Turner Mining Group : Redefining Mining by Centralizing Success

Turner Mining Group’s Vice President of Operations, Tucker Jensen, delves into the company’s transformative vision to revolutionize the industry with a commitment to people-first values and innovative strategies while fostering strong client partnerships.

REDEFINING MINING BY CENTRALISING SUCCESS

In 2017, Keaton Turner identified a significant gap in the contract mining space and envisioned a full-service, nationwide contractor that prioritizes relationships alongside competitive pricing.

He founded Turner Mining Group (Turner) with a guiding principle: “Mining works better when people are treated like people”.

This ethos continues to drive the company’s operations today, consequently setting the stage for a new era in mining.

Moreover, Turner’s straightforward belief is that mining is more effective when individuals are treated with respect rather than as mere numbers on a spreadsheet, and that teams perform better when valued, leaders are accountable, and partners are fully informed about what is happening on their site each day.

This principle guided the company’s first contract and remains a core value.

At the time of Turner’s inception, the contract mining space was dominated by local and regional operators, and mine owners were stitching together multiple contractors site by site.

“Keaton’s vision was to be a coast-to-coast, full-service mining-focused contractor that could serve clients across all of their operations while still competing in terms of price with local operators,” Tucker Jensen, Vice President of Operations, opens energetically.

“People come first – production follows. From that founding, Turner has grown into a truly national provider. As the company grew, it undoubtedly became evident we weren’t only filling a service gap. We subsequently realized that the way we performed the services also differentiated us from our competitors.”

Furthermore, Turner’s production-oriented operating philosophy and first-life asset strategy are deeply rooted in the company’s values: a heart for people, a mind for innovation, an eye for safety, and an attitude for excellence.

“Our clients noticed they were meeting production targets, improving safety metrics, and taking advantage of operational flexibility that local contractors couldn’t provide, whether adjusting equipment, renegotiating project scopes, or scaling production up or down as the mine plan evolves,” he continues.

TRANSFORMING PARTNERSHIPS

At its core, Turner’s comprehensive service offering is contract mining.

Meanwhile, the company also provides drill and blast, pioneering and overburden stripping, large civil earthworks for mine construction and leach and tailings projects, rehandle support, and technical support for mine design, planning, scheduling, and budgeting.

“We bring our mining-focused expertise to the full lifecycle of the mine, not just one slice,” urges Jensen.

Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, with additional offices and resources supporting its operations across North America, Turner’s current and historical portfolio spans 100 completed mining projects in gold, platinum, coal, copper, aggregates, and industrial minerals.

Currently, the company provides contract mining services in Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Vermont. It operates more than 350 assets across North America, centered around a primary mining fleet consisting of rigid-frame and articulated haul trucks in the 45 ton (t) to 100 t range, hydraulic shovels, large production wheel loaders, production excavators, and blasthole drills.

“The fleet is predominantly new or low-hour, with most units in the 2022 – 2026 model range, and around 80 percent Turner-owned with strategic lease or rental purchase option (RPO) arrangements in place to flex capacity where required.

“A dedicated asset plan backs every project, and our standard is straightforward: equipment that works safely and efficiently, not sitting idle or in pieces in a boneyard,” informs Jensen.

Additionally, to further enhance collaboration and success, Turner employs an innovative approach to its performance-partnership models.

As a result, each model’s design aligns incentives for both the client and the contractor and deliberate strategies developed during the contracting stage influence both parties to drive results together.

“To yield successful outcomes, we embed our technical staff with the client’s engineering and planning teams to equally understand the key drivers of their business. The commercial and operational teams then draft a contract based on this.

“Common styles like alliance, gainshare/painshare target cost, and flat rate generally serve as the foundational structure, but the specifics of the problem being solved and the needs of the business drive customizations that extract real value,” Jensen highlights.

Unlike the more commonplace unit-rate, lump-sum, or time-and-materials contracts, Turner’s engagement with clients as a partner builds stronger relationships between the companies and results in better safety, production, and financial performance.

“Through shared dashboards, joint financial and production reviews, and active mine planning and design, we intend to become a department of your organization with the same goals – rather than a simple contractor focused on maximizing billables. In our preferred contract styles, when our client wins, we win,” Jensen details.

A DRIVE FOR UNSTOPPABLE GROWTH

Certain strategies have contributed to Turner doubling in size year after year, a trajectory it plans to continue driven by a confluence of market forces and intentional internal strategies.

“The US is experiencing a genuine shift in public support for responsible domestic mining, especially in critical minerals, which is driving new project development and extending the life of existing operations,” reveals Jensen.

Ultimately, this trend works in tandem with mine owners’ increasing preference for the contract mining model.

“By partnering with us, operators offload most of their management complexity, improve the likelihood of hitting project goals, and redeploy capital that would otherwise be tied up in equipment procurement, converting a large capital decision into a manageable operating expense.

“Our strategy for growth is also laser-focused on specific clients and operations. We conduct deep research and engage in networking to identify the projects that best fit our core capabilities, and where two company cultures and philosophies are likely to result in a true operational partnership,” Jensen expands.

Once Turner establishes alignment and secures an initial engagement with its clients, the results naturally lead to discussions about their other operations.

“The mining industry is smaller than it looks, and establishing a reputation for safety, efficiency, and success produces opportunities.”

Indeed, two internal capabilities enabled the company to scale posing a challenge for other contractors.

