Diamond Mines

CLIENTVarious
LOCATIONSNWT, NU
SERVICESTransportation, Waste Facilities
CONTRACT VALUE$1M Annually
SCHEDULEStart Date: 2008
End Date: Ongoing

PROJECT PROFILE

Since 2008, KBL has provided waste management services to diamond mines. Initially, we were retained by De Beers for its Snap Lake project to provide onsite technicians who would package waste materials and organize the transportation of the hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials across winter roads and brokering waste to final end receiving facilities in Alberta. In 2009, we constructed the first hazardous waste receiving facility in Canada’s north. Shortly after commissioning the facility, Diavik Diamond Mine entered into a term agreement with us for the provision of hazardous waste management services followed by Ekati Diamond Mine.

Our services include the transportation, disposal and tracking of non-hazardous and hazardous waste streams along with varying degrees of onsite services. The Ekati mine site has further utilized our technical expertise in which we have been able to drive economic efficiencies, increased health and safety considerations pertaining to hazardous materials in addition to recommending and assisting with socio-economic initiatives from the mine site.

SCOPE OF WORK

Through a performance-driven procurement process, we were awarded a multi-year contract in 2011 to provide waste management services at the Ekati mine site that expanded into additional auxiliary services. We were able to initiate year-round shipment of various waste materials by leveraging backhauls for the mine which provided an economic advantage in addition to a decrease of liability associated with storing hazardous materials on site.

Our involvement with the Ekati mine site has expanded as the mine retained our services to conduct a site-wide audit of their waste management system since 2012. We collected and analyzed information then formulated a series of recommendations aimed in providing economic efficiencies in addition to recommendations aimed to promote health and safety initiatives. Upon completion of the audit, Ekati engaged us to generate a comprehensive site-specific waste management plan and incinerator management plan. These plans were generated to ensure the compliant management of various waste streams and processes with an aim to protect employees’ health and safety while minimizing the mines impact to the environment.

In October 2012, we were awarded a contract to provide technical staffing services utilized to assist with the daily collection and management of the mine’s waste. The contract includes the provision of two experienced waste advisors and four incinerator operators. Our team was responsible for onsite waste collection, storage of the hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials, management of the incinerator operations, tracking and reporting incinerator input and output volumes, operation of the mines compost equipment in addition to arranging shipment, and disposal of any material requiring shipment offsite.

PROJECT CHALLENGES

Challenges revolved primarily on logistically complex access due to narrow marine access windows, both for the transport of supplies to site and the removal of mine generated waste over several annual sealift events.

PROJECT SUCCESS

Success included training of mine employees in waste classification, and segregation and incinerator operations. The ability to train staff in proper waste segregation onsite at the point of generation allows for backhauling of different waste streams to multiple ports, maximizing efficiencies, and resulting in decreased costs.