This article is from Business Excellence Magazine

http://www.bestech.com/

 This Canadian engineering company is making its mark in the mining industry with a contribution to energy saving and the environment. Alan Swaby talks to co-CEOs Marc Boudreau and Denis Pitre and to the corporate services/sales & marketing manager Pat Dubreuil.

Aficionados of Doctor Who will be familiar with the Tardis concept – a deceptively small exterior encompassing a surprisingly large interior. In engineering terms, the Canadian company BESTECH is not dissimilar.

Started in 1995 by Marc Boudreau and Denis Pitre, the business initially offered electrical engineering services to the various mining operations found in and around the Sudbury region of Ontario. Since then, though, year-on-year growth in the order of 30 percent per annum has been achieved through the addition of more skills and operating divisions. Now you can find civil, structural and mechanical engineers working alongside their electrical counterparts and providing a full blown engineering and project management package. Read the rest of this entry »

This column was published in today’s  Sudbury Star , the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. It is the start of a monthy mining column for the Sudbury Star.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and columnist who blogs at www.republicofmining.com ; stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Last year the global population reached seven billion. More than half of us now live in urban centres and experts estimate that figure will climb to 70% by 2050. China is witnessing the largest rural to urban migration in the history of mankind in its stampede to industrialize and modernize. China also has become the world’s second largest economy and currently needs to build the equivalent of two cities the size of Toronto and Sydney Australia every year to accommodate this rapid growth. India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and other developing countries are following in its footsteps but at a less frenzied pace.

According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company, “up to three billion more middle-class consumers will emerge in the next 20 years compared with 1.8 billion today, driving up demand for a range of different resources.” Notwithstanding the current depressed prices of some metals, most analysts feel that the current mining commodity super-cycle will last for decades. It is estimated that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as many minerals as consumed since the beginning of time. Read the rest of this entry »

January 3, 2012

BESTECH recently welcomed its 100th employee to the team, which is a significant milestone for the Northern Ontario engineering firm. Demonstrating that BESTECH does not plan to slow down any time soon, company representatives anticipate an additional 30% growth in employees for 2012.

Their hundredth employee is a true testament to BESTECH’s impressive growth since its inception in 1995. From its early days as a startup, BESTECH Co-CEOs Marc Boudreau and Denis Pitre operated the business out of a modest single office space on Lorne Street, which has magnified to 14,000 square feet, and the firm now comprises a total of four locations in three cities: Sudbury, Timmins and Toronto. These developments occurred as a result of continued expansion servicing various sectors.

BESTECH’s achievement of the 100-employee milestone would not have been realized without its supportive clients who fuel its growth, excellent employees who make BESTECH a great place to work, and visionary and supportive management that keeps the entire organization on track and leads the firm in the right direction. Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Dumas spreads Christmas cheer locally and internationally

A local mining company stepped up locally and internationally to help people in need this holiday season. Employees from Timmins-based Dumas sponsored gifts and events for families in their areas.

For example, this year staff in Timmins raised $10,000 to buy Christmas gifts for 55 children, and the crew at the Yauliyacu mine site in Peru supplemented corporate donations to sponsor the year end celebration for children at the tiny village school.

In Timmins, the tradition started in 2008 when Dumas staff decided to rally together to help local underprivileged children. They contacted Child Family Services and collected enough money to buy Christmas gifts for 10 children. Over the years, the amount raised and number of children supported has grown.

Last year, gifts were purchased for 30 children and Christmas dinner was sponsored for a whole family. Read the rest of this entry »

Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal is a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. 

Euro zone debt, American stagnation and a slowdown in China paint a picture of economic doom and gloom, but Northern Ontario’s mining engineering consulting firms have never been busier.

Sudbury and North Bay staff with Hatch, Stantec, Wardrop, AMEC and Knight-Piésold are busy working on projects across Canada and around the world, and are bullish about the next few years.

The engineering consulting sector in northeastern Ontario constitutes an important sub-section of the region’s mining cluster, employing upwards of 600 engineers, scientists, technicians and administrative staff.

This wasn’t always the case.  Wardrop, now part of Pasadena, California-based Tetra Tech, started out with a three-man operation in 2001 and today has 50 employees at its Sudbury office. Stantec, formerly McIntosh Engineering, had one or two people in Sudbury in 2008 and now has 92, with approximately 100 more in North Bay. Read the rest of this entry »

A November 24, 2011 $10 million gift to Laurentian's Engineering School from Stan Bharti, (centre holding cheque) chairman and CEO of Forbes & Manhattan, Inc. confirms Sudbury's status as Canada's pre-eminent centre for mining education, reseach and production.

