Tag Archives: drilling contractor

Swick signs BHP, MATSA drilling contracts and inks first Orexplore commercial pact

Swick Mining Services Limited has secured new drilling contracts with BHP’s Olympic Dam mine and MATSA’s copper operation in Spain at the same time as confirming the first commercial agreement for its Mineral Technology Business.

In what will be Swick’s second largest project, the company has been awarded a five-year contract to provide underground drilling services at Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.

Swick has been working with up to five rigs at Olympic Dam since 2017 when an initial trial of its underground mobile diamond drills commenced.

The new contract will see Swick increase its rig volume at site, with the first year’s scope requiring an initial eight rigs, with five to be added to the three currently operating at site. Of the five additional rigs, three are at site already and the remainder will be mobilised from Swick’s existing fleet, according to Swick.

Swick has also been awarded a five-year contract from Minas de Aguas Teñidas SAU (MATSA) at its copper operations in Spain, where two rigs are currently deployed.

These projects, combined with Swick’s existing work in hand, has expanded Swick’s order book to A$363 million ($260 million), it said.

Swick’s Mineral Technology Business, Orexplore, has also been awarded its first infield commercial agreement, the company said.

Under the agreement with St Barbara Ltd, some 1,500 m of core will be scanned per month over a six-month period at the Gwalia mine in Leonora, Western Australia.

Swick will conduct technical assessment over a number of potential benefits of the detailed core analysis and high volume of quality data generated by the GeoCore X10 instrument, it said. The agreement has a value of around A$700,000 over the six-month period.

“Orexplore will be working with world-class subject matter experts to ensure maximum value for the client is derived from the data obtained to develop a compelling justification for ongoing services beyond the initial six-month period,” it said.

Swick expects a formal contract to be signed in the coming weeks and mobilisation of GeoCore X10 instruments housed in a custom-built mobile laboratory to site in September 2020.

The GeoCore X10 analyses the element concentrations and minerals contained in a drill core, as well as providing a visualisation of the rock’s internal structure in 3D. This speeds up the chemical laboratory analysis process, enabling miners to accelerate their own decision making.

Swick Managing Director, Kent Swick, said the company was delighted to be awarded a long-term contract with BHP at Olympic Dam.

“Credit goes to our operational team who have delivered outstanding safety performance, and high quality and productive drilling that enabled Swick to secure this long term, high volume work,” he said.

“In addition, securing a five-year agreement with a large copper miner MATSA, in Spain, adds to our ongoing work with Somincor in Portugal along the historic Iberian Pyrite Belt. Our local workforce in that region is highly skilled and they are to be commended for converting a trial into a long-term contract in Spain.”

He concluded: “In the Mineral Technology Business, it is very exciting that we have taken a significant step forward with the award of Orexplore’s first infield commercial agreement. We look forward to ensuring the value is extracted from this rich 3D data set and I am confident we can add significant long-term value to the Gwalia mine and the wider brownfield market.”

GeoDrill backs IronRidge Africa exploration plan with ‘drilling for equity program’

IronRidge Resources has entered a binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GeoDrill as part of a “drilling for equity program” of up to $4 million, or 40,000m of drilling at the exploration company’s gold and lithium portfolio throughout Africa.

GeoDrill, established in 1998, is a leading exploration drilling company with a fleet of 67 drill rigs that has operations is Ghana, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Zambia.

The MoU will see IronRidge advance all projects across Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Chad, while maintaining cash resources, it said.

IronRidge’s Chief Executive Officer, Vincent Mascolo, said: “We are delighted to announce that the agreement with GeoDrill secures access to expert drilling capabilities, which will allow the company to effectively advance its portfolios, whilst helping preserve cash resources.

GeoDrill brings decades of operational expertise throughout West Africa and, with operational centres in both Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, provides excellent synergies with the Ccmpany’s current jurisdictions of focus.”

Dave Harper, Chief Executive Officer of GeoDrill, said: “Having previously worked with IronRidge on their Cape Coast lithium project and Côte d’Ivoire gold projects, we understand their exploration business model and it was an easy decision for us to partner with IronRidge in this drilling for equity program.”

Under the terms of the binding MoU, any drilling services provided by GeoDrill will be paid by either; cash, shares, or a combination of cash and shares on a 50/50 basis at IronRidge’s election.

