Last week, the Redpath Group reached a major milestone, as the company completed an 875-metre-long by 6.3-metre-diameter raise at the privately held Niobec mine in Quebec. The raise is the largest by volume ever completed in the Americas and in the Northern Hemisphere and is the third biggest globally.
The Redbore 90EX raise drill, manufactured by Redpath in North Bay, was chosen as the most appropriate unit to complete this project. The remarkable achievement was a team effort that started in 2019, when Niobec approached Redpath.
“Having worked together previously, Redpath’s project team understood Niobec’s needs for achieving a fully integrated process, ensuring the lowest possible end cost, coupled with the highest standards of safety and productivity. The engineering and construction teams of our two companies worked in partnership to achieve this goal. The project finished safely and ahead of schedule,” Johan Davel, general manager of Redpath Raiseboring, said in a release.
The Niobec mine, held by private equity firm Magris, is located approximately 200 km north of Quebec City and is the only underground niobium mine, and one of the three main niobium producers in the world. The mine’s current production accounts for approximately 8% to 10% of the world’s output.
Redpath provides services to the mining industry – these include underground construction, shaft sinking, raiseboring, mine contracting, raise mining, mine development, engineering and technical services, along with a variety of specialty services. The company has offices in Canada, the U.S., Indonesia, Mongolia, Germany, South Africa and Australia.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)