In partnership with Edge Factor, take a Virtual Workplace Tour with Impala, Lac Des Iles Mine, and gain a better understanding of the Mining Industry. Experience the various stages of production and learn about the careers and opportunities that exist within this industry. We will explore how palladium ore is extracted and the diverse processes it undergoes until it reaches completion.
Two hours north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. A group of teachers arrive at Lac des Iles Mine. They’re there to tour the facility and get a better understanding of the mine industry. The tour will show them various stages of production. After finishing a safety and management meeting, they prepare to go underground.
They put on their PPE or personal protective equipment in the system. They’re registered as guests and give and given tags, which go onto the board indicating that they’re heading underground. Everyone underground is accounted for at all times. With everything ready to go, they head for the elevator shaft,
Which will take them deep underground. The mine is over one kilometer deep, So I’m feeling a little bit nervous going underground just because I never have been. But I’m also very excited Mining is the process of extracting useful materials from the earth. Almost everything we use is made with materials
That have come outta the ground. Your phone, for example, contains over 40 elements. Some are sourced from minerals and some are earth elements, including gold in the electronics, carbon in the frame, and lithium in the battery. Electric cars require 14 mined materials. Solar panels require 19. Wind turbines, 17.
Whether you wanna watch tv, check your discord messages, get an X-ray, or put on a pair of socks. Almost everything either contains mined materials or was fabricated using machines that contain mined materials. When you start to see the product that’s running through the mill that’s going to be used,
It’s really nice to see that. Okay, our job is purpose-driven palladium is Very important right now because of the catalytic converter industry. We need it to make cars and it’s becoming pretty rare to find. There are five stages in the mining lifecycle exploration where we look for material deposits to be mined.
Evaluation, where we evaluate the economic, environmental, and social feasibility of the project construction, where we build an actual mining facility around material deposits, production and processing, where we actually extract the material from the ground mine closure, where we close down the mine when materials depleted
And return the land to a beneficial use to stakeholders, indigenous rights holders, and the environment. Care for the environment occurs throughout all stages of the lifecycle. As we actively work to reduce the environmental footprint. Through progressive reclamation and environmental monitoring, prospectors and exploration companies, research
And select target areas that have the highest probability of containing extractable materials, geochemical mapping, as well as many types of geochemical and geophysical surveys can take place. Eventually, a valuable material is discovered. Once material is discovered geological technical and environmental analysis is employed, companies get community input, calculate costs,
And consider the overall feasibility of the project. Permits. Leases and licenses are required. Financing and government approved closure plans are secured. After all approvals and permits have been obtained and enough money is raised. Construction begins building roads, environmental management systems, employee housing and processing facilities.
These initial three stages are years in the making. Once the mine facilities are built, it can begin operations. The production and processing phase is essentially when the mine is operating. Mining materials from the ground. As the teachers head underground, they’ll see the operation phase of the mine. This phase includes the mining
And processing of raw materials. In this mine, the rare chemical element being mined is palladium. It is quite rare and in high demand in the electronics and automotive industries to extract palladium ore. Miners use drilling and blasting techniques to break apart the rock and expose the palladium bearing ores.
I’ve got to drill a hole here, but I’ve got to be six inches from that hole. Drill holes are strategically placed and the explosives are used to create controlled explosions that fragment the rock into manageable pieces. The broken ore is then loaded onto trucks and transported to the processing plant
For further treatment during the production and processing phase, tools and machinery are in constant maintenance cycle. In fact, there are large equipment repair facilities built underground in the mine with mechanics working full-time to keep everything running as it should. Right now, I was just closing some work orders we completed on the machine.
Normally just fix whatever’s broken, changing major parts, or adjusting the systems like hydraulic pressures. And it all depends what today holds. You make a great living good income, you work with great people and you’ll learn a lot At the processing plant. The aura is further crushed and ground into smaller particles
To increase the surface area for chemical reactions. This is done with SAG milling where the ore is placed in a large rotating cylinder, eventually pulverizing itself. This prepares the ore for the extraction of palladium and other valuable metals. Various techniques are used to separate the valuable minerals from the crushed ore,
Froth, flotation gravity, separation, and other mineral processing methods can be used to concentrate the palladium rich material and remove impurities. Froth. Flotation is a process where the crushed or powder is dumped into a water solution and agitated or stirred. The palladium rich materials float to the surface
And form a froth while the unwanted materials settle at the bottom. Through a complex and multi-step process, the froth is extracted and becomes a concentrate powder. So this is our final product. So this is our palladium concentrate. So this is the end of the line. After we float it, we dewater it
And we pump it all into this bay where we then feed it into trucks where we sell it to our smelters and they do the final refining. A mine can operate for decades before the material is depleted, but eventually, even the largest deposits will become depleted and operations will stop.
This here is our rolly pit. This part of the mine is decommissioned. Now they, they mine it from the underground. We do have lots of overburden that we stockpile to the side every, all the time for reclamation when that date Comes. At this point, the mine will need
To be responsibly shut down and land return to a use. Identified as beneficial to local stakeholders and uses might be open space, wildlife, habitat, agriculture, or residential and commercial development. It’s important to remember that care for the environment and consultation with local communities occurs throughout the entire mind life cycle.
Mind life offers a unique style of work life balance. There are different rotations, some seven days on, seven days off. Other are two weeks on, two weeks off. At this palladium mine. Employees arrive from all over the country, stay on site for the rotation, and then go home.
This means they only work for six months of the year. The other six months, they get to do whatever they want to. Vacations, hobbies, family time side hustles, endless possibilities. The industry pays well too. Salaries average well over a hundred thousand dollars a year.
Being on site for up to two weeks might sound daunting to some, but the impressive amenities might change your mind. Camp Life has really been created to help us feel like we’re home away from home. You know, we have the gym, we have the social house,
We have the nice kitchen that we can sit in and chat with. Not even our own crew, but other people at the mine. It’s just a really nice way to, to kind of wind down and relax at the end of your long shift. Job demand is high, so the mining industry is doing
What it can to bring in new people. I’m excited to see where the mining industry goes. I’m excited to see where I go within the mining industry, because you can go anywhere. There Are hundreds of career options available in mining, like a mineral processing operator, heavy equipment operator, electrical engineer, geologist,
Or survey technician just to name a few. Mining has always depended on innovative problem solving, and today is no different from data analytics. Advanced robotics, virtual reality to drones. Cutting edge technology is a part of almost every aspect of mining operations.
As a chemist in a lab, I was making around $14 an hour, very difficult to make ends meet, and when I got the opportunity to work here, my salary almost doubled. And since I’ve been here, I’ve able to develop my skills more than I thought I ever would.
Huge variety of work that you could do. If you don’t like one job, there’s a hundred other jobs you can try. So many skills to learn, so many things to see. As the teachers finish up the tour, they take in a presentation about the geology of the mine afterwards.
They go on a short hike to the lake and reflect on the whole experience. It’s pretty impressive how advanced it is with all the different technologies that has been put In place. Today’s visit was absolutely fantastic. Every time I come out, I learn something new. It was So interesting.
It’s my first time being at a mine. Overall. Really great experience and I would recommend it A career in mining. There’s something for everyone.