A mine of information...

In days gone by, being a miner usually meant a short life working extremely hard in dangerous dark holes.

Now you can make money mining while sitting in a comfortable chair in ambient light, surrounded by happy colleagues.

However, instead of digging for coal or gold, the modern miner is busy excavating information.

And according to Wellington firm Datamine, the data mining business is booming.

Housed in the old Braserie Flip restaurant in Wellington, Datamine is regarded as a leader in its field and recently expanded to Auckland.

It also increased its lucrative Asian customer base late last month by signing its first retainer-based client in South Korea.

Director Simon Pohlen, a 33-year-old Wellingtonian, says data mining is about using and analysing customer behaviour.

"Whereas market research is about a asking specific group specific questions, data mining is about the analysis of all customer information to figure out a tailor-made marketing strategy," Mr Pohlen said.

Consumers would also benefit as strategies based on data mining would "hopefully reduce the unwanted marketing and sales messages we all get", he said.

"Customers are happy for data to be used if it makes material they receive more relevant to what they want."

Since starting in 1995, Datamine had experienced "very good" year-on-year growth and built an impressive clientele including American Express, Cigna and the Hong Kong-based Standard Charatered Bank, he said.

Datamine's reputation was based on its expertise in improving the effectiveness of data-driven marketing.

"We've grown at an average rate of 80 per cent per annum over the last six years and that's great," Mr Pohlen said.

"However, we don't want to be super-large. We've got about 20 staff in Wellington and wouldn't want 100 as that would detract from the benefits of being a small group."

Servicing the Asian market was what Datamine's future would be based on, he said.

"Servicing Asia out of Wellington works but we could do more.

"I mean, if we got to a point where 70 per cent of our work was in Asia then obviously we'd have to be there.

"At the moment we're at the beginning of that stage and, while we have a guy based in the Philippines, we still need to set up a regional office where we can serve our Asian clients."

Datamine was named in the Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50 list of New Zealand's 50 fastest-growing companies. It was also a double finalist in the recent Wellington Regional Gold Awards and scooped a gold award in the DMA Nexus Awards.