A real world education: Temagami pit reopening for aggregate production.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Indigenous Business

A once-dormant Temagami aggregate pit could become a beehive of activity this year.

Randy Becker, a member of the Temagami First Nation and the new operator of the Frontenac pit, has ambitious plans to use the property as an active exploration site for base metals, establish an aggregate extraction operation, and utilize the site as a training ground for future Indigenous diamond drilling assistants and heavy equipment operators.

The former municipal pit is located just south from the Town of Temagami and west of Highway 11 at the 12-kilometre mark of the Lake Temagami Access Road.

The permit to operate the pit was transferred to one of Becker's companies, Nimkie Mining Services.

To advance the multi-faceted development, Becker has struck a number of agreements with business partners including Asabanaka Drill Services, a majority First Nation-owned outfit out of Kasabonika Lake First Nation, to assist with the startup of a 10-week diamond driller training course.

Sudbury's Canadian Driller Training has joined the venture to provide additional safety instruction.

Class sizes will be limited to eight trainees with a ratio of students per instructor.

"We have a couple of people signed up for training this summer and are waiting to see about drill availability," said Becker.

Additional interest has come from individuals in central and southern Ontario.

The eight-week heavy equipment course will be done through Nimkie, but Becker hopes to bring aboard other yet-to-be-named partners to help with the delivery.

The equipment on site will include 20-tonne articulated trucks, large Komatsu wheel loaders and Caterpillar excavators, backhoes, bulldozers, and diamond drills, which will be used for a combination of training and production.

Becker's intent from the beginning has been to make the training as realistic as possible by assembling a roster of experienced lead drillers, driller helpers and instructors.

Our trainees get coached, monitored and get to watch helpers with years in business. They'll learn the tricks of trade that aren't (formally) taught.

He had hoped to house the students on the pit property with a mine camp setup complete with dormitories and kitchen facilities to mimic a real-life drill site. Instead, Becker plans to find accommodations for them in the Town of Temagami.

Becker worked as a heavy equipment operator beginning in his teens, before taking jobs on highway maintenance, water and sewer projects, in the mineral...