Tag Archives: equipment rental

National Group reports continuing growth, new contracts and fleet expansion

Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Contract awards and extensions, plus investments in fleet and people, have positioned National Group for continuing strong growth this financial year, the mining services company says.

National Group says it delivered outstanding growth in its last financial year to June 30, 2023, after several new contract awards. Highlights include:

  • The supply of heavy earthmoving equipment to Anglo American Australia’s open-cut coal mines at its Capcoal operation in Queensland’s Bowen Basin;
  • Implementation of a three-year contract with Yancoal subsidiary Moolarben Coal in the western coalfields of New South Wales; and
  • Implementation of a surface-mining contract at Newcrest Mining’s Cadia gold mine in central New South Wales.

National Group founder and CEO, Mark Ackroyd, says these and other contracts have underpinned an exceptional period of growth for the company.

“National Group’s motto of ‘unstoppable’ came to the fore last year,” he says. “We successfully implemented new contracts, expanded our workforce and invested in new and used equipment. Most of all, we continued to do an exceptional job for our clients.”

Ackroyd says National Group has had an encouraging start to its 2023-24 financial year, with the company expecting to announce other contract awards and extensions this half.

“Whilst we’re pleased with National Group’s current growth trajectory, our goal is to deliver consistent, sustainable growth over long periods,” Ackroyd says. “Our team is doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make that happen.”

Initiatives include the expansion of National Group’s fleet; the largest recruitment campaign in the company’s history; the implementation of a new environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy; expanded community sponsorships; upgrading of some internal systems; and continued focus on staff development and organisation culture.

“These projects have a common goal,” Ackroyd says. “They’re about ensuring National Group has exceptional foundations to take on more projects; continues to diversify by commodity and geography; and grows with our clients. National Group’s performance provides opportunities to increase our investment in people, processes and fleet.”

Fleet expansion

Ackroyd, a diesel mechanic by trade, is excited about National Group’s fleet expansion this year. The Queensland-based company has one of Australia’s top heavy earthmoving fleets, with up to 400 pieces of equipment.

In the past six months, National Group has delivered a Hitachi EX5600-7 excavator, Liebherr R 9800 excavator, CAT 793 dump trucks, CAT 777G water cart, CAT D11 dozers, CAT 785 water carts and Hitachi ZX490 excavators to projects.

Other equipment deliveries include CAT 775G service trucks, CAT 998K wheel loaders, a CAT D9T dozer, a CAT 160M grader and Isuzu 8×4 water trucks. Much of this equipment is supporting National Group’s new contracts.

Ackroyd says the fleet investment is part of National Group’s strategy to use mostly Tier One equipment with a lower average age. Energy efficiency is another focus. “We’re pleased with the size, range and quality of our fleet,” he says. “Our data shows the fleet continues to perform well in terms of reliability and output.”

He expects to further expand National Group’s fleet this year. “It’s not easy getting good equipment at a reasonable price in this market, due to demand and ongoing global supply constraints. But we’ve been able to leverage the company’s networks and expertise in equipment sales to serve our clients’ equipment needs.”

People power

Growth in National Group’s workforce was another highlight of 2022-23 and a continuing focus for this financial year. The company expects to increase its workforce by a third in the next 18 months (to around 300 people) as new contracts ramp up.

That includes a recruitment drive for National Group’s Bowen Basin operations, as the company looks to recruit dozens of maintenance employees to service fleets in Blackwater.

“It’s an ongoing challenge recruiting experienced staff in a tight labour market,” says Ackroyd. “But we continue to attract good people because they know National Group is a great place to work and that we provide opportunities to work around Australia.”

Ackroyd says investment in maintenance staff is a long-term focus. National Group wants to develop more maintenance staff internally, including apprentices. The company has expanded its successful apprenticeship program in the last few years and has this year placed apprentices on-site at mines.

“National Group’s maintenance team is the best in the business,” Ackroyd says. “We are leveraging that capability to develop more people internally and help them build successful maintenance careers at National Group.”

Greater use of full-time employees and less use of contractors on projects is another goal, according to Ackroyd. “Our company prides itself on service quality and customer responsiveness and teamwork,” he says. “That’s best achieved by having long-serving employees who understand and contribute to our company’s vision and values.”

