A view to a drill
July 28 - August 3, 2010
IT IS a good time to be a driller, according to analysts at Hartleys, which this week rated both Swick Mining Services and Ausdrill as buys on strong utilisation rates and potential contract increases.
No miner feat
April 21 - 27, 2010
THERE seems to be no stopping Mineral Resources as it builds on its unique business model combining contract crushing and processing with its own operations. Just don’t call the company a miner.
Confidence undermined
June 2 - 8, 2010
MINING contracts for at least three significant underground hard-rock projects in Australia, worth more than $A200 million, are on hold due to uncertainty caused by the Rudd Government’s new mining profits tax, emphasising the reality of investment jitters sparked by the poorly sold tax.
Mining firms look offshore
May 26 - June 1, 2010
THE Australian Government’s proposed new mining profits tax has created more uncertainty for mining contractors, many of whom were nonplussed this time last year when the federal budget included measures aimed at increasing the domestic tax take from expatriates working offshore.
Cougar jumps on Uruguay opportunity
April 21 - 27, 2010
WHILE the cliché goes that it’s those providing the picks and shovels that mostly make all the money in the mining sector, Brazil gold explorer and drilling company Cougar Metals is sticking by its plan of being a self-funded explorer first and foremost – despite winning a big drilling contract.
Master of its own destiny
April 7 - 13, 2010
COAL market analyst Wood Mackenzie believes new equity investors in mining services IPO Mastermyne’s have good reasons – at least two of them – to be optimistic that the company’s recent rapid growth will continue.
Drilling ahead into the unknown
March 31 - April 6, 2010
GOLD prices and exploration activity in Mexico and West Africa are factors that have kept big drillers’ heads above water in the past six months or so, with Layne Christensen this week joining the chorus of hopeful voices looking for improvement in other parts of the market.
Contract briefs: Margins squeezed; Macmahon; Ausdrill; Cimeco
March 16 - 22, 2010
A CLEAR understanding of the type of work won by contractors during the GFC-induced mining investment downturn won’t be gained for a while, according to analysts tracking the sector, with one suggesting this week investors should at least be wary of contracts won during the period.
Decmil builds Pilbara profile
February 16 - 22, 2010
PAIRING Greenland Minerals & Energy and Decmil at an information briefing might have created an impression that an Arctic liaison for the aspiring rare earths giant and leading construction contractor was on the cards. Decmil CEO Scott Criddle soon put paid to that idea.
It's a mine-field out there
February 2 - 8, 2010
CHINESE, Russians, Kazakhs, Saudis, Africans ... welcome to the new world of contract mining. Australian and German owned Byrnecut Mining, one of the world’s largest specialist mining contractors, is treading carefully but assuredly into new territories and what it hopes are long-term relationships with a diverse range of principals and local partners.
Renewed activity fuels growth for trucking firm
February 2 - 8, 2010
ONE of Australia’s major mine transport contractors is seeing life in the industry returning to normal speed after some bumps in the road last year.
Drillers get on with life as they know it
February 2 - 8, 2010
IF THE surge in corporate activity in Australia’s drilling industry over the past decade has made life unbearable for smaller, privately owned groups, Stephen Bryant, Dean Coughlan and Graeme Wallis are not showing it. Even last year’s GFC-induced shutdown couldn’t keep them down for long.
JANUARY 2010 mining and drilling contracts review
February 2 - 8, 2010
THE job that was supposed to make or break Darwin-based Gulf Group’s move into the Western Australian mine haulage market earlier last decade is still in its keeping after South Africa’s Gold Fields extended its stay at St Ives by a further three years.
Ausdrill margins to stay firm: Argonaut
December 7 - 13, 2009
MINING services group Ausdrill has a strong supporter in the resource sector investment firm Argonaut, which believes the “breadth of service” offered by the contractor is not appreciated by the market.
Boart to bounce on exploration spending
November 23 - 29, 2009
AUSTOCK Securities puts Boart Longyear among the companies most highly leveraged to a recovery in global mineral exploration spending which, while there are “no tangible signs of [it] picking up yet”, could start to bounce back as early as the first half of calendar 2010.
Zinkgruvan awards development contract
November 23 - 29, 2009
A NEW underground mine contract for Bergteamet (Rock Team) in Sweden has been linked to signs of recovering minerals demand in Europe.
Rigs turning, in a small way
October 12 - 18, 2009
TOUGH times for those in the exploration drilling game, no question. But also surely a time to reflect on the mad scramble for scale during the recent boom – typified by the burgeoning Boart Longyear. Smaller, nimbler players who were hit early, like everyone else, bounced back to something like normality a lot faster than the heavyweights.
Time to get back on Boart: Macquarie
September 28 - October 4, 2009
WHILE they are being far from effusive in their assessment of the prospects for Boart Longyear, analysts from the same investment bank that was exiting the company near the top of the market back in 2007 (with the driller’s IPO), believe there is some upside to now be seen after a very lean 2009.
Bigger Ausdrill to drill deeper into mining services
August 17 - 23, 2009
A COMBINED Ausdrill-Brandrill drilling contractor will have the world’s third biggest mineral drilling fleet of more than 270 rigs, however, the head of senior merger partner Ausdrill, Ron Sayers, was emphasising the emergence of a “diversified mining services group” during a media briefing this week.
Swedish miner heads to Oz
July 27 - August 2, 2009
PETER George is realising a 10-year ambition of bringing the best of Swedish underground mining practices to Australia through the newly established contractor Rock Team, which will initially combine the resources of Sweden’s Bergteamet AB and the Kalgoorlie engineering firm, Rapallo, started by George’s father Andy.