Each year at Rainy River Mine, the four perimeter dams of the Tailings Management Area (TMA) must be raised to provide additional tailings storage capacity for ongoing operations.
Until 2023, the centreline clay core and downstream filter sand and granular construction of all site dam structures was primarily completed by external construction contractors. In 2024, the New Gold Construction team, under the Capital Projects department, successfully transitioned to a self-performance model and completed the TMA Stage 6 Dam Raise construction with in-house resources.
The TMA Stage 6 Dam Raise added +1.0 meter of crest elevation along all 7.5 kilometres of perimeter dams bringing the maximum dam height to 27.0 metres with cumulative storage capacity of 73.2 million cubic metres. The project was completed safely, ahead of schedule, and under budget demonstrating operational excellence by the team at Rainy River Mine.
“I could not be prouder of what the team has accomplished over 2024,” said Jason Bell, Capital Projects Manager. “Each annual dam raise construction begins a full year in advance of performing the work through the engineering and permitting process and from back then through to now we have met or exceeded all major milestones and goals that we had set out to accomplish. It’s our people here at New Gold that makes this success possible.”
To complete the project, New Gold onboarded and trained an additional 20 temporary equipment operators representing an increase of 40% in the crew work force. Over 12,000 hours of training was completed across various pieces of equipment to provide operational bench strength and skill development across all four crews operating on a 24/7 schedule. The team promoted new Supervisors and Lead Hands internally, completed the majority of hiring from the local area and nearby communities, and sourced all support works from solely local area contractors.
“I knew taking on the dam raise was going to be challenging, but I had faith and confidence in our team,” said Garry Noga, Construction Superintendent. “I’ve watched them grow and develop the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful. Seeing them adapt and overcome the challenges that arose through the construction season only reinforced my belief that we made the right choice to bring this work in-house and we are already looking forward to repeating our success next year.”
The post Achieving New Heights: New Gold Self-Performs Stage 6 Dam Raise first appeared on Rainy River Mine.