Tag Archives: Perenti

Perenti’s AUMS extends ties with Newmont at Subika Underground

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Perenti Limited’s African Underground Mining Services (AUMS) subsidiary, through its UMA joint venture, has been awarded a new, circa-A$630 million ($418 million), 60-month contract at the Newmont Subika underground gold mine in Ghana, the ASX-listed company says.

The term of the contract is effective from January 1, 2023.

UMA is a joint venture (70:30) between AUMS and Rocksure International, a local Ghana-based civil and mining contractor. Under the terms of the contract, through the UMA joint venture, Perenti will undertake all underground development and production activities, diamond drilling and associated support services at the Subika Underground Mine, some 310 km to the northwest of Accra, Ghana.

In addition, under the terms of the new contract Newmont will acquire the current fleet of underground equipment associated with the project and will also be responsible for the acquisition of additional fleet as required for the project, Perenti says.

Perenti expects that this capital strategy will have significant benefits, but primarily will reduce the capital intensity of the project while still delivering strong returns. Perenti expects to finalise the sale of these assets before the end of June.

As a part of Newmont’s larger Ahafo complex, AUMS commenced development and production activities at the Subika underground mine in mid-2017.

Mark Norwell, Managing Director and CEO of Perenti, said: “With this new contract, Perenti not only expands its tenure in Ghana but furthers its relationship with Newmont, the world’s leading gold company with a world-class portfolio of assets in favourable mining jurisdictions. We are very pleased that we will continue to deliver value and certainly to Newmont and our other stakeholders in Ghana and beyond.”

Paul Muller, President Contract Mining of Perenti, said: “Ausdrill commenced operations in Ghana in 1991 and, with this 60-month contract, Perenti through its subsidiaries, will have accumulated nearly 40 years of in-country expertise with a strong track record of prioritising local procurement, training and employment opportunities across a wide range of local and regional Ghanaian stakeholders.”

Barminco wins extended stay at IGO’s Flying Fox nickel mine

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Perenti says its Barminco subsidiary has been awarded a nine-month contract extension at the Flying Fox mine, in Western Australia, owned and operated by IGO Ltd.

The contract extension is effective from January 1, 2023, and has a value of approximately A$30 million ($20.2 million) over the nine-month term.

Mark Norwell, Managing Director & CEO of Perenti, said: “In Australia, the labour market is still tight, and inflation and cost escalation remains stubbornly persistent, however strong and collaborative working relationships, like the relationship between IGO and Barminco, are key to the success of our business as well as the success of our clients. By working collaboratively with our clients, we continue to navigate and manage challenging macro-economic conditions.”

Paul Muller, President of Perenti Contract Mining, added: “We have a very long and proud history of operating within the Forrestania Operation and we are pleased to have delivered value and certainty at the Flying Fox mine from a greenfield development project through to a mature operating mine as it is today. We look forward to continuing our relationship with IGO, our largest client in Australia.”

IGO became the owner of the Flying Fox mine, part of the Forrestania Operation, in 2022, as part of the acquisition of Western Areas. It remains one of the highest grade nickel mines in the world. Production commenced in 2006, and the mine now operates at depths of over 1 km underground.

Evolution Mining hits production milestone ahead of schedule at Cowal

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Evolution Mining says it has achieved a major milestone in its planned growth of getting the Cowal gold mine in New South Wales, Australia, to circa-320,000 oz in its 2024 financial year, with underground production commencing ahead of schedule.

The first underground stope has commenced being mined and processed this month, with continued ramp up of the underground expected over the remainder of this financial year (to end-June). This is three months ahead of the previously announced original schedule of the June 2023 quarter.

In 2021, the Evolution board and regulators approved the development of the Cowal Underground Mine, which is set to provide a higher-grade ore source that will be blended with the current open-pit operation and stockpile ore.

Perenti’s Barminco underground mining business has been conducting all underground development and production works for the project as part of a A$520 million, four-year agreement signed last year.

The project remains within the original A$380 million ($254 million) budget, according to Evolution, with the completion of the accommodation village and commissioning of the paste plant remaining on track for the June 2023 quarter.

Evolution’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Lawrie Conway, said: “We have achieved a major milestone at Cowal with the early commencement of production from the new underground mine. It is a credit to the project team to be able to commence production ahead of schedule and on budget in the current inflationary market conditions for project development and construction.

“We are now on the pathway to increase Cowal’s production from the current FY23 guidance of ~275,000 oz to FY24 outlook of circa-320,000 low cost ounces.”

