|
IF YOU BUILD IT, WE WILL COME…
--Superhuman and Subzero Challenges for Alaskan Mining Maintenance
by Kathryn G. Arlen
Eight months of winter reign in northwest Alaska, while the
lack of sufficient road connections, a consistent power source,
and overall infrastructure plague the Great Land’s Interior.
Yet the storms and squalls subside, the sun does rise another
day (even in Barrow,) and miners doggedly continue to mine.
Equipment maintenance is a huge factor in any mining venture’s
success, and recent statistics [Dhillon, B.S.: 2008, Mining Equipment
Reliability, Maintainability, and Safety, Springer London] reveal
that maintenance costs generally range from 20—35% of total
mine operating costs and are, understandably, still rising. But
in Alaska these estimates may or may not reflect the special needs
of remote mining sites located far from any state or local roadways.
Special needs require the specific attention and innovation that
Brice Equipment, LLC based in North Pole, Alaska has been providing
for three generations. Perhaps the greatest challenge to the “realities
and processes that go on in remote Alaska, and not only for mining,
are the logistics to support equipment on a day-to-day basis in
a timely manner,” offered Barry Lindquist, Brice General
Manager. “Getting parts to the equipment is either by aircraft
or boat,” meaning barges that Brice owns and navigates along
Alaska’s northwestern coast and in the powerful, often treacherous
Yukon River.
Lindquist cited one particular, recent example from this past
winter: “When you’re not able to get in with the barge,
and we had equipment going into a project when the weather started
to change…we lost water going into that river we were going
to, so had to drop the equipment 50 miles from the project. Then
we took it apart into small enough pieces (40,000 lbs.) to ‘Herc’
it the rest of the way.” [Translation: “Herc” for
“Hercules,” ex-military aircraft especially designed
for this type of equipment transportation.]
Although Brice branches into several other functions-- maintaining
the sole basalt quarry in the Alaskan Interior, assisting with
smaller airport construction, and performing various environmental
services (such as aggregate sandbagging)—it’s their
barges and critical shipping lines that Alaska mining companies
most value and employ. Brice owns the barges, rents or sells the
equipment, and will fly when barging becomes impractical or impossible.
As sales associate Greg Abshire promised, “If you need it,
it will be brought to you.” No small promise in the Land
of the Midnight Sun.
Alaska’s global location and super-sized dimensions, over
half a billion square miles, suggests a constant variety of earth,
sea, and sky activity and challenges: -40, -50, or even -60F temperatures
in winter, rockhard permafrost, earthquakes, sssnnooowww, mud,
dust, forest fires, winds, and even volcanoes. “Last fall
when [Mount] Redoubt started going off, they were constantly canceling
flights near one of our projects on Atka in the Aleutians,”
explained master mechanic Carl Thomkins. In addition to that area’s
predictable violent winds and persistent fog, Redoubt’s continuous
eruptions spewed deadly volcanic ash into the atmosphere prohibiting
all air travel.
Both Thomkins and Lindquist recalled some of their more harrowing
on-the-job experiences: “Ever see that show, “Deadliest
Catch?” [Sometimes, sure. Hasn’t everyone?] I just came
from Atka [about 1/2 the way west into the Aleutians] and we had
the big barges, and I don’t know how many tons were on that
thing. It took four days and nights to unload.”
“It’s typhoon-like conditions,” Thomkins picked
up. “90 mph winds, you’re doing whatever possible to
get done while the wind’s blowing 12 x 12 boards across…but
you gotta get it done, ‘cause the weather is going to get
even worse, and the barge has got to go.”
“Or,” Lindquist continued, “when you wake up in
the morning, open the cabin door, and the door gets ripped off
right out of your hands. Or trying to leave your room and there’s
three feet of snow piled against it. Somebody has to shovel you
out.” Then there’s mud: trying to find a dry place to
work on the equipment or trying to put up a tent around it to
get the job done. Another issue? Timeframe. That often very slim,
critical window of opportunity: “In some projects you only
have the summer months to get it done, so time is even tighter,”
observed Thompkins.
“Getting the job done” is the work ethic/driving force
behind the Brice family and associates who pride themselves on
offering as much local hire as possible, “leaving money in
the village as opposed to a lot of contractors who just come in,
finish the project, and not leave a lot behind,” Lindquist
stressed. Communication issues present another interesting factor
with the many diverse Native American languages inherent to the
villages across the state.
Freeze frame: “Deadliest Catch,” flying planks, shifting,
crashing machinery, rolling decks, monster waves…why do they
do it?
“Anybody can work on a piece of equipment in a shop. It’s
a challenge,” Lindquist simply shrugged.
And Thomkins rationally concluded, “I’ve tried other
things, and I just keep coming back to this, this is what I was
meant to be. My dad was a master mechanic on the pipeline, so
it must be in the genes.”
Kathryn G. Arlen is a freelance writer and communication consultant
in Fairbanks, Alaska, and can be reached at: mindmerger@hotmail.com
|
