About Tamarack
Our Community - Remove
WORKING WITH A GPO IS ALL ABOUT CHOICE
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Choosing whether or not to adopt off-the-shelf contracts and then, whether to deepen participation and become a part of the Tamarack community that moves markets and drives contract creation with other members. Benefits abound either way.
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Existing contract adoption delivers efficiencies and value, streamlines procurement practices, makes the job simpler for staff, improves outcomes and includes personalized site spending analysis and benchmarking. The real results are meaningful and measurable.
Then there is another layer of collaboration that a GPO provides; collaboration among like-minded member mining companies, using Tamarack’s platform and leadership, to go to market together.
Insights:- Remove
How to Determine Whether Your Purchasing Strategy is Working For You: Direct or GPO?
>> Read article
Become a Member - Remove
3 easy steps​:
1. A deep dive discussion
2. We'll start the data journey
3. Start seeing value
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What’s your biggest supply issue today? Remove
Frequently Asked Questions - move to New Here? tab
1. If Tamarack is a free service for members, how does a GPO get paid?​
2. We consider our suppliers to be long-term partners. What will happen to my supplier relationships if I join Tamarack?
3. We have strict IBA commitments; can I still work with Tamarack?
4. How do I know if Tamarack is getting the best possible price?
5. Does joining Tamarack mean I don't need internal supply chain staff?
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Tamarack is pleased to partner with ProPurchaser to develop market intelligence specifically for the mining industry.
Should cost models are a gold standard in procurement practices. Cost transparency benefits members and suppliers, and Tamarack’s library of models, as well as the detailed data behind our charts, is free for members.
Communities
Suppliers
Indigenous communities and Indigenous suppliers
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Our community is built on commitment that comes from us, our members, and suppliers. We commit to serving our members with the suppliers that are vetted and ensure that our group buying delivers the best value and tailored solutions to members’ needs. We commit to suppliers that our process is open and clear and delivers value for participation.
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When our members choose to adopt an existing Tamarack contract, they are committing volume to our partner suppliers. When Tamarack approved suppliers work with Tamarack’s members, they commit to delivering their world class products and services and maintaining the outstanding customer service they’ve always been known for.
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Our mining procurement built on community can also do so much more.
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GPO STRENGTH: GOING TO MARKET TOGETHER
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Community is built from the ground up, and Tamarack does this by setting a table of like-minded members seeking common products and services in a common geography. This communicates to the market that efficiencies, volume pricing and service requirements are on the table and presents new opportunities for suppliers. Together, we determine the procurement needs and approach, and Tamarack takes the reins to go to market with those goals and outcomes front and centre. Members committed to this process are invited to stay in the action, working with Tamarack and other like minded companies to craft an agreement all the way to the finish line.
Suppliers are responsive because working with Tamarack is synonymous with increased volume, opportunity, and meaningful partnership with both the GPO and the Members.
Join our community of buyers and suppliers Remove
If you are a mining company, let’s talk about membership and the power of shared procurement. If you are a mining supplier, let’s talk about the value of a GPO to elevate your business and be a part of innovative procurement.
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Good ideas are contagious and we always have a seat at the table for Members and Suppliers to contribute to our mining procurement community. >> Let's connect
> $6 billion
Member Spend​
60+
Agreements in
contract library​​
42
Member Mines
11-40%
Realized Savings
(category dependent)
Our Philanthropy - Remove/Save this for later
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We know that the mining community is intrinsically interwoven – shared geographies, remote locations and experiences, shared challenges and goals, and set and setting is a big part of the mining experience.
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From frozen tundras to high altitude mountains, all mines are a part of a broader community of people and business.
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Working, living, playing in and supporting our broader communities is important for Tamarack just like it is for our Members.
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Tamarack is proud to be a founding partner of an annual drive to collect and donate hockey equipment for youth in Canada’s far-north. We also take the lead on organizing annual sport-based youth exchanges between communities in southern Ontario and Canada’s remote northern communities. In partnership with other community organizations and the support of our own Member community, Tamarack lives it values at work and at home.
Watch this space to learn more about our program, see how our Members partner with us to deliver these programs, and more about opportunities to help us grow the opportunity for youth.
Markets
Tamarack Members
Stay on top of pricing and supply chain trends in the mining industry with this curated list of mining related indices, based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and updated monthly.
We use the power of group purchasing and data like this to drive value for mining companies across North America. Reach out out if you'd like to participate in our value chain.
Our Communities
Supplier Partners
About Tamarack
New to Tamarack?
Lee discusses supply chain commonalities across industries and how the mining supply chain is ready to grow up
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Few careers in procurement touch on as many industries as Lee Barter’s 20-year career, including government, forestry, oil and gas, food, retail, pharmaceutical and mining. Such an experience provides a unique perspective on the challenges and best practices developed across sectors. After years spent travelling the globe consulting to global mining giants on operations and supply chain, Lee saw the opportunity to cross-pollinate the best of procurement practices and bring them to the mining industry.
