Engineering & Mining Journal

MAR 2014

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70 E&MJ; • MARCH 2014 www.e-mj.com Tetra Tech to Handle Technical Services for Canadian Zinc's Prairie Creek Project S U P P L I E R S R E P O R T Canadian Zinc Corp. has selected Tetra Tech for engineering and procurement services at the company's Prairie Creek zinc/lead/silver mine project in Canada's Northwest Territories. Prairie Creek is an underground opera- tion that will use multiple mining meth- ods. Canadian Zinc said most project infra- structure is already in place, including a 1,000-metric-tons-per-day (mt/d) mill, 5 km of underground workings and related equipment, surface fleet, three exploration diamond drills, and a 1,000-m airstrip. Tetra Tech will provide services for the development of major equipment packages, facility rehabilitation and repair work, and capital items for the Prairie Creek mine. Specifically, Tetra Tech's technical services will be applied to develop tender packages for mine rehabilitation and development; mill completion, power generation and dis- tribution; heat recovery systems; a dense media separation plant; a paste fill plant; a water treatment plant; instrumentation and control systems; and camp construction, winter road construction, and maintenance. Canadian Zinc said tender packages for competitive bidding will be issued in the first and second quarters of 2014. The ten- dering and procurement process will be managed by Tetra Tech, and will augment design work completed previously and gen- erate definitive estimates of the capital cost and schedules required to place the mine into operation. Canadian Zinc has also engaged AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) to undertake an optimization study of the underground mine plan with a view to reducing initial develop- ment, shortening the development schedule, and optimizing mine operating costs. Canadian Zinc said engagement of Tetra Tech and AMC followed receipt of the project's water license and all permits needed to operate the mine, and marks the start of engineering and procurement to complete construction and development. The Prairie Creek property contains a mineral reserve of 5.2 million mt averaging 9.4% zinc, 9.5% lead and 151 g/t silver. In addition, it hosts an inferred resource of 6.2 million mt averaging 14.5% zinc, 11.5% lead, 0.57% copper and 229 g/t silver. Thyssenkrupp Combines Plant Technology Assets In a move to strengthen its plant technolo- gy business as a major growth area, ThyssenKrupp recently announced that two of its previously separate plant tech- nology companies will be combined as ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions. The company describes the merger of Thyssen- Krupp Uhde and ThyssenKrupp Resource Technologies (formerly ThyssenKrupp Polysius and ThyssenKrupp Fö rdertechnik) with ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions as "an important milestone" in the group's long-term integration process. Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of Thyssen- Krupp, said, "The integration and regional- ization of our plant technology business is an important element of our transition into a diversified industrial group. This growth area offers great potential, which we can exploit optimally with ThyssenKrupp In- dustrial Solutions as a global, integrated engineering and construction company. Our aim is to grow faster than the market." Dr. Hans Christoph Atzpodien, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, said Aerial view of the Prairie Creek project facilities. Owner Canadian Zinc has retained Tetra Tech to provide engi- neering- and procurement-related services during the project's development phase. Hexagon recently acquired Aibotix, the Kassel, Germany-based maker of Aibot X6 V2 multicopters. The company said its multirotor X6 and X6 long-flight UAVs can be used for visual inspection, aerial map- ping, surveying, and security, offering a range of features that include fully auto- matic take-off and landing; highly config- urable flight characteristics; training and geo-fence modes to maintain UAV flight patterns within safe, defined spatial limits; dynamic POI (point of interest) setting capabilities that automatically maintain UAV alignment toward the POI during flight; enhanced safety features such as fail-safe modes in case of loss of RC-signal/low bat- tery voltage, etc.; and a standardized inter- face and modular design that enables inte- gration of many kinds of sensors. According to Aibotix, its UAVs have a climb rate of up to 8 m/sec and a top speed of 60 km/h. If a motor should fail, the Aibot X6 will still have sufficient power to fly safely on the remaining rotors. A light- weight carbon fiber casing protects the rotors when operating in close proximity to objects, as well as providing safety for oper- ators and bystanders. In addition to fully autonomous waypoint flights, the Aibot X6 V2 also allows dynamic setting of way- points during a flight, offering an expanded range of capabilities for aerial surveys. The X6 V2 long-flight version, based on V2 architecture, has more powerful motors and batteries that enable flights up to 30 minutes long and payloads of up to 3 kg. Hexagon Acquires Drone Manufacturer Miners deploy an Aibot X6 for an aerial survey. EMJ_pg70-71_EMJ_pg70-71 2/28/14 9:11 AM Page 70

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