The first segment of Detour Gold's transmission line at its Detour Lake project has been connected to the Ontario power grid. The 135-feet of line runs from the project, located 150 kilometres north of Cochrane, to the Island Falls power station.
The transmission line will carry 115 kilovolts (kV) of current, which is well beyond what is required to support mine construction, and will provide significant savings as Detour Gold will no longer need to rely on diesel power.
Detour Gold received approval last August from the Ontario Energy Board to proceed with the construction of the second segment of the transmission line of 45 kilometres from Island Falls to Pinard transformer station (west of Fraserdale).
Construction is scheduled to start in late 2011 with grid connection to follow in the second quarter of 2012, well ahead of the start of commissioning. At the completion of the second phase, the line will operate at 230 kV and deliver more than 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity during the operation of the Detour Lake mine.
The construction contract is with Detour Lake Constructors, a partnership led by Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co. with Moose Cree Constructors Inc. (Moose Cree First Nation), New Post Constructors LP (Taykwa Tagamou Nation) and Wahgoshig First Nation as partners. Kiewit is responsible for the construction management and execution of the contract and PowerTel Utilities Contractors is the transmission line subcontractor.
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