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Mining Supply and Services Sector

Push area’s [Sudbury’s] expertise, official suggests [for Ring of Fire business] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 18, 2011)

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. This article was published on May 18, 2011. cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

Cities like Greater Sudbury looking to benefit from the Ring of Fire should market their soft skills such as their knowledge base and skilled workforce, and not just “hard infrastructure” to companies developing the massive deposit.

Communities throughout Northern Ontario are looking to capitalize on development of the 5,120-square-kilometre deposit of chromite, nickel, copper, zinc, gold and kimberlite located about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

The co-ordinator of the Ring of Fire Secretariat, Christine Kaszycki, spoke to members of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday about progress in developing the resource and how businesses might get involved.

Kaszycki, who heads the secretariat established by the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry last year, presented a high-level overview of the status of the Ring of Fire development.

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NEWS RELEASE: Canadian Mining Technology May Extend Future Space Missions [Sudbury NORCAT]

About NORCAT

The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (NORCAT) is a not-for-profit, non-share incorporated company based in Sudbury, Ontario Canada. NORCAT has been developing space mining equipment since 1999, with the primary focus on a drilling unit for subsurface exploration. http://www.norcat.org.

SUDBURY, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – May 4, 2011) – The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (NORCAT), under Canadian Space Agency contract, is developing innovative drilling technology which will shape the future of Canada’s contribution to future space missions. This project supports Canada’s role in the Global Exploration Strategy as a key component of the utilization of planetary resources for mission support.

The requirement for mining activity on the moon or near earth objects in support of robotic and human activity is paramount. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is the process of using existing resources to produce valuable elements in space, such as oxygen and water. NORCAT’s expertise in microgravity mining leads the way in pioneering future space exploration missions.

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[Northern] Ontario [Mining] Suppliers Explore New Horizons – by Russell A. Carter, Managing Editor – Engineering and Mining Journal

Engineering and Mining Journal is a monthly publication that highlights information about new mining equipment, technology, and techniques. This article was published February 10, 2011.

Offering mining equipment and services ranging from basic ‘big iron’ to high tech, companies in the Sudbury/North Bay/Timmins area are taking a hard look at export-market opportunities

Canada’s Northern Ontario, a region larger than France and Germany combined—representing about 90% of the land area of the entire province, but containing only a small fraction of its people—is geographically distant from most population centers but is solidly emplaced in the nexus of world-class mining districts that form the backbone of the global minerals industry.

The region’s Sudbury Basin is host to one of the world’s largest deposits of nickel and copper, and offers such favorable prospects for additional mineral wealth that it has attracted billions of investment dollars from both Canadian and international mining giants such as Brazil’s Vale (Vale Ltd., formerly Inco) and Switzerland’s Xstrata plc (Xstrata Nickel, formerly Falconbridge).

The dollars continue to flow in. The Ontario Mining Association reports that Vale plans to invest $3.4 billion in its Sudbury area operations, including $200 million to upgrade the Clarabelle mill, $360 million to bring the Totten mine into production and up to $2 billion on an Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (AER) project to cut sulphur dioxide emissions by 80%. Quadra FNX intends to spend $200 million on Sudbury area expansions and North American Palladium, north of Thunder Bay, is sinking $270 million into an expansion of the Lac des Iles mine.

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Grits would restore FedNor – by Mike Whitehouse (Sudbury Star – April 16, 2011)

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. This article was published on April 16, 2011. mwhitehouse@thesudburystar.com

“This is one of the richest places on Earth, Northern Ontario, and it often has that feeling
that it’s not getting the benefit from all the wealth under the ground. …One the great things about Northern Ontario — you see it everywhere — this is a part of the world that has absolutely world-class expertise in mining technology, mining research and mining science. And we mustn’t lose that.” (Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff – April 16, 2011)

Brian Blackborough only wanted to ask Michael Ignatieff one question. The long-haul trucker from Markstay, who pulled himself off the road months ago to care for his ailing wife in their home, wanted to know why he’s being punished for doing so.

As it stands, Canadians in his circumstance can qualify for Employment Insurance only if their spouse is likely to die within six months. And even then, the benefit is only paid for six weeks. That means Blackborough was forced to choose between his wife’s well-being and their income.

The question stuck with the Liberal leader for a number of reasons. Ignatieff’s mother died of Alzheimers and his father stayed home for eight years to care for her. It was a harrowing and traumatic experience he wishes on no one, he told a packed, partisan crowd at Friday’s town hall.

