Mining Engineering Minor (B.Eng.) (23 credits)
Offered by: Mining & Materials Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
Degree: Bachelor of Engineering
Program credit weight: 23
Program Description
Program credit weight: 23-25 credits
The Mining Engineering Minor covers fundamentals of mineral exploration, ore extraction, and mineral processing. The program includes an experiential learning component through an industrial work term for which enrolment may be limited.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (17 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MIME 200 | Introduction to the Minerals Industry. | 3 |
Introduction to the Minerals Industry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Economic importance of the minerals industry. Mining: legislation, regulations, criteria for exploiting an ore: mining methods, equipment. Extractive metallurgy: mineral processing, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy. Environmental protection. | ||
| MIME 291 | Industrial Work Period 2. | 2 |
Industrial Work Period 2. Terms offered: Summer 2025 A four-month industrial work period in a mining company, research laboratory or government agency. The student will receive formal industrial training in a technical position. A complete report must be submitted at the end of the term. | ||
| MIME 322 | Fragmentation and Comminution. | 3 |
Fragmentation and Comminution. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Principles of drilling, penetration rates, and factors affecting the choice of drilling method. Characteristics of explosives, firing systems and blast patterns. Blasting techniques in surface and underground workings. Special blasting techniques at excavation perimeters. Vibration and noise control. Mechanical and continuous approaches to fragmentation, including longwall shearing and fullface boring. Economics of drill/blast practice, interface with transport and crushing systems, drivers for mine-to-mill integration including energy considerations. Modelling of fragment and particle size distributions; comminution as a transfer function. Comminution technology: crushing, grinding, size classification. Integrated analysis of fragmentation and comminution operations. | ||
| MIME 325 | Mineral Industry Economics. | 3 |
Mineral Industry Economics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Geographical distribution of mineral resources. Production, consumption and prices of minerals. Market structure of selected minerals. Economic evaluation aspects: grade-tonnage considerations; capital and operating cost estimation; assessment of market conditions; estimation of revenue; taxation; sensitivity and risk analyses; economic optimization of mine development and extraction. | ||
| MIME 333 | Materials Handling. | 3 |
Materials Handling. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Physical and mechanical characteristics of materials related to loading, transport and storage. Dynamics of particles, systems and rigid bodies, mass-acceleration, work-energy, impulse-momentum. Types and selection of excavation and haulage equipment. Layout of haul roads. Rail transport. Conveyor belts and chain conveyors. Mine hoists. Layout of mine shafts. | ||
| MIME 341 | Introduction to Mineral Processing. | 3 |
Introduction to Mineral Processing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Theory and practice of unit operations including: size reduction-crushing and grinding; size separation-screening and classification; mineral separation-flotation, magnetic and gravity separation. Equipment and circuit design and selection. Mass balancing. Laboratory procedures: grindability, liberation, magnetic and gravity separation, flotation and solid-liquid separation. | ||
Complementary Courses (6-8 credits)
6-8 credits from one or more of the following groups:
List A: Mining Engineering
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MIME 320 | Extraction of Energy Resources. | 3 |
Extraction of Energy Resources. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The extraction of energy resources, i.e. coal, gas, oil and tar sands. After a brief geological review, different extraction techniques for these substances will be discussed. Emphasis on problems such as northern mining and offshore oil extraction with reference to Canadian operations. Transportation and marketing. | ||
| MIME 323 | Rock and Soil Mass Characterization. | 3 |
Rock and Soil Mass Characterization. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Characteristics of soil and rock masses and the stability of mine workings. Mechanical properties of rocks and soils related to physical/chemical properties. Characterization of rock mass discontinuities. Laboratory and in-situ techniques to define mechanical properties of soils, rocks and discontinuities. Permeability and groundwater flow principles. In-situ stresses and their measurement. Rock mass quality and classification systems. | ||
| MIME 413 | Strategic Mine Planning With Uncertainty. | 3 |
Strategic Mine Planning With Uncertainty. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Strategic decision-making for mine planning given uncertain metal supply from orebodies and commodity demand. Stochastic optimization techniques in mine design and production scheduling. Uncertainty quantification and orebody representation. Stochastic mine optimization in applications from open pit and underground metal mines. Introduction to sustainable development and utilization of mineral resources. | ||
| MIME 419 | Surface Mining. | 3 |
Surface Mining. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Choice of a surface mining method. Analysis of soil and rock mass properties related to surface mining. Calculation and monitoring of stripping ratios, ultimate pit depth, slope stability, rock reinforcement, bench and berm dimensioning and ramp design. Loading and hauling systems. Surface layout and development. Water drainage systems. Production and cost analysis. Computerized design techniques. | ||
