Bloom Lake ships first ore

Western Labrador Rail Services (WLRS) is up and running.

A total of 164 shiny, new (empty) rail cars rolled into the Wabush yard April 30 and were delivered to the Bloom Lake mine site.

"The cars were loaded with iron ore on Saturday and then 82 cars came back on Sunday and the other 82 on Monday," said Jean-Marc Montigny, project manager. "So far, everything is going perfect. It has been a very busy time. Never have we seen a rail line built like this, in the wintertime, I think it was about eight months. Nobody could believe this."

Montigny, who is the vice president of Genesee & Wyoming, explained that he has a team from Montreal on hand running the train for an interim period while eight newly hired (local) engineers are in the process of being trained by that team as well.

Arrangement with IOC

Though Bloom Lake is producing ore, the company is not quite ready to ship it to its markets in Asia just yet. Consolidated Thompson (CLM) has made an arrangement with the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) to buy 250,000 tonnes during the month of May.

"We still have a few weeks left to finish our port in Sept-Îles," said Greg Mercer, CLM's director of government relations and corporate affairs. "So we are selling the stockpile we currently have at Bloom [Lake] to IOC. Once we finish the port, we will start shipping to our Asian markets."

Selling the stockpile to IOC just makes good sense at this stage, according to Mercer.

"It's just not practical to hang on to it," he said. "We want to keep the mill running and keep tweaking the operations; and in order to do that, we have to move the stockpile. Same thing with the rail, having those trains running in the interim works out well for us and works out well for IOC. Basically we sell it as far as Emeril Junction and IOC takes it from there-of course QNS&L is contracted by us to ship down their line anyway."

Tweaking needed

The rail is completed and operational, but as Mercer explained, there is a fair amount of work left to be done in terms of stress testing and ballasting, which will take another few months or so.

Completion of the rail was the basis of the interim-operating permit, he explained, and even though it's operational the interim means there are certain limitations in place.

"Like we [the locomotives] can only go 10 mph," he said. "And, we have to have a pilot vehicle at least a half a kilometre in front of the train. These are conditions put in there due to the fact that even though the rail is completed, there's still ballasting and stress testing. Things need to be finalized."

Once it's all finalized the locomotives will move up to Transport Canada's standard of 30 mph on the rail; making it fully operational. This is expected to take three to four more months.

Putting together a train

The development of the rail line and getting everything in place is all-impressive for Jean-Marc Montigny, right down to acquiring the cars and locomotives.

At total of 740 new cars were commissioned for Consolidated Thompson in Hamilton, Ontario.

The cars, Montigny explained, had to be transported from Matane to Sept-Îles by ferry. The CN ferry could only carry 26 cars each trip.

"So you can imagine trying to schedule the cars and the locomotives," he commented. "The company acquired eight locomotives as well- they were CN locomotives-and we will have them refurbished and painted the orange and black like the cars."

As for why the company needed 740 cars to ship ore, Montigny explains the system.

"We are going to be operating a daily train. Everyday, we are going to run 240 cars in each trip. We'll have 240 cars coming from Sept-Îles to Wabush. Then we have another 240 cars coming from Bloom Lake to Wabush and then 240 cars being unloaded in Sept-Îles. So that's a total of three trains (720 cars) with 20 spare cars"

Maintenance shop

Right now, Montigny said, the rail service maintenance is taken care of by the contractor Rail Cantech and after that contract is completed the job will go to Western Labrador Rail. Another four employees will then be hired for maintenance.

Consolidated Thompson will be setting up a machine shop for the locomotives soon, Mercer added.

"We are looking at existing buildings in the Wabush Industrial Park and, we are also looking at the option of getting some land to build," he said. "We will need a machine shop and we will have office space there as well."

Ramping up well

On the Bloom Lake site, Mercer said, things are going very well as the company getting ready for full operation.

"We are producing ore, but right now it's moderate," he said. "And, we are just getting the mill up and running. Employment wise we are starting to ramp up for full production.

When in full production, the Bloom Lake Mine is expected to produce eight million tonnes a year.

Beware: new crossing

Both Mercer and Montigny stress the importance of the public being aware that there is a new railway crossing now on Route 500 (near Walsh River) and motorists must get used to it.

"People are not used to seeing trains crossing there so we want to remind people to be very careful," said Montigny. "And there is a crossing going down the road to the [Tamarack] Golf Course. We have to be focused on safety, that's our priority."