Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation

Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI)

Type	Mining Research Centre
Industry	Mining
Founded	2007 as a Not for Profit Organization
Headquarters	Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Dr. Peter K. Kaiser, President/CEO
Website	www.miningexcellence.ca

The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) is a mining industry research initiative, collaboratively funded by the private sector and government. CEMI was established in 2007, as a not for profit corporation. CEMI's focused research is in hardrock underground mining. Dr. Peter K. Kaiser is the President and CEO of CEMI and also a Professor of Mining Engineering, Chair for Rock Engineering and Ground Control, and Director of the Geomechanics Research Centre (now the GRC within Mirarco) at Laurentian University

Capitalizing on the mining related infrastructure in Northern Ontario (both physical and knowledge-based), CEMI is mandated to develop research excellence in four key priority areas:

• mineral exploration
• deep mining
• integrated mine engineering
• environment and sustainability

Industry focused strategic R&D projects constitute the primary focus for CEMI. These projects embrace topics identified by industry as having top priority for further research and are consistent with CEMI’s strategic objective to become a global leader in specific research niches. Within these niche areas to date, four strategic research projects (SRPs) have been initiated: Footwall/Offset Geological Studies in the Sudbury Basin (“Footwall”), GeoRisk Mitigation for Mining Highly Stressed Ore Bodies at Depth (“GeoRisk”), Mine Design to Extract Optimal Mining Value (“ValueMine”), and Underground Mine Development (“DevelopMine”).

Most recently, CEMI will receive $4,250,600 million dollars from the Government of Canada to install, test and measure the efficacy of novel Ventilation on Demand technologies to decrease energy costs and increase productivity.

History

In November 2003 the Ontario Government by way of the Ontario Mineral Industry Cluster Council (OMICC) started to develop a “cluster approach" for the mineral resources industry within Ontario. This approach involved bringing together key stakeholders from Ontario’s mineral sector-related industries, organizations, and government agencies. In 2006 the initial seed funding was provided by Vale Inco ($5 million), Xstrata ($5 million), Ontario Government ($10 million) and the City of Greater Sudbury ($50,000) in a combination of cash and in-kind contributions over the following three years. In 2007 CEMI was formally established as a not for profit corporation.