Published in June 2006 Australian Longwall Magazine
A key offering is a turnkey exploration service – from greenfields exploration through to developing mine plans, equipment specification, mining system design and economic evaluation.
IMC project manages and provides manning for the entire process including project scheduling, preparation of specifications and tender documents, running the tender process, sub-contracting drill rigs and analytical services, developing a resource model and delivering a mine plan and economic evaluation.
One of the main advantages of the approach is the same project team designs the program, collects the information and completes the analysis. This is a big plus because of the ‘disconnects’ (such as incorrect or deficient exploration sampling or lack of consideration of aspects of the exploration data collected) that often occur in the process, according to IMC director responsible for coal Bob Gallagher.
Over the past few years, the company has undertaken exploration and resource assessment of the Aurukun bauxite deposit for the Queensland Government, the Marlborough nickel deposit and a program of exploration, resource assessment and economic evaluation of a coal project for Ensham Resources.
IMC also claims its approach allows good linkages between exploration, geology, geotechnical and the mining side, particularly important in the underground mining sector.
“There’s a lot of information in the exploration data that’s not always extracted, and consideration applied in the planning process which can lead to significant issues when someone goes to operate a mine,” Gallagher said.
“It’s about being able to extract the maximum amount of useful exploration data to provide more effective mine planning and at the same time limit exploration spend to those items that really count. Our expertise in this area adds additional credibility to our regular due diligence, insurance, bank’s independent engineer and merger/acquisition advisory work.”
IMC recently completed coal technical reviews for release to the ASX for the White Mining/Felix merger and for the Resource Pacific additional share issue prospectus.
Out of the company’s expertise has also grown a business intelligence and corporate advisory service, which incorporates mining industry country overviews and press clipping services. Other work includes analysing strategies for entry or asset acquisition in other countries as well as identifying ways for clients to potentially partner with foreign companies.
Look out on International Longwall News over the coming weeks for more individual profiles on survey participants.
