Consolidation of the Australian mining software development sector continued with Western Australian-based metalliferous-mine software group Surpac Software International confirming it had taken control of coal software company ECS International.
The merger, which has seen Surpac founder and chairman Geoff Bebb emerge with 53% of the yet to be renamed Surpac-ECSI, creates an $11 million-a-year group with a strong presence in both the key market segments, hard-rock and coal mining.
According to a statement released by Surpac-ECSI, Surpac Vision is installed at about 500 sites in more than 80 countries, while ECSI's Minex software is used at about 50 sites, including many of the world's “most strategic” coal operations.
“The group is the largest of the mining software firms in terms of numbers of users, and among the leaders in terms of software revenue,” said new group chief executive officer Tony Hampton.
“We have also formed a group with the widest range of technical applications in the industry, with applications suited to industrial minerals, metals and coal, and one which is viewed as a technical leader across all sectors.”
Through ECSI, Surpac has also gained access to the coal industry consulting business, with the former said to have about 20 people working in its engineering and geological consulting division.
Upgrades of both Surpac Vision and Minex are due later this year. The company is also expecting to release new data integration and 3D internet viewing/communication tools developed by Surpac. Hampton said the upgraded software packages, and increased penetration into international markets, would be key factors in the combined entity's 10-20% forecast growth in revenues in 2003.
“For a number of years there has been a general feeling in the technical software industry that the numbers of players exceeds the size of the market, making it difficult for each company to keep up the research and development that leads to new value-adding technologies while also ensuring the user interfaces and architecture keep pace with changes in hardware and operating system trends,” Hampton said.
“This merger brings ECSI's strategic coal base together with Surpac's metals and industrial minerals base, and will lead to increased and better focused R&D and marketing efforts.
“The merger also improves the efficiency of our efforts to penetrate emerging overseas markets such as China and the Russian region.”
Hampton said the merger would advance the development and delivery of “value-adding mining solutions” by several years.
He said Surpac had invested heavily in client server, web-enabled architecture, and new tools which enable seamless interaction with other mining and technical software applications, with the aid of AusIndustry R&D funding.
“This allows technical people and managers to collaborate over the internet using a 3D graphics editing and viewing environment,” he said. “The technology significantly reduces the cost of travel and greatly increases the flow of communication between people, including consultants, involved in the technical process.”
ECSI has been focusing on a new user interface and development of specialised blending and scheduling software for coal, iron ore and cement production management. The company's software is said to be used at a number of large coal sites, including BHP Billiton's South African operations, the Coal & Allied mines in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, and in Indonesia, Colombia, the USA and Canada.
“The merger creates a world-class group with the full range of design, modelling and planning tools required for resource evaluation and operation,” the Surpac-ECSI statement said.
Surpac's Bebb has been left alone as the major shareholder in the wake of the equity deal, which involved the trading of ECSI shares for Surpac shares. Australia's Mining Monthly understands no other party has more than 5% of the new group. It is expected to be renamed early in 2003.
