Tag Archives: Teck Resources

Teck to deploy first electric tug boats in Canada at Neptune Terminal

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Teck Resources has announced an agreement to deploy two electric tug boats at the Neptune Terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia, in support of Teck’s climate goals.

This marks the first electric tugs operating in Canada as a full tugboat package for harbour assist and tug services, according to Teck.

Under the agreement, SAAM will furnish two ElectRA 2300 SX tugs commencing operation during the second half of 2023, which are expected to eliminate over 2,400 t/y of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to emissions reductions, using electric tugs will also reduce underwater noise, benefitting marine life in the harbour.

“Working with SAAM Towage to further reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation of our products is another step forward in achieving our climate goals and contributing to global climate action,” Jonathan Price, CEO of Teck, said. “Collaborating with transportation providers to develop green transportation corridors is part of our climate action strategy and supports our goal of net zero emissions by 2050.”

Sander Bikkers, President, SAAM Towage Canada, added: “With Teck and Neptune Terminals, SAAM Towage has found value aligned partners who want to drive sustainable environmental change through innovation. This partnership is based on a shared commitment to do our part to address the global challenge of climate change by reducing our carbon footprint.”

The ElectRA Tugs are designed by Vancouver-based Robert Allan Ltd and will be built at Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey.

Neptune is owned by Canpotex Bulk Terminals Limited, a Canpotex affiliate, and Teck Coal Partnership, a subsidiary of Teck Resources.

This announcement builds on Teck’s progress to work with partners to reduce emissions across its supply chain and achieve a 40% reduction in shipping emission intensity by 2030.

Teck previously announced an agreement with Oldendorff Carriers to employ energy-efficient bulk carriers for shipments of Teck steelmaking coal from the Port of Vancouver, reducing 45,000 t/y of CO2, equivalent to removing nearly 10,000 passenger vehicles from the road, according to the company.

Teck has also announced a pilot of a fully electric on-highway transport truck to haul copper concentrate between Teck’s Highland Valley Copper Operations in south-central BC and a rail loading facility in Ashcroft, BC.

Teck’s climate action strategy also includes goals to reduce carbon intensity across operations by 33% by 2030 and be a net-zero operator by 2050.

MineSense continues growth trajectory with new South America HQ in Chile

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MineSense Technologies officially opened its regional headquarters and service centre for South America in Santiago, Chile, this week, in another move to capture growth across one of the world’s key mining hubs.

Attended by senior executives and a MineSense workforce of over 50 hired so far in Chile and Peru, the ceremony celebrated the opening of a 3,000 sq.m facility in an industrial park in the Pudahuel district.

The headquarters includes corporate offices and a manufacturing area that increases service and production capacity to supply ShovelSense technology to meet South American and global demand, the company said.

Jeff More, President and CEO (pictured on stage), was on hand to cut the ribbon. He was joined by Victor Aguilera, member of the Board of Directors of MineSense Technologies Ltd and General Director of Aurus Investments; Claudio Toro-Salazar, Executive Vice President, Business Development; and Monica Feregrino, VP Operations.

MineSense, through the deployment of its ShovelSense solution, has been gaining ground in the bulk ore sorting space across South America.

Earlier this year, it deployed a second shovel-based unit at Teck Resources’ Carmen de Andacollo mine, in Chile. This followed an earlier successful trial at the operation.

It has also recently gone live with a deployment at Antamina, Peru’s largest mine, and has been trialling the XRF-based technology at Hudbay Minerals’ Constancia mine, also in Peru.

The ShovelSense system, through a sophisticated suite of sensors and algorithms, improves orebody visibility bucket by bucket in real time during the loading process, according to the company. Trucks are then automatically diverted to the correct location, increasing value and revenue realised during the mining process. The technology also creates reductions of CO2 emissions per tonne of ore produced, consumption of processing chemicals and reagents, energy and water, while maximising metal recovery, MineSense says.

To support mine site operations and their ore decision making, MineSense also provides 24/7 data room technical support for continuous monitoring of all elements of system performance.

Teck forms 50:50 jv with Polymet as it targets production from Minnesota’s Iron Range

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Teck Resources has announced an agreement with PolyMet Mining Corp to form a 50:50 joint venture to advance PolyMet’s NorthMet Project and Teck’s Mesaba mineral deposit, both located in the Iron Range of Minnesota, USA.

The joint venture will be named NewRange Copper Nickel LLC, with Glencore plc retaining its majority equity interest in PolyMet and providing financial support for its share of the funding commitment to the joint venture.

