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IN THIS ISSUE C IM MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER | SEPTEMBRE2014

Natural gas production is not expected to ramp up, despite an increase in demand, so could nuclear be a near-term solution for oil sands operations?by Christopher Pollon

64 Underground achiever Dundee Precious Metals took on a 50-year-

old mine and, with an open-minded team ofsuppliers, turned it into a 21st Centuryoperation

by Eavan Moore

42 Canada’s biggest cleanupOttawa is committed to a century ofremediation at the Giant mineby Chris Windeyer

74 Findings from CIM’s strategic outreachinitiative identify objectives, activities andpriorities to help formulate the Institute’supcoming five-year action plan by Tom DiNardoinfographic by Maria Olaguera

60 Come togetherCondition monitoring systems collect andanalyze equipment health data to reducedowntime and increase productivityby Eavan Moore

cover story

September/Septembre 2014 | 5

50Clean steam

8 Editor’s letter 10 President’s notes

tools of the trade 12 The best in new technology

compiled by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

news 14 Industry at a glance 28 A landmark Supreme Court of

Canada ruling will likely changehow the mining industry workswith First Nations on resourcedevelopment projectsby Brenda Bouw

30 COSIA is building a new watertechnology centre to help oilsands operations reduce theirwater usageby Graham Chandler

32 Alberta’s “twinning project”promises a smoother, safer routeto the oil sandsby Tom DiNardo

columns 34 Aboriginal relations: Where are

we now?by Dwight Newman

36 Meeting the mining productivitychallenge head onby Bruce Sprague

38 A Canadian industry in themakingby Ian M. London

upfront: environmentalmonitoring & closure 44 Anglo American is sharing its

new closure guide with the worldby Ian Ewing

46 New Afton is the first mine inNorth America to meet ISO 50001energy management standardsby Correy Baldwin

48 Shuswap chief Ronald Ignacediscusses the convergence oftraditional knowledge andscienceby Correy Baldwin

travel 72 Fort McMurray, Alberta

by Kiran Malik-Khan

cim community 78 CIM news from Canada

and beyondcompiled by Tom DiNardoand Kelsey Rolfe

mining lore 86 American entrepreneur John

Conrad had it all: a flourishingmine and mill operation on TagishLake, a city named after him, andthe world’s most extensivetramwayby Correy Baldwin

83 Technical abstracts 84 Innovation showcase

& Product files 85 Professional directory

contenufrancophone

6 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 9, No. 6

48 32

CIM Magazine estdisponible entierement en français en ligne :magazine.CIM.org/fr-CA

68article de fond56 Vapeur propre

Malgré la hausse de la demande, il n’est pas prévu que la productionde gaz naturel augmente. Ainsi, lenucléaire pourrait-il constituer unesolution à court terme pour lesexploitations de sables bitumineux ?par Christopher Pollon

10 Mot du président

68 Profil de projetDundee Precious Metals a pris les rênes d’une mine de 50 anset, à l’aide d'une équipe defournisseurs à l’esprit ouvert, en a fait une exploitation digne du XXIe siècle.par Eavan Moore

76 La communauté s’estprononcéeConstatations tirées de l’initiativede sensibilisation stratégique de l’ICMpar Tom DiNardoinfographie par Maria Olaguera

78 La communauté de l’ICM 83 Résumé techniques

Mine and process raw materials more e ciently

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Tel: 905 681 9292 1 800 668 3199Fax: 905 681 [email protected]

arlier this summer, McEwen Mininghosted the first of its “MiningInnovation Lunch and Learn” get-

togethers. The event drew professionals whowork for suppliers, business and engineeringconsultancies, professors, professionals fromcompeting mining firms and at least oneattendee with no background whatsoever inmining for a series of presentations and wide-ranging discussion on how the industrymight become more productive. Rob McEwen told those assembled that

Tesla Motors has proved “somebody can walkin and blow the doors off of everybody else”by eschewing standard practices, and the

mining industry, he argued, seems ready for a similar shake-up. McEwenwould prefer to open the doors of his namesake company himself, allow-ing big ideas and their value to flow through, rather than lose them at thehinges. It is in the mining industry’s favour, reasoned Michael MacFarlane, an

Anglo Gold Ashanti veteran invited to speak at the event, that there areother industries that have a 30-year head start in introducing more effi-cient, technologically advanced operating practices. The challenge for min-ing is to adopt them. Among the successful examples he cited was DundeePrecious Metals’ Chelopech mine in Bulgaria that you will find profiled byEavan Moore in this issue (p. 64). The questions of innovation and risk also drive the discussion in

Christopher Pollon’s feature on the oil sands, “Clean steam” (p. 50).Natural gas has been the fuel of choice to generate steam for bitumenextraction, but there is some doubt about the sustainability of that option.As demand for natural gas grows along with scrutiny over the carbonintensity of oil sands operations, the story examines the potential thatemerging nuclear plants have to meet the needs of producers in the coun-try’s oil patch.In the preceding months many of you took the time to help CIM get its

strategic bearings through an online survey, round table discussions, webi-nars as well as the leadership congress at our annual conference in May.The result was an enormous amount of valuable feedback that CIMNational has been working through to understand how the Institute canbest serve its members and the broader mining community in the future.You will find some of those learnings distilled on p. 74, and many moreavailable through cim.org. Thanks to all of you who contributed to thisproject.

Ryan Bergen, [email protected]@Ryan_CIM_Mag


editor’s letter Editor-in-chief Ryan Bergen, [email protected] editor Angela Hamlyn, [email protected] editor Andrea Nichiporuk, [email protected]

Section editors Peter Braul, [email protected] DiNardo, [email protected]

Copy editor/Communications coordinator Zoë Koulouris, [email protected]

Web content editor Maria Olaguera, [email protected]

Editorial intern Kelsey Rolfe, [email protected]

Contributors Correy Baldwin, Brenda Bouw, Graham Chandler, IanEwing, Ian M. London, Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Kiran Malik-Khan,Herb Mathisen, Eavan Moore, Dwight Newman, Christopher Pollon,Bruce Sprague, Chris Windeyer

Editorial advisory board Alicia Ferdinand, Garth Kirkham, Vic Pakalnis,Steve Rusk, Nathan Stubina

Translations CNW, Karen Rolland

Published 9 times a year by:Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum 1250 – 3500 de Maisonneuve Blvd. WestWestmount, QC H3Z 3C1Tel.: 514.939.2710; Fax: 514.939.2714 www.cim.org; Email: [email protected]

Advertising salesDovetail Communications Inc.30 East Beaver Creek Rd., Ste. 202Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 1J2Tel.: 905.886.6640; Fax: 905.886.6615; www.dvtail.com Senior Account Executives 905.886.6641Janet Jeffery, [email protected], ext. 329Neal Young, [email protected], ext. 325Account ManagerFiona Persaud, [email protected], ext. 326

Subscriptions Included in CIM membership ($177.00); Non-members (Canada),$270.00/yr (PE, MB, SK, AB, NT, NU, YT add $11.00 GST, BC add$26.40 HST, ON, NB, NL add $28.60 HST, QC add $32.95 GST +PST, NS add $33.00 HST) Non-Members USA and International:US$290.00/year. Single copies, $25.00.

This issue’s coverIllustration by Chloe Cushman

Layout and design by Clò Communications Inc.www.clocommunications.com

Copyright©2014. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1718-4177. Publications Mail No. 09786. Postage paid at CPA Saint-Laurent, QC.

Dépôt légal: Bibliothèque nationale du Québec.The Institute, as a body, is not responsible for statements made or opinions advanced either in articles or in any discussion appearing in its publications.

Printed in Canada

Pushing for change

E

president’s notes | mot du président

Des leçons à tirerEn tant qu’institut de technologie, l’une de nos principales responsabilités consiste à fournir des

renseignements de pointe, axés sur la science, utiles aux divers secteurs de l’industrie des minéraux.Nous partageons ces renseignements par l’intermédiaire de conférences de l’ICM, d’activités de sociétéou de sections, de publications de l’ICM et de la bibliothèque de l’ICM en ligne. Lorsque nos membres,quel que soit l’endroit où ils se trouvent, ont accès à ces renseignements, ils peuvent assumer leursfonctions au mieux de leurs capacités.

C’est pourquoi nous continuons de développer la structure de nos sections internationales etd’augmenter le nombre de nos membres à l’échelle internationale. À la suite de la mise en place dessections de l’ICM à Santiago et à Lima, et à l’issue de cinq années d’activités coordonnées en Chine,nous ouvrons à présent notre plus récente section internationale à Ouagadougou, au Burkina Faso.Cette section, ainsi que celle de Dakar, au Sénégal, sera la pierre angulaire de la présence de l’ICM enAfrique occidentale. Tournée vers l’avenir, l’ICM travaille également assidûment à la création d’une sec-tion à Hong Kong. Grâce à sa présence à l’étranger, l’ICM partage des renseignements, offre une exper-tise de premier ordre et appuie la mise au point de pratiques exemplaires responsables en matièred’exploitation minière, peu importe où elle a lieu.

C’est pendant que je rédigeais ce message que j’ai eu connaissance de la rupture de la digue à sté-riles de la mine de cuivre du mont Polley, en Colombie-Britannique. Heureusement, personne n’a étéblessé. Cet incident nous a tous pris par surprise, le Canada étant doté de normes très rigoureuses enmatière de conception technique, de construction et d’exploitation des digues à stériles. À juste titre,cet incident a suscité une importante réaction de la part du public partout au pays, mais malheureu-sement, des renseignements erronés ont été diffusés. Cette rupture fera l’objet d’une enquête et il estimportant d’attendre de connaître les faits. En ce qui nous concerne, à l’ICM, il nous incombe d’enapprendre le plus possible au sujet de l’événement et de partager ces leçons avec nos membres etqu’on applique les enseignements tirés aux projets d’exploitation minière dans le monde entier.

Sean WallerCIM PresidentPrésident de l’ICM


Hard lessonsOne of our key responsibilities as a technical institute is to provide leading-edge, science-

based information relevant to the various sectors of the minerals industry. This informationis shared through CIM conferences, society and branch functions, CIM publications and theonline CIM library. When our members, regardless of their location, can access that informa-tion they can execute their roles to the very best of their abilities.

For these reasons we continue to develop our international branch structure and interna-tional membership. Following on the establishment of CIM branches in Santiago and Lima,plus five years of coordinated activities in China, we now welcome our newest internationalbranch in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This branch, along with our Dakar, Senegal branchwill act as the cornerstone of CIM's presence in West Africa. Looking ahead, CIM is workingdiligently on establishing a Hong Kong branch as well. Through our overseas presence, CIMshares information, provides cutting-edge expertise, and supports the development ofresponsible mining and best practices, wherever mining takes place.

It was while drafting this note that I learned of the tailings dam breach at the Mt. Polleycopper mine in British Columbia. Thankfully, no injuries occurred. This incident has takenall of us by surprise, as Canada has extremely rigorous standards for tailings dam engineeringdesign, construction and operation. This incident garnered widespread public reactionacross the country, and rightly so, but unfortunately inaccurate information was dissemi-nated. This breach will be investigated, and it is important that we await the facts. For us atCIM, it will be our responsibility to learn as much as we can from the event and ensure theselessons are shared with our members, branches and societies, and applied to mining projectsaround the world.

Compiled by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco12 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 9, No. 6

TOOLS OFTHE TRADE

◢ Productivity in tight quartersWhen Vallée Inc. set out to design its new 4DA50C and4DA55C lift trucks it focused meticulously on the threefactors that would raise productivity in mining applications:visibility, robustness and agility. The new trucks sport a full-view cab that includes an overhead window and a capacitythat starts at 22.68 tonnes. Yet these four-wheel drive lifttrucks are compact and manoeuvrable. The combinationmeans they can handle heavy loads on many types of terrainincluding uneven surfaces and tight spaces. The two forkliftsand their attachments are also customizable. “When a clientcomes to us with a challenge, one of our engineers goes outto their site to observe and study it,” says Frédéric Vallée, thecompany’s president. “Then our team works with the clientto develop a solution specific to their needs. We’ve workedwith a mining company, for example, to develop a tirehandler for the lift so they can change large equipment tireson site without the operator using a camera.”

◢ Safe cable couplingInstalling electrical mining cable couplers can bedifficult, wasteful and risky. “Typically, it involvesusing a soldering system,” says Juan Darritchon,Americas market manager for mining at TEConnectivity (TE). “It can be dangerous as you’reworking with very high temperatures and thequality of the installation is dependent on the skillof the person doing it, which can vary widely.” Hesays a safer option is TE’s innovative Raychemmining couplers, with their shearbolt technology,which the company has used successfully foryears in the utilities sector. “Our shearbolttechnology is designed in such a way that whenthe bolt reaches the exact torque needed, thehead breaks off,” says Darritchon. The couplers,which can later be reused with a new bolt, comein two sizes to cover everything from #6 AWG to500 MCM cables. The couplers also use a sealingtechnology that allows for a tight fit, regardless ofcable size.

◢ Environmentally friendly washTo clean the guck, grease and grime that accumulatedon equipment, mining operations once relied onchemicals that were harsh on the environment andhuman health. Environmental awareness has changedthat and green cleaners are now used, but they cansometimes seem almost as friendly to grime as they areto nature. Some manufacturers are adding more punchto their green products, however. Phoenix Industries,a home, office and industrial cleaning productsmanufacturer, recently introduced a new formula for itsbiodegradable Mean Green Industrial StrengthCleaner & Degreaser with 40 per cent more detergentsthan the original version. “Our customers use it onunderground mining equipment for the removal ofgrease and oil and they also use it on water spray jetsto keep them cleaned out and open,” says Willie Watts,the buyer for Kentucky-based Mine Service CompanyInc., which sells mining products to the underground

mining industry. “It’s just agood, stronger degreaser.It works well.”

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3:32 PM


Green light for FortuneMinerals’ NICO project

Fortune Minerals Limited’s NICOproject took an important step forwardin July, when the company receivedapproval on a land use permit andwater licence.

The Wek’eezhii Land and WaterBoard of the Northwest Territories gavethe go-ahead on the two permits thatwill allow Fortune to start constructionon the site, located about 100 kilome-tres northwest of Yellowknife. J.Michael Miltenberger, N.W.T.’s envi-ronment minister, gave the finalapproval in late-July.

NICO will be a gold-cobalt-copper-bismuth project, consisting of an openpit and underground mine, and a mill.

If Fortune gets the financing it needs,CEO Robin Goad said the companywill start construction on the site laterthis year. It would potentially becomeoperational in the third quarter of2017.

The property has Proven and Prob-able Reserves of 33 million tonnes,including 102 million pounds of bis-muth and 82 million pounds ofcobalt. NICO is expected to have amine life of 20 years, with a plannedmill throughput of 4,650 tonnes ofore per day.

Fortune expects to receive full fund-ing for construction from strategicpartners such as Posco and ProconMining and Tunnelling, the latter ofwhich has a 19.43 per cent interest inthe company.

Goad said Fortune will be targetingthe battery market by producing a“cobalt-sulphate product” used in themanufacturing of rechargeable lithium-ion and nickel metal hydride batteries.“What we’re feeding into is the growthof the batteries in not only portableelectronic devices but also electricvehicles,” he said.

NICO is projected to create 300construction jobs and 270 permanentjobs.

The bulk concentrate produced inN.W.T. will be shipped to Fortune’splanned Saskatchewan metals process-ing plant near Saskatoon, which isslated to open around the same time asthe mine. – Kelsey Rolfe

Barrick to replace CEOwith co-presidents

After a two-year tenure, BarrickGold Corp’s CEO, Jamie Sokalsky, willstep down on September 15 and a newleadership team of two co-presidentswill take his place, the companyannounced in July. Kelvin Dushnisky,formerly the company’s senior execu-tive vice-president, and Jim Gowans,the COO, will hold the dual roles.

“The board had been having discus-sions about the structure that wouldhave the best outcome for the com-pany,” said Barrick spokesman AndyLloyd. “As part of that, Jamie agreed tostep down. It’s really as a result ofrestructuring.”

The co-presidents will divide theCEO’s job, with Gowans managingday-to-day operations and Dushniskyfocusing on government and stake-holder relations. “The two of them[will be] joined at the hip as they man-age the company and put a particularfocus on those issues,” Lloyd said.

Barrick chairman John Thorntonsaid the company does not plan toappoint a new CEO. Analysts havespeculated that the new structurewould give him more power. “The factthat a CEO has not been named sug-gests that John Thornton will continueto be very active in the management ofthe company in a de facto CEO role,”TD Securities analyst Greg Barneswrote in a note to investors.

Lloyd denied the speculation. “Johnhas said many times he has no interestin being CEO. Really it is Kelvin andJim as co-presidents that are managingthe company,” he said.

The announcement of Barrick’smanagement shakeup came just 10weeks after founder Peter Munk leftthe company. – K.R.

Encana sells Bighorn to Jupiter Resources

Encana Corp., Canada’s largest pro-ducer of natural gas, announced inlate-June it would sell its Bighorn assetin west-central Alberta to Calgary-based Jupiter Resources for $2 billion.

news

Fortune Minerals prepares site for construction of its NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in the NorthwestTerritories.

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ErratumIn the translation process for our“Names to Know” feature(August 2014), we mistakenlytranslated Mr. Aubrey Eveleighinto a “madame.” We regret theerror.

Dans la traduction de notre articlede fond intitulé « Les noms à con-naître » (août 2014), nous avonspar erreur présenté M. AubreyEveleigh comme « Mme » AubreyEveleigh. Veuillez accepter nosexcuses pour cette erreur.

Color Space Eff. Res.

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news

The deal includes almost 1,500square kilometres of land and Encana’sinterests in pipelines, facilities andservice arrangements. Bighorn hasroughly 1.1 billion cubic feet of netProven Reserves, 75 per cent of whichis natural gas.

“It’s certainly a valuable asset, but[the sale] was mainly due to our focus

on transitioning our portfolio toinclude more oil and natural gas liq-uids,” said Encana spokesman DougMcIntyre. “Bighorn...was really notbeing funded much, if at all. [The sale]allowed us to realize the value of thatasset.”

The deal with Jupiter, a subsidiaryof private-equity firm Apollo Global

Management, is expected to close inthe third quarter this year.

Bighorn’s sale follows Encana CEODoug Suttles’ decision to focus 75 percent of the company’s capital invest-ment on six key oil-heavy resourceareas throughout the continent, insteadof maintaining 30 scattered assets. Theremaining 25 per cent is invested inseven other minor assets.

The company sold its Jonah Fieldnatural gas asset in Wyoming for $1.8billion in March to global privateinvestment firm TPG Capital. – K.R.

First European carboncapture project receivesEU funding

A Yorkshire company received 300million euros from the EuropeanUnion in July to develop Europe’s firstcoal-fired power plant with carboncapture and storage (CCS) technology,which would bury its carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions deep underneath theNorth Sea. The funds came fromNER300, the financing instrumentestablished by the European Commis-sion to encourage more low-carbonenergy projects.

Drax Group, which operatesBritain’s largest power station, willuse the funds to build the powerplant, called White Rose, on landbeside its existing coal-fired powerplant near Selby in North Yorkshire.White Rose is a joint venture betweenDrax, Alstom and BOC, operatingunder the name Capture Power, andis expected to burn enough coal topower 630,000 homes. Ninety percent of its emissions will be trans-ported by pipeline and stored underthe North Sea, a service that will beprovided by National Grid, an electricpower transmission network in theU.K. National Grid is currently devel-oping the common transportationand storage infrastructure White Rosewill use.

“The NER300 award representsanother significant milestone for us inour development programme,” saidCapture Power CEO Leigh Hackett in a

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press release, “as well as providing a strong signal for CCS inEurope.”

The front-end engineering design study for White Rose ison track to receive a final investment decision at the end of2015, with construction slated to begin in 2016.

CCS plants prevent CO2 emissions from being releasedinto the atmosphere, and bury them underground. This tech-nology is widely seen as an important new tool for combatingclimate change.

White Rose is one of 19 projects across the EU to receiveNER300 funding, which totalled one billion euros this year. – K.R.

Barrick partners with Saudi firm oncopper asset

Barrick Gold Corp. is partnering with Saudi Arabian Min-ing Co. (Ma’aden) on its copper project in Saudi Arabia, thecompany announced in July.

As part of the joint venture, the Saudi company willacquire 50 per cent of Barrick’s Jabal Sayid asset, locatedaround 120 kilometres southeast of Medina, for $210 mil-lion. The acquisition is expected to be completed in thefourth quarter of this year.

Barrick expects that this move will allow Jabal Sayid,delayed because of safety-related permit problems and legacymatters over mining licences that emerged in the third quar-ter of 2012, to begin production in late-2015.

“We’ve got the operating experience in copper, they obvi-ously have the local expertise in the kingdom, so it’s a com-plementary pairing of the two companies,” said Barrickspokesman Andy Lloyd.

Barrick is considering working with partners in differentcountries on future projects including other mining compa-nies, government partners and sources of capital. “It’s amodel we’d like to do more of,” Lloyd said.

Barrick has already completed most of the construction atJabal Sayid. When it becomes operational, the site isexpected to have a mine life of 15 years and produce roughly100-130 million pounds of copper in concentrate per yearduring the first five years. – K.R.

Water woes at Cigar LakeCameco has temporarily stopped jet boring at Cigar Lake

due to ground freezing issues at the Saskatchewan uraniummine, the company announced in July.

“Given that the McClean Lake mill has not yet started pro-cessing Cigar Lake ore, we have decided to temporarily stopjet-boring at Cigar Lake to allow the ore body to freeze morethoroughly in these areas,” Cameco stated in a press release.

To prevent water from entering production areas and sta-bilize the rock formation at Cigar Lake, Cameco freezes theground around the ore body with a brine solution. But freez-ing at the mine is not advancing as quickly as predicted. Thisis due to the higher-than-expected moisture and clay content

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of the soil, said COO Bob Steane in aconference call with media andinvestors.

Steane said there are areas thatcould be mined today, but the groundin a particular peninsula of the orebody is not frozen enough to safelymine in that area. “It’s a localized situ-ation,” he said.

Before production stopped, CigarLake had mined roughly 1,000 tonnesof uranium ore. Cameco expects theground to be sufficiently frozen withina few months, at which point produc-tion will restart. While the interrup-tion causes a shift in production at themine, Cameco is certain it is still ontrack for its production target of 18

million pounds of uranium per yearby 2018. – Tom DiNardo

Aussies roll back carbon tax

Australia abolished the country’scontested carbon tax in July, whichcharged the top carbon emitters in thecountry for every tonne of greenhousegas they produced. In a 39 to 32 vote,the Australian Senate repealed the tax.

Recently elected Liberal PrimeMinister Tony Abbott campaigned onthe promise of repealing the tax andrejoiced in the wake of the vote. “Thecoalition [government] promised toabolish the carbon tax and today thegovernment has delivered on thatpromise,” said Abbott in a pressrelease. The prime minister has criti-cized the carbon tax for costing theaverage Australian householdAU$550 per year.

Abbott has stated he plans toreplace the carbon tax with a taxpayer-funded plan that incentivizes compa-nies to reduce emissions and usecleaner energy. “The governmentremains committed to taking action totackle climate change but we’ll do itwithout Labour’s $9 billion carbon taxhit on the economy,” he said.

The tax was initially imposed by theLabour party in July 2012, chargingthe top 348 polluters in AustraliaAU$23 for every tonne of CO2 theyproduced. – T.D.

Labrador Iron haltsproduction on operations

Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Lim-ited stopped all mine operations indef-initely, the company announced in July.

