News Story: An industrial-size wharf to be used for a nickel-mining operation in Raglan, Quebec is being constructed miles away in the form of concrete caissons, which will then be shipped to the location of parent company Xstrata for installation at the mine.

The project contractor is Beaver Marine Ltd., which expects the wharf to be transported in August.

The concrete for the third of three cement caissons is being poured this week. When completed, the sectioned wharf will be loaded onto a large semi-submersible ship and transported to the mine’s Deception Bay loading facility.

The caissons are compartmentalized, hollow boxes, 30 by 16 meters and 22 meters high, ballasted with water so they stay afloat. They are submerged 14 meters below the surface of the Strait of Canso, with the remaining seven meters visible above the water.

Beaver Marine Ltd. used the same process to construct a wharf for Nova Scotia Power’s Point Tupper facility about two years ago. Five cement caissons were built in Mulgrave and floated across the Strait to Point Tupper.