| MIME 421 | Rock Mechanics. | 3 |
Rock Mechanics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Stresses around excavations: analytical and numerical solutions. Stability of underground and surface excavations: structural instability analysis with stereonet, instability due to high stress. Rock supports. Monitoring. Case studies. | ||
| MIME 422 | Mine Ventilation. | 3 |
Mine Ventilation. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Statutory regulations and engineering design criteria. Occupational health hazards of mine gases, dusts, etc. Ventilation system design. Natural and mechanical ventilation. Measuring and modelling air flow in ventilation networks. Calculation of head losses. Selection of mine ventilation fans. Air heating and cooling. Aspects of economics. | ||
| MIME 424 | Underground Mining Methods. | 3 |
Underground Mining Methods. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Fundamentals of underground mining methods; orebody characteristics and host rock; drilling and blasting procedures; general and specialized equipment; mining method selection criteria; cost estimation; calculation of cut-off grade, ore recovery and dilution; mine developments and underground infrastructure: raises, chutes, loading pockets, dump points, raises, and ore bins; mine safety practice. | ||
| MIME 425 | Applied Stochastic Orebody Modelling. | 3 |
Applied Stochastic Orebody Modelling. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Representing uncertainty in orebody models and shortcomings of conventional methods including reserve reporting and mine planning. Stochastic spatial sequential simulation methods. Joint simulation of multiple correlated elements. Simulation material types. Introduction to geometallurgical modelling. Additional drilling, reserve classification, grade control and mine planning optimization. Risk quantification in life-of-mine production schedules. | ||
| MIME 428 | Environmental Mining Engineering. | 3 |
Environmental Mining Engineering. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Effect of mining on the environment: ecology, legislation, effluents and wastes, environmental impact. Acid mine drainage: prediction, treatment, prevention, control. Mineral processing agents. Solid wastes. Mine site closure, reclamation and monitoring. Economic aspects. Environmental practices. | ||
| MIME 442 | Analysis, Modelling and Optimization in Mineral Processing. | 3 |
Analysis, Modelling and Optimization in Mineral Processing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Tools and methods of process analysis, modelling and optimization using flotation and comminution examples: sampling theory and statistics, data reconciliation, statistical experimental design. Kinetic models of flotation and comminution; simulation software. Residence time distributions: tanks-in-series and axial dispersion models. Combined flotation/comminution models. Introduction to geostatistics and data mining. | ||
| MIME 511 | Advanced Subsurface Ventilation and Air Conditioning. | 3 |
Advanced Subsurface Ventilation and Air Conditioning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Fundamentals of air flow in underground mines. Thermodynamics of mine ventilation. Gases, dust, fire and Radon control. Thermal comfort. Mine heat transfer. Refrigeration systems, Ventilation-on-Demand. Optimization of mine ventilation design. | ||
| MIME 514 | Sustainability Analysis of Mining Systems. | 3 |
Sustainability Analysis of Mining Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Concepts of sustainability analysis applied to mining projects. Case studies topics selected from: Stakeholder Engagement and Participation; Biodiversity and Conservation Management; Mine Water Management; Tailings and Waste Rock Management. Relationship between risk management and life-cycle assessment. Mass balancing and logistical modeling applied within the mining value chain, with an emphasis on sustainability. Quantification of systemic balances between environmental, economic and social indicators, using geostatistical simulations, discrete event simulation, and multi-objective optimization techniques. | ||
| MIME 520 | Stability of Rock Slopes. | 3 |
Stability of Rock Slopes. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Properties of structural discontinuities. Influence of geological structures on slope stability. Kinematic analysis. Limit equilibrium methods. Empirical methods. Numerical modelling. Slope stabilization and monitoring. Case studies. | ||
| MIME 544 | Analysis: Mineral Processing Systems 1. | 3 |
Analysis: Mineral Processing Systems 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course covers three main topics: principles of separation, including data presentation, properties of recovery/ yield plots, technical and economic efficiency and identification of limits to separation; column flotation, hydrodynamics of collection and froth zones, mixing, scale-up and design, measurements and control; surface and electrochemistry, including absorption, surface charge, coagulation, electron transfer reactions, electrochemistry in plant practice. | ||
| MIME 545 | Analysis: Mineral Processing Systems 2. | 3 |
Analysis: Mineral Processing Systems 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Gold recovery (as a Professional Development Seminar): methods of recovery (gravity, flotation, cyanidation), refractory gold (roasting, pressure oxidation, bacterial leaching), dissolved gold recovery (Merrill-Crowe) and activated carbon methods. Sampling: definition of errors, sample extraction, size, and processing. Mass balancing: basic considerations, definition of networks, software. Blending: auto-correlation functions, transfer functions, blending systems. Effect of feed variability. | ||