Keren Yun, vice-president ofinvestor relations, said the decision toput operations on hold stems fromthree specific issues. The first is thepoor quality of ore discovered in 2013at the company’s James mine, nearSchefferville, Quebec. The expectedcosts of extracting the ore and thisyear’s plummeting prices contributedto the decision that it was not feasibleto continue production.



industry at a glance

“At current prices, continuing at theJames mine would have probablyresulted in losses this year,” Yun said.For Labrador to resume its operations,she said the company would need tosee iron ore prices reach US$100 atonne. At the end of July, the price wasaround $US95.

Labrador Iron is treating 2014 as a“development year” for its Houstonmine in the Labrador Trough, Yun said.The company is talking with commod-ity traders, financial institutions andothers about potential funding.

The company is cutting costs byrenegotiating contracts with transporta-tion providers and its mining contrac-tors, and looking at alternative portarrangements. It also laid off aroundhalf of the 60-person workforce in Feb-ruary at its corporate offices.

Labrador’s decision to halt its opera-tions comes at a time when demand foriron ore has slumped dramatically andits benchmark price has dropped 30

per cent since February. “You can getsome quarter-to-quarter price improve-ment,” said Patricia Mohr, a commodityspecialist at Scotiabank. “But I would

say that the weaker prices are going tobe in the market for several years.”

Other Canadian iron ore producershave also cut back or shelved their

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Poor ore quality was discovered in 2013 at Labrador Iron’s James mine near Schefferville, Quebec.

time. Stornoway CEO Matt Mansonsaid it was done because of the eco-nomic climate.

“We had a good asset and peoplewanted to finance it, but everybodywanted certainty of where the otherpieces of the financing were going tocome from,” he said. “It wasn’t possiblefor us to layer it on. We had to providecertainty.” Stornoway offered that cer-tainty by making the funding piecescross-dependent: if one of the pieces fellthrough, the rest would not be used.

The company had its groundbreak-ing ceremony on July 10, with QuebecPremier Phillipe Couillard in atten-dance. Construction will last two years,with first plant commissioningexpected for late-2016. Commercialproduction is slated for the secondquarter of 2017.

“A huge amount of work has goneon to get us to this point,” said Man-son. “So it’s a hugely satisfying momentto be able to [start construction].”

Renard has an expected mine life of11 years, with an average annual pro-duction of 1.6 million carats per year.The mine’s Proven and ProbableReserves are 17.9 million carats.

Stornoway had already built aroad – the Route 167 extension, con-necting the communities of Chibouga-mau and Mistissini to Renard – and anairport prior to starting work on themine. – K.R.


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Quebec Premier Phillipe Couillard (middle) at the groundbreaking ceremony for Stornoway’s Renard diamond project.

way to raise more cash. It tookStornoway 18 months to secure thefunding package.

All the pieces of the package werearranged at the same time, a strategythat goes against the typical method oflayering financing methods one at a

projects. Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.reduced the planned production levelof its Mary River project in January2013 to 3.5 million tonnes, down from18 million. In the first quarter of 2014,Cliffs Natural Resources idled itsWabush iron ore Scully mine. – K.R.

Stornoway beginsconstruction at Renard

Stornoway Diamonds Corp. beganconstruction at its Renard diamondproject in north-central Quebec inearly-July, after arranging an unusualfunding deal.

Stornoway’s $946-million financingpackage was announced two daysbefore construction began, andincludes a $427-million offering ofcommon share subscription receipts, a$275-million streaming agreement,$155 million in two debt facilities and$48 million in cost overrun creditfacilities. Construction was halteduntil the company had guaranteed fullfunding to avoid having to stop mid-

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While this case focused specificallyon forestry, the ruling has implicationsfor “any type of provincially authorizedland use activities including mining,”said Jolanta Kowalski, a spokeswomanfor the ministry of natural resources.

“The decision by the SCC reaffirmsOntario’s position and provides greaterclarity for resource development in theprovince,” Kowalski said.

The Grassy Narrows First Nationfirst brought litigation against Ontarioin 2005, alleging that forestry opera-tions on their land infringed uponhunting and fishing rights under Treaty3. According to the claim, only the fed-eral government had the power to“take up” the lands. The Ontarioprovincial government would have toseek consent from the feds to continue,they said.

The most recent ruling comes afterGrassy Narrows First Nation appealedthe decision of the Ontario Court ofAppeal in March 2013, which ruled infavour of the provincial government. – T.D.

CME/Reuters set newsilver fix

The 117-year-old London silverfix was replaced in mid-August by an electronic, auction-based fixdesigned by the Chicago MercantileExchange (CME) Group and Thom-son Reuters.

CME Group provides the price plat-form and methodology for the new fixand Thomson Reuters oversees theadministration and governance.

The London Silver Price, as it isnow known, is set by a series of elec-tronic auctions every day starting atnoon. The first 30-second auctionopens with an auction price, expressedin U.S. dollars per 100,000 troy ounces(1 troy ounce = 1.09 ounces) or onelakh of silver. Auction participants – aregular collection of silver miners, con-sumers and banks – input the volumesthey would buy and sell at that price. Ifthe difference between buy and sellorders is more than three lakhs at theend of the round, the auction price willchange and another auction will begin.

news

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Supreme Court saysprovinces don’t need fedsto take up treaty lands

The Supreme Court of Canada(SCC) ruled in July that provinces havethe ability to “take up” aboriginal treatylands for mining and logging withoutthe permission of the federal govern-ment.

In a unanimous 7-0 ruling, SCCaffirmed that Ontario could “take up”traditional land of the Grassy NarrowsFirst Nations in the Keewatin area ofnorthwestern Ontario in accordancewith Treaty 3. The province, however,must consult and accommodate GrassyNarrows as well as preserve their rightsto hunt, fish, and trap on the treatyland.

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This process continues until the buyand sell volumes are within the three-lakh tolerance.

“By inviting all of the users to partic-ipate ... the daily rate aims to be a fullyaccurate representation of the price ofthis essential precious metal,” saidRhona O’Connell, Thomson Reuters’head of metals research and forecasts.

The London Silver Market FixingLtd., the previous silver fix associationcomprised of Deutsche Bank, HSBC,

and Bank of Nova Scotia-ScotiaMocatta,was disbanded on August 14, and thenew fix implemented the following day.

The process to develop a new silverfix came after Deutsche Bankannounced in May that, in threemonths’ time, it would stop contribut-ing to the gold and silver fix bench-marks. “The silver fixing company feltthat having only two contributors wasnot viable,” said Aelred Connelly, aspokesman for the London Bullion

Market Association (LBMA), whichoversees the silver and gold fixes.

LBMA announced in mid-July thatit would open market consultations tooverhaul the century-old gold fix aswell, with plans to announce the newadministrator in September, andimplement the new process by the endof the year. Thomson Reuters told CIMMagazine in August that it planned tosubmit a joint proposal with CMEGroup for the gold fix. – K.R.

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3:45 a.m.10 million cubic metres4.5 million cubic metres

4,000300

150 feet41%4 km

2.8$1 million

Time on August 4 when the tailings pond dam collapsed

Approximate amount of water released into Hazeltine Creek

Approximate amount of silt that was also released

Number of Olympic-sized swimming pools it would take to hold allthe water from the spill

Number of residents in the Mount Polley region affected by thewater ban

Width of Hazeltine Creek after the pond breach. Originally, it was1.2 feet wide

Drop in Imperial Metals share prices the day after the tailings spill

Length of the Mount Polley tailings pond

Factor by which the selenium concentration in the tailings pondexceeded drinking water guidelines

The maximum fine Imperial Metals could face if it does not complywith the pollution abatement order issued by the B.C. government

Mount Polley tailingspond breach, by thenumbers

The dam at B.C.-based ImperialMetals’ Mount Polley tailings pondcollapsed in early August, sendingmillions of cubic metres of slurryand debris into Hazeltine Creek.Inspectors from the ministry ofenergy and mines were called toinvestigate the collapse, and theCariboo Regional District declared astate of emergency. A water ban, pro-hibiting consumption and recre-ational use, was also implementedfor Quesnel Lake, Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, and Cariboo Creek, and was later expanded to include the entire Ques-nel and Cariboo River systems up to the salmon-rich Fraser River. Residents have called the breach an environmentaldisaster and took pictures of debris and dead fish floating in the affected waterways. But Imperial Metals CEO BrianKynoch insisted the tailings water was “very close to drinking quality,” adding that he would drink it himself. – K.R.

Screenshot from a video of Imperial Metals’ Mount Polleytailings breach in British Columbia.

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12:24 PM


A landmark court decision involvingaboriginal title in British Columbia isexpected to change how mining compa-nies work with First Nations on devel-oping resources.

On June 26, the Supreme Court ofCanada affirmed that six Tsilhqot’inbands have title over 1,700 square kilo-metres of land in central B.C.

This is the first time Canada’s highestcourt has recognized aboriginal title ona particular site. Title, as defined by theruling written by Chief Justice BeverlyMcLachlin, is the “right to use and con-trol the land and enjoy its benefits.”That includes the right to benefit eco-nomically from the land, while ensuringit is sustained for future generations.

The Tsilhqot’in decision also statesthe Crown can infringe upon aboriginaltitle only if they comply with Section 35of the Constitution Act, which is theduty to consult with First Nations andjustify their actions “on the basis of acompelling and substantial purpose.”The Crown has a legal duty to “negoti-ate in good faith to resolve claims toancestral lands,” according to the ruling.

The decision is significant because itrecognizes that Aboriginal Peoples owntheir ancestral lands where they provetitle and can therefore determine how touse them. That is, unless they signed theland away in treaties with federal orprovincial governments. Most jurisdic-tions in Canada are covered by a mod-ern or historic treaty. The implications ofthe Tsilhqot’in ruling are greatest in B.C.,where most First Nations’ groups havenot signed treaties. That said, there areaboriginal title claims in other provinces.

The ruling sets a precedent for otherFirst Nations that may want to establishaboriginal title on their land. A handfulhas already stated publicly that they toointend to pursue it.

The Tsilhqot’in ruling does not saywhether aboriginal title includes min-eral rights, which has sent many miningcompanies scrambling for legal advice.

Tsilhqot’in ruling rattles resource industryMining industry uncertain in the wake of landmark aboriginal title decision in B.C.

By Brenda Bouw

There is particular uncertainty aroundhow much leverage First Nations’groups with aboriginal title will have tohalt development of resource projects.

Thomas Isaac, leader of the aborigi-nal law group at Osler, Hoskin and Har-court, said the decision does not providea guidebook for mining companies, gov-ernments or First Nations. Questionsremain as to what the limits of aboriginaltitle are, Isaac said, including the rightsof private parties affected, like miningcompanies, and if provinces can over-ride aboriginal title.

He believes the ruling puts the onuson both federal and provincial govern-ments to balance aboriginal and non-aboriginal interests fairly andreason ably. “We need to be monitoringvery carefully how governments aregoing to move forward in implementingwhat they now know on aboriginal titlelands,” Isaac said.

The mining industry has been largelyquiet since the ruling was announced. Ahandful of company executives contactedfor this article did not want to speak pub-licly, but some expressed concern aboutwhat it could mean for their projects.

“Just when we thought we wereheading in the right direction with ben-efit agreements and job training, now

we’re back to fear and uncertainty andunknowing,” said one long-time indus-try executive, who did not want to benamed. “There are some potentiallyserious consequences here.” The execu-tive worries the uncertainty surround-ing the ruling will deter investment and,in turn, project development.

Gavin Dirom, president and CEO ofthe Association for Mineral ExplorationBC, acknowledged the potential impacton investor confidence but cautioned theindustry not to panic. “Since subsurfaceresources are held by the Crown in thepublic interest, this ruling should not sig-nificantly change anything because theCrown can justify that minerals beneathaboriginal title lands should be responsi-bly explored and potentially developedfor the greater good, both socially andeconomically,” Dirom said.

He believes the ruling should encour-age mining companies to continuedeveloping stronger relationships withaboriginal communities. That includesearly and ongoing consultation, andstriking agreements for revenue sharingor other benefits. “The ruling reaffirmsthat engagement and consultation is theright thing to do,” said Dirom.

Predictions that resource develop-ment will freeze as a result of the Tsil-

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Potato Mountain Range, located on Tsilhqot’in title land


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hqot’in ruling are “ridiculous and avoid-able,” wrote Judith Sayers (Keki-nusuqs), a lawyer from the HupacasathFirst Nation in Port Alberni, B.C., in anopinion piece published by the Tyee.“Generally, if you plan to do business ina First Nations’ territory, go see the FirstNation at the very early stages, beforeany planning is done,” she said.

And if the aboriginal group is opento development, she added, companiesshould “acknowledge the title of theFirst Nation and their ability to consentto a project; this will build relations andenable you to carry out your work in arespectful manner.”

Sayers said she believes consent alsoextends to First Nations that have not

proven title, noting the Crown now has a“procedural duty” to consult and accom-modate as a result of the Tsilhqot’in deci-sion. “Aboriginal title is now a reality thatthe federal and provincial governmentsmust recognize and act appropriatelywith that title in mind,” she said.

Since the ruling, the Tahltan CentralCouncil, which represents the Tahltanpeople of northwestern B.C., has said itplans to go to court to fight FortuneMinerals Ltd. and the development ofits Arctos Anthracite project. They claimthe project is located on Tahltan tradi-tional territory.

Now that the Tsilhqot’in has estab-lished land title, they say they woulddevelop mining projects under the right

circumstances. “It will be with compa-nies that respect our values and […]work with us,” said Joe Alphonse, tribalchair with the Tsilhqot’in national government.

“They need to come to our door first.That is the road to certainty.”

The Tsilhqot’in National Governmentreleased a draft mining policy a monthafter the ruling, which says it will requireexploration and benefit agreementsbefore approving any exploration ormining projects. It will also considerpartnership and ownership opportuni-ties with mining and exploration com-panies and wants the Tsilhqot’in peopleto have priority when it comes to jobs,training and contracts. CIM


Canada’s Oil Sands InnovationAlliance (COSIA) announced on June19 the largest project of its two-year his-tory. The $165-million Water Technol-ogy Development Centre (WTDC) willstreamline testing techniques aimed atreducing water usage in steam-assisted

Reducing water consumption in the oil sandsCOSIA announces new water technology centre

By Graham Chandler

gravity drainage (SAGD) applications inthe oil sands. SAGD involves drillingwell pairs – one injecting steam and theother collecting the heated bitumen.The process, currently employed inabout half of Canada’s production at theoil sands, requires large volumes of

water to be heated, so operators havebeen continually striving to improve theperformance and efficiency of theirwater recycling technologies and reducetheir greenhouse gas footprints.

Expected to be operational in 2017,the WTDC initiative is led by Suncor

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Aerial view of Suncor’s Firebag SAGD facility – the future site of COSIA’s Water Technology Development Centre

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and includes Canadian Natural ResourcesLimited, Devon, Husky, Nexen and ShellCanada. Research at WTDC will includelooking at how to make boilers more effi-cient, how to optimize the chemicalsused during water treatment, how to bet-ter treat the water and how to achievebetter evaporator waste solidification,said Suncor spokesperson Kelli Stevens.“The ultimate goal is to be able to reducewater usage,” she said. “That is a big onein the oil sands, particularly in situ.Increasing the amount of water we recy-cle in the process as well as reducing ourenergy needs.”

The objective of WTDC, Stevensadded, is to fast-track innovation, devel-oping technologies that can be commer-cialized sooner than if individualcompanies were working on their own.Taking a technology from concept tocommercial use usually takes close toeight years when working in isolation,according to COSIA. Collaborating willallow operators to share risks and costs.To ensure more accurate results, theWTDC will be attached to Suncor’s Fire-bag SAGD facility. This will allow oper-ators to conduct tests under actualcommercial SAGD field productionenvironments for the first time.

COSIA as a whole consists of 13 oilsands producers and counts BP Canada,Syncrude, Teck Resources and TotalE&P among its members. The alliancewas launched in 2012 to consolidate theefforts of individual companies strug-gling to solve common problems affect-ing in situ and mining operationsthrough collaborative research.

Since its creation, COSIA claims itsmember companies have shared 560distinct technologies and innovations,having spent more than $900 millionon research. The areas of tailings, water,land and greenhouse gases are researchtargets, identified as environmental pri-ority areas (EPAs) by COSIA.

“COSIA is well positioned to fundand undertake large, complex,

integrated, multidisciplinary andmulti-year projects such as WTDC,”said Chris Powter, executive director ofthe University of Alberta’s Oil SandsResearch and Information Network.The network is an independent organ-ization that compiles and analyzesavailable information on the land andwater impacted by mining projects inthe oil sands.

COSIA also recently launched itsEnvironmental Technology AssessmentPortal. The portal invites companies,organizations and individuals to submittechnologies for assessment that fitwithin the current scope of an EPA. “Itis a significant step forward in providinga transparent mechanism for entrepre-neurs to engage with the industry andget their innova-tions evaluated,”Powter said.

One frustra-tion with thealliance thus farhas been its lackof transparency.“It is my under-standing thatCOSIA is under-taking far moreprojects than theirwebsite wouldsuggest,” saidPowter. “Theycould do a betterjob of letting peo-ple know the fullscope of the workthey are funding.”He said hebelieves COSIAwill enhance itscredibility when itprovides the pub-lic with access toresults from theirwork. “The tail-ings EPA hasmade a start at

this by posting copies of reports theyhave commissioned. I hope that theother EPAs will continue this trend.”

No one at COSIA was available forcomment before press time. While theorganization does not make an annualreport available to the public, earlierthis year it began publishing a newslet-ter that leads to information about vari-ous research projects.

Suncor’s Stevens figures the trans-parency issue is being addressed.“Member companies and COSIA areworking towards being able to releasesome really clear-cut aspirations andgoals,” she said. “You are working witha lot of different players who think dif-ferently and it is just going to takesome time.” CIM

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The Alberta government committedanother $423 million to twinning High-way 63 between Grassland and FortMcMurray in its 2014–15 budget,released in March. This year’s fundingfor the project almost doubles last year’sinvestment.

The “twinning” project, which isexpected to be completed by fall 2016,is a plan to convert the extremely busy240-kilometre stretch of two-lane roadbetween the two cities into a dividedfour-lane highway. A 52-km section ofthe route has been finished, mostlyaround the hamlet of Wandering River,and currently more than 60 per cent ofthe road’s length is being overhauledsimultaneously in a patchwork method.Alberta Transport is aiming to completeanother 114 kilometres of roadway byfall 2015. The project was firstannounced in October 2012.

Highway 63 is the main road linkingFort McMurray and the oil sands opera-tions north of the town to southernAlberta. In 2011, just before construc-tion to twin the road started, roughly4,000 vehicles used the highway daily,with large-truck traffic to and from the

Unclogging a vital arteryOngoing expansion along Alberta’s Highway 63 promises smoother, safer route to the oil sands

By Tom DiNardo

oil sands making up about 30 per cent ofthat. Two years later, the number of dailyusers had increased to roughly 5,000.

Imperial Oil uses the highway peri-odically to move materials includingequipment and wants to see the high-way construction completed. “Theimprovement of infrastructure ... is notjust beneficial for Imperial but for theindustry in general and to the commu-nity of Fort McMurray,” said publicaffairs officer Pius Rolheiser.

Leithan Slade, a spokesman for Syn-crude, said the company also uses thehighway but the frequency depends onthe needs of the operations on their102,000 hectares of land in the oilsands. “General shipments to the regioncould include goods and services suchas fuels, construction materials andequipment.”

Beyond the demands of industry, theGovernment of Alberta was motivatedto twin the road to ensure the safety ofmotorists. “People get caught behindtrucks that are going 70 km/hr, driversget frustrated and they begin to takeriskier passing chances,” said JasmineFranklin, a spokeswoman for Alberta

Transportation. The twinning projectwill provide motorists with safer passingopportunities.

Slade agrees that the highway can bedangerous. “Driver behaviour needs toimprove,” he said. Syncrude is a mem-ber of the Coalition for a Safer 63 and881, which helps drivers identify andcorrect potentially dangerous habitsbehind the wheel. A string of fatalitieshas plagued the highway, including acollision in April 2012 that killed sevenpeople.

According to the Edmonton Journal’sHighway 63 accident database, 129people died on the highway between1999 and April 2012. Of all of the acci-dents that have occurred on the high-way since 1990, 24 per cent werebetween cars and tractor-trailers, and 28per cent were between two cars.

So far, there have been some delaysinside Fort McMurray since construc-tion was initiated, said Franklin,because of the change in traffic pat-terns. But both Slade and Rolheiser saidthe ongoing construction has notaffected their operations around FortMcMurray. CIM

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Construction has been completed along a 52-km section ofHighway 63, mainly around the hamlet of Wandering River.

Law has been developing in Canada on aboriginal titlesince the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1973 decision in Calderv. British Columbia, where the court first accepted the conceptin principle. However, up to now, Canadian courts have sim-ply continued to state principles and tests on aboriginal title,seemingly to promote negotiations between governmentsand aboriginal groups in order to settle outstanding landclaims. The desire to promote negotiated agreements has alsobeen part of the courts’ thinking in the context of establish-ing a duty to consult.

As the courts developed aboriginal title case law overrecent decades, they left a lot of uncertainty as to whetheraboriginal communities who had historically been semi-nomadic could ever successfully litigate an aboriginal titleclaim in the courts. The Tsilhqot’in decision makes it clearthey can, thus establishing a stronger legal position for manyaboriginal communities.

The Tsilhqot’in decision effectively has bearing on any landareas where title questions have not been resolved. Thismeans anywhere without treaties establishing certainty onland ownership. Most of British Columbia is thus affected, asare smaller areas in other provinces and territories wherethere are outstanding land claims. The latter include situa-tions like where several Yukon First Nations did not sign onto a modern treaty in the context of Yukon’s umbrella frame-work process. There may also be a renewed significance toarguments that the Peace and Friendship Compacts in theMaritime provinces did not include land cessions by aborig-inal communities there. The decision implies that aboriginaltitle claims have more prospects in the courts than may havebeen thought previously.

In the process, the decision’s effects on negotiations wherelands still have an unclear status may either be clarifying ordisruptive. Ironically, Taseko issued a news release shortlyafter the Tsilhqot’in decision to suggest it had clarified that itsNew Prosperity mine is the one mining project in BritishColumbia that the courts have now determined falls outsideof aboriginal title areas. Although that project faces otherchallenges (and has been twice rejected), the decision actu-ally opens new prospects for it through greater certainty thatthe land involved is not aboriginal-owned.

In other cases, greater certainty on aboriginal ownershipmay allow companies to move forward in their negotiationswith aboriginal communities. That will be the basic expecta-tion where there is title or a strong title claim, with the deci-sion-making clear that the consent of aboriginalcommunities is the normal legal expectation when develop-ing on their lands – just as with land owned by private indi-viduals. There are similar possibilities for the federal

Two recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions on abo-riginal rights will have significant impacts on Canada’smining industry in the years ahead: Tsilhqot’in Nation v.

British Columbia and Grassy Narrows First Nation v. Ontario(Natural Resources). There is no doubt the two rulings clarifysome aspects of aboriginal relations for mining companies,but questions remain. Both cases highlight the need forindustry to monitor legal developments in this area and pos-sibly become more proactive.

The Tsilhqot’in decision in late-June saw the SupremeCourt of Canada make an unprecedented declaration ofaboriginal title. According to the decision, this is owner-ship of historically occupied lands by aboriginal communi-ties. It includes the full economic benefit of the land,subject to the court’s newly developed restriction that theland cannot be used in a way that destroys its value forfuture generations.

Aboriginal relations: Where are we now?

BY DWIGHT NEWMAN


L E G A L


government to override a denial from First Nations based ona test set out in the judgment, analogous to the expropriationof private land.

