Exclusive survey: Australia's leading mining service and technology companies
February 9 - 15, 2010
THE domestically owned and based portion of Australia’s mining technology and services sector is a $A27.4 billion industry segment in its own right, directly employing more than 82,000 people. It grew by nearly 19% overall in fiscal 2009 despite the harsh downturn in mine and exploration spending. A HighGrade survey of 80 leaders highlights the resilience of the sector and, in all probability, the next group of IPOs and/or M&A targets.
Top 10 fastest growing Australians
February 9 - 15, 2010
COMPANY results for the first half of the current fiscal year might give a clearer picture of the aftermath of the 2008 global financial meltdown, and in particular the mining investment slump in the first half of 2009. But they won’t erase some glowing growth stories from FY09 – headed by a New South Wales longwall equipment supplier.
FAST GROWING AUSTRALIANS: GroundProbe
February 16 - 22, 2010
IN THE year in which it was recognised as an Australian export success story and one of the country’s fastest growing SMEs, Brisbane-based Intellection went into administration. Directly across the Brisbane River another rapidly growing local mining technology company was battening down the hatches. But not for long.
Australian MTS leaders snapshot
February 9 - 15, 2010
A QUICK look at the 80 leaders in HighGrade’s 2010 Australian mining technology and service sector survey.
New signal from South America
February 9 - 15, 2010
PERU’S leading publicly listed precious metals miner Compañía de Minas Buenaventura has opted for Australian underground mine Wi-Fi communications technology for its main gold operation in southern Peru. The deal is significant for the supplier, Mine Site Technologies, because it potentially opens up the South American mining market to the newer technology.
FAST GROWING AUSTRALIANS: Russell Mineral Equipment
January 26 - February 1, 2010
AUSTRALIAN Export Awards 2009 Hall of Famer Russell Mineral Equipment is riding the “second industrial revolution”, according to founder and company chief John Russell.
Are we there yet?
November 23 - 29, 2009
CAN mining methods be changed from top to bottom in a generation or two? History says no. Why then will the so-called ‘technology age of mining’ be any different? And why must Australia lead the way?
Tuning in to channel Industrea
November 23 - 29, 2009
LIFE in Australia’s listed mining technology and services space has been transformed in recent years, with few companies better typifying the shift than Brisbane-based Industrea. Fallout from the global financial crisis may have halted its share price surge but the company’s breakthrough business model has it on course to create what few would have thought possible even five years ago.
Austmine 2009 ... on the sidelines
November 16 - 22, 2009
THE emphasis of a lot of research and development talk in Adelaide had shifted to energy efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint of mines and individual mining processes from the previous Austmine biennial conference in Western Australia. However, it seems some ideas are cleverer than others and the federal government won’t be bending over itself to lavish its ‘green’ money on mining inventions that don’t find a ready market.
Results are in: automated lab work delivers the goods
November 16 - 22, 2009
IT’S easy enough to see automation of mineral sample preparation and handling as a microcosm of the world Rio Tinto is trying to create with its ‘mine of the future’ automation program. Significant benefits are therefore apparent in an assessment of this more advanced field of robot application.
Coal India looks to the future
November 16 - 22, 2009
THE number, $US3.9 billion, is either a very big one or not that impressive depending on how you assess Coal India’s proposed investment program for capital equipment at its domestic coal mines in the next five years.
$20B vision taking shape
November 16 - 22, 2009
SEEDS of a $A20 billion Australian mining technology and services (MTS) industry are being sown today, says veteran resources figure and director of the CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship research program, Peter Lilly, who believes Australian companies are well positioned to reap the country’s next bumper crop of mineral export earnings.
Mining's great technological challenge
November 2 - 8, 2009
BIG miners’ efforts to turn back the rising cost tide and maintain production growth amid continuing uncertainty in higher-risk jurisdictions will depend on technology. That has opened a new window of opportunity for Australia’s mining technology sector, according to Rio Tinto head of innovation John McGagh.
CSIRO sees global picture for Australian minerals R&D
November 2 - 8, 2009
THE head of the organisation with the biggest mineral technology research and development budget in Australia doesn’t see enough being done to achieve the “transformational” technology breakthroughs needed to maintain the country’s place in a new world mining order a generation from now.
Moatize new Bowen Basin
November 2 - 8, 2009
THE Moatize coal basin in Mozambique could easily be the “new Bowen Basin” and a veritable gold mine for Australian mining technology and service companies, according to a leading mining consultant working in the area.
Taming the viento blanco
November 2 - 8, 2009
TORRENTIAL rain, blizzards, mountain mist and even excessive heat can stop mines producing in various parts of the world. In the Andes it’s viento blanco – the ‘white wind’ – that shuts mines down in the South American winter. An Australian company has introduced an all-weather solution.
COAST-TO-COAST: RCR Engineering, Industrea, Hydco, Scanalyse, Runge, Coffey
November 2 - 8, 2009
RCR Engineering has won the Western Australia Engineering Excellence Awards Products & Manufacturing Category for its innovative track-mounted mobile mining unit plant (MUP). It has now been entered into the national engineering excellence awards, which will be announced in Sydney next month.
Technology to the fore
January 19 - 25, 2009
TECHNOLOGY is becoming more important to the world’s top miners and that is good news – yes, good news! – for Australia’s leading mining technology companies, which have grown in size but not in number over the past five years. They are seen as increasingly important contributors to the growth of a multi-billion-dollar export sector.
Australia’s Top 10 mining technology companies
January 19 - 25, 2009
TABLE leader Orica is better known for explosives and gold processing reagents but the company is the world’s biggest supplier of rock breaking technology, ranging from electronic blast initiation devices to automated explosive delivery systems.
Not just about staying alive
December 15 - 21, 2008
SEDGMAN chairman Russell Kempnich has been around the Australian coal industry since 1977, so he’d be familiar with the chart-topping Bee Gees song of that year, Staying Alive. He, and fans of the song, also have reason to remember 1983 when Staying Alive became a signature tune for dark times indeed.
Top 50 survey 2008
December 15 - 21, 2008
HIGHGRADE’S inaugural list of Australia’s Top 50 mining technology and service providers is headed by mine explosives giant Orica and is dominated by ASX-listed companies, but also features more than a dozen privately owned firms, led by mining contractor Barminco.
