Canadian Mining Journal April 2019

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p u b l i c a t i o n

PURE GOLD’S

RED LAKE REVIVAL

THE

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OF WATER MANAGEMENT

APRIL 2019 | www.canadianminingjournal.com | PM # 40069240

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CANADIANMINING

APRIL 2019 VOL. 140, NO. 3

JOURNAL

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CMJ •

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CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL

FEATURES

11 Pure Gold finds untapped potential in historic Red Lake mine.

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WATER MANAGEMENT 15 CMJ looks at advances in water treatment using microbes.

20 In the wake of recent tailings dam failures, the global mining industry is taking action on tailings standards.

24 Newmont’s Briana Gunn discusses the gold miner’s approach to water stewardship.

27 Alamos Gold pioneers a new water treatment strategy at Young-Davidson.

31 Technosub describes a holistic approach to water management that takes

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cues from nature.

DEPARTMENTS 4 EDITORIAL | Brumadinho tailings disaster reverberates across

the industry.

5 UNEARTHING TRENDS | Jeff Swinoga of EY Canada on how miners can

craft a workforce strategy for the digital age.

6 CSR & MINING | Carolyn Burns and Jane Church of NetPositive

outline the benefits and challenges of taking a watershed approach to water management.

8 FAST NEWS | Updates from across the mining ecosystem.

10 LAW | Robert Mason and Alison Babbitt discuss the potential of hydrogen

technology in mining.

www.canadianminingjournal.com APRIL 2019

ABOUT THE COVER

This month’s cover supplied by GMS Mine Repair.

Coming in May Canadian Mining Journal looks at mining in the digital age. Plus a special report on mine and mill safety.

For More Information

Please visit www.canadianminingjournal.com for regular updates on what’s happening with Canadian mining companies and their personnel both here and abroad. A digital version of the magazine is also available at www.digital.canadianminingjournal.com

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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FROM THE EDITOR APRIL 2019 Vol. 140 – No. 3

Brumadinho failure reverberates across the industry Alisha Hiyate

I

n fall 2017, a report on mining tailings facilities by the United Nations and sustainability group GRID-Arendal counted 341 people that had been killed since 2008 by tailings dam failures.

On Jan. 25 this year, a tailings dam at Vale’s Feijao mine, near Brumadinho, in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, gave way. The one incident nearly doubled the death count from the tailings report, killing more than 300. (Only 206 deaths have been confirmed to date, but another 102 people are still missing.)

Less than a month after the breach, the Brazilian government announced a ban on tailings dams constructed with the “upstream” method. Both the Brumadinho failure and the 2015 Fundao failure in Brazil involved upstream dams, which are considered less stable than other types of dams.

Following the Fundao failure, Vale had committed to decommissioning all 19 of its upstream tailings dams in Brazil – all of which were inactive.

Nine had been decommissioned when the Brumadinho failure took place.

Four days after the Brumadinho disaster, Vale announced it would be speeding up the decommissioning of its 10 remaining upstream tailings dams over the next three years at a cost of $1.8 billion. The company will need to temporarily halt production at the operations where the dams are located, affecting up to 40 million tons of iron ore per year.

While there have been reports that Vale had been aware of a greater than acceptable risk of collapse at Brumadinho, the company has denied that there was any warning of an imminent risk of failure.

Beyond Brazil, the global mining industry’s reaction to the tragedy has been swift.

Shock at the devastation and loss of life, and the fact that it followed so closely after Fundao (2015) and Mount Polley (2014), has propelled industry associations, professionals and mining companies to come together to formulate a solution.

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has convened an independent review aimed at creating a set of international standards by the end of this year (see Page 20).

The standards will include a consequence-based tailings facility classification system with requirements for each level of classification; a system for credible, independent reviews of tailings facilities; and requirements for emergency planning and preparedness.

The idea is to have a consistent system that will be applied by ICMM members wherever they have operations, irrespective of the national requirements.

It is an encouraging first step to addressing an urgent problem that lies at the heart of the industry’s ability to earn a social licence, attract younger CMJ workers, and of course, its financial viability.

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MINING JOURNAL

CANADIANMINING 225 Duncan Mill Rd. Suite 320, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3K9 JOURNAL Tel. (416) 510-6789 Fax (416) 510-5138 www.canadianminingjournal.com Editor-in-Chief Alisha Hiyate 416-510-6742 ahiyate@canadianminingjournal.com Twitter: @Cdn_Mining_Jrnl

CMJ •

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News Editor Marilyn Scales CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL mscales@canadianminingjournal.com Production Manager Jessica Jubb jjubb@glacierbizinfo.com Art Director Barbara Burrows Advisory Board David Brown (Golder Associates) Michael Fox (Indigenous Community Engagement) Scott Hayne (Redpath Canada) Anthony Moreau (Iamgold) Gary Poxleitner (SRK) Manager of Product Distribution Jackie Dupuis 403-209-3507 jdupuis@jwnenergy.com Publisher & Sales Robert Seagraves 416-510-6891 rseagraves@canadianminingjournal.com Sales, Western Canada George Agelopoulos 416-510-5104 gagelopoulos@northernminer.com Toll Free Canada & U.S.A.: 1-888-502-3456 ext 2 or 43734 Circulation Toll Free Canada & U.S.A.: 1-800-387-2446 ext 3505 Group Publisher Anthony Vaccaro Established 1882

Canadian Mining Journal provides articles and information of practical use to those who work in the technical, administrative

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UNEARTHING TRENDS

Tap into the next great resource

By Jeff Swinoga

M

ining and metals organizations have taken a reactive approach to managing workforces in the past, hiring when prices rise and shedding excess resources when they fall. Not only is this costly, but it also pushes invaluable knowledge and experience to other sectors, limiting the desired talent available in times of upswing.

Technological advances are also minimizing the pool of available talent. The demand for workers who can master a different set of skills – such as data science, analytics and predictive modelling – is heating up. The challenge is that miners aren’t the only ones seeking these skills. People with these capabilities are being sought after worldwide, forcing mining companies to compete with other sectors – not just in Canada, but across the globe.

On top of all this, the mining and metals sector faces ongoing reputational risks. Health and safety issues are of mounting concern both for those considering joining the sector and for those already in it. This was evident at the BMO Global Mining & Metals conference, which highlighted a number of concerns following recent devastating tailing accidents. These events have created an urgent need for improved monitoring capabilities and global safety standards.

The reality is that the majority of the individuals who possess the skills needed for a digital mine are millennials.

Younger talent who tend to be more belief-driven consumers who want to buy and work for companies with sophisticated safety and environmental standards, and share a defined moral purpose. Unfortunately, mining companies aren’t always perceived to meet these standards.

Miners are stuck. Following low metal prices in 2018, the sector is starting to bounce back and companies will be looking to opportunistically grow their workforce. But companies will struggle to find workers who have the traditional, hands-on experience, with the right skill sets needed to succeed in a rapidly evolving industry. The sector needs an agile, resilient and affordable workforce that can thrive in an environment of both ongoing metal price volatility and digital disruption.

So where do we go from here?

Companies need to stop and think about the future and how to create a workforce strategy that will allow the organization to attract the required capabilities that are needed to grow,

APRIL 2019

while arming the existing workforce with new technological skills. It’s time for mining companies to assess the short, medium and long-term requirements for success and invest accordingly. Here are four key considerations: w Reskill through education and training. Don’t overlook the talent you have right now. As technology evolves the workforce, companies will need to reskill workers to reduce redundant or changing tasks in the future. This will help balance workforce supply and demand by attracting top talent, while retaining aging employees. w Challenge conventional resourcing and development strategies. Look beyond the mining and metals sector to find new talent. For instance, it may be easier to source planning capabilities from a manufacturing or analytics background. w Build a purpose. Develop a positive narrative by actively communicating your company’s values, mission and purpose. This will help build the credibility the sector needs to attract younger, socially-conscious talent. w Enhance workplace conditions. Use technology to build a safer, more flexible workplace for employees. For example, technologies like cloud computing, information sharing and big data are allowing more operations to be performed remotely, so that employees can be removed from hazardous on-site events.

The relationship between people, work and organizations is rapidly evolving in this digital age, and those who want to be prepared to meet future disruption need to realize that talent is their greatest resource. By developing a strategic workforce strategy, mining companies will be better positioned to forecast future supply and demand, and guide how they will attract and grow required capabilities, while reskilling the existing workforce with new skill sets.