However, the new decision does not solve the challengesof overlapping title claims between different aboriginal com-munities. Moreover, the restriction that aboriginal title landhas to be used in a way that benefits future generations alsoraises a nest of questions about whether that restriction canbe invoked by dissenting community members who dis-agree with a community’s decision to partner in resourcedevelopment. So there may be ongoing uncertainties createdfor negotiations as well. Mining companies need to thinkcarefully about how they best work within the new legalenvironment.

A further important aspect of the decision is that it clari-fies that provincial law and regulation can apply on aborigi-nal title lands, subject to a particular justification test thatapplies. This is consistent with the Grassy Narrows decisionreleased by the Supreme Court of Canada in July that recog-nizes the primary role of provincial governments on resourcematters. This case answered a treaty interpretation questionwith the court deciding that Ontario can continue to “takeup” land under Treaty 3 in northwestern Ontario for devel-

columns

Dwight Newman is professor of law and Canada Research Chair in indigenousrights in constitutional and international law at the University of Saskatchewan.He has published widely on related topics including his recent books Revisitingthe Duty to Consult Aboriginal Peoples (Saskatoon: Purich, 2014) and NaturalResource Jurisdiction in Canada (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2013).

opment purposes without the involvement of the federalgovernment.

Government rights to lands ceded under Treaty 3 and theother historic treaties have now passed fully to provincialgovernments, as has regulatory authority on that land withinnormal provincial jurisdiction. At the same time, the GrassyNarrows case offers more clarity on the rules for “taking up”land under the historic treaties, with the details of the caseproviding further guidance to provincial governments and toresource companies operating in treaty areas.

These two decisions show how ongoing aboriginal lawdevelopments may affect Canadian mining. Companies needto continuously monitor legal developments in this area. Atthe same time, given the lifespan of many mining projects,forward-thinking companies must also project into the futureand engage in strategic thinking about how to stay ahead offorthcoming legal developments. CIM

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capital and labour in conjunction with other technologicaland organizational factors, found that labour productivityin Australia’s mining sector has declined by roughly 50 percent since 2001. The picture is equally as discouragingcloser to home. Labour productivity in the U.S. coal sectorfell by an overall average of 27.5 per cent between 2009and 2012.

Capital productivity – the output of goods and servicescompared to the input of physical capital – has also been onthe decline over the past decade, as a result of long lead timesbetween investment and production. Australia’s mining sec-tor has seen a drop of 45 per cent in capital productivitysince 2000, compared to 22 per cent across all industries.

From 2000 to 2012, during the recent high commodity-price supercycle, many mining and metals companiesadapted their processes, performance measures and corpo-rate culture to favour growth. These companies are nowcoming face to face with the consequences including signifi-cant gaps in skills, labour costs that exceed the rate of infla-

tion, ineffective portfolio management,issues with capital allocation and poorproject execution, to name a few.

Companies have attempted toaddress these challenges through con-ventional cost-cutting exercises. Butrenegotiating with contractors on rates,reducing support staff from back office,delaying or suspending projects, sellingoff underperforming assets and imple-menting continuous improvement pro-grams is not enough to turn the problemaround. These issues run too deep forstandard solutions, which can even becounterproductive by moving the prob-lem along the supply chain. Instead,miners must drastically transform theirbusiness models if they want to reversethe decade-long drop in productivity.

Real and sustainable productivityrequires a holistic and top-downapproach that aligns productivity activi-ties to their strategic value and contribu-tion. Undertaking this end-to-endbusiness transformation includes fivesteps. The first is setting a clear strategybased on a broad set of value drivers.Next, a company must create an operatingmodel that is aligned with the corporate

Productivity decline in the mining and metals industry,which began over a decade ago, is still an unfortunatereality for companies to this day. This drop-off is the

result of companies in the sector choosing to pursue pro-duction growth and headline revenue during the commod-ity price boom. Counteracting this challenge first requiresunderstanding productivity and what is driving thisdecline.

Productivity is often ill-defined as more output for fixedinput or the same output for less input. But that does notalways tell the complete story. Productivity gain should bemeasured as a form of optimization (i.e. the highest ratio ofoutput to input), which can in fact mean achieving higherproductivity with lower input.

Economists typically measure productivity across arange of factors referred to as multifactor productivity(MFP). The most common factors of MFP include labour,capital and materials. The Australian Bureau of Statistics,measuring MFP as output per unit of combined inputs of

Meeting the mining productivity challenge head on

BY BRUCE SPRAGUE


O P E R A T I O N S


strategy. Then, it must integrate and align across the valuechain through process integration and standardized workprocedures. Finally, the mining company should align plan-ning, budgeting and performance measurements.

Productivity needs to be planned and executed in a coor-dinated way across the value chain. In short: To be effective,companies must commit. This is not as easy as it sounds.Good data is needed to understand how to measure goodperformance and good productivity. Awareness of all the sys-tems, processes, interfaces and interlinks is crucial to makinginformed decisions when it comes time to consider broadbusiness transformation.

Recapturing ground lost over the supercycle, recoveringcompetitive advantage and counteracting rising real wagesare key motivations for improving productivity. Companiesthat commit to a broad business transformation programbenefit from enhanced shareholder value, improved margins,better competitive positioning and increased ability to pur-sue strategic investments.

The downward trend in productivity has been too long inthe making. It is time for companies to take action andaddress this problem with the attention it demands. It is notenough to make short-term adjustments. Competing intoday’s global mining and metals industry requires that com-panies be at the top of their game, and that is where broadbusiness transformation comes in. CIM

Bruce Sprague is partner in Ernst & Young’s Tax Services Practiceand the leader of the firm’s Canadian Mining & Metals. He is based inVancouver. Ernst & Young, in collaboration with the University ofQueensland in Australia, conducted in-depth interviews with seniormining industry executives from around the world. Theseconversations formed the basis for the recent report, Productivity inmining: A case for broad transformation, which outlines theproductivity challenge and how mining and metals companies can getback on track. For more information, visit ey.com/ca/mining.

CIM DELIVERSRECOGNITIONL’ICM RECONNAÎT L’EXCELLENCE

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS IS NOW OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 1ST, 2014 Shine the spotlight on a company or an individual who has made an impact within our industry.

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giving back

De Beers charity event raises funds for health and wellness

De Beers raised more than $50,000 for the Health &Wellness Foundation of Hay River and Hay River Jun-ior Golf at the Charity Classic Golf Tournament in July.The event, in its seventh year, featured 18 teams repre-sented by De Beers’ business partners and communitymembers. Since 2007, the tournament has raised morethan $317,000, with the majority of the total going tosupport the Foundation. De Beers started the charityclassic to help promote collaboration between the busi-ness and community partners and improve health carein Hay River.

national labs, engineering experts, entrepreneurs, end-userproduct manufacturers and governments.

In the short term (one to two years), CREEN members arefocused on applying Canada’s extensive mineral processing,hydrometallurgy and chemical process engineering know-how and experience to find unique solutions to the complexchemistries of REE production processing. In the medium tolonger term (two to 10 years), CREEN will improve processsolutions and develop strategic and fundamental technologyfor further downstream processing, towards finished prod-ucts including metals, alloys and phosphors.

Until now, the Chinese have dominated the REE sector. In aneffort to carve their own niche in the sector, Canadian projectdevelopers, with the support of labs and engineering consultants,are hard at work to design, pilot and optimize hydrometallurgicaland separation processes that will bring REE projects into pro-duction. To date, industry players have invested around $200million to develop nine advanced REE projects in Canada, whichare among the top 28 advanced projects globally as reported byTechnology Metals Research. Among the nine projects are thosechampioned by CREEN members Avalon Rare Metals, QuestRare Minerals, Pele Mountain, and Commerce Resources. TheseCanadian developers are seeking solutions to optimize their rev-enues and reduce their capital and operating costs.

It has become clear that cooperation is important fordevelopment in the Canadian REE sector. Following a seriesof workshops hosted by Natural Resources Canada in 2012and 2013, industry players saw the merit of sharing the tech-nical challenges they face in developing REE projects andcollaborating with experts.

Industry players convened at the inaugural REE Sympo-sium at the 2012 Conference of Metallurgists (COM 12),organized by CIM’s Metallurgy and Materials Society (Met-Soc), to build on individual R&D and laboratory pilot planttesting conducted by individual project developers, in addi-tion to work being done by academics across Canada. Theevent presented 44 peer-edited papers from nine countries. Atthe second symposium at COM 13 in Montreal, the numberof papers grew to 53 from 17 countries including eight fromChina. This reinforced the premise that technical exchangesand partnerships between Canada and other national andinternational organizations such as the United States, Euro-pean Union, Germany, United Kingdom, and South Korea arefast emerging. The REE Symposium program at COM 14 inVancouver this fall (Sept. 28 – Oct. 1) will continue to buildon Canada’s reputation and knowledge.

CREEN held its first technical workshop in Ottawa inmid-June to “roll up one’s sleeves.” The event was attended

T he critical rare earth elements (REEs), as deemed byseveral international experts, are neodymium, dyspro-sium, europium, terbium and yttrium. Many of today’s

clean technologies, hybrid vehicles, energy-efficient motors,lighting systems, advanced communications, and medicaldiagnosis and treatment technologies call for rare earths intheir material specifications. As REEs become increasinglyimportant with the growth of the clean technologies industry,so too does Canada’s potential for becoming a significantplayer in the global REE supply.

Thus, identifying and championing pre-competitive R&Dprojects and technical solutions that would enable Canadianproducers to deliver 20 per cent of the global supply of sep-arated critical REEs by 2018 is the ultimate goal of the Cana-dian Rare Earth Elements Network (CREEN). CREEN is anindustry-led multi-stakeholder network comprised ofprospective REE producers, academics, commercial and

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by technical leaders from among the network’s membership,and organizers invited academic and engineering experts toprioritize issues, solution studies and testing programsincluding specific sponsorship. Twenty-one projects wereidentified, which were later shortlisted to a half dozen in theareas of REE separation, reagent production and environ-mental management. The workshop participants fleshed outthe specific issues and possible work that needs to be done,along with preliminary schedules and budgets. As I writethis, CREEN’s Technical Sub-Committee is further refiningthe project definitions as well as securing project sponsorsand R&D funding.

Global demand for clean and new technologies and REEmaterials that enable them are growing at very significantrates. CREEN and the initiative of its network members willcontribute to technical and economic solutions that canreduce the capital and operating costs of producing neces-sary REEs and ensure Canada’s speed to market. CIM

columns

Ian London is the chairman of CREEN and was instrumental in its formation inmid-2013. He is also market development and energy advisor with Avalon RareMetals Inc. Over his 40-year career, he has served as president and CEO ofOntario Hydro International, CEO of Process Products Ltd., and on the boardsof several technology and alternative energy companies. Ian chaired the RareEarth Symposium at COM 12 and COM 13.

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moving on up

Nathan Stubina named McEwen Mining managingdirector

Nathan Stubina wasnamed managing director ofMcEwen Mining, taking overthe responsibilities of Ian Ball,the former president of thecompany. Most recently heserved as vice-president oftechnology at McEwen Mining and has held various sen-ior technical roles with Barrick Gold, Falconbridge Lim-ited and Noranda Inc. “I am so pleased to be part ofMcEwen Mining,” Stubina told CIM Magazine. “It is cur-rently a small but ambitious company with operationsand projects in Mexico and Argentina, and with projectsin Nevada as well. Rob McEwen and I are strong believ-ers in innovation. We are constantly searching for newtechnologies that will allow us to improve the perform-ance of our assets.” Stubina is also CIM’s internationaldistrict vice-president and a past-president of CIM’s Met-allurgy and Materials Society (MetSoc).

***

Colin Webster joins Noront Resources

Colin Webster was appointed the vice-president ofsustainability at Noront Resources Ltd., after servingas the director of aboriginal, government and commu-nity relations for Canada and the United States withGoldcorp Inc. Webster was a founding partner at BlueHeron Solutions for Environmental Management inTimmins, Ontario.

giving back

AkzoNobel promotes education in Pakistan

AkzoNobel has joined forces with KidsRights to sup-port four education projects as part of the InternationalChildren’s Peace Prize, which is awarded each year to achild who has worked tirelessly to support children’srights and improve the lives of children in vulnerablesituations. The four projects back initiatives that aim togrow education in Pakistan: Khpal Kor Foundation;Roots for Equity/Sojhla for social change; the PrimaryEducation project; and Children First. Accompanyingthe prize is a 100,000-euro (C$145,000) award, whichis earmarked through AkzoNobel’s Peace Fund.

Strong business ethics, transparency and environmental stewardship aren’t just the right things to do – they also help build your corporate brand and strengthen your bottom line.

Find out how EDC can help you grow your responsible business practices at edc.ca/responsible.

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Canada’sbiggestcleanupOttawa committed toa century ofremediation at theGiant mine By Chris Windeyer

tures spread over a hectare. All told, says Clint Miller, seniorproject manager for Parsons Canada, a crew of more than 60workers removed 2,000 tonnes of arsenic that will eventu-ally be stored underground and another 7,000 pounds ofother pollutants such as mercury and polychlorinatedbiphenyls that were destroyed off site.

Removing the contaminants was a painstaking process,Miller says. Each structure had to be enclosed in shrinkwrap, then essentially vacuumed out with high-efficiencyparticulate air (HEPA) filters to trap the toxic dust. Thematerials were then pressure washed and scraped with wirebrushes before finally being coated with a water-basedsealant.

All of those buildings are to be dismantled this year. “Oneof the words we don’t use is ‘demolition,’” Miller says. “Thatwould imply an uncontrolled destruction of a building.What we will be doing here is a very controlled process. Weremove the hazardous materials and then we deconstructthe building piece by piece.”

There is also the matter of lingering arsenic pollution inthe soil around the Giant site. Until 1951, the mine’s ownersmade no effort to prevent arsenic released during roastingfrom getting into the environment. After a local Dene boydied from drinking arsenic-poisoned water that spring,Giant’s owner installed an electrostatic precipitator andbegan underground storage of arsenic tailings.

A unique catastropheHeather Jamieson, an arsenic expert at the department

of geological sciences and geological engineering atQueen’s University in Kingston, has been studying thearsenic at Giant for 15 years. She says around 85 per centof Giant’s roaster stack arsenic emissions date from before1963. At similar sites around the world, arsenic in the soilappears to dissipate over time. That is not the case atGiant, something that has stumped researchers. “It is kindof surprising to a lot of chemists and geochemists that thearsenic trioxide has persisted in the soil,” she says,

If ever there was a poster child for mining’s bad old daysin Canada’s North, Yellowknife’s Giant mine would be it.Built during the North’s frontier days, when environmen-tal regulations were lax and the concept of seeking social

licence from the nearby Dene aboriginal population did notexist, a series of owners hauled more than seven millionounces of gold from open pits and underground stopesbetween 1948 and 2004. Left behind from the roastingprocess, just a few kilometres from the territorial capital,were 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust.

Giant became the responsibility of the federal govern-ment in 1999 when its owner, Royal Oak Mines, went intoreceivership. Mining continued after the feds sold the mine’sassets to Miramar Mining Corporation, but the deal speci-fied that Ottawa would retain responsibility for environmen-tal liabilities. Miramar tapped out in 2005, focusing itsenergies elsewhere, and Giant was officially abandoned.

What remains is one of the worst contaminated sites inthe country. Ottawa estimates it will cost nearly $1 billion tooverhaul the site. The scope of the work is staggering: fivearsenic-laden roaster buildings remain to be dismantledafter another five were taken down last year; an entire creekmust be realigned and possibly even diverted around thesite; 95 hectares of tailings need to be capped; and thearsenic has to be contained for at least 100 years. There arecountless other, smaller tasks adding to the workload. Therealignment of a seven-kilometre stretch of the IngrahamTrail – the highway that once connected Giant and severallegacy mines of the Yellowknife Greenstone Belt with theN.W.T. capital – was completed this year by the Governmentof the Northwest Territories (GNWT) at a cost of $16 million.

Dismantling vs. demolishingThe roaster complex deconstruction continued this sum-

mer fronted by California-based remediation firm ParsonsLtd., under a two-year, $27-million contract. Crews spentall of last summer decontaminating 10 buildings and struc-

The C-Shaft headframe at the Giant mine near Yellowknife is framed by piping used in a freeze optimization study that helpeddetermine how the mine’s arsenic trioxide dust would be stored for the next hundred years.

upfrontE N V I R O N M E N T A L

M O N I T O R I N G & C L O S U R E

“because at some other places in the world they don’t seemto be able to find it.”

Jane Amphlett, operations manager for the project forAboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada(AANDC), says monitoring stations both at the mine site andlocated around Yellowknife are designed to detect elevatedlevels of arsenic in the air. The community data is availablein real-time on the GNWT air quality website, and reportsfrom all stations are released once a week to the public.

All this work sets the stage for the centrepiece of theremediation project: what AANDC officials call the “freezeprogram.” The 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust isstored underground in the existing network of undergroundchambers and stopes. The plan is to use a network of ther-mosyphons to freeze the rock surrounding these stopes,keeping this arsenic secured inside for at least a century. Athermosyphon functions passively by using pressurized car-bon dioxide (CO2). The process works as a continuouscycle; the underground CO2 vaporizes into gas and rises tothe surface, allowing the heat from below to be released intothe cold winter air through radiator fins. The CO2 thencools and condenses into liquid, dribbling back downtoward the stopes to begin the process again.

The freeze program is expected to be the single largestconstruction cost item of the remediation at around $200million, and is likely to require the longest period to imple-ment – up to 10 years.

The logistics of the freeze program are daunting. Some ofthe cavities are the size of a 12-storey office building,Amphlett says, and many of the stabilizing bulkheads dateback to the earliest days of mining at Giant and have to bereinforced with concrete.

Much of the dust has been stored underground for yearsor even decades. Over the years, mine owners stored thearsenic dust in either purpose-built chambers or exhaustedmining stopes. Daryl Hockley, a technical advisor with SRKConsulting, says the chambers are relatively symmetricaland will be easy to freeze and fill. SRK is retained as a tech-nical advisor for the remediation. “Where a chamber wasbuilt in a relatively rectangular shape and there’s only oneentrance, you simply have to block off that entrance,” hesays. Any pipes used to fill the chambers with dust have tobe removed and placed inside, then “you can pretty muchproceed with freezing at that point.”

The stopes, which were mined to follow gold veins, arenot so simple, Hockley says. “They tend to have a lot moreentrances and exits,” he notes. “There will be ore passes,there will be cross-cuts, [and] there will be all sorts of otherodd geometries that only mining engineers can tell you whatthey mean. In some cases we’ll need to do some mining sowe can stabilize the entrances properly. Each one is a littlemini-project on its own.”

The project engineers are confident the freeze pro gramwill keep the arsenic in place. The N.W.T.’s long, frigid winters help, of course, and Hockley says the rock encasing


the dust would stay frozen for “many years” before any dustbegan to thaw, even in the unlikely scenario that the coolingsystem failed completely. “That’s part of the beauty of theplan. Even if there’s a problem with the thermosyphons [wehave] several years to respond and adjust.”

Not everyone in Yellowknife is pleased with the approach.Some local activists would prefer to see the arsenic removedcompletely and disposed of elsewhere because they are stillworried arsenic could leach into the local environment. Thatis one of the reasons the Mackenzie Valley EnvironmentalImpact Review Board ordered AANDC to amend the project’stimeframe: Instead of storing the arsenic in perpetuity, as wasthe original plan, the project will be re-assessed in 100 yearsand the government will need to re-evaluate the best way todispose of the arsenic at that time.

Jamieson says those Yellowknifers are right to be con-cerned, but adds that the Giant site is largely off limits to thepublic, which reduces the risk of exposure. Meanwhile, thestory is constantly front and centre in the N.W.T. press, anda dedicated project team has been established by the federaland territorial governments to oversee the cleanup. “Anadvantage of a publicly managed site is that there is theopportunity for people to communicate their concerns,”says Jamieson. CIM


At Anglo American's Sishen iron ore operation, waste rock will now only be moved once over the life of themine and multiple smaller waste rock deposits have been consolidated into "mega deposits" to reduce thenumber of slopes that will need to be reshaped and rehabilitated at closure.

As governments, communities and other stakeholderscome to expect and demand a positive environmentaland social legacy from mine sites, miners have begunplanning for closure even before mines have opened.

At Anglo American, a new toolbox is helping change the waythe company approaches closure planning. The toolbox – a setof documents with detailed steps cataloguing the many con-siderations that must be made – affects virtually all levels of theorganization, helping guide everything from executive plan-ning to daily site operations.

Rudolph Botha was a senior civil engineer at Anglo Ameri-can when, around 2005, he and a colleague, Peter Coombes,realized there was a need for understanding the entirety of theclosure concept at the company. “Not just the risks,” Bothasays, “but the opportunities associated with corporate mineclosure planning. We realized that at the work sites, the guysdon’t always see that as an integrated approach.” Engineers, forexample, would look at physical closure, while environmentalpeople focused on the biophysical aspects. Nobody looked atthe task holistically.

Botha, now the company’s lead on mine closure in its tech-nical and sustainability team, and Coombes, the previous headof environment in the technical division, saw an opportunityto improve the process. “We tried to keep it as simple as pos-sible and develop something for the practitioners at a site levelthat can take the high-level concepts and make them a reality,and change the way we operate,” explains Botha. Equallyimportant was providing guidance for middle management, sothey could understand the various linkages between the manycomponents of mine closure.

The hope was to integrate mine closure planning intothe day-to-day life-of-mine planning, and by doing so,actually eliminate future closure actions. Even Botha isimpressed by their success since implementation. “It’samazing how many times we can actually eliminate a clo-sure liability completely just by changing the way that weoperate.” At their Venetia mine, for example, updated clo-

sure plans will reduce the end-of-life liability by roughly 30per cent. By integrating the closure requirements in the life-of-mine plans at this facility, Anglo American was able toalter its waste rock deposition strategy, minimizing large-scale future closure liabilities. The influence of the toolboxon planning, water management, and biodiversity strategiesalso created long-term savings.

Integrated approachEffective as it is, the toolbox is also simple to use. The doc-

uments walk the planner through three tools in sequence. Inthe first tool, strategic planning, basic expectations are identi-fied, baseline knowledge is gathered, and a specific post- closure vision is identified (although that vision may changeover time).

The second tool, rapid assessment, contains a comprehen-sive spreadsheet to allow the practitioner to identify knowl-edge gaps in the existing mine closure plan. It defines the levelof detail that the closure plan should contain for each item tobe addressed – including waste disposal facilities, open pitareas, protected habitats and ecosystems, topography andvisual impacts, employees and their dependents, and affectedand interested parties – based on the remaining mine life.

Finally, tool three directs the practitioner as to how to closethe gaps in the existing closure plan, in terms of approach,technology and resources needed for each item identified bytool two. Throughout the toolbox, detailed criteria are speci-fied for each item, allowing rapid evaluation and specificinstructions for improvement.

A key approach the toolbox takes is to integrate the fourmajor components of closure – physical, biophysical, socialand economic – and to make sure an operator on site looks atall the components simultaneously, rather than just focusingon his or her area of expertise. Progressing to a high level onphysical closure without consulting on the social aspect, forexample, would lead to a low level of confidence in the overallplan, according to the toolbox.

