SNC-Lavalin Engineers and Constructors, Toronto, is the general contractor for a two-year, $24-million, lump-sum management-fee decommissioning of the Teck Cominco zinc-lead mine. The mine is 100 kilometers northwest of Resolute in Nunavut Territory. Operating since 1981, 280 meters below sea level, it produced a million tonnes of zinc-lead annually until it was closed in August 2002. Nunavut-based Qikiqtaaluk Corp. is earthworks subcontractor. Équipements Industriels Robert Ltée., Shawinigan, Quebec, is the demolition subcontractor. Montreal-based Tower Arctic Ltd. is removing a 300-ft-long cell-style dock and restoring the shoreline.
Nonhazardous debris will be placed in a rock quarry with an engineered limestone cap. Hazardous material will be placed within the mine, which has steel gates. The gates then will be covered with a 60-ft-deep concrete fill mixture that will freeze in the permafrost conditions, says John Knapp, Teck Cominco site manager.