Mining suppliers enjoy trickle down.

Greater Sudbury -- With precious and base metal prices surging to historic highs, some of the prosperity being enjoyed by the large international mining firms is trickling down to the companies that service them.

And Sudbury mining suppliers are gaining a global reputation for supplying the best in equipment and expertise for underground deep mine operations.

For Jeff Fuller, business has been brisk since he set up his 12,000-square-foot manufacturing shop two years ago.

"It was a good time to get started," says the founder of Fuller Industrial Rubber, manufacturers of rubber-lined pipes and valves for the mining industry. "It was absolutely in my favour, there were lots of projects going on."

Besides working in the Sudbury mining district, Fuller has expanded his reach across Canada and into the United States. He has shipped rubber-lined pipe and fittings to Inco's Voisey's Bay nickel project, helped build pumping stations in Labrador for the Iron Ore Company of Canada, and sent product as far north as the Tahera diamond mine in Nunavut.

"More than half of my business goes outside Sudbury," which includes exports to some Original Equipment Manufacturers in the U.S., says Fuller.

The company has expanded and diversified with an aggregates division, new product lines and new equipment including the installation of a 55-foot autoclave for curing rubber that's large enough to drive a forklift into.

"The pace of activity has been excellent. We started (two years ago) with one employee--me--now we're up to 19 employees. By year's end, we expect to have 10 (more)."

He's optimistic the current mining cycle will last for some time.

"There are four or five major mining projects that are going to happen in two or three years, all over Canada and North America. We have been successful on just about every single one we have been on. We feel pretty confident we're going to get them."

Adam Tonnos, sales manager for Bestech Engineering, returned in November from a visit to China, where his Sudbury-based industrial automation company is exploring the Asian market.

The company has been busy doing process control and automation work for Falconbridge's Kidd D Mine project in Timmins and its Nickel Rim South mine development in Sudbury.

In the last two years, the 10-year-old company has grown from 20 to 40 employees.

"We've been recruiting many of the older (retired) people who are leaving the mining companies and we're transferring that skill set into the younger group," says Tonnos.

Dick DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA), says almost all of SAMSSA's 65 members are doing "extremely well," with many companies experiencing full order books well into the middle of 2006.

Because of the highly competitive nature of the sector, many mining suppliers are reluctant to divulge their domestic or export sales, says DeStefano, leaving it difficult to gauge the supply industry's impact on Sudbury's economy.

"Some companies' (sales) have gone up over 100 per cent from last year (2004)," and many have increased their workforce between 14 and 17 per cent, he says.

Technical software designers, fabricators and re-builders of used equipment are doing particularly well, he says.

He says one Sudbury fabricator is booked with domestic work until next August while a mine engineering firm has enough work to last for the next four years. "They feel they don't need to market themselves any more."

DeStefano says about 60 per cent of SAMSSA member sales are within the North American mining market with the remainder exported globally to South Africa, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan, China and Mongolia.

Many suppliers are partnering with senior mining companies to gain access to foreign markets.

SAMSSA, as a regional association in northeastern Ontario, is attempting to brand the Sudbury name as the centre of deep mine expertise.

A major problem for many companies is finding enough skilled labour, including mill workers, welders, instrumentation technicians and fabricators, to take on more work.

"All are looking for people, all have increased their gross sales dramatically and all have increased their penetration into foreign markets," says DeStefano.

Paul Reid, a City Greater of Sudbury economic development officer, says mining suppliers and engineering firms are adding staff and selling equipment not just into the local market, but across the country.

"It's busy and it's all related to the price of nickel, copper and gold," says Reid, who deals with many mining service firms and handles the city's industrial properties. "A very small amount of industrial space is empty right now and people are looking to add on, because they're expanding their business."

Many international suppliers such as Caterpiller Elphinstone, Atlas Copco, Sandvik and Toromont have already established a major presence in the Sudbury Basin.

"The camp is attractive and they want to be close to the action. If they're looking to expand, they're looking at Sudbury."

www.bestech.com

www.samssa.ca

www.fullerindustrial.com

www.sudbury.ca

BY IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business