Initial situation

The Canadian Cameco Corporation has requested LNBV to submit a comprehensive offer for the geotechnical probing and survey related to the Key Lake project, preparatory to a feasibility analysis of possible rehabilitation work on the Deilmann surface tailings management facility.

Partners

• RC Ruhrmann Consults, Wachtberg, Germany
• BIUG Beratende Ingenieure für Umweltgeotechnik und Grundbau GmbH, Freiberg, Germany

Approach

LMBV rapidly prepared an offer for a technical assessment of this project in Saskatchewan. It was primarily intended to assess the content, scope, and scheduling of the exploratory programme and proposed field trials, and to develop suggestions for the best deployment of resources.
LMBV was able to exploit its wide practical experience to obtaining and processing samples. Here processing and testing of frozen and supplementary testing of disturbed samples; for example, liquefaction tests. Similarly for the test conditions; for example, the selection of the principal tension ratio for the relevant slope sections and unconsolidated materials.

Result

The suggested laboratory research programme is based on knowledge derived from over twenty years' research on settlement flows, lignite mining, and mine rehabilitation. The results are applied in practice.