Suppliers Roundup (June 27, 2005)

New owner likely for Boart

Ownership of drilling supplier Boart Longyear is expected to pass to Advent International, a London-based private equity firm, from Anglo American (AAUK-Q).

The deal, which awaits regulatory approval, would see Advent spend US$545 million for Boart Longyear. The investment would be the first made from Advent’s $2.5-billion global buyout fund, which was topped up in April.

Advent has an extensive portfolio of energy-related companies, and since its founding in 1984, has sold 36% of the companies it has owned or invested in.

Advent has helped businesses raise US$10 billion through public equity and debt offerings, including more than 130 initial public offerings on major stock exchanges worldwide.

Earlier this year, Johannesburg-based Anglo American announced it was divesting itself of non-core assets, and subsequently received US$90 million for Wendt, a division of Boart Longyear that makes grinding equipment.

Boart earned US$67 million in 2004 before interest and tax. The company was established in 1936 to turn Anglo American’s stockpile of low-grade natural diamonds into salable drilling products. Boart has operations in Canada, Europe, the U.S., Latin America, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, and Africa. Its Canadian operations are based in North Bay, Ont.

German firm buys cyanide technology

Inco Technical Services Ltd. (ITSL), a subsidiary of Inco (N-T), has sold its proprietary SO2/AIR cyanide destruction technology to CyPlus, a unit of Dusseldorf-based Degussa. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The technology, which destroys cyanide through oxidation, is used at more than 75 sites throughout the world.

In 2003, CyPlus and ITSL jointly developed CombinOx, a process that uses the SO2/AIR technology and Degussa’s hydrogen-peroxide treatment to destroy cyanide.

CyPlus supplies cyanide products to customers in the mining, chemical, pharmaceutical and surface-treatment industries. The company employs 100 at production sites in Europe and North America.

ITSL is based in Mississauga, Ont., and provides services to the mining industry.

Golder soaks up rival

Golder Associates has acquired Resource Technologies Group in a move designed to expand its presence in the water treatment market.

Resource Technologies provides water treatment engineering, contracting, and maintenance services to U.S.-based mining and waste management clients.

With the addition of Resource Technologies staff, Golder’s Denver operations now employ 165, some of whom will be folded into a new water treatment unit.

Resource Technologies holds two contracts with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to operate acid mine drainage facilities at the former Summitville and Argo Tunnel gold mines in Colorado.

Resource Technologies staff will eventually link with Golder’s design group in Philadelphia, Pa., to help design systems that treat industrial waste.

“The merger expands our services into an area that our mining and waste management clients have been requesting,” says Steve Thompson, president of Golder Associates, which employs 4,000 people in Africa, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

Environmental firms unite

Dartmouth, N.S.-based Jacques Whitford Group will acquire AXYS Environmental Consulting and thereby form one of the largest environmental engineering companies in Canada.

In western Canada, where AXYS is based (in Calgary), the new company will have 400 staff in 15 offices. Former AXYS President Robert Seager will serve as regional vice-president there. The new firm will employ 1,400 people in 45 locations worldwide.

Jacques Whitford provides many environmental services, including engineering, remediation, hydrogeology, geotechnical engineering, materials engineering, waste management, and risk assessment. The company has 350 employee shareholders.

BioteQ to treat Wellington Oro runoff

Vancouver-based BioteQ Environmental Technologies (BQE-V) will use its proprietary BioSulphide technology to treat runoff water from the past-producing Wellington Oro silver-lead-zinc mine in Colorado.

The contract to build the plant hinges on the purchase of the Wellington Oro mine site and surrounding 7.2 sq. km by Summit Cty. and the town of Breckenridge. Clean up is expected to begin once the final agreements are signed.

Wellington Oro has been closed since the 1970s. Surface drainage from the mined areas produces an acidic wastewater that requires treatment before it can be discharged into the French Gulch tributary of the Blue River.

The proposed BioteQ plant is designed to recover zinc, lead and cadmium into a zinc-rich concentrate for off-site refining. The process also discharges high-quality water directly into the environment.

BioteQ will design and build the plant, with commissioning set for sometime in 2006. Denver-based Lyntek will provide engineering and construction management.

BioteQ has assisted Phelps Dodge (PD-N), Breakwater Resources (BWR-T) and Falconbridge (FL-T) in building and operating mine-site water treatment plants that recover salable metals.