Reliable waste management solution needed in extreme north

Waste challenge: Ensure that waste management associated with a gold mine in Nunavut, is managed comprehensively, environmentally safely – and will operate well in extreme cold. It was also important that any solution was reliable, because the remote location means that it’s not easy to just ‘call a tech’ if something goes wrong. Additionally, the mine generated large amounts of waste oil each day.

Location: Nunavut, Canada, north of Rankin Inlet – where temperatures are rarely above 5C and typically well below -35C.

Our solution: Our ECO-1.5TN system, designed to process up to 1500kg of solid and semi-solid waste every day. We customized it with a high-output waste oil burner, tank and piping package which allowed processing of up to 100l of waste oil per hour during the burn process (8-10 hours/day).

Results: The high-output waste-oil burner was groundbreaking – it was the first time a high-output WOB was integrated into a containerized waste management solution in the world. Additionally, the waste oil burner not only addresses the large amount of waste oil at the site, it also uses that waste fuel to operate the system, in lieu of diesel.

Our deployable waste handling system can support a community of 700 people, without having to fly waste materials in or out of the mine area. Via our joint venture partner, Nuqsana, we are currently training Inuit Beneficiaries to operate and maintain the incinerator package on-site, thus providing additional support for the community.

And of course our client has reduced its waste management and fuel costs significantly.