Mine closureplanning getsretooledAnglo American sharing its new closure guide withthe worldBy Ian Ewing

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“It forces, at an operational level, all of the systems to beengaged to achieve the level of confidence you need, depend-ing on your remaining life-of-mine,” says Botha. And byspecifying the actions needed to close the gaps in a closureplan, the toolbox requires on-site practitioners to speak toeach other and allows them to understand the impact thatone group will have on another. The waste rock depositionstrategies developed at Venetia and Sishen, for example,required changes to day-to-day operations but will allow thecompany to move the rock once, rather than twice, over thelife of the mine. By consolidating various smaller waste rockdeposits into bigger “mega-deposits” at Sishen, fewer slopeswill need to be reshaped and rehabilitated at closure. Besidessaving money, faster rehabilitation will improve environmen-tal conditions and make local communities happier. Thecompany’s post-closure period may also be reduced, sincesome closure activities have already been completed.

Because the toolbox was developed with input from opera-tions, it has seen remarkable acceptance within Anglo Americanin a short period of time. More than 15 operational sites wereusing the toolbox even before it formally launched in 2008. “Itdidn’t take us a lot of time to convince people to use it,” Bothasays. In presentations, the developers simply laid out the busi-ness case for closure planning. “The guys needed the detailedguidance on making better decisions. The tool sells itself.”

Social engagement opportunitiesPerhaps the area with the greatest

potential upside is improved communityrelationships. “Social closure, in my mind,is one of the biggest challenges we’ve gotin the mining industry,” Botha says. “Phys-ical closure we can handle. We’ve got a lotof good engineers out there. Biophysicalelements are controllable; there are a lot ofgood scientists out there. On the socialside, I think we’re still learning, and cer-tainly it’s a key component.”

The requirements of tool three, whichcloses the gaps in a closure plan, actuallyhelp improve collaboration and engage-ment at the social level by specifying thatpractitioners consult with various interestedand affected parties. “That means you’rebuilding trust in the communities in whichyou operate,” explains Botha. “Because ofthe toolbox, it’s more clear what we’re tryingto achieve. It increases the confidence youhave in your plan. And the definition ofconsultation is very specific.

“Basically, we want to get to the pointwhere the communities and the peopleleft in the area will take ownership of theclosure plan. The concept of the toolboxis that the closure vision should belong to


the people who will remain in the area post-closure, becausethey will be there, and we won’t.”

Set it freeAlthough they spent around US$1 million over a five-year

period developing the toolbox – a bargain, considering theimproved operational efficiency and reduced end-of-life liabil-ity at their numerous mines – Anglo American has recentlyreleased the toolbox publicly for any mining company to use.Perhaps surprisingly, it does not seem that many companieshave anything like it. “The level of detail and additional guid-ance we provide in the toolbox itself, I haven’t seen anythingsimilar to that,” Botha says.

Botha is eager to point out that the toolbox has value forcurrently operating mines, not just those in early planningstages. “A lot of operations have a lot of life-of-mine left, sothey could start as a brownfield site, implement the toolbox,and then be in line with the requirements two to three yearslater,” he says.

“Hopefully industry will take this on and use it,” he adds.“There is enough flexibility within the toolbox itself not toconstrain anybody by using some good practices at their ownoperational level. Hopefully we can all plan better, design bet-ter, and manage operations better, and in doing so, improvethe overall legacy for mining as a whole. It has certainly addeda lot of value for us.” CIM

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New Gold’s New Afton copper-gold mine recentlybecame the first in North America to become certifiedunder the ISO 50001 standard, which provides a newframework for improving energy efficiency. Putting an

energy management information system (EMIS) in placehelped form the foundation for the implementation of thestandard. The mine, located near Kamloops, B.C., went intoproduction in June 2012 and achieved standardization onMarch 31 of this year with $22,050 help from NaturalResources Canada (NRCan).

There are many reasons to improve energy efficiency, notthe least of which is profitability. “Energy is a big expense forus, so any improvement in efficiency contributes to the bottomline of the company,” says Andrew Cooper, energy specialist atNew Afton.

“We wanted something that would be long term and selfsustaining,” adds Cooper. “It’s one of the reasons we decidedto pursue ISO 50001 certification. It sets up systems andprocesses that will be a part of the culture of the organization.”

NRCan supportThe Canadian government is equally motivated in investing

in programs that help businesses become more energy effi-cient, and that remove barriers that hold them back from mak-ing energy-efficient choices, says Bob Fraser, chief ofengineering support services for NRCan. One such program isNRCan’s ecoENERGY Efficiency for Industry, which providescost-share assistance to businesses implementing an energymanagement system, such as that required by ISO 50001. Theassistance matches funding from the company up to $40,000and helps cover professional fees, training costs and salaries,amongst other things.

New Afton is the first mine to take advantage of the pro-gram, and the addition of the mining sector is an important

development, says Fraser: “Mining is one of Canada’s mostimportant economic sectors and is a major contributor toour country’s prosperity. It is also a high-energy use sector,accounting for over 30 per cent of industrial energy use, andtherefore presents considerable opportunity for energy sav-ings. The potential for energy management systems toreduce energy consumption in this sector is too great to beoverlooked.”

According to Fraser, companies that have implementedISO 50001 are seeing energy savings of five to seven percent annually in the initial years of the program. Of note,he says, is where the savings are coming from. “A recentstudy in the United States indicates that 75 per cent of thesavings are the result of operational projects,” he pointsout. “These are no-cost or low-cost projects affecting howthe plant is operated, such as turning off equipment whenit is not in use.”

New Afton is already seeing the same thing. “We’ve had aninitiative where the crews just started shutting down conveyorbelts at certain times when there was no load on them,” saysCooper, citing an early example. “That’s just operational andhas no capital cost whatsoever, and it’s saving us a hugeamount of money.”

Still, the mine does have other energy improvement proj-ects underway that require more investment. “We’reinstalling ventilation on demand, and that project is costingus in excess of half a million dollars,” says Cooper. “Fortu-nately there are organizations like NRCan, BC Hydro, For-tisBC and the Ontario Power Authority, which offerincentives to help make projects like this much more attractive from a capital perspective.”

The ventilation project is expected to save New Aftonaround 7.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy a year. It is thethird major energy efficiency project in a year. An

Certifiable gainsin efficiencyNew Afton the first mine in North America to meet the ISO 50001 energy managementstandardBy Correy Baldwin

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New Afton has upgraded its flotationblowers, relocated underground

compressors and is preparing to installventilation on demand. All of these projects

save energy and lower the mine’senvironmental impact.




underground compressor relocation is saving the company 1.3GWh a year, and a mill flotation blower upgrade is saving inexcess of 1.4 GWh a year.

Previously, New Afton employed four compressors for theunderground air supply, each operating independently at var-ious places around the mine. The relocation project broughtthree of these into a centralized compressor building. Theyalso installed a large air receiver and installed energy, pressure,temperature and flow monitoring, and compressor control setpoints. The new system runs one compressor full time, withtwo others running as demand requires.

New Afton also installed proportional control on the mill’sthree flotation blowers, two of which previously ran full-time,blowing off excess air – something Cooper says was both noisyand a waste of energy. The blowers now only supply the airrequired by the flotation process.

But the benefits go beyond energy savings. “All of the proj-ects we’ve done so far have had an operational benefit, envi-ronmental benefits and safety benefits,” says Cooper. “So eventhough we’re improving efficiency, we’re actually improvingthe process at the same time. It’s a great match: everything youdo helps to contribute towards improved performance of thefacility.”

Systems more important than one-offsCooper suggests that, while the projects are important to

improve efficiency, there is a need for a system-based approachto energy management. His focus is on implementing a systemof continual improvement.

ISO programs integrate a system of continual monitoring ofenergy consumption, along with an increased awareness ofenergy use, into the mine’s operations. “You pick up things thataren’t working properly, and you make improvements,” saysCooper.

The systems approach does not work without robust num-bers, he explains: “You need good data in order to measure andassess whether something is performing well or not, and toquantify and estimate the savings – and then once you’ve com-pleted a project, to verify those savings.”

For all of this, New Afton brought in RtTech, which workswith companies to set up an EMIS. According to CEO PabloAsiron, some of RtTech’s clients have reduced energy costs by6.6 per cent using RtTech’s industrial EMIS software, RtEMIS.

“The key of an EMIS system is to be able to calculate at tar-get,” says Asiron. “In the case of our product we use historicaldata to build models to calculate how much energy a piece ofequipment – a conveyor belt, or a crusher – should be using.And then we compare the actual energy consumption to thetarget, and that’s how we are able to detect periods of timewhere the efficiency is below where the model says it shouldbe.” Essentially, he says, an EMIS system allows you to find thelow-hanging fruit.

Submetering helps break energy use down“If you want to improve the energy efficiency in your plant

or reduce the energy usage, the first step is to measure andvisualize the energy usage across the plant,” says Asiron,including when, where and how energy is being consumed.This is achieved through a network of meters that measure therates of energy consumption of equipment or grouped equip-ment areas.

“The installation of the submetering is a key component toEMIS,” says Cooper, “as is getting the data from that subme-tering back to one point, where you can store it. That formsthe foundation for everything. Once you have the data, youneed a system in place to help you view, utilize and report onthat data.” New Afton installed 157 electrical submeters andsix gas meters throughout the facility, including around themill, the mine, the crushing and conveyor systems, and sur-face facilities.

As much as an EMIS is driven by raw data, it is alsopowered by people, according to Cooper. “At the end ofthe day it’s not ISO 50001 that manages energy, its people,”he says. Creating a culture of energy awareness, he sug-gests, may be the most significant aspect of the energymanagement program.

New Afton encourages employees and contractors tomake suggestions regarding energy use and future energyimprovement projects. “A huge percentage of projects weundertake have come about as suggestions from employ-ees,” says Cooper. He organizes awareness campaigns andreports on energy performance at weekly meetings. “Wealso have systems and procedures in place to make sure weprocure goods and services that are energy efficient. Andwe look at the life cycle cost of those purchasing decisions.It’s really a multi-layered approach on all levels of organization.

“It’s the small things,” he adds. “People are thinking aboutenergy on a day-to-day basis.” CIM


The mining industry has establishedmethods and practices for land assess-ment, management and reclamation.Indigenous communities, however,

view these concepts through a different lens,and as they are taking an increasingly activerole in industrial development, the task ofreconciling these perspectives is a major proj-ect in itself. Chief Ronald Ignace understandsthese issues well. A longstanding chief of theSkeetchestn Band, one of 17 communitiesthat make up the Secwepemc (Shuswap)Nation in British Columbia, Ignace is anexpert in Shuswap law, culture and land use.He teaches at Simon Fraser University, andresearches ethnoecology and traditionalknowledge, as well as the language, cultureand laws of the Shuswap Nation.

CIM: What is ethnoecology, and can you talk about your work inthis area?Ignace: My wife, Marianne Ignace, and I conduct a lot of worklooking at how we as a people utilize the land sustainably, andhow we can apply some of those principals to the lands today.The way the land is being managed today is not sustainable,and it violates the principals of biodiversity. The biodiversityof our ecosystems has been fundamental in sustaining usdown through the years because all of that provides us withfood, medicine, clothing and lodging.

CIM: You are also an expert in traditional knowledge – can youtell me about that?Ignace: Traditional knowledge and wisdom. Traditionalknowledge is knowledge that you gain from your dailyexperiences and interactions with other people and nature.Wisdom is the summation of that knowledge, which enablesyou to look beyond today to predict what may or may notoccur if you behave one way or another.

Part of traditional knowledge is our method ofenforcing the continuance of biodiversity on the land. Alot of mining is taking place in sensitive areas, in water-sheds and sensitive ecosystems. We have to look at howwe can moderate impacts and come up with ways toaccess the resources in a manner that has less impact onthe environment.

CIM: How would you describe the relationship betweenWestern science and traditional knowledge?Ignace: A lot of Western science questions the validity oftraditional knowledge. I’ve looked at our traditionalknowledge and teased out the factual informationembedded in our oral histories, which can be cross-referenced with archaeology, linguistics, climatology etcetera. You can validate and cross-reference our knowledgewith Western knowledge and the sciences.

Traditional ecological knowledge needs to be acceptedon equal footing with Western scientific knowledge.

Two roadsconvergeShuswap chief Ronald Ignace on where traditionalknowledge meets scienceBy Correy Baldwin

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Unfortunately, in the training that non-native professionalswho work in mining, environmental assessment and recla-mation get, Western science is hugely privileged, and tradi-tional knowledge is usually a footnote or an afterthought, orignored altogether. So it’s a matter of training and sensitizingthese scientists.

CIM: What role can traditional knowledge play in the wayindustry manages land and resources? What is lacking iftraditional knowledge is not taken into account?Ignace: One of the problems with Western science is that itprivileges itself as being objective. Whereas we, asindigenous people with traditional knowledge, see ourselvesas embedded in the science, in the knowledge. We’re notseparated from it. The people who do environmentalassessments to begin developing a mine don’t know theland, or the culture or the history of the area. They know thegeology, the archaeology, but it’s not interconnected.

Western science believes that all things not human arebasically inanimate and that people are above and lord overall things non-human. Whereas we Natives believe we areintegral to the Earth, and that all things are animate. Whenwe interact with nature, we transform nature, and in turnnature transforms us. We have a dialectical relationship withnature, and there is a reciprocal accountability that we haveto be mindful of.

In our traditional knowledge, everything is alive, every-thing has a spirit. There’s no such thing as an inanimateobject. It bothers me when I hear people talking aboutsalmon, which are considered our relatives, as pieces of fish.It’s an objectification. Or they talk about wood pulp as fiberrather than trees. That kind of objectification gives you awhole different philosophical approach to dealing withtrees. And trees are our relatives as well. They look after usand clothe us and give us their breath, and we exchange ourbreath with them. That’s one of the fundamental laws andprinciples in Shuswap country: reciprocity. What someonedoes for you, you do for them. Industry needs to change itsview about the resources on the land. Objectification leadsto people becoming desensitized about the impact thatthey’re making on the land.

CIM: Western science also looks at biodiversity and theinterconnections of ecosystems. Is this the same principle?Ignace: It’s commendable that they have that type ofapproach, but there’s still a latent philosophy of privilegedposition over the land and over indigenous knowledge,which makes it difficult to look at and interact with the landproperly.

CIM: Can traditional knowledge also learn from Westernscience?Ignace: We’re always open to learning. We need to adopt astrategy of what I call ‘walking on two legs’: We have to bemindful of Western sciences and technologies, but what has


to override and guide that is our traditional knowledge andpractices. There are ways that we can benefit from Westernscience, but they also can benefit from our knowledge. Andif we can figure out a way to combine our knowledge, Ithink we can do great things.

CIM: What would it look like to have industry sit down toexchange ideas with traditional knowledge holders?Ignace: When people want to open up a mine, they ought tocome to the indigenous group that’s going to be impactedand sit down with them, and find out their connection tothe land, their knowledge of the land, the water, theenvironment. But they don’t do that. We have to fight ourway in, to bring that knowledge forward, and that ought notto be the case.

A company ought to ask, ‘Who has traditional knowledgeand can inform us about the land that we’re about todevelop?’ People need to listen to us. And if they want ourconfidence, we need to have their ear, and they need tobelieve in us, and work with us. We have to be engaged. Wehave to be involved.

We have a relationship with the land. The land has storiesand history. Our history is embedded in the land. So if youdestroy a huge swath of land through open-pit mining, yourip up and destroy that history and our connection with thatland.

CIM: Does industry need to take into account the diversity oftraditional knowledge among different indigenouscommunities? Ignace: Each nation has their own history, traditions,culture, beliefs, their understanding of the land, and theyhave to be taken at their word for that. As Shuswapindigenous people here in B.C., we have accumulated andsynthesized 10,000 years of experience and knowledge ofthe land and its resources.

CIM: What is the Shuswap Nation’s approach to industry? Ignace: In 1910 our chiefs told the prime minister ofCanada, Sir Wilfred Laurier, how we would operate on theland with the new settlers. Although they were uninvited,we would be brothers to them, and we would share ourresources with them. What is ours would be theirs, andwhat’s theirs will be ours. We would help each other to begreat and good. That’s the foundation, the principal that Ioperate on: How we can work with these people, to helpeach other be great and good. I think that’s very generousand very open.

There’s a great opportunity to create lasting and positiverelations. There are ways and means. We want to work withCanada. We want to work with industry. We want harmo-nious relations. But there are rules and regulations and prin-ciples for the way that ought to take place. And the way it’sdone right now is through imposition. And no one likes tobe imposed upon. CIM


Clean steam

Oil sands operations need steam to extractbitumen, and only two heat sources can feasiblymeet the industry’s demands: natural gas andnuclear. Supply of the former, though presentlyabundant, is not endless, but can the latter bebrought into service soon enough to offer a realalternative?

By Christopher Pollon

Illustrations by Chloe Cushman


It all sounded like science fiction: Back in May 2005, asnatural gas prices were on the rise, Jerry Hopwood, generalmanager for advanced reactor applications at Atomic Energyof Canada (AECL), put forth a radical idea: The time hadarrived for small modular reactors (SMRs), which could beassembled in remote industrial locations like Lego blocks for a fraction of the cost of Canada’s legacy reactors. Energy-hungry projects in Alberta were of special interest.

In particular the increased energy needs of in situ bitumenextraction methods such as steam-assisted gravity drainage(SAGD) – reliant on steam production that some SMRs arewell suited to provide – would increasingly make nuclearattractive. “The economics will favour nuclear,” Hopwood saidat the time.

The main driver for nuclear in the oil sands was the highercost of natural gas, but that was not all Hopwood had to goon. At the time, Canada had signed on to the Kyoto accord,and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the oilsands threatened to become a liability that would stag-ger the industry.

Flash-forward nearly a decade: fracking has broughtnewly cheap prices and natural gas remains the pri-mary fuel for Alberta oil sands producers. North Amer-ica is flush with inexpensive supply at present, but theamount of this fuel required to drive the oil sandsindustry of the future will be colossal. The CanadianEnergy Research Institute (CERI) predicted in July thatoil sands natural gas consumption will spike by 2046 – risingfrom 1,474 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in 2013 to ashigh as 3,753 MMcf/d. (Emissions will rise in lockstep, poten-tially tripling during this time.)

The oil sands are not the only industry angling to devourpresently cheap natural gas, however. Caterpillar hasannounced that mining trucks and locomotives will be amongthe first of their products that use natural gas. Three major

automobile manufacturers have introduced “bifuel” pickuptrucks that can burn both gasoline and natural gas, and theuse of natural gas for fleets – everything from garbage andtransport trucks to buses – is already here.

Electricity generators are also increasingly leaning towardsnatural gas. A 2012 “long-term outlook” from Alberta ElectricSystem Operators (AESO) projected that “the future genera-tion mix in Alberta is expected to shift from a predominatelycoal-based fleet to a natural gas-based fleet” within the next20 years.

At the same time, Dinara Millington, principal author ofthe CERI research, says if some combination of B.C. and U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants proceed,North American prices for natural gas could rise before theend of the decade. “With LNG and a lot of movement of gasover water [for export], there will be the development of aglobal natural gas market, with an uptick in prices in NorthAmerica and a downward trend in prices in Asia.” And thenatural gas market is notoriously unstable, with prices com-monly 50 per cent more volatile than those of crude oil.

Could the industry’s vulnerability to that volatility coupledwith new uncertainties around the provincial, national andglobal carbon pricing schemes eventually make small nuclearattractive again?

Micro nuclear power in development

The idea of deploying small nuclear reactors to generateelectricity and heat is nothing new; both the United States andRussia pioneered nuclear technologies to power their sub-marines after the Second World War.

During the Cold War period, nuclear bombs were even dis-cussed as a means to tap the vast Canadian bitumen resource.This short-lived, radical plan would have seen explosivedevices lowered into bitumen-rich deposits to superheat thematerial.

Today China, the United States, Japan, and Russia have allled the research on developing small nuclear plants to power

remote communities and mines, add capacity to existingnuclear reactors, and power industrial processes. In July, Rus-sia and China signed a memorandum of understanding tojointly develop six floating nuclear plants designed to serveremote settlements, industrial facilities such as oil platforms,and even large ships that carry heavy mineral ores. The Russ-ian nuclear reactor monopoly, Rosatom, promises to launchthe first of these small nuclear plants in 2018.

“We think the oil sands will be the primarydriver [of small nuclear commercialization]

because of the huge energy demand they will need”

– Ralph Hart


That said, not a single “new generation” modular nuclearreactor has reached the point of commercial availability. RalphHart hopes to change this. With experience at AECL as wellas the private sector, he is now chief engineer at Cambridge,Ontario’s Northern Nuclear Industries Inc. (N2 I2). HisLEADIR-PS (an acronym for LEAD-cooled Integral Reac-tor-passively safe) family of nuclear reactors – includingtwo models designed to generate 100 and 300 thermalmegawatts (MWth) – have been conceived with the oilsands in mind. “We think the oil sands will be the primarydriver because of the huge energy demand they will need,”says Hart, who founded the company five years ago.

Hart started thinking about his own modular designback in the early 2000s, when he reviewed the existing tech-nology and was convinced that few of the “current generation”nuclear plants could produce the steam pressure needed forSAGD operations.

LEADIR-PS, like all other nuclear power plants, generatessteam by transferring the heat offission from the reactor coolantto water. (Most designs employlow-enriched uranium oxide asfuel). Such plants can be used togenerate electricity by supplyingreactor-produced heat via steamto a turbine that drives a gener-ator, ultimately returning thewater to the reactor to producemore steam. LEADIR-PS unitscan also be built for “processheat” applications (like SAGD),which are more economicalbecause they do not require thesame turbine generator andcondenser capacity, and whichoffer over 95 per cent energyutilization compared to about40 per cent in electricity pro-duction, according to Hart.

The LEADIR-PS draws heav-ily on established German hightemperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology, and isfuelled by thousands of billiard ball-sized spheres with tinyparticles that consist of “kernels” of uranium oxide at the core,surrounded with multiple coatings that serve as radiation con-tainment. LEADIR-PS uses molten lead coolant instead of thehelium coolant used in HTGRs, thereby avoiding a pressurevessel and high-pressure reactor coolant piping. The system,which when assembled would occupy an area about the samesize as a hockey rink, can be delivered by rail or water. TheLEADIR-PS reactor is installed underground to protect it fromexternal events such as vandalism or fire, and assure passivedecay heat removal. N2 I2 estimates that a LEADIR-PS plantcould go online in less than a decade – provided it had a cus-tomer willing and able to pay for it.

N2 I2 estimates the cost of a single LEADIR-PS100 unit tobe about $430 million, not including some $45 million forlicensing (including public hearings), training, qualifying

plant operators, and interest costs during construction. Butonce built, he says the fuel cost for LEADIR-PS is$0.00596/kWh while the average fuel cost for gas fired plantsin the United States in 2013 was $0.056/kWh.

“Nuclear plants, including LEADIR-PS, are capital intensivebut have very low and stable fuelling costs,” says Hart. “Nat-ural gas plants are the reverse, offering low capital cost andhigh unstable fuel cost.”

By way of comparison, while it might take up to 60 months(from first concrete topower production) tobuild modern CANDUnuclear plants, N2 I2

believes a LEADIR-PS100can be delivered as alargely completed plant –and ready for operation inunder 28 months.

These time estimates donot account for the regula-tory/ licensing hurdles fornew, unproven SMRs inCanada. A spokesmanfrom the CanadianNuclear Safety Commis-sion – the independentnuclear regulator – says itcurrently takes about nineyears to get through theregulatory steps, from ini-tial application for a sitinglicence to granting of an

operating licence, and confirmed that as of this writing noSMR designs have been submitted for pre-licensing designreview. He added that existing regulations can be “applied asis” to SMR facilities proposed for deployment in Canada.

What it might look likeHow such modular nuclear reactor facilities could be

deployed in the oil sands has been the subject of several recentstudies including one by Calgary-based Petroleum TechnologyAlliance Canada (PTAC) (whose membership includes 30 oilproducers), which collaborated with the U.S. Department ofEnergy’s Idaho National Laboratory in late-2011. The reportwas aptly called “Integration of high temperature gas-cooledreactor technology with oil sands processes.”