        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 December, 2011 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Stan Sudol has one of the most active mining logs in North America: www.republicofmining.com It has recently been added to a Top Ten Mining Blog list by Australian Mining magazine. We asked Stan for his comments and views on Northern Ontario Mining and its technology cluster.

SAMSSA has been monitoring the mining sector for nine years now and with the exception of the crash in September 2008,  the sector continues to grow. Why?

China, India and many other industrializing and urbanizing economies will continue to grow and place enormous demands on mineral production and the supply and service suppliers. We are still in a commodity super-cycle that will last much longer than previous ones. However, commodity super-cycles have temporary downsides as we saw in 2008.

China is witnessing the largest rural-urban migration in the history of mankind. Hundreds of millions of new middle-class consumers need all sorts of products and infrastructure services that can only be made with the minerals we dig out of the ground in Sudbury and Northern Ontario. Read the rest of this entry »

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Mining in Ontario continues to face current and future human resource challenges due to industry growth and pending retirements from the existing workforce.  Attracting and retaining employees for the right jobs in the right locations is a key strategy to be successful. 

The Mining Industry Human Resource Council (MiHR) indicates Ontario’s mining industry will need between 5,578 and 17,000-plus new employees leading up to 2018.  That range is based on different scenarios for global demand of metal and minerals.  Ontario Mining Association President Chris Hodgson is a Director on the MiHR Board.

A recently released best employer study rates employee engagement as a key indicator for success in attracting in retaining workers.  Aon Hewitt’s Best Employers in Canada study, which looked at 261 employers with a total of 112,000 employees, said the average engagement score for the top 50 companies was 78% while the average engagement score of the other companies was 58%. Read the rest of this entry »

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

The role of the provinces would be to target subsidies
at emerging industries (Premier Dalton McGuinty’s green
energy program is an example) and regional clusters
(biotechnology and life sciences in Toronto, high-tech
development in Waterloo, mining technology in Sudbury).
(Carol Goar – Toronto Star Editorial Board)

For roughly 30 years, Ottawa has been pouring taxpayers’ dollars into Canada’s “innovation gap” — and achieving precious little.

The government spends roughly $5 billion a year to induce business to invest in research and product development. Cabinet ministers regularly exhort corporate leaders for their unwillingness to use their earnings to leap ahead of their global competitors. Conferences are held, reports written.

Yet according to the latest statistics from the Organization for Economic Growth and Development, Canada remains at the back of pack in terms of private spending on research and development (16th out of 27 industrial countries).

This record of failure calls for a “fundamental reordering of how innovation, research and development are funded in Canada,” says the Mowat Centre in a provocative new study. Read the rest of this entry »

The 6th International Conference & Exhibition on Mass Mining
Held for the first time in [Sudbury] Canada June 11 to 14, 2012

MONTREAL, Oct. 26, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ – The 6th International Conference & Exhibition on Mass Mining, Advancing the State-of-the-Art in Mass Mining: MassMin 2012, will be held for the first time in Canada, from June 11 to 14, 2012. This premier technical mining conference will take place in Sudbury, Ontario.

After the US, South Africa, Australia, Chile and Sweden; it’s time for Canada to host this important conference for the first time. “Sudbury is one of the three key mining supply areas in the world and we are very proud to host this conference,” says Dr. Greg Baiden, International Committee Conference Chair, CEO – Penguin Automated Systems and Professor – School of Engineering Laurentian University.

MassMin 2012 local and international committees are composed of highly influential individuals directly involved in the transition from open-pit to underground mining. Sessions will be presented by companies such as Vale, Codelco, Rio Tinto, Subsea Massive Sulphides, Lunar Mining and Robotic Mine of the future. Read the rest of this entry »

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Cliffs Natural Resources says it’s committed to “working hand-in-hand” with nine remote First Nations that could benefit from the company’s proposed chromite mine in the Ring of Fire.

But the company said it’s disappointed over last week’s all-or-nothing demand by Matawa First Nations for a higher level environmental review into the mine proposal. “It’s unfortunate that the focus is over the panel (review) versus comprehensive approaches,” Cliffs said in a statement.

“The comprehensive review process provides a clear and thorough path, as well as the flexibility to address the specific concerns of impacted communities,” the statement said.

Matawa is demanding a government-appointed joint review panel — similar to the one underway for a copper and palladium mine near Marathon — because “it allows for more public participation (including) oral hearings to be held in each community.” Read the rest of this entry »

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

The Long Harbour Development Corp. in Newfoundland wants to import the expertise of Sudbury’s mining supply and services companies.

