Collège Boréal’s Prospecting and Mining Exploration program in Sudbury got a lift this week when the Sudbury-based mining service company CoreLift donated a prototype automated core-logging table to the school.
The company has created a unique mechanical table that can be raised, lowered, tilted and rotated to let geologists and other workers get easy access to heavy boxes of core samples that indicate what minerals have been discovered by drilling.
Core samples are pieces of cylindrical rock extracted from exploration diamond drills. A handful of core samples can easily weigh a couple of kilograms. A full box of the rocky samples can weigh 25 kilograms or more. That's a challenge if one is lifting and examining rock samples all day, when each piece of rock must be examined and catalogued.
While an individual diamond drilling operation might see workers handling a handful of core boxes each day, it's different in a full geoscience lab where workers are handling hundreds of core boxes.
That kind of heavy lifting can result in injuries and repetitive strain.
CoreLift's general manager, Eric Maag, said the idea of the table is to reduce injuries and to allow more people to work and interact in the process of logging and examining core samples in the mineral exploration industry. The table can be adjusted to various heights or tilt angles to let different people of different sizes have quick and easy access to the cores.
Maag said the company also sells a device for lifting core boxes from the shipping pallet to the table. Another attachment for the table is a device that holds a camera for photographing individual rock samples.
The presentation was made along with Rector Machine Works of Sault Ste. Marie, which Maag said was a manufacturing partner for creating the lift tables.
Maag added there was a long list of Northern Ontario mining equipment suppliers that provided many of the individual pieces of equipment that make up a completed working table. Maag said he was especially thankful to the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), which provided support.
He added that CoreLift was pleased to pass on the prototype core table to Boréal.
“We’re excited to bring this cutting-edge equipment that has been successfully tested at multiple core-processing sites to now enhance students’ hands-on learning experiences and better prepare them for careers in the mining industry," said Maag.
"We firmly believe in engagement with our community and in doing the right thing. We look forward to further collaboration with Boréal as we continue in our development of unique products that modernize the geological working environment,” he added.
"We thank CoreLift for the donation of this innovative and state-of-the-art piece of equipment, which will allow us to provide our students with realistic and relevant experiential learning opportunities," said Julie Nadeau, director of the Boréal Foundation.
"We look forward to continuing our collaboration with CoreLift, which today helped deliver on our mandate to offer high-quality programs that meet the needs of employers in our region."
Len Gillis covers the mining industry as well as health care for Sudbury.com.
