British Columbia’s last mining engineering program has received a $7.5-million donation from Teck Cominco (TEK.SV.B-T, TCKBF-O), one of Canada’s largest mining companies, and some of the company’s partners.
The money will create the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in honour of the company’s former president and CEO.
Keevil joined Teck Cominco in 1962 while completing his PhD in geophysics at the University of California, Berkeley. He became president and CEO in 1981. Under his leadership, Teck Cominco grew from annual revenues of $11 million to more than $4 billion today, with operations throughout the world. Keevil currently serves as Teck Cominco chairman and holds an honourary degree from UBC.
“The new institute will significantly enhance our programs in learning and research, help UBC prepare the global citizens of tomorrow, and meet the demand for skilled professionals in the industry,” says UBC president Martha Piper.
The gift will fund infrastructure upgrades, faculty recruitment and research, and allow more students to enrol in programs at UBC.
“Teck Cominco has long provided employment opportunities to UBC students and applied our leading-edge research to its daily operations,” says Malcolm Scoble, head of UBC’s mining engineering department. “This gift is a natural evolution of our collaboration and represents the strong commitment of Teck Cominco and partners to higher education and to a sustainable future for the industry.”
Other contributors to the donation include The Hallbauer Family Foundation; engineering firm AMEC; Silver Standard Resources (SSO-T, SSRI-Q) and its president, Robert Quartermain; Steven G. Dean, chairman of Amerigo Resources (ARG-T, ARGOF-O); and Klaus M. Zeitler, president of Amerigo.
Teck Cominco has long supported mining education at UBC, including co-op and employment opportunities for UBC mining engineering students.
Keevil is a member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and a lifetime director of the Mining Association of Canada.
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