Australia’s Campbell Brothers, through its testing services business, ALS Group, has entered into an agreement to acquire all the issued share capital in the UK’s Stewart Group, the global testing services provider to the minerals industry, for £146 million, with the deal expected to close on 21st July and Stewart Group will be integrated into the Minerals Division of ALS.

Stewart Group is a provider of geochemical, metallurgical and inspection services to the mining and processing industries worldwide. It employs approximately 900 staff, operating from 26 laboratories and offices throughout North America, Africa, Asia and Europe. The Stewart Group has earned an outstanding reputation, built on over 40 years of service to clients in a wide range of sectors.

The Stewart Group operates three main global divisions. The Geochemical Division has operations in Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, South Africa and West Africa, and provides geochemical and assay services to exploration and mining companies. The Inspection Division provides inspection and analytical services to the coal, metals and mineral trading markets through offices and laboratories in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and southern parts of Africa. The Metallurgical Division operates one of the largest metallurgical businesses in North America via its laboratories in Kamloops, Canada.