CORPORATE PROFILE
Mining consultancy | Mine planning | Geology | Onsite management | Technical services solutions
TRUSTED EXPERTISE. PROVEN OUTCOMES.
OUR APPROACH
MEC Mining is a global mining consultancy specialising in mine planning, onsite
management, geology and technical services solutions for the international mining industry.
Since 2005, MEC has grown into a leading consultancy firm with an experienced team of
consultants; specialising in both the open cut and underground coal and minerals sectors.
MEC Mining understands the risks associated with using external consultants; therefore
quality of outcomes is paramount, people and experience matter.
We deliver high quality work that enhances the value of our clients’ projects and our team of
experienced consultants bring a diverse range of knowledge to each project.
Importantly, we offer a flexible approach to all services and will gladly tailor our services to
meet individual project or company requirements.
KEY PEOPLE- DIRECTORS & MANAGEMENT
SIMON COHN | MANAGING DIRECTOR
BEng(Hons)(Mining), MAusIMM(CP), RPEQ 11902
Simon joined MEC as a Director in May 2007 and was appointed Managing Director in 2011.
Simon has over 17 years experience in the mining industry, having worked in a range of open cut/
underground metalliferous and coal mines throughout Australia and overseas.
DANIEL CHIPPENDALE | DIRECTOR | BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING
BEng(Mining), BBus(Man), MAusIMM(CP), RPEQ 11901
Daniel founded MEC in Mackay in 2005 after working in a range of open cut coal mines in the Bowen
Basin between 2001 and 2004. He is now based in MEC’s head office in Brisbane. Daniel has a dual
degree in Mining Engineering and Business and specialises in operations improvement, mine design
and technical services management.
TED BOULTON | DIRECTOR | CONSULTING
BEng(Hons)(Mining)
Ted graduated with a Mining Engineering degree in 1998 and worked in a range of open-cut coal mines in
the Bowen Basin before joining MEC as a Director in 2006. After several years in MEC’s Mackay office, Ted
is now based in Brisbane and specialises in mine design, cost estimation and reserve estimation.
MARIA JOYCE | GENERAL MANAGER
BEng(Hons)(Mining), MAusIMM(CP), RPEQ 11510
Maria’s Journey with MEC Started in 2007, she is currently the General Manager . With over 12 years
experience in the mining industry working with several major mining houses. Maria’s strength and
expertise are technical service team management, scheduling solutions, along with short, medium
and long term strategic planning’s. Maria and her experienced team services both open cut coal and
metalliferrous mining operations from site based support through to JORC and feasibility studies.
BRANT PETERS | GENERAL MANAGER - SOUTH AMERICA
BEng (Mining)
Brant joined MEC Mining in 2013 as the General Manager- South America based in our Santiago,
Chile office. He brings over 15 years experience to the MEC team, having worked in Open Pit and
Underground operations around the world at varies Coal, Zinc, Gold, Copper and Iron Ore Mines.
KEY PEOPLE - MANAGEMENT & PROJECT LEADS
JULIA KOUBA | COMMERCIAL MANAGER
BBus(Acc) & LL.B
Julia joined MEC in April 2012 as our Financial Controller and has now been appointed as the Commercial
Manager. She holds a dual degree, Bachelor of Business (Accounting) and Bachelor of Laws, CPA and has
over 10 years experience in accounting. Julia is part of our management team and displays skills in finance,
management and leadership.
CHRISTOFER CATANIA | PROJECT LEAD
B.Eng(Mining) MAusIMM 228366
Christofer’s journey started with the MEC team in July 2011 as Senior Mining Consultant/Project
Lead. He has strong technical skills both in operations and technical studies across commodities
such as Zinc, Iron Ore, Copper/Gold and Coal. Operationally Chris presents strong truck & shovel
and drill & blast experience in both metals and coal. He is has a good track record in operational
and provides on-site mentoring to a variety of clients.
TIM COOPER | PROJECT LEAD
BSc
Tim joined the MEC team in June 2011 as a Senior Mining Consultant/ Project Lead. He has over
10 years experience in engineering geology and mining engineering with solid operational and
technical skills in coal and exposure to Copper/Gold orebodies. Tim has acted as Project Lead for
several major studies and demonstrates strong skills in short; medium and long term scheduling
across a suite of software including XPAC, XACT and Deswik Scheduler/Landform.
