MINExpo’s Loving the Good Times

Diane Taylor -- Tradeshow Week, 9/25/2008 5:59:00 PM

In 2004, MINExpo Intl. Mining Assn., the world’s largest mining show that’s held every four years and sponsored by the National Mining Assn., reported that its Las Vegas show that year had 19-percent less space sold than what was sold for the 2000 show.

Four years later, energy concerns and soaring commodity prices have changed everything. The most recent MINExpo, held Sept. 22-24 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, was awash in good news. Hall-Erickson Show Director Curt Boehmke said that from 463,000 square feet of exhibit space in 2004, the show grew to 598,000 sq. ft. this year. Moya Phelleps, NMA senior vice president for membership services, also said pre-registration numbers this year were 41,000, compared with 30,000 in 2004. 

On the showfloor, the good times just kept coming. Axle Doelcken, with German equipment maker Liebherr, said his company’s new 250-ton capacity, $3.5 million mining excavator was shipped to the show from France, and after the show, it will go to a customer in Indonesia. Doelcken said his company exhibits at MINExpo “because our customers from all over the world attend this show.”

Among the show’s international attendees were Igor Savchenko and a colleague from Stavropol Territory, Russia, who toured the show with a translator. They said they came to the show “to look at new equipment and technology in the mining industry.” Savchenko said the company he represents will bring 200 railcars a day full of sand and crushed stone to the Russian city of Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, so he needed to know what was out there to do the job. 

Because much of the equipment at MINExpo is large and must be shipped to the show disassembled, time is necessary to bring all the pieces together. Phelleps said although move-in officially was a seven-day process, some of the show’s equipment arrived as early as July 28 and was stored in lots behind the convention center.  

Once onsite, the equipment was re-assembled. Peter Giuliani of Caterpillar said when standing by the 460,000-pound, largest mechanical drive truck in the world, “we then just drove it in.” Because this particular truck was not yet in production, after the show it was scheduled to go from Las Vegas to proving grounds in Tucson, Ariz.

Giuliani said sales of Caterpillar equipment used in the mining business are unprecedented. “Some folks in this industry call it a superboom,” Caterpillar’s Ed Faulk added. As a result, Caterpillar had its largest exhibit ever, a 200’x200’ booth at MINExpo.

The boom is nice, but it brings issues as well. Industry veteran Leland Payne, who began his career as a miner and is now part of the Department of Labor Mine Safety & Health Administration, said more business means more work for those responsible for inspecting mines. “We need more inspectors, but they need mine experience first,” Payne said. “In recent years, when times weren’t so good, we lost a number of miners to other careers and some of the old-timers retired.  So, we’re at the show to answer questions, but also to spread the word that mining is a career where today unemployment and lack of overtime are not issues.”