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O N L I N E

PROCON GROUP

C O R P O R AT E B R O C H U R E

www.procongroup.net

Majo

Procon Group

orminers The Procon Group of Companies is a leading provider of mining contracting services in North America and beyond, sending its labor force and equipment to remote locations to assist the exploration and mining activities of small and large clients alike, Ric Larson discovers

“A

thousand men, say, go searchin’ for gold. After six months, one of them’s lucky: one out of a thousand. His find represents not only his own labor, but that of nine hundred and ninety-nine others to boot. That’s six thousand months, five hundred years, scramblin’ over a mountain, goin’ hungry and thirsty.

An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the findin’ and the gettin’ of it.” —Howard (Walter Huston), in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Howard was right about the intense labor it took to find and mine gold in the days when miners rode on burros with picks and shovels slung over a heavy pack. But nowadays the finding and the getting of gold and other precious metals—as well as diamonds, potash and a range of base metals—is a lot easier thanks to The Procon Group of Companies, based in Burnaby, British Columbia, a provider of the above-ground infrastructure and construction services needed for mining and civil industries in Canada and North America.

Procon Group

Control Flow Hydraulics Ltd. Control Flow Hydraulics Ltd. is an Alberta-owned and -operated business that has been in business since 1989. Control Flow is a machine shop that operates primarily in the hydraulic sales and service industry. We specialize in the manufacture and repair of every make and model of hydraulic cylinders, pumps, motors, valves, winches and accumulators. We also sell new parts and are a distributor for Oilgear, HydraForce, Yates, Headland, Filtrec, DMIC and more. We service many sectors of the economy such as oil & gas, mining and the forestry industries.

When Ed Yurkowski and Jim Dales formed Procon Mining & Tunnelling Ltd. in 1992, they set out to create a contract mining firm that would offer experienced, safe and efficient services to the mining industry in Canada, the US and in some cases, overseas. Eighteen years later Procon has risen to become one of North America’s leading full-service mining contractors and one of the top 30 general contractors in Canada.

With offices in Nisku, Alberta; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; and Bellingham, Washington, the company has an impressive wealth of expertise and experience, as well as a solid commitment to health and safety that is so crucial to the industry.

Procon has estimated annual revenue in the neighborhood of C$162 million and employs as many as 1,200 people during peak times, many of them deployed to remote mining camps where materials and equipment must be flown in because road access is limited.

Many mining companies large and small prefer to use mining contractors as a way to drive down the cost of mine preparation and operation, drilling, and the extraction of metals. Procon offers services such as remote greenfield project startup, mechanical and electrical installations, and mine project management, as well as underground mine design, estimating, and engineering; engineering services, such as short-term and long-range planning; conceptual mine design through final design; due diligence reviews; underground mine planning; budget preparation; optimization studies; surveying;

Procon Group

The Amalgamated Mining Group The Amalgamated Mining Group is a privately owned group of companies based in Edmonton, Alberta. Established in 1990, we pride ourselves on our sales and service relationships to the industry. The Amalgamated Mining Group is proud to be a major supplier to Procon, providing both underground and surface mining equipment along with new and aftermarket parts and components.

The Amalgamated Mining Group also provides drilling tools for all rock drilling applications.

ground support techniques and applications; and project management and execution.

The company also provides heavy equipment services, such as repair, rebuild, modification, evaluation and overhaul services to the mining, industrial, construction, pipeline and forestry industries; conversion and upgrade of heavy equipment; and design and manufacture of custom equipment for specialty applications.

Additionally, it provides expertise in custom designing electrical systems, equipment wiring harness manufacturing, and providing electrical AutoCAD schematics, as well as in providing welding and fabrication services. The company also offers infrastructure services, such as temporary and permanent infrastructure; concrete and foundations; building, support and platform steel services; mechanical and process equipment installations; tank, vessels, breaching and ducting; pressure, process and service piping; shaft works; and demolition, disassembly and crating.

Procon has several projects and ongoing contracts currently under way, one being the completion of a 400-meter (1,300-foot) tunnel requiring a tap into Tyson Lake, an alpine lake approximately 3,000 feet above sea level at the Tyson Creek hydro-electric plant in Narrows Inlet, BC. Lake tapping is a blasting method that blows an intake into a body of water from below the water surface and is done without first lowering the surface of the water or installing a protective cofferdam around the tap hole. Lake taps are done by first excavating a tunnel almost to the water/rock contact point, and then blasting

Procon Group

out the final protective rock plug all at once to allow water to suddenly flow into the tunnel from the lake. The Tyson Creek project will provide 9.3 megawatts of power capable of supplying electricity to over 5,500 homes. The tunneling project was completed by Procon and the plant was commissioned in January 2010.

Alexco Resource Corporation, owner of the Bellekeno Mine construction project, awarded the mining services contract for the project, including development and production mining, to a joint venture between Procon and the Nacho Nyak Dun Development Corporation (NNDDC) in March 2010.

The NNDDC was established in 1996 to develop economic opportunities and jobs for the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun Tribal State. Progress at the Bellekeno Mine is over 70 percent complete, which includes surface infrastructure, mine development and underground services. Owing to their commitment to health and safety, Procon, together with NNDDC, has operated the project

Procon Group

without a time-loss accident since its inception.

Another of Procon’s ongoing mining contracts is with the QR Mine near Quesnel, BC, which was acquired earlier this year by Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. of Vancouver. The mine has achieved full production, pouring its first doré bar of gold on September 8, 2010. Procon is the mining contractor on an ongoing basis and will be responsible for the development, construction, production, operation and maintenance activities at Barkerville’s mines and mills. In conjunction with Barkerville management and project supervisors, Procon will also be providing facility management, engineering, and permitting functions for the company’s various projects.

Although the economic downturn has slowed many of the industries that Procon helps supply, there are some benefits, including lower fuel and equipment costs and a more abundant supply of labor, which means the company can choose the most experienced and qualified, which in turn enables crews to do more work in the same amount of time. www.procongroup.net

PROCON GROUP

www.procongroup.net