The Cantung Mine was back in production Monday following what the company president is calling impressive action take to reopen the Nahanni Range Road.

Stephen Leahy of North American Tungsten said this morning credit is due to the Yukon government and contractor KPI Northern Ltd. of Watson Lake for super-quick repairs to three washouts of major road culverts.

"It went way faster than we had thought,” Leahy said of the $845,000 repair contract awarded to KPI seven days prior to the road opening Sunday morning. "It was probably faster than they had thought. It was just a job well done.”

The washouts occurred two weeks ago, during what the Yukon government's flood specialist is calling a perfect storm of above-average spring rain, coupled with an above-average snowpack in the mountains, which was ripe for the melt.

Flood and road closures occurred across the south, including a washout near Rancheria that kept the Alaska Highway closed for four days.

Damage assessments to homes in Upper Liard west of Watson Lake are still being undertaken, as many of the houses and outbuildings saw water reach the rooftops.

Large culverts at three creek crossings along the road into Cantung on the Yukon-N.W.T. border were blown out, and one other area was flooded by hillside runoff.

The Yukon government opened up an 18-hour tender call for repairs a week ago Thursday, with a deadline of 4 p.m. June 22.

The work was awarded Saturday morning to KPI, in partnership with a Grande Prairie, Alta. company which supplies oil field bridges – with a contract deadline of two weeks.

The road opened Sunday morning, the eighth day, though there is still some work to do, spokeswoman Jennifer Magnuson of the Department of Highways and Public Works said this morning.

Magnuson said one-lane bridges have been installed at kilometres 39 of the Nahanni Range Road, 65 and 74. A culvert has also been placed at 61, she said.

Travel is slow, as the construction is still continuing, but the road is open, she added.

North American Tungsten announced it was halting production June 14, with no means of shipping concentrate nor bringing in fuel and other supplies.

The onsite workforce was reduced from a regular complement of 150 employees and contract workers to 50 for mine and site maintenance.

Leahy said the company was in constant contact with the Yukon government and KPI officials, and when it learned the road would open this past Sunday, it began gearing back up.

The onsite workforce is up to about 100 today, and should be fully restored by tomorrow, he said.

Leahy said just as the Yukon government and KPI Northern should be recognized for their efforts, so too should be the staff of North American Tungsten for co-ordinating both the shutdown and the return to work.

"Our team has done an incredible job,” he said. "I mean, these guys come from all over, right across the country.”

The mill was fired up Monday, and underground mining resumed last night, he said.

Leahy said workers started resupplying the site with fuel and the other essentials as soon as the road reopened.

The mine, the company president pointed out, brings in a B-train truckload of fuel every couple of days, as it goes through anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 litres a day.