Site Mining History and Future

The Highland Valley Copper (HVC) Mine is a copper-molybdenum operation near Logan Lake, 50 km southwest of Kamloops, British Columbia. Mining at the site began in the early 1960’s. The current owner and operator is Teck Resources (Teck).

KCB has provided technical and operational support to Teck and previous mining operators at the site since 1961. Our support initially started with civil and geotechnical engineering services but has evolved to include a full range of geoscience, environmental, engineering and governance services, including:

• Engineer of record services for tailings and water management facilities
• Geology, geotechnical and hydrogeological characterization and assessment services
• Hydrogeologic modelling, monitoring and seepage management
• Civil, hydrotechnical and geotechnical engineering
• Hydrology, including climate change
• Closure planning
• On site construction quality assurance and design support
• Governance and risk management

Project Highlights

Engineer of Record Services and Governance Support

KCB is the Engineer of Record for the tailings storage facilities (TSFs) and some of the water storage facilities on the site. In addition to engineering support, KCB’s Engineer of Record services include support to manage risks, demonstrate compliance with regulatory and governance requirements, and reduce potential long-term impacts to surrounding communities and the environment.

Together with the client, KCB developed an integrated performance monitoring and interpretation program for the largest active TSF, achieving governance objectives at this complex project, including:

• Assessment of risk controls;
• Confirmation of design assumptions through a performance-based approach;
• Using observed behaviour to inform construction, operation and closure plans

KCB also provides support through governance and regulatory activities, such as permitting, implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, internal and external independent reviews, and meeting regulatory requirements.

Highland Tailings Storage Facility

KCB is the designer of the Highland TSF and has completed onsite quality assurance support since 1978. Tailings are retained by two dams at either end of the facility, the largest of which is a cycloned sand dam while the smaller dam is constructed of mine rock. Both are raised using the centreline method.

Hydrogeology

• Completed site investigations and in-situ testing to support hydrogeologic characterization and development of a conceptual ground model.
• Numerical hydrogeologic modeling of the tailings storage facilities to support permitting, operations and closure planning.
• Jointly developed an adaptive plan to manage water quality and supply downstream of the Highland TSF.

Closure

• Prepared a closure design for the Highland TSF that is integrated with the site-wide closure strategy and balances management of dam safety risks, returning land-use and environmental objectives.
• Worked with HVC to integrate the closure strategy into operation plans to reduce the effort required at the end of operations.

Hydrology and Surface Water Management

• Site hydrology assessments and site water management planning.
• Flood routing analysis and engineering design of water management structures ranging from collection ditches, ponds, and spillways.