If you think you can do a job, trust in yourself that you can do it, says the mobile maintenance superintendent at the Gahcho Kue diamond mine, located 280 km northeast of Yellowknife.
“You are the only one who can set limitations on yourself. Growing up in Fort Smith, not knowing what was going on in mining and taking that step, I always had trust in my abilities and what I wanted,” says Darcy Sinclair, who offers sage advice after working for 25 years in various roles in the mining industry.
“If you think you can do it, you can do it. Don’t let nobody say you can’t.”
And it is that same common sense attitude that Sinclair maintains and conveys while helping apprentices and students succeed in various roles in the industry.
Furthermore, he said it was his belief in his own abilities that gave him the confidence to undergo additional training and create subsequent advancement opportunities from the time he began his career.
After eventually being laid off from one of his first jobs, he said it was his uncle who told him of a place called Lac de Gras and the Diavik diamond mine, which was looking to hire mechanics.
A new career path
“So, 25 years ago, I made that call, and within 10 days, I was sitting at Diavik Diamond Mines as a runner repair mechanic,” said Sinclair, who possesses a heavy equipment ticket.
“First time I have ever seen those big trucks,” he said of the larger-than-life equipment and new working environment in which he found himself.
“The first thing that was in my head was, ‘How am I going to change those tires?’
“What I also thought about at first was that I got scared, thinking I bit off more than I could chew, but I knew that I was skilled enough that I could handle it,” he said. “I was already an automotive mechanic red seal journeyman and I said well, I would take this on as a challenge and that is what I have been doing my whole career, and mining is challenging myself.”
After gaining valuable experience at the mine, he temporarily switched gears to work as the runner repair mechanic automotive at Kingland Ford until he had another opportunity to work at Diavik, where, in 2005, he was able to enter the Aboriginal Leadership Program through the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). That path led Sinclair to becoming a service supervisor and eventually a maintenance superintendent.
Dream job opportunity
It was in 2010 that Sinclair said he had the opportunity to work someplace he had always wanted to as a young mechanic.
“I always wanted to work for Finning. As a young mechanic, you look at them and see the great coveralls and they pull out their laptop and you wanted to be that guy. So that was one of my dreams as a young mechanic to work with Finning,” he said.
“So, I applied and I got the job as a service supervisor and it was a bit of a drop step but it was something I was prepared to take and I went underground,” he said of the job that brought him to Ekati with Finning as a contractor.
Sinclair went on to attain various positions within the industry — he even took a break from mining to become the regional airport manager in Fort Smith for a stint.
But it was inevitably the challenging mining environment that drew him back into its fold and less than two years later, he started the position of mobile maintenance superintendent at the Gahcho Kue mine.
“I arrived on site in 2017 and I have been here ever since — just past six years and loving every minute of it.
“Throughout my career I have been taking on challenges, and I am born and raised in the NWT and worked hard to get where I am at now to prove to myself that I can do this,” Sinclair said of his quarter of a century of work experience.
Helping hand
Not only does he enjoy the challenge each new job brings, where safety is always paramount to him for his team, Sinclair said he also finds rewards in giving back and helping the people of the North.
“I am hiring people from the North and I have over 10 to 12 or more apprentices that are on my ticket that achieved their automotive heavy duty ticket themselves. They are licensed, so I have assisted with that and currently I have two heavy duty technicians that are under my current ticket right now working towards their heavy duty technician ticket,” he said.
“It is just a great position and a great role and I am so happy for the NWT diamond mines to give me this opportunity to succeed in the North,” he continued. “And they are going to be here for a while, so other people starting as wash bay attendants, labourers in the plant, or small equipment operators for the operation, the next thing you know, in five years, you can be running a shovel and be the top dog there.
“Or you can start an apprenticeship and in four years, you have your ticket and nobody can take that away from you. Once you have that experience, nobody can take that from you. And that is an achievement in itself.”
For more stories from NWT and Nunavut Mining 2023, click this link: https://www.nnsl.com/special-feature-publications/special-feature-pdfs/2023-mining-supplement/