The Mining Blog

The NSW government has announced the approval of the controversial Moorlarben mine near Mudgee NSW.

The Greens were challenging the mine, stating that the mine will increase greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 per cent a year and use 6.9 megalitres of water each day.

However, NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor said “It’s just not tenable to refuse a coal mine because people might burn coal in China or somewhere else, unless we refused all coal mining”.

I agree with Mr Sartor.  We either mine coal, or we don’t.  There is no point singling out one mine for greenhouse gases just to stop the approval.

As Mr Sartor said when approving the Anvil Hill Mine earlier this year, “a black ban on new coalmine applications in New South Wales alone would devastate the economy, but, worse still, would achieve zero net benefit to climate change because our coal would be substituted with coal from elsewhere”. (Hansard 7 June 2007)

AIMEX 2007 was held at Sydney’s Olympic Park from 4 September to 7 September 2007. AIMEX is one of the largest mining exhibitions held in the world, and it is certainly Australia’s biggest.

Last time it was held in 2003, over 10,000 unique visitors attended the event. For those people that cannot make it to AIMEX, I will post some pictures on The Mining Blog.

AIMEX is an exhibition of BIG stuff and little stuff.  On the left is a picture of a BIG Atlas Copco Drill - I couldn’t even get the whole mast in the picture.

The mood at this year’s AIMEX is quite different to the one held in 2003.  This year, the general talk by many suppliers is that they wish that they had more resources to supply more of their product and / or service.  The mining boom is evident in the discussions going on in the halls.

At the exhibition, Bucyrus announced that the ‘DBT’ name would be replaced by the Bucyrus name effective 1 January 2008.  On the right is one of the Bucyrus / DBT longwall shields bound for China.

It was also interesting to see the number of new players in the underground mining scene.  One that surprised quite a few people was Valley Longwall International.  This group certainly has come a long way from its humble beginnings, and now incorporates the original Valley Longwall, Specialised Mining Equipment (SME), Specialized Mining Vehicles (SMV), Pit Top Conveyors, Tyton Conveyors, Uni-Rod, Juganaut and NBM.

To coincide with AIMEX, we are offering $50 off our Mining Marketing Consulations.  At $447, you will get some great insights into marketing to the Australian mining industry.  You can ask us just about any question relating to marketing to the Australian Mining Industry and you will get quick, professional advice.

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Anyway, back to the photos.  On the left is a picture of Joy’s new 2-metre support that was at the entrance to AIMEX.  Yes it is a monster.

Another aspect that I noticed (and quite a few others also mentioned to me) was that there was a noticeable absense of the really BIG open-cut mining equipment.

At AIMEX 2003, there was at least one really big truck.  There was also lots of other equipment being displayed in 2003.  I remember that MMD had a few sizers there.

The general consensus from the people that I spoke to was that companies were flat out keeping up with their orders, so they had no spare equipment to show off.

OK, lastly, I thought I would show a picture of a big bucket - with me in it! Pretty big teeth, huh? On the bucket, that is!

I was told that this bucket weighed about 40 tonnes.

Anyway, that will have to be it for now.  If you have any photos from AIMEX that you would like to share, feel free to send them to us.

In the mean time, don’t forget to get your Mining Marketing Consulation while we have the special offer running.