PitWise Solutions director Shane Summers said the company had partnered with Dratta Engineering to form a new company called Key Solutions Group, which would provide a combination of engineering qualifications, mining equipment experience and business acumen.

“Globalisation of the equipment supply sector has created a handful of consolidated manufacturers unable to manoeuvre quickly and effectively to meet the unique requirement of many mine operators,” the new company says on its website.

“These large suppliers have become specialist assembly lines, sourcing manufactured content from subcontractors and pushing generic machines into the market, which are often unsuitable for the intended application.”

Key Solutions Group says it will work with a selection of independent equipment manufacturers that provide custom designed equipment for their application in the underground coal mining industry.

Summers said arrangements with existing PitWise customers would not change, and that he would remain the key Queensland contact for traditional PitWise Solutions clients Waratah and Inbye.

Summers said plans for a new office and warehouse complex are underway, with completion forecast for early 2008.

“This will make our engineering resources and component warehousing services available on the very doorstep of the burgeoning Bowen Basin coal industry,” he said.