Rio Tinto and the Centre for Underground Mine Construction
Rio Tinto can pop open the champagne.
The mining giant has officially completed the construction of the, rather glamorous, Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).
The centre, in Canada, follows a $10million investment in Canada’s mining innovation and is designed to support the research of the Rio Tinto Mine of the Future Programme.
An excellent list for the Centre for Excellence:
The Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction was announced in November 2010. Based at the CEMI in Sudbury, Ontario,
As part of the $10million investment programme, Rio Tinto has conducted three new underground excavation systems, including the Northparkes’ copper and gold mine in New South Wales, Australia
It joins an illustrious list of five global long term Rio Tinto research centres, which include:
The Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation – in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney
The Rio Tinto Centre for Advanced Mineral Sorting – a partnership with the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre at The University of Queensland
The Rio Tinto Centre for Materials and Sensing - at Curtin University in Perth
The Rio Tinto Centre for Advanced Mineral Recovery – in collaboration with the Imperial College in London
The Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction – in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation in Canada
CEMI, under the guidance of program directors, identifies, assesses and manages industry-driven applied research & development projects that extend from geology and engineering to the natural sciences. Innovation is recognised through a three phase process, research, development and implementation.
The Rio Tinto Mine of the Future programme, launched in 2008, represents a focus on the extraction of deep underground minerals with minimal environmental impact as well as an improvement of the safety of miners.
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