Can you provide an overview of Technica Mining and how it has evolved into the company it is today?

I fell in love with mining when I had my first opportunity to work underground when I was 18 years old. I am a product of an Italian immigrant family, so entrepreneurialism was something I was born into, and 23 years ago I started Technica Mining with the goal to be the best contractor in underground infrastructure and construction with a specialty in planned and emergency plant maintenance. The company grew over the years, but we hit a pivotal point in 2010 when we realized that we needed to add mechanized development into our suite in order to be a full-service underground mining contractor. Today, the company has approximately 400 employees, with offices in Sudbury, Timmins, and Val d'Or, Québec.

You mentioned Technica Mining specializes in planned and emergency plant maintenance. Could you elaborate? Why is this so important?

Technica has built absolute trust with our clients for executing large scale, very complex planned and unplanned plant maintenance shutdowns. Millions of dollars a day in revenue is put on hold when mines shutdown production to work on their ore handling systems (grizzlies, ore passes, chutes, conveyors, loading pockets, shafts, headframes etc.) and every minute counts. We have consistently delivered these highly technical and very complex projects ahead of schedule and on budget.

In 2020, Technica Mining announced the company’s new surface mining and drilling department. How has this business developed over the past two years?

I found that there was a real gap in service offerings for the transition from junior exploration to advanced exploration bulk samples, and then into early-stage production. There was a gap of either knowledge, skills, and experience and/or money, and sometimes both. Technica Mining realized that we can bridge that gap.

We have a fantastic in-house geologist, which is rare in the contractor world. He will evaluate junior mining projects that have good potential to move forward into production, and we would then offer our services with the option of our fees being paid through equity. We realized that this model works really well when used with extreme discipline, and has been a fantastic tool to help take Technica Mining to the next level. In that journey, we discovered that some of the advanced explorations were also open pit, and we did not have that expertise. That was the real driver behind the company getting into the open pit business.

Can you highlight some case studies in Ontario to illustrate the work Technica Mining is doing?

On one project, Technica Mining is offering a unique hybrid form of contracting where we take on all the project cost and scheduling risk, and we do not get paid until the product is delivered. This creates a strong incentive for us to care about the project, and not the contract. Consequently, we have an engaged workforce. Our adaptation of technology is also beyond any other mine contractor in the country, if not the world, and the amount of digital integration that we are using in our work allows us to step away from reactionary safety into predictive and preventative safety. With this project, we are proud to show not only the KPIs we meet, but we can actually document the cultural engagement of the workforce.

How does the move towards electrification impact Technica’s business?

The mining industry’s leadership and initiative to move away from fossil fuels and go battery electric is transformative. The safety benefits of not running diesel engines deep underground are also phenomenal for the workforce – the air is better, which improves health and safety. As a contractor, we do not really see the net benefit or end value of battery electric equipment, but rather see the value in the savings of mine design from a ventilation and safety perspective. This is changing how contracting is done. For example, instead of us bringing in the big battery electric LHD’s and Trucks, where we do not get any trade off value or any benefit value, the owners are providing the capital equipment. Now, when our work is done, the equipment is already mobilized underground, and they can continue on. The move towards electrification continually challenges people's mindsets, and also gives a new sense of purpose for mining.

What are some of the technologies that Technica Mining finds most useful and are considering integrating?

Over the past three years, we have been adopting a platform that allows our workers to go home safe every day; Sofvie. We are investing in safety and moving from reactionary safety to predictive and preventative safety. The mining industry is extremely careful around safety culture compared to different industries, and I am proud to play a part in helping to improve mine safety. Companies are also on a journey to go digital, and Technica Mining is at the forefront of this journey, as we are utilizing data in a manner that allows us to gain insights we never knew existed in times when we relied solely on our gut instincts and experience. Now we conduct vigorous data analysis, and we are in the early stages of applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to good small data to start identifying trends in safety. With the use of this new digitized platform, we are able to take all the data, make predictions, and then prevent accidents from happening.