Background
CERM3 was created at the University of British Columbia in July 2000 following the awarding of Infrastructure Grants from
the Canada Foundation for Innovation,
the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund and
the UBC Stewart Blusson
Fund.
Annual industrial grants and contracts provide support funding for the on-going research projects. Corporate membership in CERM3 entitles each participant to a seat on the CERM3 Steering Committee as well as access to the five laboratory facilities now in operation. A Technical Advisory Committee
has been formed made up of individuals from industry with expertise in environmental and
sustainability issues. Both the Canadian and British Columbia governments also
participate in CERM3's TAC through NRCan-CANMET and the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines respectively.
CERM3's mission is:
- to develop innovative methods to deal with environmental issues in the mining industry;
- to promote the concepts of sustainable
mining as a hallmark of decision-making;
- to produce the next generation of Mining
Engineers with the required environmental skills;
- to enhance the image of Mining in society. CERM3
operates on the premise that true innovation can only be fully achieved
through cross-disciplinary collaboration. Accordingly, CERM3 has brought together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from over 12 departments at UBC to work on mining-related environmental problems. These include Chemistry, Soil Sciences, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Earth & Ocean Sciences, Microbiology, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metals & Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining & Mineral Processing, the Westwater Research Centre, and the Institute for Resources and the Environment. The Centre
has begun to interact with scientists from industry, government and other universities across Canada and around the World. CERM3 aims to become Canada's leading environmental research facility for the mining
industry. To
accomplish these goals, CERM3 researchers will conduct research on:
- legacy sites abandoned in the past
that are creating problems today.
- operating mines that currently suffer
from pollution control problems.
- innovations in mining and
milling to reduce or eliminate environmental problems.
Both short-term and long-term research
is being conducted. Click
here for a presentation on Year 1 accomplishments. Corporate
and Individual Membership in CERM3 is available.
Below are a number of the research
projects currently underway at CERM3 and across Canada:
1. Plugging the Bugs: The Millennium Plug
stops Pollution
An
innovative method to seal mine tunnels has been developed and tested at
UBC which has the potential to
reduce
the cost of mine closure and ensure a long-lasting solution......(more)
2. Natural-Born Killers: Bacteriophage and T.
ferrooxidans
They
descend on the surface of their host like a Lunar Lander. In fact they
resemble a Lunar Lander. They drill
through the cell wall of their host and inject their DNA deep into the
cell to create new ......(more)
3. May the Force be with You: Magnetic
Levitation Hoisting Systems in Underground Mines
The
Vancouver Sky Train is not the only linear motor application to exploit
the principles of magnetic levitation.
Ryan
Ulansky, a Master's student in UBC's Department of Mining Engineering is
building a prototype system to
replace conventional wire-rope hoists in underground mines and integrate
underground haulage with.....(more)
4. Filling the Voids: Codisposal of Tailing
and Waste Rock
All
mines produce two types of waste material - finely-ground particles of
sand called tailings derived
from the processing plant and coarse-sized
waste rock extracted from the mine itself in order to access the ore.
Significant advantages are...(more)
5. Mercury Detoxification: Depletion of
Mercury from Informal Mining Operations
Mercury
as a material for recovering gold has been virtually banned form use in
most main-stream mining operations.
Worldwide however, there are literally millions of itinerant miners eking
out a living panning for gold
from surface placer deposits. These artisanal miners often use mercury to
enhance the extraction of......(more)
6. Growing Gold: Using
Metal-Accumulating Plants to Produce Gold
CERM3
has entered into a research Agreement with Massey University in New Zealand to conduct a
joint
research project into Phyto-Reclamation and Phyto- Mining. Massey is the
leading research group in
the world studying the use of hyper-accumulating plants to remove toxic
metals and valuable metals from
waste dumps and spent heap leach operations. The work is being......(more)
7. Impacting Energy Efficiency: Improving Energy Use in Grinding
Breaking
rock and ore minerals into small particles is an essential operation at
all mines. Conventional methods involve
crushing rock between two metal plates or dropping steel balls or rods
onto ore particles to generate smaller
particles. About 65 to 80 percent of all energy used in mining is consumed
in these processes......(more)
8. Fishing for Pollution: Earthworms as
Bio-Indicators of Pollution from Mining Operations
Metal
pollutants enter the aquatic environment via a variety of pathways. In
some cases the levels of metal
are sufficient to cause significant damage to organisms and to enter the
food chain. However, in
other cases, similar levels do cause problems because of synergetic
beneficial effects.....(more)
9. Falling Over to Keep it Standing: Geomechanics
Research to Make Mining Safer
Knowledge
about rock strength and related geological and hydrogeological situations in an underground
mine is extremely important in developing safe operating practices......(more)
10. Energy from Mother-Earth: The Advent of
Geothermal Energy as a Resource in Canada
Canada
is the only country on the Pacific Rim that has yet to exploit its
geothermal resources. Low-, medium-,
and high-temperature geothermal fluids are available across Canada with
particular high-temperature
resources close to Vancouver in British Columbia. Mine waters are
often......(more)
11.
