Al Harman, president of A&A Technical Services, is a Yellowknife businessman who is taking advantage of unique opportunities in the diamond mining industry. - Thorunn Howatt/NNSL photo

"I saw the vision of opportunity up here in 1995 and started things out as A&A Technical Services," said Harman.

Geosynthetics -- engineering-speak for plastic -- are big business. In mining, plastic sheets, something like the fabric of big, heavy-duty garbage bags, are used for water-proofing. "But the industry was always being serviced from the South."

A&A's big break came when it got the gigantic contract from Diavik diamond mine to supply 250,000 square metres of plastic lining for the holding reservoirs. Harman saw the need when Diavik was still in its exploration stage. His company was hired to build some containment boxes for Diavik and lined them with plastic. The Diavik mine site is surrounded by water, so it was plain for him to see that there was going to be a future in keeping things dry and keeping the Lac de Gras lake water clean.

"I could see that if there was going to be a mine there, they were going to have to line that entire island," said Harman. His stars were aligning -- he happened to be in the growing engineering technology industry. He was in the right place at the right time, had the ambition and the Northern know-how that stopped his competitors.

A different beast

"The North is a different environment from the South and these guys from the South don't understand that," said Harman.

But it's not like he didn't give them a chance. Before he got the liner contracts, he approached the two biggest Southern suppliers, informing them of their need for a Northern contact. He was sure he was the man for the job.

"But they didn't get it -- so I got it," he said.

Getting the Diavik contract wasn't easy. After originally identifying the need for the plastic product, Harman had to hustle. He read up from special books that came from the Geosynthetic Institute in Philadelphia, then flew down to South Carolina to become a certified factory technician, then went to California to learn about the specialized equipment. And then there was the money.

$1-million financing

"I financed almost $1 million in handshakes," he said.

Half of that was material and the other half was worker wages. At its peak, A&A had 35 employees. The company grossed 20 times more in its seventh year than in its first.

The company has grown since then. Last year it spent $1.4 million on worker wages alone.

"It would have all been going South prior to us establishing ourselves here," said Harman.

Now A&A has six full-time people who work at a three-year contract to run Diavik's geochem lab.

Harman and his wife, Bertha, a partner in the business, came to Yellowknife in 1988 when she landed a nursing job at the hospital. They both work at A&A and are raising three children. Bertha is still involved with nursing as well.

Plastic liners aren't all the company does.

"We're three companies in one," said Harman explaining that A&A provides quality control testing, liner installations, and plastic pipe welding.

A&A isn't resting now. After last year's Nunavut staking rush, Harman sees a future there as well.

"Tahera, Hope Bay and the pipeline," he said.