CMJ JEFF SWINOGA is the EY Canada Mining & Metals Leader. He is based in Toronto. For more information, visit www.ey.com/ca/mining-metals.

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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CSR & MINING

A watershed approach means we have to do things differently

By Carolyn Burns & Jane Church

W

ater is a basic human right. It is central to community wellbeing. Water supports life and good health. It also supports our ecosystems and is often central to a community’s livelihood. Water can play an important role in social and spiritual connections for communities.

However, the International Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM) highlights that the global demand for water will exceed supply by 40% by 2030. Already as many as 660 million people globally are without access to an improved water source.

Water is also central to the mining process. During the exploration phase water can be diverted to allow for drilling. In construction, an area can be ‘dewatered’ as the mine is developed. In the operations phase, water is often used in the recovery process, and then treated and discharged into the environment based on legislative and company requirements. Water can also be used in cooling systems and dust suppression.

A recent report by the International Finance Corporation found that almost 70% of the mining operations from six of the largest global mining companies are located in water-stressed countries.

When mining activity takes place in water stressed areas it can become a lightening rod for concern, distrust, and in the worst case, conflict. To demonstrate just how big of an issue water is to external stakeholders, water-related issues made up almost 60% of mining cases lodged with the IFC’s Compliance Officer Ombudsman between 2000 and 2017. Several international organizations such as the 2030 Water Resource Group have identified improved water stewardship as central to a responsible mining industry and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Taking water impacts seriously requires us to take a watershed approach to understanding and mitigating those impacts.

A watershed approach (also referred to as a catchment-based approach) looks at the basic hydrology and biodiversity of a watershed as well as all the activities and impacts in the watershed, including mining, other industries, and social and cultural activities. Taking a watershed approach can have many benefits. It allows for a better understanding of short and long-term impacts, provides clarity on the drivers of water impacts, and can encourage more accountability from all stakeholders. A watershed approach can also highlight opportunities to improve and leverage current water infrastructure to improve water access and quality for all stakeholder groups, including industry.

Lastly, a watershed approach can support climate smart mining activities that can contribute to meeting global climate goals.

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MINING JOURNAL

The challenge with taking a watershed approach is that all water users must be jointly accountable for cumulative water impacts.

The CEO Water Mandate, the Alliance for Water Stewardship, and non-governmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), are promoting a watershed approach and collective action on water. This is reinforced in a 2018 paper, Water Stewardship: Attributes of Collaborative Partnerships between Mining Companies and Communities, Jocelyn Fraser and Nadja C. Kunz highlight that these groups advocate for context-based water targets that are based on science, the basin’s environmental, economic, and social needs and supports collective objectives like the SDGs. Leaders in the mining industry are also broadly supporting a watershed approach, and this is illustrated in several voluntary standards.

The Mining Association of Canada recently added the Water Stewardship Protocol to the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative, which will be phased in and reported on by 2021. The ICMM’s Water Stewardship Framework, also takes a catchment-based approach of proactive and inclusive engagement between users, transparent reporting, and innovative ways to improve efficiency and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

But, to be effective, a watershed approach requires stakeholders to do things differently.

It requires a diverse understanding about how water is valued and used. We must be open to appreciating and valuing the different meanings and uses for water and the worldviews that shape it. Because communities can be the broadest users of water (for health, livelihoods, and social and spiritual reasons) they must be at the centre of these discussions. Companies should learn about and align with local culture, history, community dynamics, and decision-making processes related to water. Communities should learn about how the industry uses water, how decisions related to water are made, and what the company’s priorities and interests are.

It requires us to share control, to work in partnership. True partnership means that stakeholders must be willing to change their behaviour, to give something up in the pursuit of broader goals, and www.canadianminingjournal.com

to challenge the status quo or current dynamics. It also means that community perspectives and knowledge related to water are included in permitting and approval processes, site design, and environmental and social assessments, and that they can influence decision-making.

Governments and government agencies can provide a platform for these discussions and can support specific programming that meets the needs of all stakeholders in a specific watershed. Participatory monitoring programs can be a good example of partnership, if the processes are transparent and information is used to address concerns.

The challenge with taking a watershed approach Is that all water users must be jointly accountable for cumulative water impacts. This has historically been difficult for industry, which has largely focused on site-based impact management which can be largely controlled by one company. There is also often an imbalance of power between water users, which makes accountability and discussion challenging.

Building relationships and the trust required to effectively collaborate on water management are important in an effective watershed approach.

It requires us to alter and adapt water management systems based on a shared understanding of the value and uses of water. Companies must also be open to adapting and testing new methods to use and treat water in the mining process. We must collectively share resources and data about water quality and quantity at a watershed level. We must collectively make and monitor commitments about water use, through collective planning Some regions are building this type of partnership watershed approach, such as the Northwest Territories, where regulatory boards, agencies, environmental organizations, the extractive industry, and the public came together to develop a strategy and action plan for addressing water risks from development.

CMJ

CAROLYN BURNS is director of operations at NetPositive, a non-profit that works with diverse stakeholders to help local communities see sustained positive outcomes from mining.

JANE CHURCH is a co-founder and director of collaboration with NetPositive.

Projects that hold water Water – you can’t operate without it. As your partner, we enable you to secure, manage and utilize every single drop. That’s an approach that holds water.

Creative and custom water management solutions for every stage of your mine’s life. stantec.com/mining

APRIL 2019

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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FAST NEWS • TRUCKS |

Updates from across the mining ecosytem

Cat 797F meets Tier 4 Final configuration

C

aterpillar’s Cat 797F large mining truck is now available in a fuel efficient configuration that meets U.S. EPA Tier 4 Final emissions standards.

Through more than 16,000 hours of successful pilot machine operation and 100,000 hours of production truck operation in Tier 4 configuration, the system has proven its ability to deliver strong performance and greater fuel efficiency compared to the Tier 2 797F in most applications.

The 797F Tier 4 Final is equipped with an exhaust after treatment system featuring selective catalytic reduction (SCR), which uses diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) to lower NOx emissions. This Cat emissions platform is proven through more than 20 million operating hours in the field. To maintain superior reliability, the 797F after treatment system uses less than 11% new content. Designed for easy serviceability with readily accessible components, the modular after treatment system is aligned with truck preventive maintenance intervals to maintain high availability.

The best-selling truck in the 363tonne size class, the 797F is powered by the 2,983-kW Cat C175-20 engine,

• GRINDING |

available with optimized fuel maps for customers focused on the lowest fuel burn, Tier 2 equivalent rating, and now Tier 4 Final. Known for delivering class-leading payload and speed-ongrade performance, the 797F delivers the same production performance in Tier 2 and Tier 4 Final configurations.

In addition, the Tier 4 Final 797F reduces total specific fluid consumption

costs (fuel plus DEF) in most applications. Lower fuel burn results in longer engine life and lower repair costs.

Field evaluations of the low emissions 797F included a wide range of applications, including oil sands, deep pit copper, iron ore and coal. The trucks exceeded production targets and demonstrated strong engine performance in all applications.

CMJ

Eriez releases white paper on trunnion magnets

E

riez has released a new white paper on trunnion magnet technology.

According to the paper, performance metrics collected through studies conducted among installations of Eriez Trunnion Magnets worldwide indicate a six-month to one-year payback when compared to trommel screen installations.

Written by Eriez director of mining and minerals processing Jose Marin, the paper explains how trunnion magnets function, highlights their performance advantages, describes retrofitting options, and provides detailed economic justification, including guidelines to 8 | CANADIAN

The new Cat 797F Tier 4 truck. CREDIT: CATERPILLAR

MINING JOURNAL

assess savings potential.

A graph illustrates how kilowatt usage can be reduced by as much as 750 kW/ day or 8%. According to the white paper, cost estimates of a typical 5.5metre diameter mill indicate savings of up to US$100,000 per year.

There are hundreds of installations of Eriez trunnion magnets worldwide.

This system for separating and removing balls, chips or scats in a typical ball/SAG mill operation replaces the dead weight of ball magnets with fresh ore. By effectively removing 80% or more of the worn or broken media, the trunnion magnet reduces power consumption

An Eriez trunnion magnet.

CREDIT: ERIEZ

from the mill drive and prevents expensive damage to other equipment, such as pumps and hydrocyclones.