SHYAM SUNDER | PROJECT LEAD
BEng (Mining)
Shyam Sunder started with MEC in March 2014. He has over 15 years experience across a range of
commodities throughout Australia and overseas. His areas of expertise include pit optimisation,
strategic, short, medium and long term planning, feasibility studies, team management and
training, drill and blast, equipment selection, cost analysis and production planning.
MARK SLATER | SENIOR MINING CONSULTANT
BEng (Mining), B AppSc (App Geo), MAusIMM(CP), RPEQ
Mark Slater joined MEC in May 2014 as a Senior Mining Consultant with over 11 years of experience.
He has a proven track record in providing technical and operational support to underground clients;
utilising his substantial operational experience to add value to his client’s operations/projects. He
is familiar in the mining of Gold, Lead, Zinc, Silver, Copper and Nickel; winning ore through open
stoping, remnant pillar, cut-and-fill, and narrow-vein mining techniques.
SERVICES
RECENT PROJECTS
RECENT PROJECTS
MEC MINING BRINGS A COMPREHENSIVE SKILL SET TO ALL OUR PROJECTS. OUR EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE ACROSS A RANGE OF MINING
ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES ENABLE THE BUSINESS TO WORK TOGETHER WITH THE CLIENT TO FIND AN EFFECTIVE SOLUTION.
Projects that we have recently undertaken include:
Location: Nicaragua
HKND engaged MEC Mining to provide engineering assistance for the HKND Nicaragua Canal. Being one
of the largest civil projects in the world MEC is proud of its contribution to the project. MEC’s primary
focus has been on the route selection/optimisation and equipment selection. During the project MEC also
focused on optimising truck and shovel haulage using Deswik to perform numerous schedule iterations
and landform designs. MEC continue to play a pivotal role in the development of this project and will
continue to support HKND as the project progresses to development.
Location: Russia
Located on the north eastern coast of Russia, with its existing port in the Bearing Sea, lies Tigers Realm’s
world class coal deposits. MEC has been working with Tigers Realm to transition its projects from
exploration through to operations. MEC has completed a number of significant open cut and underground
studies for Tigers Realm with the recent release of the Amaan North Bankability Study; showcasing what
great potential these deposits have. Tigers Realm owns a number of assets in the region and MEC will
continue to add value to these deposits as exploration progresses.
Location: Australia
Cockatoo Coal’s Baralaba North Mine is one of the few greenfield coal mines to open in Queensland
in recent years. This is a testament to all parties involved with the development of the mine. MEC is
fortunate to have been involved with this project from its inception. MEC completed the first JORC
Reserves in 2010 which progressed into a Bankable Feasibility Study, the outcome of which assisted in the
company achieving funding in a very tough environment. The mine has now progressed into operations
and MEC are continuing to support Cockatoo Coal with mine planning, onsite operational and offsite
consulting support.
Location: Papua New Guinea
Mayur holds a number of assets in PNG and has engaged MEC to undertake numerous studies in order
to determine how to extract the greatest value from their projects. A multi commodity company, Mayur
holds interests in coal, mineral sands and copper/gold projects. MEC has completed a number of pit
optimisations, concept studies, geological model builds and has acted as Mayur’s in-house consulting
team.
Location: Laos
With world class assets across the globe, MMG is one of the largest mining houses in the world. MEC has
been selected as one of MMG’s preferred consultants and has engaged MEC on a number of different
projects including onsite operational support, operational improvement, pit optimisation, life of mine
planning and to complete a number of feasibility studies. MEC has also provided project management
support for a number of Sepon Mine studies.
CORPORATE SERVICES
CORPORATE SERVICES
AT MEC MINING, OUR CORPORATE SERVICES TEAM CAN PROVIDE YOUR BUSINESS WITH THE
MANAGEMENT TOOLS IT NEEDS TO PROSPER.
OUR TEAM HAS SPECIALIST EXPERIENCE IN :
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
CONTRACT AND TENDER EVALUATION
PROJECT EVALUATION
RISK AND HAZARD MANAGEMENT
ASSET MANAGEMENT
GEOLOGICAL SERVICES
GEOLOGICAL SERVICES
AT MEC MINING OUR GEOLOGY TEAM OFFERS EXPERTISE IN COARSE GOLD, BASE METAL
AND COAL EXPLORATION FROM GRASSROOTS TO ADVANCED STAGE RESOURCE DRILLING
CAMPAIGNS. OUR EXPERIENCED TEAM HAS A VAST RANGE OF KNOWLEDGE INCLUDING
NEAR-MINE AND MINE-EXTENSION WORK FROM SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND WORKINGS.
