Advanced Laboratory Testing

At BGC, we recognize the value of geotechnical laboratory data lies in its accuracy, repeatability, and traceability. That’s why our advanced soil and rock testing adheres to rigorous industry standards, supported by robust QA/QC protocols and experienced personnel.

Our Fredericton laboratory is outfitted with precision-calibrated instrumentation from trusted manufacturers and follows a calibration and maintenance schedule to ensure reliable performance. All test procedures are carried out by highly trained geotechnical professionals, and every data set undergoes a detailed technical review by senior geotechnical engineers prior to delivery.

We’re committed to data integrity, offering clients confidence that test results will stand up to scrutiny and support safe, informed engineering decisions.

BGC is internationally recognized for delivering specialized geotechnical testing services that support advanced engineering design, tailings management, and infrastructure development in challenging geological environments.

Tailings & Critical State Soil Mechanics

BGC is globally recognized as a leader in tailings characterization, with specialized expertise in determining the critical state line (CSL) and stress-dilatancy parameters for assessing static liquefaction potential in tailings. 

Dynamic and Cyclic Testing

Our lab also performs dynamic testing to assess liquefaction triggering and dynamic soil behavior. We determine dynamic material properties, including elastic modulus and damping ratio, to support liquefaction-triggering assessments under cyclic loading conditions.

Unsaturated Soil Testing

BGC provides advanced unsaturated soil mechanics testing, including:

• Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC)
• Unsaturated (cyclic) triaxial testing

These services help evaluate moisture-dependent material behavior, which is critical for slope stability, cover systems, and earthworks design.

Rock Mechanics Testing

Our rock testing team is experienced at performing a full suite of rock tests including direct shear and triaxial testing to determine:  

• Compressive, tensile, and shear strengths
• Young’s Modulus (stiffness)
• Poisson’s Ratio (strain response)

These results support foundation design, tunnel engineering, and slope stability analysis in rock masses.

Custom Equipment & Innovation

We collaborate closely with clients to develop custom testing solutions for unique or large-scale geotechnical challenges. Innovations include:

• Specialized sample preparation equipment and procedures for handling soft, sensitive soils.

• A 40 cm x 40 cm direct shear box for coarse materials (material up to 5 cm in diameter).
• Two large diameter triaxial systems capable of static and dynamic testing for samples with diameters up to 30 cm at confining pressures up to 3 MPa.
• A custom direct shear apparatus for rock discontinuities, designed to reduce internal friction and rotational effects.

This tailored approach allows us to simulate complex field conditions and produce high-value data that directly informs design parameters.

We specialize in:

• Fully automated monotonic and cyclic triaxial testing of soil along any stress path, with the capability to accommodate unsaturated testing
• Monotonic and cyclic direct simple shear
• Peak and residual direct shear
• Ring shear and resonant column
• One-dimensional consolidation by incremental loading and constant rate of strain (CRS)
• Rock direct shear, triaxial, and unconfined compressive strength (UCS)

This equipment features advanced instrumentation and data acquisition systems capable of accurately controlling and/or measuring deviatoric load, cell and pore pressures, axial and radial displacements, and pore volume changes. Some recent examples of laboratory projects include:

• Critical state testing of mine tailings at numerous tailings storage facilities internationally, supporting clients including Hudbay Minerals, Newcrest Red Chris, HATCH, WSP, Arcadis SpA, Tailings Scandanavia, and Vale S.A.
• Since 2011, BGC has been responsible for the design and construction of the new Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) at the Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo (PV) mine, a large open pit gold mine in central Dominican Republic. As part of this work, several advanced laboratory testing programs have been successfully completed to fully characterize the geotechnical properties of the native saprolite.
• BGC designed and manufactured a custom rock direct shear apparatus to overcome several limitations inherent in typical equipment and methodologies, including an alternative method of encapsulation, installation of linear rail guides to avoid rotational dilation, and the use of a triaxial load cell to bypass internal friction.
• Characterization of the stress history, shear strength, compressibility, and hydraulic conductivity of glaciolacustrine silts and clays at numerous sites in Canada including normally consolidated and overconsolidated deposits, sensitive silts and clays, high plasticity clays, and glacially pre-sheared (slickensided) clays.

BGC provides expertise to assess the groundwater monitoring requirements of a project and recommends appropriate monitoring programs and instrumentation. We are well-versed, in the siting and installation of piezometers and monitoring wells, the design and operation of multi-level monitoring systems, and the installation and operation of groundwater monitoring instrumentation. We also have in-depth experience with data management, remote monitoring, and presentation of real-time data using web-based interfaces.