Starting this fall, Northern College’s Kirkland Lake campus will be offering a new diamond driller assistant common core program that will train students to work as diamond driller assistants in both surface and underground drilling environments.
The diamond driller assistant common core program is based on the college’s surface diamond driller assistant common core program, with the addition of basic underground common core modules. The new Haileybury School of Mines program was developed with the assistance of partners in the mining and drilling industries.
“We’re very fortunate to have such excellent industry partners who have helped guide us through this program’s development,” says Christine Heavens, executive director of community, business development and employment services at Northern College. “Many of our past drilling graduates are already working underground, and our new curriculum will make it even easier for future grads to take advantage of career opportunities in the mining and exploration industries.”
The first intake of the new 10-week Diamond Driller Assistant Common Core program is scheduled to begin on October 13. Major topics covered in the program include working safely, hand and power tool use, performing general inspections, rock scaling, environmental protection, operating pumping equipment and portable generators, and recovering and handling core samples.
“Like many employers in the drilling industry, we have both underground and surface operations. That makes employees with experience in both environments highly valuable,” says Grenville Whyte, coordinator of Aboriginal affairs, business development and special projects at Cabo Drilling Corp. “We are very pleased that we’ve been able to work with Northern College in the development of this exciting new program, which will be of great benefit to students and industry alike.”
Since 2007, 218 graduates from Northern’s diamond driller programs in Kirkland Lake and the Hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut, have started careers in the surface exploration and underground drilling industries.
