What’s New A NEW LOCOMOTIVE
As Canada’s miners tackle narrower vein deposits, they’ll need locomotives to haul the ore to the shaft in the mines that opt for track mining. But while locomotives have been around a long time, few …
News
RADIATION HAZARDS
All uranium-bearing minerals contain radium, the radioactive product of uranium decay. Radium itself decays and gives off the chemically inert, radioactive gas radon. Radon can percolate out of rocks …
Research SOLID MODELING
Wth the help of a computer graphic technique called “solid modeling,” mining engineers now can combine the accuracy of drill sections and plans with the visual effect of Plexiglas models to produce a …
Editor’s Note MODEL P.R.
Uranium mining has a distinct set Uof problems. In fact, its very disUtinctiveness has led Saskatchewan’s mine-operators to adopt a public relations drive. But first, the question of high grade. For …
CIGAR LAKE AT A GLANCE
George Peebles has a mining assignment that ambitious uranium miners would give their eye teeth for. Cigar Lake is the pre-eminent technical challenge in uranium mining today. The deposit is highly ra…
KEY LAKE OPENS THE BASIN
The Key Lake mine, on the south eastern rim of the Athabasca Sandstone Basin in northern Saskatchewan, has been producing uranium since 1983. The first of two high grade open pits has been exhausted b…
SPECS MAXIMUM UTILITY
Not all underground mine vehicles are directly involved in bringing muck to surface. Auxiliary equipment is needed by all mines to move miners from place to place, to handle heavy materials and for a …
Priority Maintenance
Out of a total workforce of about 412 (including salaried employees on staff), the fact that Key Lake’s maintenance department employs 154 workers says something about the operation’s priorities. “May…
The Midwest Test
The Midwest Joint Venture, which is developing a uranium mine at the eastern fringe of the Athabasca Sandstone Basin, faces very similar challenges to the ones facing Cigar Lake’s operators. That shou…
And now the bad news
“Gold is hard to find, but it is even more difficult to mine.” Bob Buchans, the speaker, should know. As the man behind the CMP funds (a once-popular investment vehicle for flow-through share financings), he was responsible for funding part of…
DIGITAL PROSPECTING
Grassroots geological mapping is entering a digital revolution. If the trend gains momentum, it could be so far advanced by the turn of the century that exploration geologists will begin searching for…
ORE HORIZONS THE SAMATOSUM DEPOSIT
Situated in the rolling Shuswap Highlands, 60 km northeast of Kamloops in south-central British Columbia (right), the Samatosum deposit is becoming the first of what Minnova Inc. believes will be a nu…