NEWS 2019

Posted April 30, 2019

Event: May 16, 2019

GSE 2019 AGM: Dr. Angela Küpper, BGC Engineering - Construction of the A21 Dike at the Diavik Diamond Mine

Location: Derrick Golf and Winter Club (3500 119 Street NW)

Time: 5:30pm Registration, 6:00pm Dinner, 6:45pm AGM and Presentation

Cost: $40 Members, $50 Non-Members, $20 Students
PayPal account is not working at present - there will be no additional charge at the door.

Please register for this event using the Google Form by May 14, 2019.

The Diavik Diamond Mine is located on East Island in Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories (Canada). The A21 Dike is the third water-retaining dike constructed within the lake to enable dewatering of the area enclosed by the dike and allow open pit mining of the A21 Kimberlite pipe. The A21 Dike is a zoned rockfill embankment with a seepage cut-off wall. The cut-off wall comprised a single-row grout curtain in bedrock, cutter soil mixing diaphragm wall through the dike embankment and foundation soils, and jet grout columns through the foundation soil and soil/rock interface. Changes in design and construction methods from the previous dikes were introduced with the intent of reducing costs, optimizing the project and accommodating the site conditions and schedule constraints. These changes led to a project that was recognized to be less robust than the previous dikes, which added challenges to the construction and required emphasis of QA/QC during construction. The A21 Dike was completed on time and under budget, and it is currently performing as intended. This talk will describe the main components of the A21 Dike and the key construction challenges.

Dr. Angela Küpper is a Principal Geotechnical Engineer at BGC Engineering with 40 years of experience in geotechnical engineering. She has worked on many mining projects (pitwall design, tailings management technologies, design and construction of tailings dams, waste dump design, mine closure), on hydroelectric and other water retention dams, slope stability and remediation, landfills, pulp and paper, risk assessments. She has been in charge of large multidisciplinary projects in North America, South America, and Africa. She has acted in independent review capacities and reviews boards for several clients in Canada and internationally. She has also participated in several professional committees (including an update of the Canadian Dam Guidelines) and societies. She has been President of the Geotechnical Society of Edmonton and Vice President Technical of the Canadian Geotechnical Society and has received several awards, including the Stan Thompson Award of the GSE and being selected as the 2011 Industry Lecturer for the ASCE/University of California Berkeley Geo-Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series and the 2019 Distinguished Lecturer, Geological Engineering, University of British Columbia.

Registration is closed.