Trailblazer Winter/Spring 2020 Ice Road Trucking: The Trucking Industry’s Most Infamous Work By Sarah Jensen The cool blue ice peeks through the snow on Brabant Lake. In This Issue: f there is one thing Saskatchewanians love more than Pilsner and perogies, it’s Icomplaining about the weather. The deep freeze; it seems to catch us off-guard every Ice Road Trucking 1 year. The excitement of the holiday season and the New Year has abated and we’re Beyond Uranium 4 settling into hibernation mode. January and February can be a bit bleak in Saskatchewan. This year, March has been pretty miserable, too. Forget those resolutions; we need PDAC 2020 Convention 6 all our coping mechanisms to get through the coldest months of the year! And if the weather isn’t bad enough, this year we have the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 to Northern Career Fairs 8 worry about too. COVID-19 Mine Closures 9 For everyone at Northern Resource Trucking, though, cold weather comes with its own Spotlight: Marianne Thomas 10 silver—or is it golden?—lining. Farewell: Wayne Grewcock 11 This time of year at NRT is a busy one. Steady runs into the uranium mines keep the regular fleet trucking. When the mills are in operation, the mines tend to be busy with What’s Your Friggin’ Problem? 11 Northern Lens 12 Partnership at Work My What Big Teeth You Have: NRT’s ice road mainenance crew uses a huge chainsaw to make plunge cuts every 500 meters in the middle and at both edges of the iceroad. all their usual bulk and freight orders. Propane trucks are plot the road’s course,” NRT President Dave McIlmoyl going full tilt to keep up with cold-weather demands, too. explains. “When the ice is thick enough to support the Although concerns about the spread of COVID-19 have weight of their Snow Cats they blade the snow off the ice added some extra health and safety measures for drivers to make the road one hundred feet wide.” and mine employees, as of the time of this article, trucks are still heading north. Removing the snow actually helps the ice build faster and stronger. Thick snow creates a blanket of insulation Icy weather means icy roads. Drivers deal with extreme that slows the freezing process and can result in softer cold and brutal weather conditions on rough, remote ice. Once the ice is exposed, the cold is better able to roads throughout the season. There’s one road that’s penetrate and the road hardens up more quickly. When pretty smooth all winter, though, and that’s the ice road the ice is thick enough, plow trucks and graders maintain for SGO Mining Inc.’s Seabee Gold Operation. Because the road. This traffic actually helps to build the ice, too. of Seabee’s remote location, supplies must be flown in during spring, summer, and fall months. As you can NRT measures the ice thickness and determines when imagine, this is very expensive! The mine tries to get in it is safe to put their trucks on the road. Although the as much of its non-perishable supplies during the winter road into Seabee is a private one, SSR Mining and NRT ice road season to save costs. That means NRT’s ice road follow the same system as provincial and territorial dispatchers and drivers are working tirelessly to get governments of Saskatchewan and the Northwest those loads organized and delivered on time. Territories to determine the thickness of the ice. Thirty inches of clear, blue ice is required to haul a maximum of The ice road is such a staple of the season with NRT that 80,000 lbs of gross vehicle weight. it is easy to take for granted. But there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make each season safe and In past years, NRT sent a half-ton truck, two men, and a successful. chainsaw out to do plunge cut testing in the middle and outer edges of the road. These cuts were made every “First, SGO Mining sends someone out on a Skidoo to 500 meters. This would be done multiple times so that Toothless New Tech: The new ground penetrating radar system purchased by NRT measures the thickness of the ice much more quickly than the plunge cut method. 2 Ice, Ice, Baby: Thirty inches of clear, blue ice is required to drive an 80,000 lbs truck and trailer across the Brabant Lake ice road. Lighter loads are used earlier in the season to help build the thickness of the ice. every 100 meters of the road was tested by the end of Typically, ice road work is finished before April. Closer the season. to spring, the road becomes much more difficult to maintain. Muskegs and springs start to flow which can This year, NRT has invested in a new ground penetrating cause overflow onto the ice, or the ice recedes from the radar system. The radar system is housed inside a plastic shore. Portages can also become too soft and rutted in toboggan that can be pulled behind a Skidoo or pick- the strong spring sunshine. up truck. It sends a beam straight down which bounces back when it hits the water. This information is sent The opening and closing dates of the ice road vary from via Bluetooth to an industrial strength tablet computer year to year depending on temperatures and snowfall designed to operate in extreme conditions. If the radar levels. Some years the ice has been ready in early system detects any variations in the ice thickness, a January, and some years see extensions into April, but an manual plunge test is conducted with the chainsaw in early start doesn’t usually translate into a longer season. order to verify the results. “Our experience has been that the earlier you start, the These radar systems—built and designed by Sensors & earlier the road goes out,” McIlmoyl says. “The later you Software Inc. in Mississauga, Ontario—are used around start, the later the road goes out. For some reason, the the world including ice roads in northern Europe and ice only seems to last six to eight weeks.” Russia as well as in northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. This is why NRT’s ice road dispatchers have such an important job. No matter how many loads of freight The 2020 ice road season began on February 7th, starting the mine has ordered in a given year, the time NRT has with loads of 60,000 lbs (gross vehicle weight) on 28 to get it in to them is limited. This year comes with an inches of ice. After one week of lighter loads, the ice additional challenge for drivers and dispatchers as NRT’s thickened enough to allow for fully loaded trucks to start regular Seabee dispatcher, Shirley Rempel, had to leave crossing. All loads are expected to be in before the end midway through the season for health reasons. Freight of March. dispatcher, John Newell, trained with Rempel at the It’s a Long Slow Road into Seabee: Loaded trucks rucks are limited to 20km/hr on the ice and unloaded trucks are limited to 30km/hr. This makes the trip across Brabant Lake feel like a pretty long haul! The ice road is only about 70km long, but the trip takes hours. 3 beginning of the season and has now taken over the unloaded trucks at 25 km/hr on the ice. Outgoing trucks remainder of the workload. must wait on site or on the portages until incoming trucks are off the ice to avoid having trucks meet in the “Shirley did a great job organizing the season,” Newell middle of the lake. says. “We started out 2-3 weeks behind and finished 3-4 weeks ahead of regular schedule! But I’m glad it’s almost “On an ice road, you don’t get any prizes for pushing over, to be honest. I’ve been working for 45 days straight the limits,” McIlmoyl says. NRT’s ice road policies are and I’m ready for a break!” designed with that in mind. Safety is of paramount importance to both NRT and SGO While the 2020 season has had some different challenges Mining, so every measure is taken to ensure that drivers, from other years, NRT is prepared to handle it. After all, equipment, and cargo make it through the season in one northern trucking is all about overcoming challenges piece. Ice marshals patrol the ice all season and trucks that others in the industry would balk at. Adapting to a convoy in and out of the mine, communicating via radio. quickly changing schedule and environment is what the team at NRT does best. ● Loaded trucks are only able to travel at 15 km/hr and Icy Sightseeing: The ice road may look like a wide, flat, white highway but ice road drivers are often treated to front-row seats to some beautiful sights as they cross Brabant Lake. Sunrises and sunsets and the local wildlife keep things lively! Beyond the Green: Adaptability is the Key to Success in a Shifting Market by Sarah Jensen any Saskatchewan businesses have found of the richest sources of water, lumber, oil, gas, metals, Mthemselves in a crunch lately. Whether they are and minerals in the world. When the world isn’t buying, already feeling the pinch of a tightening belt or are though, it’s tough to transform that natural wealth into conserving resources for an uncertain future, there is no cold hard cash.