Case Studies

North American Palladium
Lac-des-Iles Mine
Thunder Bay, ON Canada

North American Palladium Ltd. is Canada's only primary producer of palladium. The Company's Lac-des-Iles open pit mine, located 85 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay in northern Ontario, also produces by- products of platinum, gold, copper and nickel. The Lac-des-Iles deposit contains one of the largest open pit palladium reserves in the world.

Mine Profile

The Lac-des-Iles open pit operations mined a total of 16.9 million metric tons or 46,038 metric tons per day in 2004. The increase in production from the average of 39,895 metric tons per day in 2003 was a result of elimination of primary crusher problems in combination with a shorter haul distance from the Phase 4 expansion. The waste-to-ore strip ratio increased to 2.68:1 from 2.31:1 in 2003.

The company blends open-pit ore with ore from a recently opened underground operation. The underground portal was collared and the development of the ramp to the ore body began in May, 2004. Commercial production from underground mining commenced in the first quarter of 2006. A recent drop in the price of palladium has intensified the focus on higher-grade ore from underground operations. Open pit ore is now blended with the high grade ore from underground to ensure a consistent grade of ore for processing in the mill. As a result, future expansion of operations is expected to take place primarily underground.

Duratray at Lac-des-Iles

Three Duratray bodies are in operation at Lac-des-Iles, all of which are installed on Komatsu 730E haul trucks. NAP chose Duratray over a competitor’s conventional steel bodies. The choice centered on the abrasion resistance of the Duratray bodies and the almost exponentially lower maintenance and repair costs of the Duratray vs. the conventional steel bodies (see photos).

NAP runs a mixed fleet of standard bodies and Duratrays. While the Duratray normally allows up to 25 more tons of payload per haul cycle for the Komatsu 730E, blending of ores and the need to standardize cycle timing means that NAP loads both its conventional bodies and the Duratrays with the same number of loader passes.