MINING CENTRE: Rio Tinto invests $10 million in Sudbury Research Centre

Rio Tinto has just announced that it will establish the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction (RTC-UMC) at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in Sudbury.

The company will be investing $10 million over five years to undertake research at the centre and will focus on mechanized evaluation including shaft boring (SBS) and tunnel boring systems (TBS).

The new centre will also conduct research with respect to ground and machinery performance. For this purpose, prototype test sites will be instrumented to improve ground characterization techniques and to develop innovative support systems to facilitate high-speed, mechanized tunnel and shaft development technologies for underground mines in highly stressed ground and at depth.