a half.

"Since January, I'm fielding calls from both sides of the border from Ontario and Quebec looking for our graduates," said D'Aoust-Messier.

Close to half of their recruits are Indigenous with some coming from the Sudbury basin and northwestern Ontario.

When the program was established, the curriculum was prepared in conjunction with the Haileybury School of Mines and the Canadian Diamond Drillers Association.

The program offers 12 seats for each class and runs three times a year.

During their 10 weeks of training --which includes a one-week placement with an actual driller contractor --students are qualified in both surface and underground operations.

"In the last year, we've had successful partnerships with Boart Longyear at Kirkland Lake Gold's Macassa mine site working underground with their crews."

Similarly, two area mid-tier gold miners, Alamos Gold and Primero, have been providing access to their underground workings for training purposes.

D'Aoust-Messier finds some of their graduates have even moved to the Kirkland Lake area with their families, much of it having to do with the amount of exploration activity in northeastern Ontario.

During a recent meeting with the college's industry partners in February, she was offered 15 work placements for nine students.

Aggressive and...