Editorial Boosting Technology Transfer

Politicians and academics have long played lip service to something they call “technology transfer” — making sure the discoveries that are made in our research institutions are introduced to our mines and mills where they can be put to practical use.

One of the major stumbling blocks in this difficult task has traditionally been the inability of researchers to communicate their findings to the professionals who design and run our mines and mills. The publication of ideas often gets delayed for lack of editorial space and often does not get published at all. These findings often have the potential to contribute significantly to the advancement of mining technology but fall flat because they are poorly communicated, if at all.

For the operators of open pit mines in this and other countries, that stumbling block got a major chunk lobbed off last week with the introduction of a new international journal devoted exclusively to open pit technology.

The premiere issue of the International Journal of Surface Mining (by A.A. Balkema Publishers of the Netherlands) marks the culmination of determined efforts by many people, including Editor Raj K. Singhal of Calgary. A long-time employee of the federal government’s Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology, Dr Singhal has strongly advocated such a journal. We concur with his position on technology transfer and wish him and his colleagues (who receive no remuneration for their efforts) every success in this worthy and timely venture.

Surely, that bunch of socialists from the Trudeau days would not have recognized such a noble attempt at boosting the free- enterprise drive within Canadian technology.