CEMENTATION

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As with most industrial activities, mining is a hazardous business but the credentials of Canada’s $54billion mining sector are impressive in this respect.

The protection of the industry’s 380,000 employees is deeply engrained in Canadian mining culture, and the 3,400 companies which provide engineering, geotechnical, and environmental services to the country’s mining operations must align their business activities with a responsible approach to staff health and safety, as well as local communities and the natural environment.

Nevertheless for all the health and safety commitments, protocol, and government regulation the fact remains that the mining industry is one which, even to this day, is challenged with hazards, and it is widely acknowledged that of all the mining disciplines, underground mine development and the process of shaft sinking, in particular, can be hazardous if not carried out safely.

The construction of the vertical shafts which are needed to shuttle mine workers and ore to and from the underground mine site often occurs under great pressure from clients who, conscious of the massive capital costs that they are incurring, and that mine access depends on completion of the shafts, request that shafts be completed sooner rather than later. This time pressure combined with a hazardous working Endeavour Magazine | 75

environment, in which men work at height and alongside heavy equipment, meant that back in the 60s it was a given that a life would be lost for every 100m sunk – even as recently as 35 years ago, it was expected that there would be a loss of life for every 1000ft.

Fortunately a great deal has changed, thanks to the herculean efforts of the underground mine contracting and shaft sinking community, who have overseen vast improvements to risk management and health and safety procedures. Nowadays the incidence of fatalities and serious injury in Canada is minimal, and within Cementation Canada, virtually non-existent – something which Roy Slack, the highly regarded and long-serving President of Cementation Canada, is delighted about.

Having presided over one of Canada’s premier underground mining contractors since taking up the reins in 1998, he has worked tirelessly to build the company into what it is today: a big-project player with an outstanding reputation for safety, and a place where his workers know that they are viewed as people, not assets.

“As you go through your career you see the things that are done right and the things that could be done better. When we started up Cementation Canada, we set out to do something different – to change the way mine contracting is carried out. When we started the company, we aligned our vision to focus on safety. Our target is to be a zero-harm company because that is what we feel the industry should be – this is why we were recognised last year as the safest employer in the Canadian resource sector.

We’ve done well but there is always room for improvement – our commitment to the safety of our staff is absolute. It’s about looking after your people and treating them right, it’s pretty basic stuff.” Roy Slack’s emphasis on employee safety is smart, not only from an ethical viewpoint but from a hard-nosed business angle. A poor safety record costs serious money, and can ultimately dictate whether a company thrives or fails. If there is serious injury or loss of life during a project, work grinds to a halt – if work stops, then revenue will soon dry-up. 76 | Endeavour Magazine

On the other hand, a good safety record can only create a positive snowball effect, in terms of staff recruitment and retention, and building a good reputation. Cementation Canada’s reputation for setting the standard with regards to safety is indicative of the company’s wider overall manner in which it conducts its affairs. As is to be expected of a company bearing the Cementation name – a name which is synonymous with a century-long mining heritage, innovation, and mining success - Cementation Canada is known to be one of the biggest and best direct hire underground mining contractors in the business, not only in Canada but across North and South America. “The easiest way to say what we do is this: we build mines.

We specialise in underground mine construction and development but, importantly, we’re also a direct build and a design-build contractor – this is something which isn’t offered by most businesses in our field. Offering a complete designbuild service in-house means that we gain a better understanding of our clients and their needs – there are a lot of benefits to this model, which is why we’ve used it since the beginning.

Traditionally, different groups and companies would work on different project stages – our model has allowed us to establish continuity and one-point accountability through a strong engineering service within our contracting group.”

This policy of using a designbuild model to complete projects has seen Cementation Canada offer an unrivalled level of bespoke service which, inturn, has given the company the opportunity to provide innovative solutions and fixes to client problems. That said, although such fixes can save clients considerable amounts of time and money, persuading clients to take a risk in an industry as conservative as the mining sector is no mean feat. “Mining and construction is pretty old school and it’s hard to convince clients to try something new - when we do, we have to deliver. For example, when we were working with AuRico Gold at their Young- Davidson project in Matachewan in Ontario a few years back, we proposed a

unique solution to them which cut their capital costs in half, saved them about $40million, and cut the schedule right down. We knew it could be done, but it hadn’t been done before so they took a leap of faith – they felt we could deliver.”

