MINExpo pays off for Northern Ontario suppliers

Rene Fink, president of Trident Mining Services, with the M-510 Transmixer.

The odds are rarely in your favour playing the slots or the gaming tables in Vegas, but it was a different story at the Las Vegas Convention Center for some 35 to 40 Northern Ontario suppliers exhibiting their wares at MINExpo, the world’s biggest mining show, September 24 to 26.

In post-show interviews, suppliers from Sudbury, Timmins and North Bay gushed about the volume of quality leads – and sales, in some cases – directly attributed to the show.

“We came home with dozens and dozens and dozens of leads to follow up on,” boasted Rene Fink, president of Trident Mining Services in Timmins.

“There were five of us in the booth plus one interpreter, and more often than not, all of us were tied up and had people waiting to speak to us.”

Trident has made a name for itself as a manufacturer of haul trucks for underground applications, but exhibited a 5.1 cubic metre transmixer at its booth in Vegas.

“The market for haul trucks in the 12 to 21-tonne range has been minimal in the last few years, so I asked myself ‘What’s the next big thing in mining?’ It’s shotcrete, so I thought why don’t I make my truck into a shotcrete hauler?"

“From the centre hinge forward, it’s the same vehicle. The engine, the transmission and the operator’s compartment don’t change, so we used our haul truck frame, stretched it, bought a drum and now we have a shotcrete hauler.”

The transmixer can also accommodate a seven cubic metre drum, and for customers that don’t need a mixer 12 months of the year, Trident can also supply the back end of a dump truck, allowing the client to unpin the mixer and turn the piece of equipment into a 20-tonne haul truck.

“That’s something that most of my competition can’t do,” said Fink.

Trident built two M-510 transmixers on spec. One went to MINExpo. The other one was snapped up by Lake Shore Gold in Timmins.