Barminco wins $190m Western Areas extension

Perth mining contractor Barminco has won an extension to its contract with miner Western Areas to carry out $190 million of underground mining development and production activities at its Spotted Quoll and Flying Fox nickel mines.

Barminco started operations at Flying Fox in 2005 and at Spotted Quoll in 2011.

The two-year contract extension follows a one-year contract Barminco won from Western Areas for diamond drilling at the Flying Fox mine in August.

“We have developed a close relationship with Western Areas and have gained an in intimate knowledge of their mines over the last decade, so it is very pleasing to be able to build on that with another contract extension,” Barminco chief executive officer Peter Stokes said.

Barminco employs about 210 staff at the Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll sites.

“The contract extension is also a great reflection of our employees’ ability to perform tasks both safely and efficiently on site, and they are looking forward to continuing to make the operations a success,” Mr Stokes said.

The news follows last week’s announcement that Barminco’s founder and non-executive director, Peter Bartlett, was discharged from the Supreme Court for a second time, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on tax evasion charges against him and Ausdrill managing director Ron Sayers.

Western Areas recently reported that it had returned to the black with a full-year net profit of $25.5 million on the back of an improvement in the price of nickel and lower production costs.

Its Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll sites mined a combined 650,000 tonnes of ore in the last financial year.

Western Areas’ share price fell by 3.5 per cent to $4.90 per share at 1:45pm.