Kerman adds $70m Rio contract

Kerman Contracting has continued its run of success this year, securing a contract to develop new infrastructure at Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore operations and in the process lifting its work in hand to $290 million.

Applecross-based Kerman has been contracted to design, construct and commission non-process infrastructure facilities and an explosives compound at the Nammuldi Below Water Table project, in a package valued at $70 million.

Managing director Chris Kerman said the privately owned company was on track fo its best year in 2014-15, with work in hand curretly at $290 million. 

The Rio contract comes three weeks after Sirius Resources named Kerman as the preferred contractor for the mine accommodation village at the planned Nova nickel mine.

Sirius and Kerman are planning to relocate a second-hand 500-person camp currently stored in Queensland to the Nova site, located east of Norseman.

The contractor has picked up three contracts this year at CITIC Pacific Mining’s Sino Iron magnetite project in the Pilbara, collectively worth $210 million.

The largest was a $146 million contract for structural, mechanical, piping and electrical work.

Kerman also won a $67 million contract for the design and construction of a grain export facility in NSW, has secured extra work at the Roy Hill iron ore project and is doing completion works at BHP Billiton's Yarmina power station in Newman.

Mr Kerman said the business had benefited from its diversification across design, construction and engineering, and across industry sectors.

He was looking at sectors like grain handling and waste treatment for new oppotunities.