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Winter Ice Road Opens to Supply Canada's Diamond Mines
Feb 4, 2014 7:05 AM
By Deena Taylor
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RAPAPORT... The Diavik diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories began its annual mine resupply program and expects to transport approximately 2,700 loads of fuel, cement and other operating supplies using the winter ice road. The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Ice Road opened on January 30 with an ice thickness of 28 inches, in line with previous years. The first loads were dispatched from Yellowknife and had gross vehicle weights of up to 32,000 kilograms or about half the maximum capacity.
The Diavik, Ekati and Snap Lake diamond mines and other smaller exploration companies expect to transport approximately 7,000 loads on the winter ice road. This year is expected to be the busiest year for the ice road since 2007.
Det’on Cho Scarlet will provide full-time security on the Ingraham Trail this year. The Ingraham Trail consists of 70 kilometers of all-weather road from Yellowknife to Tibbitt Lake.
The road's joint-venture partners will not be building a secondary route at the ice road's south end this year. In another initiative, which included a detailed ice engineering study, the partners worked with the government of the Northwest Territories to implement a two-year pilot program through which special permits will be issued starting this year, allowing more weight to be carried on conventional super B fuel trucks.
The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road is the world’s longest heavy haul ice road and extends 600 kilometers when built into Nunavut. The vast majority of the road is constructed over frozen lakes that are connected by 60 land portages. Weather permitting, the ice road is open for approximately 10 weeks each winter and is a joint venture managed by the owners of Diavik, Dominon Diamond Corporation and De Beers Canada.
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Tags:
Deena Taylor, diamond mines, Diavik, winter ice road, yellowknife
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