NEWS FROM THE FIELD : RESEARCH

Increase expected in wind power generation

CBC Saskatchewan -The national energy regulator thinks the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines will make up a significantly larger part of Saskatchewan’s power mix in the future.

The Canada Energy Regulator released a long-term forecast on energy in the country and among its findings, the regulator predicts a massive spike in wind power generation by 2040.

According to SaskPower, wind power currently makes up about five per cent of the total on the electrical grid, with six facilities across southern Saskatchewan.

The report estimates Saskatchewan wind power generation will increase by 15 times by 2040, from the current load of 542 gigawatt hours (GWh) to an estimated 8,193 by 2040.

In January, the province signed a deal that would close the coal-fired Boundary Dam Unit 4 power station by the end of 2021 and Boundary Dam Unit 5 at the end of 2024.
Boundary Dam 3 can run beyond 2030, due to its use of carbon capture and sequestration technology.

The regulator predicts demand for electricity will continue to rise in Saskatchewan. Power usage is expected to grow by 16 per cent by 2040.

Strategic metals on horizon

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Mike Crabtree hopes almost a decade of research and development has laid the groundwork for an entirely new industry in Saskatchewan, one he and others believe will only become more important to a changing global economy.

Saskatchewan Research Council scientists have been quietly looking into more efficient and sustainable ways to produce and refine “strategic metals,” a group that includes not only the 17 rare earth elements but also lithium.

Crabtree said technology is laboratory-proven and on the verge of commercialization, likely through one or more private-sector partners.

“What does the future look like? The future is about rare earth elements (and) lithium,” said Crabtree, President and CEO at SRC, who obtained a Master’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University Northumbria at Newcastle.

“Consumption will just skyrocket,” he said of the metals, which are used not only to produce hand-held electronic devices such as cellphones, electric car batteries and motors, but also by various countries’ defence industries.

Over the next two years, SRC is looking to spend about $35 million to build a pair of pilot plants, one for extracting lithium from various brines and the other for extracting and then separating rare earth elements from ore, including uranium tailings.

The proposed lithium plant would use “ionic sieves” to concentrate lithium in brines, either found deep underground or produced as a byproduct of the petroleum industry, to the point where it can be economically precipitated out.

Sask firm built on creativity, innovation

The National Post – Don’t let its name fool you. Saskatoon’s RMD Engineering Inc. is a manufacturing firm, and one of the province’s leading manufacturers at that.
“We also do engineering, but the engineering we do is mostly for ourselves and our own products that we manufacture,” says engineer Jim Boire, P. Eng and president and founder of RMD Engineering. “It’s really very secondary to what we do.”

And just what does the firm of 75 employees do? Well, the RMD team works with clients in the manufacturing, science and research, industrial automation, mining, energy and military/defence fields.

Its clients are certainly diverse. They typically all have a need for a manufactured solution that RMD custom builds. Take its recent work for a leading agricultural firm that produces hemp.

“We’ve done a lot of development and manufacturing to accommodate the big void of technology that was there when ag companies started growing hemp on an industrial level just a few years ago.”

Boire says these new producers — looking to capitalize on the growing market for cannabidiol (CBD), which is abundant in hemp — needed new equipment to grow, harvest and process the commodity at scale.

Working closely with clients, RMD helps them define challenges, develop a solution and then manufactures the necessary equipment at its 60,000-square-foot-plus manufacturing facility.

Saskatchewan manufacturing firms account for more than six per cent of the province’s gross domestic product. With shipments of almost $18 billion annually, the sector has grown by nearly 60 per cent in the past decade.

In part, that’s due to a business-friendly regulatory climate that includes a corporate tax rate as low as 10 per cent, the lowest in the nation.

Furthermore, the provincial government has created a suite of tax incentives, including the Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive, as well as tax credits for companies that purchase equipment and grants to help train workers.

Moreover, the province’s manufacturing sector employs more than 28,000 people, cutting across rural and urban communities, and serves the agriculture, oil and gas, mining and technology sectors.

Helium drilling could aid struggling oilpatch

The Canadian Press – A veteran of Canada’s ailing oilpatch is hoping a new product drawn from deep under Saskatchewan grain fields will provide a natural resource boom for Western Canada.

Helium, the second most plentiful element in the universe, is in short supply on Earth.
Demand for the gas once used mainly for military, weather and party balloons has been steadily rising, creating shortages and spiking prices in recent years.

Helium’s unique ability to remain a liquid at extremely low temperatures makes it the cooling agent of choice for superconducting magnets in research and medicine (including MRIs).

It’s also essential in rocketry and plasma welding.

