July 16, 2013 – On June 13, 2013 the Royal Canadian Mint officially opened its plating facility expansion and the Hieu C. Truong Centre of Excellence for Research and Development. The plating expansion will enable the Mint to increase production of multi-ply plated steel blanks and other advanced plated products by two billion pieces per year, while the Centre of Excellence, which was named for one of the Mint’s most celebrated innovators, will ensure that the Corporation remains at the leading edge of minting technology.
“The Royal Canadian Mint is known as both an innovator and entrepreneurial leader in the international minting community,” said Shelly Glover, Member of Parliament for Saint Boniface and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. “With this significant investment in its Winnipeg operations, the Mint continues to increase its international competitive advantage and as its shareholder, our Government recognizes its endeavors as it expands to pursue even more opportunities in the global marketplace.”
“The Hieu C. Truong Centre of Excellence for Research and Development will double the Mint’s capacity to innovate and will open new and exciting opportunities to market our proprietary technologies and processes to the benefit of coin customers world-wide,” said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. “The expansion of our state-of-the-art plating facility supports the growth of the Mint’s foreign business as a key priority as we pursue the objective to own 15 percent of global market share by 2020.”
Construction of the 70,000 square expansion began in the fall of 2011 and was led by PCL Constructors Canada Inc., working in conjunction with an extensive network of suppliers and trade workers from Winnipeg. Representing an investment of $60 million, the expansion project generated over 130 local construction jobs in Winnipeg and the Mint anticipates adding several additional positions to its permanent workforce to operate the plating facility once it is fully operational.
For more information on the Royal Canadian Mint please go to their website.
More information on MPPS and other innovations in the coin production were presented and discussed in the latest MintWorld Compendium issue.