Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a partnership has a Timmins company brewing up something new.
Glencore Kidd Operations and Compass Brewing have partnered to make hand sanitizer.
Back in March, the Timmins mining company said they approached the brewery to make the locally produced hand sanitizer. Glencore bought all the materials and supplies Compass needed to make it.
"When the number of COVID-19 cases started increasing in Ontario we found ourselves, like many other companies, in need of more hand sanitizer. Once we were informed that most of our regular suppliers were getting low on stock, we knew that we had to start looking elsewhere to get hand sanitizers," aid Mark Furlotte, Glencore Kidd Operations' general manager, in a news release.
"After reading in the news that distilleries across the province were producing hand sanitizer, we immediately thought about partnering with Compass Brewing to produce a local supply of hand sanitizer for our operational sites to help keep our employees safe and to distribute to the front-line workers in the community."
According to Glencore, the sanitizer is approved by Health Canada and is based the World Health Organization's formulation. It is 70 per cent 2-Propanol (isopropyl) by volume, and there is also glycerol to reduce skin dryness and a trace amount of hydrogen peroxide for disinfecting during batching and storage.
Glencore has committed to buying all the bottles of hand sanitizer. They said anything that is surplus to their needs will be donated to front-line health-care workers, emergency response teams and long-term care facilities. At this point, the product isn't being sold to the general public.
The craft brewery opened its doors in 2018.
Kevin Patriquin, an owner at Compass Brewing, said they never thought they'd expand the operations to produce hand sanitizer.
"Nevertheless, as a company we were enthusiastic about the opportunity to partner with Glencore Kidd Operations to do something positive for the community and create a product to help protect front-line workers and reduce the spread of COVID-19," he said in the news release.
The first 1,400 bottles of the hand sanitizer are going to the local emergency groups, with fire chief Tom Laughren taking the lead on distributing it.
"This is an outstanding example of our local industries and businesses partnering together to accomplish amazing things in our community," said Mayor George Pirie.
"Throughout this time, especially, when everyone is facing a number of challenges, it's truly wonderful to see Kidd Operations and Compass Brewing joining together to provide a necessity to our community through innovative thinking.
"Recent displays of corporate social responsibility have been truly heartwarming and speak to the quality of our business community who come together to meet the needs of those fighting this pandemic on an hourly basis."
This story originally appeared on TimminsToday.com.
