Gone are the days when a company ploughed a rough road through the bush and plopped a headframe down overtop of the discovery hole. And although that is obviously an overly simplistic synopsis of how mines were built in the past, Lalor it appears, will set a standard by which all past, present, and future HudBay mines will be measured.

On this day, Kim Proctor, HudBay’s Lalor Project Manager very graciously conducts the tour. This is, of course, after a 20 minute safety orientation and donning several pieces of personal protective equipment. This project nears 600 days without a lost time accident (July 31st) and after listening to Safety Coordinator Tony Butt explain procedures, and seeing firsthand how people work on site, it is easy to understand why.

Back outdoors and walking the site, it is apparent Proctor is a person who is very detail orientated and is keen to both anticipate problems and solve them. She appears to genuinely enjoy the work she does, as a smile crosses her face whenever a new question is asked or an explanation is required. You know right away that she either expected the question, or has a ready account to provide. Nowhere is this more evident than when she talks about the efficiencies of piggybacking much of Lalor’s growth on infrastructure, permits, and licences that are already in place.

Referring to Lalor as an environmentally focused ‘Green Mine’, she talks about how fresh and waste water will be tied into facilities already in place and servicing the company’s nearby Chisel North Mine (which will be depleted in 2012). As well, she notes that they have performed geotechnical and geochemical reviews of waste rock on the site and determined that it can be used as a base for building foundations around the project, in addition to road construction. Any rock deemed to be acid generating is disposed of in their permitted Chisel Lake Pit.

Splitting her time between Lalor’s technical team in Flin Flon and the construction on site, this Tuesday morning visit to the mine is the first she’s made since prior to the weekend. She is notably impressed at the advance that has been made on Lalor’s production shaft hoist house. The bright blue outline not only progressed since she’d seen it last, its massive shape was altered just in the two hours taken up by the tour.

As we continue around the level and orderly footprint of the project, she points out the foundations for the headframe and pumphouse/water treatment plant, in addition to the proposed location for the office complex, sewage treatment plant, and the recently announced concentrator. We walk to the collar of the production shaft and after talking to a supervisor, she advises that the depth is now at the 15 metre mark. Carrying on, we walk to the edge of the built up portion of the project pad. Proctor explains that this is the area where the new concentrator will sit. The smile returns to her face as she expands on the efficiencies that it will bring to the project. Ore will be hoisted from underground and conveyed directly to the mill, the concentrate will then be hauled to Flin Flon for further processing. This of course is opposed to the current practice at Chisel North, where ore is brought to surface, then trucked 12 km to the concentrator and once processed, on to Flin Flon. The new concentrator will have a capacity of 4500 tons per day and include a paste backfill plant. "That’s a huge bonus for this project," Proctor says of this addition. "First of all, pastefill gives you a much better backfill system when you start mining, but we are also going to get rid of 20 - 25% of our tails (tailings) by pumping it back underground. So again, I consider that a plus on the green side of this project, because you are pumping much less into the tailings pond." In addition, detailed engineering is beginning on the new concentrator and one objective in the design process is to recirculate as much water as possible, which ultimately may be as high as 90%. Construction will begin on the new mill in January 2013 and it is expected to be commissioned just as the production shaft comes online in 2014.

Subsequent to walking around the minesite, we drive to the area where the vent shaft is currently being sunk. Upon arrival we are met by J.S. RedPath’s Project Superintendent, Marc Leroux. He welcomes us and he and Proctor begin to talk scheduling. They agree that the ramp approaching the property from Chisel North is on schedule and that 3/4 of the angled portion is complete. It will eventually level off and start driving forward, towards an intersection with the vent shaft, likely in April 2012. This will be welcomed, as currently, 10 loaded trucks clear the muck from every round taken at the ramps working face and each truck takes an hour to make the round trip to surface and back. Once the shaft is through, Redpath will move 1500 tpd through it to surface and reduce the requirement of all Lalor waste being trucked to surface via the underground ramp.

Leroux takes over the tour at this point. Experienced, conversant, and good-humoured, the stocky French Canadian has been around mines his entire working life, but his preference he says, is shaft work. His skills were honed on an international level and he has hung his tag in headframes from Snow Lake to Mongolia.

He begins by saying that even though Redpath’s advance on the ramp over from Chisel North is on schedule, vent shaft development is about a week behind. "But I think we’ll be back on schedule within a month or so," he says assuredly.

Leroux advises that the temporary headframe on the vent shaft was fabricated specifically for this job; however, the hoist is used, and he notes that it has a patent date of 1947 on it. "Actually, it’s a really nice hoist, we just converted the drive in it," he said. This was not the only thing that appeared to be well maintained; looking around the yard and in every building we entered, one couldn’t help but notice that even though this is a heavy industrial environment, everything is orderly and clean.

The vent shaft itself will be 6.1 metres in diameter by 835 metres in depth and will be used for ventilation as well as temporary mucking. Once sinking is completed, a 7.5 tonne skip will be installed to achieve the 1500 tpd mucking capacity. The Shaft will be excavated by the full face blind sink method, using two single boom jumbos.

Leroux tours us around the shaft, power and compressor house, as well as the hoistroom, where Hoistman Dale Mayner gave an overview of his controls and an explanation of his working day. He concurred with Leroux that although old, the hoist was a good one. Mayner lives in Snow Lake and Proctor advises that she has noticed that there are a lot of locals working for Redpath and she says this is something that pleases her. Leroux adds, "It is nice to keep people at home."

Once finished here, Leroux bids us farewell and we leave the project site. The tour took a little over two hours and as we drive back to Snow Lake, we discuss how far things have come in such a short time. As we part company, Proctor tells me that she believes the success of the project thus far is based on the combined efforts and dedication of all participants. And so it seems, an old adage (revised) fits well here... many hands make Lalor work.

The Underground Press- Written by Editor Marc Jackson, Snow Lake Manitoba

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