CAMESE supports its member companies as they serve Canada's mining industry and customers worldwide.

As one of the most globalized industries in the world, mining presents serious challenges to companies seeking to establish themselves in the market, according to Jon Baird, managing director of the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE). "Mining companies have exploration projects in over 100 countries, so it's a challenge for mining suppliers to cover the global market - it's a big one," he says. That's where CAMESE comes in, he explains. "We are an association with over 250 corporate members," he says. "We exist to help them get the word out about their products and services to the global market. We bring in opportunities for them to provide goods and services."

CAMESE has faced this challenge for 25 years and it has to stay on top of emerging trends to serve its members, Baird says. "It's a very global market, and more and more countries are giving access to mining exploration and investments," he notes. "There are always new markets. That's the challenge - to find out where those markets are and assist our members in finding out about them and entering them."

The organization's members include companies in the mineral exploration, mine development, mining, mineral processing, environmental monitoring, smelting and refining industries. The industry sector CAMESE represents encompasses approximately 600 companies, each of which receives a substantial proportion of its revenues by providing goods and/or services to the mining industry, the organization states. It estimates that the creation of these goods and services adds between $1 billion and $2 billion annually to Canada's gross domestic product. Baird says approximately 50 percent of the goods and services that they produce is exported.

Constant Communication
The organization meets face-to-face with its members occasionally, but electronic media is its primary means of communication. Members are located throughout Canada. "When people think of the mining industry, they think of mines in remote locations," Baird says. "Mining supply companies - manufacturers as well as providers of engineering, legal and financial services - all of those are urban businesses. Our members are located all over Canada."

CAMESE communicates with its members with a biweekly e-mail bulletin. Baird says CAMESE sees its members more often at trade shows than at its own meetings. "We do 10 international trade shows a year," he says. "Over the last 10 years, we've done 100 trade shows. We just did our 100th show in India. We've held trade shows in 21 countries."

In the last few years, membership has held steady and he expects that trend to continue. "Canada is of a certain size that, once we've been in business for 25 years, we're not really expecting growth in terms of the number of members," he says. "We want to grow in excellence of the services we provide."  E+P