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Work on the reinstatement of the cable car at Black Angel – in pictures
Construction at Black Angel is only really practical between April and October. Outside of those periods, the fjord is frozen over and daylight hours are very limited.
The main contractor, Entreprenørfirmaet EMJ Grønland A/S ("EMJ"), now have all the steel and formwork in place and have commenced pouring concrete after an inspection by engineers from Garaventa AG ("Garaventa").
Garaventa are also installing a temporary cable which will be used to haul the main cables across the 1.7km divide between the base camp at Maarmorilik and the mine entrance which is situated 600 meters above sea level on the other side of the fjord.
On the 8th of July we used a Eurocopter Super Puma helicopter to lift the saddles for the cable car into place in the upper terminal. The saddles will carry the main cables and cannot be broken down into lightweight components. Consequently, the extraordinary lifting power of the Super Puma was needed to get them in place. The helicopter was flown in from Finland to do this major lift and was operating at the limits of its lift power.
Our thanks to the crew for their extraordinary flying skills and to all the guys at the site for making this a successful operation.
Click below to see the pictures full screen
