- Why Mining Matters
- Jobs
- Safety
- Environment & Operations
- FAQ
- Links
- Fun Stuff
You are here
Rock ID
Muskrat Falls Hydro
Blind Ben Morris
Highway 107
Loops and the Cornish Miner
Birchtown’s Black Granite
Cliff Safety
Lake Enon Celestite
Pumice and Stone-Washed Jeans
WWII Exploration
Gibraltar Black Granite
Seal Island Bridge
Fort Needham
Wilmot Spa Springs
Opal
Kiwanis Park
Three Types of Rock at Peggy's Cove
Guysborough’s Alumina
Inside Asphalt
The Concrete House
Canso Causeway
Shubie Park
Sambro Lighthouse
Titanic Headstones
Why are some roads red?
Marshdale Gabbro
New Britain Quartz Mine
Mica Hill
King Quarry
Queensport
Quarry Lake
Miners in War
The Pit
Oxford Tripoli Company
Sibley Mountain Slate Quarry
Terence Bay
East Gore Slate Quarry
Governor Lake Pegmatite
Spryfield Quarries
The Hydrostones
Bricks and the Halifax Explosion
Armdale Roundabout
South River Lake Quarry
Shelburne Granite Boulders
Belmont Pit
Whetstone Lake
Shelburne Island Park Quarry
Millstone Island
Beaverbank Slate Quarry
St. Margaret's Bay
Agate
Soapstone Mine
Kennington Cove Talc
Lapis Lazuli
Amethyst
Dowsing
Spryfield’s Rocking Stone
Nictaux
Standard Clay Products
Erinville
HIghway 104
Factory Bog
Where does gravel come from?
Muskrat Falls Hydro
Mining makes renewable energy possible!
Usually when we say that we are referring to metals like copper and lithium used to generate, transmit and store energy. But renewable energy also needs rock. In fact, over one million tonnes of rock helped build the Muskrat Falls hydro project.
The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric development on the lower Churchill River in Labrador generates renewable energy for Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
The powerhouse and spillway for the Muskrat Falls project were built with 560,000 cubic metres of concrete. That is enough concrete to pave a one-metre wide, 10-centimetre-thick path from St. John’s to Vancouver.
Rock aggregate makes up about 80% of concrete so about 450,000 cubic metres of aggregate (725,000 tonnes) helped build the powerhouse and spillway.
An additional 200,000 cubic metres of concrete were used in building two dams, requiring about another 250,000 tonnes of aggregate.
Rock also contributed to the project in other ways. For example, rock berms (ridges) were built over the undersea cables that transmit the power from Labrador to Newfoundland and on to Nova Scotia. The berms protect the cables from marine vessel traffic and environmental conditions.
In total, over one million tonnes of rock helped make the renewable energy project possible.
Mining and quarrying contributed to the project other ways, too. For example, approximately 4,500 transmission towers, mostly made of steel, help carry the electricity through Labrador and Newfoundland. Steel is mostly made of iron and carbon, and the carbon is derived from metallurgical coal, the type of coal mined at Cape Breton's Donkin mine.
The Labrador-Newfoundland transmission system also includes six million metres of wire, enough to stretch between St. John’s and Athens, Greece. Wire is mostly made of copper or aluminum.
Nova Scotia’s main interest in the project is the Maritime Link, two subsea cables that carry hydro power across the Cabot Strait to this province.
Each cable measures approximately 170 kilometres and weighs 5,500 tonnes – combined, the two cables weigh more than the Eiffel Tower. The two cables are the longest submarine electricity connection in North America.
Each cable is ten centimetres in diameter (similar in size to a two-litre soft drink bottle) and has 14 layers. The centre, and about one-third of the cables’ thickness, is a copper wire that carries the electricity. The other 13 layers protect the copper.
That is a lot of numbers but the point is that none of this would be possible without mining and quarrying.
People who support renewable energy but oppose mining need a rethink – mining makes renewable energy possible.
So, how does a hydro plant like Muskrat Falls generate electricity?
Hydro projects build a dam on a large river that has a large drop in elevation. The dam stores lots of water behind it in the reservoir. Near the bottom of the dam wall there is a water intake.
Gravity causes water to fall through the sluice/floodgate inside the dam. At the end of the sluice is a turbine propellor, which is turned by the moving water. The shaft from the turbine goes up into the generator, which produces the power. Power lines connected to the generator carry electricity to users.
The water continues past the propellor and exits the plant into the river.