$1 million Kinross gift supports mining engineering students, research

December 17, 2013

UAF photo by Todd Paris. Kinross Fort Knox Mine representatives Anna Atchison, left, and Eric Hill present a ceremonial check for $1 million to UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers, Rajive Ganguli, chair of UAF's Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, and School of Engineering and Mines Dean Doug Goering. The presentation was made during UAF's annual donor recognition event Dec. 12 at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

Kinross Fort Knox has renewed its support of an endowment that supports graduate student research in mining engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The company’s $1 million gift is their second to the UAF engineering research endowment, which provides a steady source of research funding for tomorrow’s mining engineers.

“This gift further strengthens our relationship with UAF and is in clear alignment with our goal of supporting research and training relevant to the mining industry,” said Eric Hill, vice president and general manager of Kinross Fort Knox. “Fort Knox has drawn from UAF’s highly trained pool of graduates and employs highly qualified students from the mining engineering program. We also continue to partner with UAF on essential research projects and hope to see this partnership greatly enhanced through a recommitment to the endowment.”

The mining engineering program was one of the first at UAF, which was founded in 1917 as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. Since then, the university has served as a training ground for mining engineers for companies throughout the state, as well as the nation and world. As part of that mission, UAF has formed partnerships with mining companies like Kinross, which provides collaborative educational and research opportunities.

"This will go a long way toward stabilizing the funding for our graduate program, as the new donation brings the research endowment closer to its goal,” said Rajive Ganguli, chair of the mining and geological engineering department at UAF. “The endowment will allow us explore difficult and complex mining problems without being constrained by the limited duration of other sources of funding.”

About Kinross
Kinross Gold Corporation is a Canada-based gold mining company with mines and projects in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Ghana, Mauritania, Russia and the United States and employs approximately 7,500 people worldwide. The Kinross Fort Knox mine, located 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks, began commercial production in 1997. In 2011, the site poured its five-millionth ounce of gold. The mine employs more than 600 local residents.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Anna Atchison, Kinross Fort Knox, 907-490-2218, anna.atchison@kinross.com.

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