To download the paper, Trunnion magnet technology delivers quick payback, visit http://EriezNews.com/ nr475.

CMJ www.canadianminingjournal.com

• TAILINGS |

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Inmarsat and Knight Piesold to deliver real-time, tailings dam monitoring

nmarsat, the world leader in global mobile satellite communications, has joined forces with Knight Piesold UK to deliver highly accurate tailings dam monitoring, analysis and real-time management capabilities for the mining industry.

The collaboration agreement with Knight Piesold UK, a member of the international geotechnical, tailings management and engineering consulting group, will combine its industry leading consultancy with Inmarsat’s satelliteenabled IoT solution. This will enable smarter decision making, improved safety standards and support regulatory compliance, offering a new approach to the way tailings dams are currently audited and managed.

Mine tailing audits are typically carried out at infrequent intervals, with employees and third-party consultants making long distance trips to collect data and audit the status of the dam. The solution makes data available between site visits to any accred-

ing companies only need one technology partner to manage all of their remote tailings requirements, anywhere in the world. The solution will be available to all of Knight Piesold’s clients immediately.

Richard Elmer, regional manager for Knight Piesold UK, said: “Our collaboration with Inmarsat provides our clients access to the latest and best available technology for real-time data collection and analysis. We see this as a game changing improvement in how companies monitor their current tailings storage facilities.”

Paul Gudonis, president of Inmarsat Enterprise, said: “We have been working with Knight Piesold’s UK practice since 2017 to develop an approach to tailings dam monitoring that supports smarter, safer and more regulated mining practices. Following successful trials, we are pleased to be able to bring what we believe to be a truly disruptive solution to market.”

CMJ

ited users, anywhere in the world. This means that current, on-site auditing practices can now be supplemented with a remote, customizable, daily management cycle, with auditor recommendations and real-time decision making now available to on-site engineers.

Inmarsat’s solution collects data from a range of industry standard sensors via edge connectivity such as LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network), before it is transferred across Inmarsat’s L-band satellite network to a single cloud dashboard. This enables mining companies and national regulators to gain a comprehensive view of the status of their dams with granular metrics such as pond elevation, piezometric pressures, inclinometer readings and weather conditions displayed in one place, no matter where the mine is located. The solution is also highly versatile and features sensoragnostic capabilities.

Working with Inmarsat means min-

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CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

9

LAW

The mining industry propelled by hydrogen: a clean future is near

By Robert Mason and Alison Babbitt

C

limate change and environmental sustainability have increasingly become issues of social concern, and many industries have been looking for opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint.

One such opportunity may be the use of hydrogen technologies, which many believe can play a crucial role in the global energy market’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

Current hydrogen technologies could be employed to improve environmental sustainability at a mine site. Here’s how:

Energy production and storage Hydrogen technologies can offer a high percentage of conversion efficiencies, meaning significant savings in electricity costs and decreased CO2 emissions due to reduced reliance on diesel.

Once aspirational, conversion efficiencies will continue to increase as this industry grows and R&D continues. In addition to improving site efficiency and reliability, the storage system can help to balance seasonal variations, save costs by deploying energy during peak hours and provide a secondary commodity that may be sold, including during a temporary mine closure or at the end of mine life.

Fuel cell electric vehicles Another opportunity to implement hydrogen at a mining site is by replacing heavy-haul diesel or gasoline trucks with fuel cell electric vehicles that run on hydrogen gas. Recent larger hydrogen applications in heavy machinery by companies such as Alstom and Nikola Corp. demonstrate the industry’s progression towards developing FCEVs in heavy-duty trucks that have the potential to yield horsepower. Hydrogen-powered mining equipment and vehicles are currently used by various mines in North America, and their use will increase as the technology is refined. With the global Hydrogen Council recently projecting that hydrogen is expected to contribute to 20% of carbon emissions reduction targets by 2050, using such FCEVs on a large mining site could go a long way in implementing and meeting the sustainability goals of such projects.

Hydrogen implementation challenges Hydrogen’s large-scale implementation faces roadblocks in terms of cost competitiveness and accessibility.

Technologies can only prove to be successful if they are implemented. Mine operators are experienced and comfortable in meeting financial and operational goals with current 10 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

tools and technologies.

Without a solid and convincing business case for hydrogen, and the knowledge and impetus to consider a change, operators may have serious reservations about changing their working approach. At ground level, and particularly for the more junior operations, implementing hydrogen FCEVs and hydrogen power generation and storage would likely interrupt daily operations and require significant initial investment that might not yield the desired returns in the short term.

The most significant challenge to implementation at present seems to be the lack of cost-competitiveness in hydrogen technologies. However, it may be that with more R&D, hydrogen technologies could become more accessible and affordable.

Sustainable financing Sustainability-linked loans allow borrowers to reduce their interest rates over time after achieving various environmental milestones. Mine projects are under increasing pressure from equity investors and debt providers to meet robust environmental, social and governance standards.

Could mine developers be incentivized by their lenders to employ hydrogen technologies to help achieve certain specified sustainability standards, which in turn could result in meaningful reductions in the cost of borrowing? Could mining companies employ such sustainable financing to offset the onerous initial investments necessary to implement hydrogen technologies on site? In this respect, sustainable milestones could include target ratios of FCEVs used on site relative to those using diesel or gasoline engines, as well as targets for reductions in the site’s overall carbon emissions.

As Canada’s interest in hydrogen technologies grows, those involved in the mining industry may benefit through awareness of hydrogen’s potential to achieve these sustainability goals.

Knowledge of sustainable finance options will likely become progressively relevant to lawyers active in the industry as mines increasingly face pressure to reduce their environmental footprint or risk losing their social licence to operate. Legal professionals should harness this opportunity to suggest innovative solutions to mitigate these challenges of integration, including CMJ sustainable financing and lending.

ROBERT MASON is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright and ALISON BABBITT is of counsel.

The authors would like to thank Meaghan Farrell, articling student, for her assistance in writing this article.

www.canadianminingjournal.com

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Pure Gold finds Madsen’s untapped potential

Twin studies outline ‘starter mine’ plus blueprint for expansion

By Alisha Hiyate

I

t’s still lean times for junior miners looking for funding to build the next mine, but since it released its first preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Madsen project three years ago, Pure Gold Mining has been putting together a compelling portrait of a low-cost, scalable, and near-term mine.

The latest pieces of the picture come from complementary economic studies released early this year.

Pure Gold Mining’s Madsen property in Red Lake, Ont. CREDIT: PURE GOLD MINING

APRIL 2019

A February feasibility study outlined a capex of $95-million for the past-producing underground project, in Red Lake, Ont., with a 12-year mine life and average production of 80,000 oz. per year.

“At $95 million it is one of the most capital efficient projects out there,” says president and CEO Darin Labrenz. “It’s a significant amount of money, but from a mining perspective it’s pretty small relative to our peers.”

The low capex does seem to be tailored to today’s tough mining capital market.

But the most compelling aspect of the project is the potential that the feasibility is just the beginning of something bigger.

Shortly after it released the study, Pure Gold also released an initial PEA for several satellite deposits near Madsen that, together, could add 3.7 years of mine life and total production of 210,000 oz. gold.

Labrenz says the studies show the phased development plan that Pure Gold has put together: the feasibility outlines a “starter mine” at Madsen with a robust mine plan and lowest in class capital, and the PEA lays out a blueprint for expansion.

“The PEA is really meant to show the potential for not only a mine life extension, but an opportunity for us to start CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Hauling ore to surface during last year’s test mining program at Madsen. CREDIT: PURE GOLD MINING

looking at ways to impact the production profile moving forward,” he says.

Madsen history Being located in the prolific and high-grade Red Lake gold camp, it’s perhaps not surprising that Madsen was a profitable, operating mine for 36 consecutive years.

Between 1938 and 1976, it produced 2.5 million oz. of gold at an average grade of 9.9 g/t gold. It was mined down to 1,200 metres, but without much systematic exploration, the miners ended up chasing the orebody far from the shaft, with mining of the Austen zone ending up about 2.5 km away from the headframe.

Junior Claude Resources put the mine back into production briefly in the late 1990s. A combination of low gold prices, high mining costs (its contract miners were paid by the tonne), and a lack of exploration led them to put it on care and maintenance in 1999.

