Mining is on a record-setting upswing in B.C. and most of it is happening within a four-hour drive of Prince George. Local companies could make prosperous connections to it if they aim themselves into that sector.
A roomful of these potential business connections intermingled at the Ramada Hotel in Prince George during provincial mining week. Initiatives Prince George invited them all together to emphasize the possibilities for local firms to link up with the major mining (and other major industrial) projects in the area. Some are well underway, some are pending, but billions of investment dollars are penciled in for this region.
"You are the supply and service hub of the region," IPG boss Heather Oland told those assembled. "You have made a robust service and supply chain that has diversified from largely the forest industry of 20, 25 years ago into the various industries the city is involved in today."
In the room were the owners and operators of transportation companies, trades companies, retailers and wholesalers, science and data consultants, financial services, health services and many other aspects of the economic climate that swirls around any given mine project.
There were some suggestions for frontline ways local firms can do that. Firstly, list themselves in the free industrial services directory operated by IPG, which gets double exposure with the automatic listing into the regional industrial directory operated by Northern Development Initiatives Trust. These cost nothing to take part in.
Secondly, consider joining or at least investigating not-for-profit groups like the Mining Suppliers Association of BC; the Northern Interior Mining Group; the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (North Central B.C. Branch) and the Prince George Exploration Group.
"It was a spectacular event, I think IPG really nailed the scope of the issue, I was really impressed," said Fraser Deacon following the seminar and luncheon held on Thursday. Deacon works on the management team for Geotech Drilling based in Prince George and is also chair of the Northern Interior Mining Group. "It really brought to my attention how much mining has changed for northern B.C. I look back a few years ago and the statistic was, Prince George had about 315 people working directly in mining. Today, we have more than 1,000, and that number was revealed to me first at the seminar. So if you think about that, that is direct employment, but what about all the indirect jobs that represents as you look at the next level of economic impact? There are so many opportunities."
Geotech, he said, is a prime example of how that layering of new money is working. Geotech had about 30 employees seven years ago but thanks to the mining exploration going on all over the region, their employment roster will top out at about 200 people for 2013, and that doesn't include, he said, all the mechanics that fix their trucks, the stationary and printer services for the office, the food vendors selling lunches to their workforce, and the pilots flying their personnel out to the job sites.
One of the biggest buyers of that service in the general region is Taseko Mines, operators of the Gibraltar Mine and New Prosperity exploration project in the Cariboo, plus the Aley (Mackenzie) and Harmony (Haida Gwaii) exploration projects. Taseko's manager of community and aboriginal affairs, Christy Smith, told the audience that Taseko and their peer companies have procurement departments always looking to invest whenever possible in the communities nearest the activity.
"We spent $92 million in services in the Williams Lake region," Smith said. "How does that move into the Prince George economy from there? That is a study that needs to be done, but we know that money does go from the immediate area of our mine into the pockets of Prince George suppliers and contractors, and all across B.C. There is a ripple effect. Having a mine in your back yard is an amazing thing."
The provincial government obtained $50 million from the mining industry in 2003, but by 2013 those revenues had grown to $500 million. This key indicator of mining's growth potential - especially considering most known mining projects are only getting underway - is incentive to explore the possible business connections for our local companies, Oland said.