The agreement is based on a competitive quotation process, which provides for the issue of ordinary shares in IronRidge for 50% of the drilling cost up to a value of $4 million in two $2 million stages.

“The agreed payment mechanism comprises a share valuation of 90% of the 15-day volume weighted average price against the value of each monthly invoice,” IronRidge said.

Geodrill has commenced drilling works in Ghana where approximately 13,200 m of drilling has been planned at the Cape Coast lithium project over a staged reverse circulation and diamond drilling program dependent on results. It is also currently continuing field mapping and sampling programs over the Zaranou gold project, in Côte d’Ivoire, ahead of a planned air-core drill program.

In Côte d’Ivoire, IronRidge is assessing air-core results over its Bianouan and Bodite licences to determine the next steps as well as soils and trenching results over its Kineta and Marahui licences.

“At this stage the company will maintain its focus on the Côte d’Ivoire gold portfolio and the Ghana lithium portfolio,” IronRidge said.

Swick Mining continues drilling wins at home and abroad

Swick Mining Services is celebrating a hat-trick of contract drilling wins with the Barrick Gold and Newmont Goldcorp-owned Nevada Gold Mines JV, Silver Lake Resources and Northern Star Resources.

The Australia-listed contractor has been awarded a three-year contract extension at the Nevada Gold Mines JV, with the company’s US division extending a relationship that started in 2013. The work with Silver Lake Resources involved being selected as the preferred tenderer, subject to contract execution, to provide underground diamond coring services at its Mount Monger operation, in Western Australia. And, lastly, Northern Star Resources has increased the scope of work for Swick at the Jundee gold mine, also in Western Australia, from nine to 14 full time underground diamond coring rigs.

The awards secure work for 18 rigs (eight existing and 10 additional rigs) and increases Swick’s contracted work in hand to A$353 million ($248 million), the company said.

Swick Managing Director, Kent Swick, said: “We are delighted to be deepening our relationships with existing clients and, in the case of the new work with Silver Lake, returning to a project where we have extensive experience.”

He added: “It is particularly pleasing that our international strategy is yielding significant results, with a third of our total deployed underground diamond drilling rigs now operating outside of Australia. By the end of September, we will have at least 22 rigs operating in our international operations including the USA, Portugal and Spain – all at major mines with Tier One clients.”

In Nevada with the Nevada Gold Mines JV, Swick currently operates eight rigs between the Turquoise Ridge and Cortez Hill gold mines as well as the Goldrush project, it said. As part of the contract extension, Swick will be deploying two additional rigs to these operations.

Swick undertakes underground diamond core drilling and underground RC drilling at the projects, with the contract extension securing work for 10 rigs at fixed pricing for two years, with a rise and fall applicable for the third year. In total, the Nevada Gold Mines JV produced in excess of 4 Moz of gold in 2018, more than double the next largest gold mining complex.

The contract extension, combined with the contract recently awarded to Swick at the Northern Star-owned Pogo gold mine in Alaska, will see Swick take a leading position in the US underground drilling market, it said, adding that the first four underground rigs at Pogo commenced drilling in June.

The Silver Lake Mount Monger contract is expected to be for a period of two years with a provision for a 12-month extension, Swick said. The contract will commence in August, with three rigs undertaking drilling across the Mount Monger site, namely the Daisy Milano, Cock-eyed Bob and Maxwell’s underground mines.

Swick says it worked at the Daisy Milano project for a decade from 2007 before it was awarded to another contractor in 2016. The Mount Monger operations produced 35,172 oz of gold in the March quarter.

At Jundee, meanwhile, Swick says it will steadily increase its fleet and manning from July to October to meet the increased scope. Northern Star is Swick’s largest client – with the Jundee contract Swick’s largest ever project – and will operate this expanded service under the current contract agreement.

Kent Swick said: “Once we reach 14 full time rigs at Jundee, it will represent a record number of rigs that Swick has had at any one mine, and the largest Australian underground diamond drilling program I am aware of since we have been in the underground contracting business for over 20 years.”

West Africa investments about to pay off for Capital Drilling

Capital Drilling’s push into West Africa will start paying off in the second half of the year, according to Executive Chairman, Jamie Boyton, with the contractor having sealed a number of drilling agreements in the region in the opening six months of 2019.

