The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
High costs and perpetual danger are challenging constants in underground mining. Now two former Flin Flonners are finding success in marketing products that address both concerns. Clara Steele and husband Rod are the owners and founders of TesMan, an Ontario-based company that manufactures motion-capture software for underground drills. Installed on the Jumbo drills used to tunnel through rock, the software increases the precision and efficiency of drilling, making the process cheaper and the tunnels safer. 'We have proven that a mine can reduce their cost per foot of development and tunneling by 30 per cent,' says Clara. 'Other companies believe that this opportunity could be as high as 40 or even 50 per cent. ' Located in Sudbury, TesMan produces two patented products, Right Round and Right View, both of which utilize small cameras that feed data to a computer screen. Right Round provides the drill operator with data on where to drill, while Right View creates a 3D survey of the drift / tunnel ahead. Right View has the added benefit of creating a mapping resource for the geological and geotechnical engineers. 'The technology does not affect the jumbo drill in any fashion _ it just provides the miner information,' Clara notes. TesMan also offers consulting services to mining companies unable to devise in-house solutions to challenges. Incorporated a decade ago, TesMan may be small _ it has eight employees _ but it is sure to grow as word of its technology spreads throughout the mining industry. It all started with a conversation between Clara and Rod when the couple was back in Flin Flon for a holiday in 2002. Both knew mining well. In fact, they had first met a dozen years earlier during a mine rescue training session at Flin Flon's now-defunct North Main mine. Clara, still going by her maiden name of Baker, had been working at Namew Lake mine outside Cranberry Portage. Rod was a mining engineer at Callinan / South Main mine. Originally from Flin Flon, Clara fell for Rod, an Englishman who had come to Flin Flon from South Africa in 1989 after living in various parts of Africa, Australia and the UK. The couple left Flin Flon in 1993, working in different parts of Ontario and Arkansas before settling on the nickel-mining hotbed of Sudbury in northern Ontario. They had long wanted to start their own business, and on that day at the Victoria Inn in 2002, they pledged that it was time to follow through. See 'Pursuing' on pg. Continued from pg. The following year, 2003, TesMan _ named after the couple's daughters, Tessa and Mandy _ was incorporated. The company would pursue opportunities in two intertwined mining markets: new technologies and consulting. TesMan developed the technology for Right Round and Right View from scratch, with other products now in development. As TesMan's client file increased, so did its reputation. Today its website features testimonials from officials representing Vale, Cameco and one other company full of praise for TesMan. Now, in an era where mining companies are particularly thirsty for cost-saving technology, TesMan is ready to pursue major growth. Part of that growth, the Steeles hope, will involve Flin Flon and Snow Lake. TesMan's sales manager will head to Flin Flon this summer to initiate conversations with Hudbay. 'Our objective is to ramp up sales considerably of consulting and also miner tools,' says Clara.
