Upper Ramona Hydro Project
CanMine provided a full-service design-build package including labour, equipment, materials, and site infrastructure for this greenfield site. The private power hydroelectric project consisted of over 1,800m of underground workings for conveyance of water from a mountain top lake reservoir to a surface penstock pipe. CanMine’s scope included the excavation of 1,223m of lower tunnel using mechanized drill & blast techniques, 528m of Alimak raise, 68m of conventionally driven sub-drift, a lake tap blast, and supporting underground civil and mechanical construction.
Project Details
The lower tunnel was excavated without remucks and was completed at a rate of 6.8m per day. This was accomplished by utilizing specialized equipment including narrow body haul trucks, a Häggloader continous loader, and a computerized jumbo drill.
The Alimak raise, one of Canada’s longest, broke through directly on target and within 17m of the mountain top lake.
The sub-drift, located near the top of the Alimak raise, was excavated with jacklegs and a slusher in order reach the lake breakthrough location. The lake tap was completed with a fully submerged, single opportunity blast to complete the connection between the underground workings and the lake.
The video is a record of the successful lake tap blast at our Upper Ramona project. The blast was 32m under the lake surface and at the end of a 65m long lake tap tunnel. The blast connected the lake to the 1800m of rock excavation we completed which included a 528m long Alimak raise. Note the delay after the blast button is pressed, the Ikon system doing a final cap check before firing, the suspense of these long seconds turned to relief as we heard the caps fire.
