Suppliers News (August 07, 2006)

Cabo to drill Inco’s Voisey’s site

Forages Cabo, a unit of Cabo Drilling (CBE-V, CBEEF-O) of Vancouver, says it’s in the midst of a geotechnical drilling contract at Inco’s (N-T, N-N) Voisey’s Bay nickel mine in northern Labrador. No financial terms were disclosed.

Forages Cabo is drilling a total of 26 environmental and geotechnical boreholes at locations throughout the Voisey’s area — the lion’s share of which will be completed using a power auger-diamond drill mounted on an all-terrain vehicle.

Groundwater monitoring wells will be placed in the environmental boreholes, whereas groundwater piezometers (instruments used to measure pressure) will be installed in the geotechnical holes.

So far, five holes have been sunk into the mine’s dumpsites. Other sites slated for drilling include the H1 and H2 tailings dams, south sedimentation pond dam and berm, run-of-mine complex, explosives plant and the mill concentrator. Drilling should last about eight more weeks.

Cabo provides drilling through subsidiaries Advanced Drilling of Surrey, B.C.; Forages Cabo of Montreal; Kirkland Lake, Ont.-based Heath & Sherwood Drilling; and Petro Drilling of Springdale, Nfld.

Senet to oversee study of Passendro

Axmin (axm-v, axmif-o) has awarded a contract for the bankable feasibility study of its Passendro gold project in the Central African Republic to Senet, a South African engineering firm.

Senet is already building three gold projects in West Africa and will work with a number of firms at Passendro, including U.K.-based firm SRK Consulting covering resources/reserves, mining, geotechnics and hydrogeology; AMEC Earth and Environmental regarding tailings and waste rock; SGS Lakefield office in South Africa will handle the metallurgy; and London-based Golder Associates will perform the environmental and social impact assessments. Senet will assemble all information from the various consultants to form the study for what would be a 200,000-oz.-per-year gold mine. The study should be done by mid-2007.

“We are very pleased to have been able to assemble such a formidable team of consultants to undertake the Passendro feasibility study,” says CEO Jonathan Forster. “Each brings extensive experience of developing gold projects in Africa.”

Drilling to expand reserves at Passendro has been ongoing since early 2006. A prefeasibility study, using core from initial drilling, highlighted the economic robustness of a 3-million-tonne-per-year gravity/carbon-in-leach plant.

Some 12,500 metres of reverse-circulation drilling at Passendro and another 8,000 metres of core drilling are already complete, most of which is for infill purposes. The drilling data was given to SRK Consulting for another update on resource and reserve estimates, scheduled for later this year.

Drilling will continue throughout 2006 to expand reserves and resources.

Axmin owns mineral exploration properties in Central and West Africa.

Atlas Copco turns a bit yellow

As of mid-August, all Atlas Copco Secoroc rock drilling tools will be coloured yellow.

Atlas Copco is trying to link the Secoroc brand to its trademark yellow in an effort to separate itself from other makers of drilling tools.

Atlas Copco Secoroc, the world’s largest supplier of drilling equipment, will start delivering the yellow-coloured rock drilling equipment from its manufacturing facilities in Ockelbo and Fagersta in Sweden; Grand Prairie, Tex., Roanoke, Va., and Fort Loudon, Pa., in the U.S.; Langley, B.C., in Canada; Santiago, Chile; South Africa’s Johannesburg and Boksburg; Pune, India; Xuanhua, China, and Muswellbrook and Perth in Australia.

Atlas Copco Construction & Mining Canada moved its Canadian sales and service office to Sudbury, Ont., from Montreal in 2000 and now employs 225 people there. The Atlas Copco Group is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and in 2004, the company posted revenue of US$7.2 billion.

DMT buys IMC mining consulting companies

Essen, Germany-based engineering and consulting firm Deutsche Montan Technologie (DMT) has bought IMC Group Consulting, based in the U.K. The deal includes International Mining Consultants, British Mining Consultants and Mackay & Schnellmann, a geological consulting company based in Perth, Australia.

The purchase does not include any other IMC Group companies, namely IMC Geophysics and IMC Geophysics International, Rock Mechanics Technology, Associated Mining Consultants in Canada, and Gastec at CRE. These companies will carry on as before.

The mining consulting businesses of International Mining Consultants and DMT will be merged, with IMC Group Consulting becoming DMT’s international mining consulting business. DMT wanted the IMC name because of its established reputation.

DMT has about 600 permanent employees and offers services in the fields of mining consulting, natural resources exploration and geology, and coke-making technology.

Brawner honoured with engineering award

Consulting geotechnical engineer Chuck Brawner has received the Frank Spragins Technical Award from the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA).

The award is presented to members of APEGGA who are recognized by their peers for their expertise and accomplishments in fields related to engineering, geology or geophysics.

Brawner’s career, which is ongoing, spans more than 50 years. He spent 10 with B.C. Highways and then helped start and grow Golder, Brawner and Associates (now part of international consulting firm Golder Associates). He spent another 16 years teaching at the University of British Columbia, and is now a consulting engineer.

Brawner has served on numerous technical committees and engineering review boards, received over 20 awards, written more than 100 technical papers, edited several textbooks and lectured throughout the world.

He served on the Syncrude geotechnical review board for 31 years, retiring in 2003 after helping oversee more than 25 years of dragline mining. And he recently wrote, Engineer. . . Around the World in Fifty Years, a book looking at some of the more noteworthy items of his lengthy career.

Some of his awards include the R.F. Legget Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society (1999); McParland Memorial Medal, Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1997); Distinguished Cross Canada Lecturer, Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1988); and D.C. Jackling Award, American Society of Mining Engineers (1985).