ABSTRACT
The Red Dog Mine is located 115 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the remote North Western corner of Alaska on top of one of the richest lead/zinc deposits in the world. The mine and concentrator were originally commissioned in 1989, and two years ago Cominco decided to expand the operation. The objective of the expansion was to increase production by 40%. The US$200M Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) Production Rate Increase Project was managed by Simons and was successfully fast-tracked to startup in April of 1998, a full six months ahead of Cominco’s economic plant.
The successful completion of this project resulted from the combined efforts of a number of different teams which comprised the overall project organization. These teams consisted of design, procurement, administration, the owner’s representatives, and construction management. This paper presents the Red Dog Production Rate Increase project from the point of view of one of these groups, construction management, and takes a look at some of the challenges encountered on the site’s “front lines”.
