Given that you have worked in the mining sector most of your career, what attracted you to this industry?
I was born in Sudbury, a small mining town in the Northern part of Ontario, near the largest nickel deposit in the world, so looking for work here, it was hard to avoid the mining industry. While I was still in university, I signed on with Tamrock, a company which at the time made underground drills, and from there on I grew up in the organization. In 1995, I moved abroad for the first time and spent the next 18 years serving the global mining industry. I joined Kal Tire in B.C., Canada, as head of our Mining Tire Group, where I have been working for the last 11 years. As a society, we tend to take for granted the risk and entrepreneurial spirit that these mining companies must have, given the challenging environment in which they operate. It has been a truly fascinating journey to be part of this industry for almost 40 years now.
What are your focus areas at Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group and how do they differ between the various mining sites around the world?
We are a mining service provider at heart. We help companies make the most of their tire assets by carefully recommending products fit for their specific applications and then providing proactive maintenance of those products to help customers reach mining goals and reduce the total cost of ownership of these expensive assets. For many years now we have had a keen focus on innovation and have designed and developed numerous unique tire maintenance tools.
For us, innovation is about improving safety, productivity and value in mining operations. With the significant emphasis on ESG in recent years, it was essential we provided even further value to our customers through sustainable solutions that align with this future-minded focus.
Kal Tire is present in five continents and across 22 countries around the world, so we are accustomed to deal with various climates, environmental regulations and compliance issues. Operating in various jurisdictions gives us the chance to create a baseline that we can further replicate. Finally, we record over one million tire related transactions in our tire management system every year, including tire inspections, repair work, and changeouts.
How could electrification be integrated in the mining space and how far along are we in this endeavor?
The amount of engineering that goes into making sure the five-ton, four-meters-high 57" tires are fit for purpose is immense, and mining is practically based on these ultra-large products. 25 years ago, the AC drive was invented especially for these very large haul trucks that relied on a trolley system to electrify the transmission so they do not have to depend just on the diesel-powered engine. An additional one-hundred-ton battery put on top of the 420-ton payload of a surface mining truck does not make much sense, but electrification could have a big impact in underground mining, where it could greatly reduce particulate emissions thereby substantially improving ventilation. In addition, vehicles using electric power have a lot more torque generated towards the wheels, this creates a substantially different wear pattern and rate on the tires themselves.
Why is your tire recycling facility in Chile unique and what it could mean for the future of the industry?
In 2006, Chile banned the burying of tires, which resulted in massive stacks of used tires sitting in piles that could be seen from Google Maps. Ten years later, the government passed legislation to help mining companies energize their efforts for the proper disposal of these tires. It was in this context that we decided to develop a recycling plant there, and through the partnership we signed with Mitsui, we hope to take this pilot model and proliferate it into other jurisdictions. The challenge in recycling has not been the technology itself, but its application into certain industries. Given the remote location of the majority of mines, handling these heavy tires, half made of steel, is a grueling task. Although our process is not unique in its nature, it does serve this mining customer base that has been challenged for a solution to end-of-life large tires. Fundamentally, we are breaking the tires into three basic products: carbon ash, oil and clean steel, and we are able to carry out this process at a commercial scale.
What does the Maple Program consist of and how is the industry responding to it thus far?
We have always looked to extend tire life through repairs and retreading, and the Maple Program is an extension of these practices. With the legislation in Chile, we could see customers getting more engaged in sustainability related issues, and mining companies are now thankful for the extra 3,000 hours of additional use they get from their second-life tires. We developed a carbon calculator that demonstrates CO2 and oil savings when a customer repairs or retreads a tire vs buys a new one. This calculator has been validated by SCS Global Services, an international leader in third-party environmental certification. Through the Maple Program, customers receive a certificate with validated data on how much carbon emissions and oil they have saved through these sustainable practices that they can use in environmental reporting. Luckily, the uptake with this program has been extraordinary, and it especially took off across Chile, Europe and Canada.
AI is taking over the world, but to what extent is it truly being incorporated in your industry and what is the impact that it can have?
About eight years ago, we developed a proactive Tire & Operations Management System (TOMS) so that we could predict tire life and changeouts, and mash them together with the maintenance schedules of the existing vehicles. Thanks to this system, we now have a clean data set that allows us to look for patterns and correlations. On top of these, we added an extra layer of AI which we taught how to spot a tire injury before it becomes severe. Furthermore, we have a thermal imaging enhanced autonomous inspection station where we can identify potential problems in real-time, thus being able to take the truck down before more damage occurs. From the very beginning, we were aware that we had to find our place in this new digital world, leveraging that expertise to help our team members become experts in helping the technology and not the other way around.
Having had 70 years of company experience, what would you like to achieve at Kal Tire in three years from now?
Ever since our inception, we have tried to find ways to help our customers solve their core challenges, so all our future goals stem from this principle. When it comes to the adoption of new technologies, mining is now evolving at a breakneck speed, so it is truly refreshing to be in this
space. Our mission is to try and keep up that pace with our customers, and we know we have to add value in ways we did not think of ten years ago.
