MineConnect brings together a growing membership with plenty of potential
Over the past three and a half years, MineConnect – Northern Ontario’s mining supply and services association – has grown and evolved into an organization that truly represents member companies throughout the expanse of Northern Ontario. With a fifty percent growth in membership since its rebranding in the spring of 2020, MineConnect membership is becoming a must-have tool for member companies due to the organization’s distinctive position within the mining sector.
President of MineConnect’s volunteer Board of Directors, Todd Domney, is a transplanted New Zealander based in Thunder Bay, and his company, Sumac Geomatics, is a MineConnect member. Domney’s focus as MineConnect President remains firmly on how best to support northern Ontario’s MSS sector.
Industry tradeshows provide opportunities to expand MineConnect’s network and to promote its members. The City of Temiskaming Shores, with the financial support of FedNor, has presented the Northern Ontario Mining Showcase at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention in Toronto and at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s Expo in Vancouver or Montreal for the past nine years.
In December of 2021, MineConnect entered into a three-year partnership with the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority to create MineConnect USA - a business incubator focused on service and support for the mining industry in Nevada. Sheldon Mudd, executive director of the NNRDA stated, “From an economic development perspective, this is absolutely phenomenal.
MineConnect has recently been working to address the shortfall in skilled labour that the sector is experiencing in Northern Ontario. Tremblay explained, “We’ve been working with ACCES Employment – a not-for-profit organization in Toronto – to encourage pre-arrival immigrants to Canada to settle and work in Northern Ontario. The newcomers are already approved for immigration and are in the information-gathering stage.