Contract Operations Experience
Absaloka Mine—Montana
Under a long-term contract from 1972 to 2007, we provided operations and management services at this surface coal mine, 65 mile southeast of Billings. Our scope of work also included:
- Coal quality studies
- Extensive mine and geologic modeling and simulation for future mine planning
More than 80 percent of the mine’s work force was from the Crow Indian Tribe. We developed a program that taught mining skill and we sponsored supervisory training for our members.
Cerro San Pedro Gold/Silver Project—San Luis Potosi, Mexico
We were selected to perform site development and contract mining for Metallica Resources. The San Pedro gold/silver operation will be a conventional open pit mine by truck shovel methods producing over 755,000 oz of gold and 17.3 million oz of silver over the mine’s 8 year life.
Daily production will be 57,000 tpd ore and waste, utilizing hydraulic shovels matched to 190 ton off-highway haulage trucks.
Contract requirements included:
- Haul road construction
- Pre-production stripping
- Site development
- Mining and hauling of ore to the heap leach facility
Dry Valley Phosphate and Conda Mill—Idaho
FMC Corporation is one of the world’s foremost, diversified chemical companies with leading positions in agricultural, industrial, and consumer markets. For more than 20 years we have conducted year-round, all-weather mining at Nu-West
Industries’ Dry Valley Phosphate Mine in the mountains of southeast Idaho. The contract includes virtually all aspects of production, from exploratory drilling to mine reclamation. Major responsibilities include the stripping of overburden and the excavation and hauling of ore and waste.
About six miles northeast of Soda Springs, at the Conda Mill, we built the tailings impoundment and manage the mill’s expansion.
From 1992 through 1995, we provided engineering, procurement and contract management of the soda ash facility for FMC Corporation. Our work enabled the $120 million facility to produce 700,000 tpy of soda ash from trona, utilizing proprietary, solution mining technology.
Golden Reward Mine—South Dakota
We provided the engineering services for mine-closure reclamation and cost estimation for comparison for the South Dakota Department of Natural Resources Commission (DNRC) bonding estimates.
Operational services provided included:
- Loading, haulage, and support equipment to backfill and re-grade existing mined areas
- Re-grade, rock stockpiles and off-load of leach pad
- Mined area back filled with spent ore and barren rock to reestablish drainage and meet state approved final reclamation plan
- Reclamation engineering cost estimate and reclamation earthwork
Kapuskasing Phosphate Mine—Ontario, Canada
We were awarded a multi-year contract to operate the Kapuskasing phosphate mine in northern Ontario, Canada. The open pit mine produces over 16 million tons of ore, clay and waste annually. Mine life is reportedly over 20 years.
The scope of work includes mine operations, planning, engineering, maintenance, human relations, training, safety and hygiene and environmental regulatory compliance. The new contract builds on the relationship Washington Division established at the Rasmussen Ridge phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho, which has been operating since 1998, producing about 13 million tons per year of ore and waste.
Pipestone Ballast Quarry—Montana
We performed contract-mining operations of aggregates for railroad ballast materials to Montana Rail-Link. When reserves were near depletion, Montana Rail-Link contacted Washington Division with a proposal to locate and operate suitable ballast sources to be used for their railways.
After an adjacent site was identified, we prepared a plan of operations and acquired all necessary permits. Washington Division then designed and assembled the crusher and rail load-out facility.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the quarry expansion in June, 2002. Washington Division had worked the old quarry since 1992.
Montana Rail-link was the only client, but Washington Division added Burlington Northern railroad as a second client. From this location other clients now take aggregates for various construction purposes.
Powder River Basin Operations—Wyoming
St. Louis-based Arch Coal is the nation’s second largest coal producer, mining about one-tenth of America's coal supply from 13 mining complexes in West Virginia, Wyoming, Kentucky, Virginia, Colorado, and Utah.
Arch produces more than 65 million tons of coal annually in the southern Powder River Basin in Wyoming, the nation's largest coal-supply region. This tonnage is produced at Arch's Black Thunder mine near Gillette, Wyoming, one of the largest coalmines in the United States.
After assuming fill contract-mining responsibility at Coal Creek Mine for Arch, the goal was to increase monthly production from approximately 800,000 tons to more than 1-million tons per month (tpm).
Operations at Coal Creek include:
- Stripping
- Mining
- Crushing
- Shipping
Washington Division also took over topsoil stripping and select reclamation work at Arch’s Black Thunder Mine.
Rasmussen Ridge Phosphate Mine—Idaho
Agrium Inc.’s Conda Phosphate Operations, located near Soda Springs, Idaho, is a major producer of concentrated, phosphate-based fertilizers. Agrium operates a phosphate ore milling and fertilizer manufacturing facility five miles north of Soda Springs, and an open pit phosphate mine at Rasmussen Ridge, Idaho.
The ore milling and fertilizer facility employs approximately 280 people and produces a variety of liquid and granular phosphate fertilizers. The phosphate mine, located about 20 miles northeast of Soda Springs employs approximately 80 people and the site produces 1.7 million tons of high quality phosphate ore annually for consumption at the Agrium CPO fertilizer plant. With reserves at Rasmussen Ridge sufficient to meet demands for the next 11 years, Agrium is assured of producing a continuous, cost-efficient supply of raw material for the owner.
We are providing:
- Contract mining and maintenance services
- Selective mining, screening, and loading the ore into railcars
Tonopah Copper Project—Nevada
Equatorial Mining Limited is a medium size copper producer, with operations in South and North America. The company owns Tonopah and Mineral Park in Arizona with other significant activities in mineral and water exploration in northern Chile. The Tonopah Copper Project is located approximately 200 miles north of Las Vegas in the northern end of the western flank of the San Antonio Mountains.
We provided contract-mining services using trucks and shovels at this open-pit operation. The mine has an annual production capacity of 10-million tons of copper ore and 5-million tons of waste overburden.
The scope of the work also included:
- Site preparation
- Mine start-up
- Operations
- Equipment maintenance
- Reclamation
Our services include drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling ore and overburden to provide 30,000 tons of ore per day to a primary crusher. The mine includes a conventional heap leach plant that treats approximately 30,000 tons of ore per day, containing an average grade of 0.314 percent copper.
Wharf Mine—South Dakota
The Wharf Mine is owned by Goldcorp Inc., and is within five miles of the historic Homestake Mine that has produced more than 39.6 million ounces of gold since 1876. The Wharf Mine produces approximately 100,000 ounces of gold annually. It has produced over 1.2 million ounces of gold since open pit mining started in 1983.
We provided engineering and contract mining services for the Wharf Mine, three miles south of Lead, South Dakota. Engineering services were provided for a mine-closure reclamation cost estimate for comparison to a South Dakota state bonding cost estimate.
Operational services provided include:
- Loading
- Haulage
- Support equipment to assist in off-loading the leach pad
Spent ore was off-loaded over a two-month period to ensure sufficient leach pad area for additional ore development.
Our scope of work included reclamation engineering cost estimates and leach pad off-loading.
