Top geoscience students were given a unique opportunity

PDAC's Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop offered a valuable look at the range of career possibilities in mining

1 of 2Retired geologist Ben Berger leads post-secondary geoscience students on a field-mapping exercise during S-IMEW. — Brianna Sejourne (PDAC) photo

2 of 2S-IMEW is a two-week intensive workshop for top post-secondary geoscience students. — Brianna Sejourne (PDAC) photo

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From May 4 to 17, 2013, top geoscience students from across the country united in Sudbury, Ontario, for the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC)'s seventh annual Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop (S-IMEW).

The two-week intensive workshop, with all expenses paid by the industry, gave these students the opportunity to gain invaluable exposure to the different facets of the industry. Chris Drielsma, vice-president of operations at DGI Geoscience Inc. (one of the sponsors of the event), said the students are hand-picked every year by their respective universities and post-secondary institutions—so it is the cream of the crop who get to participate in the experience.

"Seven years ago, PDAC started to arrange the workshop," he said. "DGI Geoscience has participated for the last six. It really allows students to see all the types of things they can do in the mineral exploration industry and the types of knowledge, options, expertise and technology that (are) available to students if they choose to proceed in this career. It's such an opportunity, funded by industry and orchestrated by PDAC, who have collectively stepped up to offer S-IMEW."

Access to expertise

The workshop was held at College Boreal in Sudbury, where students participated in lectures, presentations and hands-on sessions that included exploration and mapping techniques, mineral deposits, geophysics, geochemistry, regulatory requirements, health and safety, corporate social responsibility and more. The most valuable part of S-IMEW, according to Drielsma, is simply the access students have to such a high level of industry expertise on such a diverse range of topics.

"At any particular university, efforts are underway to do similar things with professors having their own expertise and maybe bringing in one or two industry experts per semester," said Drielsma. "But at S-IMEW, every day has been organized with experts from every niche and every area that a well-rounded geoscientist should know but doesn't always have the opportunity to be exposed to. They get all this great exposure to all different fields and disciplines while being paired up with other top students from around the country. The opportunity for collaboration and networking amongst themselves is amazing. These people will be the leaders of tomorrow in the mineral exploration industry."

Engaged and excited

The group of students that came together in May was a fantastic group, said Drielsma. He said it was amazing to see how motivated the students were and he was excited to see them asking so many questions and then relating what they've learned to their own studies.

"When I was speaking about borehole geophysics, it was awesome to see students come up and ask me questions and see how they could relate it to their project in school," said Drielsma. "You could see (that) in their mind, they are making these connections and it's wonderful to see people's eyes opened to that."

From the company's perspective

DGI Geoscience is a company that specializes in maximizing value in drilling by providing in-situ borehole (or downhole) geophysics surveying, a niche in the industry. The company is very focused on innovation, developing new techniques and using a lot of the infrastructure that is built out of normal mineral exploration and mining activity to gain as much information as possible to get the best picture of the subsurface as possible.

Drielsma said DGI has even hired students out of the workshop.

"We also have current staff members that went to S-IMEW, which is all fantastic," he said. "We've even seen some students at S-IMEW become clients—which is certainly not our direct goal. But I think it's quite exciting to see a student in a short number of years who's been in the program and excelled so much that they are even capable of making that decision to be a client. It really speaks to the fact that these students really are the future of the industry."

Forward motion powered by people 

All in all, S-IMEW is an important effort and really a win-win for both students and the industry—especially at a time when there is a large demographic shift in the industry.

"I graduated from university about 12 or 13 years ago," said Drielsma. "When I started attending these types of things, the bulk of the attendees were in their late 40s, 50s and upwards—and those people are now actively retiring all the time. In that middle gap, there's not nearly the volume of people with the expertise, so if some students can gain knowledge from a workshop like S-IMEW, it is a real opportunity to make a difference in the industry."