Hack Mining

Recognizing environmental challenges (such as tailings ponds) associated with Canada’s extractive sector, Urban Water TMU is working with industry to find solutions. In 2017, Urban Water TMU and Ryerson’s Faculty of Science organized Canada’s first mining hackathon to address their environmental challenges. Ryerson brought extensive experience in hosting hackathons and passionate students from numerous universities to solve specific problems identified by mining experts. The event, which took place at Toronto’s CISCO Innovation Centre, was hosted by the Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) and sponsored by Hatch, McEwen Mining and Agnico Eagle. Michael Wekerle from Dragon’s Den gave the participants an inspiring keynote on the elements of a great pitch.

The two problems that were presented at the event were:

1. Transporting ore and waste from difficult-to-access areas
2. Reducing the volume of mine tailings

Team MicroBright from the University of Ottawa won the grand prize of $2,500 cash, 50 silver maple leaf coins, and a consultation with Rob McEwen (Chairman and CEO of McEwen Mining for their solution to the tailings pond challenge.