Celebrate Sudbury Mining Week

Lois Lavoie said she’s amazed by how many people in Greater Sudbury don’t realize how important mining is to the city’s economy.

“Not only do we have mining, but we have the mining service sector, and we have the education sector, which educates people for the mining industry,” she said.

“Every major portion of the city is dependent on mining. We learn that during the down times.”

Lavoie is the chair of Sudbury Mining Week 2011, which started May 7 and continues until May 14. This is the 18th year Sudbury Mining Week has been marked.

Among the activities which have already taken place are a mining display at the New Sudbury Centre,  a mining games competition for high school students and a “path of discovery tour” examining the mining history of the city for elementary school students.

High school students also have an opportunity to participate in a popsicle stick headframe construction competition today (May 12) at Cambrian College.

Mining week activities focus heavily on students because one of the purposes of the week is to educate youth “on career opportunities within the mining sector,” Lavoie, senior account manager of Gardewine Group, a transportation company which services the mining sector, said.

On May 13, the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation will host the annual mining week business luncheon from 11:30-1 p.m. at Bryston’s on the Park. Marc Boissonneault, Xstrata Nickel’s vice-president of operations, will be the keynote speaker at the event. Tickets to the luncheon are sold out.

Lavoie said the luncheon is used by those in the mining sector as a chance to network with one another.

Sudbury Mining Week Family Day will be held May 14 at the McClelland Arena in Copper Cliff from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The event features a number of displays, including one featuring the Inco Triangle publication archives, free pine seedlings, a historic walk around Copper Cliff, a showing of the educational film Metals, Minerals and Mining, children’s activities and music entertainment from Larry Berrio and Vale’s Shaft Bottom Boys.

The family day will also be celebrating the 125th anniversary of ore production in the Sudbury Basin, Lavoie said.

For more information, visit sudburyminingweek.com.