• Data Access
  • Your Email  
  • Your Email  
Keep me signed in.
Forgot your password?
Close
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Enter the email you signed up with and we'll email it to you.
  • Your Email  
Close
Back
MDO
Mining Data Solutions
  • Home
  • Database
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Sign In
Canada
AMEM Operation (Fire Lake Mine, Mont-Wright Mine)

This page is not tailored to
devices with screen width under 750 px.
 Location:
34 km SW from Labrador City, Quebec, Canada

  Address:
1801 Avenue McGill College #1400
Montreal
Quebec, Canada
H3A 2N4
Phone+1 514-285-1464
WebsiteWeb
Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors
Drill results over 30 g/t Au
Stay on top of recent discoveries.
Search drill results by commodity and grade.
Largest mines in the Americas
Mining and mill throughput capaciites.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Deepest underground mines
Shaft depth and mill throughput data.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Heavy mobile equipment
HME type, model, size and quantity.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Permitting and construction projects
Projects at the permitting or construction stage. Full profiles of select projects.
Mines with remote camps
Camp size, mine location and contacts.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Mines & projects in Canada
A list of country's mines and projects.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

Thank you for browsing through mine profiles compiled by the Mining Data Online team.

Would you like to subcribe or schedule a Demo?
  • Name:
     
  • Company:
     
  • Position:
     
  • Phone:
  • Email:
  • Message:

Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Iron Ore
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Gravity separation
  • Rotary kiln & Electric furnace


Owners

Source:
CompanyInterestOwnership
POSCO International Corp. 15 % Indirect
ArcelorMittal SA 85 % Indirect
ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc. 85 % Direct
ArcelorMittal announced on January 2, 2013, an agreement pursuant to which its wholly-owned subsidiary ArcelorMittal Mines Canada and a consortium led by Korean steelmaker POSCO and China Steel Corp. of Taiwan will enter into a joint venture partnership that will own ArcelorMittal’s Labrador Trough iron ore mining and infra-structure assets in Quebec. The consortium will acquire a 15% interest in the joint ven-ture for total consideration of $1.1 billion in cash, with ArcelorMittal Mines Canada and its affiliates retaining 85%.

Deposit Type

  • Iron formation hosted
  • Sedimentary

Source: Source p.3

Summary:

he Mont-Wright and Fire Lake mines are part of the highly-folded and metamorphosed southwestern branch of the Labrador Trough. The most important rock type in the area is the specular hematite iron formation forming wide, massive deposits that often form the crest of high ridges extending for many kilometers in the Quebec Labrador area.

The Labrador Trough consists of Paleoproterozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks that extends for more than 1100 km, from the northwest corner of Ungava Bay south to Lake Pletpi. It forms the western part of a larger orogenic belt called the New Québec Orogen¸ which records the oblique convergence and collision of the Archean Superior Craton to the west and an Archean core zone to the east. The Labrador Trough largely represents a foreland basin and comprises three sedimentary cycles, which are together referred to as the Kaniapiskau Supergroup.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source:

Summary:

This sector of AMEM consists of an open-pit mines, huge pieces of mining equipment, the crusher, concentrator, gigantic maintenance workshops, a warehouse with massive rooms and a train loading system.

Generally speaking, 2.6 metric tons or raw ore need to be extracted from the ground to produce one metric ton of iron ore concentrate. Drill operators drill deep 16-meter holes in line with a predetermined plan. These holes are filled with an explosive mixture that smashes the rock by blasting.

Once the rock is fragmented by blasting, it is loaded onto giant trucks by powerful shovels. The buckets of some of them have a capacity of 60 cubic verges (yards) and three or four loads are all it takes to load our largest 400-metric ton trucks – the first to make their appearance in Québec.

Fire Lake is an extraction mining site without a crusher or concentrator. Mining activities are carried out as at Mont-Wright but the mining equipment is smaller in size.


Crushing and Grinding
Source: Source


Processing

  • Gravity separation
  • Rotary kiln & Electric furnace

Source: Source

Summary:

The concentrator at Mont-Wright consists of 8 silos to continuously receive the raw material crushed in the crusher. The blocks contained in the silos are carried to one of the seven autogenous grinders: the blocks of ore are broken down as they knock together. On leaving the grinders, the particles are sieved by vibration. The particles that are too large are returned to the grinding process and the others are directed to circuits of spirals for the concentration stage.

The 8,500 spirals enable the iron content of the raw ore to be increased via a centrifugal force principle: by adding water, the iron particles that are heavier than the tailings are separated by gravity. Concentrate with an iron content of over 66% is obtained while the tailings (mainly silica, better known as sand) is carried to the containment area that will be restored when mining is finished.

Once the water has been removed from the Mont-Wright concentrate, it is taken to the silo for loading onto trains that carry it to Port-Cartier, in four or five convoys a day.

Fire Lake is an extraction mining site without a crusher or concentrator.

The pelleting process operates with two production lines and its main stages can be summarised as follows:
- enrichment of the concentrate
- crushing of the concentrate
- filtration
- integration of additives and mixing
- sintering
- sieving
- baking.

The plant at Port-Cartier has enrichment facilities that enable the silica in the concentrate to be reduced if necessary, according to customer requirements for higher quality pellets.

After this optional stage, the concentrate is taken to one of the six grinding balls with water and additives. As they knock together inside the grinders, the balls – made of a very hard alloy – reduce the particles of concentrate to the size of a grain of dust.

The material obtained which resembles mud is pumped to one of the 10 vertical filters for partial drying. After this stage, the substance called filter cake is tipped into one of the three mixers where other additives are incorporated.

This mixture is taken into one of the 10 sintering disks positioned diagonally. These large saucers turn on themselves, forming the pellets with a rotating movement thanks to the centrifugal force and angle of the equipment.

The pellets then move to the sieving section which enables those of the right size to be selected. Pellets that are too large or small are redirected to the disks, while the ones of the right size are sent to the last stage, hardening. To do this, the brittle pellets (also called “green” pellets) are baked in one of the two large furnaces at a temperature of 1300 degrees Celsius.


Production:

CommodityUnits2019201820172016201520142013
Iron Ore Mt 24242525262318
All production numbers are expressed as concentrate & pellets.


Reserves at December 31, 2019:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGrade
Proven 2,154 Mt Iron 29.5 %
Probable 251 Mt Iron 29.4 %
Proven & Probable 2,405 Mt Iron 29.5 %


Heavy Mobile Equipment as of June 26, 2012:
Source: Source p.29
HME TypeModelSizeQuantity
Shovel P&H 2300 20 cu. yd 3
Shovel Bucyrus-Erie 495 46 cu. yd 5
Shovel P&H 4100 60 cu. yd 1
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 797 400 t 7
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 793 240 t 37
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 789 200 t 6

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Environmental Manager Robert Ndong LinkedIn Sep 17, 2020
General Maintenance Manager Steeve Berthelot LinkedIn Sep 17, 2020
General Manager Health & Safety Michaela ILIE LinkedIn Sep 17, 2020


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Form 20-F 2019
Annual Report 2018
Form 20-F 2018
Annual Report 2017
Annual Report 2016
Fact Sheet 2016
Form 20-F 2016
Annual Report 2015
Form 20-F 2015
Other 2013
Corporate Presentation 2012
Corporate Presentation 2012

Terms of Use Privacy Policy © 2020 MDO Data Online Inc.