“The environment is ripe for a resurgence of the industry in Saskatchewan, which produced helium from wells for about a decade 50 years ago before foundering due to slumping prices”, said Melinda Yurkowski P.Geo., assistant chief geologist for the Saskatchewan Geological Survey.

“It’s still a lot of rank exploration right now,” she said, adding no one knows how much helium — produced by the decay of radioactive uranium and thorium — the province contains.

North American Helium is the most active of the handful of companies that have staked out a total of 1.7 million hectares of helium leases and permits in Saskatchewan.
It has drilled 13 new helium wells in southwestern Saskatchewan, with 11 considered commercially viable, and has tentative plans to open a plant to process gas from a single well by mid-2020.

Copper deposit drawing big interest

Saskatoon StarPhoenix -One of the world’s largest mining companies is spending millions of dollars to look for copper in northern Saskatchewan — and could commit tens of millions more if its engineers and geologists like what the drill rigs uncover.
Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. spent the summer taking core samples at the Janice Lake copper deposit north of La Ronge after signing an option agreement with Forum Energy Metals Corp., which acquired the property in 2017.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rio Tinto can spend up to $30 million over seven years to acquire an 80 per cent stake in the property, which was staked in the 1960s and bounced between companies before ending up in Forum’s portfolio.

Rick Mazur, who started the Vancouver-based junior in 2004 to explore uranium in the Athabasca Basin before decided to diversify, said preliminary drill results have been positive and the future for copper mining is strong.

At the same time, he acknowledged that mineral exploration comes with no guarantees and plenty of risks. Although it was discovered in the 1960s, comparatively little geological work has been done on the property to date.

Sask mine hosts high-grade REE

Mining.com – Appia Energy reports that the Alces Lake property in northern Saskatchewan is host to some of the highest-grade rare earth element discoveries in the world.

The report follows the findings from a prospecting program carried out on the property, including results from channel and grab samples collected during the 2019 summer exploration program.

Appia said the prospecting program led to the discovery of eight new surface outcrop zones and showings with characteristics of the rare earth element mineralization system including visible monazite.

According to the miner, the contacts of the zones and showings remain covered by overburden and therefore have not been fully exposed.

“The discovery of these new zones demonstrates that the system is extensive beneath the overburden. The Biotite Lake discovery shows that the REE mineralization system within the Alces Lake area is far more widespread than previously thought. These discoveries have provided us with new target areas for upcoming exploration. The geological controls of these zones will help with our overall understanding of the system,” said James Sykes, Appia’s vice-president for exploration and development.

Diamond mine consultations won’t reopen

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – A Saskatchewan First Nation is not backing away from its demand that the provincial government reopen consultations on a proposed diamond mine east of Prince Albert, even as the environment minister signalled that is not going to happen.

James Smith Cree Nation has long been concerned about the potential effects of building an open-pit mine in the Fort à la Corne forest, fears that did not change when the provincial government greenlit the project in October 2018.

The band has maintained that the “accommodations” included with the environmental approval are insufficient. Earlier this month it renewed its call for the Ministry of Environment to come back to the table with a better deal.

Environment Minister Dustin Duncan gave no indication that is in the cards. He said the approval process is complete, and the First Nation should engage with the project’s new proponent, Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc.

Winston McLean, a consultant who has been speaking for the First Nation on issues related to the proposed Star-Orion South project, said he remains confident the province will change its tune and reopen discussions with the First Nation.

Accommodations under the approval process include reserving a portion of the forest for band members’ use, community and environmental programs and a requirement that they be funded to the tune of $161,250 for each year of the mine’s life.

While additional impact benefit agreements are typically signed between a community and a company once the decision to bring a project into production has been made, McLean said the province knows the First Nation is “talking about more than jobs.”

Shaun Spelliscy, the managing director of the exploration company Gem Oil Inc. who staked claims in the Star kimberlite field later sold to the project’s original proponent, Star Diamond Corp., said he doesn’t “see anything but a win-win” should the mine be developed.

If it proceeds, the mine is expected to cost $1.4 billion to build, employ 700 people continuously over its 38-year life and generate billions of dollars in corporate and municipal taxes, as well as royalties.

Memorial scholarship remembers Sask geologist

Battlefords News-Optimist – NuVista Energy Ltd., established the Walker Neumann Memorial Award in memory of Walker Neumann, who passed away November 2018 in Calgary.

He was 34.

Walker Neumann, P. Geo., grew up in St. Walburg, Sask., where he attended both elementary school and high school. He had a passion for the energy industry in which he, his father Dale and his grandfather all worked. This passion led him to pursue his Bachelor of Science in Geology at the University of Saskatchewan.

