Massive pumps in Canada's Alberta province churn out ton after ton of sand, water and something a little more special.

The tarry mixture might not appear valuable, but inside is the key to trillions of barrels of oil.

The Canadian oil sands are reported to contain enough oil to supply the world for more than 50 years. With oil prices rising in step with escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the complicated process of mining oil sands is becoming a more attractive proposition.

Oil companies investing heavily in oil sands means sales growth and expansion for GIW Industries Inc., whose gigantic slurry pumps help move the mixture from the oil fields to processing.

Grovetown-based GIW, established in 1891, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of pumps used to transport slurry - a mixture of solids and liquid.

The pumps function like hearts for industrial processes that include excavation and dredging, GIW President and CEO Dennis Ziegler said.

Since 2003, the company's annual sales have doubled, and they are expected to exceed $100 million this year, he said.

The company expects to grow further, driven largely by the oil sands of Canada - the company's greatest growth market.

"You've read about the gold-rush towns. Well, the oils sands is a boomtown," Mr. Ziegler said. "The profitability is huge."

GIW is poised to double its business by 2010, largely because of the need for more pumps in the oil sands that can help transport the tarry mixture to processing plants for oil extraction, Mr. Ziegler said.

The company, which has 450 employees, the bulk of whom work at the Grovetown facility, wants to double its production to match sales growth. That would require a $20 million plant expansion and an additional 150 to 200 employees.

Mr. Ziegler said that although he would like to keep the expansion local, it requires state and local incentives in addition to a large pool of high-skill workers, such as engineers.

This month, Mr. Ziegler met with Zack Daffin, the executive director of the Development Authority of Columbia County, to discuss details of the possible expansion.

Mr. Daffin said his goal is to keep GIW expanding on its home turf.

"It's exciting they have expansion opportunities and needs," Mr. Daffin said. "We want to grow it here."

At the oil sands, earth is dug, and raw oil, or bitumen, is extracted from the sand using steam and hot water. It eventually is refined. After the oil sand is excavated, it is mixed with hot water and pumped via GIW slurry pumps to extraction facilities, where the oil is separated from the sand and other materials. Syncrude Canada Ltd. uses about 70 GIW pumps at the oil sands, where it has mined since 1978.

"There (are) more of their pumps here than any of the others," said Egils Dunens, a Syncrude technical adviser. "Probably more than all of the others combined, actually."

Syncrude, which also hauls oil sands in large trucks, is considering increasing its use of pumps.

"If you're moving large quantities of material over long distances, pumping it is the most economical way of doing it," Mr. Dunens said.

Most Augusta-area residents don't realize what goes on behind the security gates at GIW, Mr. Ziegler said. Each year, the foundry produces about 500 gigantic pumps capable of pumping ffrom a few hundred gallons per minute to 100,000 gpm. The larger GIW pumps can suck an Olympic-size swimming pool dry in just 2.8 seconds.

The pumps have to be strong because they usually aren't sucking just water; sometimes rocks the size of hard hats are extracted, Mr. Ziegler said.

The company also is seeing growth in its pumps used to reduce sulphur emissions at coal-fired power plants.

Mining companies rely on GIW products to extract copper and iron, and dredging ships use the pumps to deepen ports and create new islands for planned resorts off the coast of Dubai, Mr. Ziegler said.

Most pumps are tested in Grovetown before they are shipped all over the world, he said.

"It's the largest of its kind in the world," he said of the test facility.

Customers often pay to test the pumps' strength and efficiency, he said.

"Before you have a heart transplant, you want to make sure that sucker works," Mr. Ziegler said.

Reach Tony Lombardo at (706) 823-3227 or tony.lombardo@augustachronicle.com.