The company has progressively invested more resources in West Africa over the past few years, aiming to capture market share in a region where gold exploration is high.

The company recorded revenue of $54.7 million over the six-month period, a 0.4% year-on-year increase, while its average revenue per operating rig dropped to $183,000, compared with $200,000 in the first half of 2018, primarily due to new contract mobilisations. The group maintained guidance on anticipated revenues for the current financial year of $110-120 million, with revenue expected to increase in the second half of this year.

During the period, the company purchased an additional blasthole rig for the long-term contract at Centamin’s Sukari gold mine, in Egypt, as part of the group’s ongoing fleet management; made further progress in the establishment of its West Africa operations, with drilling commencing in Burkina Faso with Golden Rim Resources in May; and was awarded its first drilling contract in Nigeria with Thor Explorations Ltd, with drilling scheduled to commence in the December quarter.

The company also, in these six months, appointed Jodie North as Chief Operating Officer, increased business development resources, appointing Chris Hall to position of Business Development Manager, West Africa, maintained its ongoing rig improvement program and achieved a number of safety records at the likes of Sukari, North Mara (Tanzania), Geita (Tanzania), Tasiast (Mauritania) and Syama (Mali).

Boyton said: “The first half of the year was focused on further consolidating Capital Drilling’s presence in the highly active West African market, with a number of new contracts awarded, which will contribute to group revenues from the end of Q3 (September quarter). This strong push into this region has seen the commencement of our first drilling contract in Burkina Faso during Q2.

“Today we have also announced our expansion into Nigeria from Q4 (December quarter), a mineral rich, yet poorly explored country with significant potential, where we already operate a successful mineral analytics laboratory. Pleasingly, our major operations have also continued to achieve significant safety milestones throughout the first half.”

New contracts awarded during the first six months include:

  • Compass Gold Corp (Sikasso, Mali, pictured). Awarded a 10,000m exploration drilling contract, using one reverse circulation (RC) and one diamond rig from the existing fleet. Drilling commenced in June;
  • Golden Rim Resources (Kouri, Burkina Faso) (previously announced). Awarded a 20,000m exploration drilling contract using one multi-purpose rig from the existing fleet. Drilling commenced in May;
  • Allied Gold Corp (Bonikro, Côte d’Ivoire). Awarded a five-year exploration drilling contract, using one diamond rig and one RC rig from the existing fleet. Drilling is scheduled to commence in December quarter;
  • Thor Explorations Ltd (Segilola, Nigeria). Awarded a five-year exploration and grade control contract, using one RC rig from the existing fleet. This will transition to grade control in 2020, with exploration drilling scheduled to commence in the December quarter and grade control in H1 2020;
  • Kinross Gold Corp: (Tasiast, Mauritania): MSALABs was awarded a three-year onsite laboratory services contract with Kinross at the Tasiast gold mine. Operations commenced in July 2019, and;
  • Resolute Mining Ltd (Syama, Mali). Awarded one-year extension of the long-term underground grade control drilling contract using two underground rigs from the existing fleet. Contract extended to June 2020.

Capital Drilling wins one-year extension at AngloGold’s Geita mine

Capital Drilling will continue underground exploration and underground grade control drilling services at AngloGold Ashanti’s Geita gold mine in Tanzania after the two companies agreed a one-year contract extension.

The contract extension will commence in January and use the existing underground drill rig fleet, currently located on site.

The underground drilling services represent a sub contract of the comprehensive drilling services contract with Geita, which encompasses blasthole, grade control, delineation, exploration and underground drilling. The master contract is a five-year contract running to December 2020, with Capital Drilling having commenced drilling operations at the Geita gold mine in 2006.

Jamie Boyton, Executive Chairman of Capital Drilling, said: “The experience Capital Drilling has gained at the Geita gold mine over the past 13 years underpins our strategy of targeting Tier 1 long-life assets with quality operators. We continue to deliver excellent operational results for AngloGold Ashanti and are pleased to have the extension of the underground drilling contract for a further year.”

Geita, a multiple open-pit and undergoing operation 120 km from Mwanza, produced 539,000 oz of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $941/oz in 2017.

Capital Drilling provides specialised drilling services to mineral exploration and mining companies in emerging and developing markets, for exploration, development and production stage projects. The company currently owns and operates a fleet of 91 drilling rigs with established operations in Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania and Tanzania.