From our November 2004 newsletter

After 21 years of lead and zinc production, Teck Cominco’s Polaris Mine on Cornwallis Island -- a half hour flight from Resolute, Nunavut and neighboring the North Pole -- has closed. Now the area will be returned as closely as possible to its original state. The $65 million Polaris Reclamation Project is expected to take three years, and monitoring the environment will continue for seven. The government of Canada will take over the property in 2011.

Cascade Management Inc., Saskatoon, SK, was contracted by Teck Cominco to remove 10' thick muck (composed of frozen earth and rock segments) sitting on the surface of the frozen ocean. Mike Pietroniro, Tramac Vice President, Canada, sold a CPA 225 rock drill to Teck Cominco for this purpose. Donald Rousseau, Tramac’s Senior Service Manager, spent two weeks on site installing the CPA on a Cat 235, providing operator training, and setting up a service center.

The CPA drilled 3" diameter holes to a depth of 9' at 11⁄2' intervals. A bulldozer and ripper then removed the frozen segments. The material was loaded onto trucks and dumped in the 900' deep mine shafts where it would not be a threat to the environment. In removing the muck, care had to be taken not to break the frozen ocean ice. No blasting could be done.
Joe Dahoy, Cascade Management’s Construction Manager, communicated with Tramac Canada from the job site. He had several reasons to choose the CPA. Because it is a boom-mounted hydraulic drill, it can be attached to the excavator in twenty minutes or less. Because the excavator is now serving multiple functions, they are getting better return on their equipment. Dahoy also said that by using the reach of the boom, the operator hardly had to move the excavator to go from one drill hole to the next.

Using an excavator-mounted CPA meant that only the attachment had to be flown in. Moreover, Dahoy says it will be easy enough to move from site to site in the future since they have other excavators that can accept the CPA.