Pure Gold’s approach, since acquiring the property in 2014, has been more methodical, prioritizing exploration and a solid geological understanding of Madsen above a quick push to production. The first thing the team did was to digitize all existing data for Madsen, including underground mapping, mined stope shape and drill hole data.

“All those records were in paper format so there wasn’t a really strong understanding of the deposit itself,” Labrenz says.

That data, combined with over 200,000 metres of drilling that Pure Gold has conducted over the past three years, have yielded 12 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

insights about the geology and Madsen’s potential. Previously, Madsen was seen as a stratabound, disseminated replacement style deposit, different from the other Red Lake deposits, which are structurally controlled.

“Our work demonstrated that it is a structurally controlled deposit, exactly the same as every other deposit, and once you recognize that structural control it allowed us to step out and test it,” Labrenz says.

That understanding allowed Pure Gold to grow resources at Madsen and led to the discovery of the Wedge deposit, 3 km south of Madsen, in early 2018. In a very short period of time, the company has been able to compile a resource at Wedge and bring it into the recent PEA. Results from a test mining program at Madsen last year have backed up Pure Gold’s geological model. More than 7,000 tonnes of material were collected and stockpiled and 1,555 muck samples were assayed. Two stopes were developed, based on stope shapes from a previous PEA. “When we reconciled those two stopes back to the resource model we were within 1% on tonne, and our grade was 15% higher so we overachieved by 14%,” Labrenz says, adding the grade was 10.9 g/t. “The test mining was done with fantastic ground conditions, very little dilution, and an average mining width of 5.3 metres and so we were quite pleased with the results of the test mining and the reconciliation we saw.”

The company plans to use a mixture of conventional cut and fill (59%), mechanized cut and fill (16%), and longhole mining (25%) methods. www.canadianminingjournal.com

BATTERY POWER

ENGINEERED FOR LIFE UNDERGROUND.

High-grade ore from test mining stored underground. CREDIT: PURE GOLD

Study details The economics of the project are strong. At a base case of US$1,275 per oz., the study projected an after-tax NPV of $247 million (using a 5% discount rate) and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 36%. Total cash costs are expected to be US$607 per oz. gold with an AISC of US$787 per oz.

Probable reserves contained in the Austin, 8 zone, South Austin, McVeigh and A3 zones at Madsen total 3.5 million tonnes grading 9 g/t for 1 million oz. gold.

(Indicated resources at Madsen are 7.2 million tonnes grading 8.9 g/t gold for 2.1 million oz.; inferred resources are1.9 million tonnes grading 7.7 g/t gold for 467,000 oz.)

The feasibility study projects Madsen could be up and running in a short 13 months, once a production decision is made.

With the wealth of existing infrastructure, the major costs would be an expansion of the mill to 800 t/d from 550 (including a new ball mill and the installation of a gravity circuit to take advantage of the simple metallurgy of the ore), and a new water treatment plant.

The water treatment plant is needed based on changes in regulations since Madsen was last permitted in the 1990s and on new water quality information collected as part of the feasibility study.

While the capex is significantly higher than the $51 million that was projected in a PEA released in September 2017, the higher capex has to do with an increase in tonnage to 800 t/d from 600 t/d (the current plant can handle more than the

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APRIL 2019

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

13

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Scenes from last year’s test mining program at Madsen.

CREDIT: PURE GOLD MINING

550 t/d it was designed for), as well as a move to owner operated mining from contract mining (which will make more equipment purchases necessary).

A third change is that the company will now put in a new hoist in order to use the 1,275-metre existing shaft to move ore and waste rather than the ramp starting in the third year of operations.

“Battery technology today wouldn’t allow us to move from the deep parts of the mine to surface, so it didn’t make sense in the PEA,” Labrenz says. “But with the hoist being introduced and the shaft being used, it allows us to use all battery operated equipment and thus reduce that footprint and ventilation requirement.”

Madsen is still permitted as a mine, though some permits need to be amended.

“There’s no expectation of environmental assessment, it’s a brownfield site and it’s permitted,” Labrenz said. “The feasibility plan uses the same tailings footprint, the plant throughput is lower than the 1,089 tonnes per day in the current (mill) permit ,so we don’t see any triggers on the EA side. This is strictly a regulatory process.”

As for the satellite deposits, Wedge, Russet South and Fork, the recent PEA looked at developing them as a mine life extension to Madsen. The study projected that mining the deposits would cost $57 million and yield an after-tax IRR of 39% using existing infrastructure.

The deposits host combined indicated resources of 7.2 million indicated tonnes grading 8.9 g/t gold for 2 million oz. and 1.9 million inferred tonnes grading 7.7 g/t for 467,000 oz.

14 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

Next steps Now that the feasibility and PEA studies are completed, Pure Gold is focused on two things: getting the cash to build Madsen, and continuing to grow the project through further exploration.

Labrenz points out there are few gold projects out there with the type of grade that Madsen boasts, something that should be a sell on the financing side. The company’s largest shareholders include Anglogold Ashanti, which last year increased its holding to 14.9% of Pure Gold’s outstanding shares.

On the exploration side, vice-president of exploration Phil Smerchanski has put together an exploration program and budget for 2019, which at press time, was before the board for approval. The Madsen deposit can be traced for over 5 km of strike length, leaving lots of scope for new discoveries in addition to growing existing resources.

“That’s one of the keys for our project moving forward is the tremendous exploration upside that we see,” Labrenz says.

The company is also targeting Madsen’s high-grade 8-Zone, which boasts grades in the range of 20 g/t gold.

“We’ve relogged all the core in that area, we have a model for how that may be repeated up towards surface, so we have a plan for testing that,” Labrenz says.

While it’s been “full speed ahead” for the past three years, the bigger picture at Madsen is just emerging.

“We think we’re in a really strong position to move forward,” Labrenz says. “I would argue that we are the future of Red Lake.”

CMJ www.canadianminingjournal.com

WATER MANAGEMENT

Professor Lesley Warren (left) and her colleagues are mining the genomes of microbes that thrive in wastewater generated by the resource extraction industry. COURTESY: LESLEY WARREN

GENOMICS APPLICATIONS to wastewater start proving their worth

By Virginia Heffernan

I

nitiatives to replace chemicals with naturally occurring microbes in mine wastewater treatment are improving as researchers get a handle on how bugs thrive in situ.

“Tailings and wastewater are biologi-

APRIL 2019

cally reactive because they contain a lot of materials and elements that are energy drivers for bugs, so there are lots of bugs that are happy to live in these environments, but we don’t really now how they operate – what are the drivers, what are the controls and what are the outcomes?” says Professor Lesley Warren, who holds

the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Chair in Mineral Engineering and is director of the Lassonde Institute of Mining at the University of Toronto.

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), the acidic metal-rich water formed when air and water react with rock containing sulphur, CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

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WATER MANAGEMENT

is an ongoing risk to streams, rivers, lakes and aquatic life worldwide. As water becomes more acidic, it can leach other metals out of the rock, causing additional toxicity if not properly managed.

Warren and her team are focusing on bacteria that transform those sulphur compounds. Depending on the type of bacteria and the environmental conditions, bugs can either amplify or reduce contamination, so understanding how they operate at various temperatures with different rock types is essential to harnessing their power.

That’s where genomics comes in.

Microbes that live in wastewater are difficult to grow in the lab, but new technology (metagenomics) has allowed Warren and her team to extract and sequence DNA from microbes to determine their lineage. Some bugs may carry the gene for sulphur oxidation, for instance, while others may prefer to dine on nitrates.

Just over two years after receiving $3.7 million in funding from Genome Canada, her team – co-led by Dr. Jillian Banfield of University of California, Berkeley – is making some breakthroughs. “This technology is profoundly altering our ability to interrogate these bugs in widespread mining environments,” Warren says.

Her research is taking place at Canadian mines including Hudbay Mineral’s 777 copper-zinc mine and Anderson tailings facility in northern Manitoba, Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (INO) in northern Ontario and Rambler Metals and Mining’s Baie Verte copper mine in Newfoundland. The team has collected more than 300 samples at different points within these wastewater systems during different seasons.

Even though the mines vary widely in terms of their ore types and how long they have been in operation, one genus of bacteria - Halothiobacillus - shows up consistently in the samples from every mine. Just as significantly, the microbes differ from the sulphur-metabolizing bacteria that normally colonize waste rock sites, likely because tailings ponds have much more complex biogeochemistry than is widely recognized.

