Tag Archives: mining consultant

Christofer Catania graduates to GM role at MEC Mining

Environmental, Mining people, Mining services, , , , , , , , , ,

Mining engineer, Christofer Catania, has been appointed General Manager of Australia-based engineering consultancy firm, MEC Mining, almost 15 years after becoming one of MEC’s first university vacation students.

Back then MEC Mining serviced Queensland’s coal industry and Catania was studying at university in Brisbane when he began work for the company’s three founding directors. MEC Mining now has a global presence, working in Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania, and has projects across a variety of mineral sectors – no longer just coal.

Catania has been influential in the company’s growth strategy having worked for MEC for about eight years in total, across four stints, since 2005, the company said. In the past three years at MEC Mining, he has moved from Manager of Consulting, to General Manager of Operations before his current appointment to General Manager.

Catania said he was both “excited and humbled” to be appointed as General Manager.

“I’ve spent a lot of my career invested in making MEC Mining better, so to have any opportunity to lead the company means people must have believed in the commitment I’ve applied and my understanding of the business,” Catania said.

“For MEC Mining, our vision is to further diversify our market and service offerings, including potentially in the complementary technical fields. I’m excited to help navigate through those challenges and grow into a much bigger and more diverse company.”

During Catania’s role as General Manager of Operations, MEC Mining opened a Perth office led by Erin Sweeney and, in March this year, the company created a new Underground Metal Principal role based in Western Australia, filled by Alessandro Dotta.

“A lot of our growth is in the Western Australian market and in underground metals, particularly in the gold market,” Catania said.

“In the past year MEC Mining experienced 25% growth from the year before, largely associated with our growing international presence and our establishment of a WA team, and we look forward to meeting or exceeding that growth in the coming year.”

MEC Mining Non-Executive Director, Simon Cohn, said Catania’s high level of technical and operational expertise, project management, and leadership experience would make him an exceptional General Manager.

“Chris has a deep history at MEC Mining with a proven track record for delivering successful projects at an operational and leadership level, both domestically and overseas,” Cohn said.

“I look forward to working with Chris and the entire leadership team as we further grow MEC Mining and our standalone advisory arm. It is also great to have James Cooney leading MEC Advisory which specialises in strategic management and evaluation of resources projects.”

Catania’s position of General Manager is supported by Chief Financial Officer, Julia Cooper, who celebrated eight years with the company in April.

MEC Mining spins off global advisory arm

Mineral exploration, Mining people, Mining services,

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.”

ERM adds CSA Global mining consultancy to sustainability business

Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

Australia-based sustainability service provider, ERM, says it has completed the acquisition of CSA Global, providing additional capabilities to address mining clients’ issues and challenges across the full life cycle of their business.

CSA Global provides technical and management consulting services, as well as independent corporate advice to mining and exploration companies, and financial and legal groups worldwide. The business, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, has offices that serves clients across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

This is the second acquisition ERM has made this year after, in January, acquiring SustainAbility Ltd, a think tank and advisory firm “that inspires business to lead the way to a sustainable economy”. The company also signed a strategic partnership with eVision Industry Software, a Wolters Kluwer business, to enhance innovation, accelerate operational excellence and improve safety performance for clients, in February.

Founded in 1984, CSA Global has grown to serve a diverse range of clients, comprising junior, mid-tier and major mining companies, the financial services industry, and development agencies and governments.

ERM said: “Employing over 100 people, and complemented by an extensive network of expert associates and partner groups, CSA Global has supported mineral projects around the globe. CSA Global is recognised as one of the leading specialist mining consultancies in the world.”

ERM said the company is already considered a leading provider of sustainability services in the mining sector, “helping companies operate more safely, efficiently and as stewards of society and the environment”.

It added: “The addition of CSA Global’s services and expertise provides additional capabilities to address clients’ issues and challenges across the full life cycle of their business. This, coupled with ERM’s global implementation capability and access to its 5,000-plus subject matter experts, will provide a world leading service to mining companies anywhere in the world.”

Keryn James, ERM Group Chief Executive, said: “At a time when our clients in the mining sector face major challenges on numerous fronts from investors, customers and broader public sentiment, the acquisition of CSA Global further strengthens ERM’s capability to help our mining clients address their most complex challenges whether that be their business strategy, highly technical exploration or operational issues.

“CSA Global’s already well-founded technical reputation and the two firms’ strong alignment around clients and services creates a powerful capability and service offering that will materially add value to our clients’ business.”

Jeff Elliott, CSA Global’s Managing Director, said: “We are very happy and excited to join the ERM Group, to combine forces, and enhance what we are each doing in the mining sector. CSA Global is passionate about geoscience and exploration and mining practices, and ERM is passionate about sustainability in mining practices. It is a very good strategic fit, both culturally and operationally; our mining services are complementary across geographies, clientele and capabilities.

“Combining our businesses provides the opportunity to offer our clients a far broader range of services, across the entire life of mine value chain, with greater scale, leveraging ERM’s global infrastructure and with the combined value of our broad networks. We believe it creates a world leading position as an advisor to the mining industry.”

SRK Canada bolsters modelling expertise with Labrecque Technologies Inc merger

Base metals, Bulk handling, Comminution of minerals, Environmental, Metallurgy, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Mining software, Precious metals, Steel and iron ore, , , , ,

The merger of SRK Canada and Labrecque Technologies Inc (LTI) is set to broaden the scopes of the two companies’ service offerings within the mining and minerals industries.

The two have worked together on many underground mining projects in North America, the UK, Russia and the Philippines, most recently pairing up for simulation work on North American Palladium’s Lac Des Iles mine in Ontario, Canada.

LTI specialises in conducting dynamic process simulations to help mining companies predict future performance, optimise productivity and avoid costly mistakes. It has a decade of experience in applying mechanical and industrial engineering methods to mining.

“The modelling work takes a systems approach, with models accounting for interactions and interferences between all of the ore flow systems and mining equipment,” the two companies said.

Most projects involve studying ore and waste handling, lateral development rates, block cave development, construction, production, crusher and skipping capacity, truck ramp haulage and traffic analysis, and bin and storage facility optimisation.

SRK Consulting, meanwhile, offers services from exploration to mine closure, including feasibility studies, due diligence reviews, and production optimisation.

“Combining our shared passion and expertise in providing mining solutions enables SRK and LTI to offer mine design and operational improvements that validate and optimise production through dynamic mine process simulation,” SRK Sudbury Practice Leader Gary Poxleitner said. “This increases mine operators’ and owners’ confidence in the mine plans we develop with them to refine and improve their economic valuations.”

Poxleitner added that integrating LTI’s simulation expertise into its global mining services will further the company’s ability to identify and mitigate risks for SRK’s clients’ projects, optimise operations to improve efficiency and, ultimately, reduce costs.

LTI President Pierre Labrecque said: “The demand for simulation through computer modelling continues to grow rapidly and, now that LTI will be operating as a business unit of SRK Consulting, we will be able to provide greater value to our clients by further collaborating with SRK specialists around the world.”

Since LTI’s 2008 founding by Labrecque, it has grown to serve mining clients ranging from juniors to large multinational companies. LTI’s projects have involved operations from small cut and fill mines to large block caves with capacities ranging from 1,000 to 160,000 t/d.