A conceptual design was developed for a “central energyfacility” including five HTGR reactors capable of supplying

“Oil sands producers that reduce theircarbon footprint will have an economic

advantage in the future” – Matt Horne


multiple oil sands producers with electricity and heat neededfor upgrading bitumen to premium synthetic crude acrossabout 40,000 hectares (producing about 150,000 barrels perday of bitumen using SAGD). Such a facility (the $8.25 bil-lion capital cost includes steam turbines, 51 kilometres (km)of 24-inch piping with insulated tubing and 51 km of insu-lated condensate piping)could recover about half thebitumen reserves across suchan area, reduce natural gasconsumption by over 200million standard cubic feetper day (about 4.5 trillioncubic feet over a 60-yearplant life) and reduce carbondioxide (CO2) emissions by285 million tonnes over sixdecades. (The authors notedthat such a facility would freeup natural gas for higher-value uses – more “produc-tive and irreplaceable”applications like producingchemicals.)

“This approach to energysupply ... insulates the oilsands producers over the longterm from the potential impo-sition of carbon costs or issues with natural gas supply andprovides a reliable source of energy for at least 60 years at aprice that would be affected only by normal inflationary effectson the costs of operating materials and labour,” concluded thereport, which was co-authored by PTAC president SoheilAsgarpour.

The HTGR heat price was found to be considerablyhigher than comparable current natural gas costs inthe oil sands. Asgarpour says nuclear heat prices areonly relatively high because they are not adjusted forthe potential cost of CO2 emissions that would resultfrom burning natural gas. He says if CO2 sequestrationcost $120/ton, nuclear would be competitive with nat-ural gas at $6/thousand cubic feet, adding: “My viewis the natural gas price 20 years down the road will be morethan that.”

To put this $120 figure in recent context, Sweden’s carbontax is $150/tonne (industry pays less than this), while a Euro-pean Union permit to discharge one tonne of CO2 has fluc-tuated wildly from a high of 32 euros (about $47 CDN) to justunder three (about $4 CDN.)

Uncertainty about carboncost a boon for nuclear?

The July 2014 CERI report predicts that oil sands GHGemissions from burning mostly natural gas will triple from55 Mt/year in 2012 to as much as 165 Mt/year in 2048. Theunknown costs associated with these increased future emis-

sions will make nuclear increasingly attractive, but at present,the cost of carbon in the oil sands is very low. Under Alberta’s2007 Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER), facilitiesproducing more than 100,000 tonnes of annual GHGs mustreduce emission intensity by 12 per cent from a historic base-line average.

Companies not hitting theirtargets must either buyAlberta-based offset credits orcontribute $15/tonne of emis-sions to a fund that invests inresearch and carbon reductiontechnologies (like carbon cap-ture and storage). According toSuncor, Alberta companieshave paid nearly $400 millioninto the fund since the SGERbegan.

The Alberta government iscurrently contemplating rais-ing both the carbon price andthe GHG intensity by whichproducers have to reducetheir emissions. It is not yetknown what figures the gov-ernment will choose, but ithas been suggested the taxand intensity reduction fig-

ures could nearly triple. B.C. has also introduced its ownbroad-based carbon tax – currently $30/tonne – imposed oncivil society and most industry. Ongoing uncertainty stemsfrom Canada’s signing of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord ofthe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change, which could evolve into a binding agreement withpenalties and an enforcement mechanism by the end of2015.

In the future, the growing emissions from the oil sandshave the potential to spook trading partners and investors.While Australia has stepped back from a carbon tax thisyear, many of Canada’s allies and potential trading partnerseither already have carbon pricing in place, such as theEuropean Union, or are considering various carbon pricingstrategies, which contain the potential to one day penalizeGHG-intensive energy sources.

“Oil sands producers that reduce their carbon footprintwill have an economic advantage in the future,” says MattHorne, an engineer and climate policy expert at the not-for-profit, clean-energy focused Pembina Institute. “If a com-pany invests in technology to use less natural gas per barrel

“Until [the nuclear] technology solution isreadily available, we continue to use themost efficient and cleanest alternatives”

– Greg Stringham


of oil, they’ll have better market access and better returnsthan a company that goes with a business as usualapproach.”

We’re still a long way offAccording to Suncor spokesperson Erin Rees, “At this point

nuclear isn’t feasible.”This is not to say no one has made serious attempts to

establish nuclear as a power source in the oil sands. In 2008,Bruce Power (a private operator of eightCANDU nuclear reactors on the shoresof Lake Huron) proposed a $10-billionplan to build nuclear reactors usingCANDU reactor technology in the PeaceRiver area of northern Alberta. In late-2011, after about four years of work thatsaw cooperation by Alberta (and vocalpublic concerns about safety), BrucePower pulled the plug on the project.

This past spring, Babcock & WilcoxCompany, one of the pioneers behindthe development of small nuclear inU.S. submarines, announced plans toscale back the development of itsmPower modular nuclear reactor – upto this point considered one of theworld’s leading candidates to see com-mercialization. The company cited aninability to secure “significant addi-tional investors or customer engineer-ing, procurement and constructioncontracts” – this despite the U.S.Department of Energy’s willingness toinvest a reported $450 million in a“cost-shared industry partnership pro-gram” to help push mPower and otherSMRs towards commercialization.

The likes of Richard Branson andBill Gates are also willing to help, andare partnering with some firms, butPTAC’s Asgarpour says the future ofnuclear in the oil sands remains chal-lenging due to the current low gas priceand long licensing process. “Nuclearhas the advantage that you know whatyou are dealing with. You are not deal-ing with these huge fluctuations [inprice]. However, it will take a longtime to get the licensing in place; thecapital cost is very high. But there arealso challenges to continuing on thesame path we are on, because of green-house gas emissions.”

For the time being, hydraulic frac-turing has changed the economics ofnatural gas and prevented oil sandscompanies from aggressively pursuing

nuclear technologies that have not yet hit the market. “Withshale gas technology active in North America, natural gassupply is abundant and expected to be so for many years,”says Greg Stringham, vice-president of oil sands at theCanadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), whoadds that the industry has been approached with the“option of using nuclear power” and is keeping an openmind. “Until that technology solution is readily available,”he says, “we continue to use the most efficient and cleanestalternatives.” CIM


Cela ressemblait à de la science-fiction. En mai 2005, alorsque les prix du gaz naturel étaient en hausse, Jerry Hopwood,alors directeur général des applications pour réacteurs avancésà Énergie atomique du Canada Limitée (EACL), émettait uneidée radicale : l’heure des petits réacteurs modulaires (PRM)était venue. Ces mini-centrales nucléaires pouvaient êtreassemblées aussi facilement que des Lego dans des sites indus-triels isolés et ce, à une fraction du coût des anciens réacteurscanadiens. Cette technologie présentait un intérêt particulierpour les projets énergivores menés en Alberta.

En effet, les besoins énergétiques croissants des méthodesd’extraction du bitume sur place telles que le drainage pargravité au moyen de vapeur (DGMV), qui dépendent de laproduction de vapeur que certains PRM sont tout à fait enmesure de gérer, rendraient le nucléaire de plus en plusattrayant. « Les aspects économiques feront pencher la balanceen faveur du nucléaire », affirmait M. Hopwood.

La hausse du coût du gaz naturel était la principale raisonde l’intérêt de l’industrie des sables bitumineux pour lenucléaire, mais M. Hopwood avait un autre argument. Àl’époque, le Canada faisait partie des pays signataires du pro-

tocole de Kyoto, et les émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES)des sables bitumineux menaçaient de devenir un boulet pourl’industrie.

Retour sur le présent, près de dix ans plus tard : la tech-nique de fracturation hydraulique a provoqué une brusquebaisse des prix du gaz naturel, aussi ce dernier reste le princi-pal combustible qu’utilisent les producteurs de sables bitu-mineux albertains. L’Amérique du Nord regorge de cetteressource peu coûteuse, mais l’industrie des sables bitumineuxaura besoin à l’avenir d’une quantité colossale de ce com-bustible pour survivre. Le Canadian Energy Research Institute(CERI) a prédit en juillet que la consommation de gaz naturelpour l’extraction des sables bitumineux augmenterait d’ici2046, passant de 1 474 millions de pieds cubes par jour(Mpi3/j) en 2013 à près de 3 753 Mpi3/j (les émissions, quiaugmenteront en parallèle, pourraient donc elles aussi triplerau cours de cette période).

L’industrie des sables bitumineux n’est cependant pas laseule à vouloir dévorer du gaz naturel à petit prix. La sociétéCaterpillar a annoncé que les tombereaux de chantier et leslocomotives de mine seraient parmi ses premiers produits à

Vapeur proprePar Christopher Pollon

Illustrations par Chloe Cushman


fonctionner au gaz naturel. Trois des principaux constructeursautomobiles ont lancé des camionnettes « bicarburant » quifonctionnent aussi bien à l’essence qu’au gaz naturel, et l’uti -lisation du gaz naturel est déjà un fait établi dans divers parcs,des camions à ordures aux semi-remorques et aux autobus.

Les générateurs électriques se tournent eux aussi de plusen plus vers le gaz naturel. La publication « Perspectives àlong terme » de 2012 de l’association Alberta Electric SystemOperators (AESO) prévoyait que d’ici 20 ans, « la compositionfuture des sources de production d’électricité en Albertadevrait passer d’un parc à prédominance de charbon à un parcau gaz naturel ».

Parallèlement, Dinara Millington, l’auteure principale de larecherche du CERI, affirme que si une combinaison quel-conque d’usines d’exportation de gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL)se met en place en Colombie-Britannique et aux États-Unis,les prix du gaz naturel en Amérique du Nord pourraientgrimper d’ici la fin de la décennie. « Le GNL et la forte crois-sance du transport maritime de gaz [destiné à l’exportation]favoriseront le développement d’un marché mondial du gaznaturel, marqué par une légère remontée des prix enAmérique du Nord et par une tendance à la baisse des prix enAsie. » De plus, l’instabilité du marché du gaz naturel est unfait notoire : ses prix sont généralement 50 % plus instablesque ceux du pétrole brut.

La vulnérabilité de l’industrie à cette instabilité, combinéeaux nouvelles incertitudes qui entourent la structure de prixdu carbone aux échelles provinciale, nationale et mondiale,pourrait-elle finir par rendre aux petits réacteursnucléaires leur attrait ?

Des micro-réacteursnucléaires en développement

L’idée de déployer de petits réacteurs nucléaires pour pro-duire de l’électricité et de la chaleur n’a rien de nouveau ; aprèsla Seconde Guerre mondiale, tant les États-Unis que l’Unionsoviétique avaient développé les technologies nucléaires pouralimenter leurs sous-marins.

Pendant la période de la guerre froide, il avait même étéquestion de recourir aux bombes nucléaires pour exploiter lesvastes ressources bitumineuses du Canada. Ce plan radicalenvisagé brièvement aurait consisté à enfoncer dans les impor-tants gisements de bitume des dispositifs explosifs pour sur-chauffer le matériau.

Aujourd’hui, la Chine, les États-Unis, le Japon et la Russieont tous mené des recherches sur le développement de petitescentrales nucléaires pour fournir de l’énergie aux collectivitéset aux mines isolées, accroître la capacité des réacteursnucléaires existants et alimenter les procédés industriels. Enjuillet, la Russie et la Chine ont signé un protocole d’entente envue de développer ensemble six centrales nucléaires flottantesconçues pour desservir des lieux isolés, des installations indus-trielles comme les plateformes pétrolières et même les grandsnavires qui transportent des minerais lourds. Rosatom, le mono-pole russe dans le domaine des réacteurs nucléaires, promet delancer la première de ces petites centrales nucléaires en 2018.

Ceci dit, aucun réacteur nucléaire modulaire « de nouvellegénération » n’a encore atteint le stade de la commercialisa-tion. Ralph Hart espère faire changer les choses. Fort de sonexpérience chez EACL ainsi que dans le secteur privé, il estaujourd’hui directeur technique de Northern Nuclear Indus-tries Inc. (N2 I2) à Cambridge, en Ontario. Sa série de réac-teurs nucléaires LEADIR-PS (de l’anglais LEAD-cooled IntegralReactor-Passively Safe, ou réacteur intégral refroidi au plombà sûreté passive), qui comprend deux modèles d’une capacitérespective de 100 et 300 mégawatts thermiques (MWth), a étéconçue à l’intention du secteur des sables bitumineux. « Selonnous, l’industrie des sables bitumineux sera le principalmoteur de cette technologie, étant donné la quantité consi -dérable d’énergie dont elle aura besoin », explique M. Hart,qui a fondé la société il y a cinq ans.

Ralph Hart a commencé à envisager son propre conceptmodulaire au début des années 2000, lorsque son examen destechnologies existantes l’a convaincu du fait que la plupart descentrales nucléaires de « génération actuelle » n’étaient pas enmesure de produire la forte pression de vapeur nécessaire auxactivités de DGMV.

Comme toutes les autres centrales nucléaires, le réacteurLEADIR-PS génère de la vapeur en transférant la chaleur defission du refroidisseur du réacteur à l’eau (la plupart des con-cepts emploient de l’oxyde d’uranium légèrement enrichicomme combustible). Les unités LEADIR-PS peuvent générerde l’électricité en faisant passer la chaleur produite par le réac-teur à l’aide de la vapeur dans une turbine, qui actionne ungénérateur ; l’eau retourne ensuite vers le réacteur pour pro-duire davantage de vapeur. Elles peuvent également servir auxapplications de la « chaleur industrielle » (comme dans leDGMV) ; d’après M. Hart, elles sont d’une part pluséconomiques car elles ne requièrent pas la même capacité dela turbogénératrice et du condensateur, et d’autre part, ellesoffrent plus de 95 % d’utilisation de l’énergie (par rapport à40 % environ pour la production d’électricité).

Le LEADIR-PS s’inspire fortement de la technologie alle-mande existante en matière de « réacteur à haute températurerefroidi par gaz » (RHTRG); il est alimenté par des milliers desphères de la taille d’une boule de billard, faites de minusculesparticules qui consistent en des « noyaux » d’oxyde d’uraniumrecouverts de plusieurs couches qui confinent le rayon-nement. Le LEADIR-PS utilise du plomb fondu comme fluidecaloporteur et non de l’hélium comme c’est le cas pour lesRHTRG, évitant ainsi de devoir installer une tuyauterie hautepression pour la cuve sous pression et le fluide caloporteurdu réacteur. Une fois assemblé, ce système atteint une tailleéquivalant à celle d’une piste de hockey. Il peut être livré parvoie ferroviaire ou fluviale. Le réacteur LEADIR-PS est installésous terre de manière à le protéger des événements extérieurstels que le vandalisme ou des incendies, et assure lerefroidissement passif du réacteur à l’arrêt. N2 I2 estimequ’une centrale LEADIR-PS pourrait être opérationnelle dansmoins de dix ans, à condition que la société trouve un clientprêt à investir dans son développement.

N2 I2 estime le coût de chaque unité LEADIR-PS100 à en -viron 430 millions $, sans compter les frais d’obtention depermis qui devraient s’élever à quelque 45 millions $ (audi-


ences publiques comprises), la formation, l’embauche d’ex-ploitants qualifiés et les intérêts à défrayer au cours de la con-struction. Mais une fois l’unité construite, affirme-t-il, le coûtdu combustible sera de 0,00596 $/kWh, ce qui est compara-ble au coût moyen du combustible nécessaire pour les cen-trales au gaz aux États-Unis, qui était de 0,056 $/kWhen 2013.

« Les centrales nucléaires, y compris les LEADIR-PS,demandent de forts investissements, mais les coûts des com-bustibles qu’elles requièrent sont très bas et très stables »,ajoute M. Hart. « À l’inverse, les centrales au gaz natureloffrent un faible coût en capital, maisle coût du combustible est élevé etinstable. »

À titre de comparaison, alors qu’ilfaut envisager jusqu’à 60 mois (de lapremière coulée de béton à la produc-tion d’énergie) pour construire unecentrale nucléaire CANDU moderne,d’après N2 I2, la LEADIR-PS100 peutêtre livrée sous forme de centrale engrande partie achevée et opéra-tionnelle en moins de 28 mois.

Ces estimations ne tiennent pascompte des obstacles réglementairesà franchir et des permis à obtenirpour les nouveaux PRM, qui n’ont pasencore fait leurs preuves au Canada.Selon un porte-parole de la Commis-sion canadienne de sûreté nucléaire, l’organisme indépendantde réglementation nucléaire au Canada, il faut actuellementcompter environ neuf ans pour franchir les étapes du proces-sus réglementaire, de la demande initiale concernant le permisde choix de l’emplacement à l’obtention d’un permis d’ex-ploitation. Ce porte-parole a confirmé qu’au moment où cetarticle a été rédigé, aucune conception de PRM n’avait encoreété soumise en vue d’un examen préliminaire ; il ajoute cepen-dant que la réglementation existante pourrait être « appliquéetelle quelle » aux PRM qui feraient l’objet d’une propositionde déploiement au Canada.

Perspectives d’avenirLes façons possibles de déployer des réacteurs nucléaires

modulaires de ce genre dans le secteur des sables bitumineuxont fait l’objet de plusieurs études récentes, et notamment durapport judicieusement intitulé Integration of High TemperatureGas-Cooled Reactor Technology with Oil Sands Processes [L’intégra-tion de la technologie des réacteurs à haute température refroidispar gaz dans les procédés des sables bitumineux], rédigé fin2011 par Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC), unorganisme établi à Calgary qui compte 30 producteurs pétroliersparmi ses membres, en collaboration avec l’Idaho National Lab-oratory du département de l’Énergie des États-Unis.

Une étude conceptuelle a été élaborée sur une « centraleénergétique » comprenant cinq RHTRG capables de fournir àplusieurs producteurs de sables bitumineux l’électricité et lachaleur nécessaires pour convertir le bitume en pétrole brut

synthétique de qualité supérieure sur une superficie d’environ40 000 hectares (en vue de produire, par DGMV, quelque150 000 barils de bitume par jour). Une telle centrale (dont lecoût en capital de 8,25 milliards $ comprend les turbines àvapeur, 51 kilomètres de conduites de 24 pouces à tube isolantet 51 kilomètres de conduites isolées pour l’eau de condensa-tion) permettrait de récupérer près de la moitié des réservesen bitume sur cette superficie, tout en réduisant la consomma-tion de gaz naturel de plus de 200 Mpi3/j standard (soit environ4 500 milliards de pieds cubes sur la durée de vie de 60 ansde la centrale) et les émissions de dioxyde de carbone (CO

2)

de 285 millions de tonnes sur sixdécennies (les auteurs font remarquerqu’une telle centrale libérerait du gaznaturel pour des utilisations ayant unevaleur supérieure, à savoir des appli-cations plus « productives et irrem-plaçables » telles que la production deproduits chimiques).

« À long terme, en adoptant cetteapproche de l’approvisionnement enénergie […], les producteurs de sablesbitumineux se prémunissent contrel’imposition éventuelle d’une tarifica-tion du carbone et les problèmes d’approvisionnement en gaz naturel,en plus de disposer d’une source d’énergie fiable pour au moins 60 ans,à un prix qui ne sera affecté que par

les effets de l’inflation normale des coûts des matériaux d’ex-ploitation et de la main-d’œuvre », conclut le rapport, dontl’un des auteurs est le président de PTAC, Soheil Asgarpour.

Les auteurs du rapport ont constaté que le prix de lachaleur produite par un RHTRG est considérablement plusélevé que les coûts actuels comparables du gaz naturel dansl’industrie des sables bitumineux. Selon M. Asgarpour, les prixde l’énergie thermique nucléaire sont relativement élevés carils ne sont pas ajustés pour tenir compte du coût potentiel desémissions de CO

2qui résulterait de la combustion du gaz

naturel. Il explique que si le coût de la séquestration du CO2

coûte 120 $/tonne, le nucléaire présenterait un intérêt con-currentiel face au gaz naturel, qui coûte 6 $/millier de piedscubes (kpi3), ajoutant que « d’ici 20 ans à mon avis, le prixdu gaz naturel aura dépassé ce seuil. »

Pour situer cette tarification de 120 $ dans le contexte actuel,la taxe suédoise sur le carbone est de 150 $/tonne (l’industriepaie moins cher), alors que le coût d’un permis de l’Unioneuropéenne (UE) pour le rejet d’une tonne de CO

2a connu de

fortes fluctuations entre un pic à 32 € (environ 47 $ CA) et unminimum à un peu moins de 3 € (environ 4 $ CA).

L’incertitude quant au coût ducarbone : une bénédictionpour le nucléaire ?

Le rapport publié par le CERI en juillet 2014 prédit queles émissions de GES provenant principalement de la com-


bustion du gaz naturel et qui sont associées à l’extraction dessables bitumineux vont tripler d’ici le milieu du siècle, passantde 55 Mt/an en 2012 à près de 165 Mt/an en 2048. Les coûtsinconnus associés à cette future hausse des émissions rendrontl’option nucléaire de plus en plus intéressante, mais pour lemoment, le coût en carbone des sables bitumineux demeuretrès modeste. En vertu du règlement albertain de 2007 sur lesémetteurs de gaz désignés (SGER - Specified Gas Emitters Reg-ulation), les installations qui produisent plus de100 000 tonnes de GES par an doivent réduire l’intensité deleurs émissions de 12 % par rapport à une moyenne his-torique de référence, celle de l’an 2000. Pour les installationsqui étaient opérationnelles avant le 1er janvier 2000, l’intensitéde référence des émissions est établie à partir des donnéesd’émissions et de production de 2003 à 2005; quant aux nou-velles installations, elles doivent fonder l’intensité de référencede leurs émissions sur la période allant de leur troisième à leurcinquième année complète d’exploitation commerciale.

Les sociétés qui n’atteignent pas leurs objectifs doiventacheter des crédits d’émissions albertains ou verser 15 $ partonne d’émissions à un fonds d’investissement pour la rechercheet les technologies de réduction du carbone (les méthodes decaptage et de stockage du dioxyde de carbone, par exemple).D’après Suncor, les sociétés albertaines ont déjà versé près de400 millions $ dans le fonds depuis l’entrée en vigueur du SGER.

Le gouvernement de l’Alberta envisage actuellement d’aug-menter le prix du carbone et l’intensité des GES à compterdesquelles les producteurs devront réduire leurs émissions. Onne connaît encore pas à ce jour le montant exact des augmen-tations qu’envisagera le gouvernement, mais il a été questiond’une augmentation du triple des taxes et de la réduction del’intensité des émissions de GES. La Colombie-Britannique aégalement instauré sa propre taxe générale sur le carbone(actuellement de 30 $/tonne), qu’elle impose à la société civileet à la majeure partie du secteur industriel. L’avenir est toutefoisplus incertain depuis que le Canada a signé l’Accord de Copen-hague de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur leschangements climatiques (CCNUCC) de 2009, qui pourraitéventuellement avoir force de loi et être assorti de pénalités etd’un mécanisme d’application d’ici la fin de l’année 2015.

À l’avenir, l’augmentation des émissions de GES associées auxsables bitumineux risque d’effaroucher les partenaires commer-ciaux et les investisseurs. Si l’Australie a fait marche arrière cetteannée par rapport à son projet de taxe sur le carbone, bon nom-bre d’alliés et d’éventuels partenaires commerciaux du Canadaont déjà mis en place une tarification du carbone (comme c’estle cas en Union européenne) ou envisagent diverses stratégiestarifaires qui ont le potentiel de pénaliser un jour les sourcesd’énergie dégageant de grandes quantités de GES.