“This genus appears to be widespread and likely plays a similar role across 16 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

mine wastewaters,” says Warren. “Once we understand the bugs in these systems and what are they are capable of doing, then we can promote or prevent biologically important reactions by knowing which levers we need to press to make that happen.”

Having this biological knowledge base also enables predictive modelling of what may occur in the wastewater system and improves monitoring tools.

During their research, Warren’s team has discovered that conventional analysis of wastewater at commercial labs fails to capture all of the reactive sulphur, so mines may be underestimating their sulphur risk. Labs also use different methods, so there is no consistency in results from mine to mine. Warren is proposing a new methodology that will introduce universality and allow mines to fully constrain the sulphur in their waters.

Teck taps microbes at Elkview Biological solutions for treating mining wastewater at also being developed by industry and Teck is emerging as a leader this regard. The company has successfully

Lesley Warren (standing, at right) conducting field research. COURTESY: LESLEY WARREN

piloted a new method of removing selenium and nitrate from the mine water at its Elkview steelmaking coal mine in British Columbia. The method uses Saturated Rock Fills (SRF), and is currently treating up to 10 million litres of water per day from the mine using naturally occurring biological processes.

Teck commissioned the SRF facility in 2018 on a previously mined pit that had been backfilled with rock and flooded with water, using nutrients such as methanol and phosphoric acid to accelerate microbial activity and contaminant removal.

Capital and operating costs are 20% and 50%, respectively, of conventional techniques with similar capacity because there is no need to build a plant and the fill can be expanded quickly if necessary. The company is currently focusing on using the technology in the Elk Valley where the need is most immediate but has not ruled out using the new treatment method elsewhere in its portfolio of mines. www.canadianminingjournal.com

One of Teck’s steelmaking coal operations in B.C.’s Elk Valley.

CREDIT: TECK

“Microbes are widely used to treat mine wastewater but the difference with SRF is that the treatment isn’t happening in tanks, it’s happening in the natural environment,” says Rob Klein, Senior Engineer of Water Quality Management Projects at Teck. “It has a much smaller environmental footprint and that’s why I get excited about it. There is much less energy going into it and there are fewer chemicals that we have to add to the process. And there is no waste to manage afterward.”

The SRF initiative is one component of Teck’s Elk Valley water quality plan approved by the British Columbia government in 2014. The plan is a long-term approach to addressing the management of selenium and other substances released by steelmaking coal mining and affecting the water quality and aquatic life throughout the Elk Valley watershed. Teck owns five large open-pit steelmaking coal mines in the valley and has inherited a legacy of waste rock from more than a century of coal mining there.

The $850-$900 million five-year plan (2018 – 2022) also includes an active water treatment facility at the West Line Creek operation that treats up to 7.5 million litres of water per day, reducing selenium concentrations by about 96% and nitrate concentrations by 99%, and a similar facility being built at the Fording River operation. As for research and development, Teck has several projects underway to better control the release of contaminants at source and to develop new water treatment methods.

APRIL 2019

Active treatment, where wastewater is collected and then chemically treated, is expensive and labour intensive, so the development of an effective treatment in situ is a leap forward. If Teck can permit more SRF projects to replace the upcoming active water treatment plants in the Elk Valley, the company estimates that

total capital spending on water treatment could drop to $600-650 million during the five year period.

“Teck had enough understanding in terms of the linkage between opportunities around using bacteria to treat wastewater and potential outcomes to set up full scale treatment and see what happened,” says Warren of Teck’s SRF pilot.

“That starts to open the door for industry because it’s no longer just someone working in a lab with a beaker.”

As for Warren and her team, they will be setting up a test pond at Glencore’s Sudbury INO this summer to test the their hypotheses about potentially useful biological indicators and to see if they can predict and promote reactions, both good and bad.

“The application of genomics in industry is profoundly important and it will lead to new ideas about how to manage waste and wastewater much more sucCMJ cessfully,” she predicts.

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BRUMADINHO DISASTER PROVES A TIPPING POINT FOR TAILINGS MANAGEMENT I

f there is one good thing to come out of the Brumadinho tragedy in Brazil, it’s that it has shocked an entire industry into taking action.

The tailings dam failure, which occurred at a Vale mine in Brazil on Jan. 25, killed more than 300 people – most Vale employees – and released 12 million cubic metres of tailings.

The failure occurred only three years after the Fundao (Vale and BHP Billiton) dam disaster in Brazil, which killed 19 people, and four years after the Mount Polley (Imperial Metals) failure in British Columbia, which thankfully, did not result in any casualties.

The loss of life in the latest incident, combined with the disturbing frequency of tailings dam failures in recent years, has galvanized the industry.

In late February, the UK-based International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) announced a process to create an international standard for tailings dams. And in early March, the Global Mineral Professionals Alliance (GMPA), an international group that includes the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and the Society for Mining, Met20 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

allurgy and Exploration, announced its own Global Action on Tailings initiative.

Tom Butler, ICMM’s CEO, says the ICMM initiative, which has the unanimous support of council, was agreed to at an extraordinary meeting of member CEOs in February called in response to the Brumadinho failure.

“Our members recognized it was an incident that requires an extraordinary response and we needed to come up with a response that would result in a step change in how we approach and manage these facilities.”

The ICMM standard, which will be defined by an independent panel of experts, is expected to include a consequence-based tailings facility classification system with requirements for each level of classification; a system for credible, independent reviews of tailings facilities; and requirements for emergency planning and preparedness.

This standard, which would provide a baseline for best practice and verification for tailings facilities, would be adopted by ICMM members and then hopefully also by the rest of the global mining industry, Butler said. www.canadianminingjournal.com

Our members recognized that (Brumadinho) was an incident that requires an extraordinary response, and we needed to come up with a response that would result in a step change in how we approach and manage these facilities.

–TOM BUTLER, CEO OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON MINING AND METALS (ICMM)

“The idea here is to have a system which is also being applied across different countries by ICMM members. And that’s with a view to giving confidence to external stakeholder that there is a consistent system being applied irrespective of the national requirements.”

Butler says a lot of pressure has been coming from investors.

“From an investor’s point of view, it’s very difficult for them to understand what’s going on because the systems applied by companies vary from company to company and then the systems applied by countries vary from country to country,” Butler says. “And we’re dealing with global mining companies that have operations all over the world. A lot of pressure has been coming from investors who have realized just how difficult it is to assess what companies are managing and how they’re managing them.”

Butler says the group is aiming to have the review completed and recommendations laid out by the end of the year, a timeline he says is ambitious but achievable.

“We’re not going to start from zero,” Butler says. “There is a body of existing good practices and best practice around the APRIL 2019

Left: Some of the damage done by the Brumadinho tailings dam breach in Minas Gerais, Brazil. CREDIT: TV NBR Above: Firemen returning following a search at Vale’s Corrego do Feijao operation, in Brumadinho after a devastating tailings dam breach this year.

CREDIT: SAMUEL CHAHOUD, ISTOCKIMAGES.COM

world,” he said, including from Canada (Mining Association of Canada), and Australia.

“We’re certainly not going to try to reinvent the wheel but what we are going to do is try to pick best practice from around the world and put that together into something which would become a standard for implementation by our members.”

The collaborative nature of the effort is important, says Charles Dumaresq, vice-president of science and environmental management with the Mining Association of Canada (MAC).

Aside from ICMM and the GMPA, the Canadian Dam Association and the International Commission on Large Dams

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

21

WATER MANAGEMENT (ICOLD) have also been active in working on parts of the tailings construction, management and inspection puzzle.

“A number of people have identified that perhaps the worst possible outcome would be at the international level, to have conflicting sets of guidance from different organizations that are the same in concept but different in detail, or maybe emphasize different areas, and people are left wondering, ‘which one do I follow?’” says Dumaresq, who oversaw the recent revisions to MAC’s Tailing Guide and its Operation, Maintenance and Surveillance (OMS) Guide.

“If ultimately these various international pieces end up being disjointed it will be potentially quite confusing and that can make it less helpful rather than more so.”

Types of sequentially raised tailings dams

Previous review MAC is an affiliate member of ICMM and was present at recent ICMM meetings to discuss the initiative. Their tailings documents were also circulated to members ahead of the meeting.