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Best little [Sudbury mining] high-tech secret – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 20, 2011)

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. This article was published on April 20, 2011. cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

Steve Matusch remembers his first day as a student on placement at Inco’s now defunct copper refinery, when he was studying systems engineering at Waterloo University. From the time he was a boy playing with Lego blocks, Matusch had dreamed of a day when he would build real machinery.

He walked across the plant floor at the copper refinery to a huge and complicated copper-stripping machine manufactured in Sweden and thought: “wow, this is what I want to build.” Today, the company over which Matusch presides, Ionic Engineering Ltd., is the technology leader in producing equipment like that piece he admired years ago.

“It was a lot of fun how that happened, when you come from here and all of a sudden we beat the big boys at some things,” Matusch said Tuesday during a walkabout at Ionic’s headquarters on Mumford Road in the Walden Industrial Park.

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NEWS RELEASE (BESTECH): Vale and Xstrata Commission Energy Management Solution that Can Save Mines Millions in Energy Costs

Founded in 1995, BESTECH was created to address the need for system integration and industrial automation. By developing a very specialized skill set, BESTECH quickly gained recognition as a leader in industrial automation, engineering, software development and energy management. With over a decade of sustainable growth, BESTECH developed its strong industry expertise, by responding and developing innovative technologies that helps companies in mining, pulp and paper, forestry, oil and gas, manufacturing, municipal and commercial industries internationally enhance their productivity, profitability and safety . www.bestech.com

The mining industry world-wide has more than its fair share of challenges today–from stringent environmental and regulatory pressures to an urgent need to improve operational costs, productivity and safety, all while having to mine deeper than ever before.

Aware of these challenges, BESTECH, one of Canada’s leading providers of engineering, automation, software development and energy management services, has been developing a novel solution to address these challenges in mines for years. Their team of experts have perfected a multi-faceted solution called NRG1-ECO (Energy Consumption Optimization) that helps mining companies gain better control of their processes, energy usage, equipment, safety and energy costs.

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Money, brains and buried treasure at PDAC 2011- by Norm Tollinsky

Norm Tollinsky is editor of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. This article is from the March, 2011 issue.

It’s no accident that 22,000 members of the global mining community take over Front Street in Toronto every year about this time. Ontario, the epicenter of the global mineral exploration business, is where the deals get done. It’s where money is raised and expertise is sought for discovering and mining the resources that are more in demand than ever as prosperity in the developing countries puts cash in the pockets of hundreds of millions of new consumers.

Downtown Toronto is where it all happens, but Ontario’s stature as an international centre of mining expertise begins with the province’s inexhaustible natural endowment of gold, diamonds, copper, nickel, zinc, platinum group metals and now, chromite. After a brief dip in mineral exploration caused by the global financial meltdown in 2008, Ontario is once again firing on all cylinders.

As reported in our cover story this issue, the province reported record-breaking mineral exploration expenditures of $825 million for 2010 and there is every indication that 2011 will be just as busy. All across Northern Ontario, from Detour Gold’s 14.9 million ounce Detour Lake project in the northeast to Osisko’s 6.7 million ounce Hammond Reef project in northwestern Ontario, we are seeing former producing mines returning to production, new resources being discovered, shafts being sunk or deepened and head frames rising from the earth.

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Growing your mining supply company for a global market – by Dick DeStefano

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca This column was originally published in the March, 2011 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

One of the most consistent questions from the SAMSSA membership is how do we build a truly viable and vital company that can meet all the needs and  demands of a global market. What model or dynamics works best and what is a waste of time and effort? A worthy question.

The list of options is somewhat endless and changes quite frequently as new models emanate from different economic conditions and research.  What works for one company is a waste of time for another depending on the attitude and resources available, but I believe that the most fundamental model is the generic structure that encompasses the strategic business plan.

The list of models presented here is not exhaustive but appear as the most applied.

Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining the strategy or direction and making decisions and allocating resources to pursue this strategy utilizing its capital and people. You can use a SWOT or PEST or STEER analysis or even a supplementary but comprehensive model called EPISTEL (Environment, Political, Informatic, Social, Technological, and Economic & Legal) as the primary map for success. All strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions: 1. What do we do? 2. For whom do we do it? 3. How do we excel?

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The not-new, not-a-cycle mining supercycle – by David Robinson

Dr. David Robinson is an economist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. His column was originally published in March 2011 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury.  drobinson@laurentian.ca

Mr. Keynes had it right: the financial community is very, very emotional. We are barely climbing out of what many were calling the great recession, and suddenly a flock of bankers and business reporters are babbling about a new economic supercycle.