“The NewRange Copper Nickel joint venture brings together two large, well defined mineral resources in the established Iron Range mining region of Minnesota,” Don Lindsay, President and CEO of Teck, said. “This agreement will help unlock a new domestic supply of critical metals for the low-carbon transition through responsible mining.”

Closing of the transaction will be subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

The NorthMet project is near both existing and closed iron ore mines and utilises existing brownfield tailings storage and plant locations to minimise environmental impact. NorthMet is expected to produce 29,000 t/d of over a 20-year permitted mine life, with first production targeted for 2026. Over its first full five years of operations, NorthMet is expected to deliver annual payable production of 30,000 t of copper, 3,600 t of nickel, 58,000 oz of palladium, and 12,000 oz of platinum.

Earlier this year, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed nearly all aspects of the water discharge permit for the NorthMet project, overruling six of the seven challenges to the permit made by mining opponents and paving the way for the “reactivation” of this key permit, PolyMet Mining Corp Chairman, President and CEO, Jon Cherry, said at the time.

The Mesaba mineral deposit, in the Duluth Complex near the NorthMet project, contains one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-nickel resources, according to Teck. While further studies and community consultations are required to fully define the long-term development potential, Mesaba represents a strategic metal resource for North America, it added.

Teck Resources looks to become ‘nature positive’ by 2030

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Teck Resources Limited is setting a goal to become a “nature positive” company by 2030, including through conserving or rehabilitating at least three hectares for every one hectare affected by its mining activities.

Teck says it is taking immediate action towards achieving this ambitious goal through land conservation investments that will protect 14,000 ha of wildlife habitat and ecosystems in Canada and Chile. This is equivalent to over 40% of its current mining footprint and equal to 40 Central Parks in New York.

“We are committed to working with local partners, communities and Indigenous Peoples to conserve ecologically and culturally significant lands and work towards the goal of becoming a nature positive mining company by 2030,” Don Lindsay, President and CEO of Teck, said. “Nature loss is a serious global challenge that we are all called on to do our part to halt and reverse. Working towards being nature positive in each region we operate builds on Teck’s long-standing commitment to biodiversity and reflects the passion of our employees for caring for the land where they live and work.”

Teck’s new conservation initiatives announced today protect 14,000 hectares and include:

  • C$2 million ($1.6 million) donation to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for the purchase and ongoing management of the nearly 8,000-ha Next Creek Watershed in the East Kootenays of British Columbia. Next Creek was the last remaining unprotected land within the Darkwoods Conservation Area and this purchase protects the ecological integrity of a conservation network that has national and international significance;
  • Donation to NCC of approximately 162 ha of Teck-owned land in the Wycliffe Wildlife Corridor, also known as the Luke Creek Conservation Corridor, near Kimberley, British Columbia, and further donation of C$600,000 for the ongoing management of the land;
  • Some 5,800 ha of a unique and high-value wetland ecosystem near Teck’s Quebrada Blanca Operations in Chile will be protected in partnership with the Ollagüe Quechua community, Teck says. Known as the Salar de Alconcha, or Alconcha Salt Flat, the lands are located northwest of the village of Ollagüe near the Bolivian border at 4,123 m above sea level. The initiative is the first of its kind in Chile;
  • An investment of C$10 million to create an Indigenous Stewardship Fund that will support Indigenous communities and partners in the development of Indigenous-focused environmental stewardship initiatives as well as engagement, education, capacity-building and participation in support of conservation objectives in regions where Teck operates; and
  • Some C$12 million in new funding to the NCC to support future high priority conservation projects in British Columbia, in addition to those announced today.

The conservation investments announced today build on Teck’s purchase of over 7,000 ha of private lands in the Elk and Flathead River Valleys of British Columbia, set aside for conservation. Teck’s purchase of these lands in 2013 was one of the single biggest private sector investments in land conservation in British Columbia history. In 2021, Teck and the Ktunaxa Nation announced the signing of a Joint Management Agreement to ensure the protection of the area’s social, cultural and ecological value.

“The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as one of the top threats humanity will face this decade and global leaders, including the G7, are calling for the world to become both net zero and nature positive,” the company said.

“For Teck, working to become nature positive means that, by 2030, our conservation, protection and restoration of land and biodiversity will exceed the disturbance caused by our mining activities from a 2020 baseline.”

Teck’s Carmen de Andacollo goes live with MineSense shovel-based ore sorting system

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Following a successful trial of a MineSense’s ShovelSense ore sorting unit at Teck Resources’ Carmen de Andacollo mine in Chile, the operation is now using the system to divert trucks in real-time, MineSense says.