Diversity is an ongoing focus of National Group’s recruitment strategy. The company continues to recruit more women in maintenance and project administration, including on-site roles.

ESG

Another highlight from 2022-23 was implementing the National Group Sustainability Strategy and roadmap. The strategy formalises National Group’s sustainability work and provides a framework to build on its ESG initiatives.

“The sustainability strategy takes National Group’s ESG work to a new level,” Ackroyd says. “We’ve made a significant long-term commitment to ESG within mining services and the mining industry generally. ESG is a key issue for our company.”

Developed through stakeholder consultation and industry research, the sustainability strategy puts a framework around National Group’s existing work in environmental performance, corporate social responsibility, risk management and governance.

The strategy includes Key Performance Indicators, measures ESG performance against local and international benchmarks and frameworks, sets sustainability goals and identifies sustainability-related initiatives.

As part of this strategy, National Group is expanding its work in community partnerships this financial year. The company has sponsored more community events in the past few years in mining towns and other remote areas. National Group has also provided financial and in-kind support for Indigenous organisations.

“Where we can, we want to help communities where our people live and work,” Ackroyd says. “A focus for this financial year is expanding our support to health-related charities, including those involved in mental health and domestic violence.”

Sandvik introduces short-term rental service in USA

Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining finance, Mining services, , , , , , , ,

Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions has announced it is entering the US market with a structured rental offering that, it says, meets the needs of customers that are looking for short term, off-balance sheet solutions to fill production gaps or expand their operations, but at minimal risk.

Building on the success and learnings of its short-term rental service in Europe, Sandvik’s new US offering sees machines rented from as little as just one month.

Working in partnership with its dealer network – who tend to favour longer-term rentals – Sandvik is bringing its financial strength and ambition to be a significant player in the US rental sector, it said. Part of a long-term expansion plan for the service, the company is starting by offering Sandvik DX700 tracked drills commonly used in quarrying and highway projects.

The company is initially launching its service in five states, with Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North and South Carolina selected on the basis that the rental concept is already most established on the East Coast of the country.

“Construction, quarrying and mining customers in the US are increasingly looking for off-balance sheet solutions when acquiring equipment,” Olli Karlsson, Business Unit Manager for Rental & Used at Sandvik, said. “With the industry booming across the country, this is an exciting time to be launching a rental service in the US. The ability to free up capital that rental and lease-based structures offer – not to mention the ability to tender for a wider range of work beyond the capability of small and mid-sized contractors’ current equipment fleets – is driving the market for flexible short term rental offerings.”

Karlsson continued: “This is just the start. Over time we will expand across the US, and introduce other short-term rental equipment for construction, tunnelling, quarrying and mining.”

Sandvik’s fleet of all-new machines are supported by manufacturer service contracts and genuine parts for the duration of the rental agreement, with Sandvik rock tools also available, the company said.

Scotgold rents Epiroc drill rig and LHD as it strives for Cononish milestone

Mine operation news, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , ,

Scotgold Resources is to receive a new Epiroc T1D drill rig and second-hand ST2G Scooptram after signing an agreement with Epiroc UK & Ireland Ltd.

The AIM-listed company, which also announced the full underground development team had returned to work at its Cononish gold and silver mine, in Scotland, said having a second unit of each machine reduced the mechanical availability risk associated with having single units required for Phase 1 production levels (36,000 t/y ore), and also meant only an additional truck is required for any future ramp up to Phase 2 (72,000 t/y ore).

“A further advantage is that the additional machinery will provide an opportunity to increase our training activities,” the company said, adding that both machines were being supplied on a rental with option to purchase basis.

The Epiroc Boomer T1 is a single-boom face drilling rig for narrow drifts and tunnels with cross sections up to 23 sq.m, according to Epiroc, while the ST2G Scooptram is a diesel-powered LHD with 4 t tramming capacity built for small-sized operations.

The current reserve of gold at Cononish is confined to a single narrow, near vertical quartz vein extending above and below the main access on 400 m level, which was originally developed for exploration purposes between 1989 and 1991. The mining method selected for the orebody is retreat, sublevel open stoping.

“This involves the mining of multiple horizontal drives along the orebody at 15 m vertical intervals,” the company said. “Long holes will then be drilled, up and down, between the drives and blasted out to form the stopes; loading out from the lowest level of each stope. Pillars will be left between stopes and at surface to ensure ground stability.”