OUR SERVICE OFFERING COVERS:
EXPLORATION MANAGEMENT
DATA MANAGEMENT
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
GEOLOGICALLY MODELLING
JORC REPORTS
METALS CAPABILITY
METALS CAPABILITY
AT MEC MINING, WE COMBINE OUR EXPERIENCES TO OFFER A UNIQUE LEVEL OF SUPPORT
WITH TWO MAIN AREAS OF FOCUS:
ONSITE OPERATIONAL SUPPORT
Drill & blast , truck & shovel, haulage and dump design & optimisation
Ventilation engineering
Training and mentoring of on-site personnel and systems development and review
Operational design, planning, scheduling and optimisation including supply of
software where necessary
Operational review, cost modelling and operational improvement
Short to medium term design, planning and scheduling solutions
Technical services teams for full project support
Ventilation and Drill & Blast Capability (Underground)
Relief role coverage from technical services engineers, geologists and surveyors
through to management positions
CONSULTING SERVICES SUPPORT
Studies - conceptual, pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility
JORC resource and reserve reporting
Scheduling model builds
Contract and tender evaluation
Life of mine planning, scheduling and long term planning, optimisation, design and
scheduling
Cost modelling and project optimisation
Asset Management
Contract and tender evaluation
COMMODITIES
Base Metals
Precious Metals Bulk Commodities
Mineral Sands & Rare Earths
SOFTWARE (UNDERGROUND AND OPEN CUT)
Surpac & MinSched
Mine2-4D & EPS
Deswik CAD & Scheduler
Minex
Vulcan / Vulcan Optimiser
Minesight
Minescape
XPAC / XACT
TALPAC
XERAS
3D Dig
ArcGIS
DataVis
Shotplus / BLASTPLAN
Ventsim
OPEN CUT METALS
Commodity:
Project / Deposit Style
Gold / Silver / Copper
Small scale open pit - high-sulphidation epithermal style deposit.
Project Experience:
Short to long term planning, drill and blast, system setup, long term
pit design updates and cutback design.
Commodity:
Project / Deposit Style
Copper / Gold
Multiple open pits - near surface high grade supergene chalcocite
and oxide copper, disseminated gold, oxide and primary.
Project Experience:
Short-long term planning and design, engineer training and
mentoring, operations support and contractor management.
Commodity:
Project / Deposit Style
Silver / Lead / Zinc
Large scale open pit - shale hosted, fine grained mineralisation.
Project Experience:
Operations support, short-long term planning, geological modelling,
reserving, pit design, drill and blast.
Commodity:
Project / Deposit Style
Silver / Lead / Zinc /
Underground - massive through to vein like sulphides.
Copper / Gold
Project Experience:
Site engineering support, life of asset scheduling.
Commodity:
Project / Deposit Style
Copper / Gold
Small satellite open pits - greenfields.
Project Experience:
Operations support and mine design.
Commodity:
Project / Deposit Style
Iron ore
Open pit arctic conditions - banded iron formation.
Project Experience:
Mine planning, operation systems and support, life of mine planning.
UNDERGROUND METALS
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Cannington, North
Transverse, Long-hole open stoping / in ag-rich massive sulphide
Queensland
lenses.
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Silver / Lead / Zinc
Planning, design and scheduling, project engineering, and
underground engineering.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Selwyn / Mt Elliott,
Open stoping / in massive sulphides and narrow-vein.
North Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Copper / Gold
Underground management, Drill and Blast, planning and
scheduling, ventilation.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Elura / Endeavor,
Long-hole open stoping and remnant pillar mining / in massive
Cobar, NSW
sulphides.
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Lead / Zinc / Silver
Underground mining, Drill and Blast, planning and scheduling,
ventilation.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Challenger, South
Long-hole stoping / in narrow-vein mineralisation.
Australia
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Gold
Short-term to medium-term planning, Life-of-Mine planning &
scheduling, strategic reviews.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Rosebery, Tasmania
Long-hole open stoping / in massive through to vein-like sulphides.
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Silver / Lead / Zinc /
Site engineering, Life of Asset Scheduling.
Copper / Gold
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Osborne, North
Up-hole bench stoping / in ironstone hosted replacement style
Queensland
copper and gold.
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Copper / Gold
Mine Geology.