The implementation of an additional ShovelSense system at CDA is now also underway, the Vancouver-based company says.

CDA is Teck Resource’s second mining operation using ShovelSense, following commercialisation in 2019 at Highland Valley Copper (HVC) in British Columbia, Canada.

“The ShovelSense results are spectacular!” Victor Araya, Teck Superintendent Geology, said, referring to the results of the trial recently completed.

All new technology introduced into the mine is rigorously tested at different stages of evaluation at scale to ensure the system works reliably in the field, according to MineSense. ShovelSense exceeded one-digit accuracy (single-digit relative error) measuring copper ore and met and exceeded expectations for all criteria in the trial: system availability; accuracy to blast hole data; and precision in the field, the company reported.

Teck CDA also recently celebrated the diversion of seven ore-from-waste trucks, which are the first of many that ShovelSense data will automatically divert to maximise ore recovery and minimise the needless transportation and processing of waste, MineSense said.

“We have now incorporated ShovelSense to decide the destination of the materials, not at the block scale, but truck to truck, due to the reading of grades on each shelf of the loading equipment… the end result is increased ore to mill tonnage and also a significant improvement in feed grade,” Araya concluded.

Claudio Toro, EVP Business Development at MineSense, added: “We are proud that Teck has chosen to partner with MineSense again, demonstrating confidence that ShovelSense is a proven and valued technology. Global mining operations are continually seeking new ways to get more value out of their mines and extend the life of mine and we are pleased to again be chosen by Teck.

“ShovelSense is a proven solution that unlocks a mine’s full potential.”

Hear more about Teck CDA’s installation on April 25 when MineSense and International Mining will be holding a joint webinar titled, ‘Ore sorting at the extraction face’ at 10 am EST/4pm CEST. Click here for more information

Canada launches MMAP project to evaluate natural resource genomic sequencing

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Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster has launched the Mining Microbiome Analysis Platform (MMAP) project, which, it says, is the largest investment in planned natural resource genomic sequencing in the history of the sector.

With breakthrough biomining solutions, the MMAP project will be the catalyst for sustainable mining practices on a global scale by replacing energy and chemical-intense resource extraction methods and improving mining site clean-up techniques, it says.

Led by Teck Resources, and in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC), BGC Engineering, Koonkie Canada, Rio Tinto, Genome BC, Allonnia, Microsoft and the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), this consortium is creating the first integrated online platform to extract the DNA from more than 15,000 mining site samples over the next two years to identify microbes that can be used to replace chemical and other legacy extraction methods for minerals and metals, and to perform safer, more effective remediation of legacy and operational mine sites. UBC’s Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining (BRIMM), in particular, has played a formative role in bringing together the private industry partners, non-profit genomics and mining sector organisations, and academic researchers crucial to this unique partnership.

The combination of technology companies, researchers, and mining sector companies provides MMAP both the critical mass to develop viable solutions and a direct pathway to commercial adoption, it says.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said: “As we transition towards our net-zero future, the mining sector can and will play a crucial role in our green recovery. We are proud to see Canadian mining leaders such as Teck Resources driving innovation and accelerating sustainable mining practices.

“Through Digital Technology Supercluster projects such as this one, we are creating well-paying jobs and breakthroughs in biomining that are important to Canada, and those advances will contribute to achieving environmental sustainability not just here but also on a global scale.”

Don Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck, added: “At Teck, we’re continually looking for the most effective ways to protect the environment while we produce the metals and minerals needed to build a better quality of life for people around the world. We’re pleased to partner on the MMAP project which stands to advance the mining industry’s collective commitment to responsible resource development.”

Mark Davies, Chief Technical Officer at Rio Tinto, said: “As an early mining user of the platform, we see the transformative potential for this microbiome-based technology to promote environmental stewardship and help us achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. By providing samples from our mines for genome sequencing, we are contributing to the potential development of breakthrough biological solutions to decarbonize the extraction and processing of metals and minerals, and to support the remediation of mine sites.”

This project is also supported by the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation as well as the Tahltan Central Government, and Illumina, a global genomics sequencing company. The Mining Microbiome Analysis Platform project has a total investment of C$16.6 million ($13.1 million) with C$12.6 million invested by industry and C$3.99 million co-invested through the Digital Supercluster’s Technology Leadership Program.

Sue Paish, CEO of the Digital Technology Supercluster, concluded: “Changing how the mining industry interacts with the natural world requires broad collaboration so that, together, we can create a more sustainable future. The Digital Supercluster is proud to see Canadian companies and organizations such as Teck, BGC Engineering, Koonkie Canada, Rio Tinto, UBC, Genome BC, Allonnia, Microsoft and the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation lead the way in cleaner natural resource extraction and more responsible site management.”

