FLEETS

Hard work pays off for Swick

SWICK Mining Services is gearing up for a busy next few years after securing contract extensions with Barrick Gold and Northern Star Resources and new work with Silver Lake at Mount Monger.

 Swick Mining Services

Swick Mining Services

The contracts keep 18 rigs in the field and increase the company's contracted work in hand total to $353 million.

SMS has been at Barrick's gold operations in Nevada since 2013 with a fleet of eight rigs at the Turquoise Ridge and Cortez Hill gold mines and the Goldrush project.

To fulfil the work order under the three-year contract extension SMS will bring in another two rigs at a fixed price for two years, to expand the fleet to 10.

SMS will also deploy more rigs to the Jundee mine in Western Australia after Northern Star increased the scope of work under the existing contract agreement.

The fleet of nine will increase steadily from July to October to 14 full-time underground diamond coring rigs, which will be a record for the company.

At Mount Monger in WA, SMS was selected as the preferred tenderer by Silver Lake to carry out underground diamond coring for a two-year spell.

The company will head to site in August with three rigs to drill at the Daisy Milano, Cock-eyed Bob and Maxwell's underground mines.

SMS managing director Kent Swick said the company was delighted to be deepening its relationships with existing clients and, in the case of the new work with Silver Lake, returning to a project where it had extensive experience.

"It is particularly pleasing that our international strategy is yielding significant results, with a third of our total deployed underground diamond drilling rigs now operating outside of Australia," he said.

"By the end of September, we will have at least 22 rigs operating in our international operations including the US, Portugal and Spain, all at major mines with tier one clients."

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Automation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations using autonomous solutions in every region and sector, including analysis of the factors driving investment decisions

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2023 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of current exploration rates, trending exploration technologies, a ranking of top drill intercepts and a catalogue of 2022 Initial Resource Estimates and recent discovery successes.