A new industry coming to Timmins will expand the area’s mining service and supply sector expertise, while creating employment for locals.
In early October, Texas-headquartered Calabrian Corp. announced it would build a liquid sulphur dioxide (SO2) production plant in Timmins to serve the mining, paper, and water treatment sectors.
Construction was to begin in late October, and production is expected to start by the fourth quarter of 2016. The new plant will require 20 employees.
Calabrian’s CEO, Randy Owens, said the company was considering four different municipalities before settling on Timmins. All the sites being considered were located within close proximity to the gold mines and many were brownfield sites.
But what cemented Timmins as the community of choice were the benefits that came out of a collaboration with the City of Timmins and the Timmins Economic Development Corp. (TEDC).
Owens said the city helped offset some of the site preparatory costs, while the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) agreed to provide rail access to the facility, a key logistical requirement for the company.
“It really made it more or less equal in cost to a brownfield site that we were looking at because of the retrofitting that we would have to do,” Owens said. “So, at the end of the day, it came down to just the eagerness, the speed, and the helpfulness that the City of Timmins exhibited, and it just made this feel like the place that we should locate this new facility.”
The new site is located across from a Goldcorp mine. The Timmins branch of Bestech has been hired as the project engineering firm.
In gold mining, cyanide is commonly used to leach gold from the ore, but following the process, the cyanide then needs to be destroyed, Owens explained. SO2 is used to eliminate the cyanide in a manner that doesn’t harm the environment. Calabrian uses a proprietary process called SO2Clean, which it says is “essentially emission-free, reliable, and capital-efficient.”
Calabrian had been serving Eastern Canadian customers from its Port Neches, TX, facility, but following the closure of smelters in Sudbury and Timmins, many mines were facing supply challenges, and Calabrian saw an opportunity.
“It’s just much better for all involved to have a facility located actually in the region, where you minimize transportation risk, you minimize cost associated with transportation, and then, of course, you’re able to be a part of the community,” Owens said.
About 45 construction jobs will be created during development. The 20 permanent positions created include production operators, electrical instrumentation experts, maintenance positions, administrators, and general staff. Owens said local people will be hired to fill those positions.
At the same time it announced the new Timmins facility, Calabrian announced a new partnership with Univar Canada Ltd. to provide distribution services. Owens said Univar already has a distribution network in place, delivering other products to the mines, so the company is being retained to “deliver the product the last mile.”
Owens, who visited Timmins for the first time in October, said Calabrian’s investment wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the TEDC and the city, and he’s generally been impressed with the relationships that have been forged with the community.
