Equipment North, a full-service construction and mining equipment rental company based in Sudbury, has moved into a new, 10,000-square-foot shop in Timmins.
“We began renting a small office and service bay in Timmins in December 2015 as a temporary location and couldn’t find anything to buy, so we decided to build,” said company vice-president Ryan Matusch.
“The reason for expanding is to better serve the mines and mining contractors in Timmins as well as customers further north – for example, Detour Gold. This makes it less expensive for them to get service on equipment that would otherwise have to be sent to Sudbury.”
Equipment North has been in business since 1990 and prides itself as being the largest independent equipment rental company north of Barrie.
In addition to selling and renting a wide range of tools and equipment for the local construction, mining and residential markets, Equipment North fills a niche market modifying forklifts and telehandlers for use in underground mines across Canada.
The company modifies the equipment to comply with safety requirements for the underground mining environment, installing ramp-approved, tripe redundant braking systems, catalytic exhaust, fire suppression and high-luminosity LED lighting.
“Construction equipment isn’t generally manufactured to withstand the kind of abuse that equipment is subjected to working underground in very cramped spaces where you’re constantly running into drift walls and getting covered in shotcrete, so we put on heavy-duty tires and add reinforcement to the sides of the machine for protection,” said Matusch.
“We have equipment in Labrador, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.”
Equipment North currently has three employees in its Timmins office, but expects to have as many as 10 people on the payroll within a year or two.
In Sudbury, the company has 30 employees and operates out of a 15,000-square-foot building.
