New Gold ‣ TULLOCH

New Gold, Rainy River Project

Location: Rainy River, ON
Discipline: Geomatics, Engineering, Construction
Markets: Mining

Completed: Ongoing

New Gold Inc. is constructing an open pit gold mine about 65 km northwest of Fort Frances in Northwestern Ontario, known as the Rainy River project. The mine has year-round road access and powerlines as well as a railway located 21 km south.

In early 2016, one of New Gold’s civil works contractors retained TULLOCH to provide field surveying and office support for the construction of various elements of the work, including mine access roads and buried infrastructure. As construction continued, New Gold contracted TULLOCH directly to be the lead engineering firm for the development. Eventually, TULLOCH assumed the role of the Owner’s Engineer, providing engineering and survey support with field engineers, senior CAD technicians and survey crews working on site daily.

TULLOCH’s work covers various project tasks including site entrances, pipelines, freshwater pipeline, discharge pipeline, directional drilling, Requests for Information, volume reports, re-alignment and re-design calculations.

The focus of the current work is on construction of the processing facilities, supporting infrastructure, and initial stripping of the open pit. Key construction activities include installation of mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation, completion of power lines, completion of the water management ponds and commencement of construction of the tailings dam.

New Gold also retained us to design and implement daily progress reporting for quality assurance, volumes and layout design for various projects onsite. We operate two cross-shifts to meet the demands of 24/7 construction. Each cross-shift contains three inspectors and one senior office support staff. Our full-time presence on site allows for accurate, real-time reporting, which helps to anticipate and plan for obstacles during construction. TULLOCH’s extensive experience with construction inspection, surveying, layout and design is an ideal fit for the demands of New Gold’s accelerated multi-front construction.