New snow-making guns are saving Timmins’ downhill ski hill money.
Last year, an $8,000 social investment grant from Glencore’s Kidd Operations allowed Kamiskotia Snow Resort to buy two new, energy-efficient snow-making guns.
“Sometimes it gets a bit difficult to update and keep up-to-date on our equipment and you know make sure we’re staying efficient, staying ahead of the game so we depend a lot on community-based companies like Kidd that help us out a lot. They donate new tools, new equipment that help us do our jobs a lot better,” said Kamiskotia general manager Eric Philipow.
The equipment has been crucial to making a good base of snow this season.
“We had a little bit of snow, not a whole lot of natural snow to kick off the season and then we went into that cold snap which really gave us no snow at all, so all we had was that snow-making. Without those guns, without good guns, without enough guns, we just wouldn’t have been open for business,” he said.
The man-made snow helps extend the ski season as well.
“It will definitely add a few days, the more base we can add from the start, the longer the snow will last in the spring,” he said.
The new equipment has also led to a 15 per cent reduction in energy costs for the ski resort.
“The newer, more efficient snow-making guns have allowed us to decrease the number of air compressors needed, going from three 200hp compressors to only one,” said Rick Rusenstrom, Kamiskotia Snow Resort board chair, in a statement.
Since 2007, Glencore’s community partnership program has given more than $4 million to community organizations.
“Firstly, we do that because I think the importance of keeping our workforce involved with recreational activities and being involved in the community is a very important part of having successful people at work,” said Kidd Operations general manager Steve Badenhorst.
“It’s got a very diverse range of people that use it, including our workforce, so we’re very pleased to help in some way.”
The energy efficiency of the tools wa also an important factor for the company.
“We’re a very high hydro consumer, we’ve done a number of projects over the years to reduce that consumption and this particular one ticked that box in terms of its energy efficiency improvement. It’s something that you don’t want to use, but when you do you want to reduce your cost and we think Kamiskotia’s done that,” Badenhorst said.
