Case Studies

Toronto, Canada

Dalradian Resources Inc. is a gold exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its high-grade Curraghinalt Gold Project located in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The company is completing a work program in support of a planning (permitting) application for construction of an operating mine at Curraghinalt. Dalradian has worked hard to minimize the environmental impact of its activities and has adopted a code of business conduct and ethics that promotes integrity, transparency and accountability. With our help, Dalradian was looking to create a 3D mining video to further the trust and support of the local community and to alleviate concerns regarding potential visual and environmental impacts to the countryside.

Dalradian enlisted ImageMaker’s help in producing a 3D visualization showcasing their proposed mining facilities, fully realized in a high-end 3D Animation, and to illustrate the progression of its mining operations over the life of mine. Using their latest technical drawings, we created the mine site in its entirety and placed it onto digital elevation maps of the surrounding area to accurately demonstrate the reduced visual impact from various sight lines and locations achieved through the company’s engineering plans. The 3D presentation brought clarity and transparency to the mining project and was well received by both management and the community.

Colorado, USA

Lydian is a UK based mining company with a 5 million ounce gold mining project in Armenia. The Armenian community’s main concerns were sound intensity, dust impact, water pollution, and visibility of the open pit design from the road and local villages.

The challenge was to remove the concerns of the local Armenian community about the possibility of water pollution, sound intensity, dust impact, visibility of the open pit design from villages and the road.

Our goal was to assist the company in visualizing their commitment to environmental safeguards, alleviating any concerns of the local Armenian community. We worked with their technical team extensively in order to portray their mine design solutions.

In detailed animation, we portrayed the design of sound barriers that would reduce sound impact. We further illustrated how the planting of trees and vegetation would cover the visibility of the open pit mine site from the local villages and assist with noise reduction as well as dust protection. We depicted how their design of the heap leach pad would prevent leaking of any harmful materials into the ground water. We illustrated specialized water monitoring devices that would be placed in all sensitive areas, gathering real time information about water quality.

The final output was two presentations interweaving 3D animation and video, completed in both Armenian and English.

Baffinland Iron Mines (currently part of Acelormittal) owns the Mary River iron ore project located in the Canadian Arctic, and is one of the largest iron ore mining projects globally.

Baffinland needed to gain the trust and support of the local Inuit communities, and environmental approval from the Nunavit government in order to bring their iron ore mine to production. They also needed to show their strategy for building a 45 kilometer railroad through an environmentally sensitive area which included hunting grounds for local Inuits, and building a shipping port in close proximity to whale breeding grounds.

Imagemaker’s solution to the company’s challenge was to combine a technically accurate high realism animation with video segments. ImageMaker’s video team spent two weeks in the Arctic interviewing local community members to identify their main concerns, in order to address them in the presentation. The technical animation we created depicted how the design of the shipping port and railroad route would ensure that the environment would not be negatively impacted.

The final output was a number of presentations specifically targeted to bankers, the local government, and the Inuit community. ImageMaker also created presentations in Inuktitut to further gain community support, which included the distribution of more than 5,000 videos as a measure of good faith and transparency. The presentations were also shown at town hall meetings and to the government of Nunavut.