Tag Archives: Jamie Boynton

Capital builds up mining fleet for Sukari gold mine work

Mining equipment, Mining project news, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Capital is well on the way to securing a suitable fleet to carry out the open-pit waste mining contract at Centamin’s Sukari gold mine, with additional trucks recently arriving in Egypt and payments “significantly progressed” for all major long lead equipment required to service the operation.

Equity proceeds from the recent $40 million share placing were received in late December 2020, facilitating these further payments, according to Capital.

The 120 Mt open-pit waste mining contract at Sukari will see Capital provide load and haul and ancillary services over a period of four years. At the same time, the existing drilling contract at Sukari has been extended to December 31, 2024, (from September 30, 2023) and expanded by nine additional blasthole rigs, bringing the rigs operating at Sukari to 24 in total.

Included in the long lead items are 17 Cat 785 dump trucks, seven blasthole drill rigs, three excavators, and all major ancillary support equipment including dozers, graders and water trucks. Capital said additional trucks had recently arrived in Egypt, supplementing the initial truck fleet that arrived during the December quarter of 2020.

Capital also said it has made substantial progress on several of the debt facilities contemplated in the capital raising prospectus related to the Sukari contract including:

  • Executing the $2.6 million vendor finance agreement with Epiroc with full draw down against the purchase of three new blasthole rigs;
  • Fully drawing down on the remaining tranches of the $10 million Macquarie facility following finalisation of the Sukari contracts and security registration in Egypt; and
  • The committed and available vendor finance facility with Sandvik for $8.5 million is expected to be used over the course of the March quarter against the purchase of four new blasthole rigs.

Jamie Boyton, Capital Executive Chairman, said it was pleasing to note that site activity was progressing well with the continued expansion of its extensive on-site facilities, “further asset arrivals and the recruitment of key personnel to prepare for the commencement of preliminary mining activity in late Q1 (March quarter) as planned”.

Capital to take on open-pit waste mining at Centamin’s Sukari gold mine

Explosives and blasting, Mine operation news, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , ,

Capital Limited has entered a conditional open-pit waste mining services contract with Sukari Gold Mines and has also expanded and extended its existing drilling contract with Sukari.

Sukari is the operating company for the Sukari gold mine, in Egypt, one of the largest gold mines in Africa and the principal asset of Centamin.

Collectively, the contracts are anticipated to deliver incremental revenues of $235-260 million over a four-year period, commencing January 1, 2021, representing the largest award of new business in the company’s history.

The 120 Mt open-pit waste mining contract at Sukari will see Capital provide load and haul and ancillary services over a period of four years. At the same time, the existing drilling contract at Sukari has been extended to December 31, 2024 (from September 30, 2023) and expanded by nine additional blasthole rigs, bringing the rigs operating at Sukari to 24 in total.

To date, Capital has spent $23.4 million towards equipment and has made strong progress with early works, key personnel hiring and advanced operational planning, it said. It has also signed an OEM facility with Sandvik for $8.5 million and an OEM facility with Epiroc is awaiting final credit approval with documentation in near final form.

Jamie Boyton, Executive Chairman, said: “The winning of the tender for the Sukari open-pit waste mining contract is a significant milestone for Capital – it is the largest contract win for the group since inception, adds substantial scale to our mining services division, as well as providing revenue diversification from our drilling services business.

“We are also pleased to have increased the scope and scale of our existing drilling contract. Having operated at the Sukari mine since 2005, which started commercial gold production over a decade ago, Capital is pleased to be deepening further its strong client relationship with Centamin in assisting with the generation of significant value to Centamin over the medium and longer term as the Sukari mine enters its next phase of gold production.”

Martin Horgan, CEO of Centamin, said: “With the focus on improving operational flexibility at Sukari, introducing contract mining over the next few years for waste stripping in the open pit is cost and time effective. Following a rigorous tender process, Capital was determined to be the best suited to deliver what is needed.

“Capital is a trusted contractor to the company, with a strong understanding of Sukari and the operating environment, including the employment of local workforce and established training programs, consistent with Centamin’s approach to local workforce development.”

As part of this increased open-pit waste stripping program, Centamin continues to use its existing owner operator fleet, which has capacity of 80-90 Mt/y total material moved (ore and waste). The company said it conducted an independent contract mining tender process to assess incremental contract waste stripping costs, and capacity, against the cost to expand the current owner-operator mining fleet.

Centamin added: “It was concluded that the optimal integration of contract mining was to isolate the waste stripping workstream on the East wall of the open pit, thereby limiting the day-to-day interaction with the operations and simplifying operational oversight and planning from a health, safety and logistical standpoint. The East wall waste stripping program will move material to a dedicated waste dump.”

West Africa investments about to pay off for Capital Drilling

Mineral exploration, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 contract at Yepleu nickel-copper-cobalt-palladium project

Base metals, Energy minerals, High tech minerals, Mineral exploration, Mineral project development, Mining services, , , , , , , ,

Capital Drilling has been awarded a contract with Canada-based Sama Resources at its Yepleu base and platinum group metal deposit in Côte d’Ivoire.

Drilling is anticipated to commence in November with the initial programme being 6,000 m of diamond core drilling, targeting semi-massive and massive polymetallic sulphide targets for nickel-copper-cobalt-palladium between 600 m and 900 m from surface.

The contract is Capital Drilling’s first in the country following its strategic expansion into West Africa where the company now has 31 rigs – a third of its fleet.

“This contract will initially utilise two diamond drill rigs, sourced from the group’s base in Yamoussoukro, which was established in H1 2018 as part of the group’s strategic growth focus into the West African market,” the company said.

Commenting on the contract, Jamie Boyton, Executive Chairman, said: “It is very pleasing to see our increased presence in the high-growth West African region continue to deliver results and we look forward to starting our first contract in Côte d’Ivoire.

“With the increased fleet and new infrastructure in place, we are well positioned to continue to secure additional work in the country in the future.”

Sama said the drilling programme will test high-conductivity targets defined by the Phase 1 Typhoon™ electromagnetic geophysical survey carried out earlier this year.

“It is at the Yepleu area that Sama made the first discovery of nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at surface in West Africa with material grading up to 1.39% Ni and 2.26% Cu sulphide (tested using a hand held Niton XRF analyser),” the exploration company said.

The Yepleu area is 18 km southwest of Sama’s Samapleu nickel-copper deposit.