| MIME 588 | Reliability Analysis of Mining Systems. | 3 |
Reliability Analysis of Mining Systems. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Statistics and probability theory used in reliability. Reliability analysis, measure and networks. Reliability prediction, modelling and testing. Concepts of preventive and corrective maintenance. Reliability based maintenance. Control and management of reliability systems. Quality and safety associated with maintenance analysis. Inventory control. Reliability based optimization. | ||
List B: Mechanical Engineering
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MECH 497 | Value Engineering. | 3 |
Value Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Value Engineering is an in-depth analysis of an industrial product or process with a view to improving its design and/or performance to increase its worth. This is a workshop type of course. Projects will be supplied by industrial firms and students will work in teams with industrial personnel. | ||
| MECH 513 | Control Systems. | 3 |
Control Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. State-space modelling and related linear algebra. Controllability and observability of linear time-invariant systems and corresponding tests, system realizations. Stability: Bounded-Input-Bounded-Output (BIBO), internal, Lyapunov. Linear state feedback control: pole placement and root locus design methods, linear quadratic regulator. State observers: full- and reduced-order designs, separation principle, Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) design. Introduction to optimal control and optimal state estimation. | ||
| MECH 559 | Engineering Systems Optimization. | 3 |
Engineering Systems Optimization. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to systems-oriented engineering design optimization. Emphasis on i) understanding and representing engineering systems and their structure, ii) obtaining, developing, and managing adequate computational (physics- and data-based) models for their analysis, iii) constructing appropriate design models for their synthesis, and iv) applying suitable algorithms for their numerical optimization while accounting for systems integration issues. Advanced topics such as coordination of distributed problems and non-deterministic design optimization methods. | ||
| MECH 560 | Eco-design and Product Life Cycle Assessment . | 3 |
Eco-design and Product Life Cycle Assessment . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Fundamentals of both product and process engineering with an emphasis on life cycle models and sustainability. Practical and theoretical topics, methodologies, principles, and techniques. Practical methods such as Life Cycle Analysis, eco-design strategies, streamlined Life Cycle Assessment, environmental impact assessment, and Life Cycle Engineering. Introduction to important product development theories and life cycle assessment theories. | ||
| MECH 572 | Mechanics and Control of Robotic Manipulators. | 3 |
Mechanics and Control of Robotic Manipulators. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Historical development and applications of robotic manipulators. Homogeneous transformations and geometry. Forward and inverse kinematics, manipulator Jacobian. Newton-Euler and Lagrangian formulations of inverse and forward dynamics. Trajectory planning for pick-and-place operations. Linear independent joint control and nonlinear model-based control schemes. | ||
| MECH 573 | Mechanics of Robotic Systems. | 3 |
Mechanics of Robotic Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Manipulator performance and design. Pick-and-place and continuous-path operations. Computation of rigid-body angular velocity and acceleration from point-data measurements. Inverse kinematics of serial manipulators with coupled architectures; kinetostatics of multifingered hands and walking machines. Kinematics and dynamics of parallel manipulators and wheeled mobile robots. | ||
List C: Civil Engineering
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CIVE 416 | Geotechnical Engineering. | 3 |
Geotechnical Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Earth pressure theory, retaining walls, sheet pile walls, braced excavations. Slope stability analysis. 2D flow through isotropic and anisotropic soils. Bearing capacity and settlement of shallow foundations, stress distribution. Deep foundations, single pile, pile groups. Geotechnical investigation and reports. | ||
| CIVE 462 | Design of Steel Structures. | 3 |
Design of Steel Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Design of structural steel members: plate girders, members under combined loadings, eccentrically loaded connections, composite floor systems. Design of single-storey concentrically braced frame buildings subjected to gravity, wind and seismic loading. Introduction to design software. | ||
| CIVE 463 | Design of Concrete Structures. | 3 |
Design of Concrete Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Design of reinforced concrete members: beams, one-way slabs, columns, disturbed regions, two-way slabs, shear walls, footings, retaining walls. Aspects of seismic design of columns and shear walls. Introduction to design software and the design of prestressed concrete members. | ||
| CIVE 527 | Renovation and Preservation: Infrastructure. | 3 |
Renovation and Preservation: Infrastructure. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Maintenance, rehabilitation, renovation and preservation of infrastructure; infrastructure degradation mechanisms; mechanical, chemical and biological degradation; corrosion of steel; condition surveys and evaluation of buildings and bridges; repair and preservation of materials, techniques and strategies; codes and guidelines; case studies, sustainable development; group project. | ||
List D: Chemical Engineering
