Alan Auld Canada: world leader in design, construction and repair of underground structures.

• Position: CORPORATE PROFILE

Few companies in the world provide the wealth of experience and range of expertise for mining clients in underground construction and deep excavation works than is offered by Alan Auld (Canada).

The global multi-disciplinary firm was co-founded in 1989 under the name W. Farmer & Partners Ltd. by Dr. Alan Auld, the former chief design engineer for Cementation Mining Ltd., which became Alan Auld Associates in 1998 and now the Alan Auld Group Ltd.

Today, it consists of three operating companies--Alan Auld Engineering, Alan Auld Commercial and Alan Auld Construction Management.

With two locations in the United Kingdom, a Canadian office and a new US office Alan Auld is a recognized world leader in the design, construction and repair of underground structures.

The company's traditional field of expertise has been deep shaft and mine design, but those skills have been broadened over the years to a more diversified project base in the areas of civil engineering tunnel work and underground nuclear waste repositories.

The Saskatoon office was established in early 2013, but the company has been a familiar presence for decades in the potash mines of Western Canada and the East Coast.

The Canadian construction team supplies qualified engineering professionals, contractors and trainers to provide project management, technical support, quality control and assurance on shaft and tunnel lining, shaft repair, mine abandonment, ground control and temporary underground structures.

With a small contracting crew, Alan Auld is versatile enough to work directly for the mining companies or in tandem with other mining contractors.

"We're not traditional project managers," said Wayne Smith, director with Alan Auld Canada. "We're actually in the shaft, boots on the ground, supervising the work they're doing and in some cases even training them."

The company specializes in ground control techniques, including grouting and artificial ground freezing, enabling shafts to be sunk through unstable ground through extremely high pressure water.

This technique is employed on most potash mine projects where shafts have to be sunk to depths greater than 1,000 metres and are required to pass through water-bearing zones.

Ground freezing is essential to the success of these projects.

This method of creating a "temporary dam of ice" prevents inflow of groundwater into the excavation, said Smith.

A frozen earth barrier is constructed around the perimeter of the shaft by drilling and...