May 21, 2009

Riding out the recession

Vancouver engineering firm is beating the downturn by expanding abroad and thinking green, setting its sights on cleaning up the oil sands by transforming tailing ponds into healthy lakes

VANCOUVER -- If all goes according to plan, billions of litres of silty tailings in Alberta's oil sands will become healthy lakes by the time at least one of the petroleum giants packs up its bitumen pipelines and moves on. This kind of "wet" eco-cleanup is common at exhausted mine pits around the world, but has never been done in the oil sands. Suncor Energy Inc. has hired Klohn Crippen Berger, a Vancouver- based engineering and environmental consulting firm, to help it figure out how to approach what it estimates will be a $25-million job.

"We don't know how it will work best, but we know it's going to work," says Bryan Watts, Klohn Crippen Berger's president.

Klohn Crippen Berger assesses and designs mining, energy and infrastructure projects around the world. It is currently heading up one of southeast Asia's biggest hydroelectric projects, designing bridges in North America and evaluating the environmental effects of metal mines in South America.

"We're a small company ... but our scope is quite large," says Harvey McLeod, vice-president of strategic marketing.
The company is thinking small, however, in the effort to clean up the oil sands tailing ponds. It's diving into the molecular makeup of tailings wastewater, researching how to seal holes used for bitumen extraction and turn the remaining pits into sustainable lakes.

In some cases the company will also create an ecosystem that treats wastewater from the defunct mine, allowing it to seep underground without harming the environment.

Klohn Crippen Berger began as a small geotechnical firm 35 years ago and now boasts 345 employees - more than 200 of them engineering professionals - in three countries.

"Now we're doing projects all over the world, from building a San Francisco Bay bridge to environmental impact assessments for some of the largest mining projects in the world," Mr. McLeod says.

The company entered the international scene in the 1970s with water-resource projects in Africa and South Asia, which were organized and financed by the Canadian International Development Agency. The company now has offices in Lima, Peru, and Brisbane, Australia, as well as a half- dozen Canadian locations.

It has won accolades for its role as an industry leader, and this year Deloitte & Touche named it one of Canada's 50 best-managed companies.

These days, it is riding out the recession thanks to backlogged projects and government infrastructure developments. Major mining projects have been stalled, delayed or cancelled because of sinking metals prices.

"Things have levelled off, and now things are starting to soften. So we're seeing projects cancelled at some big mine sites," Mr. Watts said.

The company's net revenue in 2008 was $55-million, a number it predicts it will match this year, but next year might be a different story. "It's 2010 that we're all wondering about," he said.

Klohn Crippen Berger also will play a part in public infrastructure projects, thanks to provincial and federal stimulus packages.

"That infrastructure money is slowly but surely moving into the Canadian economy," Mr. Watts said. "We haven't seen very much of it yet, but we hear it's coming."

So far the company hasn't had to reduce its staff, a sharp contrast to the previous recessions it has weathered. "In the '80s, we cut half our staff in one year," Mr. Watts recalls. "That just hasn't been happening."

Mr. McLeod said the company is considering opening an office in China, which has emerged as a colossus on the global commodities stage, with state-owned companies taking advantage of slumping prices and buying up massive amounts of commodities as well as stakes in the companies extracting them.

"China does have an influence in our market these days, because it does change the world of metals and who needs them," Mr. McLeod said. "How big it will be and how significant, it's too early to tell. But there's something there that wasn't before, and I think it does help our business."

The company also has set its sights on Canada's North, specifically the long- delayed Mackenzie Valley pipeline in the Northwest Territories. "[There is] renewed interest in the North, which has been kind of on hold," Mr. Watts said.

In the meantime, the research on cleaning up the oil sands is still in the early stages. The Suncor project will take years to complete, Mr. McLeod said.

Warren Lambert, a hydrogeologist with Klohn Crippen Berger, is one of the brains behind the effort, working on the project since its inception in late 2007. He rattles off a list of variables the company's researchers need to work on before they determine how to turn potentially toxic tailing ponds into sustainable lakes.

One of Mr. Lambert's jobs is to determine where the water that would be used to fill the lakes would come from, and how it would interact with surrounding groundwater.

"You've got to compare it to natural systems in the environment surrounding you," he said, "compare it to existing natural lakes and see how they function."
***
RECENT PROJECTS
Ruby Creek molybdenum mine, British Columbia - This controversial mine was approved by the B.C. government last summer, thanks in large part to Klohn Crippen Berger's environmental and socioeconomic assessments, and proposals for mine waste engineering. Client: Adanac Molybdenum Corp.

Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project, Laos - The 1,080-megawatt project - one of the largest in Southeast Asia - lies along the Ho Chi Minh trail. It is expected to provide power to both Laos and neighbouring Thailand. Client: Nam Theun 2 Power Co. Funded by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Rainy River gold mine, Ontario - Proposed open-pit mine, for which Klohn Crippen Berger is carrying out environmental and socioeconomic studies, as well as assessments of the site's geochemistry and tailings facility design. Client: Rainy River Resources Ltd.

Quimsacocha Mine, Ecuador - Klohn Crippen Berger is managing the environmental processes for this proposed gold mine, which received government approval in March. Client: Iamgold Corp. Anna Mehler Paperny.

The Globe and Mail
Thu 21 May 2009
Page: B9
Section: Report On Business: Canadian
Byline: Anna Mehler Paperny
Dateline: VANCOUVER
Source: Special to The Globe and Mail