Erika Sherk
Northern News Services
Monday, July 16, 2007
YELLOWKNIFE - Warm winters and increasing mine activity have spurred the diamond mines to take a hard look at their ice road and start seriously considering alternatives, according to those who operate a famed winter transportation network.
ALTERNATIVES
Ice road alternatives According to Tom Hoefer, spokesperson for the Winter Road Joint Venture
Option 1: Seasonal Overland Route
150 km of road to run parallel to ice road
from Ingraham Trail to Lockhart Lake camp
to provide an alternate route to part of ice road below the tree line, which melts quickest
unpaved, snow and ice to top the road
cost still undetermined - "on the high side, $1 million per kilometre," according to Hoefer.
Option 2: Bathurst Inlet Port and Road
deep sea port at Bathurst Inlet and inland road to diamond mines
route to get base metals - iron, nickel, zinc, and copper, which come in much greater volumes than diamonds - to market
base metal prices high
way to exert Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic
would be beneficial to Nunavut
has been considered by other parties for nearly 15 years
would cost about $135 million, according to the Kitikmeot Corporation
Option 3: Hydropower
600 km of power lines from the Talston Hydroelectricity Station built in 1965 to supply Pine Point Mine
station located 56 km northeast of Fort Smith
station would need expanding to provide for mines
long-term "It would serve people for a long, long time," said Hoefer.
Cost is undetermined, but "it would be pretty expensive to do."
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The Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road - nearly 600 kilometres long - is the lifeline between Yellowknife and the mines further North.
The road over land and water is the only way to reach the mines with supplies and most vital, fuel.
This past winter, trucks carried 11,000 loads to the mines - a record high, according to Tom Hoefer. manager of external and internal affairs for the Diavik Diamond Mine, which operates the ice road through a joint venture with BHP Billiton.
However, that was a red letter year. In 2006, the ice road truckers carried only about 7,000 loads when temperatures started to melt the road much earlier than normal.
"Some warning signs hit us in 2006," said Hoefer.
The ice road's shortcomings and weather dependency was starting to become an issue, especially with the construction of a new mine - Snap Lake - coming up, said Hoefer.
The Winter Road Joint Venture sat down to think up alternatives, said Hoefer.
"We said, 'let's blue-sky it', there's nothing too crazy. Let's put them all out," he said.
Seventeen different ideas came out of the brainstorming session. From railways to hovercrafts to dirigibles, each concept was professionally analyzed to see which were the most realistic, said Hoefer.
Three options stood out as the most promising, he said.
The first is what they call a "seasonal overland route" that would run next to the ice road and make an alternate route for the portions of the ice road that melt the quickest.
The ice road would still operate, but the overland road would relieve some of the burden from it, said Hoefer.
The second option is the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road, an idea that has been in the works in Nunavut for nearly 15 years, according to Hoefer.
It was first put forth by the Kitikmeot Corporation in Cambridge Bay - a development corporation that is still spearheading an effort to have the port approved and funded. The the port and road project is a 211-kilometre all season link between Bathurst Inlet and Contowoyto Lake.
Charlie Lyall, president and chief executive officer of the Kitikmeot Corporation, said the project is currently undergoing environmental studies and he is hopeful those will be completed in the fall.
The third option is to run 600 kilometres of power lines from the Taltson Hydroelectricity Station near Fort Smith. The station was set up 42 years ago to service the now-defunct Pine Point Mine. Connecting mine sites to electric power would allow operators to replace or reduce their reliance on diesel power generation.
Each option would take four to five years to be fully operational, said Hoefer.
By 2011 there will be 12,000 to 14,000 loads traveling to the mines, said Erik Madsen, director of the winter road operations for the joint venture.
Traffic increased to 11,000 loads last year, he said, but it's unlikely the road could handle much more.
"We're almost pushing the limits of the ice road now, so to get to (12,000 to 14,000 loads) ... there's no way we could do that."
A solution has to be in place by 2011, said Madsen.
For now, the joint venture is appealing for funds from the Government of Canada.
