The Willet Green Miller Centre (WGMC)

MIRARCO is one of several occupants of the WGMC, which is actually comprised of three buildings joined together comprising one structure. Building A is a four-story structure that houses most of the labs, the mines library, and a rock storage area. Building B is an eight-story office building, and Building C houses the Materials Testing Lab, which has a specially designed testing facility for steel cables. For geological analysis, the building is superbly designed. According to Dick James, the Chair of the Geology Department at Laurentian University, there is no building in North America that is better for analyzing rocks.

Virtual Reality Laboratory (VRL)

Laurentian University's VRL is managed by MIRARCO - Mining Innovation. This facility is only one of 12 of its kind in Canada and the only one in the world designed specifically for the mining industry.

The VRL utilizes the latest generation in high-resolution stereo projection equipment, with 3.9 million pixels are displayed on a 22’ x 8’ spherical screen.

But part of the secret is in the glasses.They are specially designed stereoscopic glasses that allow you to see out of one eye at a time. Shutters block off the image to one eye at a rate of 120 times per second, quickly enough for the brain to synthesize a 3-D shape.

For mining projects the VRL uses GOCAD, a powerful earth modeling software package, as a platform for transforming complex mathematical data into 3D visual images that can be understood by anyone viewing it. The VRL can also be used for different fields including engineering, architecture, environmental monitoring, urban planning, equipment design, and in medicine.

More about the VRL...

Design and Training Facility

This new facility is a complement to the VRL. The Design and Training Facility serves as a venue for technology transfer by enabling graduate students, researchers, industry partners, and other research sponsors to prepare for virtual reality sessions and to perform complex modelling and simulation exercises. Users are able to conduct high-level research that demands high speed, large volume data processing and sophisticated computing resources.

Centre for Environmental Monitoring (CEM) Analytical Equipment

• ICP-MS
• ICP-AES, Ultrasonic Nebulizer, DIN
• Hg Analyzer
• XRF-EMMA (single particle capabilities)
• XRF-PHILIPS
• C/N/S
• Mercury analyzer
• Balances, hot plates, stirrers, agitators, autoclave
• pH, conductivity, ISE probes and meter
• Wiley mills
• Drying oven
• Water quality instruments ie: sondes, flow meter, acoustic mapping
• CHN Analyser

Geomechanics Research Centre (GRC) Equipment

• Borehole Acoustic Televiewer - ALT FAC-40 Instrument
• Crack Identification System Ground Penetrating Radar (CRIS GPR)
• Ramac Borehole Radar employing 100 MHz antennae and operable to a depth of 150m
• Velocity Probe

Central Analytical Facility

• Graphite Furnace and Flame Atomic Absorption
• Ion chromatography
• Microwave Digestion System

Other Accessible Equipment

• Gamma Spectrometer
• Carbon analyzer
• XRD
• SEM
• Soil milling and sieving equipment