More recently, Reed Mining Events’ exhibition manager Soren Norgaard was expecting the event would have around 170 exhibitors.
“But in the past couple of weeks we’ve had a lot of exhibitor enquiries that have quickly turned into sales,” he said.
“Already, as of the end of the second week in September, we now have over 200 individual exhibitors.
“We believe a key reason for this is the rapidly increasing levels of business confidence across the economy generally – in part driven by the underlying strength of the resources sector in regions such as the Hunter Valley.
“We’ve also had exhibitors who’d previously decided not to participate now changing their minds and come back to us after experiencing a rise in sales enquiries, or making some recent sales after what’s been a fairly quiet period.”
Recently, Idemitsu has planned to nearly triple production from its Boggabri mine near Gunnedah and Gujarat NRE Minerals has entered the final stage of commissioning of its longwall at Wongawilli near Wollongong.
Haulage improvements will flow from Macmahon’s $100 million Ulan rail line contract in the Hunter Valley and $152 million of rail development to the coal chain by the Upper Hunter Valley Alliance of Leighton and Australian Rail Track Corporation.
Centennial Coal is also looking increase road coal haulage from its Clarence mine in Lithgow to meet domestic demand.
One of the early M&E sign-ups, NationWide Hire will show off its fleet at the event.
The hire company’s newest addition is also the biggest truck in its fleet – an 8 x 8 AWD crane truck with a 23-tonne per metre crane.
Other recent additions to the fleet include an 8 x 4m tilt tray with a 27t/m crane, a range of 6 x 4 service and fuel trucks on Kenworth chassis, 11-27m travel towers, buses, and HiLux, Land Cruiser and Prado light vehicles.
“Many of our trucks and modules are designed so we can easily use one truck for a multitude of purposes, say as a flatbed or crane truck, a water truck, a fuel truck or a service truck,” NationWide Hire general manager John Wilton said.
One of the event’s major outdoor exhibits will be Hydco’s new 1200H exploration drill rig.
Designed by the company in Perth, the rig has a 12m mast when fully extended.
Hydco will also have on display its new Make and Break hydraulic drill rod unit, which allows RC drill rod joints to be mechanically tightened and loosened without operators needing to make physical contact.
“This eliminates one of drilling’s highest safety risk activities,” Hydco chief executive Ian Pitcher said.
The 1200H is designed to accommodate the Make and Break system, which can also be customised to fit onto other drill rigs.
The new rig builds on the design of Hydco’s 1000H, which has regularly drilled depths greater than 1000m in the past two years.
Hydco says the 1200H has a two-speed floating spindle drive head with two extra speeds on the drive motor that allows for RC and diamond drilling, and an upgraded mast structure for more power.
