New Procon CEO John McVey is ready to tackle Canada’s toughest mining challenges

John McVey doesn’t think of himself as an entrepreneur. Having spent most of his career working for multi-national engineering, construction and project management companies like Bechtel, he’s far more comfortable working within a large corporate environment amongst thousands of employees. But as the recently appointed CEO of Procon, a small, full-service provider of start-to-finish industrial solutions for the Canadian mining industry, all of that has changed.

“Our entire sector is struggling right now with low commodity prices,” McVey said.

“When that happens, there’s a lot of pressure on prices for our services. Margins get squeezed.  Therefore, we need to look at reducing costs. We are also trying to diversity our business geographically from coast to coast and to diversity the type of services we offer.”

Historically, Procon, which was founded in 1992, has concentrated on underground mining services, but a few years ago, it started an industrial division in Saskatchewan. “It’s been growing substantially and will continue to grow,” McVey said. “We’d like to be not only underground but also an industrial contractor working underground and on the surface from coast to coast.”

While assuming command of a smaller company—Procon employs just 700 people at present—during challenging economic times has forced McVey to stretch his entrepreneurial muscles, it has also given him a more direct influence on the direction the organization takes. In this regard, he has received a lot of encouragement from China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd., which owns a 60 per cent stake in the company. “They’ve been quite supportive in terms of diversifying and growing the business,” McVey says. “We’re obviously quite a vehicle for them n the Canadian mining space. In fact, we were the first mining acquisition for them anywhere. Their involvement could and should take us to the point where we can support some of their international projects.”

For the moment, however, McVey is staying focused on his first love, the Canadian mining industry. And considering his hands-on approach to the business, it doesn’t sound like he is going to wear out his office furniture anytime soon.

“I try to spend a lot of time in the field,” McVey said. “That’s where the work is, where the business is, including some fairly remote locations, such as diamond mines in the Northwest Territories, potash mines in Saskatchewan and so on. I try to get to all of our job sites, most of which are underground. I haven’t been to all of them yet, but I’ve been to many.”

Keeping a close eye on what’s happening on the ground—and underground—is McVey’s way of ensuring Procon remains focused on the No. 1 commodity the company provides to its customers: service. “That’s the business we’re in. We serve our clients. Our teams are not unlike a sports team, and I’m sort of like the president or owner. What I want to see is success among our teams and happy customers. When we succeed and our customers are happy, that’s where I get my satisfaction.”

With its focus on providing support for Canada’s diamond and potash mines, Procon has weathered the recent dip in commodity prices better than many other mining service companies. “These areas have held up well. In the case of potash, the world’s gotta eat. So, even though there’s been a huge downturn in commodity pricing, our clients are leaders in the industry, and we’re fortunate to be one of their contractors,” McVey said.

Despite his current occupation, when McVey graduated with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo, a career in mining wasn’t even on the horizon. Like many of his classmates, he started out in the oil industry, first in Ontario and then in Alberta. That led to a stint working for Bantrel in Alberta and then Bechtel, where he switched his focus from chemical engineering to construction and project management, eventually transitioning from oil and gas to mining and metals.

“The mining experience has come in the latter stages of my career,” McVey said, “but it fits nicely with my interests. I like big, remote, challenging projects in Canada. That’s really what mining’s all about. We’ve got some of them already, and when market conditions improve, we’ll go out and look for more.”