Press Releases

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Runge acquires ResEval

Brisbane, 14 January, 2008

Runge, an Australian company providing mining software and consulting services to the mining technology sector globally, has today acquired Resource Evaluations Pty Ltd (ResEval).

Based in Western Australian, ResEval is a specialist mine consulting group providing geological and mining engineering services to the Australian and global mining industry.

Tony Kinnane, CEO of Runge said, “ResEval is a well respected name in the Australian and International resource industry. This acquisition broadens our global presence and enhances our capabilities in the metalliferous side of our mining consulting business.”

ResEval’s services include resource estimation, due diligence investigations, open pit and underground mine design and evaluation. ResEval, established in 1998 has undertaken work across a variety of commodities including bauxite, copper, fluorite, gold, lead, manganese, molybdenum, nickel sulphides and laterites, and zinc.

Management and employees of ResEval will join Runge, lifting the total number of employees globally to nearly 300.

As ResEval is Perth based, this acquisition will also increase Runge’s footprint in Western Australia with this group working directly with the established Runge Team in our new Adelaide Terrace offices.

Geologist and principal of ResEval, Paul Payne, will become the Manager Mining Consulting WA for Runge.

ResEval will immediately do business under the Runge Limited name.
ENDS-

Runge acquires GeoGAS

Brisbane, 30 November, 2007
Runge, an Australian company providing mining software and consulting services to the mining technology sector globally, has fully acquired GeoGAS, an Australian owned consulting and contracting services company for the coal mine and coal seam methane industries. This acquisition adds significant value to Runge.

Tony Kinnane, CEO of Runge, said, “GeoGAS will deliver new strategic capabilities that will be combined with Runge’s underground mine planning capability to create a new integrated offering. The value proposition of this integrated service is mine planning that improves safety and increases mine economic return.”

GeoGAS is a pre-eminent supplier of laboratory, consulting and contracting services for the coal mine and coal seam methane industries.

Specifically it performs:

  • gas content and composition/quality testing
  • sorption isotherms
  • gas reservoir definition
  • coal mining gas emission control
  • coal mine methane
  • coal seam methane
  • outburst investigations
  • gas management and
  • gas production and reserves management.
GeoGAS provides support for mine operations as well as planning and project tasks. Laboratory services are available 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

“Gas and ventilation analysis are key inputs into the mine planning process and are integral to the design and operation of a safe and efficient underground coal business.
“Runge’s acquisition of GeoGAS provides a significant boost to our underground coal capabilities and takes us one step closer to becoming a premiere provider of underground coal mine planning solutions,” Tony Kinnane said.

In addition to the GeoGAS acquisition meaning Runge can provide a more complete “one stop shop” consulting service for clients, Runge will also develop a range of unique software modules.

“Our goal is to model the effects of gas, ventilation and drainage within the dynamic mine design and production scheduling world of our XPAC mine scheduling software,” said Tony Kinnane.

Management and employees of GeoGAS will join Runge, lifting the total number of employees globally to 278. GeoGAS has offices in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.

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Runge announces initial public offering (IPO)

Brisbane, November 23, 2007
Runge Limited (Runge), an Australian company providing mining software and consulting services globally, has announced its intention to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) of its ordinary shares and listing on ASX in the first half of 2008.

Recently celebrating its 30th birthday, Runge provides consulting services and software products to larger mine operators that require mining business solutions for increased profitability.

Runge is currently preparing a prospectus, which will be available at the time of the public offering next year. Investors wishing to purchase Runge shares at the time of IPO need to complete the application form that will accompany or be included in the prospectus. The Runge Group has won the Services Category of the Premier of Queensland's Export Awards

26 October, 2007
Servicing global mining industry the smart way Runge Ltd, Queensland’s smartest company in 2006, has distinguished itself as one of the world’s premier suppliers of mining technology services.

For over 30 years the company has remained at the forefront of new technologies and software development and now boasts 15 offices globally, spread through North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Runge epitomises what a ‘”Smart’’ Queensland company is all about – it’s innovative, it invests in research and development and it has a team of outstanding people with world-class skills and expertise. The company also develops and sells software for mine planning and management, and provides technical training courses to the industry. With the mines scattered in remote locations around the world, Runge has adopted innovative techniques to maintain contact and develop business ties with miners from Alaska through Sweden and to outback Australia.

Runge has embraced Webex technology to meet clients online – using a rich set of interactive, multimedia features for meetings, according to Business Development Manager Pat Williams. “This means we have been able to provide software demonstrations to many customers around the world – without leaving the office,’’ he said. Runge also provides “web delivered” mentoring across different time zones.
Mr Williams said the cost of travel and doing business with remote mining industry had been prohibitive in the past but is now viable, thanks to internet technology.

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Runge Teams up with ESRI

5 September, 2007
Runge today announced it has entered into strategic business partnership with ESRI, an American software firm which designs and develops the world’s leading geographic information system (GIS) technology. Runge and ESRI will collaborate to bring unique solutions to mining customers in the area of advanced 2D/3D Integration and visualisation. The first Runge product to emerge from the new partnership is the Mining Dynamics Platform, which provides scaleable access, information control and enterprise systems integration for mine site operations. Runge’s Mining Dynamics delivers a visual system to support data management and discovery across the entire production chain; from geology, modeling and design, through scheduling and reconciliation.

Tony Kinnane, CEO of Runge, said, “This is an important partnership because in collaboration with ESRI, Runge can provide rapid solution development coupled with other technology vendors expertise, thus delivering superior integrated solutions to the global mining industry.”

“The 2D/3D integration and visualisation project Runge is undertaking with ESRI is one of the most exciting mining technology developments to date. It will permit any mining user, at any time, in any location to access and view their mining data in a full 3D world. It will simplify the end use by removing the need for complex and expensive technical software.”

