MEC Mining has decided to separate its existing advisory services and launch a standalone advisory arm as a subsidiary of the MEC Mining group.

The announcement comes as the mining consultancy implements a raft of initiatives aimed at growing its service offering to clients domestically and internationally, it said.

“MEC Advisory will build on our existing capacity to supply strategic support to our clients in the mining industry,” Simon Cohn, MEC Non-Executive Director, said.

Advising mining clients globally, the business will specialise in the strategic management and evaluation of resources projects. Its services will include project evaluation, asset management and operational improvement for mining industry clients.

“Clients will benefit from our extensive knowledge of the mining industry and comprehensive mine planning experience, developed through MEC Mining’s highly successful engineering business,” Cohn said.

Industry veteran James Cooney (pictured left) will lead MEC Advisory. With two decades of experience working with contract miners, mine owners and as a consultant, Cooney specialises in long-term and life-of-mine planning; equipment selection; cost estimation; and financial analysis, including due diligence assessments in support of mergers and acquisitions, the company said.

Since re-joining MEC in 2017 as Principal Mining Engineer, Cooney has undertaken a diverse array of advisory roles, supporting clients as Competent Person for JORC reserve estimation, conducting project reviews of international coal and metalliferous operations, undertaking due diligence  assessments in support of a major resource acquisition, and more recently providing strategic support to a tier one mining house through their life-of-mine planning process.

“I’m passionate about every opportunity we have to help our clients generate the maximum possible value from their assets,” Cooney said. “In reality, MEC Advisory is nothing new for us – advisory work has always been a major service offering for MEC Mining.

“Separating MEC Advisory from our existing business provides an opportunity for us to deeply engage with our clients at a high level, to identify value-creating opportunities across their resource portfolios, and I look forward to the exciting work ahead.”