A Boeing 234 Chinook helicopter was used in September and early October to help mobilize heavy mining equipment and supplies to two sites in the Lac de Gras area of the Northwest Territories.
The Chinook, owned by Columbia Helicopters of Portland, Ore., was certified by Transport Canada and leased and operated by Helifor Industries of Vancouver.
The operation included a Lockheed Hercules aircraft operated by NWT Air of Yellowknife, N.W.T. Equipment was trucked to Yellowknife and loaded on to the Herc for the 150-mile trip north to Salmita. The Herc airstrip at Salmita was originally built to support gold-mining operations in the 1970s and 1980s. Specially built pallets were used to build loads to take advantage of the maximum lift capacity of the Chinook and facilitate loading and unloading of the Herc. Supplies such as lumber, pipe and pickup trucks were loaded onto the pallets and, as the loads rolled off the Herc at Salmita, the helicopter hooked onto them and flew them to the various sites 42 miles to the north. The maximum external payload for the Chinook is 28,000 lb., but was reduced to 25,500 lb. to allow for round-trip fuel.
Heavy underground mining equipment, including twin boom jumbo drills, scoops, trucks, Cats and loaders, and an array of other equipment was broken down into weights that the Chinook could handle.
Diesel fuel was hauled using 1,900-litre fuel blivets with the helicopter hauling six at a time.
In 96 hours of flying over 16 days, a total of 2.21 million lb. of equipment was hauled, averaging 22,080 lb. per load.
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