The Perenti subsidiary has been awarded a $160 million surface contract at a Kalgoorlie mine in WA.
The agreement related to the Fimiston open-pit mine, – the largest such mine in Australia. The open pit is part of the larger Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine (KCGM) operations, which is owned by Northern Star Resources.
Ausdrill has been contracted to provide up to 14 production blast hole drill rigs at the Fimiston site in a contract set to run until March 2027.
Perenti has indicated it does not expect any new capital outlay to support the contract, considering the scale and quality of Ausdrill’s existing fleet.
“We have secured our largest ever surface contract in Australia, which continues our relationship at one of Ausdrill’s first ever projects,” Perenti managing director and chief executive officer Mark Norwell said.
“We are very proud to be part of Kalgoorlie’s history and we look forward tocontinuing to deliver certainty and value for Northern Star, our employees and business partners.”
The contract covers activities that commenced on March 1 2022, but Ausdrill itself has a long history at the Kalgoorlie site.
“Ausdrill began with two drill rigs in 1987 at the Fimiston mine,” Perenti president of contract mining Paul Muller said.
“We look forward to continuing to provide our value-add expertise to the KCGM operations while extending our long-standing relationship with our local and regional stakeholders.”
In the same announcement, Norwell addressed the recent death of two Dugald miners from its subsidiary company Barminco.
“We continue to remain focused on supporting the families, friends, and colleagues of Trevor and Dylan following the tragic incident at the MMG-owned and
Barminco-operated Dugald River mine in Queensland last week,” he said.
On Wednesday, three miners were operating roughly 125m underground when an incident occurred, resulting in the men falling into a 15m void.
One man was rescued with non-life-threatening injuries. Tragically, the two other employees were fatally injured.