« Les producteurs de sables bitumineux qui réduisent leurempreinte carbone auront un avantage économique àl’avenir », déclare Matt Horne, ingénieur et spécialiste de lapolitique climatique à l’Institut Pembina, un organisme à butnon lucratif axé sur les sources d’énergie propres. « Si unesociété investit dans une technologie afin de consommermoins de gaz naturel par baril de pétrole, elle bénéficiera d’unmeilleur accès au marché et affichera de meilleurs rendementsqu’une société qui ne change rien à ses méthodes. »

Encore beaucoup de cheminà faire

Erin Rees, porte-parole de Suncor, est d’avis que « pour lemoment, le nucléaire n’est pas une solution viable ».

Ceci ne signifie pas pour autant que personne n’a déployéde sérieux efforts en vue d’imposer le nucléaire comme sourced’énergie potentielle pour les sables bitumineux. En 2008,Bruce Power (exploitant privé de huit réacteurs nucléairesCANDU sur les rives du lac Huron) a proposé un plan de10 milliards $ pour la construction de réacteurs nucléairesutilisant la technologie des réacteurs CANDU dans la régionde Rivière-la-Paix, dans le nord de l’Alberta.

Vers la fin de l’année 2011, après environ quatre ans detravaux marqués par la coopération de l’Alberta (et par devives inquiétudes du public à propos de la sécurité), BrucePower a abandonné ce projet.

Le printemps dernier, la société Babcock and Wilcox, l’undes pionniers du développement de petits réacteurs nucléairespour les sous-marins américains, a annoncé son intention deréduire les activités de développement de son réacteurnucléaire modulaire de type mPower, considéré jusqu’icicomme l’un des principaux candidats mondiaux à uneéventuelle commercialisation. La société a mentionné sonincapacité à garantir « d’importantes sources d’investissementsupplémentaires ou des contrats d’ingénierie, d’approvision-nement et de construction auprès de clients », malgré lavolonté affirmée par le département de l’Énergie des États-Unis d’investir une somme évaluée à 450 millions $ dans un« programme à coûts partagés de partenariat avec l’industrie »pour aider à rapprocher du stade de la commercialisation latechnologie mPower et d’autres PRM.

Des personnalités telles que Richard Branson et Bill Gates sontégalement disposées à donner un coup de pouce et s’associent àcertaines entreprises, mais selon le président de PTAC, M. Asgar-pour, l’avenir du nucléaire dans les sables bitumineux reste cri-tique en raison des prix relativement bas du gaz et du longprocessus d’obtention de permis. « Avec le nucléaire, l’avantageest que nous savons à quoi nous avons affaire. Nous n’avons pasà composer avec d’énormes fluctuations [de prix]. Mais il faudrabeaucoup de temps pour instituer les permis, et le coût en capitalest très élevé. Cependant, il est aussi risqué de poursuivre sur lavoie actuelle en raison des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. »

Pour l’heure, la fracturation hydraulique a révolutionné l’é-conomie du gaz naturel et empêché les sociétés d’extractiondes sables bitumineux de s’engager résolument sur la voie destechnologies nucléaires qui n’ont pas encore atteint le marché.« Le niveau d’activité de la technologie du gaz de schiste enAmérique du Nord est tel que les ressources de gaz naturel sontabondantes, et elles devraient le rester pendant des années »,estime Greg Stringham, vice-président de la section Sablesbitumineux pour l’Association canadienne des producteurspétroliers (ACPP), ajoutant que l’industrie a été interrogéequant à « l’option d’utiliser l’énergie nucléaire » et qu’elle gardel’esprit ouvert. « D’ici à ce que cette solution technologiquedevienne accessible », déclare-t-il, « nous continuons d’utiliserles options les plus efficaces et les plus propres » ICM


A sked what he considers themost helpful advance intechnology in the last sev-

eral years, Justin Harkness, surfacemaintenance planner at Newmont’sCarlin Trend in Nevada, answers:“Most definitely real-time conditionmonitoring.”

Although most major equip-ment manufacturers now offermachine health monitoring – fromsensors to software – a number ofthird parties have entered the game.Some sell very specific systems –BMT WBM, for example, focuses itshealth monitoring on stress andvibration shovels and draglines. Butothers seek both to bring all thedata from different vendors underone umbrella, and to streamline itfor busy personnel. In doing so,they are exploring – and sometimesrunning up against – the outer lim-its of advanced data handling.

Decreasing downtimeNewmont uses the onboard diagnostics system and fleet management software pro-

vided by Caterpillar to receive machine health alerts, view historical data, and makemaintenance decisions based on real-time information across its operations. Numeroussensors integrated into mobile equipment report temperature, pressure and other datathrough CAT’s Vital Information Management System (VIMS), which sends that infor-mation wirelessly to its MineStar equipment management platform.

The biggest benefit, from Harkness’ point of view, is being able to catch emergingproblems early enough to schedule maintenance downtime when people and parts areavailable. In an unplanned shutdown, not only does it take time for maintenance per-sonnel to come by but the machine also cools down while it waits and has to be broughtback to normal temperatures and loads to recreate its symptoms. With MineStar, someparameters can be viewed remotely while the machine is still in production.

For example, he says, “exhaust temperature differentials from left bank to right bankcan indicate a few different things, and trending specific parameters to other machines inthe same fleet can highlight subtle differences. It becomes even more interesting from timeto time to compare these same operating parameters to same-model machines at differentsites with different haul profiles.”

Come togetherBy Eavan Moore

Condition monitoring systems today allow mine operators to synthesize and analyzehuge amounts of real-time data on equipment health in a customized format. Thechallenge for companies, however, is managing all that information.

technologyEQU I PMEN T MON I TOR I NG

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Dashboard image ofHoneywell’s MobileEquipment MonitoringSoftware


With a detailed picture of machine condition, Harknessnotes, maintenance can also be tailored to the part. An engine,for example, might have an expected life of 17,000 hours butits current condition could warrant extending its life. A13,000-hour engine, running in a questionable condition witha less-than-acceptable history, might be a candidate forreplacement before the end of its expected life.

A diversity of suppliersThe global mining heavyweights of the world have gener-

ally adopted real-time health monitoring; the list includesTeck, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Vale. Monitoring is notexclusively the domain of big companies – see Dundee Pre-cious Metals’ Chelopech mine (p. 64), profiled in this issue.But according to Bart Winters, product director for Honey-well’s asset management solutions, the technology is still in itsearly adopter phases. “The thought leaders are the ones thatare doing it the most, they are the ones that can see the value,”he says. “We see deployments at larger customers across mul-tiple sites, but smaller sites are also starting to see the valueand rolling out programs.”

Those who do adopt it have a fair amount of choice in howthey ultimately view and use their data. The information col-lected by original equipment manufacturers’ (OEM) systemscan move almost as easily through third-party systems asthrough the company’s proprietary platform, given a littlecooperation between suppliers. “We have interfaces to all themajor onboard health systems,” says Glen Trainor, vice- president of sales and marketing at Wenco International Min-ing Systems, whose products include ReadyLine asset healthmanagement software. “We have partnerships with third partydevices as well. Wenco’s philosophy is that we are willing and

able to interface to anythingthat’s on board.”

Wenco’s system shares broadsimilarities in data use withHoneywell Process Solutions’Mobile Equipment Manage-ment (MEM) and Modular Min-ing’s MineCare. First, rules set by the company compare valuesto normal ranges or to one another and issue alerts as neededto an employee acting as fleet monitor. For instance, the tem-peratures on the left and right wheel motors might be too high,or they may differ from each other in a way that suggests aproblem. If there is an issue, an alarm will pop up on thescreen. Second, the fleet monitor can view trends for thatparameter and request a real-time feed. And third, the systemstores historical data in case the mine needs to investigate anevent after the fact.

Winters says, from his experience, mines tend to want tominimize the amount of information distracting the machineoperator in the cab and centralize workflow. He recalls a spe-cific incident on site while having a conversation with a fleetmonitor: “We were looking at the system and all of a suddenan alarm comes in that the driver is driving with the parkingbrake on. The fleet monitor says, ‘Give me a second, I have tocall this guy on the radio.’ He gets on the radio, and he hearsthe alarm beeping in the truck, in the cab. He says, ‘Hey, Joe.You’re driving with the parking brake on.’ Joe says, ‘Thanks.’”

Asked whether the full potential of these systems is realizedby their users, Winters replies in the negative: “These systemshave to continuously be able to justify themselves. Theyalways have to demonstrate where they are adding value.” Tothat end, he thinks it is important that MEM includes a record

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Wenco’s ReadyLine conditionmonitoring software collects

information from OEMmonitoring systems, such as

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specific user-selectedparameters.


of equipment failures avoided, what he calls “documentationof saves.” When someone detects a condition using MEM, theycan record a save post-investigation that is reviewed andapproved by management, then used to make regular reportson just how much value the system has added.

Newmont does not currently measure cost savings specificto real-time monitoring in its maintenance department,according to Harkness. “It can be seen as a contributor tomeasured KPIs such as mean time between failure and avail-abilities, as well as planned versus unplanned maintenancepercentages,” says Harkness. “When a machine problem isidentified in a subtle or potential state of becoming a largerissue, and parts orders are accurately identified and completewith manpower set aside to perform the repair before itbecomes an unexpected down, cost savings in maintenanceare a direct result and that can be seen and measured.”

Merging the offline and onlineColin Donnelly, director of product management at Dingo,

thinks that the existing real-time monitoring systems are miss-ing something. “They haven’t created sensors to indicate howmany wear particles or contaminants are circulating withinyour engine,” he points out. “People are neglecting themachines – and the parts of the machines – that can’t talk.”

Most mines collect oil samples and inspect magnetic plugsand filters to check their machinery, but they often neglect tomake effective use of that information, in his view. Largeamounts of data are collected only to languish in file cabinetsor emails.

To help companies extract the value from this data andimprove decision-making, Dingo created a third-party condi-tion monitoring software product, Trakka, that takes thatinformation – whether it comes from the mine or third-partyvendors – and translates it into corrective maintenance actionsthat feed into an email-like inbox checked every day. “We’rejust repackaging the data into a platform that shows people ifyou pay attention, there’s a large amount of money at the otherend,” says Donnelly. Dingo’s services include staff support whoanalyze the data and recommend actions.

He says he believesDingo’s Trakka systemstands out because itincludes a process for fol-lowing up on mainte-

nance activity to make sure it was successful. “If thetask didn’t physically improve the condition, then itwas either the wrong task or it was done incorrectly,and we need to do something else,” he explains. “Weactually keep those things open a lot longer, becausewe want confirmation that the task resolved the issueand the equipment returned to a normal operatingstate. That’s where I think it complements some ofthe enterprise resource planning systems that prettymuch every customer has in place to manage theirmaintenance work.”

Donnelly says it was that functionality that led aCanadian customer to combine its use of Trakka andMEM. The Honeywell software displays real-time

equipment health data, but some of the same information canbe viewed in a Trakka window using the MEM-assigned tagsfor each value.

Understanding big dataVendors agree they need to work on taking more of the load

off mine operators. There is widespread agreement that thegrowth of “big data” – so much information it demands moresophisticated analytical tools – is driving software develop-ment in this field.

Trainor says that predictive modelling, or the use of infor-mation from multiple sources to develop patterns that predictmaintenance needs, will develop further in future. Wenco istrialling more predictive systems in two mines in Australia thisyear and next.

At Honeywell, Winters says he envisions defining similartypes of operation and comparing them across a fleet; forexample, taking the exhaust gas temperature when a truck ishauling uphill underload. Even further in the future, Winterswould like to see more advanced diagnostics and, ultimately,machine learning, in which observations made during investi-gations could be automatically incorporated into the diagnos-tic process the next time a similar issue crops up.

Third-party developers – and, according to them, users –would have an easier time of it if data came out in less propri-etary formats. Wenco started stripping its systems of all propri-etary aspects 15 years ago, and today its customers use itspublic API to plug monitoring data into enterprise-level soft-ware if they so wish.

“It’s problematic today,” says Winters. “The operatingcompanies are pushing the OEMs to standardize on thedata that’s coming off so that they can deploy additionaltools to make use of that data.” That effort is being led bythe Global Mining Standards and Guidelines Group’sOnboard Technology and Connectivity Working Group. Inthe meantime, third-party providers can cite numeroushappy customers who, with typical mining ingenuity, arewilling to reconcile the seemingly disparate for the sake ofgreater productivity. CIM

Dingo’s Trakka softwarecollects conditionmonitoring data andtranslates it into correctivemaintenance actions.Co

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An Introduction to Cutoff Grade: Theory and Practice in Open Pit and Underground Mines (with a new section on blending optimization strategy)Cutoff grades are essential in determining the economic feasibility and mine life of a project. Learn how to solve most cutoff grade estimationproblems by developing techniques and graphical analytical methods, about the relationship between cutoff grades and the design of pushbacks inopen pit mines, and the optimization of block sizes in caving methods.INSTRUCTOR Jean-Michel Rendu, USA • DATE September 3-5, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Geostatistical Mineral Resource Estimation and Meeting the New Regulatory Environment: Step by Step from Sampling to Grade ControlLearn about the latest regulations on public reporting of resources/reserves through state-of-the-art statistical and geostatistical techniques; howto apply geostatistics to predict dilution and adapt reserve estimates to that predicted dilution; how geostatistics can help you categorize yourresources in an objective manner; and how to understand principles of NI 43-101 and the SME Guide.INSTRUCTORS Marcelo Godoy, Newmont Mining Corp., Denver; Jean-Michel Rendu, JMR Consultants, USA; Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGillUniversity, Canada; and Guy Desharnais, SGS Canada Inc., Canada • DATE September 8-12, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Quantitative Mineral Resource Assessments: An Integrated Approach to Planning for Exploration Risk ReductionLearn about exploration risk analysis for strategic planning. Understand how to demonstrate how operational mineral deposit models can reduceuncertainties; make estimates of the number of undiscovered deposits; and integrate the information and examine the economic possibilities.INSTRUCTORS Don Singer, USA; and David Menzie, U.S. Geological Survey, USA • DATE September 29-October 1, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Strategic Risk Management in Mine Design: From Life-of-Mine to Mining ComplexesLearn how you can have a significant, positive impact on your company’s bottom line by utilizing strategic mine planning methodologies and software;improve your understanding of strategic mine planning and life-of-mine optimization concepts, as well as your understanding of the relationship ofuncertainty and risk, and how to exploit uncertainty in order to maximize profitability. Note: The strategic mine planning software used is Whittle.An optional half-day skills refresher workshop on Whittle may be available.INSTRUCTORS Tarrant Elkington, Snowden, Australia; and Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University, Canada • DATE October 15-17, 2014 • LOCATION Montreal, Quebec, Canada

UNDERGROUND ACHIEVER


of the mine for bringing the ore to surface instead of truckingand shaft hoisting, cutting mining costs by around 20 percent and doubling production to two million tonnes of oreper year.

At the same time, staff at DPM understood that they wouldrequire a new way to manage their resources if they wanted todouble throughput without adding new equipment. So in2009, Chelopech commenced a plan called “Taking the LidOff.”

Taking the lid offHowes borrowed a manufacturing concept called “Short

Interval Control,” which uses real-time production informa-tion to update a central monitoring and control room. At Che-lopech, a master schedule plans activities at least three monthsin advance, with a detailed breakdown into weekly produc-

tion, support and services tasks. Manage-ment sets production and performancetargets that are checked against actualoutcomes at short-term intervalsthroughout the working shift.

A control room supervisor uses Das-sault Systemes Geovia InSite shift man-agement software to view a shift-by-shiftschedule for the next seven days. At theend of one shift, the control room super-visor and the shift supervisor make any

necessary adjustments for the next shift and then assign tasks.The weekly goal is to complete as much of the scheduled workas possible. If all planned tasks are completed then plannedproduction output is all sustainably achieved.

Equipment operators receive the tasks via a wireless net-work on tablet computers using software provided by Sand-vik, the main mine production equipment supplier atChelopech. The information for each task includes the loca-tion, output and expected time required. The operator updatesthe control room via the tablet throughout the shift.

Sandvik machines have health and production sensors thatalert both operator and maintenance if warning signs develop.If a task is drifting behind schedule, the control room supervi-sor can inquire and take immediate course-correcting action.

Chelopech is in the Panagyurishte mining district ofcentral-western Bulgaria, containing a number of mas-sive sulphide and porphyry copper deposits. Under

state operation from 1954 to 1992, it struggled to remainviable in the 1990s as Bulgaria underwent democratizationand privatization. DPM acquired Chelopech after its previousowner went bankrupt. The mine has good bones; its currentProven and Probable Reserves measure 2.512 million ouncesof gold at 3.26 grams per tonne, 5.674 million ounces of silverat 7.37 ounces per tonne, and 524 million pounds of 0.99 percent copper. But its new owners saw a need and an opportu-nity to modernize the operation.

“Most of my experience is in the large mining operationsin Canada,” explains Howes, who is now the president andCEO of Dundee Precious Metals (DPM). “I spent almost 30years with Inco (now Vale) and Falconbridge (now Glen-core). We tried many of these ideas, butthey weren’t successful for various rea-sons. One was the technology at thetime wasn’t nearly as advanced andcost-effective as it is today. And two wasa stubborn unwillingness to take a riskon innovation.” With the right combi-nation of technology and concept,Howes says he believed he could run anefficient mine using a new suite of tools.

In the early years, DPM focused onupdating its mining method and infrastructure. Chelopech’sprevious owners had used sublevel caving on the relativelysmall ore bodies, which diluted the ore and caused cave areasto form on surface. DPM switched to more selective and pro-ductive blast hole stoping with filling of the mine voids aftermining. Along with building an access ramp and backfillingwith paste fill, the changes doubled production from half amillion to a million tonnes of ore per year. Next, DPMinstalled a conveyor system and put a crusher at the bottom

From mine to mill: the Chelopech mine team apply real-time information to scheduleand monitor production.

Photo bottom right courtesy of Woodgrove Technologies, all others Dundee Precious Metals

Dundee Precious Metals bought the Chelopech gold-copper mine in Bulgaria in2003 to make a low-cost move into mining operations. When Rick Howes joined thecompany in 2009 as the mine’s general manager, he says he viewed it as anopportunity to invest in the kinds of innovation he had long envisioned at a mine site.Today, both ambitions have been realized. Annual throughput from Chelopech hasnearly quadrupled, unit costs have sunk, and a real-time production managementsystem has provided a pathbreaking model for underground mines.

BY | EAVAN MOORE

“Trying to get various parties to share

their proprietaryinformation was probably

the biggest challenge.”

– R. Howes

Personnel and equipment are tracked using AeroScoutradio-frequency identification (RFID) tags inside their caplamps or vehicle cab. A software location engine finds theirphysical location using the signal strength relative to the clos-est wireless access points. The location is displayed in two dif-ferent software applications: a specialized AeroScoutapplication called MobileView and the level plan view ofInSite.

A wireless communications network covering nearly theentire mine forms the backbone of the system. That makesChelopech unusual. Although many underground mines useradio communications, only a few are using wireless computernetworks. The advantage is that wireless networks used for theInternet and computer networks in the office or at home are acommon component of everyday life and relatively inexpen-sive. They support voice, video and data with off-the-shelfsoftware and hardware. “All we did was ruggedize the compo-nents for underground use and modify some of the technologyto better suit the mining needs,” explains Howes.

“The cost to put in the new technology was pretty muchless than what it would cost us to expand our existing leakyfeeder system,” he says. DPM bought off-the-shelf Cisco com-ponents and made in-house customizations, including long-range wireless antennas and ruggedized voice-over-Internetphones. It took about 150 to 200 wireless access points to getfull coverage.

Change managementThe system may sound seamless but it required three years

of hard work by DPM and seven different partners, including


project profile | C H E L O P E C H

hardware, software, systems integration, and project manage-ment providers. Most critically, DPM partnered with its soft-ware vendors and Sandvik’s Trans4Mine consulting arm todesign both the new workflow and the processes that wouldhelp employees understand it.

Where employee buy-in to the innovations was concerned,the project leaders did not have to work too hard to sell theideas. He says Bulgarian workers are open to change. “Whenwe told them that this is about more efficient use of resources– helping you to be successful at achieving your task, eliminat-ing some of the barriers to your success so that you can do well– this approach was easy to implement,” says Howes.

The vendors needed to trust one another and to definetheir roles cooperatively; that proved tough work at first. “Try-ing to get various parties to share their proprietary informa-tion was probably the biggest challenge,” says Howes. “Butonce there was a willingness to do that, then we were able tointegrate the pieces.”

In financial terms, suppliers to Chelopech contributedsubstantially to the project. DPM spent a fairly modest $3 mil-lion on its new production management system, countingboth in-house expenses and vendor fees, but individual sup-pliers invested their own funds into research and develop-ment as well.

For example, Sandvik needed to develop its tablet systemfrom scratch, according to Mike Andrews, business line man-ager for Sandvik’s automation and Trans4Mine business units.“Rick and his team provided a lot of the user requirements forus,” he says, “but most of the software still needed to be devel-oped, as well as the hardware to go with it.”

Gancho Ganchev, a safety specialist at the mine, leads community members through the mine during one of its “Open Doors” event.

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Fine-tuning the productThe mine’s primary product is a copper concentrate

shipped to DPM’s smelter in Tsumeb, Namibia. In the firsthalf of 2014, Chelopech produced 56,106 ounces of gold, 20million pounds of copper and 101,700 ounces of silver inconcentrate.

DPM also contemplated building a pyrite recovery circuitand a pressure oxidation facility so that it could produce apyrite concentrate and then extract gold from it on site. The$14-million pyrite recovery circuit went up as planned withthe flotation circuit consisting entirely of staged flotation reac-tors; it began producing concentrate within the existing sur-face mill facility in early 2014. But current market conditionsdo not justify the pressure oxidation facility, so for now Che-lopech is selling its pyrite concentrate to customers in Europeand China.

DPM recently extended the life-of-mine at Chelopech to2025; that offers plenty of time to introduce a new technol-ogy or two. But even if management stays conservative fromhere on out, they will have demonstrated – having boostedthroughput from 550,000 tonnes of ore to two milliontonnes and shrunk costs from $66 to $40 per tonne – that asmall company with a good idea and a good team can breaknew ground. CIM


C H E L O P E C H | project profile

Sandvik welcomed the opportunity to take on the project.Having begun to develop advanced monitoring solutions, itneeded specific directions from a mining company. Partneringwith Chelopech allowed Sandvik to design its solutionaround the needs of the mine. Not every customer wishes togive that kind of direction. Yet, says Andrews, “From the onesthat do have the visionary approach like the Chelopechs, wecan learn so much. And it stands us in good stead going for-ward with other customers. We know we’ve designed some-thing that is functionally correct and required by themarkets.” Sandvik has since submitted three to four tendersfor similar systems at other mines in Africa, Europe, Australia,and the Americas.

Better flotationTrying out new ideas did not stop when the implementa-

tion phase of Taking the Lid Off ended in 2012. Over the lasttwo years, Chelopech has replaced its aging flotation tankswith staged flotation reactors (SFRs), a new design that halvesoverall power consumption, uses half the floor space, and pro-duces better selectivity and higher recoveries for less than thecost of putting in a conventional tank. Chelopech was the sec-ond mine to install an SFR; the first was Anaconda’s Pine Covegold mine in 2010.

Manufacturer Woodgrove Technologies, Inc. premised itsdesign on three separate processes involved in flotation: parti-cle collection, de-aeration of the tailings slurry and froth recov-ery. Christopher Bennett, business development director atWoodgrove, explains that each of these processes requires adifferent environment. Collection demands strong shear forcesand high turbulence levels; de-aeration requires a quiescentenvironment; and froth recovery requires a quiescent environ-ment near the top of the cell so there are no shear forces tobreak the froth bubbles.

