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Major Drilling Group International Inc. has donated $50,000 to the University of New Brunswick to establish the Major Drilling Group Scholarship for geology students.

Mineral exploration and mining have long played a significant role in the province of New Brunswick and its economy. The industry provides hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, employs more than 3,000 people, and supplies a significant amount of zinc, silver, lead, copper, bismuth and peat to the Canadian market. 

“If we want to grow and prosper as a province and continue to explore the vast mining resources that are still untapped, we need to invest in and partner with the geologists and engineers who will become tomorrow’s industry leaders,” said Francis McGuire, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Major Drilling Group International Inc.

The $2,000 scholarship is available to students in their third year of the Bachelor of Science program in geology or geological engineering. Recipients must be graduates of a New Brunswick high school and demonstrate high academic achievement. 

The first recipient of the scholarship is Emily Bartlett, a Fredericton High School graduate who is in her third year of the Bachelor of Science in geological engineering program at UNB.

“The Major Drilling Group Scholarship will be a lasting reminder of the importance of maintaining close connections between UNB and the commercial interests that hire our graduates," said UNB President Eddy Campbell. 

"Our strategic plan calls for many more of these kinds of partnerships and I am pleased to count Major Drilling as a supporter of students in our classrooms and of our alumni as their employees."

Based in Moncton, Major Drilling Group International Inc. is one of the world’s largest drilling service providers serving the mining industry. The company was founded in 1980 and now has more than 4,000 employees.  It maintains offices in several countries including Canada, the United States, South and Central America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. 

The University of New Brunswick awards more than $4 million in scholarships every year, ranging in value from $500 to $50,000.  In 2009-2010, one in every two incoming high school students starting their studies at UNB received a scholarship.

Established in 1785, UNB is one of the oldest public universities in North America. With more than 12,500 full- and part-time students from more than 100 countries, UNB has the best student-to-faculty ratio of Canada’s comprehensive universities, according to Maclean’s magazine. As the largest research institution in New Brunswick, UNB conducts more than 75 per cent of the province’s university research. UNB has more than 60 research centres, institutes, groups and major projects.