Since 1966, the name “Plainsman” has been synonymous with one-stop distribution for products related to the heavy oil industry of Western Canada. However, the Edmonton-based “supply store to the supply store network in Western Canada” – as General Manager Mike Kittlitz describes his company – has made a major push into the manufacturing business over the last 15 years.
Maine Drilling & Blasting started at the kitchen table of Ted and Judy Purington of Gardiner, Maine. From that beginning in 1966, the firm has had a core set of values that are non-negotiable: honesty, hard work and quality service.
Today, the company celebrates 45 years of safety, success and growth in the drilling and blasting industry. Over the years, Maine Drilling & Blasting has safely performed more than one-and-a-half-million controlled blasts for highways, quarries, house lots, utilities, marine and energy work. And through the years, the company has upheld its original values and, more recently, remained nimble in a fluctuating economy.
After only seven years in business, Blackbrush Oil and Gas has made its mark on the Texas oil and gas industry by completing a series of strategic acquisitions and purchases to begin an aggressive drilling program. Founded in 2004, Blackbrush was formed when its owners partnered with several local firms to acquire Kerns Oil and Gas’ interest in Catarina Field for $36 million. “The assets acquired from Kerns included more than 250 wells and 30,000 gross acres in Webb and Dimmitt counties, Texas,” the company says. “Blackbrush then developed a drilling program to develop the remaining acreage acquired from Kerns.”
Dave Bundy entered the coal mining business in 1985 with $100,000 in capital and formed Bundy Auger Mining in Pennsylvania with a single auger machine he operated alongside his only two employees. Since then, he’s expanded to a multimillion-dollar full-service mining operation encompassing 14 affiliate companies.
In early July, Copper Mountain Mining Corp. announced the first filtered copper concentrate was produced and deposited from its Copper Mountain Mine near Princeton, British Columbia. This is a significant milestone not only for the Vancouver-based company, which has worked diligently over the past five years to bring the landmark open-pit mine into production, but also for the province itself as this is the first new major mine project British Columbia has seen in more than a decade.
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