Exposibram 2026
Hello from Exposibram 2026!
It’s been a great start to a huge event here in Brazil with our partner BESC Global. There have been chats with many potential clients and the questions have been insightful and informative into the different priorities and challenges here in Brazil. One of the superintendents I spoke to was from Pico Mine with whom I had met last week, so it was great to see a face I recognised come to the BESC stand.
Exposibram is a huge mining expo in Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It’s held every 2 years and the scale is amazing. There are over 750 exhibitors with many having large displays of equipment and other infrastructure. The crowds are huge and you’ll hear lots of Portuguese, Spanish, and of course some English with every accent you can imagine. While the event is primarily South American, it’s truly an international crowd.
While walking around I’ve noticed a large number of global brands such as Komatsu, mining companies such as Vale, BHP, and Anglo, and many South American companies. There are also a very large number of Chinese stands, mostly simple 2x2 with white walls but many that are more elaborate. From what others have told me, the Chinese government is very supportive and subsidises these stands heavily. That’s a smart way to support your exports!
One of the most different things I’ve seen is that a large number of stalls are serving beer! I don’t think that would go down well at an Australian Expo with RSA. Even though it’s winter, it’s quite warm outside so the beers are definitely welcome.
As one would expect, AI is prominent however it doesn’t seem to be the main selling point of many stalls, even software focused ones. There are a LOT of AI generated images of varying quality. South American Mining seems to be taking a cautious approach to AI.
Trying to get to and from the event is its own challenge. All the huge crowds all wanting to get in and out mean that you have to expect to pay uber surge pricing of 5x or more, and Taxis don’t miss a beat with what they charge either … their meters are off. Uber scams are unfortunately a thing too with just yesterday a driver tried it on with a “phantom trip” where he started the trip without us and tried it on for R$18 that Uber quickly refunded when I complained. Something to be careful of anywhere, but especially at times of high demand like Exposibram.
I’m sure the next two days of the show will be even better than the first two. I’m looking forward to a lot more demos and tonight I have an AusIndustry event which will be great to hear more about the support we can receive and network with other Australian businesses here to learn from their experiences.
Big thank you to the amazing work of the BESC team and the camaraderie of the other businesses that also partner with BESC.