VBNC and CVRD Inco have also invested in research and development in the applied sciences, through their creation of the Inco Innovation Centre at Memorial University. After its first full year of operations in 2006, a number of research projects are gaining momentum at the facility, which enables Memorial’s scientists, engineers and senior students to develop leading-edge technologies to support advanced ore body exploration techniques. It also serves as a centre of excellence for applied environmental studies and for the development of mineral processing technologies based on hydrometallurgical techniques.

“Our overall goal is to establish a world class research centre in all aspects of economic mineral exploration, exploitation and processing,” said Dr. Jim Wright of the Inco Innovation Centre. “At first we were preoccupied with building the building, then hiring the people and getting the equipment up and running. We’re not fully up to speed yet but we’re approaching it.”

Dr. Wright offered some examples of leading edge scientific research already underway at the centre.  “In the geochemistry section, Dr. Paul Sylvester and his team have some new techniques and methods developed in terms of mineral liberation that are really turning out to be valuable on both the geology side and the metallurgy side,” he said. “They are working with extractive metallurgy as it relates to hydromet, which could have useful applications as we go forward.”

As well, Dr. Sylvester is working with Dr. Graham Layne, using “top of the line geochemical facilities for analyzing very small amounts of trace elements in the structure in the rock.”

A team led by Dr. Faisal Khan and Dr. Kelly Hawboldt are making progress on research into process engineering with risk safety and environmental applications. “Dr. Hawboldt is doing some work on environmental aspects, both at Argentia and more recently at the mine site. In particular, she is looking at a kind of byproduct called thiosalts. Dr. Khan has been working on a new computer model for evaluating and quantifying risk in engineered systems. The people at Argentia are quite interested in the work that he is doing.”

Dr. Wright said the Inco Innovation Centre recently hired a hydrometallurgist, Dr. Shafiq Alam, who already has considerable experience researching hydrometallurgical processes. “We’re really pleased that he could join our team,” he said.

There are two major research divisions at the Inco Innovation Centre – one in the earth sciences and the other in process engineering – which result in a nice confluence of ideas and research, Dr. Wright said. “The synergies really happen in the metallurgical side because that is of great interest to both the geologists and the engineers. It’s a shared meeting point for them.”