About ICS Castings

In 1992 ICS Castings & Supplies Ltd was established; the aim, to fill a need in the marketplace for site-specific, high performance, and cost effective mining equipment and pumps, both locally and worldwide. Our ability to work closely with mine-site personnel, engineers, pattern makers, and foundry experts has enabled us to become a global leader in mining practices.

Years of on-site dedication and an understanding of our customer’s requirements enables us to focus directly on your concerns; sourcing the most efficient and cost-effective solution.

Our Head Office, located in Surrey, British Columbia is responsible for overseeing the custom designing of engineered drawings, pattern design and construction, quality control of all machined products, and allocation of product stocking. Being a new minority owner of a foundry ensures that each one of our 10,000 drawings and patterns is designed and shipped to you quickly and for immediate installation.

With over 80 separate shipping accounts and personal custom agents, we guarantee your products to arrive safely and securely regardless of how they are shipped - air, land, or sea, and where.

We are your global wear component specialists.

Today we are able to offer you the highest quality of mining equipment and pumps; always maintaining our excellence of integrity, respect, and customer service.

Our goal is resolve your site concerns, ensuring that optimal performance is achieved and mining personnel are kept safe. Addressing your requirements, always there for you.

Meet Our Experts

Mark Pipke, founder of International Castings, graduated from BCIT (BC Institute of Technology) in metallurgical engineering with a specialty in draftsmanship.  His experience working in Texada Mine and the Port Hardy Island Copper Mine as a metallurgist and as a top salesman for Norcast Inc., provided the foundation for branching out on his own and establishing International Casting & Supplies in 1993.

With more than 35 years experience within the mining sector Mark’s expertise included designing new products/patterns, draftsmanship, wear and metallurgical specialties, and effective salesmanship. Our clients benefited from Mark’s at-a-glance solutions. He could look at a failed product and redesign it in such a way that it became fail-proof. His solutions included recommending a new alloy to reduce wear, machining a component within the product to better handle a stress point, or adding component to the existing product to make it more user-friendly.

Mark’s expertise was also recognized by his peers.  He served as Chairman of Wear Materials for the B.C. Mining Association and wrote the “Development of Wear Materials” handbook. Mark’s experience in many sectors of the industry including potash, copper mines, gold mines, coal, pulp and paper and concrete, gave him the real-world experience to create workable, cost-effective solutions.  Whether at a mine site, inside a ball mill to analyze wear issues, or at his desk designing new ideas, Mark’s talents and innovations were always focused on giving better customer service. This commitment to helping our clients succeed formed the foundation of International Castings and is a commitment we still uphold today.  Mark has since retired from the business.

John Gillender completed his education through the British apprenticeship system, qualifying as a mechanical designer and machinist.  His engineering expertise includes gear applications, hydraulics, pump system design, lubricants, plastics and tribology, the study of wear. For the past 45 years, John has studied how machinery wears out, defining the effects of abrasion, corrosion and repeated impacts.  He has worked around the world in mining operations, particularly the extraction of placer gold. John has also turned his expertise to the pulp and paper industry, marine industry and materials handling.

As a certified engineer, project manager and site manager, John is an information resource for many of our clients.  His expertise in tribology allows him to answer many questions about the impact of wear on equipment.  He applies the same knowledge when testing new equipment or dealing with on-site challenges.  John can provide solutions to critical issues, thus ensuring efficient operation of your business and reducing unplanned down time.

Paul Pipke graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in Business Administration and Marketing, with a minor in International Sales. He began his career working at Wilmington Finance and became one of the top mortgage brokers in the business. His salesmanship skills brought him to International Castings in early 2005.

Paul’s ability to address the concerns of all customers has accelerated the growth of the company in the last two years, and has lead in the creation of a partner company, ICS Wear Group. Paul’s drive within the sales market has lead to International Castings’ products being distributed by more than six representatives across the United States and Canada. Paul has a fine attention to details, which has lead to improvements on existing products within the diamond mine industry.