NORCAT Underground Centre stays on top with training and technology testing

Greg Major.

norCaT Underground Centre stays on top with training and technology testing By Cindy Chan

The NORCAT Underground Centre continues to move the global mining industry forward with its new surface facility.

Located in Sudbury, Ontario, the NORCAT Underground Centre is an underground operating mine and surface facility, serving as both a mining technology innovation centre and skilled labour training and development facility. According to Greg Major, director of the centre, NORCAT has operated this property for approximately 25 years, but the new Underground Centre surface facility officially opened its doors in early 2021. In the beginning, the mine site was primarily used for skilled labour training – which is important – but innovation and underground technology was a complementary and natural next step.

“The demand for our programs, services and resources at the Underground Centre has grown significantly over the past 10 years. Yet, with this growth came challenges to efficiently meet our client’s expectations – not underground, but with the appropriate amenities in our surface operations,” Major says. “We didn’t really have any bricks and mortar on site. We needed to build a permanent facility, we have a market for it and we have all the right pieces.”

Major says the centre has multiple purposes, and a lot is going on. For example, they offer underground training and technology testing. According to the website (norcat. org), NORCAT is the “only non-profit skilled labour training and development organization in the world that has an operating mine, the NORCAT Underground Centre, dedicated to providing integrated, hands-on and practical training programs for both new and existing miners.” The experiential training programs offered at the centre aren’t available anywhere else, such as the Underground Hard

Rock Miner Common Core, First Line Underground Mine Supervisor – Underground Hard Rock Miner Common Core and more.

On the technology testing side of things, the NORCAT Underground Centre enables startups, small- and mediumsized enterprises, and international companies to develop, test and demonstrate their innovative and emerging technologies. The NORCAT Underground Centre helps to connect mining technology companies, the ‘builders’ of innovation, and global mining companies, the ‘buyers’ of innovation.

“The centre comes with tools that now allow like-minded organizations to be in the building. Currently, nine mining technology companies have opened offices in the centre, and many others are taking advantage of the services offered,” Major says. “Organizations are walking into the big mining companies, asking, ‘I’ve got this idea that can help. Can we do it on your property?’, and they send them to us. We’re that link.” Organizations also reach out to NORCAT for recommendations on the appropriate innovation and technology companies to send their way.

Next in store for the NORCAT Underground Centre is their new, state-of-the-art shop to support the growing number of hard-tech clients seeking facilities to develop and improve their technologies while on-site, which should be open by fall 2023.

“Many organizations are coming in with mining equipment and they need access to tools and shop space. Our client’s feedback is driving our plans to construct a state-of-the-art shop with Wi-Fi, equipment lifts and other relevant tools and support infrastructure to help them grow their business and ultimately transform the global mining industry. We want them to have the full package here,” Major says.