Mining Supply and Services Sector

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MTI founder risked life many times to expand business

Sudbury’s business community celebrated the career and legacy of a man who risked his own life many times for the sake of his business, at a retirement party for Robert Lipic Monday night.

Lipic, the former president and CEO of Mining Technologies International (MTI), was surprised to enter a room with his closest friends and family that evening, in honour of his more than 50 year career in the mining industry.

“When I got here to see the parking lot with so many cars, and then walking in here, it was a tremendous surprise,” Lipic said. “It’s overwhelming.”

Born in Welland, Ont., in August 1944, Lipic went on to graduate from the famed Haileybury School of Mines in 1966, where he studied to become a field geologist.

He worked for mining consultants for several years, and in 1971 moved to Copper Cliff, where he worked for Ontario Equipment, where he sold rock bits made by the company Smith.

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The Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE) has undertaken a study, funded by Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, to determine the province’s mining supply and service sector’s contributions to Canada’s gross domestic product.

“There have been various surveys done, but nothing with this depth of methodology,” said Jon Baird, CAMESE’s managing director.

The association has partnered with PricewaterhouseCoopers to analyze questionnaires 900 supply and service companies in the province have been asked to complete.

To measure the companies’ contribution to national GDP, the questionnaire is meant to determine the companies’ operating and capital expenses. Other surveys have measured revenues and employment numbers, but have never explored expenses and GDP contributions for the sector, he said.

Baird said the economic contributions of the mining supply and service sector have been hidden from view because many of the companies involved, such as the major banks, are involved with industries other than mining.

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A spin off from a Sudbury-based company plans to take expertise in rubber-lined pipping systems for the mining sector, and expand it to a leak prevention technology for other sectors, such as oil and gas.

Jeff Fuller, the president of Fuller Industrial, teamed up with industrial designer Dan Chamberland in 2010 to develop a special paint coating for pipelines, and other structures, that could detect the smallest pin holes and prevent leaks before they happen.
Two years later they founded Leak Preventions Ltd. to push the technology forward and market it to the oil and gas sector.
Fuller is chair of the company’s board of directors, and Chamberland is its president and CEO.

The technology works a lot like the classic board game Operation, but at an industrial scale.

When the special paint they have developed is chipped, it completes an electrical current that sends a signal to the pipeline’s operator. That operator can then take corrective action to prevent a potential leak before it happens. Fuller said Leak Prevention’s patent-pending technology is the only way to prevent a pipeline leak before it occurs.

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The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Local boy Mike Mayhew is responsible for creating and sustaining relationships in the mining industry worldwide. At Stantec, where he works, more than 450 people in 20 countries are employed in the sector. Close to 300 of those are based in Sudbury.

The 42-year-old is a busy guy – never too busy, though, to play the guitar. Leaning against a bookcase the instrument is within easy reach of his office chair. “I’m living the dream here,” Mayhew says, beaming. Earlier this month he was made the sector leader/director for global mining, a new position at Stantec.

“As the sector leader of Canadian operations, I’m responsible for growing and nurturing our relationships in the mining sector and looking for other opportunities to grow and expand our business and tap into all the other services that Stantec offers to our clients,” he explains.

“If they’re looking for mining support and expertise, we have that. If they’re looking for environmental support and expertise, we have that. We have building infrastructure, we have project management, we (can) tap into expertise around the world.

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Joy Global buys Lively-based Mining Technologies Int. for $51M

A major mining manufacturer in Greater Sudbury has been sold to a international mining company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis. Joy Global Inc. announced Friday it was buying Mining Technologies International for $51 million Cdn. MTI, which is based in Lively but has offices across Canada and the U.S., manufactures underground mining equipment for North American markets. It employs about 250 people.

MTI is “a world leading supplier of raise bore drilling consumables,” Joy Global said in its news release. “The company is acquiring substantially all of the assets associated with MTI’s hard rock drilling, loaders, dump trucks, shaft sinking, and raise bore product lines.”

MTI’s revenues associated with those product lines was about $90 million U.S. in 2013. The deal should be complete with 90 days, Joy Global said.

“This acquisition represents an exciting opportunity as we execute on our growth strategy to expand our underground mining product lines into the hard rock markets including nickel, potash, palladium, platinum, gold and copper,” said Ted Doheny, Joy Global’s president and CEO, in the release.

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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 February 2014 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

After 10 years of effort and service, the Sudbury Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA) has become a significant presence in the Northern Ontario mining cluster.

SAMSSA’s annual meeting on December 4th was a testament to the association’s success, attracting 175 representatives from its 140-strong membership of corporate and associated companies and agencies.

There were two special honourees, the announcement of a new board of directors, and the attendance of Vale executives who announced the return of a local purchasing team to Sudbury, much to the pleasure of the audience.

SAMSSA has created a dynamic forum for it members to not only market and promote their expertise globally, but also to establish a community or network to further the members’ common goals.

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Northern Ontario mining operations could become more efficient and safe thanks to an improved solution developed by a Sudbury-based software company.

Symboticware received a $100,000 grant from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to develop an improved version of its SymView software, which allows mining companies to access important data, such as machinery performance and ground stability, in real-time.

The grant will cover about 40 per cent of the cost to develop and implement the software solution, said Symboticware’s president and CEO Kirk Petroski. “The money will allow us to basically have the resources internally staffed to build this new software,” Petroski told Northern Life.

The remaining $150,000 for the project was provided by industry partners and Symboticware’s own investments in research and development. “To me it’s a very good market opportunity,” Petroski said about the project. “It provides reliable data, it provides real-time data and it’s manageable.”

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