“It seems counterproductive to attempt to execute allthree processes in the same tank,” says Bennett. “So we havedesigned the cell to have three separate chambers and twotanks.” One turbulent tank promotes collection; the othertank, divided into two chambers, is quiescent so that de-aeration and froth recovery can take place unimpeded.Each chamber, or reactor, has a geometry and volume tai-lored to its specific duty. Most importantly, the surface areawithin the froth recovery chamber matches the amount offroth generated.

Bennett says that using three sized-for-duty chambers hasa few different benefits. It optimizes energy utilization, sinceenergy is used only for collection and not for sand suspen-sion. It also improves recoveries, largely because froth recov-ery is more effective. Finally, the method by which air isadded – cycling through the impeller zone several times –reduces the total air use to about one-sixth of a typical tankcell and improves selectivity in the presence of floatablegangue minerals, like the pyrite at Chelopech. Any airbeyond the quantity needed to float valuable species willonly entrain water to the froth, bringing hydrophilic ganguewith it.

The mine operators opted for staged flotation reactors (SFRs) to replace the agingflotation tanks. The technology breaks up the flotation process into three distinctstages: particle collection, de-aeration of slurry tailings and froth recovery. Theyrecently added another SFR circuit for pyrite recovery.

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« J’ai forgé la majeure partie de mon expérience dans lesgrandes exploitations minières au Canada », expliqueM. Howes, l’actuel président et chef de la direction de DPM.« J’ai travaillé pendant près de 30 ans chez Inco (à présent,Vale) et chez Falconbridge (à présent, Glencore). Nousavons mis à l’essai bon nombre de ces idées, mais elles n’ontpas abouti, pour diverses raisons. L’une d’entre elles est quela technologie de l’époque n’était pas aussi perfectionnée etrentable qu’aujourd’hui. Le refus catégorique de prendre unrisque en matière d’innovation en est une autre. » M. Howesajoute qu’avec la combinaison appropriée de technologie etde concept, il pensait pouvoir diriger une mine de façon effi-ciente au moyen d’un nouvel ensemble d’outils.

Au cours des premières années, DPM s’est concentrée sur lamise à jour de sa méthode d’exploitation minière et de soninfrastructure. Les précédents propriétaires de la mine de Che-lopech avaient eu recours au foudroyage par sous-étages surdes corps de minerai de taille relativement petite, entraînant ladilution du minerai et la formation de zones d’affaissement àla surface. DPM est passée à l’abattage par sous-niveaux plussélectif et productif et au remplissage des vides de la mineaprès l’exploitation. Outre la construction d’une rampe d’accèset le remblayage à l’aide d’un système de remblayage par pâte,le changement a permis de doubler la production, la faisantpasser d’un demi-million à un million de tonnes de minerai

En 2003, Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) a acheté la minede cuivre-or de Chelopech, en Bulgarie, pour se lancerdans l’exploitation minière à bas coût. Lorsque

Rick Howes a intégré l’entreprise en 2009 au poste de direc-teur général de la mine, il a déclaré qu’il voyait cela commeune possibilité d’investir dans le type d’innovation qu’il envi-sage depuis longtemps sur les lieux d’une mine. Aujourd’hui,les deux objectifs semblent avoir été atteints. La productionannuelle de la mine de Chelopech a pratiquement quadruplé,les coûts unitaires ont chuté et un système de gestion de laproduction en temps réel a permis de mettre en place un nou-veau modèle pour les mines souterraines.

Chelopech se trouve dans le district minier de Panagyuri-shte, au centre-ouest de la Bulgarie. Cette région contient d’im-portants dépôts sulfurés et gisements porphyriques de cuivre.Exploitée par l’état de 1954 à 1992, la mine a lutté pourdemeurer viable dans les années 1990, alors que la Bulgarie sedémocratisait et se privatisait. DPM a acquis la mine de Che-lopech après la faillite du propriétaire précédent. Il s’agit d’unemine fiable. Ses réserves prouvées et probables actuelles s’élè-vent à 2,512 millions d’onces d’or à 3,26 grammes par tonne,à 5,674 millions d’onces d’argent à 7,37 onces par tonne, et à524 millions de livres de cuivre à 0,99 %. Cependant, les nou-veaux propriétaires ont vu un besoin et une possibilité demoderniser l’exploitation.

UN MAÎTRE SOUS TERREPAR | EAVAN MOORE

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La modernisation de la mine Chelopech a découlé d’uneétroite collaboration entre l’exploitant et de grands

fournisseurs de l’équipement et de la technologie à lamine, ce qui a permis d’augmenter la capacité detraitement et de réduire les coûts d’exploitation.

AeroScout appelée MobileView et la vue en plan en niveauxd’InSite.

Un réseau de communication sans fil couvrant la quasi-totalité de la mine constitue l’épine dorsale du système. C’estce qui fait que les choses sont différentes à Chelopech. Bienque de nombreuses mines souterraines utilisent les commu-nications radio, seules quelques-unes utilisent des réseauxinformatiques sans fil. Les réseaux sans fil utilisés pour lesréseaux Internet et informatiques au bureau ou à la maisonoffrent l’avantage de faire partie de la vie quotidienne et d’êtrerelativement peu coûteux. Ils prennent en charge la voix, lavidéo et les données par l’intermédiaire de logiciels et dematériel livrables immédiatement. « Nous avons simplementrenforcé les composants pour une utilisation souterraine etmodifié une partie de la technologie pour qu’elle soit mieuxadaptée aux besoins de l’exploitation minière », indiqueM. Howes.

« Dans l’ensemble, le coût de la nouvelle technologie étaitmoins élevé que ce que nous aurait coûté le développement denotre système source existant, partiellement fonctionnel »,ajoute-t-il. DPM a acheté des composants Cisco livrablesimmédiatement et a effectué des personnalisations à l’interne,notamment l’installation d’antennes sans fil longue portée et lerenforcement des téléphones à voix sur le protocole Internet.Il a fallu entre 150 et 200 points d’accès sans fil pour obtenirune couverture complète.

Gestion du changementLe système peut sembler sans faille, mais il a fallu trois

années de travail acharné de la part de DPM et sept partenairesdifférents, y compris des fournisseurs de matériel, de logiciels,d’intégration des systèmes et de gestion de projets, pour obte-nir ce résultat. Il était essentiel que DPM collabore avec sesvendeurs de logiciels et les fonctions de consultationTrans4Mine de Sandvik pour concevoir le nouveau flux destravaux et les processus qui allaient permettre aux employés dele comprendre.

En ce qui concerne l’acceptation des innovations par lesemployés, les chefs de projet n’ont pas eu à travailler trop durpour vendre les idées. Selon M. Howes, les Bulgares sontouverts au changement. « Lorsque nous leur avons expliquéqu’il s’agissait d’utiliser plus efficacement les ressources, enleur permettant d’effectuer leur tâche plus facilement et ensupprimant certains des obstacles qui les empêchaient de réus-sir afin qu’ils soient plus performants, cette approche a étéfacile à mettre en œuvre », raconte-t-il.

Il fallait que les vendeurs se fassent confiance et coopè-rent pour définir leurs rôles. Cela n’a pas été facile audépart. « Le fait d’essayer de faire partager leurs renseigne-ments exclusifs à plusieurs parties a probablement consti-tué le plus gros défi », explique M. Howes. « Mais une foisqu’il y a eu la volonté, nous avons été en mesure d’intégrerles éléments. »

Sur le plan financier, les fournisseurs de la mine de Chelo-pech ont joué un rôle important dans le cadre du projet. DPM

par an. DPM a ensuite installé un transporteur et a placé unconcasseur au fond de la mine afin de transporter le minerai àla surface plutôt que de le transporter par camion et de l’extra-ire par puits, ce qui a permis de réduire les coûts d’exploitationd’environ 20 % et de doubler la production, à deux millionsde tonnes de minerai par an.

Dans le même temps, les employés de DPM ont comprisqu’une nouvelle méthode de gestion de leurs ressources seraitnécessaire s’ils voulaient doubler la production sans ajouter dematériel. Ainsi, en 2009, on a commencé la mise en œuvred’un plan appelé « Taking the Lid Off » (lever de rideau) à lamine de Chelopech.

Lever de rideauM. Howes a emprunté un concept du secteur de la fabrica-

tion appelé le « suivi à intervalle court », qui utilise des rensei-gnements de production en temps réel pour mettre à jour unesalle de surveillance et de commande centrale. À Chelopech,un programme directeur prévoit les activités au moins troismois à l’avance, avec la répartition hebdomadaire détaillée dela production, du soutien et des tâches d’entretien. La direc-tion établit des objectifs de production et de rendement quisont comparés aux résultats réels à intervalles courts tout aulong du quart de travail.

Un superviseur de la salle de commande utilise le logicielde gestion des quarts de travail Geovia InSite de Dassault Sys-tèmes pour visualiser un programme quart par quart pour lessept jours qui suivent. À la fin d’un quart, le superviseur de lasalle de commande et le superviseur des quarts font tous lesréglages nécessaires pour le quart suivant et attribuent lestâches. L’objectif hebdomadaire consiste à accomplir autant detravail prévu que possible. Si toutes les tâches prévues sontréalisées, les résultats de production prévus sont tous atteintsde manière durable.

Les conducteurs d’équipement reçoivent les tâches par l’in-termédiaire d’un réseau sans fil sur des tablettes, à l’aide d’unlogiciel fourni par Sandvik, le principal fournisseur d’équipe-ment minier de Chelopech. Les renseignements concernantchaque tâche comprennent le lieu, le résultat et le tempsnécessaire prévu. Le conducteur tient la salle de commandeinformée par l’intermédiaire de la tablette tout au long duquart de travail.

Les appareils Sandvik sont équipés de capteurs de santé etde production qui alertent le conducteur et la maintenance encas de mise en garde. Si une tâche ne se déroule pas commeprévu, le superviseur de la salle de commande peut se rensei-gner et prendre des mesures correctives immédiatement.

On assure le suivi des membres du personnel et de l’équi-pement au moyen d’étiquettes d’identification par radiofré-quence (RFID) AeroScout situées dans les lampes de mineurou les cabines de conduite des véhicules. Un moteur de loca-lisation de logiciel détecte leur emplacement physique en seservant de la force du signal par rapport aux points d’accèssans fil les plus proches. L’emplacement s’affiche dans deuxapplications logicielles distinctes : une application spécialisée


C H E L O P E C H | profil de projet C H E L O P E C H | profil de projet

a dépensé la somme plutôt modeste de trois millions de dollarspour son nouveau système de gestion de la production, ce quicomprend les dépenses internes et les frais des vendeurs, maischaque fournisseur a également investi ses propres fonds dansla recherche et le développement.

Par exemple, Sandvik a dû développer son système detablette à partir de zéro, selon Mike Andrews, gestionnaire desecteur d’activité pour les unités fonctionnelles d’automatisa-tion et de Trans4Mine de Sandvik. « Rick et son équipe ontrépondu à un grand nombre de besoins des utilisateurs,explique-t-il, mais il fallait développer la majeure partie dulogiciel, ainsi que le matériel pour l’accompagner. »

Sandvik a profité de l’occasion pour s’attaquer au projet.Ayant commencé à mettre au point des solutions de sur-veillance perfectionnées, la société avait besoin d’orienta-tions précises de la part d’une entreprise d’exploitationminière. En s’associant avec la mine de Chelopech, Sandvika pu concevoir sa solution en fonction des besoins de lamine. Tous les clients ne sont pas prêts à donner ce typed’orientation. « Pourtant, nous avons tant à apprendre deceux qui ont une approche visionnaire comme celle de lamine de Chelopech, déclare M. Andrews. Et cela nous estbien utile lorsqu’il s’agit d’aller de l’avant avec d’autresclients. Nous savons que nous avons conçu quelque chosequi fonctionne et dont les marchés ont besoin. » Depuis,Sandvik a présenté trois à quatre soumissions pour des sys-tèmes similaires à d’autres mines en Afrique, en Europe, enAustralie et en Amérique.

Une meilleure flottaisonLa fin de la phase mise en œuvre du lever de rideau en

2012 n’a pas mis un terme aux nouvelles idées. Au cours desdeux dernières années, les cuves de flottaison vieillissantes dela mine de Chelopech ont été remplacées par des réacteurs deflottaison étagés. Il s’agit d’une conception nouvelle qui per-met de réduire de moitié la consommation d’énergie totale, quiutilise deux fois moins d’espace au sol et qui offre unemeilleure sélectivité et des rendements supérieurs pour uncoût moins élevé que celui de l’installation d’une cuve conven-tionnelle. La mine de Chelopech a été la deuxième à installerun réacteur de flottaison étagé. La première était la mine d’orPine Cove d’Anaconda, en 2010.

Le fabricant, Woodgrove Technologies, Inc. a fondé saconception sur trois processus distincts utilisés dans ledomaine de la flottaison : la collecte des particules, la désaé-ration de la pulpe des résidus et la récupération de l’écume.Christopher Bennett, responsable du développement chezWoodgrove, explique que chacun de ces processus a besoind’un environnement différent. La collecte exige d’impor-tantes forces de cisaillement et des degrés élevés de turbu-lence, la désaération a besoin d’un environnement quiescentet la récupération de l’écume requiert un environnementquiescent à proximité du dessus de la cellule de manière àce qu’aucune force de cisaillement ne puisse crever les bullesd’écume.

Du traitement à la transformation : l’équipe de la mine Chelopech se sert desinformations en temps réel pour programmer et surveiller la production.

Offert par Dundee Precious Metals


profil de projet | C H E L O P E C H


« Il semble contreproductif d’essayer de réaliser les troisprocessus dans la même cuve », explique M. Bennett. « Nousavons donc conçu la cellule de manière à ce qu’elle soit équi-pée de trois cuves séparées et de deux réservoirs. » Un réser-voir à turbulence facilite la collecte. L’autre réservoir, composéde deux cuves, est quiescent de manière à ce que la désaérationet la récupération de l’écume puissent avoir lieu librement. Lagéométrie et le volume de chaque cuve, ou réacteur, sontadaptés à sa fonction précise. Plus important encore, la surfaceà l’intérieur de la cuve de récupération de l’écume correspondà la quantité d’écume produite.

Selon M. Bennett, l’utilisation de trois cuves dont la taillecorrespond aux fonctions comporte plusieurs avantages dif-férents. Cela permet d’optimiser l’utilisation de l’énergie, quia lieu uniquement pour la collecte et pas pour la suspensiondu sable. Cela améliore également le rendement, en grandepartie parce que la récupération de l’écume est plus efficace.Enfin, la méthode d’ajout d’air (qui fluctue plusieurs foisdans la zone de l’agitateur) réduit la quantité totale d’air uti-lisé à environ un sixième de l’utilisation d’une cellule de cuvetraditionnelle, et améliore la sélectivité en présence de miné-raux de gangue flottables, comme la pyrite à la mine de Che-lopech. Tout air en trop par rapport à la quantité nécessairepour permettre la flottaison d’espèces utiles entraînera uni-quement de l’eau dans l’écume, emportant la gangue hydro-phile avec lui.

Mise au point du produitLe produit brut de la mine est un concentré de cuivre expé-

dié à la fonderie de DPM à Tsumeb, en Namibie. Au cours dupremier semestre 2014, la mine de Chelopech a produit56 106 onces d’or, 20 millions de livres de cuivre et101 700 onces d’argent sous forme de concentré.

DPM a également réfléchi à la possibilité de construire uncircuit de récupération de la pyrite et une installation d’oxyda-tion sous pression de manière à pouvoir produire un concen-tré de pyrite, puis en extraire l’or sur place. Le circuit derécupération de la pyrite d’une valeur de 14 millions de dollarsa été construit comme prévu. Le circuit de flottaison est com-posé intégralement de réacteurs de flottaison étagés; la produc-tion de concentré a commencé début 2014 dans l’installationde fragmentation de surface existante. Mais les conditionsactuelles du marché ne justifient pas la construction de l’ins-tallation d’oxydation sous pression. Pour l’instant, la mine deChelopech vend donc son concentré de pyrite à des clients enEurope et en Chine.

Récemment, DPM a prolongé la vie de la mine de Chelo-pech jusqu’en 2025; cela offre beaucoup de temps pourmettre en place une ou deux nouvelles technologies. Maismême si la direction demeurait conservatrice à partir demaintenant, elle aura prouvé, en augmentant la production de550 000 tonnes de minerai à 2 millions de tonnes et en dimi-nuant les coûts de 66 à 40 dollars par tonne, qu’une petiteentreprise qui a une bonne idée et une bonne équipe peutfaire preuve d’innovation. ICM

Located minutes fromthe airport, SawridgeInn and ConferenceCentre is a full-service hotel that offersa complimentary shut-tle service for guests. Afull buffet breakfast isserved daily, and thehotel has a fitness cen-tre, pool and lounge.Rooms are from $165to $250. Corporaterates are available.

If you prefer some-thing quainter, ChezDube, a bed andbreakfast, is locateddowntown and isaccustomed to host-ing business trav-ellers. The chefensures a heartybreakfast greets guests

daily, along withhomemade bakedgoods. The 14-roomestablishment offersguests complimentaryYMCA passes andbicycles for tripsaround town. There’sa refrigerator in everyroom and meetingroom spaces on site.Rates are $225 Sunday

to Thursday and $205on weekends.

The Clearwater Resi-dence Hotel in Tim-berlea – known asuptown – is 20 min-utes from the city cen-tre and has everythingthe business travellerneeds. The condo-style hotel featuresone- and two-roomsuites with fullyequipped kitchens, awasher/dryer, compli-mentary breakfast andwireless network. Youcan walk to restau-rants, and grocery andconvenience stores.Rates vary from $309to $349 according toroom size. Corporaterates are available.

Complementing the region’s ethnic diversity,Fort McMurray’s downtown core is home tomulticultural cuisine. There’s a Lebanese restau-rant called Mazaj, and Nim’s Tandoor House, aHalal Indian restaurant. Japanese, Mexican andChinese options are also available.

If you’re more of a meat and potatoes person,The Keg Steakhouse and Bar is a perennialfavourite. Steaks range from $30 to $41 depend-ing on the cut. Seafood options are also availableand are priced from $29 to $49.

Located in the Radisson Hotel, Prime SocialKitchen is another top choice. The luxuriousestablishment offers a gluten-free menu andenough options to satisfy every palette, whetheryou want a steak, ranging from $31 to $39, orbeef curry, which is priced at $19. Populardishes like the signature appetizer – jalapenocheddar bombs – start at $14.


Leave early for meetings. Winter’s inclement weather and construction

during the summer make traffic delays common.

TIP

Nestled in the boreal forest of Alberta, the oil sands city of Fort McMurray is about 435kilometres northeast of Edmonton. First settled as a fur trading post in 1790, it wasrenamed in 1870 by the Hudson’s Bay Company after William McMurray, who over-

saw the area. The surrounding Wood Buffalo region is home to a multicultural population ofnearly 120,000. For the business traveller there is plenty to do outside of work hours, andthe brand new $258-million Fort McMurray International Airport is your gateway to it all.Summer in Fort McMurray means a season of festivals, community events, fishing, and out-door sports. Winter brings the chance to take in the breathtaking northern lights. But makesure you pack for -40 C temperatures.

TRAVEL Fort McMurrayBy Kiran Malik-Khan

WHERE TO STAY

WHERE TO DINE

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sand. The popular giftshop has severalregional souvenirs.

Heritage Park isaffectionately dubbedFort McMurray’s “lit-tle village locked intime.” It is operatedby the Fort McMur-ray Historical Society.Centrally locatednext to Keyano Col-lege, the park cap-tures the fur tradingbeginnings of theregion, along with thecity’s rich aboriginalheritage. The historicbuildings date fromabout 1911 to thelate-1940s.

The 594-seat KeyanoTheatre & Arts Cen-tre at Keyano Collegeis a go-to place forplays, concerts, aselection of art housemovies from theToronto InternationalFilm Festival, andcommunity events.The smaller RecitalTheatre is adjacentand can be used for more intimatepresentations.

Place, will host theNorthern Kick-Off: afour-day communitycelebration centred onan official CanadianFootball League pre-season game betweenthe Edmonton Eskimosand the SaskatchewanRoughriders.

The exhibits at the OilSands DiscoveryCentre, near the air-port, delve into thehistory, science andtechnology of the oilsands, with self-guided sections aswell as demonstra-tions of the processpatented in 1928 byKarl Clark for separat-ing bitumen from

passes are ideal forshort-term visitorswhile 10-visit punchpasses are suitable forextended stays. Busi-ness travellers canalso book meetingspaces and hospitalityservices.

Next year, visitors toMacDonald Island willhave the opportunityto enjoy the new ShellPlace, a $127-millionproject that willinclude a dedicatedbadminton centre, astadium, meeting/con-ference rooms and sev-eral other services. In June 2015, SMSEquipment Stadium,which is part of Shell

September/septembre 2014 | 73

Start your explorationof the city with theSuncor CommunityLeisure Centre onMacDonald Island,just outside of down-town. At 450,000square feet, the facilityboasts a wide range ofactivities includingrock climbing, squash,racquetball and swim-ming, and there is anindoor track. Also on

MacDonald Island,you can practise your swing at theimpressive MiskanawGolf Club, and an art gallery featureslocal and internationalexhibits year-round.

If you fancy a game ofpick-up, there areplenty of opportuni-ties – from badmintonto basketball. Day

HOW TO GET THERE

WHERE TO EXPLORE

The new Fort McMurray International Air-port opened in June 2014. Direct flights areavailable from Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary,Vancouver, and Kelowna, to name a few.

There are quite a few cab companies in townbut if you need something more formal,McMurray Airport Limo will take you wher-ever you need in style.

The city is hosting the Western Canada Summer Games next year fromAugust 7 to 16. With more than 14,000 visitors expected and numerous

venues secured for sports, look for detour information pertinent to yourplans.

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CIM community

CIM announced at its annual conven-tion in May that Ginny Flood, vice-presi-dent of Rio Tinto Canada, is the incomingpresident-elect. Before she joined Rio Tintoin 2012, Flood held senior managementpositions in the Government of Canada,working in resource development. She ison the Board of Directors for the CanadianChamber of Commerce and a member ofits executive committee. She is also anactive member of the Mining Associationof Canada and represented Rio Tinto onthe Turquoise Hill Resources Board ofDirectors from May 2013–14.

CIM: What compelled you to becomeinvolved with CIM in the presidentialcapacity?GF: My involvement with CIM started when I was at Natu-ral Resources Canada where we were working with CIM onimplementing Canada’s CSR strategy and through CIM’sinvolvement in the “Green Mining Initiative,” being led byCanMet Lab. I was always impressed with the organiza-tion’s ability to lead and seek opportunities that would ben-efit its members. Recently, I’ve been involved in discussionsrelated to the CIM Strategic Framework and see a greatopportunity to continue to grow the Institute’s alreadyimpressive reputation and to achieve its vision of becominga world-class professional development, networking andknowledge sharing organization.

CIM: What sorts of initiatives do you hope to take on as CIMpresident?GF: It is too early to identify initiatives, but areas where Ihave a passion include enhancing collaboration to ensureCIM continues to grow as a reliable source of knowledgeand expertise. I’m also very keen to raise the profile ofissues related to diversity and inclusion within the miningsector and how this contributes to best practices for sus-tainable development across the industry.