ICMM, whose members include many of the world’s largest international mining companies, including Vale and BHP, made a similar announcement after the Fundao dam failure in late 2015. The difference between the guidelines that came out of that process and what ICMM intends to do this time is that the first was a high-level governance framework while the new standard will lay out in a lot more detail what is best practice for the management of these facilities.

“One of the things we’ve realized from this incident in Brazil is that the governance framework that we put in place was very high level,” Butler says. “It basically outlines the key components of a tailings management policy and procedure but it didn’t go into specifics so it left a lot of flexibility for individual members to implement a system in accordance with the governance framework. I think what we’re moving toward is something more specific.”

He elaborates: “The governance framework said you’ve got to have proper accountability, external assurance, a proper change management procedure in place, but it didn’t lay out in detail what those different elements might look like if they were being done very well.”

Bryan Ulrich, a vice-president in Stantec’s mining practice and an authority on tailings storage and disposal, welcomes the ICMM effort to put together international standards as currently, standards vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

“Many mining companies have developed their own minimum standards for TSF (tailings storage facility) design,” Ulrich said in response to emailed questions.

“And of course, there are the very useful documents that were developed by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and the Canadian Dams Association (CDA). The MAC and CDA guidance is used in many mine sites, globally, and almost universally when the mine owner is a Canadian company. Having a global standard from ICMM will be a great advancement.”

Ulrich points to the Cyanide Code, a similar voluntary program that member companies that produce gold and silver have committed to and that has yielded operational and environmental improvements.

An illustration of the types of tailings dams used in mining. Brazil’s government banned upstream dams after the recent Brumadinho failure.

22 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

Upstream

Downstream

Centreline

Starter dyke: 1 The dam design terms, upstream, downstream and centreline, indicate the direction in which the embankment crest moves in relation to the starter dyke at the base of the embankment wall.

Dyke: 2 to 4 or more Dykes are added to raise the dam wall.

This continues throughout the operation of the mine.

CREDIT:KRISTINA THYGESEN/GRID ARENDAL

Preventing failures While the causes of any tailings dam failure are unique and complex, there are some commonalities between incidents.

Tailings is a waste “One of the recurring themes product and it is around the human factors that are involved,” says MAC’s is common for Dumaresq. “The decisions that producers to want get made – whether they’re to reduce the cost made with the fullest inforof waste storage to mation, whether they’re made the lowest practical at the right level within the limit. I think there organization, the communicais likely to be a shift tion breakdowns, assumptions in focus to spending that get made – things like that.

“We’re human, we somethe right amount of times make mistakes, we all money rather than have our own biases,” he adds. the least amount.

“You can never eliminate that, but how can you design a system – BRYAN ULRICH, that puts in the kinds of checks MINING VP AT STANTEC and balances to help manage the risk of those human errors?”

Dumaresq notes that this is one of the strengths of MAC’s OMS guide and any other systematic approach to tailings management that put checks and balances in place to mitigate the risk of human errors and biases.

In terms of easier, near-term actions the industry can take to prevent catastrophic failures, Ulrich says miners need to shift the focus from the lowest-cost tailings storage options to de-risking their projects.

“Tailings is a waste product, and it is common for many producers to want to reduce the cost of waste storage to the lowest practical limit, which is beneficial to their bottom line and for their shareholders,” he notes. “I think that there is likely to be www.canadianminingjournal.com

a shift in focus to spending the right amount of money, rather than the least amount of money. Rather than deferring capital expenditure, the focus should be on de-risking projects.”

He adds: “The solution, I believe, will be to have improved, risk-informed designs rather than solutions that centre on net present value-driven economics and factors of safety.”

Another way to reduce risk is through the engagement of an engineer of record (EoR), who should be involved in design, construction and operations of the tailings facility.

“Ideally, the EoR should have a long-term engagement, and should be the continuity person, maintaining institutional knowledge when personnel at the mine move,” Ulrich says.

Reducing water and waste A big focus in tailings and processing technology is in reducing the amount of water stored in tailings facilities. For instance, great advances are being made in the volumes of material that filtered tailings (or dry stack) technology can handle from a around 6,500 t/d to tenfold that amount, Ulrich says.

“The equipment manufacturers are making tremendous strides in these technologies by making larger filters, and decreasing the ‘squeeze’ time for each filter,” he explains. “Given the various benefits of using filtered tailings, coupled with decreasing capital and operating costs of the technology, I expect to see filtered tailings operations growing considerably in use.”

NAMVS 1/2 page ad.qxp_Layout 1 2019-03-15 11:08 AM Page 1

That said, Ulrich adds that filtered tailings is not a cure-all, and there really is no one-size-fits-all technology for tailings.

“Each project should be designed based on its own unique set of requirements, constraints and opportunities.”

Filtered tailings can also still pose chemical risks that need to be addressed.

There are also sites that reduce the amount of water not dramatically, but enough that the tailings behave differently and tailings facilities can be designed in a different way, Dumaresq says.

In the longer term, there are many R&D projects under way examining the reduction of waste earlier in the mining process and ultimately, the elimination of waste entirely.

“We begin to produce tailings at the rock face,” Dumaresq says. “The first step in producing tailings is breaking rock to extract it – are there different ways that we can break rock, or sort the rock to get better feed going to mill in the first place?”

While some aspects of the tailings issue will take longer to tackle, it’s essential to capitalize on the intense focus on the topic because of Brumadinho, says Dumaresq, so the industry can make headway towards making potentially transformational changes before that spotlight fades.

“The positive that comes from these tragedies is that it gets people talking and creates an environment where we can push towards bigger changes that might be harder to get if it wasn’t for this level of attention,” Dumaresq says.

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WATER MANAGEMENT

NEWMONT DETAILS ITS APPROACH TO WATER STEWARDSHIP A Q&A with Newmont’s director of Environmental Affairs, Briana Gunn Newmont Mining is one of the world’s largest gold miners and one of the companies participating in the first ever Water in Mining conference in Toronto, April 9-10. Ahead of the conference, CMJ took the opportunity to find out more about Newmont’s commitments to water and sustainability in an email-conducted interview with the company’s director of Environmental Affairs, Sustainability and External Relations, Briana Gunn.

CMJ:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your history with Newmont Mining, and working in the area of sustainability in mining?

As part of the Newmont team, I have been able to collaborate across industries, building relationships to promote sustainability and corporate responsibility.

I hold a bachelors and a masBriana Gunn: ter’s degree in civil engineering and have focused my career on the development of strategies CMJ: for operating and closed mines that support sustainability and manage risk. I joined Newmont Mining in July 2017 following my initial 16 years in environmental consulting industry. At this point in my career, I wanted to work for an organization that has a value underpinned in sustainability which I found in Newmont, whose purpose is to “create value and improve lives through sustainable and responsible mining.” Working for Newmont has broadened my exposure to the global sustainability community within mining, in addition to my previous experience in agriculture, manufacturing, beverage, and oil and gas.

24 | CANADIAN

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Water is a requirement for sustainable development and BG: is critical to socio-economic growth, energy and food production, ecosystems, and human health. Global concerns

around water availability and quality continue to increase, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) classifying the water crisis among the top five global risks for the last seven years.

The increased competition for water resources pose risks to the mining industry related to water access, operational www.canadianminingjournal.com

Photo: BlackJack3D, iStockimages.com

What kind of trends are you seeing in the mining industry generally when it comes to water management and water stewardship?

We believe that having a water stewardship approach is the next step and provides more value than investments in small incremental water management improvements at existing operations.

– BRIANA GUNN, NEWMONT MINING’S DIRECTOR

Photo: BlackJack3D, iStockimages.com

OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS

disruptions, financial loss, delays in regulatory approval, impacts to reputation and diminished asset value. Making a meaningful contribution to stewardship provides an avenue to manage future risk and secure resources to support longer term operations and growth.

Industry is shifting focus toward having a leadership role in sustainability, setting strategic priorities that address the shared challenges within the watershed in which we operate.

Having a shared understanding of the value of water, working in partnership to advance water stewardship, and supporting the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a growing priority for the industry.

CMJ:

Tell us about Newmont’s “global water strategy.” Why did the company adopt it and what does the strategy consist of?

APRIL 2019

In 2014, Newmont developed our Global Water BG: Strategy (GWS) with the purpose of maintaining existing and providing future access to water resources. The

strategy identifies five pillars that aim to continuously improve how we manage water and respect water’s shared use in the catchments and river basins where we operate.

