Drilling plays a small part in the big industry of mining. Still, it’s a big enough part that, for National Driller, going to MinExpo makes sense. We get to check out the latest rigs and tooling, which fall right into our wheelhouse. In between, we can kick the tires on a three-story dump truck, which may not interest readers as much, but is still a thrill to see in person.
MinExpo 2016 was held Sept. 26-28 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 1,000 exhibitors and tens of thousands of people attend the event, which happens every four years. It was my first MinExpo (I joined National Driller a couple months after the 2012 event), so I spent a lot of my two days there wearing down the treads of my sneakers as I worked my way among the dozen exhibit halls. Displays featured the latest and greatest, from software to loaders the size of brontosaurs. Among it all was the drilling equipment drillers want to know about.