PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) has announced a C$4-million donation, over two years to bilingual college Cégep de Sept-Îles in Quebec, for the construction of its new pavilion for training, research and innovation in the railway, industrial maintenance and energy intelligence industries.
The initiative is part of a long-standing collaboration between IOC and the local college, notably through the RAIL Centre of Expertise, which IOC supported in 2021 with an investment of C$750 000 and the donation of equipment for student training.
The new partnership aims to strengthen Sept-Îles’ position as a centre of excellence for specialised training in the railway and Industry 4.0 sectors.
Rio said in a statement on Friday that another important goal is to increase the visibility and promotion of these training programmes in local Indigenous communities. To this end, a special cohort of IOC students will be formed to provide participants with employment opportunities immediately after graduation, fostering the full inclusion of all the region’s talent.
“Since the 1950s, Rio Tinto IOC has been firmly rooted in the Sept-Îles community, and several generations of IOC employees have been trained at the Cégep de Sept-Îles. We are delighted to support this leading educational institution offering specialised training programmes on Quebec’s North Shore, and thereby foster the development of a highly qualified local workforce,” IOC president and CEO Mike McCann said.
“Our aim is to keep contributing to the creation of quality jobs in sectors with bright futures and to the economic development of the region.”