Ausdrill is one step away from securing a $100 million, five-year drilling contract with South African producer Gold Fields Ltd over its St Ives and Agnew gold mines in Western Australia.
The contract, once awarded, is a further extension of Ausdrill's long-term working life at St Ives, where it has been on site for more than 12 years.
The contract is subject to final agreement and work is scheduled to start in June 2009.
Ausdrill Managing Director Ron Sayers said "this would mark a significant contract extension with a valuable and long-term partner for Ausdrill".
"Once agreed, this extension would take the term of the existing contract to a total of 17 years and will further underwrite Ausdrill's Kalgoorlie and Kambalda operations".
The agreement with Gold Fields will follow a number of other major contract wins for Ausdrill since May, when Macmahon Holdings announced its takeover offer for the Company.
"In the past few months Ausdrill has secured more than $600 million in new or extended contracts."
"We now have about four years of contracted work ahead of us, with further opportunities for growth both in Australia and in Africa," Mr Sayers said.
