| Date | Location |
|---|---|
Thursday August 4, 2022 1:00pm to 2:30pm | Online |
Description
On Thursday, August 4th, the Research Innovation Office will be hosting a partnership event featuring a presentation from The Ontario Aggregate Resources Corporation (TOARC).
TOARC will be providing an overview of their research priorities where they are seeking collaboration with University of Guelph faculty, and will support applications to Mitacs, NSERC or similar programs, to develop innovative approaches and solutions to technical challenges.
Background
In 1997, the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry (NDMNRF) created The Ontario Aggregate Resources Corporation (TOARC) to maintain the administrative functions of the Aggregate Resources Trust and The Management of Abandoned Aggregate Properties (MAAP) program run by TOARC to manage the rehabilitation of legacy sites in Ontario and conduct rehabilitation research.
TOARC undertakes and supports research of benefit to the aggregate industry and environment as they try and balance the competing demands of need for resource and the desire to preserve and promote important natural communities.
In 2018, the portion of the levy for the MAAP program was set to approximately 3% of the fees collected. Based on recent extraction levels in Ontario, an approximate amount of $1,000,000 is made available on an annual basis for rehabilitation of legacy pits and quarries and research. To date, approximately 2.2 million has been spent on aggregate resource research and 11.9 million has been spent to make nearly 880 ha of land safer, healthier, and more productive, all at no cost to the landowner.
Research Priorities:
Aggregates to agriculture
- To what degree is agricultural productivity, crop quality and soil development on rehabilitated farmland as good as that on similar land that has not been disturbed.
- Management practices for restoration of agriculture sites post extraction.
Drone/ Lidar
- Measuring rehabilitation success at surrendered and legacy aggregate sites.
Stored soils
- Soil fertility of stored/ bermed soils.
- Restoration of soils lacking fertility.
Soil amendments
- How to use cost efficient methods to rehabilitate aggregate sites that lack organics.
- Best rehabilitation options for sand pits lacking organic soils.
Carbon foot printing- decreasing emissions
- Setting industry baselines and developing benchmarks
- Sustainability goals
- Measures industry could use to decrease emissions or offsets that achieve carbon neutrality .
About the Session
In this virtual partnership session, Danielle Solondz (Project Coordinator) and Bruce Semkowski (President) will provide an overview of the project and areas in which TOARC is looking to develop partnerships. Following the presentation, Danielle and Bruce will be available to answer any questions that you may have.
Researchers interested in partnering with TOARC will be encouraged to work with Research Innovation Office to apply for TOARC funding.
The Trust will consider research proposals that will provide new insights into a broad range of problems related to the mining and delivery of aggregates including the mitigation of extraction impacts and the rehabilitation of depleted sites. They will consider any proposal falling within its mandate of “research on aggregate resource management, including rehabilitation”. The Trust looks to fund those proposals that it considers have a broad application to the industry at large. TOARC acknowledges that research is of an experimental and exploratory nature and that no results can be guaranteed.
To RSVP for this event, please contact Vanja Banks, Industry Liaison Officer (vbanks@uoguelph.ca)