Opportunities for Industrial Growth
from Pollution:
Industrial Minerals for Environmental Control
Industrial
Minerals include a wide variety of substances used to create building
materials such as bricks,
concrete, roads, glass, and other essentials. There are certain Industrial
Minerals however, that
have properties that lend themselves to helping to protect and cleanup the
environment......(more)
12.
Robotics and Automation for Environmental Control:
The Machines Take Over
CERM3
has opened up a laboratory to study Mine Automation and to conduct
Environmental Simulation studies for industry. The facility consists of a
number of robotic testbeds as well as a central research network dedicated
to.......(more)
13.
In the Pits:
Physical Processes at Island Copper Meromictic Lake
Upon
closing its Island Copper mine at Port Hardy on Vancouver Island,
BHP-Billiton created an innovative
lake by flooding the pit to within 10 m of its brim with sea water. Fresh
water was then placed
on the top 10 m, creating three separate zones in the lake , the lowest
one of which is an anoxic
layer to deal with injected Acid- Rock-Drainage from nearby waste
dumps......(more)
14.
Weight Reduction - SRB Style: Mitigation of Heavy-Metals using Sulfate Reducing Bacteria
Some
natural bacteria such as T. ferrooxidans accelerate the production of
Acid- Rock-Drainage. Fortunately
there is another "bug" that can be used to mitigate against ARD.
These are known as
Sulfate-Reducing-Bacteria and they can play a major role in reducing the
impact of ARD and eliminating
metal species leached from the ore by the acid......(more)
15.
Communities in Transition: Creating Sustainable Communities in the Mining Industry
Most,
but not all, mining takes place in remote regions of the world. In some
cases "fly-in-fly-out" camps
are established these days but in others, a community is built nearby the
mine to provide houses
and a society for the mine workers and related suppliers.....(more)
16.
Soil Science and Water Resources
Research for Mining: the Dirt and Water need Analysis
CERM3
has opened a laboratory in collaboration with the IRES group lead by Les
Lavkulich to provide environmental analytical services. Situated in the Soil
Sciences laboratories in the MacMillan Building......(more)
17.
Pacific Centre for Isotopic and
Geochemical Research: PCIGR
CERM3
has entered into a collaborative arrangement with the new Pacific Centre for
Isotopic and Geochemical Research" (PCIGR) in the department of Earth and
Ocean Science. PCIGR is an innovative approach to major analytical facilities
that is based at UBC but also involves researchers from
......(more)
18.
Educating the Sustainable
Engineer: A Novel Approach to Knowledge Acquisition
Teaching
Sustainability requires a new approach. Using the classical lecture and
laboratory methods will no longer
do the job. Multiple input is necessary in each topic from a variety of
viewpoints. Team-teaching and team-learning
are necessary to build a project-oriented environment......(more)
19. Human Resources: The Lifeline of a Viable
Future Mining Industry
Canada
is unique in the world with respect to Mining Engineering education. While
there has been a significant
contraction in Mining Engineering programs at Australian, US, and European
universities, Mining
Programs in Canada have actually expanded by one - the University of
Toronto......(more)
20.
Mining and Sustainability: Is
a Sustainable Industry Possible?
How
can Mining be called a Sustainable Industry? Doesn't the ore eventually
run out at a mine site? Don't mines
have to shut down? Clearly, the term Sustainable Mining sounds like a
contradiction...(more)
21.
Bridging the Gap: Bringing together Engineering, Health Care Workers and Policy Makers
A
new Program has started up this Fall at UBC that has been spun-ff from
CERM3's collaborations with
other departments. The School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
has mounted a program
to bridge across three separate, unique disciplines - Engineering, Public
Health, and Policy
Research......(more)
22. Innovation in Sustainable Mining: A New
Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence
The
Department of Mining Engineering at UBC from its base with CERM3 has put
forward a proposal
to create a new Network of Centres of Excellence across Canada entitled
Innovation for
Sustainable Mining. ISM is an organization that intends to build off the
research work being done
in CERM3 to bring together all of the other Mining Schools......(more)
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