Specialist Australian drilling services company DDH1 Ltd has announced that it has secured four additional surface mineral drilling rigs in response to strong customer demand. The four rigs are additional to the organic fleet growth outlined in the company’s IPO Prospectus in February, which confirmed that 11 rigs would be added to DDH1’s fleet in FY21. DDH1’s fleet will consist of 103 modern and highly specified drilling rigs by the first half of FY22. DDH1 currently has the largest surface fleet of operating mineral drilling rigs in Australia.

Commenting on the additional rigs, DDH1’s Managing Director and CEO Sy Van Dyk said: “These rig purchases demonstrate our confidence in Australia’s mineral drilling sector. As we highlighted in our Prospectus, DDH1 is experiencing strong industry growth with rising demand for our services because of increased exploration, development and production spending by minerals exploration and mining companies. DDH1 had already committed to adding 11 surface drilling rigs to our industry leading fleet. However, based on feedback from our customers and in response to their outstanding exploration successes, DDH1 has exercised an opportunity to secure a further four rigs. This additional investment is based on contracted demand and will provide increased capacity to service our clients across the DDH1 Drilling, Ranger Drilling and Strike Drilling brands.”

The first two of the additional four rigs will be operational within the DDH1 fleet this financial year and the second two of the additional four rigs will be operational in FY22. In addition, DDH1 is continuing its program of progressively adding the already committed 11 surface drilling rigs – as detailed in the Prospectus – to the company’s fleet during FY21.