The deal with Micare Mine in Mexico comes hot on the heels of a second contract for a full AFC system from SAADEC Daning Mine in Shanxi Province, China.

The armoured face conveyor, beam stage loader, crusher and CMT will be delivered to Micare in the summer with compatibility trials scheduled at the Chilhowie location in early summer 2008.

"In the last several years, while we have focused our energy on further penetrating the American market, we have also hired personnel to develop international markets for our systems," president Paul Campbell said.

"These efforts have resulted in increased market share in the USA and new and repeat customers in the international arena.

"At a time when others in our industry are moving their manufacture to foreign countries, we are proud to be exporting two American-made longwall conveyor systems to international customers in the next six months."

Longwall Associates occupies more than 25% of the US longwall conveyor market, with additional contracts in Australia and China.