Perenti secures largest ever Australia surface mining contract at KCGM’s Fimiston mine

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Perenti Limited says its Ausdrill subsidiary has been awarded a new surface miningcontract at the Northern Star Resources-owned Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) Fimiston open-pit gold mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

The new circa-A$160 million ($110 million), 60-month contract incorporates activities that commenced March 1, 2022, and will continue to March 2027.

Ausdrill has been contracted to provide up to 14 production blasthole drill rigs to support ongoing operations.

Given the scale and quality of its existing Ausdrill fleet, Perenti does not expect any new capital outlay to support this contract, it said.

Mark Norwell, Managing Director & CEO of Perenti, said “We continue to remain focused on supporting the families, friends, and colleagues of Trevor and Dylan following the tragic incident at the MMG-owned and Barminco-operated, Dugald River mine in Queensland last week. However, over the weekend Ausdrill executed a material contract and in-line with our disclosure obligations, we are providing the market with an update.

“We have secured our largest ever surface contract in Australia, which continues our relationship at one of Ausdrill’s first ever projects. We are very proud to be part of Kalgoorlie’s history and we look forward to continuing to deliver certainty and value for Northern Star, our employees and business partners.”

He added: “Since the release of our operational update on 19 December 2022, we have continued to deliver on our strategic objectives and while we have seen some strengthening of the Australian dollar relative to the US dollar, we have seen overall margin improvement and continued to win or extend existing contracts, positively resolve commercial negotiations and further simplify our business. Market conditions continue to remain favourable into the second half of financial year 2023 in support of further delivery against our 2025 strategy. We look forward to providing additional details when we release our first half 2023 results tomorrow.”

Paul Muller, President Contract Mining at Perenti, said “Ausdrill began with two drill rigs in 1987 at the Fimiston mine. Since then, Ausdrill has continued to expand its services to include blast hole and grade control drilling, utilising a fleet of drill rigs specifically designed and manufactured (in-house) to meet the unique specifications required by the Fimiston open-pit mine.

“We look forward to continuing to provide our value-add expertise to the KCGM operations while extending our long-standing relationship with our local and regional stakeholders.”

Perenti’s AMS extends contract at Resolute Mining’s Mako mine

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Perenti-owned African Mining Services (AMS) has been awarded a contract extension for surface mining activities at Resolute Mining Limited’s Mako gold mine in Senegal, it says.

The revised contract is valued at approximately $85 million over a period of four years, commencing on January 1, 2023.

Through AMS, Perenti has provided surface mining activities at the Mako mine since 2017.

Mako is owned and operated by Resolute’s Senegalese subsidiary, Petowal Mining Company S.A. Resolute has a 90% interest in Petowal and the Government of Senegal holds the remaining 10%.

It is a conventional drill and blast, truck and shovel operation with mining services undertaken by AMS. The carbon-in-leach processing plant has greater than 2 Mt/y of installed capacity and comprises a crushing circuit, an 8 MW SAG mill and gold extraction circuit.

MMG brings in new Sandvik equipment for owner-operator transition at Dugald River

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MMG Limited has acquired new underground equipment for its Dugald River zinc-lead mine in Queensland, Australia, as it gears up to make the transition from a contract miner-led operation to a run of mine (ROM) owner-operator model in 2023.

Among the purchases are three Sandvik DL421-15C longhole drills that will allow the team to drill holes up to 54 m in length and 115 mm in diameter.

A further seven Sandvik TH663i 63-t-payload underground haul trucks (pictured) have been purchased to support operations.

“These important acquisitions support Dugald River’s new operating model as ROM owner operator into 2023,” the company said.

Dugald River’s mining operations were previously overseen by Perenti-owned Barminco as part of a production and development contract which ends on December 31. Redpath Australia was awarded a new underground mining services contract at the mine, earlier this year.

Perenti’s Barminco to carry out development works at Evolution Mining’s Ernest Henry mine

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Australia-based Perenti has provided an operational update and an upgrade to its financial year 2023 guidance to end-June 2023, which includes confirmation of a new contract for Barminco at Evolution Mining’s Ernest Henry mine in Queensland and a variation to expand its work scope at Regis Resources’ Garden Well mine in Western Australia.

The positive momentum noted in the operational update released on November 14 has continued as Perenti heads toward the end of the calendar year, with this momentum expected to continue into 2023, it noted.

“Since the release of the most recent operational update Perenti has secured improvements to commercial conditions across several Australian and African projects, including retrospective rate adjustments in relation to work that has previously been completed,” it said.

“These rate adjustments are the key catalyst in providing a further guidance upgrade one month after our previous upgrade.”