Well, I have news for them. There is no new supercycle. Don’t run off and sell all your mining stocks, though. This isn’t bad news – it’s just a better way of understanding the good news.

To start with, the supercycle isn’t new. Even Gerard Lyons, the guy who wrote The Supercycle Report, shows the cycle starting in 2000. It is the same old supercycle that we were talking about five years ago in this space.

Second, it isn’t a cycle. An interesting thing about the figures from Gerard Lyons is that they show a gradually rising growth rate, not a series of cycles. Each of the so-called high cycles got a bit higher.

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Mining clusters fuel economic growth – by Indira Singh (September, 2006)

Interrelated industries and institutions drive wealth creation

Clusters are a group of interrelated industries and institutions that drive wealth creation primarily through innovation and the export of goods and services. Clustered industries mutually reinforce and enhance
competitive advantage by acting as each other’s consumers, competitors, partners, suppliers and sources of research and development.

The Ontario Mineral Industry Cluster (OMIC) includes exploration companies, major mine operators, service and equipment suppliers, labour, training and education institutions, associations and other allied entities. Other well-known clusters include Hollywood, California’s Silicon Valley, Ottawa’s Silicon Valley North, the Netherlands’ cut flower industry and Houston’s oil and gas sector.

Over the last decade, clusters have attracted substantial attention from policy makers, legislatures, business leaders, academics, economic development practitioners and development agencies around the world.
Governments with widely differing ideologies in more than 30 countries and in the majority of U.S. states have adopted cluster-based economic development models. The cluster approach is also used by European governments, as well as governments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Why clusters work

Productivity and productive growth are the fundamental drivers of prosperity. Innovation is the key driver of productivity. Clusters drive innovation, economic growth and development.

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Pan-Northern Ontario Initiative Seeks Saskatchewan Market – by Adelle Larmour

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business  provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. This article was posted on their website January 21, 2011.

More than $100 billion to be spent in Saskatchewan within the next decade

Northern Ontario companies stand to cash in on billons being spent in Saskatchewan on potash (above) and uranium mining over the next decade. More than $100 billion is expected to be invested in Saskatchewan over the next decade and some Northern Ontario businesses want a piece of the action.

Twenty-two businesses from across northeastern Ontario have united in a pan-Northern initiative under the auspices of Ontario’s North Economic Development Corporation (ONEDC), a non-profit corporation representing the five major Northern Ontario cities.

ONEDC (pronounced One DC), created to implement pan-Northern economic development initiatives, has been working with the support of the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry (MNDMF) and in-market consultants to help facilitate business opportunities for Northern Ontario suppliers.

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[Innovation Cluster Theory] Saguenay: Next-Gen Aluminium – by Brian Banks (National Post/December 1, 2009)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This column was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine on December 1, 2009.

No. Of Companies: 70, R&D Jobs: 350, Production Jobs: 7,000

The Aluminium industry cluster in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region of Quebec, about 200 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, is a success story born of adversity. The first seeds were sown at a 1984 provincial economic summit when Alcan (now Rio Tinto Alcan, or RTA), a key employer and the region’s primary aluminium producer, announced plans for job cuts. New technology and the need to reduce costs left it no choice.

Rather than surrender, local entrepreneurs, civic leaders and Alcan itself hit upon a critical job-creation strategy — build upon Alcan’s massive presence and technical expertise by establishing companies to pursue value-added secondary and tertiary aluminium-related opportunities. Within two years, a $10-million venture capital fund had been established — with $5 million coming directly from Alcan — and the diversification had begun. Twenty-five years and several waves of private-sector, university and government-backed incentives and investments later, more than 70 spin-off companies, employing more than 7,000 workers — making everything from specialized heavy equipment to tubing and other fabricated products to world-class casting technologies for domestic and international markets — call the “Aluminium Valley” home.

While every firm is unique, the story of Mecfor Inc., based in Chicoutimi, is representative of the region’s evolution and the ways in which the cluster concept can foster success. Founded as a small forestry services firm in 1987 and later absorbed as an operating unit within a larger, local engineering and consulting firm, Mecfor took aim at the aluminium business in the late 1990s.

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[Innovation Cluster Theory ]Fields of Dreams – by Karen Mazurkewich (National Post/December 1, 2009)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This column was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine on December 1, 2009.

