...conducting innovative research for the Mining Industry!

The Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals, and Materials
The University of British Columbia
Department of Mining Engineering
6350 Stores Road, Vancouver,
V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada
Tel: (604) 822-6217 Fax: (604) 822-5599
Email: cerm3@mining.ubc.ca

Plugging the "Bugs":
The Millennium Plug Stops Pollution

Home

The Millennium

Plug

Bacteriophage for

ARD

Magnetic Levitation

Hoisting

Codisposal of

Tailings and Waste

Rock

Mercury

Detoxification

Growing Metals

Energy Efficiency

Bioindicators

of Pollution

Keeping the Roof

from Falling

Geothermal Energy

in Canada

Industrial Growth

from Pollution

Robotics

Island Copper's

Pit Lake

Sulfate Reducing

Bacteria for

Mitigating ARD

Sustainable

Communities

Soils Research

PCIGR

Education of the

Sustainable

Engineer

Human Resources -

Training the Miner

of the 21st Century

Sustainable

Mining?

Integration of

Engineering and

Health Care

ISM - a new

NCE Program

in Canada

CERM3

Collaborations

UBC-CERM3 installs The Millennium Plug at Britannia Mine and Contributes Directly to the Mine Closure Plan  

Brennan Lang,

President of TSS Tunnel and Shaft Sealing Inc., Squamish, B.C.

Mine Manager, Britannia Mines and Reclamation Corporation

An innovative method to seal mine tunnels has been developed and tested at UBC which has the potential to reduce the cost of mine closure and ensure a long-lasting solution to mine closure issues. Mining companies would prefer a "walk-away" solution because of the high costs associated with long-term monitoring of a site. In most cases, a concrete plug is placed within a tunnel to prevent effluent from being released to the environment and prevent curious individuals from entering into the dangerous conditions in the mine - potential rock falls and lack of adequate air.

Unfortunately some effluent conditions are such that the concrete degrades over time - for example, acidic waters will dissolve concrete causing the structure to fail. Another way that failure may occur is by cracking of the concrete when it is subjected to stress over time or to seismic vibrations. Basically, the material is just too rigid and brittle.

CERM3 together with TSS Tunnel and Shaft Sealing have designed a new approach to sealing that has this problem solved as well as several others. We have dubbed this method THE MILLENNIUM PLUG in recognition of the new century we have entered and as a suggestion of the possible lifetime of such a structure.

The Millennium Plug has the following advantages:

• it is built with locally-available materials

• it is cheaper to build than a concrete plug

• it does not require grouting of the surrounding rock mass

• it is much more resistant to chemical attack than concrete

• it is much more resistant to seismic events

• it can be designed to last for a 1000 years (a walk-away solution)

In December 2001, a facility was installed in the 2200 Level tunnel of the old Britannia Mine, a place where dangerous acidic effluent was flowing into Britannia Creek and into the surface waters of Howe Sound. This facility provides UBC-CERM3 with the capabilities to conduct research into these earth plugs and derive design guidelines for other operations around the world. By installing this Research Station in a full-scale site, scale-up issues from the laboratory are eliminated providing significant credibility to the work. In addition by locating the facility in the 2200 Level tunnel, all of the pollution to Britannia Creek has been diverted back into the mine to flow with all other effluent down to a single point source discharge at the 4100 Level just behind the BC Museum of Mining.

The following environmental benefits have accrued because of this installation:

•  all effluent exits the mine from a single point source

•  all effluent has been eliminated from the Britannia Creek system and the surface waters of Howe Sound

• about 15 to 20 percent of the copper contained in the effluent is now precipitating inside the mine

• the first stage of the Remediation Plans for Britannia Beach is now completed

To view a detailed presentation of the Millennium Plug at Britannia Mine click here.