UCalgary researcher wins Mitacs Innovation Award for breakthrough work to increase mine safety

Dr. Susanne Ouellet was working as a geotechnical engineer in the mining industry in 2019 when a tailings dam at an iron ore mine in Brazil collapsed, releasing millions of cubic metres of tailings and leaving 272 people dead.

Ouellet, PhD'24, says the timing of the disaster as she was working in the mining industry made her reflect on the implications of such a failure. Even though the dam had extensive instrumentation, a report noted that none of the monitoring detected any changes before it collapsed. Tailings dams are large earth-fill embankments used to store mining waste.

“How can we prevent similar failures?” Ouellet says. “What role can tailings dam-monitoring technologies play in addressing this?”

Questions led to UCalgary Faculty of Science

Ouellet’s questions led her to the University of Calgary for her PhD research under the supervision of Dr. Jan Dettmer, PhD, an associate professor in Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment. Her research focused on applying an emerging fibre optic sensing technology to advance monitoring of tailings dam performance.

The novel approach has earned her a prestigious Mitacs Innovation Award – Outstanding Innovation. Mitacs is a Canadian innovation leader that connects businesses and researchers to drive competitiveness and productivity in sectors such as agriculture, energy and mining.

Ouellet received the award on Nov. 19 during a ceremony at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

“It was very surprising and unexpected,” she says in an interview. “I feel grateful to my supervisor for nominating me.”

Receiving the award, she adds, is an honour that motivates her to keep moving forward.

"It's a reflection of the collective efforts of many individuals and organizations who have supported me on this work,” says Ouellet, noting the mine site’s support made it possible from the start.

As part of the Mitacs-funded program, which is backed by the Government of Alberta, she has worked with Vancouver-based BGC Engineering, U.S.-based Luna OptaSense, the British Geological Survey and other institutions.

Using a state-of-the-art monitoring solution

Ouellet continues to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Dettmer in the Faculty of Science.

“Her work is important since it provides opportunities to improve the safety of tailings dams,” Dettmer says. “The research is also exciting since Ouellet’s discoveries about the nature of landslides turn out to be important in our understanding of how built structures can be monitored.”

Ouellet’s state-of-the-art monitoring solution uses distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology.

The technology turns the industry-standard fibre optic cables into a series of highly sensitive sensors capable of detecting changes in strain, temperature and seismic disturbances in tailings dams, the earth-fill embankment dams used to store mining waste. Once installed, the cable sends information in real time so geotechnical engineers can learn more about where and when problems are occurring.

Catastrophic dam failures have also happened in Canada. The 2014 Mount Polley tailings dam failure in central B.C. released more than 21 million cubic metres of tailings into the environment, with harmful effects for nearby Indigenous communities.

The risk of failures is expected to increase alongside the demand for mining and minerals.

Ouellet, whose research could help to mitigate those risks, has launched a cleantech startup, Lumidas, to commercialize the technology.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” she says. “I didn’t think from the outset that I was going to start a company.”

She initially focused on learning more about the capabilities of the technology and how to apply it.

“My excitement for it grew as I began to consider more fully its potential to transform geotechnical monitoring for the better,” says Ouellet.

She will also continue to work with Mitacs under its Accelerate Entrepreneur program, starting in January, to commercialize the research.

‘Commitment to support innovation’

Ouellet’s research received praise from UCalgary leadership.

“I would like to congratulate Dr. Ouellet on this outstanding achievement. Her work demonstrates how we are maximizing research impact and creating economic value as Canada’s entrepreneurial university,” says Dr. William Ghali, vice-president (research). “This is the second year in a row that a postdoctoral scholar at our university has won a Mitacs Innovation Award, and illustrates our institutional commitment to support innovation.”

Dr. Ketul Patel, PhD, then a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Science, won a Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation – Postdoctoral last fall for his work on developing a first-of-its-kind, non-addictive medication to treat chronic pain.

The Innovation award recognizes extraordinary talent from across Canada whose Mitacs-funded research has potential to achieve larger society and economic impacts, driving innovation and broadening the understanding of the world.