Suppliers’ Notes (July 06, 1990)

Berlet Electronics of Mississauga, Ont. has appointed Thomson Technology of Sudbury as the northern Ontario representative for Telemotive radio remote controls. As the largest manufacturer of industrial radio control products in Canada, Berlet is now manufacturing underground radio controls for load-haul-dump, locomotive, rock-scaling, drilling and other mining applications. In addition, Berlet manufactures overhead crane radio controls and telemetry systems. Thomson Technology will be working with the mining industry to tailor these products to its operations and provide field support. Mintronics of North Bay, Ont. is developing a system to automate underground truck haulage. Called Opti-Trak, the computerized system uses a vehicle-mounted laser and a reflective tape attached to the back for guidance. The system is still in the early stages of development but looks promising. The company expects to demonstrate the system this month to interested companies. Toronto-based Norcast, a supplier of castings, grinding media and fabricated mining equipment, has acquired Metallurgie Frontenac of Thetford Mines, Que. The Frontenac foundry, which employes 120 people in a 75,000-sq.-ft. facility, will expand Norcast’s capabilities. Cominco Engineering Services (ces) of Vancouver, B.C. and Watts, Griffis & McOuat of Toronto have formed a joint venture to carry out work in the northeastern U.S.S.R. Moreover, the joint venture has been awarded a contract by svzal to provide engineering services to Severovostokzoloto, the Soviet North East Gold Mining Association, based in Magadan. Svzal is itself a joint venture, formed earlier this year between Severovostokzoloto (the Soviet association in charge of all precious metal mining and exploration in the Magadan region of the Soviet north-east) and the Bering Straits Trading Co. (owned by the Bering Straits Native Corp. and Greatland Exploration, both of Alaska).The WGM/CES joint venture will provide engineering services for the installation of process controls in a new processing plant, recovering silver by means of gravity and flotation. England-based Denver Process Equipment (subsidiary of Colorado-based Denver Equipment Co.) has purchased the Simonacco product line from the Simon group of companies. Simonacco is a manufacturer of coal-processing and coal- handling equipment. The product line will be renamed denver-acco and will become part of the U.K. company’s process equipment group.