Rahco International Inc., the longtime Spokane industrial manufacturer, has landed a $10 million (U.S.) contract with a Canadian company involved in oil-sands extraction in Alberta.


Darrell White, Rahcos vice president of business development, says the company has started design work on a mobile conveyor system for Suncor Energy Inc., which is based in Calgary, Alberta, and will use the system in its oil-sands operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta.


The project involves building a conveyor system with a conveyor belt thats about six feet wide and that runs about 300 metersor roughly the length of 2 1/2 football fields. The system will sit off the ground on crawler tracks, which will allow it to be moved if necessary.


White declines for now to say precisely how the conveyor system will be used.


The system will be built on a relatively aggressive schedule, White says. Rahco currently is working to secure cold-weather steel for the equipment and plans to ramp up manufacturing in March.


Rahco is responsible for transporting the system to Fort McMurray and assembling it there, White says. The equipment is scheduled to be on site and fully operational during the first week of October, he says.


For Rahco, shipping the conveyor system will involve sending 40 truckloads of components on the 1,200-mile route to Fort McMurray. Rahco likely will hire a contractor to assemble the equipment there, but about a dozen people from Spokane will go there to oversee different facets of assembly.


Business opportunities are said to be sizable in the oil sands, where some $25 billion in projects are under way with more planned. Alberta trade officials were to discuss those opportunities with Inland Northwest businesses in the Spokane area on Jan. 20. An ice storm grounded their planned flight from the Edmonton, Alberta, airport, however, and they were unable to attend the meeting.


Were working with the Canadians to reschedule, says Roberta Brooke, executive director of the Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance. We dont have a firm date yet.


Last November, Suncor, which already had a presence in the oil sands, announced that it would spend an additional about $1.5 billion to support oil-sands development near Fort McMurray, which is located in northeastern Alberta. The Canadian company is one of many oil companies that are either extracting oil or pursuing oil-sands development in that region.


Oil-sands extraction involves removing a heavy, tar-like oil, called bitumen, from sandy soil and converting it into useful products.


Founded in 1946, Rahco, which employs about 100 people, builds highly-specialized mining, canal-building, and remediation equipment for use worldwide.


The Spokane company has built a number of similar conveyor systems for mining companies around the world.