Joint ventures by public and private sectors

摘要

There have been numerous joint ventures in the past between the mining industry, governments and universities, and they continue to be popular for projects that lend themselves to collaborative efforts to develop technology. One such project is the Deep Mining Research Consortium (DMRC), which began in Sudbury, Ont, in 2003, as a forum for members to fund research to improve or develop new technologies for mining at depth. Its work is reviewed below as an example of the kind of work being undertaken by governments and universities in co-operation with industry in Canada. Coordinated by CAMIRO, the DMRC membership includes seven major mining companies, the City of Greater Sudbury and CANMET-MMSL, and it has also incorporated a number of former multi-sponsored research efforts. CAMIRO is industry driven, with a mandate to contribute to the safety, profit, competitiveness and growth of the Canadian mineral industry. It does this by initiating and managing applied collaborative research that improves the technology and reduces the costs of exploration, project development, mining and processing of mineral deposits. Industry voluntarily staffs the board of directors and management committee of each division.