Pentium Hydro’s specialised drill rigs will extend their stay at Roy Hill’s iron ore mine in the Pilbara of Western Australia after the Vysarn Ltd subsidiary received a notice of contract award for hydrogeological drilling from the miner.

The new contract, which follows on from a general works contract Roy Hill and Pentium signed back in 2019, comes with an estimated revenue based on the initial scope of work of around A$12 million ($9 million).

It also stipulates for the issue of individual work requests for the supply of one or more drill rigs and comes with a three-year and five-month contract term starting from January 1, 2021, with a one-year extension option by Roy Hill.

The scope of work as defined under the contract is to provide the drilling and installation of production, injection and monitoring bores to support mining and exploration activities across Roy Hill mine site locations within the Pilbara, Pentium said, with revenue from these works based on a schedule of rates.

Pentium currently has one dual rotary drill rig and associated ancillary equipment on a Roy Hill mine site working under the terms of the previous contract announced on November 1, 2019. This drill rig and/or similar drill rigs in the Pentium fleet will start the execution of the scope of work defined within the new contract from January 1, 2021.