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Locally conceived and constructed, a massive man-made ‘pond’ is the latest tool used by the Victor Mine team to keep the mine free of water.
The staging pond, built by the Victor team over the past months, is capable of holding 90,000 cubic metres of water. Built into the eastern end of the Victor pit, the pond was commissioned last month.
The new pond was required to increase water management efficiency in removing in-pit water from the 250 metre-deep pit. Water will be pumped from the bottom to the new pond, where it will stay for about three days, long enough for sediments to settle out. From the pond, water will then be pumped into the existing water management infrastructure of the mine.
The Victor team manages about 75,000 m3 of natural occurring ground water each day, collected from inside the pit and from wells drilled around the perimeter.
Building the pond was a complex job. It measures 535 metres in circumference around the top and is 20 metres deep. A geotechnical review was required as part of the planning, to ensure the 20 metre thick rock saddle separating the pond from the rest of the pit would be able to safely hold the water. Construction required 594,000 tonnes of rock previously mined from the pit. It took 19,500 m2 of special water-tight material to line the pit.
“You have to have a passionate group to work through the heat, the cold and everything in between to get a project like this completed,” said Kevin Smith, project lead. “The vast amount of time and resources from all departments here at Victor was certainly a joint effort and together we’re maximizing the life of the mine and while safely and responsibly managing a tremendous amount of water.”