Growth within our company has been increasing, however with our current contracts and clients, we will soon hit a dead end. Noranda’s contract is about to expire at the end of the year, and even if our contract is renewed, this will only be a temporary solution for our continuous growth. We need to seize the opportunity, bid, win, and execute properly both of the jobs (intermediate and deep) in the Mond Nickel contract and place ourselves as the top major drilling contractor in Canada. This is easier said then done, we currently have a few obstacles before reaching our goal and taking the Mond Nickel contract. Our lack of equipment/machinery, lack of personnel, the uncertainty of geological conditions, and the risk of damaging our client relationship with Noranda are factors we need to take into consideration. As a company we can take advantage of our competitive advantage over the other three mining competitors and build ourselves an even bigger reputation and employee skillset that will put us at an advantage for any future tenders that may arise.
We have three main competitors for the contract; Boart, Major, and Orbit. Major is the only one that has a technical competitive advantage over us, they have the equipment and personnel to perform such a job. Whereas in Northern’s case, we need to, purchase 4 new drills, bulldozers/skidders, and supporting equipment. Other than buying new equipment we can always rent, as long as the rental period of the drill, bulldozer, and supporting equipment per year is less than $ 360,000 (depreciation rate). The outlook for the mining sector is relatively positive, however nothing is certain, yet to establish ourselves as one of the most technically competent drilling contractors I propose in buying 4 new drills along with there supporting equipment and bulldozers; in addition to the four drills that would be made available