The contract at Ernest Henry (pictured) is for development work at the underground gold and copper mine. As Barminco transitions out of MMG’s Dugald River mine – where it has been carrying out development and production works – early next year, employees and capital resources from Dugald River will be mobilised to the new contract at Ernest Henry, it said. Underground development work at Dugald River, meanwhile, is to be taken on by Redpath Australia.

The Garden Well extension follows the commencement of underground mine development at the deposit in 2021.

On November 14, Perenti updated its FY23 guidance to forecast FY23 revenue of between $2.6-$2.7 billion ($1.7-1.8 billion). With the announcement of improved commercial conditions, and in consideration of securing work at Ernest Henry and scope growth at Garden Well, Perenti now forecasts that the company’s FY23 revenue will be between $2.7-$2.9 billion.

Mark Norwell, Managing Director and CEO of Perenti, said: “In addition to generating greater returns in FY23, we are focused on continuing to pursue business and project optimisation initiatives which will facilitate the delivering our 2025 strategy. Our strategy is designed to drive positive momentum in shareholder value well into the future. Perenti’s outlook is underpinned by our world-class Contract Mining Division, and the continued development of our Mining Services and idoba divisions. Our focus on generating enduring value for our people, clients and communities, will ensure we continue to deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders.”

ABB and Perenti to collaborate on mining electrification projects

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Perenti has signed an agreement with ABB to collaborate and explore approaches to support net-zero emissions targets for underground and open-pit mines.

Experts from the two companies will work together to address electrification in mine hauling operations, power distribution, energy efficiency and power management, the companies said.

Australia-based Perenti has mining expertise and technical capability, which complements ABB’s technology expertise. Together, the teams plan to explore business models and solutions to provide wider services for pilot, brownfield and greenfield mining customer projects to support the electrification of operations.

ABB has been calling for open collaboration within the mining industry and has taken action on several similar initial non-binding agreements to build commitments with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), technology innovators and mining companies. This includes pacts with FLSmidth, Amazon Web Services, MEDATech, Liebherr and others.

“Mining customers are committed to facing environmental, societal and economic challenges head on as they aim to decarbonise mining operations,” Joachim Braun, Division President, Process Industries, ABB, said. “With ABB’s sector leading position in electric mine technology development, and Perenti’s excellence and experience in mine development and mine operations, the scope of this collaboration is a perfect opportunity to make real progress in providing electric solutions that will decarbonise the industry.”

Mark Norwell, Managing Director and CEO, Perenti, said: “ABB and Perenti share a vision to develop energy-efficient solutions for the mining industry. By combining our experience across mining operations and digital solutions with ABB’s leading technologies we are focused on supporting the decarbonisation of mining through electrification. We look forward to working with ABB on this exciting new venture.”

ABB launched its ABB Ability™ eMine portfolio of technologies and methodologies last year, an approach to make the all-electric mine possible, with fully integrated electrification and digital systems from mine to port.

Perenti says it is committed to acting on climate change through promoting innovation, developing and deploying low emissions technology and working with its clients to implement projects that improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

Barminco extends relationship with Evolution Mining at Cowal gold mine

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Perenti Group’s underground mining business Barminco is to further strengthen its relationship with Evolution Mining, having been awarded a new A$60 million ($42 million) contract to carry out diamond drill work at Cowal Gold Mine operations in New South Wales, Australia.

The four-year contract will see Barminco use state-of-the-art drill rig technology to improve safety, performance and productivity, it says.

It’s the second contract to be secured by Barminco at the Cowal operations in two months, after recently winning a A$520 million underground and development contract.

This latter contract will see Barminco carry out all underground development and production works at the underground mine where it is currently developing an exploration decline.

Last year, the Evolution board and regulators approved the development of the Cowal Underground Mine, which is set to provide a higher-grade ore source that will be blended with the current E42 open pit and stockpile ore. The development is part of the group’s goal of Cowal producing 350,000 oz/y of low-cost gold and extending the operation’s mine life.

Zero Automotive overcoming barriers with BEV conversion offering

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Zero Automotive is one of several Australia-based companies looking to supply the clean and green light utility vehicles the domestic hard-rock sector requires over the next decades to achieve crucial sustainability goals while retaining high productivity levels.

Thanks to the support of a significant copper-gold miner in Australia, its membership of the Electric Mine Consortium (EMC) and METS Ignited backing, the company finds itself in a strong position to deliver these machines against a backdrop of supply chain issues and ever-evolving safety and regulatory requirements.

“We’ve got commitments for six machines altogether and are in the process of offering our production version to the market,” Dan Taylor, Business Development Manager for Zero Automotive, says.

The first and second units are already running at OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper-gold mine in South Australia – Zero Automotive’s home state.

