NORTHERN TRANSPORTATION: ROADS TO NEW TREASURES

Written by:

Ken Johnson, M.A.Sc., P.Eng.

Transportation systems and capabilities are quite different in each of Canada’s three Northern Territories. Transportation infrastructure ranges from an all-weather highway system in the Yukon, to a marine sealift operating to the beaches in Nunavut. In between, resupply systems to many communities are seasonally constrained winter roads and/or summer barge services. Air transportation is the only year-round system, and this is often constrained by unpredictable and extreme weather in many locations across the Northern Territories.

The new territory of Nunavut relies extensively on a seasonal marine based resupply system, which operates from July through October. The Northwest Territories (NWT) combines a summer marine system, and winter road system to create a two season transportation network extending from all-weather highways. The Yukon accesses the trans-border Alaska Highway with a well-developed highway system.

Bulk fuel transportation is the largest requirement in each territory. In the Baffin and Hudson Bay Regions of Nunavut, fuel supply is delivered by tanker ships from foreign refineries, at substantial savings over Canadian sources. In the Western Arctic and Mackenzie Valley, fuel supply is delivered with a combination of rail and barge delivery. In the balance of the Western NWT and Yukon Territory, fuel is delivered by truck.

Dry cargo to the Baffin Region of Nunavut is delivered with small coastal vessels from the Port of Montreal. Dry cargo resupply to the rest of Nunavut and the NWT is provided by tug and barge operations based in Hay River, NWT. Highway transport capability for dry freight resupply is limited to the Great Slave Lake area, the lower Mackenzie Valley via the Dempster Highway, and along the Alaska, Klondike and Dempster Highways in the Yukon.

Air cargo capability in Nunavut and the NWT is extremely important to many communities, where surface resupply by water or winter road is seasonally constrained. The resulting situation for these Territories is a huge air cargo requirement for a very small population base.

Transportation costs are a tremendous burden on northern communities and northern enterprise, and are a limiting factor on many projects (see Table 1). An extreme example of cost is the Polaris ore recovery plant at 75°N latitude, which cost $7 million to build in 1981. The same structure in the south would have been constructed for $450,000 in 1981. At Polaris, one tonne of cement currently costs $110, while in the south that same cement costs $23. Overall, transporting 50 kilograms to Polaris currently costs $252 compared to $20 for the same quantity of goods in the south.

TABLE 1 TYPICAL TRANSPORTATION RATES TO NORTHERN CENTERS
	Eastern Sealift to Iqaluit	Hudson Bay Barge to Rankin Inlet	Western Sealift to Cambridge Bay	Yellowknife Highway to Yellowknife	Alaska Highway to Whitehorse
Bulk Fuel	$0.05/litre	$0.23/litre	$0.29/litre	$0.07/litre	$0.05/litre
Dry Freight	$393/tonne	$574/tonne	$696/tonne	$120/tonne	$162/tonne

The Northwest and Nunavut Territories contain over 30 percent of Canada’s land area. However, the Territories have only 2,200 kilometres of all-weather roads, which translates into the statistic that less than 10 percent of the land area is within 100 kilometres of all-weather road access.

An increasing influence on the road transportation within the Northwest and Nunavut Territories has been the Slave Geologic Province (SGP). The Slave Geologic Province is a treasure rich area of the Canadian Shield covering approximately 190,000 km² of the Territories, extending 600 kilometres northeast from Yellowknife to the Arctic Coast in a band approximately 300 kilometres wide. (See Figure 1.)

At the present time, the region boasts several gold mines, and North America’s first diamond mine, Ekati, near Lac de Gras. Many other significant gold, base metal and diamond deposits have been identified, and there is considerable potential for new mineral deposits to be discovered. (See Table 2.)

TABLE 2 SIGNIFICANT MINERAL DEPOSITS IN THE SLAVE GEOLOGICAL PROVINCE
Deposit Owner		Resource Grade	Resource Tonnes	Status
Lupin	Echo Bay	8.8 gpt Gold	1.6M	Temporarily Closed
Ekati	BHP/Diamet	1.09 Ct/t Diamonds 77.7 gpt Silver	65.9M	Operational
Diavik	Diavik/Aber	3.3 Ct/t Diamonds	37.3M	Preconstruction
Izok Lake	Inmet	14.6% Zinc	14.9M	Feasibility
George/Goose Lake	Kit	9.88 gpt Gold	4.7M	Feasibility
Jericho	Lytton	1.11 Ct/t Diamonds	3.8M	Feasibility
Ulu	Echo Bay	11 gpt Gold	1.7M	Prefeasibility
Hackett	Cominco Etruscan	0.45 gpt Gold 149.8 gpt Silver	19.5M	Exploration
Yava	Westmin	1.71 gpt Gold 100 gpt Silver	2.0M	Exploration
Musk	Noranda Kingswood	1.71 gpt Gold 10.87 gpt Silver	0.4M	Exploration

gpt denotes gram per tonne.

ct/t denotes carat per tonne.

