Building the Mine of Tomorrow

Q: Given the intense degree of competition in the mining machinery market, what are your most important competitive advantages?

A: We offer a number of product lines and lines of business that address the needs of the mining industry. The competitive advantage would depend on which line of business we are talking about. However, in most if not all cases, competitive advantages tend to be focused on service. The products and equipment themselves have a pretty standardized level of quality across the board, so both our company and our competition are managing units with similar or at least comparable levels of quality. As a result, the level of service is what really makes a difference.

Our product lines, only in mining, include installation, and we have a diverse variety of engineering teams that oversee these installations and check up on them regularly. A good example of this is our pumps for suspended solids, which transport tailings to the tailings dam over distances of kilometers. Our service includes a precise measuring of that distance as part of a study previous to the supply of the units themselves. Our sales are individually tailored to each client and each project so that the pump can be built according to the best specifications. We provide, for clients such as Peñoles, not only the equipment but also the technicians who stay on the work site to supervise the correct functioning of the equipment and also all of its necessary maintenance. If anything is beyond their capacities, they have an immediate line of communication with our manufacturing facilities, which is essential given that a lot of this machinery must operate continuously. It is imperative for operators that their functioning not be interrupted. For the client’s convenience, we separate these two aspects in our proposed budgets: the product and the services. This allows our clients to define and structure their purchase more precisely. We can offer them our services once a month or once a year, among other options, for example. We adapt ourselves to their needs to whatever degree we can.

Training is also a very important advantage for us. We make sure that all of our technicians become extensively educated at our manufacturing facilities. We also make sure that this education involves certification and also all of the necessary training for them to be able to work inside of a mine in a state of full operation. Our service culture permeates all of these training procedures; we want our teams to be able to respond to any emergency at any hour, and sometimes they have even spent holidays, such as Christmas and New Year’s, making sure they are available on call at the work site.

Q: What are the main problems and issues that you address and resolve for your clients?

A: Given recent changes to Mexican labor laws, there is a much higher demand for safety. This entails a number of factors. One is access control. The amount of information and documentation requested to allow anybody access to a mine has increased greatly, and we have adapted very adeptly to these changes. We can help our clients solve logistical issues by creating efficiencies in this regard. This did not use to be such an issue for operators, but this government has turned it into a top priority.

Another important area of focus is cost. Our technicians tour the entire length of kilometer-long equipment, such as pumps or conveyor belts. These tours can save operators tons of money by finding issues in conveyor belts that it would take them too long in terms of man hours to find otherwise. These conveyor belts stop only for programmed maintenance once a week. Any issue that might interrupt their constant functioning needs to be detected and prevented early on. One day of interrupted gold and copper production represents an enormous expense for them or really any other operator, so the presence of our technicians is a huge weight off their shoulders and a huge boost to their productivity.

Q: How do you logistically guarantee immediate response times to mining work sites?

A: Keeping our technicians on these sites gives us a great opportunity to predict the problems, or at least the kinds of issues that could arise. Obviously extraordinary and thus completely unexpected accidents and events could still take place, but for the most part remaining onsite and constantly communicating with repair personnel gives our technicians the ability to forecast the needs of the mine and of the equipment we offer. The units have a productive life programmed into them. Their wear and tear in general is easy to see coming, which allows us to program the sale and supply of repairs and replacement parts. Of course, other components might have an extensive productive life but they might still malfunction unexpectedly or be expected to fail before the programmed end according to the professional opinion of our technicians, so a replacement has to be scheduled before the original date. This also helps us to keep costs down. A number of these parts need to be shipped by boat, and emergency shipping by plane would create an enormous additional expense. With this in mind, we can keep costs low by planning in advance so as to prevent the need for this kind of emergency shipping.

Q: Which of your products and services is receiving the most demand from the mining sector?

A: For the last two years, we have been working on the sale, distribution, installation and service of Brelko brand conveyor belt products and accessories. These are very much in demand from our clients in mining, and they include aligners, wheels, cleaners and the impact beds that can minimize the wear and tear on these belts. In fact, this demand has increased so much that it now represents the largest segment of new hires for us: technicians trained to service and monitor these conveyor belts through these products. These belts need to be kept as straight as possible; they need to be cleaned and these products need to be applied so that the materials that they transport do not fall off their edges or damage their physical integrity. A five-kilometer or even a one-kilometer belt breaking and going offline can represent a great deal of money lost not only in stopped production but in the specialized repairs it would then require. Some operators choose to use these conveyor belts without applying these products, but the metrics turn against you at that point: it becomes a lot more likely that the belts will jam, break or otherwise malfunction.

Construmac is a supplier of a wide variety of brands in the category of specialized machinery for construction and industrial functions within various sectors. Its brands include John Deere and Wirtgen.