Hello Yellowknife...

I'm currently in Yellowknife, NT, and I've always wanted to get up here, but I must say, that I was hoping to do this in the summer sometime, as I hear it is beautiful up there. I guess the only bonus is that it is currently colder here at home, than it is up there! :-) Regardless, this should be a great trip and I'm really looking forward to it.

The purpose of this trip is to go onsite and see first hand one of the projects I am working on, and to get some 'face time' with other people involved in this project.

The project is a 'Freeze Optimization Study' which is part of the larger Giant Mine remediation plan. The main goal of the FOS is to study different ground freezing technologies. For those that do not know, Giant Mine is located in Yellowknife, NT and it produced gold from 1948 to 1999.

The remediation project contains many facets including:
  • The clean-up of the surface project
  • Stabilization and securing of the underground project
  • The maintenance and monitoring for health and safety
See the following INAC link for more details.

During production at Giant, a byproduct of the mining process was arsenic trioxide dust.
Approximately 237,000 tonnes of the dust was produced and stored underground in 15 purpose-built chambers and mined-out stopes, which are step-like parts of the mine where minerals are extracted. The dust is about 60% arsenic. To prevent the release of arsenic into the groundwater around the mine, the Remediation Plan calls for the arsenic trioxide dust and the rock around each chamber and stope to be completely frozen.
Hence, the Freeze Optimization Study. The results of this study will be used for the environmental assessment process, and to provide information on all aspects of the operation including the power requirements, consumption, and rate of freezing. These results will not only provide information on how the various technologies might perform, but these results will be able to be compared against what was originally modeling to determine how close the modeling was to the actual results.

So how do you freeze something that is underground you ask?

Ground freezing technology is a proven method and has been around for over 30 years. Take a look at the Frozen Block Method. And here you can find a case study of ground freezing at McArthur River uranium mine

You might be wondering what sort of 'geospatial' component there is to this project...

My role in this project is managing the data collection from the sensing equipment, and providing processes and access to the data for our people to perform the required analysis. There are over 700 instruments collecting temperature and flow data at 30min intervals.

Here are a few additional links with information on the project:



Until next time,
Stay warm,

Warren

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