Shops scramble to fill labour needs amidst flurry of activity.

The exploration surge in the Timmins mining camp has been an economic shot in the arm for mining suppliers and machine shops who are scrambling to find qualified labour to keep up with the pace.

A number of exploration projects from grassroots to advanced stages are mushrooming through the district, and expansion projects have been underway at Falconbridge's Kidd Mine and the Porcupine Joint Venture.

The PJV, a partnership of Placer Dome and Kinross Gold Corp., was continuing work toward bringing the Pamour mine back into production as a large-scale pit operation to feed ore to the Dome mill.

In mid-June work was ongoing at Falconbridge's high-grade Montcalm nickel-copper underground project, 70 kilometres northwest of Timmins, with mining contractors J.S. Redpath and AMEC working alongside Falconbridge personnel. Production is scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2005.

Robert Calhoun, director of the Discover Abitibi project, estimates their joint publicly-privately funded exploration initiative has led to a number of claims being staked in areas where they released information. The area has witnessed between $500,000 to $600,000 worth of staking activity since October 2002.

St. Andrew Goldfields gave the Timmins economy an added boost by awarding a $9.7-million mine development contract to Dumas Contracting Ltd. for their Clavos mine advanced exploration project.

The company was also investing $2.5 million in refurbishing the 1,300-tonne-a-day mill, installing new equipment such as a cone crusher, screens, a new roof and a tailings trestle. The company is using its own people and about a half-dozen subcontractors to work on site or fabricating machinery and equipment off site.

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Exploration manager Wayne Reid says they intend to use a full range of companies, including engineering firms, certified hoist and headframe contractors, machine shop mechanics, welders to build steel equipment, carpenters to renovate offices and trailer rentals and fuel contractors for their generators at Clavos.

"In the Timmins and surrounding area, the economy has boosted sky-high," says Terry Ditullio, office administrator at Norfab Metal and Machine in nearby Porcupine. The 30-employee company has hired five new employees in the last few months for the office and on the shop floor.

Most of their projects involve custom fabrication and field jobs involving structural steel work and other miscellaneous consumable items for mines, such as overhauls to buckets, ore cars, personnel carriers and jack equipment for large mines like Falconbridge, but also for mining rental equipment companies.

"Work just keeps coming in, with the Montcalm project starting up and other various mining companies," Ditullio says. "Mines that have previously shut down are reopening because of the gold prices."

Like many mining companies, skilled tradespeople are in short supply, says Ditullio, and the industry is suffering because of it.

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"We put out an advertisement for welders and fitters and received no responses," says Ditullio, forcing them to try and recruit from southern Ontario.

Calhoun forecasts over the next decade there will be plenty of job opportunities in all capacities in the mining sector.

Because of the industry downturns over the last decade, much skill has been lost to other stable industry sectors with more consistent paycheques.

For Bruce Dunlop, area manager for mine developers J.S. Redpath, finding skilled miners has been a chore, forcing them to import labour "from Vancouver to Newfoundland."

The company has three jobs on the go with Falconbridge's Montcalm project, the Kidd Creek Mine D expansion and Apollo Gold's Black Fox project near Matheson, where Redpath is doing the excavation on the underground exploration work.

"We've been hiring steady," says Dunlop, including hiring 80 workers at Montcalm, hiring about 100 workers at Kidd to maintain their manpower levels at 175, and an additional 25 at Black Fox.

Montcalm is in the midst of pre-production development, involving underground lateral work doing the sub-levels, extending the ramps, ventilation raises, ore passes, and infrastructure construction. Full commercial production begins this December.

About two years of work remain at Mine D, where ramp and raise development is extended down to the 8,700-foot level, Dunlop says.

"The main projects like Mine D have absorbed a lot of the available skilled labour, and any new projects starting up require recruiting from outside. We're having to recruit from outside, going to Val d'Or, Rouyn, Sudbury, Kirkland Lake, wherever we can find people," Dunlop says.

Jake Girard, a drill supervisor and 26-year veteran with Bradley Brothers, a well-known northeastern Ontario diamond drill company, says his company had eight drills working in mid-June on various projects around Timmins.

The company just wrapped up a three-drill exploration program with Lakeshore Gold Corp., west of the city at the junction of Highways 144 and 101. As well, they have other crews working for Canadian Arrow and Falconbridge on various exploration projects around Timmins, and had jobs lined up until year's end.

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business