Geoff Wade, Natural Resource Industries Manager for ESRI, said, “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to build a strong, long term partnership with Runge in the Mining Operations space. Runge brings a wealth of expertise and commitment to build modern day solutions, in part leveraging the ESRI platform, integrated with their own powerful technologies; we look forward to working together globally, both in software development exchange, and more directly, in order to best serve our joint customers.

Mining Dynamics provides information control, access, legislative compliance and enterprise systems integration while giving operations, technical, and corporate employees instand access to information about mine site operations. The system is vendor independent and works with mining companies' existing systems avoiding the need for costly replacement software.

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Runge expands through Fractal acquisition

3 July 2007
Runge Limited, has today announced its acquisition of Fractal Technologies. This is the third Australian mining services company that Runge has acquired this year - strengthening its foothold in the mining consultancy and software market worldwide.
Mr Tony Kinnane, CEO of Runge said "Runge and Fractal Technologies have been partners since 2005 - we fit well together culturally and our products are complementary. We are excited to be able to market the Fractal products which have an excellent reputation globally and we are equally excited by the broader opportunities that Fractal Technologies provides for Runge's continued growth."

Fractal Technologies develop three-dimensional data management and visualisation software for the geosciences. Its longest running commercial product, FracSIS, combines an object-oriented database specifically designed to store geological, geochemical, and geophysical data with an interactive 3D visualisation environment.

Fractal will also enhance the technological capability of Runge's recently launched Mining Dynamics, which is the industry's first visual enterprise-wide software.

"Fractal's technology in conjunction with Mining Dynamics will enable customers worldwide to have accelerated access to new product enhancements, while creating concrete investment in key mining technology," said Mr Kinnane.

Mining Dynamics provides a visual system to support data management and discovery across the entire production chain. The system allows operations, technical and corporate employees to have instant access to information about mine site operations. The system is vendor independent and works with mining companies' existing systems avoiding the need for costly replacement software. It is designed to provide standardisation across the geological and engineering processes. Fractal's technologies further enhance these capabilities.

The acquisition of Fractal, which complements Runge's dynamic growth plan, will lift the total number of Runge employees to 260.

Runge Limited operates globally out of 15 offices and has been in operation for 30 years. Runge provides software, consulting services, and training to assist customers in the planning and operation of mine sites to enhance project profitability for stakeholders.

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Runge joins SAP's global industry value network

Brisbane, 18 May, 2007
Runge, an Australian company providing mining software and consulting services globally, today announced it has joined SAP's consortium, which consists of mining companies, technology partners and SAP, to address the industry's needs and business challenges.

The industry value network (IVN) for mining includes representatives from the Industry Advisory Council for Mining such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Anglo Platinum, Codelco, Exxaro, Foundation Coal, Gold Fields, and Goldcorp. Other key partners include Meridium, Technidata, OSIsoft, Citect, and Gijima AST.

Tony Kinnane, CEO of Runge, said, "Runge is delighted to be working with SAP and its partners to resolve business and operational challenges for the global mining industry. The IVN for mining will collaborate to design and deliver pre-integrated, standard solutions for end-to-end business processes from the mine to the end customer.

"By combining the mining engineer and equipment scheduling process of the maintenance manager, mining IVN partners are working on a truly innovative end-to-end mining scheduling process. In conjunction with leading mining companies, Runge and SAP are developing a unique solution that for the first time will enable an integrated mining scheduling process. This partnership also means Runge now has full SAP integration capability."

The IVN members will be working on new composite solutions and integration scenarios in the areas of mining operations management (for mine planning and scheduling, metallurgical reconciliation and metal accounting), enterprise asset management (for reliable maintenance optimisation, delay accounting and performance optimisation), as well as operational compliance (for emissions management, and health and safety management.

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Runge acquires MineConsult and Minarco Asia Pacific consulting groups to expand into new geographies

Brisbane, 13 March 2007
Runge today announced that it has fully acquired MineConsult, an Australian owned independent mining consulting group, and Minarco Asia Pacific Ltd (Minarco), mining and energy industry advisors in the Asia Pacific region. The combined value of these acquisitions is approximately A$20 million.

The acquisition of Minarco will enable Runge to enter the corporate Chinese mining market, while MineConsult will give Runge presence in Indonesia. Expansion into new geographical areas is part of Runge's strategy to attract and retain skilled resources as the mining engineering industry continues to grapple with a global talent war.
Tony Kinnane, CEO of Runge, said, "Management and employees of Minarco and MineConsult will join Runge, lifting the total number of our employees globally to 210. By growing our geographical presence Runge can offer better and broader career opportunities for staff.

"These acquisitions also reinforce Runge's strategy to globalise the business. This follows the success of our recent growth with MRM Mining Services Pty Ltd in South Africa and Pincock, Allen & Holt in North America. The successful integration of the two companies has directly contributed to Runge's half-year FY2007 results where profit before tax for the six months ended 31 December 2006, was A$3.7 million, 34 per cent ahead of budget. Revenue was A$17 million, 11 per cent ahead of budget."

MineConsult, a wholly owned Australian company, has been operating since 1991. The group's professional staff include mining engineers with Australian and offshore experience and its projects cover the coal, metalliferous and quarry industries for the private and public sectors. Customers include BHB Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo Coal, and Xstrata.

Minarco act as mining and energy industry advisors in the Asia Pacific region. The company started as a coal industry consultancy and now provides a full range of services from pure technical consulting through to strategic corporate advice.

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Runge media contacts


Ms Linda Young
Runge Limited
Tel 07 3100 7200
lyoung@runge.com.au

Ms Mia Huikuri
Recognition PR
Tel 02 9252 2266
Mia_Huikuri@recognition.com.au