SitNews - Stories in the News - Ketchikan, Alaska

$8.1 million grant to fund mining workforce training

By MARMIAN GRIMES

 

November 07, 2014
Friday PM


(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - A new project to enhance mining workforce training throughout the state is being funded by an $8.1 million federal Department of Labor grant. The University of Alaska Fairbanks will lead the project which includes partners at the University of Alaska Southeast, the University of Alaska Anchorage Prince William Sound Community College and the UA Mining and Petroleum Training Service.

“The pay in the mining industry averages $100,000 per year. Yet, many jobs, such as mill operators, underground miners and mine mechanics, are difficult to fill because of lack of training opportunities in the state,” said Rajive Ganguli, a UAF mining engineering professor and the principal investigator on the grant.

At UAS, the project will help upgrade facilities in the mine mechanic program there, as well as increase staffing in the mine training and power technology program.

MAPTS will offer six trainings per year at its underground miner training program at the Delta Mine Training Center.

The UAF Community and Technical College and Mineral Industry Research Laboratory, along with the PWSCC, will partner on a new mill process operator certificate program, which draws on partnerships with both industry and the State of Alaska. The program will include online courses accessible to students across the state.

The new certificate program will offer several novel approaches to education and unique opportunities for students. Students in the mill process operator program will have access to mineral processing research facilities in the UAF College of Engineering and Mines, an unusual pairing of certificate and doctoral programs at UAF. Mining companies Hecla, Sumitomo, Coeur and Kinross will assist MIRL in developing a mill simulator for mill operator training.

According to Ganguli, these types of academic programs require an active partnership with industry, not only to fine tune the curriculum but also for content development. The development of the mill simulator is especially complex.

“Our research faculty know the fundamentals that govern mill operation, but they do not operate complex industrial mills,” he said. “The partnership with the mining companies was important so that we could get access to their mill engineering knowledge to properly design and test the simulator.”




Email Marmian Grimes at mlgrimes@alaska.edu



Source of News: 

College of Engineering and Mines - University of Alaska Fairbanks
www.uaf.edu



Publish A Letter in SitNews

Contact the Editor

SitNews ©2014
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

 Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources.

E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us

Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.