Guest speaker at the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce's June luncheon was Les Anderson, purchasing manager of projects for Mosaic.
Anderson spoke to a crowd of local and area businesspeople about the requirements to becoming a supplier of services or equipment for Mosaic mining projects.
"Because we're working in Saskatchewan, it makes sense to deal with suppliers who are local or regional because those are the people who we call at two in the morning if we have equipment failures and breakdowns," said Anderson.
Mosaic requires its partners to meet the same exhaustive list of terms and conditions whether they are small operations or multinational corporations, Anderson said. Besides the usual requirements for reliability and competitiveness, the company demands high standards of ethics and safety from its suppliers.
The purchasing manager recalled instances where suppliers have been turned away at the entrance of mines for failing to abide by all safety standards.
"It seems silly, but the bottom line is that we need to have criteria and we need to work safe," he said.
Interested suppliers were asked to contact Anderson for further information.
