Equipment and Suppliers News (October 01, 2003)

News from IPC Resistors

Resistance grounding specialist IPC Resistors, Inc. of Mississauga, Ont., has received a US patent for the company’s Gemini all-in-one ground fault protection and detection system. The system is used to protect electrical power supplies in industrial and commercial facilities.

The Gemini System combines ground fault protection in the form of a redundant resistor system with fault detection and integrity monitoring. The parallel resistor paths restrict any ground fault that occurs to predetermined limits, and provides a built-in back-up in the event that one resistor path fails. The grounding resistor monitor and fault relay then alert personnel to active ground faults or faults caused by resistor failure, allowing the fault to be cleared quickly and limiting the amount of damage that may be caused.

While other systems include self-monitoring, Gemini is the only product available with twin resistor paths for integral redundancy. The all-in-one, fail-safe design has made the Gemini the choice of many facilities that require continuous protection. For more information visit www.ipc-resistors.com.

IPC Resistors has also announced two new educational guides for electrical consultants and service contractors. Both the “Conversion Guide for Ungrounded Systems to High Resistance Grounding” and the “Consultant Specification Guide to High Resistance Grounding” offer detailed technical information about ground fault protection. Copies of these guides are available for download in PDF format from the company’s web site in the Application Documents portion of the Technical Library, or may be requested by phoning 888-737-4787.

Simplifying drillhole data

Geosoft Inc. of Toronto has released Target for ArcGIS, a surface and drillhole mapping extension to ESRI’s ArcGIS software. Target for ArcGIS was designed for geoscientists who need to quickly and efficiently produce maps and drillhole cross sections within their ArcGIS environment. It simplifies the manipulation, mapping and analysis of large volume surface and drillhole data within ArcGIS.

Built on the same technology as Geosoft’s industry-leading mapping and processing system, Oasis montaj, Target adds powerful spatial data processing capabilities to the GIS environment. Product features include powerful gridding and contouring of surface and drill hole data; fast and accurate generation of drillhole plans, sections and strip logs; and efficient production of high quality maps for interpretation and target definition.

Technical information and a product tour of Target for ArcGIS are available at www.geosoft.com. Geosoft is a leading provider of geospatial software and integrated solutions for earth science industries. Geosoft software enables productive use of spatial data for essential decision-making in exploration, government, military and environmental investigations.

Mine equipment sales in South America

Vancouver-based Finning International Inc. recently announced two major contracts to supply equipment to South American operations.

The company has secured a Cdn$70-million equipment sale to Minera Argentina Gold S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corp., which operates the Veladero gold project in Argentina. The sale includes 35 pieces of Caterpillar equipment: 16 CAT 793C off-road trucks, five D10R tractors, two 994D wheel loaders, three 16H motor graders, as well as other support equipment, and some non-Cat mining drills. Delivery of most of the package will take place before the end of 2003. Finning South America has also secured a complete five-year maintenance and repair contract related to this sale. The contract will support the equipment on site, and is estimated to generate Cdn$84 million in revenue over its entire term. This sale represents the first large mining equipment fleet Barrick will have in Argentina.

Finning’s Chilean operation has secured a Cdn$96-million equipment sale and maintenance contract to Minera El Tesoro, part of the Antofagasta Minerals Group. The sale includes six pieces of Caterpillar equipment (four CAT 793C off-road trucks, one D9R & one 834G tractor) valued at Cdn$12 million, and a maintenance and repair contract for five years, extendible to eight years, for Cdn$84 million. Delivery of the complete package will take place in January 2004. This is the second large purchase of mining equipment for El Tesoro mine, and adds to the existing six CAT 789C trucks and other Caterpillar units running since 2000.

El Tesoro is the first mine in Chile to install a full MineStar System–a real time, complete Mining Operation Management System designed to link the mining machines in the pit with the office, encompassing all aspects of mine production monitoring and control for mobile equipment.

For further information see www.finning.com.

New Canadian headquarters facility for Hgglunds

Hgglunds Drives (Canada) Inc., a unit of Hgglunds Drives Inc., North America, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, opened its new Canadian headquarters in Burlington, Ont., in September. The facility will house sales offices, technical product support and repair, and inventory warehousing for Hgglunds’ line of industrial hydraulic motors and drive systems.

The new 700-m2 multi-function facility 50 km west of Toronto offers customers a larger, centrally-located facility with greater inventory capacity, additional modern test facilities, and the capability of greater product repair and refurbishment throughput, compared with its previous facilities. The Canadian headquarters also oversees Hgglunds sales, inventory and repair facilities in Vancouver serving the regional western provinces, and a sales office in Montreal serving Quebec and the eastern provinces.

Sandvik to sell two U.S. units

Sandvik Mining and Construction of Sweden reached an agreement in principle in August to divest two units in the United States. These agreements concern EIMCO LLC of Bluefield, W.Va., whose product line includes continuous coal-mining equipment, and its Chemical Products Division (CPD) based in Bristol, Va. CPD produces mine bolt resin, a chemical grouting material to secure ceiling bolts in mines. The buyers are DBT (Deutsche Bergbau-Technik) and Minova (USA) Inc., respectively.

Sandvik Mining and Construction is a business area within the Sandvik Group and a world-leading supplier of drilling and excavation machinery, tools and service for the mining and construction industries. Annual sales amount to SEK 14,000 M, with about 8,600 employees. Established brands are Sandvik, Tamrock, Toro, Rammer, EJC, Voest-Alpine, Eimco, Driltech, Roxon, Mission and Sandvik Smith, etc.