By ADELLE LARMOUR
Timmins – Old-fashioned values combined with fresh, innovative thinking have given Dumas Mining Contractors & Engineers an edge in the mining industry.
The ability of owners Dan and Marc Dumas to grow the Timmins business since 1994 in a declining market is a clear indication the two brothers are taking the company forward into a prosperous future.
In 1998-99, Dumas Contracting was on the profit list as one of the top 100 growing companies in Canada. Over the last two years, sales have increased by 250 per cent, says Dan, the company’s president and CEO.
The brothers bought their father’s mining construction contracting company upon his retirement.
They built it up from 10 field employees to over 500, offering a full range of mine engineering, contracting and construction services. Employees work out of a 929-square-metre office as well as a 1,000-sq.-m. facility with a full technical, mechanical and administrative staff. It has been recognized as one of the leaders in mining contracting and engineering in Canada.
“We don’t think streamline,” Dan says.
As a younger group, not having the plethora of experience an older staff would “can lead to some crazy, wild ideas that are sometimes unbelievable.”
By looking at every job with a new approach, innovative methods develop, despite the fact that industry may have performed a job in a certain way for years and years.
Dan says it could be the way manpower is utilized, or the way the projects are managed.
One example is the Dumas-Wadey Design, a method of mineshaft steel design that shows innovation in the design and installation of the shaft structure.
Dumas says they bring to the table is honesty and integrity.
“For better or for worse, we’ve always been honest with our clients,” Dan says.
The Dumas’ show their integrity on every project, large or small, by treating every client like they are their only client.
“Every client deserves our full attention,” Dan says. “We also try to create that culture with our employees. I preach it to everybody.”
Safety is another “culture” Dumas Contracting strongly promotes as their obligation to every worker.
“We have one of the best records in our industry,” Dan says. “We also believe it pays in dividends that every employee deserves a safe working environment and that he or she deserves to go home to his or her family at the end of the day.”
The company has moved forward in the mining industry in Northern Ontario and internationally as well.
The company has maintained as many as three international offices, and has worked on projects all over the world. Dan says the bulk of their work is in Northern Ontario and Quebec, but they still have ties in Brazil, and are currently tendering a multi-million dollar project in Mexico.
Although all indications show a prosperous future, Dumas Mining Contractors always forecast with the knowledge the cyclical mining industry will eventually slow down.
“I do hope the downturn is later than sooner,” Dan says with a smile.