Since implementation, Newmont has improved its approach to manging water through a clear framework with the key accomplishments including: n Water accounting and reporting – developing a water accounting framework for each site to consistently record and communicate use of water and volumes returned to the environment. n Governance and site water management – developing and implementing site and region-based water strategies covering the life of operations; and identifying a single point of accountabilities.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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WATER MANAGEMENT n

n

Water efficiency and targets – establishing targets to reduce fresh water consumption; to date the Newmont has exceeded our 2019 target of 5% reduction.

Collaboration and collective action – collaborating with local and regional stakeholders to support water management and conservation – educating stakeholders about water use, and developing projects that support shared challenges.

CMJ:

What is Newmont doing to increase the sustainability of its own water use?

Newmont views water stewardships as an integral BG: part of sustainability. In 2018, a maturity model was developed that builds on our GWS and its accomplishments

to mitigate risk, maintain business operations and strengthen our licence to grow, and our business objectives. Water stewardship is accomplished using a broad range of water partnership and project opportunities. Working collaboratively provides cost-effective and sustainable approaches to water challenges. Superior water stewardship practices build trust and relationships that can also serve as a source of competitive differentiation in securing permits, resources and approvals.

CMJ:

Can you describe some of Newmont’s out of the box strategies or thinking regarding water management?

Newmont has identified methods to reuse or recycle BG: more efficiently, improve existing infrastructure, improve efficiencies, decrease cost and increase return of water back to

the environment. We believe that having a water stewardship approach is the next step and provides more value than investments in small incremental water management improvements at existing operations. We will continue to identify areas for improvement utilizing the learnings of our Global Water Strategy.

CMJ:

Newmont uses water risk research tools designed by the World Wildlife Fund and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Can you describe some of the benefits of working with or collaborating with partners such as non-profits on sustainability?

Newmont has looked at water risks in multiple ways, BG: identifying physical, reputational and regulatory risks that exist for ourselves and others within the watersheds in which we operate. In 2018, we formed a partnership with World Resource Institute (WRI) to utilize WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas and Cost of Water Stewardship database to identify risks at a site level within the watersheds where we are operating. This year, we will develop watershed based targets that are based on prioritized current and future risks and collaboration opportunities.

CMJ:

Newmont is involved with the ICMM’s Tailings Aspirational Working Group: can you describe the work that’s being done there?

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MINING JOURNAL

Newmont is participating in work with the International BG: Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) tailings aspirational goal (TAG). An aspirational goal was developed in

2017 by the ICMM Council. Work with ICMM is ongoing; there have been some revisions in the scope of the work based on the recent tragic tailings dam failure in Brazil. The TAG group will be meeting in mid-March to discuss the path forward.

CMJ:

Are there any new technologies or trends you’re particularly excited about when it comes to water monitoring, water efficiency, tailings or any other area of water management that you would like to highlight?

None to highlight at this time, as stated above we are BG: concentrating on water stewardship as an approach to manage water as a shared resource.

CMJ

www.canadianminingjournal.com

WATER MANAGEMENT

Alamos Gold’s Young-Davidson mine in northern Ontario. CREDIT: ALAMOS GOLD

ALAMOS

pioneers new water treatment approach SAGR technology provides new option for ammonia and thiocyanate treatment in cold climates

By Michael Bratty

A

mmonia treatment in mining waters is attracting new interest and innovation. Ammonia has a special status for miners, because it is toxic to fish at low concentrations in the unionized form, and because it is not removed in the most popular mine water treatment processes involving lime application.

Furthermore, last year new regulations were published in Canada that introduced an “end-of-pipe” effluent limit for unionized ammonia for new mines, or mines that are closed and reopened (CMJ, April 5, 2018). Formerly, many mines already needed to deal with ammonia to ensure they meet non-acutely toxic criteria, or

APRIL 2019

Historically, many mines have relied on natural degradation in ponds for the management of ammonia. However, space limitations and new regulations are motivating innovation.

to meet receiving water targets. Ammonia has commonly been found in mining waters as a residual of blasting compounds or as a by-product of cyanide use, so gold miners pay particular attention to it.

Historically, many mines have relied on natural degradation in ponds for the management of ammonia, however space limitations and these new regulations are motivating innovation. This article will outline a new approach to handling ammonia in mining effluents, which was pioneered by Alamos Gold at their Young-Davidson mine in northern Ontario. The new approach is a gamechanger for the industry in management of ammonia in cold water.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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In the Canadian context, the natural degradation processes are essentially focused on the ice-free months of the year, so miners that rely on natural degradation need to provide large storage ponds to hold water through the winter.

Natural degradation can take place through loss of ammonia to the atmosphere at high pH, or through biological oxidation by ubiquitous nitrifying bacteria, or through uptake by aquatic plants including microalgae. Operators in the past have noted that natural degradation of ammonia can be poor in gold mill tailings ponds, where metals and metal complexes can be present that are toxic to algae and other microorganisms, but polishing ponds, where metals are low, are important contributors to ammonia removal. In the Canadian context, the natural degradation processes are essentially focused on the ice-free months of the year, so this means that miners that rely on natural degradation need to provide large storage ponds to hold water through the winter. Gold miners, like Alamos, commonly see ammonia in tailings ponds rising under the ice in the winter and dropping in summer as the algae and bacteria grow more quickly.

Miners that are not able to rely on large ponds to encourage natural degradation of ammonia have either adopted the approach of pH adjustment, which converts unionized ammonia to ammonium (NH4+), or they have adopted some kind of water treatment that is able to meet total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) limits. Due to strict effluent limits, the latter approach is used at the Young-Da28 | CANADIAN

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vidson Mine. In other locations, wetlands have been used for TAN reduction, but like natural degradation in ponds, are most useful in summer, and typically requires large land areas. Miners that are contemplating TAN treatment are faced with an array of technologies. If trace metals are also requiring treatment, then a complementary metal removal process is required. Due to the array of options, then an unbiased water treatment assessment is needed to make informed decisions about a variety of treatment and management alternatives. Golder provided such an assessment when Alamos was looking for new ammonia management options at the Young Davidson Mine in 2017. Alamos preferred alternatives that are suitable for winter oper-

ation in cold climates, and options that require a minimum of operator attention.

Alamos management was willing to consider thinking outside the box, that is, cold water nitrification technologies that had not yet been demonstrated in the mining space but demonstrated promise based on fundamental principles.

The result of the water treatment assessment led to the selection of the Submerged Attached Growth Reactor (SAGR) technology. SAGR is an aerated rock-bed nitrification system provided by Winnipeg-based Nexom. Project experience for the technology came from across the continent, primarily in the municipal treatment sector, such as removing nutrients from the overflow of sewage lagoons. Operations experience with www.canadianminingjournal.com

SAGR has been that once constructed, the system requires a minimum of supervision, but most importantly, it is capable of efficiently removing ammonia to low limits, in water as cold as 1°C. A key element of cold water operations is the establishment of a nitrifying biomass in the rock bed in warm temperatures, and careful attention to pre-treatment to remove substances which might harm the nitrifying bacteria in the SAGR. An

Construction of the SAGR bioreactor at Alamos Gold’s Young-Davidson mine.

CREDIT: GOLDER

illustration of the SAGR system is provided in Figure 1.

Golder’s water treatment assessment CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Figure 1: Submerged Attached Growth Reactor (SAGR) for Young Davidson

OPTIONAL: PHOSPHOROUS, ALKALINITY

PRETREATMENT

BLOWER

FEED

WOOD CHIP COVER STONE MEDIA EFFLUENT

LINED POND

APRIL 2019

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Construction of the SAGR bioreactor system. CREDIT: GOLDER

considered both established and emerging technologies. The evaluation included the following options: natural degradation, Moving Bed Bioreactor (MBBR), struvite formation through electrocoagulation, breakpoint chlorination, air stripping, ion exchange (with several sub-alternatives for brine handling) and the SAGR. The assessment concluded: w SAGR was the lowest net present capital and operating costs, compared to any option (apart from natural degradation) considering a treatment campaign of 2 million cubic meters over a two-year period. w SAGR had relatively low mechanical complexity, and low operational labour input. w The next best rated option was the MBBR, but such a system is not normally operated at 1°C, and requires a significant cost to heat the feed water. w The electrocoagulation/struvite process provides another innovative technology in the cold water ammonia space. In the case of the YoungDavidson, an amendment of phos30 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

phorous would have been required to match the ammonia removal.