The community is the site of Vale’s $3-billion hydromet processing facility, currently under construction, and it will process nickel sulphide concentrate from Vale’s Voisey Bay Mine in Labrador. The development corporation wants to identify suppliers so when the facility goes into production in 2013, they are ready to meet the supply and services requirements.

“I am a matchmaker,” said Joe Bennett, executive director of the Long Harbour Development Corp. “I want to take advantage of the experience of the suppliers in Sudbury and see if we can create a marriage between organizations in Newfoundland who might want to do a joint venture, or partnership, or sub-office, with someone who is already experienced in dealing with Vale on the supply side and hopefully get a leg up.” Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Industrial park upgrade plan leaves doubt

News that the City of Greater Sudbury has decided to go forward with upgrades to a pair of industrial parks is good news, but leaves lingering doubts, said a mining industry observer.

“There are more questions than there are answers for me,” said Dick DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). “It just takes so long. That’s the biggest complaint I got back from our guys: it just takes so long to do.”

In June, Sudbury council approved a plan that calls for $65 million in water, wastewater and road infrastructure upgrades to the city’s eight industrial areas, with the parks at Fielding Road, in the city’s west end, and Elisabella Street, on the east side, identified as priorities.

It will cost a combined $875,000 to complete the preliminary environmental assessment and detailed design estimate at those two properties, and city staff have been given the go-ahead to begin the process, deeming the upgrades necessary to encourage economic development. Read the rest of this entry »

Speaking Notes For Alex Henderson: General Manager of Mines and Mill Technology for Vale’s North Atlantic Region
Copper Cliff Mine 114 Orebody Demonstration Plant Funding Announcement
Rail-Veyor Test Site

Thank-you Jon. Imagine a mine with no shaft or head frame, no loading pockets, no underground crushers, no conveyor, and no diesel haulage trucks . . .

It’s a huge departure from the way we currently mine but new technology is making this sort of innovative thinking possible. We will be testing some of these new technologies and mining methods at the 114 Orebody Demonstration Plant in Copper Cliff.

Our findings at this plant have the potential to change not only how we mine in Sudbury, but across all of Vale’s operations around the world.

But to understand where we’re headed, it makes sense to set a little context and spend a few moments reflecting on the mining processes of the past . . .

Prior to 1970, mining in the Sudbury Basin was largely manual and characterized by high grades, low volumes and poor safety records. Read the rest of this entry »

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

What Caterpillar did not only made headlines around the
globe, but it also sent a message to the entire world
and its leaders that the company believes in mining and
that it is committed to the industry for its own future
too. (Russell Noble – CMJ/September, 2011)

Fourteen-and-a-half billion dollars! That’s a lot of money and I don’t care how rich you are, those figures are attention grabbers in any circle. Even the richest of rich raise their eyebrows when the words “fourteen-and-a-half billion dollars” are mentioned because there’s always some serious business, and usually interesting opportunities, associated with that kind of money.

In mining, particularly when that amount of money is mentioned in conversation, juniors from coast to coast envisage more drill rigs or even a mine on their property someday while active miners probably start thinking deeper and wider about the properties they already own and operate.

And like the prospectors and developers I just mentioned, there are also others associated with mining (and big money) that think investing in the industry is a good thing too. And that’s exactly what Caterpillar Inc did when it recently announced that it bought Bucyrus International, Inc. for $8.8 billion and is planning to spend another $5.7 billion on research and development (and “yellow” paint) to make the products they just bought even better. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

This column was originally published in 2004. How things change and how they stay the same or get worse!  Ontario’s debt that year was $142-billion but will reach $283-billion in 2012 and $303-billon in 2013. In addition, the Far North Act – Bill 19 – which was passed last year, bans economic development in 225,000 square kilometers of the far north, roughly 21 per cent of Ontario’s landmass.

For some geographic perspective, that is approximately the same size as the United Kingdom minus Northern Ireland with a population of 60 million people. The enormously rich “Ring of Fire” mining camp was largely unknown. – (Stan Sudol-August30, 2011)

How many more Sudbury Basins exist in that vast northern
territory above the French and Mattawa Rivers that encompass
85% of the province’s geography? There are billions of
dollars worth of untapped mineral deposits waiting to be
developed. (Stan Sudol-September 9, 2004)

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and mining columnist. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

National Post – September 9, 2004

In July, Alberta Premier Ralph Kline proudly announced that his province’s massive debt has been slain However he could not have accomplished that historic feat without the development of northern Alberta’s booming oil sands economy and ensuing resource royalties. Unfortunately, Ontario, struggling with a $142-billion debt and a $100-billion infrastructure deficit, is largely ignoring the mineral rich potential of its north. Read the rest of this entry »