This educator became a 'mining ambassador' after visiting a northern Ontario gold mine

Joanne Sallay, a self-confessed "city dweller", says she never put much thought into the mining industry until she was invited to visit IAMGOLD's Coté Gold Mine, located between Sudbury and Timmins.

Sallay is the president and CEO of Teachers on Call, a tutoring company based out of Toronto. She was part of a group of 20 educators that visited the mine.

Several groups, including the Ontario Mining Association, Mining Matters and the Canadian Ecology Centre organized the trip to promote mining as a career option for students.

Before she visited the open-pit mine Sallay said she did an informal survey of her students.

"The kids don't really know anything [about mining], truthfully," she said. "And what they do know is like 70 years out of date."

Sallay said her own knowledge of mining was almost as limited, and what she learned from the visit shattered all of her perceptions.

"What I saw was a highly sophisticated operation, highly automated with a computer room that looked like it was out of a Netflix production," she said.

"It was just incredible. And I saw self automated trucks and diggers."

At the mine, which officially started production earlier this year, IAMGOLD has a fleet of autonomous hauling trucks made by Caterpillar that each weigh nearly 300 tonnes. 

The mine also has autonomous drills, made by mining equipment manufacturer Epiroc, that are used to create holes for blasting.

Other than the jobs directly related to mining – operating and maintaining the machinery, for example – Sallay said she was surprised by the career opportunities to support the large operation.

"So like even the security detail, the chefs, the medical staff, the nurses," she said.

Sallay compared the mine's large cafeteria to a cruise ship's dining hall, and said she and the other educators were impressed by the food selection.

Since her trip she says she's become somewhat of an ambassador, promoting career opportunities in the mining industry through some blog posts, and speaking with other educators and students.

"I think there's room to improve and educate students more than what's currently being done [in mining]," she said.

"And I don't think it's anyone's fault, but I certainly think that we all have a part to play and we can certainly do more."

'Come and work for me'

Bryan Wilson, the general manager at the Côté Gold Mine, said he's long been passionate about teaching educators, and young people, about mining.

"Mining is a good career, it can take many different directions," he said.

"You know, we hire a lot of different trades, engineers, all walks of life coming out of university and colleges. And it offers a good work life balance."

Wilson said he's currently looking to hire 110 people in the next year to work at the mine in different roles. 

He said there are opportunities for people interested in electrical engineering, geology and even artificial intelligence to work in the mining industry.

"Young people, you know, go to school and come and work for me," he said.

"I want people in Ontario to come in and work with us."