The annual public lecture is part of a new commitment by Mitsubishi Development Corporation to sustaining minerals tertiary education in Australia (through UNSW), and is to delivered in NSW and other states on a topical aspect of surface mining. The lecture will be delivered at Moranbah, Queensland sometime thereafter.

The inaugural UNSW/Mitsubishi Lecture to be delivered at UNSW by Paul Westcott, MineConsult is entitled: “Dragline –v- Truck & Shovel: Technical and Business Considerations”

Westcott is a mining engineer and a director of Mine Consult, a company specialising in management and technical services to the mining industry. He has a wealth of international experience in surface mining and has had significant exposure to complex coal mines involving dipping seams, wide variations in quality and different mining equipment.

In this lecture he will look at some of the physical and cost characteristics of draglines and truck and shovel operations and, from this basis, consider some of the long term business options confronting the Australian open cut industry.

Mitsubishi Development is a major stakeholder in surface coal mining operations in Australia through its associations with BHP Billiton in Queensland and Rio Tinto in NSW. The company is supporting minerals tertiary education at UNSW through a range of initiatives that include undergraduate scholarships and a lecture series on surface mining.

The lecture series is being developed in a flexible, distant delivery format to facilitate sharing with other Australian and Japanese universities. It includes an annual public lecture, to be delivered in both NSW and Queensland, on a topical aspect of surface mining.

For further information: C.Bell@unsw.edu.au