Sudbury's regreening story attracts Latin American delegations: Industry and academic groups from Chile and Peru visit to talk mine tech, environmental remediation.

• Author: Ross, Ian

Battery-powered mining equipment and Sudbury's regreening efforts attracted groups from Latin America to the Nickel City in August.

Delegates from Chilean copper miner Codelco visited Sudbury to get insight into the city's growing expertise in the development and use of battery-powered electric vehicles.

Representatives from Chile's state-run mining company arrived Aug. 5 for a five-day tour of operations and suppliers in Sudbury and Kirkland Lake.

The visit was organized by the Sudbury and Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA).

The Chilean tour group includes maintenance, engineering and operations managers from Codelco's El Teniente Mine--the world's largest underground copper operation --and the Chuquicamata open-pit mine.

Many Sudbury mining service companies already do a great deal of business with Codelco and with other South American mine operators.

Also on the delegation's itinerary was a visit to NORCAT's Underground Centre (the former Fecunis Mine), an underground test site on Sudbury's outskirts where companies conduct trials on new machinery and technologies in a mine-type environment.

In Kirkland Lake, the delegation had a surface tour of Kirkland Lake Gold's Macassa Mine where operations staff told their story of the learning curve in transitioning from diesel to battery electric front-end loaders, haul trucks and other machines.

During the week, the group met with Glencore's design team to further discuss electric vehicles and with selected Sudbury and North Bay suppliers in this niche field, including RDH-Scharf, Epiroc, MacLean Engineering, Miller Technology, among others.

There were also appointments with officials from the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), Canadian Mining Innovation Council and Export Development Canada.

In a meet-and-greet function with SAMSSA suppliers, the Codelco group delivered a presentation on their Chilean operations.

Just days later, a Peruvian delegation arrived in town to learn about 40 years of Sudbury's successful, and ongoing, regreening efforts.

Organized by the Core Foundation, the visitors on the Aug. 12-16 trip met with key figures from Laurentian University's Goodman School of Mines, the Vale Living with Lakes Centre on how Sudbury's environmental success story can be replicated elsewhere.

The Core...