Ausdrill secures contract extension at Fimiston

Perenti has announced that its subsidiary Ausdrill, has been awarded a new Australian surface contract at the Northern Star Resources owned Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (‘KCGM’) Fimiston open pit gold mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The new circa $160 million, 60-month contract incorporates activities that commenced 1 March 2022 and will continue to March 2027.

Ausdrill has been contracted to provide up to 14 production blast hole 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.

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 FY23 in support of further delivery against our 2025 strategy. We look forward to providing additional details when we release our 1H23 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.”