Ivanhoe Mines signs educational partnership agreement

Exploration drilling at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel-copper project, South Africa

The collaboration, initiated and sponsored by Ivanhoe’s South African subsidiary, Ivanplats, was recently celebrated at a signing ceremony on the University of Limpopo campus.

A principal goal of the five-year partnership, which is renewable for a further five years, is to develop and equip the University of Limpopo’s geology department to become a centre of excellence in geosciences. This will be achieved through measures that include:

• improved training and curriculum choices in economic geology and mineral exploration at the University of Limpopo; 
• increased teaching and research capacities at the graduate student level; 
• equipping laboratories;
• purchasing an outdoor vehicle and trailer for field excursions; and
• collaborating with Laurentian University to improve the University of Limpopo’s learning programmes.

Ivanplats also will provide in-service training opportunities for students from both universities and assist them in conducting research on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex.

Funds awarded

Ivanhoe Mines, through Ivanplats, has allocated a total of $2.5m to the Limpopo and Laurentian Universities to fund their partnership during its initial five years. In addition to Ivanhoe’s investment, Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, has been awarded C$500,000 in scholarship funds for the project through the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST) Program.

Combined with a C$570,000 scholarship awarded to Laurentian by the International Development Research Corporation, these funds will create educational opportunities for 35 University of Limpopo students to study in Canada.

Scholarship funding from the three sources will support under-graduate, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy positions at Laurentian and be focused on topics and research in mineral exploration and economic geology. The QEII-GSST scholarship will fund up to 15 graduate students and faculty from the University of Limpopo to pursue MSc and PhD studies at Laurentian’s Department of Earth Sciences.

The funds also will support a number of Laurentian’s graduate students to travel to Limpopo for three to four month internships over the course of the first five years of the funding agreement with Ivanhoe. These advanced graduate students will teach and assist junior faculty at the University of Limpopo.

Shared objectives

Robert Friedland, executive chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Mines, said the two universities are natural partners to work toward shared objectives. “We are confident that this initiative will help to facilitate the University of Limpopo’s development to become a centre for excellence in mining education and, in the process, help to realise the potential for economic growth that is inherent in South Africa's heritage of abundant natural resources.

“Canada’s Sudbury Basin and South Africa’s Bushveld Complex are two of the most extraordinary geological features on earth and now host two of the largest mining districts on earth – as well as these two enterprising universities. Laurentian has partnered with the domestic mining industry to provide some of the qualified people who are essential for industry operations.

"The University of Limpopo now can begin drawing on Laurentian’s vast experience to enhance its preparation of young South Africans with knowledge and skills that are required tickets to productive, rewarding careers in their modernising mining industry,” Friedland said.