Australian trade commissioner Craig Senger, in the middle of organising the Australian contingent for the 8th International Mining & Machinery Exhibition in Kolkata starting Wednesday, said India presents the full range of opportunities.
"We see opportunities here through the value chain for mining – right through from initial services such as exploration, technical services and mine planning but also through the full range of mineral processing technology and equipment," Senger said.
"There are also opportunities for companies such as Thiess and Leighton who are now tendering to be contract miners for Coal India mines."
The Queensland Government has also seen the opportunities, opening a trade office in India with a full-time trade representative specialising in the mining sector.
"Through our private sector we've got a range of services we can offer, but we can also offer quality coal both for their electricity industry and also for their steel industry," Queensland Minister for State Development, Employment and Industrial Relations John Mickel told MiningNews.net.
Senger said there had been a noticeable change in attitudes towards India by Australian mining technology and services companies over the past two years.
"Although India has its challenges, there is definitely no such thing as an easy mining market, and for companies that have a long-term focus and are committed there are big opportunities here and they can certainly do well," Senger said.
"On the equipment side, companies can certainly come to a show like IMME and from this visit and maybe one or two follow-up visits can certainly get orders."
Australian companies are also targeting India for recruiting staff, particularly professionals.
Thiess Indonesia president director Bruce Munro told MNN Thiess has recruited a number of Indians for its operations in Indonesia and Australia.
"The intent with most of those is that they will come back to India when we have opportunities and projects here, but also now were starting to look at professionals here who can fill some of the gaps in Australia in our operations in the resources business particularly," Munro said in Kolkata.
"Australia just has a real extreme shortage of people at the moment and there's an enormous number of skilled people over here who fit in very well with us, the language and their background makes them a natural fit into the Australian operations."
