Local mining company signs $45M deal.

• Author: Ulrichsen, Heidi
• Position: NEWS

Greater Sudbury has a part to play in a $45 million deal between Sandvik Mining and Construction and De Beers Canada.

The contract is one of the largest in the history of the local mining and supply service industry.

Sandvik, which has its Canadian head office in the Walden Industrial Park in Lively, is supplying about 35 drills, scoop trams and mechanical bolting machines for a De Beers diamond mine being developed in Snap Lake, Northwest Territories.

The machines were built in Finland, shipped by sea to Halifax, and trucked to Lively.

Local Sandvik employees will alter the machines so they are ready for use at Snap Lake (located about 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife).

Sandvik's headquarters are in Sweden, but the company has operations around the world. Locally, it employs 150 people.

Once the equipment is altered, it will be trucked across Canada to the diamond mine. The trucks will have to drive over some sections of ice road once they get further north.

About 40 Sandvik workers, most of them from Greater Sudbury, will be sent to the De Beers project permanently to maintain the equipment.

The city's economy will benefit from the deal, says Peter Jarvis, vice-president of Underground Hardrock Mining at Sandvik.

"All the equipment comes through here and it's modified and sent to site. We manage the contract from Sudbury, so...