To provide attendees with new and relevant information pertaining to the various trends, influences and realities of today’s mining industry, MINExpo International will host 20 education sessions, as well as an opening session panel discussion.

The sessions at the event, which runs from September 26 to 28, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, in Nevada, in the US, are aimed at informing attendees about the latest trends, case studies and research affecting the industry, as well as providing information on new applications for equipment, products and services that have delivered proven and favourable results for stakeholders in the industry.

In the opening session, which takes place on Monday morning, mining industry leaders will discuss the impacts of recent market conditions and the industry’s significant role in global development, prosperity and sustainability. While tickets are not required, seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Speakers for this panel discussion include precious metals miner Hecla Mining president and CEO Phillips Baker Jr, diversified miner Freeport-McMoRan president and COO Harry Conger, coal company Contura Energy CEO Kevin Crutchfield, gold miner Newmont Mining president and CEO Gary Goldberg, mining equipment manufacturer Joy Global president and CEO Ted Doheny, and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar resource industries group president and MINExpo International chairperson Denise Johnson. The panel will be moderated by Fox News analyst Nina Easton.

The 20 education sessions take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. There are four session blocks – two a day – with five topics in each block. The early block is from 8:00 to 10:00 and is followed by a 15-minute break, before the late block which starts at 10:15 and runs until 12:15.

Attendees will have to decide which topics, and, thus, which sessions they are interested in, as sessions have their own rooms but run simultaneously. For example, in the early block on Tuesday, session topics include maintenance, processing, research, safety and surface mining. The maintenance session is in room N255, while the processing session is room N259.

At the research session in the early block on Tuesday, several US professors will present a paper called ‘Research-to-practice: Power of university-based research to improve profitability and sustainability’, highlighting the value of university research and university–industry partnerships to conduct research that is focused on mining industry needs and the importance of transferring the products of this research into practice.

The safety session is in the same block and includes a discussion on the current and future trends in training for the mining industry by mining contractor Custos Fratris L3c president Michelle Lutz. She will focus on identifying what kinds of training are most urgently needed in the mining industry as a whole and by each commodity sector.

‘Where do we go from here? The market forces changing mining and the outlook for key commodities’ is a talk that will be presented by senior partners at global consultancy McKinsey & Co during the markets session in the late block. This session will focus on ‘Where the mining industry stands today, how we got here and what the implications are for successful strategies over the next five years’. The talk will share perspectives on the broad industry outlook and that of specific commodities, including copper, zinc, potash and iron-ore.

On Wednesday, in the early block for the automation session, consulting and engineering firm Hatch Mining’s mine shafts and hoisting systems manager Mark Deziel will discuss the effects of a battery-powered fleet on an underground mine design, particularly, the effects on capital and operational expenditure.

Later on, mining solutions provider GE Mining global product manager Terry Small will discuss a new approach to underground mine dewatering. This presentation will provide an overview of recent advances in mine dewatering, which involve the application of high-performance pumping systems combined with solids management technologies developed for oil and gas drilling.

A complete list of sessions and abstracts of presentations can be found on the MINExpo International website.