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Lee sums up his realization saying “Flying around the world to visit mine sites and advising on supply chain, I had a literal bird’s eye view of untapped synergies and lost opportunities that happen when mines conceive of and coordinate their buying only in terms of commonality based on corporate ownership. Real synergies are rooted in geography and place – the cluster of mines in a region and the suppliers that inhabit that ecosystem.”
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Most other industries had already developed their own answer to this problem – group purchasing organizations. Mining was clearly in need of a similar solution and so Tamarack Mining Services was born.
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Lee’s vision for mining procurement is intuitive and speaks to a loose sense of community that already existed. The sense of place mines occupy is strong; the remoteness of the sites, the smaller communities that support and rely on them, and the embedded geological connection to the particular ore and landscape. Developing a group of buyers that lean into their commonalities through shared places and people is logical and efficient.
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Tamarack has been the conduit for moving these commonalities from just happenstance to planned coordination and partnership. In doing so, a whole new level of efficiency, value and supplier market interest is unlocked.
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“I conceived of Tamarack as an engine for transformation and community building. I’m not interested in only the transactional nature of connecting buyers and suppliers. We demonstrate to mining companies that coordination pays off – show and tell the market what is needed, as a group large enough to move markets and support capacity building close to home, and then stay engaged with us as we work with the market to shape the solution and thread the needle to deliver results,” explains Lee.
The capacity of the mining industry to adopt change is promising. “Be it technology or systems, the mining industry is always adapting. Incorporating a GPO like Tamarack into standard procurement practice pays off on so many levels and our members know firsthand that our process represents progress and opportunity for the industry.”
Strategic partnerships are just the beginning for Lee, and he is as excited for what’s next as he is for what has already been accomplished. “I see this as the launch pad for synergies and collaboration that transform the landscape of mining supply. This opens the door to reimagining where and why mines source from where they do and begs the question, is there a better way that serves us all? There are so many ways this could go, so many products and services this could impact and so many potential partners in the wings – the ability of Tamarack and its members to reconceive procurement expectations is a force of nature for the whole industry.”
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Tamarack Mining Supply Index is our own custom developed index, just for the mining industry. Our index provides perspective to buyers and suppliers and gives a snapshot on the health of the supplier market on a monthly basis.
Tamarack’s Commodity Reports collect mining related pricing indices and data related to a wide range of products and services. Updated monthly, our reports share changing pricing and supply trends with our community.
Tamarack prepared Should-Cost models cover an ever-growing range of mining products, and are updated regularly.
Market Analysis & Insights by Tamarack flow freely and often, based on data from our market intel products as well as in reaction to changing market conditions and procurement & supply chain trends. Our community is always at the centre of what we do, and we are always open to have member’s feedback. Reach out to offer thoughts and suggestions for market intelligence development or just to talk about what this data means to you and your procurement practice.
Home base: Atlantic Canada to Toronto, with dozens of mining sites in-between.
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Recent article: Link to what he's written
Press: Link to what's written about him
Gordon Bogden joins Tamarack
ANNOUNCEMENT
Gordon Bodgen is a mining insider with a strong foundation in advancing process and getting to the heart of economic partnership. Geophysicist, turned mining investment banker, turned mining CEO, Gord has used his various platforms to champion innovation at every juncture. Most recently, Tamarack’s model for mining procurement caught his attention because, “Tamarack’s innovation touches on two fundamental requirements for innovation – shared purpose and collaboration.”
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Procurement is the kernel of mine development, and getting it done right – with real partnership and a shared goal of increased efficiency, value and engagement is innovation at the right place, at the right time. “Mining is siloed. It takes an internal champion to make collaboration happen and via a GPO, mining companies can access a conduit for education and collaboration that yields economic benefit. The message is straightforward: you’ll be more profitable if you put your elbows down and work together.”
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When it comes to examining what it takes to grow meaningful partnerships and economic sharing, Gord has walked a mile in those shoes. He led the first successful shared benefit agreement negotiation with the Nisga’a Nation in British Columbia that resulted in unprecedented engagement and outcomes, and with local communities in Burkina Faso that yielded in tangible benefits and sustained engagement. And his commitment to the mining industry has had many more tentacles, moving out in all directions including the role of former Chairman of the Board for Canadian Mining Innovation Council (CMIC), a founding member of the Advisory Council of the Development Partner Institute (DPI).
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“Partnership isn’t an introduction or gesture – partnership is a process of becoming – and it requires listening, trust and economic sharing”.
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Roll this accounting into the spending decisions that miners make every day, and the picture becomes even clearer. “The 50% of AISC that lives outside of the mine has been starved for attention. Tamarack introduces an opportunity for miners to come together, develop strength & strategy to approach the supply market and weave in meaningful partnership from the start.”
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Gordon joins Tamarack Mining Services as an Advisory Chair.
PARTNERSHIP AS A PROCESS, PERPETUAL INNOVATION, AND VALUE FROM PUTTING YOUR ELBOWS DOWN
