The company in charge of operating the Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan is setting its sights on a decidedly less dangerous environment: mining in Northern Ontario.
With plans to build and service multi-million-dollar mining camps throughout the region, Calgary-based ATCO Structures & Logistics Ltd. has purchased Woodgreen Trailer and Home Sales in Timmins.
Although the company handles infrastructure solutions the world over, this cements the company’s only official toehold in Northern Ontario.
The move also makes the 19-person Timmins location the company’s third in Ontario, alongside others in Toronto and Ottawa.
“We believe in the mining sector in (Northern Ontario),” says Boris Rassin, vice-president of business development at ATCO Structures and Logistics, whose parent company employs more than 7,700 people worldwide and has $10 billion in assets.
“We also believe this part of the world is under-serviced. We don’t just rent and sell camps, we also operate them and offer services such as catering, so we see ourselves as a new entry in this important world market.”
Though new to Timmins, ATCO already operates in many other Canadian resource industries, managing several prominent camps in the Alberta oil fields. With this expertise in hand, the company plans to use the Timmins location as a springboard to launch its services throughout all of Northern Ontario, from Sudbury to the Far North, says Rassin.
From Timmins, ATCO will also be able to reach the mining industry in other provinces as it looks eastwards to Quebec and westwards to Manitoba. While hesitant to identify specific projects for which ATCO has put in bids, Rassin says there are many important and strong mining industry opportunities on the horizon.
In its previous form, Woodgreen had more than 300 units, “a very good quality, well-maintained fleet,” says Rassin, but one that ATCO can enhance through its sheer size and experience. The company will draw upon its Canadian resources to provide access to “thousands” of units through its Timmins office, and can use the financial backing of a large, globally operating company to expand as necessary, says Rassin.
Currently, ATCO is scheduled to provide thousands of rental units to help with the hosting of the 2010 G8 Summit in Huntsville later this year, after which “any number” of the units will be transported north to be added to the Timmins fleet.
If a mining company were to need a particularly large camp, a small builder would be forced to sell it outright in order to remain financially stable, which may not be attractive to the client, says Rassin. A company of ATCO’s size, however, can instead rent it out, making it more feasible to temporarily establish mining camps from 500 to 2,500 people.
“Some companies, particularly mining companies, wouldn’t necessarily want to buy a multi-million- ollar camp and put it on their balance sheet,” he says. “If it’s a construction camp for a mine, for example, they only want it for a couple years as building will only take a couple of years, and we are able to do that.”
Another part of ATCO’s focus for Northern Ontario is the development of partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the region through joint ventures and memorandums of understanding. As an example, Rassin points to a 2,500-bed camp in the oilsands north of Fort McMurray which ATCO owns and operates in a 50 per cent joint venture with the Fort McKay FirstNation. The full-service camp is located on the First Nation’s land and caters to oil and gas companies operating in the area.
“These are the sorts of relationships we’re prepared to promote, and is part of our modus operandi in Canada and around the world.”
