Amid a surge of bad news for businesses and societies globally, explosives manufacturer BME is nonetheless excited about the exploration landscape for mining in Canada.
The company launched its BME Mining Canada last year, which is a joint venture with Consbec – the largest civils drill and blast contractor in Canada.
BME technology and marketing GM Ralf Hennecke says industry players have shown considerable excitement about the entry of another experienced player in the region’s explosives and blasting market during this year's Prospectors and Developers Association Conference (PDAC), in Toronto.
He adds that Canada has seen a gradual uptick in exploration projects and a number of mine expansions – even though the outlook for most base metals was conservative.
Canada was in the top three exploration performers globally last year, which bodes well for the country’s mining future, Hennecke notes.
“Events such as PDAC allow us to steadily build links in new territories such as North America, leveraging the relationships we already have with majors and juniors in that market.
“In addition to prospective mining customers, we also regularly meet a range of important service providers and contractors with whom we might work in future,” Hennecke says.
Emphasising BME’s commitment to collaboration in the market, especially in the digital and technological space, Hennecke points out that these links are increasingly important to facilitate the integration of technologies in the interest of more productive mining.
“Mines are looking to synergise their supply chains to ensure they benefit optimally from the various services and product developments.
“This means that technology providers must have the capacity to continuously integrate their offerings into customers’ systems – even collaborating with other technology providers to do so. This integration is vital to allow mines to harness the power of new innovations.”