On May 25th - 28th, 2003, approximately 350 environmental rehabilitation and protection scientists and technical experts from around the world gathered in Sudbury for the Sudbury 2003 – Mining and the Environment Conference (Sudbury 2003). MIRARCO’s Centre for Environmental Monitoring co-hosted the conference with the Canadian Land Reclamation Association. Sudbury 2003 allowed delegates to exchange knowledge on the latest technologies related to mine rehabilitation and environmental protection.

Approximately 150 researchers presented papers on a wide range of topics including remediation, restoration technology, acidic drainage, aquatic toxicity and new technologies. The opening day, Bill Lautenbach, the Director of Planning Services for the City of Greater Sudbury, presented a plenary session entitled Community Restoration Activities in the City of Greater Sudbury. The day-two plenary speaker was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller, whose talk was on Environmental Protection and Our Environmental Bill of Rights. On the final day of Sudbury 2003, Dr. Rufus Chaney, from the US Department of Agriculture, presented a session entitled In situ Remediation and Phytoextraction of Soil Ni. Sudbury 2003 also featured approximately 30 poster presenters.

In addition to author, plenary and poster presentations, Sudbury 2003 delegates had a chance to participate in a number of pre-conference short courses and post-conference field trips. Short course topics included Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment, Phytoremediation, Acid Rock Drainage, and Creating an OMS Manual for Tailings and Water Management Facilities. The field trips took delegates to Elliot Lake, Timmins, Falconbridge Limited and Inco Limited, and on a 25th Anniversary Tour of the Sudbury Land Reclamation Program.

The Sudbury 2003 Arrival Barbeque was hosted at Dynamic Earth, Sudbury’s newest attraction, which allowed delegates to journey through the history of mining from the turn of the 20th century through the 1950’s to the latest in tele-mining technologies. The Conference Banquet presented keynote speaker Dr. Arthur B. McDonald, who is the Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) Institute. Dr. McDonald gave an intriguing talk entitled Understanding the Universe from Deep Underground. Delegates also had the chance to join members of the public as Falconbridge Limited presented well-known Canadian author Dr. Thomas Homer- Dixon. Dr. Homer-Dixon is Director of the Centre for the Study of Peace and Conflict, and is an Associate Professor in the Department of political science at the University of Toronto. Dr. Homer-Dixon’s public lecture discussed how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological and technological change and the implications of these changes on global security in the 21st century.

For any additional Sudbury 2003 inquiries, please contact Liz Bamberger, Conference Secretariat at sudbury2003@laurentian.ca.