The mining industry directly employs more than 426,000 workers across the Canada and contributed $97 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2017. However, mining workers are exposed to five-fold higher occupational hazards than the industrial average. Reliable underground communication is essential to alleviate incidents and escalate rescue operations. However, wireless communications in mines is a big […]

In an underground gold mine, the movement of ore and waste material occurs on a massive scale and short-term excavation activities should be scheduled so that that the right proportions of these materials are moving through the mine in order to meet production targets. In the proposed project, a mathematical optimization model will be formulated […]

Eagle Graphite owns and operates one of only two flake graphite production facilities in Canada, and the only graphite quarry in Western North America. The quarry is located in Passmore, B.C., near the City of Castlegar. This collaboration between Dr. Jian Liu’s group at The University of British Columbia and Eagle Graphite will produce graphite-silicon […]

Improving the design and operation of open pit mines by better understanding and modeling of spatial variation of rock mass properties, can bring economic benefits to the mining industry. The proposed research project aims to develop an innovative large-scale discrete fracture network (DFN) model that is spatially constrained based on the recorded fracture data from […]

Polyurethane is a class of polymers with the potential of foaming and with excellent mechanical and thermal properties. However, in order to use PU in advanced applications, its physical properties must be improved. Accordingly, in this research proposal, we plan to incorporate graphene oxide (GO), a derivative of graphene, into polyurethane foam to improve its […]

Phytoremediation is a promising in-situ technology that uses plants and its associated microorganisms (particularly bacteria and fungi) to clean up contaminated soils. The efficacy of these processes however, requires an in-depth knowledge on the diversity of microbial communities closely interacting with plant roots. Several studies have demonstrated that plants growing in contaminated soils select for […]

Mine closure is the final stage of a mine’s lifecycle and can have complex social, economic, and cultural impacts on nearby communities. These impacts include population decline, reduced services, household stress, ecological change, and reduced access to land-based activities. These impacts become more likely when communities are not engaged with during the closure planning process. […]

Lead scoring is essential for lead management. The result of lead scoring is a list consists of leads with scores assigned indicating how likely each lead can be converted into the next stage of sales process. The Lamb or Spam and the Rule-Based are the two lead scoring methods that have been discussed in the […]

A decommissioned mine facility in Canada is looking for a new and innovative way to handle mine waste and reclaim the mine site. The potential solution to this problem is the use of microorganisms which are capable of producing calcite, or cement, as part of their natural biological process. These microorganisms will be combined with […]

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are the dominant technology used to power today’s electric vehicles (EVs). However, current Li-ion batteries is reaching the bottleneck in the energy density, partially due to the limited capacity in the graphite anode (372 mAh g-1). In partnership with MGX Minerals Inc., Dr. Liu’s team at the University of British Columbia aims […]

This project will develop data-driven models for production performance analysis and optimization for solvent-assisted bitumen recovery operations and related processes. Effective operations of solvent processes are crucial for improving oil production and maintaining a low solvent-to-oil ratio (SOR). Although the recent developments in digital oilfield technologies have enabled real-time surveillance of downhole operating conditions and […]

Comminution, the process of crushing and grinding ore to liberate minerals, is the most energy intensive part of the processing flowsheet and accounts for upwards of 75% of the overall energy consumption of the processing plant. Ideally we would only crush and grind those rocks that contain economically extractable amounts of minerals. MineSense has developed […]