Neumann joined NuVista Energy in 2012 as a geologist after a successful start to his career with Talisman Energy Inc., which he had joined following graduation.

He was passionately interested in all things geology and this passion was infectious. Two of NuVista Energy’s favourite memories are of Neumann wearing a lab-coat expounding the “Joys of Rock” while explaining what a piece of rock core revealed and cracking a special single malt with his team after overseeing the drilling of a particularly successful well.

The Walker Neumann Memorial Award in Geology has been established with the University of Saskatchewan by NuVista Energy Ltd.

Event introduces students to engineering

University of Regina – Engineering is complex and careers can unfold in surprising ways. It’s not as direct as being an accountant, nurse, teacher, doctor, plumber or electrician.

Two students with the same degree can end up in very different careers. What is common is curiosity and the desire to create new solutions for some of society’s pressing problems.
What is Engineering? is a long-standing event hosted by both the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan and is sponsored by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS).

With each university offering different engineering programs and degrees they work together to present engineering to high school students throughout the province, ensuring prospective students are aware of all of the options available. This ensures prospective students make the best-informed decisions.

“The reason we have been hosting this event for so many years is to educate young people and their parents about the profession of engineering,” explains Dr. David deMontigny, P.Eng., U of R Associate Dean (Academic), Engineering.

At this year’s What is Engineering? event, U of R engineering students volunteered to be guides for prospective students and led them around the lab sessions and presentations. It provided prospective students with the opportunity to talk with current students about engineering and the U of R.

U of S, Polytech sign agreement

University of Saskatchewan – The University of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Polytechnic signed an agreement that enables graduates of the Saskatchewan Polytech Mining Engineering Technology diploma program to transfer into the Bachelor of Science in Engineering – Geological Engineering program at U of S.

This means students can graduate with both a Sask Polytech diploma and a U of S degree after only five years of study.

The Sask Polytech School of Mining, Energy and Manufacturing and the U of S College of Engineering are dedicated to providing mining engineering students with a top-quality, Saskatchewan-based education.

Students must meet U of S admission requirements to transfer into the four-year Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree.

This partnership is a one-year pilot that will benefit students pursuing a mining career in Saskatchewan. It equips mining engineering students with flexible education options and provides employers with skilled employees ready to support the province’s mining industry.

Remembering victims 30 years later

University of Saskatchewan – The vibrant lives of 14 young women – and all the potential they held – were lost 30 years ago during the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. Twelve of the 14 who died were engineering students. On Dec. 6 each year, the victims are mourned.

A new national initiative spearheaded by Mary Wells, dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Guelph, and Suzanne Kresta, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, will honour those victims in a powerful way this year.

Their new online project celebrates women who studied engineering three decades ago and have thrived in the profession.

Many engineering students who were contemporaries of those who died went on to fulfill their potential despite the grief and trauma they experienced from the appalling event, Wells said. They are examples of courage, resilience and strength, she added, and it is important to celebrate their achievements.

As chair of the public policy committee of Engineering Deans Canada, she saw a need for a special commemoration to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre.

Wells and Kresta initiated “30 Years Later,” an awareness campaign that highlights the accomplishments of 30 women who attended Canadian engineering schools around the time of the massacre.

Despite being deeply affected by the tragedy, each grad pursued an engineering career.
The fact that women were targeted by the anti-feminist gunman on Dec. 6, 1989, traumatized women engineering students across the country. For Wells and Kresta, both of whom studied engineering in the 1980s, the tragedy instilled not only deep sorrow but also a profound sense of responsibility.

The profiles of the 30 engineers – including Nathalie Provost, who was injured in the shooting – went live on Dec. 4 at www.30yearslater.ca and in the French language at www.30ansplustard.ca. The permanent websites were designed and built by Engineers Canada, the national organization of engineering regulators.

Tower plaza named after engineering prof

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Saskatchewan’s largest city is set to grab the bragging rights for having the province’s tallest building from the provincial capitol.
The tower rising from the ground on Parcel Y at River Landing in Saskatoon is expected to reach 18 storeys and 88 metres, eclipsing the 84.5-metre, 20-storey Mosaic Potash Tower in downtown Regina.

Nutrien Tower is expected to be complete in the fall of 2021.

The final office tower is part of a $300-million megaproject that includes a 20-storey condominium tower, a 15-storey Alt Hotel and a 13-storey office tower, all of which are completed.

The public plaza that is being built among the towers is scheduled to be completed in July, weather permitting.

The plaza will be named for Victory Majors founder Karim Nasser, P. Eng., a former University of Saskatchewan engineering professor who grew up in Lebanon. Nasser helped rescue the Parcel Y project when a deal with city hall to purchase the land was set to expire in November 2010.