Suppliers News (December 12, 2006)

MTI’s Lipic NOBA’s entrepreneur of the year

The 20th annual Northern Ontario Business Awards has given its Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Robert Lipic, president and CEO of Mining Technologies International.

From its Mobile, Consumable and Cylinders divisions, MTI offers a variety of mobile, drilling and hydraulic equipment.

Lipic started his career with Falconbridge’s Strathcona mine after going to school at the Haileybury School of Mines, where he now serves on the board.

Smith International poached him to test its new mineral exploration drilling system and inside of two years Lipic was managing the business in eastern Canada.

In the mid-1980s, Smith International decided to exit mining by selling its Drillco division. Lipic bought the Canadian and Australian operations.

Drillco spent quite a bit of time with Inco (N-T) researching and developing new equipment and components under the mining house’s subsidiary, Continuous Mining Systems.

When Inco decided to sell that subsidiary, Lipic bought it along with two other businesses in the U.S.

The company was later known as Drillex International, and as Drillex grew into one of Canada’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of mining equipment, its name was changed to Mining Technologies International.

Alcan buys rest of cathode maker

Alcan (AL-T, AL-N) has bought the outstanding 70% stake in cathode maker Carbone Savoie, and certain related technology and equipment, from GrafTech International (GTI-N) for about US$135 million.

Alcan already owned 30% of Carbone Savoie.

“Alcan has strengthened its commitment to aluminum smelting technology development in Europe and more particularly in France. We look forward now to begin fully integrating Carbone Savoie into the company,” says Michel Jacques, president and CEO, Alcan Primary Metal Group.

Alcan’s proprietary AP Series smelting technology uses Carbone Savoie’s advanced graphitized cathode blocks, which act as conductors in the electrolysis process.

Carbone Savoie had revenue of about US$114 million in 2005, and produces graphitized cathode blocks, as well as sidewall blocks and ramming paste.

The business employs about 500 people at two sites, both near Alcan’s research and development centre in Voreppe, France.

Alcan is represented by 65,000 employees in 61 countries and regions, and posted revenues of US$20.3 billion in 2005.

Lamp lets underground miners send text messages

NL Technologies, a communications equipment maker, recently received Australia’s safety certification for a cap lamp that allows underground miners to communicate via text messages, in much the same way people communicate everyday on cellular phones.

Most of the work done on the approval process for the Northern Light Digital Messenger cap lamp was conducted by NLT’s Australian subsidiary, NLT Australia.

The lamp employs a keyboard-like device that lets miners send text messages, even under emergency conditions. The lamp does this by using the same 802.11 wireless technology found in many laptop computers.

The wireless technology in each lamp connects to a larger underground wireless network. Each lamp has its own identification code and management can track a miner’s whereabouts by using the supplied software.

“The ability for workers to send messages back to the surface has huge implications for safety-not only during rescue operations, but during daily operations as well,” says Tim Haight, managing director of NLT Australia.

NL Technologies says it will focus on selling the lamp technology to coal mining companies based Down Under.

For more than 20 years, NL Technologies (NLT) has built communications products for underground miners.