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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Demand from mineral exploration and geoscience employers operating in the North for field assistants from the communities has prompted Aurora College to develop a geoscience field assistant training program.

Demand from mining exploration and geoscience companies for more Northern employees has prompted Aurora College to develop a geoscience field assistant training program. Here, Avalon Rare Metals Inc. camp assistant Roland Conrad moves core boxes at the junior exploration company's Nechalacho rare earths exploration site. - NNSL file photo

Thirty-three companies and organizations across the NWT and Nunavut in the mineral exploration or geoscience area responded to a survey from the Northern college, which gauged the interest by employers in hiring the field assistants if the college was to create the program.

"Two themes came out (of the survey)," said Kerry Robinson, manager of program development and evaluation. "That there was a significant demand for field assistants in the NWT and Nunavut, and the other thing that came out of the report was that companies would be interested in hiring graduates of the program."

This would be the first camp helper training program offered by the college and, depending on responses from a request for proposals out now for proponents to develop the five-week program's courses, newly-trained NWT field assistants could be ready to go to work in the next summer exploration season.

The survey also asked about the skills and knowledge that are important for participants in the program, which helped draft the first program outline.

While operators typically look to university students from the south when hiring field assistants, residents of the communities are often more equipped with the traditional land skills and knowledge required for strong exploration, Robinson said.

"What you may find is that there are people with incredible land survival skills and obviously people who know where they're going and how to get there, but maybe have never formally used a GPS or have not had the need," he said.

"Basically, it's a combination of traditional knowledge and kind of western scientific knowledge together in the community, and it varies from place to place."

The main components to be covered by the five-week program are technical skills and safety, which can include helicopter aircraft safety, wilderness first aid, and bear safety.

Technical skills include orienteering, and basic geology, such as how to protect the integrity of samples, tagging, and producing geophysical surveys and grids.

The NWT Geoscience Office and the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines are the two main bodies that have supported the development of the course through a steering committee.

Community, government, and industry members are "very excited" about the program being introduced, stated Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

"We are designing the geoscience field assistant training program to provide interested Northerners with sufficient training that they will be helpful to mineral exploration companies and to government geoscientists," Hoefer stated. "We haven’t had such training in the past, so we are very excited about this."

While aboriginal businesses are also gaining good experience in mining reclamation, mining exploration is an area that has not been tackled yet, where there are also opportunities for community jobs, Hoefer added.

The request for proposals now out to develop the courses closes Oct. 26.

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