Teck Resources’ Highland Valley operation to join the Copper Mark

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Teck Resources says it has committed to the Copper Mark, a voluntary assurance framework to promote responsible production practices and demonstrate the industry’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with its Highland Valley Copper Operations, in British Columbia, Canada, becoming its first copper operation to sign up to the framework.

“Copper is critical for the transition to a low-carbon economy and we have outlined near-term plans and future opportunities for significant copper production growth in the years ahead, and we are focused on being a responsible producer of this essential metal,” Don Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck, said. “Our participation in the Copper Mark is another way we’re enhancing transparency and ensuring customers have the information they need on our performance as a responsible copper producer.”

Michèle Brülhart, Executive Director of the Copper Mark, said: “Copper has a critical role to play in the green transition as a vital material in clean energy technologies. The Copper Mark sets out a framework to verify that copper producers operate responsibly while contributing to the development of the low-carbon economy.”

To achieve the Copper Mark, Teck’s Highland Valley Copper operations will be assessed and independently verified against 32 responsible production criteria this year. Teck currently plans for its Carmen de Andacollo operations in Chile and the QB2 project in Chile, which is expected to begin production in the second half of 2022, to begin the Copper Mark assurance process in 2023.

In August, the Copper Mark announced that two of KGHM Polska Miedź SA’s operations – Glogów and Legnica (both in Poland) – had also joined the framework.

Teck, Kinross and Vale join Axora’s mining and metals digital transformation community

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Axora says it has launched the world’s first digital transformation community for the energy and metals and mining sectors.

The Axora Community intends to connect industry innovators, share the latest market research on key digital trends and initiate thought-provoking debates to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing these industries today, Axora said.

“Professionals in these two sectors face some of the world’s most dangerous environments while having to safely satisfy production demand and hit sustainability targets,” Ritz Steytler, CEO of Axora (pictured), said at the launch event in London last night. “By harnessing digital innovation, paired with knowledge sharing and collaboration, industry leaders can ensure worker safety, reduce environmental impact, and improve return on investment. That’s why we started the Axora Community.”

Axora’s two recent reports, ‘Innovation Forecast: Mining and Metals’ and ‘Innovation Forecast: Energy’, revealed that 99% of senior decision makers at energy and metals and mining firms across the world needed a global digital transformation community.

The Axora Community will include metals and mining, and energy industry professionals as well as technology providers, associations and academics. It has been set up with the help of 10 founder members and senior professionals from leading companies including Teck Resources, Kinross Gold, Vale and ArcelorMittal Europe.

Peter Stegmaier, Founding Member, Axora Community and Chairman, CLQ Global, said: “The energy and mining sectors have embraced digital transformation for some time, but there is still much room for improvement to ensure they fully realise the benefits of key growth drivers like artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and automation.

“For the first time, industry innovators will have a forum for information on digital solutions, can gain insights into how other industries are tackling similar challenges and learn best practice from their peers.”

The Axora Community intends to host exclusive webinars, invite-only roundtables, and access to live Q&A sessions with industry experts around the world. It will initially focus on the metals and mining sector and will expand to cover the energy sector at the end of this year.

Axora calls itself the digital solutions marketplace for industrial innovators, offering industrial companies a service to discover, buy and sell digital innovations for improved safety, sustainability and efficiency across their operations.

BAUER builds foundations with Teck at Red Dog mine in Alaska

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BAUER Foundation Corp and its jet grouting and Cutter Soil Mixing (CSM) methods are being put to the test in arctic conditions at Teck Resources’ Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska as part of a project to improve ground conditions at the operation.

Red Dog is one of the world’s largest zinc mines, located in the northwest of Alaska, around 170 km north of the Arctic Circle and nearly 1,000 km to the northwest of Anchorage. The mine has been operating since the late 1980s with around 10% of the world’s zinc extracted here by open-pit mining.

Its location in the Arctic Circle means the entire mine is in a geological permafrost area that keeps the ground permanently and completely frozen below a certain depth. There is, however, an active zone near the surface that thaws during the summer and refreezes during winter.

Based on an evaluation of the permafrost and soil on the site, ground improvements were identified as a prudent measure to counteract the effects of potential melting permafrost, BAUER said. To this end, BAUER Foundation was tasked by Teck with carrying out field tests using the jet grouting and CSM methods.

“The trials included detailed data capture and strict quality controls in close collaboration with Teck, the project owner, and other geotechnical consulting engineers,” Alejandro de la Rosa Knecht, Project Manager with Bauer Foundation, explained. “Trials were carried out from August to December of 2019, which ultimately identified the CSM method as the most suitable choice for the main scope of this project.”