The first machine – a ZED70 Ti™ battery-electric light vehicle – was originally delivered to the mine at the back end of 2020 for testing. After successful trials, the company acquired this unit outright and, in early-2022, added a second Zero Automotive ZED70 Ti to enable its workforce to familiarise themselves with the capabilities and charging methodology that come with electric light utility vehicles.

Since then, the company has delivered a third ZED70 Ti conversion to Barminco, which is now on site at its client IGO Ltd’s Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation in Western Australia. This vehicle is the first single cab conversion developed by Zero Automotive and will be deployed to site foremen to allow the mining contractor to gain a good understanding of its capabilities.

All three of these machines – and the three to follow – are based off battery-electric conversions of the Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series, a vehicle that has been part of the Australian mining landscape for many years.

The modular nature of the Zero Automotive platform enables its long-life battery energy system to be reused in multiple chassis, lowering the total lifecycle cost of the fleet as well as the cost of Scope 1 emissions, according to the company.

They also include dual AC-DC charging with the CCS Combo2 connection, which is becoming increasingly standardised in the mining space.

Data and feedback from the second OZ Minerals machine and the initial Barminco vehicle will be fed back into the EMC ecosystem under the Light and Auxiliary Equipment Working Group as part of the consortium’s continual improvement and knowledge sharing remit.

The EMC said of the consortium’s ongoing light and auxiliary equipment electrification ambitions: “Converting light and auxiliary vehicles as rapidly as possible to electric is key to the industry building the broader understanding and familiarity with electric equipment and infrastructure that will accelerate adoption across all aspects of operations.”

The EMC is a growing group of over 20 mining and service companies driven by the imperative to produce zero-emission products for their customers and meet mounting investor expectations. The objective of the EMC, backed by METS Ignited, is to accelerate progress toward the zero-carbon and zero-particulate mine.

The following three machines are also expected to be deployed to EMC members, with METS Ignited agreeing to provide some A$400,000 ($297,938) of funding towards the diesel-to-battery conversion projects outside of the vehicles already delivered to OZ Minerals.

“The key thing with all of these vehicle deployments is the ZED70 Ti being able to do the job the miners need to perform safely and reliably, getting the associated charging infrastructure right and working with key stakeholders on the change management process,” Dave Mitchell, founder and CEO of Zero Automotive, says. “Operators also need to get used to the power under the hood and how to maximise the battery re-charging capabilities when going down ramp.

“As a matter of course, we train up and educate the sites about the best way to utilise these vehicles,” he said.

To this point, the two prototype vehicles already operating out at Carrapateena have shown that they can work for a typical shift without requiring a re-charge and can then utilise the battery’s AC/DC-DC fast-charge option during shift changeover to enable another user to run the machine for the following shift.

The use of LTO (Lithium Titanate Oxide) battery chemistry and a 60-kWh battery capacity has been behind this performance. This electric motor can generate continuous power of 75 kW and peak power of 134 kW, plus 358 Nm of continuous torque. These values will be increased to 100 kW, 200 kW and 520 Nm (1,200 Nm peak) for the production version.

To this point, the power dimension has often been the main metric quoted with any battery-electric machine, but Taylor pointed out that safety and regulatory considerations were often the biggest barriers to overcome in terms of getting machines operating at underground mines – a hurdle that Zero Automotive has cleared.

“We were able to successfully commission our second ZED70 Ti for OZ Minerals within two days of the machine arriving on site,” he said. “A lot of people are putting out offerings for light utility vehicles, but the required risk analysis in terms of deploying a vehicle underground has not been successfully worked through. This is rightfully a high bar to clear.

“We address any safety or regulatory considerations during our design process – not when the machine is on site – to make sure that operators can start using them quickly.”

Mitchell adds: “The user case is what we are focused on. That has allowed us to scale our offering quickly and ensure our clients can start running the machine underground as soon as they have it on site.”

Zero Automotive is expecting to deploy the other three machines on its books to the same companies (OZ Minerals and Barminco), but the final two machines of the six to be delivered will be under a revised platform to the original ZED70 Ti.

“It will be a platform that is designed from the ground up that incorporates the desired features and learnings from the first conversions, but we will simplify it to reduce complexity, weight and cost,” Mitchell said. “We’re sticking with the same battery configuration – which has proven itself in terms of power, safety and longevity – but we’re adding some auxiliary power outputs and ensuring the machine is multi-purpose.”

The latter element is tied to the company’s medium-to-long-term ambitions, which include the potential to supply battery-electric machines specific to the extended range space too.

For now, Zero Automotive is focused on getting its machines underground at hard-rock operations, ensuring operators and mining companies start realising the productivity and emission benefits that come with these zero-emission conversions.