Gold mining development driving the need for efficient electrical service in remote First Nations
Musselwhite mine looks for more power
11/13/2008
A better-than-expected yield at the Musselwhite Mine 480 kilometres north of Thunder Bay could have electrifying implications for 13 First Nation communities that rely on expensive diesel generation for power.
The gold mine, given a 10-year life expectancy when it opened in 1997, could remain productive as long as 2028. But that’s only possible if a new $70-million, 250-kilometre transmission line is built to connect the remote fly-in site with the provincial electricity grid at Ignace.
The mine now excavates about 4,000 tonnes a day, and would like to increase that by 25 per cent to 5,000 tonnes a day.
Gil Lawson, Musselwhite Mine general manager, said the facility’s planned expansion over the next couple of years will dramatically increase the company’s power needs.
The mine gets its 19 megawatts of power though a 65-year-old E1C circuit emanating from a generating station in Ear Falls.
The immediate expansion plans at Musselwhite – a flotation circuit next year and a shaft sinking in 2010 – could require as much as 26 megawatts of electricity, a number that will continue to grow, Lawson said.
'By 2020 we could be as high as 36 megawatts,' Lawson said. 'We know we have a problem. We have to solve it.'
First Nation communities have additional requirements, between 2.25 and 18 megawatts, he added.
'It’s not a Musselwhite problem, it’s a regional issue,' Lawson said.
To find a solution, they’re going to need government co-operation, though Lawson said it was too early to determine just what that assistance might entail.
The Ontario Power Authority declared portions of Northwestern Ontario as an orange zone, meaning there is no capacity on the existing grid to increase the electricity flow.
Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle planned to tour Musselwhite Mine Thursday, but was grounded because of winter weather conditions outside of Thunder Bay. He said he plans to go back to cabinet, explain the situation and ask the province to lift the designation to allow Musselwhite to proceed with the project.
'We’re keen to sustain economic development,' Gravelle told a small crowd at Musselwhite’s Thunder Bay office, a meeting that was linked to First Nations communities in the North as well as officials at the mine.
Frank McKay, CEO and council chairman at Windigo First Nation, was also on hand, representing the First Nations Central Corridor Energy Corporation, and said the aboriginal communities he represents have more to gain than hydro savings.
'We’re starting to look at a run-of-the-river system,' he said, explaining that it could allow First Nations people to create green energy to supply much of their own needs and then sell excess back to the grid.
It’s a far cry from the situation today, said Margaret Kenequanash, the executive director of Sioux Lookout’s Shibogama First Nation.
'The capacity that they have right now, a lot of them are at the maximum level with their energy needs and our communities are growing,' she said, citing growing infrastructure needs not unfamiliar to Ontario municipalities.
Howard Boland, electrical co-ordinator at Musselwhite, said the timeline to have the transmission line in place is three to three-and-a-half years.