The company has previously said, at peak production, the mine will operate two single boom drill rigs, two LHDs, two low profile dump trucks, in addition to a roof bolter and scaler.

In the update issued today, the company said blasting activities were being conducted at the mine following the return to work.

“These activities are being conducted in full compliance with the COVID-19 Safe Operating Procedures developed,” it said.

The mine’s former care and maintenance team, which includes around half of the current mining team, is now engaged with the remaining earthworks activities. These include the run of mine pad where gold bearing ore will be stockpiled, and the site and tailings stacks drainage system complete with a new settlement pond.

Critical path activities such as the process plant building, equipment installation and commissioning remain, it said.

Current activities are focused on the building column pads, floor slabs and the preassembly of equipment support infrastructure.

“These are progressing well and the company will provide further updates to the market, including a revised development schedule, in due course,” it said.

The company was previously planning to carry out first gold production earlier this year, but bad weather delays, particularly during January and February, exceeded the planned allowances. COVID-19-related stoppages have pushed this back again.

Richard Gray, CEO, said: “Our key focus is obviously the processing plant, but at the same time we are putting the pieces in place to ensure the long-term success of the mining operation and a reliable supply of ore to treat.”

When ramped up, Cononish is expected to average annual gold production of 23,370 oz over a nine-year life of mine.

Emeco to go underground with Pit N Portal acquisition

Automation, Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , ,

Emeco Holdings looks to have found an entry into the underground contract mining and equipment rental space after having signed an agreement to acquire Pit N Portal in a deal that comes with an enterprise value of A$72 million ($49 million).

The binding agreement would see Emeco acquire Pit N Portal Mining Services and Pit N Portal Equipment Hire, two entities that come with over 100 pieces of specialised underground mining equipment, over 500 pieces of infrastructure equipment and employs more than 300 people across strategic locations in Perth and Kalgoorlie and customer sites across Australia.

Emeco made this announcement on the same day it issued its 2020 financial half year results, which saw the company post revenue of A$246 million (up 10% year-on-year), operating EBITDA of A$119 million (up 16%) and operating EBIT of A$67 million (up 12%). The company has, in the last few years, acquired Force Equipment and Matilda Equipment as it looked to strengthen its equipment rental business in surface mining.

The consideration for the acquisition consists of A$62 million in cash and A$10 million in Emeco shares to the vendors, with the buy expected to be earnings per share accretive on a financial year 2019 pro-forma basis, post transaction.

Emeco Managing Director and CEO, Ian Testrow, said: “Pit N Portal allows Emeco to leverage its current core capabilities and expand into a new market. The underground mining sector is undoubtedly growing, and this represents an attractive adjacency for Emeco, providing Emeco with a solid platform for growth. Pit N Portal also provides us with significant commodity diversification by immediately more than doubling our gold exposure with strong opportunities for further growth in hard-rock projects.”

Established in 2002, Pit N Portal specialises in the provision of hard-rock underground mining equipment and services to the Australia underground mining sector. Core operations include equipment rental as well as mining services and maintenance solutions for underground mines. It operates the largest underground equipment rental fleet in Australia, according to Emeco.

Continued growth in Pit N Portal is expected post-completion driven by new project and scope expansion opportunities, with major projects’ earnings realised in the 2021 financial year.

“Pit N Portal’s key services add to the core of Emeco’s existing business, including equipment hire and maintenance solutions,” the company said. “Pit N Portal also adds a vast array of additional value-added services to its customers, providing a complete mining services offering.”

Steve Versteegen, Co-Founder and CEO of Pit N Portal, said: “I truly believe the combination of the two companies will help accelerate the growth of Pit N Portal and am excited by the opportunity to extend the application of what we do to the broader Emeco business.”

Emeco said the transaction provides a strong platform for Emeco to grow as a provider of underground mining services with a solid tender pipeline, particularly in Western Australia-based gold, nickel and base metals projects. There are also potential operational advantages through Pit N Portal’s strategically located workshops in Perth and Kalgoorlie, it added.

It would also significantly diversify Emeco’s commodity exposure, with gold more than doubling immediately to from 12% to 27% of Emeco’s revenue and becoming the number two exposure.

Pit N Portal is also focused on innovation and technology, with tele-remote and autonomous equipment and delivers a wide range of specialised services, the company said.