The development of our people, including the successful training of the next generation of qualified workers, is central to Agnico Eagle’s strategy. As such, every year, the Goldex and LaRonde Zone 5 (LZ5) mines welcome hundreds of students from the Val-d’Or Vocational Training Center (CFP) in Quebec, giving them the practical experience they need to become the miners of tomorrow.
"All students enrolled in CFP’s mining extraction program go through Goldex and LZ5 to complete a two-week pre-practice course before starting their four-month work-study internship at one of the mines in the Abitibi region. In fact, many of them do their internship at these two Agnico Eagle sites,” explains Mathieu Ouellet, CFP Coordinator.
The pre-practice course allows the students to work at their own pace while they get familiar with real-life mining operations. Using galleries dedicated exclusively for on-the-job training, operations can be halted at any time without impacting the overall mine work schedule. “From the outset, we see that they also adopt best practices in health and workplace safety,” adds Mathieu.
According to Danny Plante, General Mine Supervisor at Goldex, this is a value-added partnership for Agnico Eagle as well. “Since we began collaborating with CFP, the students have developed over 120 meters of galleries at Goldex. Many of our miners enjoy working with them since they are proud to share their knowledge and help train the next generation.”
Goldex also welcomes CFP students enrolled in the Center’s diamond drilling and ore processing programs. At the mine site, they gain hands-on experience with both surface and underground drills. At the plant site, students visit the ore processing plant at least once during their training, while some do their internship there. In total, about 300 CFP students train at Goldex each year. “For the ore extraction training alone, we have an average of four teams of students per cohort, rotating on day and night shifts. We have students practically year-round at our facility” adds Danny Plante.
LaRonde’s LZ5 – commonly known as the “school mine” – offers an underground gallery and equipment entirely dedicated to training CFP students. In an increasingly competitive global race for talent, these partnerships and internships are important to Agnico Eagle’s business success.
“Ninety percent of the employees we hire to work at the LZ5 mine are former students who completed their internships at our site. For us, this partnership facilitates recruitment by giving us access to a pool of potential workers who are already familiar with our operations,” said Luc Girard, Superintendent of Operations and Optimization at LaRonde.
Goldex and LZ5 also help train the miners of tomorrow by collaborating with CFP’s Technological Development Service, which helps develop new training tools – for example, capturing 360-degree videos of the mines and digitizing underground galleries for its simulators. Goldex is also considering a potential training program in the teleoperation of mining equipment.
Both mines donate mining equipment for CFP students to train on. Recently, LaRonde donated a Caterpillar AD30 articulated truck which was, “sent to us after the closure of the Lapa mine, but it didn’t meet our needs because we require larger trucks. Instead of storing it, we donated it to the CFP. We gave it a second life. It's another way for us to support responsible mining development,” confirms Christian Goulet, General Manager of LaRonde.
Want to learn more about this mining equipment donation? Watch this video