Mining Experience Is Important. So Is Experience Outside of Mining.

JDI Contracts recently joined Better In Our Back Yard as a Company Member. It’s an organization with strong connections to mining and heavy industry, and joining made sense for us.

We support mining. We also think one of the things JDI can bring to the industry is experience that doesn’t come only from mining.

Our team has worked across mining and a wide range of heavy industrial environments. Over the years, they’ve seen different equipment, different suppliers, different engineering and construction approaches, and plenty of different ways to solve problems.

That matters.

Mining is specialized, and there is no substitute for understanding the industry. But many of the challenges that come with a mining project aren’t unique to mining. Keeping a project on schedule, finding the right equipment, dealing with long lead times, coordinating multiple engineering disciplines, managing contractors, solving problems in the field, getting systems commissioned, and turning a completed project over to operations are challenges we see throughout heavy industry.

Diverse industry experience gives our team more places to look for solutions and answers.

A Bigger Toolbox

One of the biggest advantages is simply having more options.

If you’ve spent your entire career working within one industry, chances are you know its suppliers, equipment, and typical ways of doing things extremely well. That experience is invaluable.

But someone who has worked across several heavy industries may have another supplier to call, experience with a different piece of equipment, or a construction method that worked well somewhere else.

That can be especially useful when the usual answer isn’t working.

Supply chain is a good example. When equipment has a long lead time or a traditional supplier can’t meet the project schedule, having experience with other manufacturers, vendors, and industrial markets gives you more places to look. It doesn’t mean an alternative is automatically right for a mining application. It means there may be more alternatives worth considering.

The same applies to engineering, construction, and project management. Something another industry has been doing successfully for years may be useful on a mining project once it’s evaluated for that particular application.

We’ve found there’s real value in having people at the table who can say, “Here’s how I’ve seen this done somewhere else.”

Experience Across the Entire Project

That broader experience also matters because JDI works across the project life cycle.

Our people are involved in project development and planning, engineering and design, procurement, construction, field support, process controls and instrumentation, electrical and mechanical work, checkout, and startup.

Working across those areas changes the way you look at a project.

A design decision isn’t only a design decision when someone eventually has to buy it, build it, start it up, operate it, and maintain it. A procurement decision can affect construction months later. Something that looks good on paper may create a headache when it reaches the field.

Having people who have worked on different sides of those situations helps us spot some of those issues earlier and gives us a broader base of experience when something unexpected happens.

And on a heavy industrial project, something unexpected usually happens.

Why Better In Our Back Yard

We believe in a strong mining and heavy industrial economy, particularly here in Minnesota, and we believe responsible industrial development and strong communities can exist together.

We also like the opportunity to be around other people working in the industry. Mining companies, engineering firms, contractors, suppliers, and manufacturers all bring different experience to the table. The more those groups talk to each other, the more opportunities there are to find better ways to get work done.

JDI will also be attending the 2026 Mining and Energy Expo, September 29 through October 2 at the Radisson Blu Mall of America.

If you’re attending, come find us and we’d be happy to talk about your industry experiences and challenges.

Tell us what you’re working on, what’s giving you trouble, or what you have coming down the road. We’re always interested in talking about a project and seeing where our experience might be useful.