U of T announced on Monday plans to build a $20-million mining and innovation centre. A combined $9 million comes from mining entrepreneur Pierre Lassonde and Goldcorp Inc., a gold mining company. Federal and provincial governments will cover the rest of the funding.

The Innovation Centre for the Canadian Mining Industry will create space for more than 100 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers within the next few years.

The centre will occupy the vacant top floor of the Mining Building, to be renamed the Lassonde Mining Building, on 170 College Street. Lassonde’s $5-million donation will see $1 million go towards funding scholarships. The remaining dollars will go towards construction costs.

Goldcorp’s $4-million gift ensures that an academic and research facility in the centre will be called the Goldcorp Mining Innovation Suite.

“This is another example of corporations trying to buy the prestige of the university,” said Paul York, a representative for Students Against Climate Change.

The university has had similar deals with the private sector before. The Scotiabank Information Commons and the Jack Kay Apotex Meeting Room are among some of the corporate labels found on campus.

“It is not the role of the university to be a technical school or training facility for such industries,” said York. “If the engineering department has been hijacked for this purpose, those who run that department need to question their integrity as academics, and ask if their academic freedom to pursue the truth of their science is not compromised by vested financial interests.”

Goldcorp runs several mining operations overseas, including an open pit gold mine in Honduras and Marlin Mine in Guatemala.

In March, the BBC reported that anti-mining activists accused Goldcorp’s Marlin Mine of contaminating their water and causing locals to get rashes, blisters, and welts.

Critics accused Goldcorp of “unfair land purchase practices, human rights violations, and environmental damage to the area surrounding the mine,” the BBC reported.

The university insists its donors understand that academic directors have full authority over any issue regarding academic content, research, teaching, and direction.

“The university needs and values philanthropy for a whole lot of reasons,” wrote spokesperson Laurie Stephens in an email, “because no amount of government or tuition support could cover all the costs of all our research and academic programming. And, just as importantly, because gifts let us build important relations with knowledgeable leaders in certain fields, whose ideas can help us advance education and research.”

Construction is expected to finish by March 2011. A number of green features are planned, including photovoltaic cells on the roof, a water conservation system, and energy-efficient lights.