Laurentian scoops up gold at mining games

Although he's in a mining engineering program, University of Alberta student Brandon Stewart had never operated a scoop tram before last week.

He was one of 120 students from 10 universities across the province who participated in the 22nd annual Canadian Mining Games at Laurentian University Feb. 23-26.

“I've run similar equipment, but it's the first time I've run that one,” Stewart said. “The controls are backwards from most equipment, but I think it went very well. I grew up around machinery, so I was able to get familiar with it very fast.”

As part of an equipment-handling challenge Feb. 24, one student from each team used the scoop tram to pick up gravel from one area of a Laurentian University parking lot, and dump it into another.

A teammate then used a backhoe to dump the same gravel into pails.

Laurentian not only came out on top with the equipment-handling challenge, but with the overall competition. This is the eighth time Laurentian has won the Canadian Mining Games.

Dusty Nerpin, Laurentian's team captain, participated in the equipment-handling challenge along with teammate Joshua Dufresne.

Both students said they've operated underground equipment in the past. Nerpin was actually a miner for eight years, but went back to school to get his degree in mining engineering.

He said the pressure was on for them to win the mining games.

“This is the mining capital of Canada,” Nerpin said. “We want to make Sudbury proud and take home the gold.”

Craig Allen, a recent Laurentian mining engineering graduate who helped to organize the competition, said that like Stewart, many of the students participating in the challenge had never operated a scoop tram before.

A lot of them come from communities such as Toronto or Vancouver where there aren't any mines, he said.

“They were very impressed to see what we have here for them to play with,” Allen said.

The equipment-handling challenge was just one of 20 events in which the students participated, he said.

Some involve mining engineering theory, but others, such as the equipment handling, mine rescue, jackleg drilling and blasting challenges, are hands-on, Allen said.

“Just about everything we do on a day-to-day basis as an engineer in a mining environment, we try to do here,” he said.

The event also involved three banquets, which were sponsored by the three biggest mining companies in Greater Sudbury — Vale, Xstrata and Quadra FNX.

Allen said company representatives use the mining games as a venue to recruit newly minted mining engineers.

“There's a shortage of mining engineers in Canada and all over the world,” he said. “The companies were quite gracious to sponsor us, and that gives them the chance to try to do some recruiting.”

Allen, who works for Quadra FNX himself, said if the students don't already have jobs, “they would definitely have the right contacts to get jobs” after the competition.

Stewart and teammate Marren Phinney said they're heading to New Zealand to work for the same company once they graduate, but some of their team members don't have jobs yet.

“It really is a great opportunity for finding jobs, and for the companies to be able to recruit people,” Stewart said.

Posted by Arron Pickard