An all-weather access road only reaches to Yellowknife, which lies at the southern portion of the SGP. From the north, access to the northern portion of the SGP is limited to the seasonal marine shipping route through the Coronation Gulf to Bathurst Inlet. A privately constructed winter road extends two-thirds of the way from Yellowknife to the Coronation Gulf, and has traditionally resupplied the Lupin gold mine, which is currently idle because of low gold prices. This road is constructed yearly and operates for about 12 weeks each season. The road is also used to facilitate mining exploration, to resupply the Ekati Mine, and will be used for the construction supply to the $1.2 billion Diavik Mine.

Although the winter road has served the region well in the past, the future development potential of the region may be limited without an all-weather road system. Other benefits associated with an all-weather corridor include increased opportunities for tourism, increased training, employment, ownership and investment opportunities in the mining sector, and increased economic activity in the service sectors.

In response to this concern and opportunity, two scenarios for future access to the SGP have emerged from different interests. The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is proposing a south to north road from Yellowknife. Nuna Logistics, a private corporation, is proposing a north to south road and ferry system from Bathurst Inlet.

A report on transportation economics has recently been completed for the Department of Transportation of the GNWT. The report concludes that the time is not right for an all-season road into the SGP, and that it might be more feasible and economic for it to come in from the north rather than the south.

The report summary states that it would be more economically responsible to build a road from Bathurst Inlet to the southern end of Contwoyto Lake (near the Lupin Mine) at a cost of approximately $180 million. To reach the same area from Yellowknife near Lupin is estimated to cost between $380 million and $430 million.

The report summary goes on to state that the current level of exploration and mining activity in the SGP does not warrant the cost of building a road at this time from either direction. It suggests that the present ice road situation could serve the needs of the area for another decade.

Although the timing for a road may be subject to a lot of speculation, the south to north versus north to south corridor remains a subject of a continuing discussion in the technical, economic, environmental, and social realms.

The north to south road and the associated transportation systems has already been conceptually engineered by Nuna Logistics. A proposed port and road construction from the north would lie almost entirely within the Nunavut Territory, with the approximate position of the port at 66°N latitude and 110°W longitude.

Marine access to the proposed port site would be seasonal from August to October. With the capacities of the ocean vessels and the large storage facilities proposed for the port, product movement could occur eight months of the year (December to April, August to October).

The road corridor and the port site are all within the region of continuous permafrost. Permafrost characteristics would influence design requirements; for example, special consideration would be given to prevent permafrost degradation and related environmental impacts. The proposed road design would have a running surface of 10 metres, and a working depth of 1.5 metres.

The port site would require loading, unloading and storage facilities for metal concentrates, fuel and bulk supplies. A single berth dock constructed of sheet piling filled with quarry run rock would accommodate 50,000 tonne class deep draft vessels. The development at the port site would include site roads, laydown areas, an airstrip, a camp, shop facilities and cold storage.

The main products passing through the port to the road would be ore concentrates and fuel. With the short shipping season and the need to use ice-class vessels, the loading and unloading equipment would be of sufficient size and duty to minimize turnaround time.

The planning horizon to complete this route is an ambitious two years.

The decision on the alignment of the road to new treasures remains undecided, and the money to build the road remains uncommitted. However, the major political interests, which include the Government of the NWT, and NWT communities to the south, and the Nunavut Government and Inuit companies to the north, continue to promote their proposed alignment to any potential financial resource.

REFERENCES

• Prolog Canada, Northern Territories Transportation Study, 1998.
• Department of Transportation, Government of the Northwest Territories, Highway Strategy Initiative, January 1999. Canadian Civil Engineer.
• Nunalogistics Ltd., Road and Port Infrastructure Project, Bathurst Inlet, Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut, CSCA Annual Conference, June 1999.
• The Hub, DOT Study, April 1999.
• News North, Mining Costs, March 1999.