Lake Excavating has extensive experience in mining work. From dam maintenance and road building to ore hauling, we have been working in the  mining environment for over 35 years. Lake Excavating has worked in partnership with major mining operations for many years and we understand the importance of providing high quality work. We also provide the flexibility to allow the operator to focus on their business while the required work gets completed in a timely, seamless manner.  Our understanding of the mining environment is a key to our success in working with our customers.

Lake Excavating Ltd. has supplied light and heavy civil works to the mining sector in BC for over 37 years. A sister company, Lake Redi-Mix, supplied the bulk of the concrete required for the original infrastructure build of Gibraltar Mine near Williams Lake during the early 70’s. In 1978 Lake contracted the production, hauling and placement of shot rock required to build finger drains for the tailings impoundment at this same mine site. This project was a first for Lake in which it utilized articulated rock trucks, a type of equipment relatively new to construction in Western Canada at the time. Lake also provided labor and equipment for much of the smaller civil works during the initial construction of this mine as well as expansions over the years such as excavation, backfill and compaction of footings, site works for parking and lay down areas, water and sewer works and retaining walls.

In the late 90’s another notable project was completed by Lake Excavating Ltd. over a two-year term in which a gold producing mine (Kinross Quesnel River Mine) was reclaimed to satisfy environmental obligations for mine closure. During this project Lake was contracted to dewater the existing tailings pond to a specified level. This dewatering required the displacement of over 17,000,000 gallons of water per day over a duration of three months. Concurrently, during the dewatering process, 500,000m³of PAG shot rock was removed from temporary storage and was hauled and placed within the tailings impoundment for future flooding. Additional to this project was for the fortification and raising of the existing tailings dam. Screening and crushing to specification produced large quantities of various aggregates. These filter zone aggregates as well as till core were placed to tight compaction tolerances within the dam during the raise. Some of the equipment provided for this project included articulated trucks, dozer, excavators, scrapers, packers, diesel water pumps, screeners and crushers.

More recent mine development work includes substantial tailings dam raises during 2007, 2008 and 2010 for Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley Mine, situated just outside of Likely, BC. This work included the stripping of borrow pits, as well as the load, haul and placement to specified compaction requirements of glacial till to facilitate the raise.  The construction schedule for the major works spanned over 6 months in each of the three years.  During 2010, Lake Excavating performed earth works for the 3 m dam raise.  This included the loading, hauling, placing and compacting of 120,000 m³ for the Till Core Dam.  In addition, Lake Excavating also provided the loading, hauling, placing and compacting of 25,000 m³ for the filter and transition zone materials. 

Lake Excavating Ltd. held a copper concentrate ore haul with Gibraltar Mine from 2005 until 2010. This contract required the utilization of 2 B-train side dumps, 2 Kenworth tractors and 3 wheel loaders. The ore was hauled from the mine site to a CN Rail siding where it was transferred to railcars.

During 2011, Lake Excavating worked on the Gibraltar Development Plan 3 (GDP3) at the Gibraltar Mine, just outside of Williams Lake, BC.  As one of the largest open-pit mines in all of Canada, Lake Excavating has conducted a number of projects here.  Most notably, Lake Excavating worked alongside engineers from AUSENCO to perform major site works for the new concentrator building.  This included 150,000 m³ of bulk excavating for the building pad, parking lots and roadways.  Additional to the scope on this project, Lake Excavating completed 32,000 m³ of gravel crushing and 12,000 m³ of gravel hauling, placing and compacting. 

Lake Excavating was involved in the tailings dam raise during 2011 at the Gibraltar Mine.  Here, Lake completed 110,000 m³ of the Till Core Dam raise, as well as the production, supply, haul and placement of 7,500 m³ of filter gravel.  Furthermore, Lake Excavating executed the clearing, grubbing and stripping of the dam footprint. 

Recently, through in-house engineering, Lake Excavating performed the loading and hauling of 400,000 m³ of mud and lake bottom sediment from the open-pit mine site at Gibraltar.  This project also included the loading, hauling and placement of 80,000 m³ of shot rock padding material for access.