A New Vision for Mining Education - First Steps

This paper narrates the experience of a Canadian university in reorienting its mining curriculum towards the goal of producing engineers who are sensitive to context. The authors acknowledge industry’s historical association with environmental degradation and imperialism, but counter that mining is necessary to provide the materials of civil infrastructure, particularly that required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They also point to the potential for mining projects to rejuvenate communities, by providing the revenues that support self-determination, suggesting that more equitable distribution of impacts and benefits may be achieved through engineering design that is better informed and sensitive to community perspectives.