Highlights from MINExpo 2016

It took four years to plan, and only three days to execute, but the thousands of hours of hard work that went into this year’s MINExpo in Las Vegas were evident and well appreciated as once again the event proved to be a very popular attraction to mining and equipment people from around the world.

Over the course of the three-day show and conference, over 40,000 mining enthusiasts from about 130 countries attended dozens of technical seminars and wandered the aisles looking at more than 1,950 exhibits ranging in size from table-top displays to vast spaces containing massive pieces of heavy mining equipment.

In fact, some of the machines shown at this year’s show were scaleddown versions of some equipment that was too big to display. As one exhibitor explained, “some of our machines are simply too large to exhibit at a trade show.”

Knowing that bigger machines exist was hard to believe because some of the trucks, shovels and tires that filled the exhibit halls we so big that many visitors had to take photos to confirm what the manufactures are capable of building. And, what they were seeing.

But what would amaze the visitors even more was knowing the actual amount of time it took the exhibitors to assemble their products for display, then dismantle, and cart them away.

The exact dates of the show were September 26-28, but the overall move-in and move-out dates ran from August 1 to October 23, a total of 84 days. That’s almost there months of getting the equipment to Las Vegas (much of it coming in pieces from around the world), assembling it, and making sure that everything else associated with the display was in place.

To do this, pre-assembly of equipment took seven weeks and post-assembly three weeks, and in some cases, required upwards of 250 service technicians to complete the tasks. In addition to people, 150 forklifts, varying in size from 12,000 lbs. to 36,000 lbs. were required along with 20 cranes ranging from 30 tons to 265 tons were used to move equipment into place.

To answer the electrical requirements at the display booths, 3,800 outlets were hooked up, enough electricity to power 200 houses. As for the finishing touches before the delegates arrived, the 840,000 sq. ft. of display space was dressed up with more than 70,000 linear feet of carpeting, which is 700,000 square feet of aisle carpeting.

As you see, MINExpo 2016 was a huge undertaking, but as exhibitors and delegates agreed, it was all worth it and plans are already in the works for a repeat performance in 2020.