The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Sudbury’s Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation has a new leader.
Douglas Morrison, a mining industry veteran, has been appointed as president and CEO of the mine research centre based at Laurentian University. He assumes his new duties March 1.
In a release, Morrison said he wants “to engage with the best scientists and engineers the academic community has to offer and engage our industrial experience to convert this knowledge into practical solutions that can be implemented as routine into mining operations.
“We also want to collaborate with as many mining research organizations as we can so we do not duplicate what has already been done, but also bring fresh minds to bear on problems that the industry has struggled with for many years, combining long years of experience with the youth and enthusiasm of today’s students for the benefit of the industry as a whole.
“We will intensify our focus on deep mining and integrated underground mine engineering, and broaden the support for CEMI from other major mining corporations by expanding our scope beyond underground mining issues to cover aspects of environmental and social impact studies that are now a prerequisite for successful mine permitting and approval of mine closure plans.”
Sam Marcuson, vice-president of Vale Canada for Base Metals Technology Development and chairman of the CEMI board of directors, said Morrison is well-suited for his new job.
“With his extensive experience in the Canadian mining industry and more than 15 years in international consulting, he brings a broad understanding of the issues that confront the global mining industry now and into the future,” Marcuson said. “Having worked in the past with … (research and development) organizations, he will strengthen collaborations in Ontario and across Canada”.
Morrison has enjoyed a long career in mining, starting at Falconbridge Ltd., then at Inco Ltd. and most recently as global mining leader at Golder Associates.
Since joining CEMI in 2011, he has served as vice-president and succeeds Peter K. Kaiser, who has led CEMI since it was created five years ago.
Kaiser will concentrate his efforts as director of the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction, a division of CEMI. He will also assume an advisory role as vice-president of research at CEMI and resume his research at Laurentian University as Chair for Rock Mechanics and Ground Control.
The centre’s board expressed praised Kaiser for his work as founding president during the start-up phase of CEMI.
Under his leadership, CEMI more than doubled the initial investment by the Ontario government and CEMI’s founding patrons, Vale, Xstrata Nickel and Laurentian University, “laying a sound foundation for CEMI’s future under the new leadership.”
This year, CEMI’s total program funding, including leveraged funds, topped $40 million. Kaiser also secured the $10- million Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction at CEMI.
Fred Delabbio, general manager of underground innovation at the Rio Tinto centre, said “the teams assembled by Dr. Kaiser are most effective and most valuable to assist industry in achieving step-change innovations.”
For the next two years, Kaiser will continue to assemble expertise from across Canada and throughout the world in order to accelerate innovative approaches to underground mine construction.