June 15, 2007

The Bema Gold mining camp is set up in a centipede formation, with an 800-foot corridor running down the middle linking all the recreational and entertainment facilities with the dormitories and eating areas.

To Russia with ....

Britco Structures ships 250 modular units to a remote, 600-person mining camp in the Arctic

ROXANNE HOOPER

Staff Writer

There are 250 modular units, equipped to withstand extremely cold climates, currently being pieced together like a puzzle in a remote region of the Russian Arctic. And when the job is complete later this year, it will become one of the largest mining camps of its kind in the world.

Britco Structures out of Langley, B.C. partnered with the engineering procurement company of Orocon Inc. in North Vancouver to provide a $18-million, 124,000-square-foot complex to Bema Gold.

The B.C.-based Bema Gold Corporation is scheduled to begin gold and silver exploration next year and production in mid-2008 from a new mine in Kupol, a far eastern region of Russia.

But to do so, Bema first needed a self-contained village that could provide sleeping, eating and living accommodations for at least 600 workers. That’s where Britco came in, explained Mike Ridley, Britco’s vice-president of sales and marketing.

“We’ve never done anything to this scale before,” Ridley said. “It’s the biggest project we’ve ever done and it does bring credibility to us and our ability to do big camp work domestically here, as well.”

Preliminary discussions about the Russia project began around the turn of the century between Orocon and Fred Newman, president of Britco Structures Alberta who handles most of Britco’s international camp sales.

After almost three years of discussions, the job moved to planning, bidding and awarding of the contract stages in six months.

It was followed by endless months of construction, and the units were finally shipped out last summer. Installation actually began in February and it should be ready for occupancy this fall.

"This place in Kupol is like being on Mars."

Mike Ridley

The village, or central core of the camp, will contain up to seven separate movie and television rooms, several reading rooms, two games rooms featuring table tennis, foosball and billiards, as well as a large kitchen and eating area that can seat 300 people at a time.

There will also be a concession where goods such as snack foods, DVDs, magazines and toiletries can be purchased. There will be a computer lab, as well as exercise area complete with weights, treadmills, stair steppers and stationary bikes.

There will even be a gymnasium outfitted for team sports such as basketball, floor hockey, badminton, volleyball, soccer and possibly even a swimming pool, Ridley said.

Up to 17 wings will be positioned off the main hallway, primarily for dormitory style and twin-room accommodations. There will also be women’s and VIP wings, laundry facilities, meeting space and a first aid area.

The camp had to be constructed to handle the Arctic environment, which included winter temperatures as low as minus 65 C, meaning Britco had to add in a state-of-the-art hot water glycol heating system, extra interior and exterior insulation and a heat exchanger system that would provide an unlimited supply of instant hot water.

“The Kupol mine is expected to be productive for at least 15 years,” Newman said.

“The camp has to have a life expectancy of at least that long, so we have added fail safe systems to ensure the longevity of the structures and the comfort of the residents.”

And due to extensive transportation requirements, special steel handling skids were incorporated into each module to facilitate the many different types of equipment and trucks used in the move.

The units were shipped from Britco’s Agassiz plant to the Port of Everett in Washington last summer, then loaded onto ships for transport to the Russian container port of Pevek, on the Arctic coast.

Once in Russia, the hardest part of the journey was still ahead, Ridley explained.

The modules were then trucked about 400 kilometres to a holding area, where they remained until winter roads were passable.

From the holding area, the units were reloaded onto trucks and transported another 200 kilometres to the final destination.

“We’re excited to see the finished product when it’s all fitted together,” Ridley said.

Started back in 1977 with a handful of employees, Britco’s first project was relocating several buildings in the remote town of Port Simpson, B.C.

The first plant opened later that same year in Langley, and a month later the first Britco buildings were completed – two 8X16 foot mobile government lab trailers shipped to the Yukon.

Since then, the company has expanded to include a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Agassiz and the Russia job served as a significant springboard for the company to open another 40,000-square-foot plant in Penticton last spring.

Between the two manufacturing plants, its leasing division and the sales, design and project management teams in Langley, Britco now has 200-plus staff.

This job was, without question, Britco’s largest single project ever. But it’s not Britco’s first endeavour in Russia, Ridley said.

The company has been involved in three “sizeable” jobs in Russia, each organized through Western Canadian companies. One was a school, another a fish processing plant and then this camp.

“They’re all in remote locations,” Ridley said. “This place in Kupol is like being on Mars.

The 250 units for the Russian mining camp are built in Britco's Agassiz plant, with work normally handled there being redirected to the new Penticton operation.

The units and installers alike must be prepared for -60C temperatures.

Constructing the $18-million mining camp is a taxing but exciting job for all involved, from designers through to those in Agassiz actually building the units.

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