Economic shifts and recession have brought innovation cluster theory to the forefront. Will it deliver? Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and governments are saying, ‘yes’

It was the little conference that could.

On a cloudy day this past June, a tight group of technology nerds met in Stratford, Ont., to discuss their ambitious new digital media plan. What started as a small meeting of minds mushroomed to 1,000 delegates as momentum gathered. “It surprised us, it snowballed,” organizer Tom Jenkins, executive chairman and chief strategy officer of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text Corp., would later comment. Whether motivated by fear over where the economic crisis was taking the country, or simply the chance to hobnob with Canada’s top innovation executives like Michael Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion, the conference ended on a high with a proclamation from above: the gurus — Jenkins and Lazaridis — decreed that this pastoral town (known mostly for its annual Shakespeare festival) would be transformed into Canada’s new digital media centre. Just as they had built nearby Kitchener-Waterloo into a vibrant hub for information and communication (ICT) technologies, they now planned to reshape Stratford, starting with the construction of the proposed Stratford Institute, a digital media innovation centre to be housed at the University of Waterloo.

It was as if the local dream team were channelling fiction by positing: “If we build it, they will come.” Only in this case the “they” are entrepreneurs, and the “field of dreams” a vibrant new industry to help drive the faltering economy in southern Ontario. Even the chosen leader of the project, Ian Wilson, a 66-year old retired librarian and archivist who has never written a line of code, is an unlikely saviour. But he has a vision that the new technology push into interactive digital media will be driven by creativity not just algebra. “[Firms like Open Text] know that the future means they need employees that have both the creativity of an artist and the knowledge of technology,” says Wilson, the former chief librarian and archivist of Canada, who embraced a Sisyphean task of digitizing all national publications.

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Honesty and Trust Spell Success for New Inductees Into Sudbury SAMSSA Hall of Fame – by Adelle Larmour

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business  provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. This article was posted on the newspaper website on December 27, 2010.

The Sudbury Area Mining Suppliers and Services  Association (SAMSSA) represents the largest concentration of mining suppliers in North America. Northeastern Ontario is the hardrock mining heartland of the Americas and Sudbury is its epicentre.

Being honest, being yourself and treating everybody equal are qualities that Ivan Beljo and Bob Rappolt support and live by. These traits that have led both men down their respective roads of success were recognized by their peers as the 2010 Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA) Hall of Fame inductees.

Their sons proudly shared their fathers’ stories  with humour and affection at the association’s annual general meeting in December.

Ivo Beljo, son and business partner of Ivan, talked about the daily demands of running Rematech Industries, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of conveyor belting, rubber and urethane  moulded products and linings.

Like many other supply and service companies, Ivan and Ivo have felt the challenges of a cyclical mining industry, lengthy local strikes and global economic downturns. Ivan learned about hardship and hard work growing up on the family farm and vineyards in  Croatia after the Second World War.

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News Release – Sudbury SAMSSA Member – Fuller Industrial – Scores in Multi-Million Dollar Project in Mongolia

Sudbury-based Fuller Industrial is a world-class supplier of carbon steel pipe spool fabrication,  rubber lining and specialty coating of pipes, fittings, tanks, and assemblies. The company has been in operation since 2004 and employs 100 people at their Sudbury operations and 30 people in their Edmonton plant. www.fullerindustrial.com

The Sudbury Area Mining Suppliers and Services  Association (SAMSSA) represents the largest concentration of mining suppliers in North America. Northeastern Ontario is the hardrock mining heartland of the Americas and Sudbury is its epicentre.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sudbury, January 13, 2011 – Fuller Industrial has done it again. Hot off the heels of their massive project in Madagascar, they have been awarded another multi-million dollar project to supply carbon steel, rubber lined pipe and fittings, this time to Mongolia.

The Ivanhoe Mining / Rio Tinto Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia is set to be one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world. The mine is under construction as of 2010 and scheduled to begin production in 2013. It is also the largest financial undertaking in Mongolia’s history and is expected upon completion to account for more than 30% of the country’s gross domestic product.

Fuller, with plants in Sudbury, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta won the award over several international bidders including competitors in neighbouring China to supply nearly 6 km of rubber lined pipe and fittings for the massive concentrator being built in the Gobi desert. The rubber lined pipe increases the life of the system by providing abrasion resistance to the slurry being processed.

Fuller, who will produce and manage the project in their Sudbury plant, acknowledges that the award is a big win for Fuller, for Sudbury, Ontario, and for Canada. It bucks the ongoing trend of value added manufacturing happening in China.

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