PDAC Student Affairs Committee, 'Who we are' and 'What we do':
Engaging students in the industry
By 2015, retirements and growth in the mining industry will create some 56,000 vacancies. It is vital that the industry attract students if it is to meet this human resources challenge.
The student affairs committee, co-chaired by Lynda Bloom and Scott Jobin-Bevans, is undertaking several initiatives to attract and engage students. During the PDAC Convention, it hosts student networking events that include meetings with industry representatives. The committee also funds geoscience field trips in post-secondary institutions and supports a variety of scholarships, bursaries and awards.
In 2006, the committee developed a student-friendly portal of the PDAC website to provide information about various industry and academic resources, including awards and career opportunities. Visit www.pdac.ca/students to become familiar with the multitude of exciting opportunities!
Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop A New Initiative by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Updated!
The workshop was a success. For the first time ever in May 2007, the PDAC’s Student Affairs Committee had its annual Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop (S-IMEW). 23 post-secondary geoscience students from across Canada plus one exploration geologist from Tanzania met in Sudbury, Ontario to participate in an exciting two-week adventure.
The all-expense paid experience allowed senior students from geoscience backgrounds to network with industry and peers, to go out on field trips to Timmins, Rouyn-Noranda and Sudbury to review exploration techniques, including geological mapping and geophysics. Among the highlights were visits to open-pit and underground mines and to review 3-D MIRARCO datasets. Participants also got an introduction to various issues concerning the minerals industry, such as corporate social responsibility, environment, wilderness safety, supply/demand cycles, securities, professional geoscience mobility, and human resources needs. Each participant was congratulated at the wrap-up dinner and given a certificate of completion, the 75th anniversary PDAC pin and a granite business card holder. The evening came to a noteworthy end as Mike Connor, president of Nuclear Resources International Inc., spoke on the worldwide supply/demand of Uranium within the next several yeas.
The PDAC thanks Barrick Gold Corporation for contributing $10,000 towards this workshop in its first year. As the patron contributor, Barrick Gold invited one international new hire to participate in this workshop to introduce an international perspective within the group. William Stanslaus, an exploration geologist at Barrick Exploration Africa Ltd. (BEAL), remarked that the exposure and knowledge that he acquired in Sudbury will benefit BEAL, particularly at the North Mara Mine where he works.
Several organizations, including Barrick Gold, helped make this workshop a success. The PDAC would like to thank the student affairs committee, the behind-the-scenes volunteers, the academic community for taking the time to nominate one student within the department, the industry contributors, the daily chairpersons, the speakers, and the field trip/mine tour guides and organizers. We especially thank Laurentian University, the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and the Ontario Geological Survey for bending over backwards to meet our needs during the two-weeks.
Finally, we thank the student participants. We hope that we’ve exceeded your expectations and you’ll remain ambassadors of the minerals industry. We look forward to working with you, the leaders of the minerals industry, within the years to come. We owe our success to you, but you don’t have to take our word for it:
“The exposure and knowledge that am acquiring here will benefit BEAL particularly North Mara Mine where am working for.
It's my hope that it will be the same to other participants.”
William Stanslaus, S-IMEW’07 participant from Tanzania of Barrick Exploration Africa (BEAL)
“It was so refreshing to work with so many great students that were keen and interested in learning. My group was fantastic and it was really awesome they were really keen, excited and really interested in geology and learning, and worked together as a team. Seeing this spirit and interest in geology by these students completely reinvigorated me and once again made me realize why I still love teaching field geology to students.
Thanks again for this and from all I've heard from the students this field trip has been quite a success…”
Stephen J. Piercey, PhD, PGeo., S-IMEW’07 Sudbury Basin field trip guide May 12, 2007
Laurentian University, Associate Professor
Mineral Exploration Research Centre
Department of Earth Sciences
“…The learning experience far exceeded my expectations. The workshop explored well beyond what I learn in academic settings, though I didn’t find things of academic interest to be lacking in any way. I feel comfortable discussing the business-related aspects of exploration and mining geology now that I’ve been exposed to it by so many experts in so many different contexts.
I also applaud the open discussion of corporate social and environmental responsibility during the opening day of the workshop. This promoted discussion among students during the following two weeks and, in my opinion, established a perfectly honest framework between old industry and new geologists who are clearly bent on greening and promoting the field.…”
Marc Rinne, S-MEW’07 participant from Lakehead University
Winner of the 2007 Geological Association of Canada’s Leopold Gelinas Medal for best B.Sc. thesis
“We congratulate the PDAC for organizing this student-industry workshop. It will be an excellent experience for our students and will provide some important help in educating the next generation of Canadian economic geologists.”
Alan J. Anderson, Saint Francis Xavier, Nova Scotia
Department of Earth Sciences
“We thank PDAC for instituting this experience and trust it will become a continuing venture. The ‘rival’ CSPG student industry field trip is an event that our students eagerly participate. The presence of this venture on the mineral exploration side is truly welcomed, as our students are evenly split in their interest in petroleum and mineral exploration careers.”
Hugh G. Miller, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Newfoundland & Labrador
Earth Sciences Scholarship and Awards Committee, Chair
“I wish you the best of success in this outstanding endeavor. Being from Calgary, and as a former participant in the Oil Patch equivalent of SIFT, I think you have conceived a program of the utmost benefit to both the Minerals industry and to promising students inclined that way. Heartiest congratulations.”
David R.M. Pattison, University of Calgary, Alberta
Department of Geology and Geophysics
For more information about this workshop, please contact
Teresa Barrett,
Membership/Communications Coordinator & Student Liaison
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada
e-mail info@pdac.ca
phone 416 362 1969, ext. 221.
For more information about student activities, please visit www.pdac.ca/students.
