Canada's mild winter disrupts key ice road to remote Arctic diamond mines
© Reuters. The winter road is seen in the background of an aerial photograph of Rio Tinto's Diavik Diamond Mine in the North Slave Region of Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories, Canada February 12, 2015. Rio Tinto/Handout via REUTERS.
The delays in building the Winter Road, which first became operational in 1982, have happened in the past, but this year's is the longest delay in recent years, according to Tom Hoefer, senior advisor to the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.Climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, coupled with the emergence of the natural El Nino climate pattern, pushed the world into record heat territory in 2023.
On warmer days, the engineers have found ways to trick nature by creating artificial ice using giant sprinklers to spray water high up in the air so that they cool and form thick layer of ice when they fall. The Winter Road costs C$25 million to operate for two months, which is shared by the three companies based on goods transported on the road and distance traveled.
The lack of infrastructure is a challenge and the shortened seasonal use of the ice road could hurt investments needed to mine critical minerals. "It is a chicken-and-egg situation, the mining companies probably won't come unless there is some infrastructure, it's just too expensive," said Heather Exner-Pirot, director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment program at Macdonald-Laurier Institute.Mining groups are pushing for a mega infrastructure project that connects NWT to Nunavut that runs through the diamond mines could help unlock the mineral riches in the region.
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