THUNDER BAY — Lakehead University researchers will use a new government grant to try to help mining companies find mineral deposits in Northern Ontario.
The province recently awarded the university $2 million over five years from the Ontario Research Fund, saying the funding will enable Lakehead "to develop new models for industry partners to help them find new mineral deposits for potential mine development."
Peter Hollings, director of the university's Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mining and Exploration, said "this is a huge step for us," with respect to advancing LU's reputation and expertise in this field.
"We're doing a number of things around critical mineral research here at Lakehead. This is just one more step in that pathway to build what we see is that sort of group of researchers who are driving research forward in this area."
Hollings and his team are working closely with five private-sector partners in the Northwest – including two companies with active mines and three that are exploring for new deposits – to find gold, nickel,copper and platinum.
"With all those companies, what we're hoping to do is better understand how the metals get in the ground, basically, and if there are ways that we can characterize that, that can be applied for exploration to help them find new deposits . . . It's about understanding how the rocks form, and using that to help guide exploration and mine development."
Although Canada is a world leader in mineral exploration and mining technology, the discovery of new mineral resources has been declining despite rising expenditures on exploration.
Hollings said this new research was already supported by funding from the mining companies and from the federal government's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
"And then with this Ontario program, we're effectively able to leverage that money again, and allow us to do more than we'd originally planned to do with those companies."
He said it will be great if the outcome turns out to be the discovery of Ontario's next mine, and that he's confident the work will at least advance access to the critical minerals that will be needed to "electrify the economy" in the next 10 or 15 years.
According to Hollings, the project adds to what Lakehead has already been doing in the field of critical mineral research, and in developing a local team with the necessary expertise.
"We're seeing all sorts of exploration around lithium, around nickel, copper, all these things. This is just one of those steps in that direction along with two industry-based research chairs that we're hoping to establish soon - one in minerals processing and one in sort of critical minerals chemistry.
"So with that group coming in as well, we're establishing Lakehead as a hub for this kind of research."