The CSM method combines features of the diaphragm wall technique and the mixed-in-place ground improvement method (MIP). The soil is broken up using a cutter, then rearranged and mixed with an aggregate.

The trials for Red Dog also determined the extent to which existing subsoil were to be replaced with suitable filler material to facilitate later mixing.

In 2020, during the period from July to November, 50% of the pre-drilling was completed as well as 30% of the CSM. In addition, BAUER Foundation was tasked with the construction of a secant pile wall as an extension to an existing slurry wall. To achieve this, the required pile wall was integrated into the existing slurry wall and the underlying rock using primary and secondary piles. In all, 93 secant piles were constructed. A multi-purpose BAUER BG 30 drilling rig with special Arctic equipment along with various drilling tool and mixer sets were used for the execution of all the works.

One of the main challenges was the mobilisation of equipment in the limited time provided by the schedule, BAUER said. However, the required special equipment was mobilised in record time. Some equipment was transported by plane and then by ship from Seattle Harbour across the Bering Sea to a dock just over 80 km from the mine. Other equipment was transported via Hercules aircraft from Anchorage airport to the airport on the mine site. This logistical success was made possible by close collaboration with various BAUER subsidiaries and Teck, BAUER said.

“The remote and isolated location, the long deployment times and accommodation in camps pose additional challenges, as do the extreme Arctic climate conditions, precautionary measures associated with the corona pandemic and the specific safety requirements of the mining industry,” de la Rosa Knecht said.

Despite all these challenges, the Bauer and client teams were able to successfully conclude trial work between August and December 2019 and the first phase of production activities between July and November 2020.

The final production phase, which includes CSM and demobilisation, is due to be completed by June 2021.

Technology symposium set to uncover new mineral exploration techniques

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An eclectic mix of topics including the use of bacterial DNA to determine mineral deposits, hyperspectral imaging of core samples and the rise of quantitative data analysis will be discussed at a two-day conference presented by IMDEX.

The IMDEX Xploration Tech Symposium, usually held in Vancouver, Canada, will this year be held online on January 12-13 featuring a range of international speakers. The conference brings together experts at the forefront of innovation in the mining and exploration industries and will examine the latest in new technologies, tools, and advanced analytics, the mining tech company says.

Among the speakers will be Chad Hewson, Manager, Geophysics and Innovation, at Teck Resources; Dr Ralf Tappert, Co-Founder of Hyperspectral Intelligence; and Dr Thomas Bissig, a consultant geoscientist with over 25 years of experience.

Dr Bissig and colleague Bianca Phillips, a PhD student, will discuss the use of unconventional techniques for geochemical exploration including bacterial DNA, gases and selectively sampling areas where seismic pumping may have occurred to determine potential sub-surface deposits.

“(Bacterial DNA) is a technique that really only has become a possibility with increased computing power and lower costs of genomic sequencing,” Dr Bissig said. “It’s a great example of interdisciplinary research. The biologists and the geologists can work together to find deposits.”

Dr Bissig added: “We’re still learning how bacteria specifically respond to the geochemistry. An example would be bacteria that eat sulphides for their energy source; if you have sulphides in the ground which typically are associated with elements of interest that we would like to mine, we can detect sulphides in DNA.”

He said early studies in Canada’s Northwest Territories had returned “compelling signals, much better than conventional grid sampling of soils”.

Seismic pumping is the assessment of elements brought to the surface in water during seismic events. This is where Dr Tappert’s focus on developing a robust, portable hyperspectral scanning tool for examining core samples comes in, with the result being the geoLOGr rock analyser (pictured). Hyperspectral Intelligence has sold geoLOGR units to mining companies in Canada and South Africa.

“Spectroscopy is relatively simple technology,” Dr Tappert said. “You just have to put it into the right instrument and make it usable for mines and exploration companies.”

He said companies were putting more effort into collecting basic data.

“The drill core logging is the basic information that the entire mine relies upon, especially with deposits where you’ll have marginal grades. It really depends on the accuracy of your basic geological model to make the mine feasible or not.

“Companies have realised this is important, and spectroscopy plays a key role. It’s essentially the only method that you can use to collect continuous compositional information from the drill core.”

Hewson’s presentation, meanwhile, will examine the move from qualitative to quantitative data interpretation using existing and emerging technologies.

“That could be from field-portable tools or drilling technology, whether it be in-hole or in the core shack, and then methods which will transform the data into quantitative geoscience products,” he said.