Custom Utility Vehicle Design and Manufacturing

Q: What value does IPEC Ingeniería add to the mining industry?
A: Our name alludes to engineering of special projects and we focus our efforts in highly tailored solutions. Founded in 2011 as a family company designing and manufacturing utility vehicles to support heavy machinery in mining, we now provide a variety of unique solutions in the form of custom vehicles and equipment for our customers.
Clients like Fresnillo PLC, Agnico Eagle, Minera Frisco, Komatsu and Grupo México come to us for the type of engineering projects we can undertake and for the professionalism with which we approach business. We continually search for new opportunities abroad to bring exciting technology to our customers in Mexico and to team up with top foreign companies that can contribute to the Mexican mining supply chain. At international events, we often meet companies that see our business model and growth strategy in Mexico and become strongly interested in collaborating with us. McLellan Industries and GL Tiley & Associates are a prime example of this. Since the market identifies us with our highly specialized solutions, we can form partnerships that add a focused value to the Mexican industry.
Q: What particular project highlights your capacities?
A: It is a project we undertook in the oil and gas industry but it is completely pertinent to mining. In 2013, SAIPEM, a transnational oil and gas company, was contracted to build the El Encino-Topolobampo pipeline from Chihuahua to the Sinaloa coast across the Sierra Tarahumara. For this project, they needed highly specialized utility vehicles and they asked us to design and manufacture a vehicle fleet to support the construction. The project was a perfect fit for our company since the client needed a fleet of 4X4 and 6X6 specialized vehicles which were inexistent in the Mexican market and could not be brought from abroad because of fuel incompatibilities. To solve this, we took trucks designed and built for our market and developed 4X4 and 6X6 conversions. The project was large, consisting of 55 all-terrain vehicles in six configurations: lube trucks, personnel transport, fuel and water tanker, articulated crane and flatbed trucks. We were also issued a contract for on-field support in which for more than a year and a half, we had technicians working along the 600km-length of the pipeline, providing maintenance to the vehicle fleet. This endeavor is worth highlighting because typically pipeline construction work is as demanding as mining work.
Q: In what other way does your service portfolio reflect your expertise in adapting foreign technology to the Mexican industry?
A: Our experience with the supply of a double drum production hoist for a mine in Chihuahua brought us to appreciate and understand the importance of hoist plants for the underground mines. Later, we teamed up with GL Tiley & Associates, a world-class expert in engineering and consulting for hoist plants. We offered Tiley an appealing client portfolio in Mexico and became its representative. Together we offer turnkey solutions that include supply of new hoists and upgrade of existing hoists and equipment, installation, inspection, parts, service and certification of hoists and hoist plant infrastructure. We can support our clients in engineering and supply of headframes, loading pockets, skips, cages, truck loading and unloading, among other solutions. We also have vast experience working with equipment to support large mill relines hand in hand with McLellan Industries supplying mill liner handlers, along with service and parts to multiple customers in the country.
Q: What are your goals for 2020?
A: We want to promote the company and consolidate it as the leader in custom vehicle solutions for the mining industry, and the trusted partner of our customers with the foreign companies we represent for hoist plants and mill reline equipment. Also, we recently developed a conversion of the sturdy Ford F550 4x2 diesel truck made for the Mexican market, to 4x4 Mining Duty.