Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 06/99) - Open for an average of 65 days between January and March, the Lupin ice road offers mines a far cheaper way of shipping goods north than air transport, the only method possible the rest of the year.

Most of the trucks will be hauling diesel fuel.

The private ice road will be built by Nuna Logistics this year and co-managed by Lupin mine owner Echo Bay Mines and BHP, owner of the Ekati.

BHP's Ekati mine is at Lac de Gras, 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife. Nearby, Diavik's site is also on Lac de Gras, while Lupin mine is at the end of the 670-kilometre ice road which begins at Tibbitt Lake at the end of the Ingraham Trail.

Mark Schauerte, acting superintendent of the North Slave region for the Department of Transportation, said a meeting will be held Dec. 10 to work out details of the coming season.

He said during the last very busy ice road season, in 1997, the department had four times the usual number of patrols between Rae and Tibbitt Lake.

As a result, there was a 32 per cent increase in the number of traffic law violation prosecutions. But only five per cent of the total convictions were against transport trucks. Drivers in passenger vehicles were convicted of the remaining 95 per cent of offenses.

Mixed in with the additional truck traffic will be more Department of Transport enforcement vehicles. "If the numbers are around 4,000, like I'm hearing, we're going to pay an awful lot of extra attention," said Schauerte.

Diavik originally estimated it would have 2,400 to 2,600 round trips up the ice road this year.

But spokesperson Tom Hoefer said that estimate has been reduced to 1,200-1,300 because construction of the mine is to take place over three years instead of two.

BHP said it plans to ship 1,400 truckloads. Echo Bay Mines estimates 550 round trips to resupply Lupin mine.