Following a successful pilot testing program for the SAGR in late 2017, conducted at the University of Winnipeg, the SAGR system was constructed in spring 2018, and was started up in late June.

The design took advantage of an existing polishing pond at the mine, which was converted to purpose, simplifying the project. The system was designed to handle two different water feed sources, through adjustment of the flow feeding the SAGR: w A tailings pond feed water with temperatures between 1°C (winter) and 15°C (summer). w A historic, flooded pit with temperatures consistently 3 - 8°C at depth, and up to 15°C in surface waters in summer.

Within about a month of starting the SAGR, the system was producing effluent that was well below the site’s target effluent target for TAN. The system was subsequently ramped up to a flow of 3700 m3/d (700 gpm) through the summer, limited by the capacity of a pretreatment process. Through the fall, as the feed water temperature dropped,

then the flow was progressively reduced.

The SAGR was started up and run first using the pit water feed source, which was low in thiocyanate. However, in October, the SAGR received a feed containing an elevated thiocyanate concentration. In spite of the cold feed water temperature, the system adapted to the new feed conditions within weeks, and demonstrated efficient SCN removal, simultaneously with TAN removal. The finding of cold water conversion of thiocyanate at this scale is significant, and would seem to show that the previously established biomass was capable of converting SCN inside the SAGR. This is believed to be the first case of thiocyanate treatment, in a SAGR and in cold water, anywhere in the world. Alamos plans to modify some of the upstream components in the spring of 2019 then put the SAGR through its paces, both for higher strength ammonia feeds, and higher thiocyanate loadings, with the advent of summer in 2019.

CMJ Michael Bratty, M.Eng. P.Eng., is a senior mine water treatment engineer with Golder, based in Vancouver. He can be reached at mbratty@golder.com or at +1 (604) 296-7348. www.canadianminingjournal.com

WATER MANAGEMENT

How nature reveals an improved path to mine water management

By Patrick Martel

H

ave you noticed that the more complex the problems we face in our lives, the more complex strategies we are deploying to solve them?

In the mining industry, the same situation applies. Organizations have now become extremely complex ecosystems.

It is sometimes difficult to understand how they really work and interact.

APRIL 2019

And what if simplicity was the solution to solve complex problems?

Nature has a lot to teach us. Nature can simultaneously and intelligently manage multiple ecosystems of infinite complexity. It manages to evolve constantly in harmony despite the constant integration of new elements that interfere with the entire system. Its flexibility is unbeatable.

Human beings tend to conceive and deploy solutions in “machine” terms,

organized in a hierarchical framework.

Constantly changing external environments inevitably force these machines to become more complex. Thus, humans in their efforts to adapt are reacting to their changing environment by adding new components instead of responding with flexibility and agility.

Take the example of the relatively complex problem of water management CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

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in a mine, which requires consideration of: n Where the water is coming from n Forecasting the quantities of water that must be managed n Understanding the quality of the water n Dealing with the seasonal cycles that sometimes saturate the system, and other times deprive it of water n Determining if contamination of the water can be avoided n Appropriate treatment strategies n Worker awareness of issues related to water management n Adopting adaptive water management strategies that can cope with changing conditions n How to structure organizations and systems to be more agile n And don’t forget... in winter, water freezes!

And, what if we were inspired by nature in comparing this water to a virus in the human body? n Just like a virus, this water can come from anywhere (precipitation, process, groundwater, spill, etc.); n Just like the virus, there’s no warning before water begins to affect the system and the level of effect is hardly predictable; n Just like the virus can affect the body, water can make the mine inoperative or less efficient; n Just as a virus, water must be neutralized, treated and disposed of; n Just like the body must work to master this disruptive virus to continue its functions, so must the mine deal with water.

A TED talk by Martin Reeves inspired us with this analogy. In it, Reeves asks what system in nature is best designed to cope with viruses: It is the immune system.

In our daily life at Technosub, we are dealing with dynamic and unpredictable situations, such as managing the water of a mine. In this case, mechanical or “machine” thinking reaches its limits in its ability to deal with the level of complexity, so we must consider and master 32 | CANADIAN

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this art of “biological thought,” inspired by our observations of nature. In other words, we need to think more moderately and subtly about when and how we can influence, rather than to control complex and unpredictable water management situations. Innovation is of the essence and this must be considered in the design of mining water management works and throughout the mining operation.

Remember, we are limited in our capacity to control Mother Nature by force.

The systems in place sometimes are insufficient to protect themselves against changes and have sometimes lost this ability to think and act in a biological manner.

Let’s go back to how the immune system defends against viruses to make the analogy to water in a mine. The system is very well organized and has exceptional features. At Technosub, the engineering team uses these six criteria, inspired by the human immune system, when designing water management works.

1

Redundancy First, it intelligently uses redundancy by having in advance millions of copies of each component (like white blood cells) to create enormous protection against the unexpected. In a mine, redundancy is required for dewatering systems. If a pump shows signs of failure, another pump must be ready to start instantly.

Redundancy in piping or valve systems is

also required in order to add flexibility in the water management system.

2

Diversity As Mr. Reeves explains, the immune system intelligently exploits diversity, having not only leukocytes but also B and T cells, the natural killer cells and antibodies. Together, the diversity of approaches can manage more or less all kinds of issues. The use of different water management strategies is also required in the mine. This could mean having a good knowledge of the hydrogeology of the site in order to pump the water before it is impacted by the mining operations.

Or, understanding the hydrology of the site to prevent a part of the surface water from recharging the groundwater before is causes challenges to operations. Here, www.canadianminingjournal.com

Images courtesy of Technosub.

culation of this water underground. This module contributes to a greater objective, that of reducing the amount of water to be pumped and managed on the surface, thus saving pumps, power and treatment efforts for the final effluent.

4

Adaptation The immune system has a total ability to adapt. It can develop specific antibodies to threats it has never encountered before. Likewise, the design of the water systems must provide for potential adaptations in the piping. For example, in case of encountering excess water flow, the addition of pumps or the provision for extra power in distribution networks should be planned.

a global and holistic vision of water is needed in order to develop various strategies adapted to the conditions.

3

Modularity In the immune system, the design is completely modular.

There is, for example the surface barrier of the skin, an immune system that naturally reacts very quickly, and another able to adapt in a very targeted way. If one system fails, another can take control, creating an almost infallible system. In the design of mine water management works, different modules can be arranged to work for a common objective while contributing locally. For example, the installation of a MUDWIZARD sludge management system underground, a module that locally pre-treats the water from the drilling operations to allow recirAPRIL 2019

5

Prudence The immune system operates with incredible prudence, detecting and reacting to the slightest threat and remembering all the previous ones, in case they manifest again. At Technosub, our designers learn from past failures and incorporate the new knowledge acquired to guard against potential future risks. That is why our project managers are always involved in the installation and commissioning of each system, to learn from mistakes and implement improvement on future designs.

6

Integration The immune system is integrated into the larger system of the human body, and works in complete harmony with the system to create this biological protec-

tion. Likewise, the water management system must also adapt to the reality of the mine rather than the mine being at the mercy of the water management system. After all, resources are limited in a mine, and a simple system that is easy to understand and easy to operate is always better than a complex one. This for us is the meaning of success in integration.

These integrated features significantly increase the agility, reliability and resilience of water management strategies.

Often, simple modifications to incorporate these six concepts into the initial design will greatly improve ease of use and reduce operational risks and costs.

Finally, we can observe that the typical structure for decision making is not always compatible with the continuously changing challenges encountered in water management. In a mine, everything is changing in real time. Inevitably, in this context, it is easy to be overwhelmed by any decision that requires co-ordination.

Therefore, it is necessary to re-examine the design of our systems in order to simplify the decision-making process and to integrate these six elements inspired by the immune system.

In contrast, nature adapts to distribute authority to the billions of individual components that compose it. And from this is another lesson we can follow from nature.

Nature has taken millions of years to optimize complex systems. Why not have the humility to take advantage of this CMJ experience to simplify our lives?

Patrick Martel, P.Eng, is vice-president, Innovation Development / Integrated Solutions at Technosub.

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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