Since 1989, mining technology company NSS Canada has provided reliable, accurate and innovative mining and survey-equipment solutions to clients throughout northern Ontario, and around the world.
Based in Sudbury, NSS Canada has a presence across all of northern Ontario including Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Timmins, Kenora, Elliot Lake and Temiskaming Shores. They also serve clients globally.
NSS Canada’s President, Bruno Lalonde, has been working in the mining industry for over a decade, and said that he sees infinite potential for development and innovation of mining equipment that can revolutionize the work of miners by making mining safer and more efficient.
The company is firmly focused on the future of mining. Their proprietary product is known as MOSS which stands for Miner Operated Survey System. MOSS is an underground surveying software that integrates mine-design specifications and drawings when completing mark-ups, and provides real-time information to miners, engineers, and geologists. The software is fully matured and packed with decades of input from miners, geologists, and engineers. With MOSS Augmented Reality (AR) currently in development, Lalonde said that they’re looking forward to changing the way we mine through the new technology. “We would like MOSS to be the standard mining software used at every mine across Canada.” MOSS AR will decrease workflow time to as little as five minutes and requires less equipment than traditional methods.
MOSS is an underground surveying software that integrates mine-design specifications and drawings when completing mark-ups, and provides real-time information to miners, engineers, and geologists
Early in 2023, the MOSS system was implemented at Jaguar Mining, a sizeable gold mining, development, and exploration company, in Brazil. Eric Duarte, Jaguar Mining’s VP of Operations, commented that “The introduction of MOSS at Jaguar Mining is another step towards our commitment to quality, by increasing safety, operational efficiency and cost effectiveness in our underground operations.” At the end of the 42-day implementation period with NSS Canada’s Global Field Technicians, the Jaguar Mining team felt confident in using MOSS underground in their daily operations.
Maxime Graveline and James Willis, global field technicians with NSS Canada, are pictured with staff from Jaguar Mining at an underground operation in Brazil.
When it comes to community involvement close to home, NSS Canada’s goal is to engage both the community and the mining industry. They want to share and experience the future of mining with others. Those goals mesh perfectly with NSS Canada’s partnership with Technica Mining and Science North on Dynamic Earth’s Go Deeper expansion project. “The goal of the Go Deeper project is to provide visitors to Dynamic Earth with memorable experiences while showing mining in a modern and realistic way, so that was obviously of interest to us, and we’re proud to be involved” said Lalonde.
Another notable addition to the community involvement category is Lalonde’s participation on MineConnect’s Board of Directors. He has served as vice president on the non-profit association’s board since February of 2022.
NSS Canada has also had a positive impact on our community through multiple annual fundraisers. They’ve raised funds for the NEO Kids Foundation, the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario, Movember, and have many charities and companies that they support via sponsorships, donations, and in-kind donations. Their most recent event, Race to The Finish Line, raised over $72,000 for the local YMCA.
In May, NSS Canada was awarded the Innovation Award at the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce’s Bell Business Awards. In his speech, Lalonde credited product-development engineer Bernie Smith with the company’s success. “Bernie is the true innovation hero at NSS. He’s had this passion for 20+ years and we toss ideas at him, he turns it around and makes it a reality, so much so, that he decided to not show up here tonight because he’s working on something for one of our clients. It’s amazing what humans can accomplish when you have the right attitude and culture.”
L-R: Elizabeth Moulton, Bruno Lalonde and Kaitlynn Zygmont from NSS Canada at the Bell Business Awards 2023
NSS Canada joined MineConnect to further engage with the mining sector through its supplier-sourcing website tool, networking events, and trade missions. “MineConnect gives us the opportunity to connect with industry leaders globally in a way that wouldn’t be possible without it.” The company is an official supplier to MineConnect USA and is making inroads in the silver state after having recently participated in a MineConnect business-development mission in Elko. “MineConnect USA has given us a presence in the Nevada region with Elko as a big focus. By taking part in the mission and with the efforts of Katie Neddenriep, we have had great exposure with Nevada Gold Mines and their underground operations. With these efforts, we forecast that MOSS will become a standard practice for underground sites in the Nevada region just like it is here in Canada.”
