Machines Roger International: Strong Mining Machine
By Alan Dorich   
Friday, 03 October 2008
After reorganizing its operations, Quebec-based Machines Roger International has watched its business triple, its president says. This year, it celebrates 25 years of business. By Alan Dorich
smc Machines Roger International, Val-d’Or, Quebec
Machines Roger provides manufacturing and contracting services for the mining industry.
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For Machines Roger International, it is important to grow, but not become so large that the company is overwhelmed with work, President Alain Beland says. “The last thing we want is [to] be too big,” he says, noting that this could make it hard for the firm to maintain quality. “We try to manage and control [our] growth.”
   
Based in Val-d’Or, Quebec, Canada, the company provides manufacturing and contracting services for the mining industry. Through its manufacturing division, Machines Roger produces its V-30 reaming head, which is used for conventional boring, down reaming and blind-up reaming.
   
The company’s boring division provides drilling services to clients with the V-30. Beland notes Machines Roger’s recent work has taken it to such destinations as Newfoundland, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Northwest Territory, Alaska and Nevada.
 
Evolving Machines Roger
This year, Beland says, Machines Roger is celebrating its 25th anniversary. However, despite its longevity, he asserts that the firm is “a young company with long experience.”
   
When Beland took leadership of the firm seven-and-a-half years ago, he changed the way it operated, almost making Machines Roger an entirely new company.
   
For instance, on the manufacturing side, Machines Roger changed its marketing campaign and added after-sales services. Today, “After-sales services [are] more important [to us] than the products,” he says.
   
Beland notes that manufacturing sales and after-market services comprises 25 percent of the company’s manufacturing work, as well as 75 percent of its contracting work. “We also have a long-term relationship with Cubex, based in Winnipeg, Canada, [with] who we have a strategical alliance for the manufacturing,” he says.
   
In addition, the company implemented new mechanical training processes and formed a dealership agreement with Drillco Tools, a hammer and bit manufacturer based in Chile. “Those guys are our dealer for [Latin America],” he says.
   
On the contracting side, Machines Roger changed its management processes, and improved its level of communication with clients, Beland says. For example, the company now provides customers with constant updates on their projects, he says.
   
With those improvements, “We tripled our business [in] the last three years,” Beland says, noting that the company also enjoys more repeat business. “The people know what kind of work we can do, and it’s made [them come back].”
   
Repeat clients include Xstrata, GoldCorp, BHP, Vale Inco, Iamgold Corp., St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd. and Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., Beland says.

Increasing Productivity
Machines Roger says its V-30 reaming head is recognized as a technological innovation in the mining industry. Val-d’Or resident Roger Massé invented the drill head in 1984, and received a certificate of achievement for the product from the Centenary Corp. of the Canadian Institute of Mining in 1998. Massé worked as a miner and shifter, superintendent, and started a mining contracting company, before forming Machines Roger.
   
According to Machines Roger, the V-30 provides users with such benefits as increased productivity. For example, the reaming head drills through impact and not friction, allowing holes to be made in rock “without the use of dynamite,” the company says.
   
Machines Roger says the V-30 is also a safe tool. “The V-30 configuration lets [the user] adapt the drilling method to particular ground- and task-related features, thereby ensuring a safe working environment for operators,” the company says. “With the V-30, no operator will be exposed to risks associated with drilling conventional raises.”

Growing Opportunities
A longtime veteran of the mining industry, Beland says he was inspired by his father to enter the business. “My dad was a miner, so I grew up with mining in the air,” he recalls.
   
Before coming to Machines Roger, he held several positions in the mining industry, including working as a mining technician for Ross and Finlay, another contractor based in Val-d’Or. Today, “I’m young, but not so young,” he says, noting that he will turn 50 this December.
   
Although Machines Roger is enjoying a strong amount of work, a challenge is to keep up with customers’ desires for efficiency while retaining quality, Beland says. “Everybody wants everything yesterday,” he says. “We have to do all we can to give them good services.”
   
However, Beland stresses that the abundance of work is a positive for the company. “[It’s a] good opportunity for Machines Roger to grow,” he asserts. “We’ll be able to respond and grow into those opportunities.
   
“Our main plan is in an internal training program for drillers,” he says. “The key of our growth is, and will be, the manpower.”
 
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