In other words, as Roy alludes to, it’s about building trust between your company and the service user, and to build trust you must forge strong and enduring relationships which can stand the test of time – this is another area where Cementation Canada excels. “Our relationships with our clients are one of the keys to our success, which is why we’re structured in a way that fosters open dialog between ourselves and our clients– we can build a solid understanding of our clients and avoid adversarial relationships. This is at the heart of what we do because really understanding what our clients want from a project standpoint and aligning ourselves with these goals is crucial.”

CEMENTATION This three pillar focus on safety, relationship building, and an efficient, integrated approach to project management has served Cementation Canada well. Based in North Bay, Ontario, the company now employs over 1,200 staff and boasted revenues in the region of $300 Million in 2014. Certainly, the company has come a long way since its inception in 1998 when Roy Slack was first approached by Cementation’s owners in the UK, who were keen to utilise his extensive mining background and have him take the helm of the re-establishment of operations in North America.

“I’d already worked in the mining industry for a number of years and had my own consultancy firm when I was first approached by Cementation UK. They were interested in gaining a foothold in Canada and approached me about evaluating possible acquisitions,” says Roy Slack. “After review of the possible acquisition targets they tabled another option,

“Mining and construction is pretty old school and it’s hard to convince clients to try something new - when we do, we have to deliver”

they asked me to set-up a new start-up from scratch – I was the first company employee.”

The reason for this rapid ascent from oneman band to industry leading underground mine contractor is simple: Roy focused on pushing Cementation Canada forward for the big projects from the very beginning. “I recognised that start-ups in our business often get caught up in a trap where they take on the small projects at the beginning, with the intention of working up to the bigger ones later. The problem with this is that start-ups who do this will usually find that they get pigeonholed by clients as being small project outfits. We did it differently here and went straight for the biggest projects we could get. We had a great engineering team with a lot of experience who were up to the challenge.” Cementation Canada quickly developed a reputation as the go-to company for some of the biggest names in North and South American mining, and the company’s project portfolio makes for impressive reading – it is a veritable who’s who list. To date the company has worked with mining heavyweights, Goldcorp, Vale, and Xstrata on a number of their projects, and others such as Penoles, Nevada Copper, Hecla Mining Company, AuRico Gold, PCS, Lundin as well as, Rio Tinto’s world-class Diavik diamond mine in the Arctic.

The cultivation and development of relationships with such a client base has been hard-earned but is has given Cementation Canada access to the best projects on the market, something which is especially important at such a time as this when all of the mining sector continues to grapple with the mining downturn. Nurturing firstnation partnerships with clients such as Rio Tinto has been critical for the company. With regards to what the future offers, Roy is optimistic. Cementation Canada has taken the bold and yet sensible decision to steadily invest in the company over the downturn years and it is now well-placed to capitalise when the market inevitably picks up – the mining industry is a cyclical beast, after all, and many experts believe that the downturn is unlikely to continue for very much longer. “We’re anticipating growth in the not 80 | Endeavour Magazine

too distant future and we’re looking at potential future acquisitions.

Also, we’ll soon be setting up a new Cementation division in Salt Lake City, Utah – there are exciting times ahead,” Slack told us. He continued: “We’ve taken a conscious decision during the downturn to hire and develop our people rather than lay staff off. There is a lot of talent available and we have taken on engineering and support staff who will be invaluable when the upturn comes. We’ve also taken on big international projects with sister Cementation companies located in countries around the world, as well as on our own we’ve done work in Russia, China, Australia, Africa, Asia, and Europe – our local partnerships across the world give us access to these global markets. This is the benefit of being Cementation Canada, part of a global Cementation Group.”

The message is clear: Cementation Canada is both ready and capable, in spite of the challenging market, and is perfectly poised to capitalise when the storm clouds break.

HEPBURN –ISO 9001 HOISTING SOLUTIONS in PARTNERSHIP WITH CEMENTATION

Hepburn provides innovative and robust solutions to Cementation for the demanding requirements of the mining industry. Hepburn focuses on safety and reliability, exceeding customer’s requirements and delivering on time and on budget. Hepburn equipment has been a part of Cementation’s achievement in many projects all over the world over many years, including:

• 180 inch Friction Hoist with 5000HP motor for AuRico Gold • Skid mounted single drum sinking hoists • Shaft sinking winches for Hoyle Pond, Resolution Copper, etc. • Skid mounted construction winches • Various hoist upgrades and modernizations complete with Hepburn Hoist Manager software