COAL CAPABILITY
COAL CAPABILITY
AT MEC MINING, WE COMBINE EXPERIENCES TO OFFER A UNIQUE LEVEL OF SUPPORT WITH
TWO MAIN AREAS OF FOCUS:
CONSULTING SERVICES SUPPORT
Studies- conceptual, pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility
JORC resource and reserve reporting
Scheduling model builds
Life of mine planning, long term planning, optimisation, design and scheduling
Cost modelling and project optimisation
ONSITE OPERATION SUPPORT
Technical services teams for full project support
Operational design, planning and scheduling
Operational review, cost modelling and operational improvement
Training and mentoring of on-site personnel and systems development and review
Short to medium term design, planning and scheduling solutions
Relief role coverage from technical services engineers, geologists and surveyors
through to management positions such as Senior Engineer and other Statutory roles
Ventilation (Underground)
Development planning (Underground)
METHODOLIGIES
Open cut:
Underground:
Conventional open cut
Longwall Mining
Strip mining
Board and Pillar
Terrace mine
Hydro Mining
Dragline
Conventional and Mechanised
Dozer Push
Truck shovel
IP systems ie IPCC
SOFTWARE (UNDERGROUND AND OPEN CUT)
Minescape
ArcGIS
Minesight
Datamine
DataVis
Mine 2-4D & EPS
AutoCADDeswikVulcan
Xpac
Xeras
Micromine
OPEN CUT COAL CAPABILITY
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Carmichael Mine,
Open cut / Shallow dip
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Thermal
Project Experience- Build of a Deswik schedule and haulage model for
the 8 year open cut plan including haulage and landform, scheduling of
alternate operating scenarios using Xpac for the Feasibility Study.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Hail Creek Mine,
Open cut / Shallow to steep dip
Queensland
Project Experience:
Commodity:
Ramp 6 Boxcut design and planning, dragline sequence and spoil balancing,
Coal - Metallurgical
generated final landform quantities from life of mine dump profile.
Operational planning for the dragline and short term scheduling, build of a
Deswik haulage and landform model including the IPCC and Xact short term
schedule model.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Baralaba North,
Open cut / Steep Dip
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - PCI and
Bankable feasibility study, Detailed mine planning , Cost modelling,
Thermal
calculation and publishing of a JORC reserve statement, Drill and Blast
engineer support.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Tigers Realm, Amaam Moderately steep dip open cut, underground
North Russia
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
Pre-feasibility study.
and Thermal
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Cameby Downs,
Open cut / Not steep
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Thermal
Onsite drill and blast engineering support, onsite scheduling and short
term planning.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Oaky Creek Mine,
Open cut
Queensland
Project Experience:
Commodity:
Pre feasibility study including the schedule model build, reserving,
Coal - Metallurgical
haulage and landform. Calculations in Deswik , scheduling in Xpac,
modelling of overburden strata Oaky North mine and onsite geology
support
UNDERGROUND COAL CAPABILITY
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Pre-feasibility Study,
Underground Coal Resource
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
Undertook a pre-feasbility study for a brownfield project on an
existing mine site.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Carborough Downs,
Underground Longwall and Bord and Pillar Operation
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
A member of the management team that conducted the entire process
from concept study, construction and operation at Carborough Downs.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Oaky Creek Coal,
Underground Longwall
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
Operational support within the Technical Services department
performing geological, geotechnical and superintendent roles.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Ventilation Shaft,
Underground Longwall Ventilation Shaft construction
Queensland
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
Project managed from mobilisation to commissioning of the ventilation
shaft sinking. Site was signed off on acceptance as intake ventilation
airway.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Integra, New South
Underground Longwall and Open Cut Truck & Shovel
Wales
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
Implementation of the Long Term Planning process, project managed the
strategic planning process,and conducted the supply chain process for
the complex.
Project:
Project / Deposit Style
Surface to Seam Gas
Long-hole open stop- ing & remnant pillar mining / in massive sulphides
Drainage, Queensland and sub-vertical lenses.
Commodity:
Project Experience:
Coal - Metallurgical
Project managed trial of medium radius drilling gas drainage project.
This early trial proved successful with some innovation to the drilling
techniques.
GENERAL ENQUIRIES:
+61 7 3832 0301
+56 9 5646 2123
+61 7 4957 2734
admin@mecmining.com.au
PO Box 10652, Brisbane QLD 4000
www.mecmining.com