Diavik Worker Wins Award

The Arctic Energy Alliance, a not-for-profit organization that helps northerners reduce energy use through new initiatives, has awarded Nick Strus of Diavik Diamond Mines its 2006 Energy Efficiency Award for his work to lessen haul truck idling times.

Strus, a maintenance planner with Diavik, collected haul truck usage data and calculated truck idling times at various temperatures to determine at what temperature the trucks could be shut down and when they needed idling. Idling is a must in severe winter temperatures which are often below minus 40 Celsius at Diavik.

Testing showed that these large haul trucks would start easily when temperatures were above freezing.

Then the search for solutions to colder starts began. Strus suggested installing diesel-fired coolant heaters to keep the engine coolant and driver’s cab warm when the engines weren’t running. These heaters, which burn 4 litres per hour versus idling, which burns 40 to 60 litres per hour, are mounted on the haul truck engines and reduce overall fuel consumption. This allows trucks to be shut down between 0 and minus 20 Celsius.

As a result, Diavik is now outfitting both its large 218-tonne and smaller 90-tonne haul trucks with the diesel-fired coolant engine heaters. The new heaters could save Diavik over 1 million litres of fuel annually.

Strus’s work was part of a project within Diavik’s overall fuel conservation program.

“It doesn’t have to be a big complicated project, sometimes the best solution is staring you right in the face,” says Strus, who also uses solar, wind and hydroelectric devices to supplement his diesel generator at home.

The Diavik diamond mine, located 300 km northeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T., is a joint venture between Diavik Diamond Mines (60%), a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based Rio Tinto (RTP-N), and Aber Diamond (ABZ-T, ABER-Q).