“Our talent engine, through Turner, and Turner Staffing Group, handles over 45,000 applications annually from qualified candidates, enabling us to mobilize skilled crews efficiently. Combined with our advanced operator training program, we are committed to excelling in talent management.

“We also have a fleet of over 350 assets and strong original equipment manufacturer (OEM) relationships, allowing us to deploy equipment quickly. We see positive trends ahead, as the commodity cycle, domestic supply chain priorities, and investment in critical minerals indicate industry growth, positioning our clients for organic expansion,” explains Jensen.

FROM CHALLENGES TO COLLABORATIONS

As Turner nears its 10th anniversary, it has learned key lessons to continue its journey of success.

“The most important lesson came early, and it was obvious from the work itself. Our first engagements were stripping, crushing, and overburden removal, which clarified that our partners didn’t need a contractor who simply completes tasks,” Jensen reflects.

“They need an operator who understands how planning, production, equipment, and crews function as a single system. That realization shaped how we built the company.”

As such, Turner’s experience grew alongside its scope – what started as contract services expanded into comprehensive mining services.

“As we expanded, our working methods evolved. We stopped operating on the edges of projects and started integrating ourselves within operations.

“Today, our teams plan alongside site leadership, operate equipment alongside client crews, and carry shared responsibility for daily production,” Jensen divulges.

In this way, Turner progressed from completing tasks to operating mines, embedding teams into operations, opening its planning and reporting to partners in full, and building relationships around reliability rather than contract cycles.

“We continue to expand full-scope capabilities, developing the next generation of leaders from within our own crews and integrating more deeply into the operations of the partners who trust us with their production,” he notes.

TRANSFORMING DATA INTO DECISIONS

For Turner, the difference between a well-managed mine and a poorly managed one lies not in the equipment but in the quality of decisions made with the information available.

Every shift produces data on machine performance, production rates, fuel consumption, and resource utilization, and most contractors let that data go unused. However, Turner’s technology investments are designed to close that gap.

“High-precision GPS and Fleet Management Systems (FMS) give us real-time visibility into machine location, utilization, and performance.

“Building on the OEM and FMS toolsets, we developed a proprietary production-tracking platform that captures site data,” Jensen outlines.

Furthermore, integrations with workforce management and financial resource planning tools give leadership access to Turner’s data through real-time dashboards and reporting, each calibrated to the right level of detail and frequency for each audience to drive data-driven decisions.

“We have created a field-deployable learning management system (LMS) that enhances training. Operators can access tablet-based instruction in both field and classroom settings, using drone and time-lapse footage for realistic scenarios. Built-in competency tracking connects to a career pathing framework, enabling proactive career development,” Jensen sets out.

“Looking ahead, we’re actively exploring new offerings in machine control, coach-in-the-cab feedback tools, and autonomy. Philosophically, we prioritize optimizing the boring and impactful aspects of our work over silver-bullet technology implementations.”

MINING WITH PURPOSE

The US mining industry is unified in its mandate to extract resources responsibly. As one of the more vocal and socially active contractors in the country, Turner is proud to demonstrate the right way to mine resources needed to support modern society.

Mining and similar industries impact the environment and local communities, that concrete practices can help manage, minimize, and mitigate.

“Our equipment strategy brings the latest in emissions-control and fuel-efficiency technologies to the entire fleet. Spill prevention planning and a culture of 100 percent incident reporting help us prevent and address adverse events,” Jensen prides.

“Dust control and storm water management are core responsibilities at our operations to reduce or eliminate contamination, and our dust monitoring and hearing conservation programs support the health of our operators and provide insight into the health of the systems that control exposure to these hazards.”

Beyond the physical environment, Turner prioritizes supporting local communities.

“With an initial goal to secure a more than 70 percent local workforce, and achieving more than 90 percent in just the first year, we are providing careers and specialized training to members of the community.

“Our supplies and consumables are sourced from local vendors where possible, and we encourage services that were once outsourced to be developed locally.”

In addition, the company makes direct investments in the community through donations and support for employee initiatives, including youth sports programs and fundraisers, educational outreach, and charitable sponsorships.

“Turner is proud to support and reinvest in the places we work,” Jensen emphasizes.

NAVIGATING THE US LANDSCAPE

With the North American mining industry at an inflection point, the challenges are as significant as the opportunities.

The most immediate structural challenge is permitting. The US sits atop world-class mineral resources, but decades of regulatory complexity and legal exposure have made it exceptionally difficult to bring new mines into operation or expand in a timely way.

“Permitting timelines that stretch five to 10 years shift investment and production to other countries, often with lower environmental and labor standards,” Jensen affirms.

“For Turner specifically, policy reform creates new project opportunities and extends the horizon on existing ones, and we are watching the discussions at the federal level closely and positioning accordingly.”

The second challenge is public perception – a fundamental disconnect between what the mining industry does and how the public understands it remains.

“The materials required to build tomorrow’s energy infrastructure, electric vehicles, and new technology all come from the ground. Mining is a prerequisite, not the enemy, of progress,” he declares.

“Turner has maintained an active voice on this matter through social media and partnerships with advocacy organizations because we believe the industry needs to earn its own social license.”

The third challenge is the workforce – participation in the trade industries has declined over a generation.

“The mining industry offers stable, high-paying jobs – yet young people often overlook a rewarding career full of impactful experiences due to the narrative that success requires college and white-collar work.

“We aim to raise awareness about mining as a career option and provide training and development opportunities to help individuals enter the field.

TURNER MINING GROUP PARTNER