Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada LA 504| Project 1| Fall 2015| Wenjuan Feng
Mine Locations
Diavik Diamond Mine , Canada Diavik Diamond Mine in Winter
CONTRAST (interest)
Dike in the Lake Caribou
The Diavik Diamond Mine is located in Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories, which is an ecologically sensitive environment. This mine has operated continuously since production began in 2003. And after 2012, Diavik mine became a fully underground mine. Diamond mines are all in lake region. People constructed impermeable barries/dekes by using soil and rockfill masses, and then started to mine.
Master Plan for First Two Pits
This is a special diamond mine in the world. Mines are ususlly on ground, but Diavik Diamond Mine is in the WATER. It looks like two huge vortexes in Lac de Gras. This is the contrast of WATER & LAND Two pits are 230m and 270m deep, while water and land outside of these pits are quite flat. This is the contrast of TOPOGRAPHY. Especially in winter, the whole area is a white world. When sun rises up, sunlight separates white and black. This is the contrast of LIGHT & SHADOW. Reference (text & picture): http://www.riotinto.com
Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada LA 504| Project 1| Fall 2015| Wenjuan Feng Current
A154
Lake
The Lac de Gras has an average depth of about 32m (105ft).
A418 Fish Habitat Diamond mine location
Existing mine pits are A154 and A418. A154: W=830m (2723ft); H=270m (886ft) A418: W=680m (2230ft); H=230m (755ft)
Diamond mine location
Caribou and fish habitat are all disturbed by this Mine. 680m
Animal Migration Map 830m
230m
Original
270m
Caribou Migration
Diamond mines are under lakebed. In order to reach those lacations, dikes were built around these three areas. Based on the section and topo plan, I calculated depths of both mine pits.
Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada LA 504| Project 1| Fall 2015| Wenjuan Feng Original Model: shows vegetation/ land area, caribou migration, and fish habitat in this region. Original Model
Current Model: shows how Diavik Diamond Mine affects both plants and animals. Current Model
Section Model: shows how elevation changes after diamond mine constructed. Comparison Section Model
Future 1 Model: shows contrast between water & land (blue & green), and flat & steep. Future 2 Model: shows land-sun in water and watermoon on the land. Softwares: Auto CAD, Illustrator, SkecthUp. (I tried to use Rhino, however, model was too large to generate by using it. Now I know how to use AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Rhino 3D to generate models. CAD is accurate. SketchUp can be accurate as well, but it cannot make models as smooth as I hope. Although models made by Rhino look good, they are not very accurate. So, each of them have both advangates and disadvangates. What software I need to choose is based on the requirements of each model.
Original Digital Model
Future 1 Digital Model
Current Digital Model
Future 2 Digital Model