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A giant wind mill blade is transported across the winter road to the Diavik Diamond Mine. The Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto winter road is finally at full capacity thickness after weeks of partial loads due to mild weather this season. - photo courtesy Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Operators of the Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto winter road breathed a sigh of relief last week as the "lifeline" of the NWT's three diamond mines finally reached full capacity thickness.

Extended periods of unseasonably warm weather, beginning soon after the road opened Feb. 1, prompted intermittent closures and the dispatch of only partial loads along the 600-kilometre heavy-haul winter road for several weeks.

"Anytime you get extended periods of warm weather there's going to be concern," said Ron Near, director of winter road operations for the Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto joint venture. "And that's fair, but the one thing we don't have control over is the weather, although we were watching it very carefully."

Ice profiling was conducted regularly on the winter road, where the maximum weight of loads changed daily according to ice thickness.

As of last Thursday, the ice had reached 41 inches, considered thick enough to carry "full capacity" loads of up to 63,500 kilograms, or the total weight of truck and load for a Super B-Train.

Up to that point, partial loads were being shipped along the road, affecting the total amount of freight that was expected to be delivered to the mines.

Transporting cargo by air can be four to eight times more expensive per pound than by road, said Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, which is why the three joint venture partners - operators of Ekati, Diavik, and Snap Lake mines - depend on the winter road to deliver fuel and other goods that will last the whole year.

As of last week, about half of the 200,000 metric tonnes of weight expected to be moved on the road this year was shipped, Near said, adding the joint venture now expects to have all contractual requirements for freight delivered before the end of this month.

"Right now we're comfortable that we're not going to have any issue with getting all of the freight that's being planned to move on the winter road this year, getting it into the final destination," Near said. "It's a real well-run machine so even with a warm winter like we had this year, the groups such as Nuna Logistics, who are the main constructors on the road, they've done an excellent job making sure we've been able to ship as much freight as we have to date."

Ideal weather for building the winter road is a constant -25 C, Near said, whereas this season saw warmer weather around -10 C and -15 C for extended periods.

In anticipation of a cold snap at the end of February, crews were aggressively using a flooding technique to thicken the ice.

As of March 1, the ice was thick enough for even the heaviest components of the Diavik Diamond Mine wind farm, including the tower sections, which began moving over the weekend, to be shipped in three sections per 64-metre-tall tower unit.

Last year, the winter road reached full capacity earlier, on Feb. 17, and, in past years, depending on the winter temperatures, it would be as long as the end of February before reaching full ice thickness.

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