REX - Regional Express

forefront Mining the market What can the resource industry expect at this year's AIMEX – Asia-Pacific's International Mining Exhibition? WordS: Christine Retschlag I t's no surprise that global mining giants can expect something bigger and better at AIMEX – the largest mining exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region. After all, that's what the industry has been delivering and expecting for a number of years. What is interesting, however, is some of the new names on the exhibitor list, and some of the events planned for the sizzling four-day showcase to be held in Sydney from August 20 to 23. Expect the equipment to be as polished as the sales spiels on the floor at the Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park – there's no space for grease here, except when it comes to courting customers, of course. And there are some pretty impressive suits coming into town. This year, equipment suppliers from some of the sector's less traditional regions will make their debut at Olympic Park, with new names including: 8 • GE Mining, which recently acquired Industrea; • CME, part of China Coal and a specialist in underground coal mining; • Belaz from Belarus, the world's second-largest manufacturer of mining trucks; and • XEMC, which has signed an agreement with Rio Tinto to supply a fleet of 230-tonne-haul trucks to the Mount Tom Price mine in the Pilbara. Organisers Reed Mining Events are tipping that it will be a recordbreaking showcase after AIMEX 2011 set new figures, and with international suppliers and regional pavilions doubling over the past 10 years. Demand for the event, which has been staged every four years since it was conceived in the 1970s, has driven organisers to hold another one this year, and to turn it into a biennial exhibition. Reed Mining Events director Paul Baker believes the 2013 exhibition will be at least as big as in 2011, and

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