Students explore mining careers
SD83 high school students had the opportunity to explore the mining industry during an Association of Mineral Exploration and MineralsEd/SD83 sponsored field trip to Vidette Lake, which is located northwest of Kamloops and in the heart of last summer’s massive Sparks Lake wildfire.
Eighteen students from Salmon Arm Secondary Sullivan and Jackson, Eagle River Secondary, A.L. Fortune Secondary, and Pleasant Valley Secondary schools went to an active mineral exploration site to work with professional geologists and a biologist.
They learned about the different activities that take place in an area that is being considered for future mineral extraction while working in three stations:
- Stratification – students examined layers of exposed rock and then mapped out the area they studied;
- Soil Sampling – students dug and bore holes into specific areas to create samples to send to a lab; and
- Vegetation – students checked out native plants to the scorched area and which ones were the evasive species.
District Career Education Coordinator George Richard explains all the student’s work was collected by the geologists and biologist and will be tested by the mineral exploration company in its lab. “In one case, SAS students Matty Sangster and Jamie Bentley found trace amounts of copper in an area they were doing stratification mapping. This was in an area the working geologists had not found any copper yet!”
The field trip was a pilot sponsored by the District, AME, and MineralsEd. All three bodies are looking at a future partnership to which district students would have the opportunity to go on a series of field trips to active exploration and extraction sites as well as Interior universities to check out related programs.
If you are interested in learning more about this potential series of field trips, don’t hesitate to contact Richard at grichard@sd83.bc.ca.