CIM: What are your passions outside of the miningindustry?GF: I’m a very active person and enjoy outdoor activitieslike gardening, hiking, fishing and kayaking on the week-ends with my husband. In addition, I’ve been an avid run-ner for over 23 years and while my training has beenlimited due to work commitments and a few injurieslately, my intent will be to run for many years to come.When time permits, mostly during holidays, I enjoy agood novel. CIM

Lors de son congrès annuel en mai, l’ICM aannoncé que Ginny Flood, vice-présidente pourle Canada à Rio Tinto, était la présidente élueentrante. Avant de se joindre à Rio Tinto en 2012,Mme Flood a occupé divers postes de hautedirection au gouvernement du Canada, dans ledomaine de la mise en valeur des ressources. Ellesiège au conseil d’administration de la Chambredu commerce du Canada et est membre ducomité exécutif. Elle est également une membreactive de l’Association minière du Canada et ellea représenté Rio Tinto au conseil d’administra-tion de Turquoise Hill Resources de mai 2013 àmai 2014.

ICM : Pourquoi étiez-vous intéressée par laprésidence de l’ICM?GF : Ma collaboration avec l’ICM a commencé

alors que j’étais en poste à Ressources naturelles Canada, dans le cadrede la mise en œuvre, avec le concours de l’ICM, de la stratégie de RSE duCanada, et suivant la participation de l’ICM à l’« Initiative Mines vertes »pilotée par CanMet Lab. J’ai toujours été impressionnée par l’aptitude del’organisation à piloter et à rechercher des initiatives susceptibles de pro-fiter à ses membres. Récemment, j’ai pris part à des discussions portantsur le cadre stratégique de l’ICM, et je vois une formidable occasion decontinuer de faire croître la réputation, déjà fort impressionnante, del’Institut et de concrétiser sa vision, qui consiste à devenir une organisa-tion de perfectionnement professionnel, de réseautage et de partage deconnaissances de calibre mondial.

ICM : Quels types d’initiatives espérez-vous prendre en charge entant que présidente de l’ICM?GF : Il est trop tôt pour définir des initiatives, mais je tiens vraiment, entreautres, à améliorer la collaboration pour assurer que l’ICM poursuive sacroissance en tant que source de connaissances et de compétencesfiable. Je souhaite également accorder une plus grande place aux ques-tions associées à la diversité et à l’inclusion au sein du secteur minier età examiner comment elles peuvent améliorer les pratiques exemplairesen matière de développement durable dans l’ensemble de l’industrie.

ICM : Quelles sont vos passions en dehors de l’industrie minière?GF : Je suis une personne très active et les fins de semaine, avecmon mari, j’aime faire des activités à l’extérieur, comme le jardi-nage, la randonnée, la pêche et le kayak. Aussi, depuis plus de 23ans, je me passionne pour la course à pied et, bien que mon entraî-nement ait été limité ces derniers temps en raison de mes engage-ments professionnels et de quelques blessures, j’ai l’intention decontinuer à courir pendant de nombreuses autres années. Quandj’ai le temps, surtout pendant les vacances, j’aime bien lire un bonroman. ICM

Ginny Flood named incoming president-elect of CIMGinny Flood, nouvelle présidente élue entrante de l’ICM

Ginny Flood, CIM incoming president-elect /Ginny Flood, présidente élue entrante de l’ICM

Hydro2014 attracts strong internationalattendance

The Hydrometallurgy 2014 Conference was held at the Vic-toria Conference Centre in June in Victoria, B.C. The confer-ence welcomed roughly 400 delegates from 34 countries. Thecrowd included everyone from students to vice-presidents ofmining companies. “I’d say typically there’s a 60-40 mix ofindustrial professionals to academics,” said Edouard Asselin,associate professor in the department of materials engineeringat the University of British Columbia and co-chair of the event.

Over the course of three days, 155 papers were presented in42 sessions on various aspects of hydrometallurgy includingextraction, recovery, separation and environmental considera-tions. Hydrometallurgy 2014 boasted plenary presentations byGeorge Demopoulos of McGill University, John Monhemius ofImperial College, Nick Hazen from Hazen Research, MikeNicol of Murdoch University and Kaixi Jian from the BeijingGeneral Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Otheractivities included an awards ceremony, luncheon, banquetkeynote and a tour of Teck operations at Trail, B.C.

“I think it was very successful,” said Asselin. “The paperspresented were high quality and we attracted people from allover the world.”

This was the seventh international conference on hydromet-allurgy. The event was hosted by the hydrometallurgy sectionof the Metallurgy and Materials Society (MetSoc) of CIM, theSociety for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) and theMinerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS). Sponsors for theevent included Barrick Gold, Hatch, Outotec, FLSmidth, TeckMetals, Air Products Canada, Hazen Research, GEA WestfaliaSeparator, Purolite, Cytec and Global Mineral Research.

This is the third time the hydrometallurgy section of MetSochas hosted the conference since becoming a co-host in 2003,along with SME and TMS. CIM


Nick Hazen, president and CEO of Hazen Research, Inc. presents a plenary speech.

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CIM opened a new branch in Ouagadougou, BurkinaFaso, the Institute announced on June 19. Ouagadougouis CIM’s second branch in Africa, after the creation of theDakar, Senegal branch in October 2012.

“If you look at Burkina Faso, they already have astrong base,” said CIM executive director Jean Vavrek.“So it just made a lot of sense, after being successful inDakar, to expand into Burkina Faso as a second location.”

The new branch is the product of CIM’s work with theCanadian Embassy at Ouagadougou, the Chambre desMines du Burkina Faso, the Alliance des Fournisseursburkinabè en biens et Services Miniers (ABSM), the Asso-ciation des femmes minières du Burkina Faso (AFMIB),the Forum de la RSE, as well as with Iamgold, Orezone,Teng Tuuma Geoservices, Ampella Mining and NantouMining. Each of the collaborators has a representative onthe branch’s executive board.

Tidiane Barry, the branch’s president and director ofcorporate affairs at Iamgold, said the branch will engagein knowledge-sharing among companies working in thecountry. They also plan to take part in already-estab-lished industry events in the area like Journées de Pro-motion Minière (PROMIN), which promotes mininginvestment in Burkina Faso. “We thought it was impor-tant to have that possibility of sharing experiences and ...good practices concerning different fields of the miningindustry,” Barry said.

CIM opens second African branchL’ICM ouvre une deuxième succursale en Afrique

L’ICM a annoncé le 19 juin qu’il a ouvert une nouvelle succursale àOuagadougou, au Burkina Faso. La succursale de Ouagadougou est ladeuxième que l’ICM inaugure en Afrique, après celle de Dakar, auSénégal, en octobre 2012.

« L’Institut a déjà une présence solide au Burkina Faso », a soulignéJean Vavrek, directeur exécutif de l’ICM. « C’était dans la logique deschoses, après l’inauguration fructueuse à Dakar, de vouloir étendre nosactivités au Burkina Faso, en ouvrant une deuxième succursale. »

La nouvelle succursale est le fruit de la collaboration de l’ICM avecl’ambassade canadienne, la Chambre des Mines du Burkina Faso, l’Al-liance des Fournisseurs burkinabè en biens et Services Miniers (ABSM),l’Association des femmes minières du Burkina Faso (AFMIB), le Forumde la RSE, de même qu’avec Iamgold , Orezone, Teng Tuuma Geoser-vices, Ampella Mining et Nantou Mining. Chacun des collaborateurs aun représentant au conseil exécutif de la succursale.

Tidiane Barry, président de la succursale et directeur des affairescorporatives à Iamgold, a affirmé que la succursale partagera desconnaissances avec les entreprises exerçant des activités dans le pays.La succursale compte également prendre part à des événements sec-toriels déjà établis dans le domaine comme les Journées de Promo-tion Minière (PROMIN), qui promeut les investissements dans lesecteur minier au Burkina Faso. « Nous pensions qu’il était importantd’avoir la possibilité de partager des expériences et... des pratiquesexemplaires dans différents domaines du secteur minier », a indiquéM. Barry.

M. Vavrek a affirmé que la succursale de Ouagadougou allait éven-tuellement organiser des symposiums, des ateliers et des conférences,

CIM community

CIM announced the opening of a new international branch in Ouagadougou at the Institute’s first symposium in Burkina Faso in June. / L’ICM a annoncé l'ouverture d'unenouvelle succursale internationale à Ouagadougou lors du premier symposium de l'Institut au Burkina Faso au mois de juin.

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CIM community

Vavrek said the Oua-gadougou branch will even-tually hold symposiums,workshops and conferences,and will help companies inthe area develop an associa-tion of suppliers and opera-tors.

Talks have been under-way since 2011 to open thesecond African branch.Vavrek said Ouagadougou isa prelude for the creation ofother branches in the area.“We expect to have four orfive branches in West Africawithin the next 12 months,”he said. “Mali’s already identified, Côte d’Ivoire, and there areothers.”

Vavrek also named China and eastern Europe as places forpotential branches in the future. CIM

et qu’elle allait aider des entre-prises de la région à établir uneassociation de fournisseurs etd’exploitants.

Les pourparlers étaient encours depuis 2011 concernantl’ouverture de la deuxième suc-cursale africaine. Selon M. Vavrek,la succursale de Ouagadougououvre la voie à l’inaugurationd’autres succursales dans larégion. « D’ici les douze pro-chains mois, nous prévoyonsexploiter quatre ou cinq succur-sales en Afrique de l’Ouest » a-t-il affirmé. « Le Mali est déjàenvisagé, tout comme la

Côte d’Ivoire, entre autres. » M. Vavrek a également mentionné la Chine et l’Europe de

l’Est comme des emplacements possibles de succursalesfutures. ICM

Book Your Next LecturerRéservez votre prochain conférencier


2014/2015CIM DISTINGUISHED LECTURERS LINE UP REVEALEDLE PROGRAMME DES ÉMINENTS CONFÉRENCIERS DE L’ICM EST DÉVOILÉ

1. BEN CHALMERS & ROSS GALLINGER MAC / RG Consulting Resource Revenue Transparency Transparence des revenus provenant de l’exploitation des ressources

2. JOSEPH RINGWALDSelwyn Resources The inevitability of “CSR”...? La « RSE » … inévitable ?

3. KEN THOMASKen Thomas & AssociatesProject Execution & Cost Escalation in the Mining Industry Réalisation de projets et augmentation des coûts dans l’industrie minière

4. JANICE ZINCK Natural Resources Canada Green Mining: An Oxymoron or an OpportunityL’exploitation minière écologique : oxymore ou opportunité

CIM DELIVERS THOUGHTLEADERSHIP

1 1 2 3 4

Tidiane Barry, president of CIM’s international branch in Ouagadougou, BurkinaFaso / Tidiane Barry, président de la nouvelle succursale internationale de l’ICM àOuagadougou, Burkina Faso

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CIM community

CIM DELIVERS

VALUE TO ITS 15,000 MEMBERSGET INVOLVED. IT’S REWARDING.Impliquez-vous. C’est valorisant.


CIM IS: OUMAR TOGUYENIRegional Vice President, West Africa, IAMGOLD

Chair of the CIM Dakar Branch in Senegal CIM Award Winner Plenary Panellist for CIM Convention 2014 Diversity Stream Chair for CIM Convention 2015 Panellist for Franco-Mine 2013 and 2014 Panellist for 1st Symposium in Ougadougou

The strength of CIM is our membership andour relevance to their professional objectives.

A night for STARS

The CIM Edmonton Branch raised $5,000 for theShock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS) at a steakand lobster fundraiser dinner in May.

The fundraiser was held at the University ofAlberta Faculty Club and hosted both silent and liveauctions. Up for grabs was a two-night stay at PredatorRidge Golf Resort, donated by former CIM presidentJim Popowich, and a set of four three-day VIP passesto the Castrol Raceway racetrack. Chuck Edwards,director of Metallurgy at AMEC and past-president ofCIM, gave the keynote speech and volunteered a ridein his Ford GT; the winning bid for the ride totalled$400. The dinner was attended by 75 guests and localCIM members.

STARS is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to rescuing people in life-threatening sit-uations in remote areas of Alberta, Saskatchewan,and Manitoba. It receives funding from local provin-cial governments and corporations, as well as dona-tions from the community.

The Edmonton branch has supported STARS in the past,specifically at the 2004 and 2008 CIM Conventions, said

Laura Joseph, the branch’s treasurer. “We like to support localcharities and be good corporate citizens in the community,”she said. CIM

CIM Edmonton Branch’s steak and lobster fundraiser dinner included a silent auction.

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Excerpts taken from abstracts in CIM Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3.To subscribe, to submit a paper or to be a peer reviewer—www.cim.org

T E C H N I C A L A B S T R AC T S

CIM journal

Prototype autonomous mine robot for underground mine mappingD. Ghosh, Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India; D. Chakravarty and B. Samanta,Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India

ABSTRACT Autonomous robots are useful for 3D under-ground mine mapping to avoid human exposure tohazardous spaces. To prepare a precise mine map, a self-nav-igating robot must navigate an arduous path, avoidingobstacles and sensing the environment. A prototype labora-tory-scale robot was built and evaluated through a mock-upin a test mine gallery. It was outfitted with a 2D laser scanner,a stereo camera for obstacle avoidance, and a high-precision,laser-based imaging and digitizing system for collecting 3Dpoint cloud data. Various algorithms were used for scanmatching to facilitate simultaneous localization of the robotfor mapping.

RÉSUMÉ Les robots autonomes sont utiles pour la cartographietridimensionnelle des mines souterraines car ils permettent d’éviterque des humains soient exposés à des espaces dangereux. Pour pré-parer une carte précise d’une mine, un robot à navigation autonomedoit naviguer un chemin ardu tout en évitant les obstacles et enanalysant l’environnement. Un prototype de robot à l’échelle labora-toire a été construit et évalué sur une maquette dans une galerieminière d’essai. Le robot était équipé d’un scanner laser bidimen-sionnel, d’une caméra stéréo pour éviter les obstacles et d’unsystème à haute précision d’imagerie laser et de numérisation pourcueillir des données de nuages de points à trois dimensions. Diversalgorithmes ont été utilisés pour apparier les balayages afin defaciliter la localisation simultanée du robot pour la cartographie.

Overestimation of oil sands mining reserve caused by an archaic algorithmL. Chunpongtong, Independent Consultant, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT The Athabasca oil sands mineable resource islocated in northeastern Alberta, Canada. In oil sands mining,the ore zone is regulated to have a minimum mining thick-ness of 3 m and a cutoff grade of 7 wt.%. The currentalgorithm that is widely used to flag ore zones and wastezones tends to overestimate oil reserves and causes low-gradeore to be processed. This paper presents the development ofa more complex algorithm that is more representative of theactual oil found during operations and that can prevent low-grade ore from being sent for processing.

RÉSUMÉ La ressource exploitable des sables bitumineux del’Athabasca est située dans le nord-est de l’Alberta, Canada. Dansl’exploitation de sables bitumineux, la zone de minerai doit avoir uneépaisseur minimale de 3 m et une teneur de coupure de 7 % (poids).L’algorithme actuellement utilisé pour signaler les zones de mineraiet les zones de stériles tend à surestimer les réserves de pétrole etainsi faire en sorte que du minerai à basse teneur est traité. Leprésent article développe un algorithme plus complexe quireprésente mieux le pétrole véritablement trouvé durant les opéra-tions; cet algorithme peut empêcher l’envoi de minerai à basseteneur au traitement.

Identification of gaso-geodynamic zones in the structure of copper ore deposits using geophysical methodsZ. Pilecki, Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland; M. Laskowski, A. Hryciuk, J. Wróbel, and E. Koziarz, KGHM Polska Mied SA O/ZG Rudna, Polkowice, Poland; E. Pilecka, Cracow University of Technology, Krakow, Poland; R. Czarny and K. Krawiec,Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland

ABSTRACT This paper concerns the identification of weakzones in the structure of a rock mass endangered by out-bursts of gases and rocks at approximately 1,200 m depth inthe Rudna copper ore mine, Poland. Geophysical recogni-tion with the aid of seismic tomography and boreholeground-penetrating radar was applied, along with geologicalengineering tests. Results showed a very strong correlationbetween the location of the zone containing gases and water,the anomalous S-wave velocity, the field of the dynamicPoisson’s ratio and, to a lesser extent, other seismic parame-ters under the geological and mining conditions considered.

RÉSUMÉ Le présent article traite de l’identification de zones de faib-lesse dans la structure d’une masse rocheuse mise en danger pardes dégagements instantanés de gaz et des coups de terrain à uneprofondeur d’environ 1200 m dans la mine de cuivre Rudna, enPologne. Une reconnaissance géophysique avec l’aide de tomogra-phie sismique et de levés géoradar lors des forages a été mise enoeuvre, en plus d’essais d’ingénierie géologique. Les résultats mon-trent une très bonne corrélation entre l’emplacement de la zonecontenant des gaz et de l’eau, la vitesse anormale de l’onde S, lechamp du coefficient dynamique de Poisson et, à une échelle moin-dre, d’autres paramètres sismiques selon les conditions géologiqueset minières considérées.


innovation showcase | product files

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RDH MINING EQUIPMENT The Muckmaster 300EB Evolution from RDH Mining Equipmentis a 1.5 to 2.3 cubic meter bucket capacity LHD powered by a Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery pack, delivering four hours of ser-vice. Development was driven by Kirkland Lake Gold in order to accessnew ore zones without having to spend millions of dollars on new ven-tilation raises. Operators prefer the Muckmaster 300EB because itprovides constant speed and power, operates cooler, and is very quiet.The battery has a high energy density, no memory effect, long cyclelife and a long application life. The unit is excellent for undergroundapplications with no diesel particulate emissions, no fuel costs, andless associated maintenance. The 300EB features a liquid cooled ACtraction drive system. Safety features include a seat switch shut downsystem that prevents inadvertent movement if the operator is notseated, a high voltage interlock that shuts down the entire systemshould any batteries or modules become disconnected and an emer-gency switch for the operator for a complete system shutdown,amongst others.

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professional directory | ad index

34 Atlantic Industries 4 Boart Longyear 38 Conveyor Components Company 7 Endress+Hauser 41 Export Development Canada (EDC) 11 Finning 39 FWS Group of Companies 16 GIW Industries 55 Graham Group. IBC Hayward Baker 9 HLS Hard-Line Solutions 15 Imperial Oil Limited 35 Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Ltd. 19 Joy Global 40 Kalenborn Abresist Corporation 43 Luff Industries Ltd. 20 McLanahan Corporation 22 Norwest Corporation 27 Orica 36 Parts HeadQuarters, Inc. 33 RDH Mining Equipment 25 Ruukki 17 Schneider-Electric 21 Sherwin Williams IFC SMS Equipment 31 SRK ConsultantsOBC SSAB 18 Stantec 29 Suncor Energy 13 Syncrude 24 Tsubaki of Canada Limited 23 WD-40 30 Wenco International Mining Systems 3 Westlund 84 Innovation showcase RDH Mining Equipment

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84 Product files Ultra Seat Corporation

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85 Professional directory KASI Technologies

BBA

PROCESSING Today, a miner’s margin for error isslim and getting slimmer. We explore how somecompanies are trimming risk by putting extra focuson understanding their ore bodies and theprocesses required to extract the value.

COPPER the essential conductor

SPECIAL REPORT: CHINAEldorado Gold’s Jinfeng operation is using BIOXtechnology to process its refractory ore

Lincang – Life in the mining hub of Yunnan province

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The history of Yukon is dominated by the Klondike, a timewhen anyone could make it big but few did. Withinseveral years, however, gold was discovered in Nome.

This prompted a new stampede to Alaska, leaving Yukon to slipinto economic depression. There was still wealth hidden in thehills, however. All that was needed was another big find – orperhaps just a wealthyAmerican entrepreneur –to revitalize the optimisticspirit of the gold rush.

John Conrad arrived inYukon with big plans, bigideas and deep pockets.Over the next few years,he arguably kept theYukon economy afloat sin-glehandedly, investingnearly $1 million (roughly$23.5 million today) into aseries of silver mines atTagish Lake near Carcross,just north of the B.C. bor-der. Like any good entre-preneur, Conrad named atown site after himself,and for a time Conrad Cityheld potential to replaceDawson City as the territory’s capital – or at least that is whatConrad was known to boast.

Conrad was born in 1855 to an aristocratic family on theirVirginia plantation. He was one of 17 children. After the CivilWar ruined the family’s wealth, 15-year-old Conrad left forMontana to join his two eldest brothers, who had set up a trad-ing post. The Conrad brothers did well in the Wild West andbuilt up a new fortune through cattle ranching, real estate,shipping, banking and mining.

Soon the younger Conrad struck out on his own, setting upa series of trading posts on the wagon trail between Fort Ben-ton, Montana, and Calgary and investing in coal mines andcattle ranching. Before long he was one of the biggest cattle-men in Montana. Conrad had a knack for success and wasgood at showing it off. The bigger the business venture, thebetter it was. He hobnobbed with army generals, Hudson’s BayCompany officials and railway magnates.

Then an economic recession came in 1893, which hit Con-rad hard. But he could not be bothered with defeat. He packedup and headed north to Alaska. Gold fever had taken the con-tinent by storm, and Conrad planned to arrive in a similarfashion. He did well, capitalizing on gold strikes all across the


state. By the time word reached him of a silver-gold-lead findnear Carcross, he had amassed enough wealth not only toinvest in the site but to finance an entire mine.

Conrad arrived in 1903 and began pouring money into thesite. He consolidated his claims in January 1905 under twoself-financed mining companies. The next order of business

was to figure out how toget the ore, which washigh up the mountainside,down to the lakeshore.

Conrad travelled toSeattle and purchased anaerial tramway system fornearly $80,000. It was anincredible expense for theday, but Conrad wasknown for his extrava-gance. His tramway wouldrise more than a kilometreabove Tagish Lake andextend for 7.5 kilometresalong the slopes of Mon-tana Mountain to transportore from the mine to theterminal by the lake. At thetime it was the most exten-sive tramway in the world.

As the tramway iron began arriving by the ton, Conrad’smen started to work the three main veins – Venus, Montanaand Big Thing – while others constructed the mine camp.

By the next season, Conrad was employing more than 500men and Conrad City was growing into a bustling town sitecomplete with six hotels, shops and twice-weekly steamboatservice to Carcross. By 1909 there were 3,000 residents. Themines were busy and the tramway was working like a charm.An adoring local paper dubbed him “Colonel Conrad.”

But Yukon’s history is one of boom and bust. Much ofMontana Mountain’s ore was of lower grade than expectedand the deposits were less extensive. Then there were thetransportation costs. Conrad took the White Pass railway tocourt for charging five times the rate of any other railway onthe continent. The legal battle took years and Conrad lost inthe end.

With the mines in financial trouble and the price of silverin decline, Conrad called it quits and, in 1912, left Yukon forgood. Much of Conrad City’s infrastructure was shipped toCarcross, which was still rebuilding after a major fire in 1909.Today the iron gridwork of Conrad’s aerial tramway still linesthe mountain above his namesake ghost town. CIM

After the gold rush: “Colonel Conrad” and Yukon’s silverBy Correy Baldwin

John Conrad built the Venus mill (above) in 1908 on Tagish Lake as part of his operations.Ore from his Venus mine was carried along Conrad’s state-of-the-art tramway to this millwhere it was processed and then shipped to the railway at Carcross.

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40 YEARS OF WEAR AND STILL LOVING ITIn the 1970s, producing bendable wear plates was a mission impossible in the minds of most steel producers. Some people at the Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB thought differently and decided to attack the issue head on.

After a fair amount of trial and error, they succeeded in producing Hardox with a unique combination of hardness and toughness. Since its introduction in 1974, the Hardox range has constantly grown thinner, thicker, harder and tougher.

Originally intended as a wear plate, Hardox became tough enough to double as a load-carrying part in applications such as containers, dump bodies and buckets. It allows for the design of structures that are wear resistant and lightweight at the same time, saving both money and the environment.

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