Last loads going up Lupin Road this week
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 11/01) - The busiest Lupin winter road season ever is winding down.
"Guaranteed, absolutely 100 per cent it will be done the 15th ... we could be closed as early as the 13th," said Kirk McLellan of Echo Bay Mines Ltd.
Full loads are still being hauled, but only at night, after the portages on the 600-kilometre road firm up with the cooler night temperatures.
The portages -- the links between the chain of lakes the road follows -- deteriorate before the lake ice.
"The north end is now closed, there's nothing moving past BHP and Diavik," McLellan said.
Open for approximately two months each year, the road is used to resupply Barren Land mines. The bulk of this year's freight was destined for the construction of the Diavik diamond mine.
As of yesterday, 7,846 loads had been hauled up weighing a total of 237,333 tons. The main remaining part of this season's haul is 50 loads of fuel destined for BHP, McLellan said.
"Within the next couple of days we should have everything up there that needed to get up there," McLellan said. "Considering when it started, I think things went pretty damn good."
The road opened Feb. 5.
