The purpose of this paper is to explain the basic structure of how minerals are marketed, whilst highlighting the essential factors that mine management needs to be confident are incorporated into a mine's marketing strategy. The traditional mine management approach to marketing has been to defer its scrutiny to the marketing manager and take a largely passive role. It is this paper's assertion that mine management needs to become more proactive and provide greater strategic input into the marketing process. Irrespective of what mineral your mine produces, the key marketing principles remain constant and need to be understood and managed to extract the full benefit on behalf of the mining asset. From a mine management perspective, success is ultimately linked to understanding these marketing principles and ensuring that they are effectively addressed by your mine's marketing strategy._x000D_
This paper will unashamedly attempt to simplify marketing by explaining how the basic fundamentals of supply and demand set market direction, the importance of a comprehensive marketing strategy, the importance of customer relationships and how contracts and prices are typically negotiated. This paper will use examples from the metallurgical coal (met coal) industry to highlight these points. The paper will also provide a template for developing the critical mine interaction that needs to exist between the marketing department and management to develop a whole of mine' approach to marketing. It is this core group that will be strategically responsible for delivering the commitments your mine has made to your customers. For mine management not to be actively involved in this process puts at risk' the hard won production and cost efficiencies achieved at your mine and ignores the opportunity to maximise your current and future revenue streams. And whilst this paper recognises that is arguably unreasonable for mine management to become marketing experts', it also argues that it is unreasonable for a mine management to divorce themselves from the process.