TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based gold producer Goldcorp has donated $300 000 to Dalhousie University’s Mineral Resource Engineering programme to establish a new professorship that would increase teaching capacity, expand programme breadth and provide more opportunities for students.
Announced on Tuesday at Dalhousie, the gift would establish the Goldcorp Professorship in Mineral Engineering. Senior professor in Dalhousie’s Mineral Resource Engineering programme, Donald Jones, will be the first incumbent.
“There is a looming skilled labour shortage in the mining industry. We are working to increase the number of new graduates entering this field and we’re confident that Dalhousie can expand on its current track record of graduating top notch mining engineers,” Goldcorp senior VP Brent Bergeron said.
The professorship would focus on curriculum design in particular, expanding Dalhousie’s emphasis on health and safety and environmental aspects of mining engineering. It would also help organise employment recruitment and allow for a new permanent faculty member to be hired with a view to future growth of the Mineral Resource Engineering programme.
“Many of our students have done co-op terms at Goldcorp and the company is the current or past employer of many of our graduates. We welcome this gift as an opportunity to expand our teaching capacity and to establish a mutually beneficial partnership that will positively impact our students and the programme,” Dalhousie Faculty of Engineering dean Josh Leon said.
Dalhousie’s Mineral Resource Engineering programme is one of the oldest and most respected in the country. In recent years, responding to demand for skilled graduates in the field, the programme’s enrolment had increased from 15 to 20 students a year to 40, increasing pressure on the faculty, its staff and resources.
The Goldcorp Professorship would allow the programme to improve its student-to-faculty ratio and continue to train high-quality grads for careers in fields such as mining, petroleum, government, consulting and others.