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEE 453 | Process Design. | 4 |
Process Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The role of the chemical engineer. Steps in the preparation of a process design. Detailed information about most common chemical engineering equipment. Materials of construction. Analysis of process control and application to large systems. Structure of process design systems. Safety, environmental control in plant design. Process design costing and return on investment. Computer-aided process and plant design programs. | ||
| CHEE 455 | Process Control. | 3 |
Process Control. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Needs for process control; simple transient models and responses, first and higher-order systems, empirical determination of models, transfer functions and Laplace domain analysis, control loop hardware and associated realistic models; process and instrumentation diagrams; control philosophy; safety; open and closed loop responses; feedback control; stability analysis; controller tuning; feedforward, cascade and ratio control; control of batch and start-up processes. | ||
| CHEE 484 | Materials Engineering. | 3 |
Materials Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Processes for forming and producing engineering materials such as amorphous, semicrystalline, textured and crystal-oriented substances and composites. Phase transformations, nucleation and growth. Effect of processing variables on the properties of the finished article. Process of blending and alloying. Shaping and joining operations. Vessel equipment design for chemical engineering applications. | ||
List E: Electrical Engineering
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ECSE 403 | Control. | 4 |
Control. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Stability of linear and non-linear systems, controllability, state space models, canonical forms, state space design of controllers, pole placement, LQR, observability, Luenberger observer, separation principle and certainty equivalence, loop transfer recovery, correspondence between system theoretic results for continuous- and discrete-time systems. Lab work involving applications of PID, lead-lag, full state feedback and LQR controllers to robotic devices. | ||
| ECSE 422 | Fault Tolerant Computing. | 3 |
Fault Tolerant Computing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to fault-tolerant systems. Fault-tolerance techniques through hardware, software, information and time redundancy. Failure classification, failure semantics, failure masking. Exception handling: detection, recovery, masking and propagation, termination vs. resumption. Reliable storage, reliable communication. Process groups, synchronous and asynchronous group membership and broadcast services. Automatic redundancy management. Case studies. | ||
| ECSE 428 | Software Engineering Practice. | 3 |
Software Engineering Practice. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Software engineering practice in industry, related to the design and commissioning of large software systems. Ethical, social, economic, safety and legal issues. Metrics, project management, costing, marketing, control, standards, CASE tools and bugs. The course involves a large team project. | ||
| ECSE 429 | Software Validation. | 3 |
Software Validation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Correct and complete implementation of software requirements. Verification and validation lifecycle. Requirements analysis, model based analysis, and design analysis. Unit and system testing, performance, risk management, software reuse. Ubiquitous computing. | ||
| ECSE 444 | Microprocessors. | 4 |
Microprocessors. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Design techniques for developing modern microprocessor-based systems, multiple state-of-art instructions set architectures (ISAs) and associated assembly languages, use of tools for compiling, linking, memory overlay; debug techniques for start-stop and real-time debugging, together with debug infrastructure and interfaces: flash patching, variable watching and instruction stream tracing. Use of coprocessors and computer peripherals, such as SPI, I2C, I2S, SAI, USB, wireless standards, timers, DMA units and FLASH accelerators. Interfacing and processing sensor data including multi-sensor integration. Design techniques that promote structured approaches for separation of concerns in computing and communication. Real-time systems and software engineering for tightly integrated hardware. | ||
| ECSE 464 | Power Systems Analysis. | 3 |
Power Systems Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Basic principles of planning and operating interconnected power systems with emphasis on Canadian conditions. Mathematical models for system. Steady-state analysis of power systems, load flow formulation and solution algorithms. Operating strategies, economic dispatch, voltage reactive power regulation, frequency and tie-line power control. | ||
| ECSE 507 | Optimization and Optimal Control. | 3 |
Optimization and Optimal Control. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. General introduction to optimization methods including steepest descent, conjugate gradient, Newton algorithms. Generalized matrix inverses and the least squared error problem. Introduction to constrained optimality; convexity and duality; interior point methods. Introduction to dynamic optimization; existence theory, relaxed controls, the Pontryagin Maximum Principle. Sufficiency of the Maximum Principle. | ||
List F: Bioengineering
0-3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIEN 560 | Design of Biosensors. | 3 |
Design of Biosensors. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction into the motivation of analytical biosensors as well as its fundamental physicochemical challenges. Techniques used to design, fabricate and operate biosensors. Specific applications. | ||