University of British Columbia students win World Mining Competition

Robert Fuerderer, Naman Shah, Emma Dodds and John Wei. Image by the Canadian Institute of Mining , Mettalurgy and Petroleum.

UBC students Robert Fuerderer, Naman Shah, Emma Dodds and John Wei won first place at the World Mining Competition in Saskatoon, Canada in October.

The World Mining Competition is the largest multidisciplinary mining undergraduate case competition in Canada.

The world-class case describes the current situation of a fictitious company in the mining industry from the perspective of a decision maker. It provides a detailed background of the company and outlines the opportunities and challenges of the situation.

A large component of every World Mining Competition case is an extensive financial analysis. Whether it be mergers and acquisitions, capital budgeting or valuation, every case will involve a very high-level analysis to find an efficient solution.

The World Mining Competition allows competitors to demonstrate their knowledge and critical thinking skills to executives from industry-leading companies. Fifteen universities competed from across five countries including Canada, the United States of America, Germany, Chile, and the United Kingdom. The University of Alberta came in second and McGill University took the bronze medal.

“We spent 36 hours on a unique mining case that involved collaboration between multiple disciplines to create approaches to address the opportunities and challenges presented by the ever-changing and evolving world mining industry. We were very proud to represent UBC on an international stage,” Robert Fuerderer, UBC team captain said in a media release.