SD83 Students Will Get Hands-On Experience in the Minerals Industry this Month.

As many as 50 SD83 students will have the chance to go on two full-day field trips to an actual open pit mine and exploration site before early June expires.

SD83 Careers Department, along with MineralsEd, are hosting the two events that will be taking place within the next 2-5 weeks. Last month, you may remember the district and MineralsEd had a virtual session with industry experts. Over one-hundred students from many school districts across BC’s South and Central Interior participated in the event. This is the first year of a pilot program between SD 83 and the BC Mineral Education organization. Now, those students will have a chance to see two separate events to learn more about career opportunities in the industry.

The first event will be a tour of Highland Valley Copper Mine on Friday, May 19th. There are only 20 students allowed to come from the district for the event. SD 83 will be sharing this event with the TRU Women in Trades class. SD83 Grade 10-12 girls are encouraged to attend, especially wanting to check out the trades careers, but guys are invited to the event as well.

Students will actually go down into the open pit mine’s bottom dropping over a 1/2 kilometer down. They will also see an explosion take place to dislodge more copper and possibly get an opportunity to jump on and see close up some of the big machines used in the operation.

The second event is the Westhaven Gold Exploration Site on Tuesday, June 6th. Up to 30 SD83 Grade 10-12 students will be allowed to go to Merritt for the full-day field trip. Students will first stop off at Westhaven’s town site in Merritt and then will head into their exploration site taking a mining road. Students will be exposed to core samples, a drilling machine searching for actual gold and be able to learn more and do some light duty chores exposing themselves to camp life. 

There is also a fourth event to be determined at TRU’s Natural Resources Facility in Kelowna. A date for that event has yet to be determined.

If you are interested in any of these events or all three, you can reach out to the career coordinator at each high school site or simply contact George Richard at 778-824-1188.